Read Impossible: The Case Against Lee Harvey Oswald Online
Authors: Barry Krusch
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #History
The photograph by Williams, along with the cover sheet description and his memorandum above, indicates clearly that on November 22 the Dallas FBI had assumed possession of the two empty shells and the live round, possession that was lengthy enough in time to allow for an extensive photographic session, and these documents taken together confirm the 2:15 pm receipt by Brown of the evidence as indicated by the November 22 CSS Form.
Even though the preceding documents and the November 22 CSS Form prove an early afternoon receipt by the FBI, that’s not the official story. So what
is
the official story? It’s this:
The evidence was in the possession of the Dallas Police Department (
not
the FBI) until 11:45 p.m. CST, when it was to be sent to Washington with Vincent Drain.
This story is immediately suspect because Drain’s own affidavit regarding the chain of possession (in Warren Commission Document 5, pp. 159-161)
29
nowhere mentions
that after he assumed custody of the evidence he delivered the evidence to J. Doyle Williams to be photographed, proving that the Williams photo was taken
before
Drain collected the evidence in a box at 11:45 p.m. CST, and that therefore the FBI had possession
well before
11:45 pm (i.e. 2:15 pm). Drain was on an extremely tight timeline, and certainly would not have dallied in Dallas for a Williams photo session, as proven by a statement he made in a taped interview (
No More Silence
, p. 249; emphasis supplied):
By the time we got it all boxed up, it was near midnight.
Meanwhile Washington was calling down about every fifteen minutes wanting to know where the material was.
All of a sudden I learned that neither American nor Braniff had any flights to Washington out of Dallas after midnight.
We were told that the FBI in Washington wanted the material by morning if we had to walk it up there.
That’s being facetious, but . . .
Fortunately, the commanding general over at Carswell in Fort Worth happened to be a good friend of mine and was head of SAC (Strategic Air Command) at the time. So I called him and was told that
the President had asked him to give us all the help that we needed. Another agent took me to Fort Worth where they had a C-135 tanker plane and crew ready.
Definitely a sense of urgency up there in Washington. No time for more photos, Drain, get a move on! Quite the coincidence too, that the person selected to carry this critical evidence
just happened
to have a good friend with the Strategic Air Command (the commander of the Carswell Air Force base) ready to pitch in with a tanker plane to transport these
select
future exhibits (such as two empty cartridge cases, the live round, metal fragments, a shirt, a blanket, and a paper bag),a friend who also
just happened
to have been contacted by President Johnson
before
Drain made his request. It’s a small world after all!
Drain arrived at Andrews Air Force base in the C-135 tanker plane at 6:30 AM EST (CD 5, p. 160)
30
on November 23. After Drain left Andrews Air Force Base and delivered the evidence to the Washington FBI laboratory (accompanied by armed guard), the evidence was inventoried in a letter prepared on November 23. Here is the relevant section of the screen capture of the inventory listing the evidence received by Drain (CE 2003, p. 132: 24 H 262):
31
You will note once again that only
two
shells, not
three
, were sent to the FBI. Take this as another note: FBI laboratory identification numbers Q6 and Q7 refer to the 2 empty shells (Q8 refers to a live round that was said to have been found in a rifle alleged to be Oswald’s). Remember those “Q” numbers, you will be glad you did!!
This vital evidence, delivered into the hands of the FBI on November 22, left Washington approximately 18 hours later, around midnight of November 23, returning to the Dallas Police Department Sunday morning, November 24 (
No More Silence
, p. 250), when Oswald was still alive and a forthcoming trial was very much alive as a possibility. A receipt for these items as being delivered into the custody of chief of police Jesse Curry was ostensibly prepared at 3:40 p.m., November 24, 1963 (CD 5, p. 161).
32
But this material was only to remain briefly in Dallas. It was returned
yet again
to the custody of Vince Drain of the FBI at 2:00 pm on November 26 (two days after Oswald had been murdered), as noted by Lieutenant Day in his testimony (4 H 273):
33
There is important documentary evidence indicating the transmission of the evidence the second time to the FBI, on November 26 (after Oswald had been killed, when there was now no forthcoming trial). Observing CE 738 (“Photograph of property released by the Dallas Police Department to the FBI on November 26, 1963,” 17 H 512),
34
we can see that four days after the assassination, there were still only
two
bullets:
Screen capture of CE 738 showing only two shells.
A clearer picture of the two shells, which appeared on p. 88 of Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry’s book
JFK Assassination File
.
Now, remember that the FBI had identified these shells as “Q6” and “Q7” before returning them to Dallas. But which is which? Is Q6 the one on the left, or the one on the right? Apparently when the shells were returned to Dallas from the Washington FBI office, they were sent back not in
separate
envelopes, but both together in
one
envelope, with no identifying information affixed. We can only infer this, because the Dallas Police Department property clerk’s invoice listing a description of items that were sent back to the FBI (dated November 26, 1963), and clearly showing in the last row that only “2” (not “3”) spent hulls were found under the window of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository (CE 2003 at 24 H 252 and 332), has no “Q” number designations (see bottom row):
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Let’s zoom in on that:
Sloppy, sloppy! The significance of the missing “Q” nomenclature, which at this juncture would appear to be simply an arcane detail, will become readily apparent.
In any event, to get back to the main point, things aren’t looking up for the claim that
3
, not
2
hulls were found on the sixth floor. Indeed, all the evidence we have looked at so far is telling the same story, but unfortunately for the Warren Commission and the lone assassin hypothesis, the story it is telling —
2
— does not match the story they have told —
3
.