Chapter IV. the Assassin

CHAPTER IV The Assassin HE PRECEDING chapter has established that the bullets which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Con- T nally were fired from the southeast corner window of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building and that the weapon which fired these bullets was a Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5-milli- meter Italian rifle bearing the serial number C2766. In this chapter the Commission evaluates the evidence upon which it has based its con- clusion concerning the identity of the assassin. This evidence includes (1) the ownership and possession of the weapon used to commit the assassination, (2) the means by which the weapon was brought into the Depository Building, (3) the identity of the person present at the window from which the shots were fired, (4) the killing of Dallas Patrolman J. D. Tippit within 45 minutes after the assassination, (5) the resistance to arrest and the attempted shooting of another police officer by the man (Lee Harvey Oswald) subsequently accused of assassinating President Kennedy and killing Patrolman Tippit, (6) the lies told to the police by Oswald, (7) the evidence linking Oswald to the attempted killing of Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker (Resigned, U.S. Army) on April 10, 1963, and (8) Oswald’s capability with a rifle. OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION OF ASSASSINATION WEAPON Purchase of Rifle by Oswald Shortly after the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building,’ agents of the FBI learned from retail outlets in Dallas that Crescent Firearms, Inc., of New York City, was a distributor of surplus Italian 6.5-milli- meter military rifles.2 During the evening of November 22, 1963, a review of the records of Crescent Firearms revealed that the firm had shipped an Italian carbine, serial number (12766, to Klein’s Sporting Goods Co., of Chicago, 111.3 After searching their records from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. the officers of Klein’s discovered that a rifle bearing serial number C2766 had been shipped to one A. Hidell, 118 Post Office BOX 2915, Dallas, Tex., on March 20, 1963.4 (See Wald- man Exhibit No. 7, p. 120.) According to its microfilm records, Klein’s received an order for a rifle on March 13, 1963, on a coupon clipped from the February 1963 issue of the American Rifleman magazine. The order coupon was signed, in handprinting, “,4. Hidell, P. 0. Box 2915, Dallas, Texas.” (See Commission Exhibit No. 773, p. 120.) It was sent in an envelope bearing the same name and return address in handwriting. Document examiners for the Treasury Department and the FBI testified unequivocally that the bold printing on the face of the mail- order coupon was in the handprint,ing of Lee Harvey Oswald and that t.he writing on the envelope was also his.5 Oswald’s writing on these and other documents was identified by comparing the writing and printing on the documents in question with that appearing on documents known to have been written by Oswald, such as his letters, pass- port applicat.ion, and endorsements of checks.6 (See app. X, p. 568-569.) In addition to the order coupon the envelope contained a U.S. postal money order for $21.45, purchased as No. 2,202;130,462 in Dallas, Tex., on March 12, 1963.’ The canceled money order was obtained from the Post Office Department. Opposite the printed words “Pay To” were written the words “Kleins Sporting Goods,” and opposite the printed word “From” were written the words “A. Hidell, P. 0. Box 2915 Dallas, Texas.” These words were also in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswa.ld.8 (See Commission Exhibit No. 788, p. 120.) From Klein’s records it was possible to trace the processing of the order after its receipt. A bank deposit made on March 13,1963, included an item of $21.45. Klein’s shipping order form shows an im- print made by the cash register which recorded the receipt of $21.45 on March 13,1963. This price included $19.95 for the rifle and the scope, and $1.50 for postage and handling. The rifle without the scope cost only $12.78.g According to the vice president of Klein’s, William Waldman, the scope was mounted on the rifle by a gunsmith employed by Klein’s, and the rifle was shipped fully assembled in accordance with customary company procedures.“’ The specific rifle shipped against the order had been received by Klein’s from Crescent on February 21, 1963. It bore the manufacturer’s serial number C2’766. On that date, Klein’s placed an internal control number VC836 on this rifle.” According to Klein’s shipping order form, one Italian carbine 6.5 X4X scope, control number VC836, serial number C2766, was shipped parcel post to “A. Hidell, P. 0. Box 2915, Dallas, Texas,” on March 20, 1963.1’ Information received from the Italian Armed Forces Intelligence Service has established that this particular rifle was the only rifle of its type bearing serial number C2766.13 (See app. X, p. 554.) The post office box to which the rifle was shipped was rent,ed to “Lee H. Oswald” from October 9, 1962, to May 14, 1963.14 Experts on handwriting identification from the Treasury Department and the 119 FBI testified that the signat.ure and other writing on the application for that box were in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald,‘5 as was a change-of-address card dated May 12, 1963,1s by which Oswald requested that mail addressed to that box be forwarded to him in New Orleans, where he had moved on April 24.” Since the rifle was shipped from Chicago on March 20,1963, it was received in Dallas during the period when Oswald rented and used the box. (gee Com- mission Exhibit No. 791, p. 120.) It is not known whether the application for post office box 2915 listed “A. Hidell” as a person entitled to receive mail at this box. In accordance with postal regulations, the portion of the application which lists names of persons, other than the applicant, entitled to receive mail was thrown away after the box was closed on May 14, 1963.18 Post,al Inspector Harry D. Holmes of the Dallas Post Office testified, however, that when a package is received for a certain box, a notice is placed in that box regardless of whether the name on the package is listed on the application as a person entitled to receive mail through that box. The person having access to the box then takes the notice to the window and is given the package. Ordinarily, Inspector Holmes testified, identification is not requested because it is assumed that the person with the notice is entitled to the package.‘@ Oswald’s use of the name “Hidell” to purchase the assassination weapon was one of several instances in which he used this name as an alias. When arrested on the day of the assassination, he had in his possession a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver *O purchased by mail-order coupon from Seaport-Traders, Inc., a mail-order division of George Rose & Co., Los Angeles. The mail-order coupon listed the purchaser as “A. J. Hide11 Age 28” with the address of post office box 2915 in Dallas.z1 Handwriting experts from the FBI and the Treasury Department testified that the writing on the mail-order form was that of Lee Harvey Oswald.** Among other identification cards in Oswald’s wallet at the time of his arrest were a Selective Service notice of classification, a Selective Service registration certificate, 23 and a certificate of service in the U.S. Marine Corps,24 all three cards being in his own name. Also in his wallet at that tinie were a Selective Service notice of classification and a Marine certificate of service in the name of Alek James Hide11.25 On the Hide11 Selective Service card there appeared a signature, “Alek J. Hidell,” and the photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald.26 Experts on questioned documents from the Treasury Department and the FBI testified that the Hide11 cards were counterfeit photographic reproductions made by photographing the Oswald cards, retouching the resulting negatives, and producing prints from the retouched negatives. The Hide11 signature on the notice of classification was in the handwriting of Oswald?’ (See app. X, p. 572.) In Oswald’s personal effects found in his room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue in Dallas was a purported international certificate of vac- cination signed by “Dr. A. J. Hideel,” Post Office Box 30016, New 121 730-900 o-64-10 Orleans.2s It certified that Lee Harvey Oswald had been vacci- nated for smallpox on June 8,1963. This, too, was a forgery. The signature of “A. J. Hideel’, was in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald.2g There is no “Dr. Hideel’: licensed to practice medicine. in Louisiana.3o There is no post office box 30016 in the New Orleans Post Office but Oswald had rented post office box 30061 in New Orleans 31 on June 3, 1963, listing Marina Oswald and A. J. Hide11 as additional persons entitled to receive mail in t,he box.32 The New Orleans postal authorities had not discarded the portion of the application listing the names of those, other than the owner of the box, entitled to receive mail through the box. Expert testimony confirmed that the writing on t.his application was that of Lee Harvey Oswald.33 Hidell’s name on t,he post office box application was part of Oswald’s use of a nonexistent Hide11 to serve as president of the so-called New Orleans Chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.

Load more