Mr. BARNES. Just like putting up a portable camping ground to cook on.
We have our benches to work on up at the crime scene search section
which makes it handier to work with.
Mr. BELIN. Would the quality of the test be the same?
Mr. BARNES. Yes; I think so. The quality would be the same, just takes
a little more time and inconvenience.
Mr. BELIN. When you got down there, what did you do and see? First of
all, who was in the room?
Mr. BARNES. Detective Dhority and Detective Leavelle.
Mr. BELIN. Is that L-e-a-v-e-l-l-e?
Mr. BARNES. Right. And Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. BELIN. Did you have any discussion, or did you hear Lee Harvey
Oswald say anything or anyone say anything to Lee Harvey Oswald while
you were there?
Mr. BARNES. No conversation.
Mr. BELIN. What did you do?
Mr. BARNES. We got our equipment and got the paraffin melted, and
while it was being prepared, we told him that we would have to make a
paraffin cast of his hand.
Mr. BELIN. What did he say to that?
Mr. BARNES. It was okay with him.
Mr. BELIN. Did he say anything as to any other comments he had about
the paraffin test?
Mr. BARNES. None other than he stated to me, "What are you trying to
do, prove that I fired a gun?"
And I said, "I am not trying to prove that you fired a gun. We have
the test to make, and the chemical people at the laboratory, at the
city-county laboratory will determine the rest of it."
Mr. BELIN. What is the purpose of a paraffin test?
Mr. BARNES. The purpose is to find out if there is any nitrates on your
hands.
Mr. BELIN. Officer, how many years have you personally made paraffin
tests?
Mr. BARNES. Since 1956.
Mr. BELIN. What is the procedure by which you determine whether or not
there are any nitrates on one's hand?
Mr. BARNES. The analyses are made at Parkland Hospital by their
personnel.
Mr. BELIN. Do they analyze the wax?
Mr. BARNES. They analyze the wax that I remove from his hands after the
casts are made.
Mr. BELIN. Well, if you were to take a paraffin or make a paraffin test
on one of my hands, you would take melted hot wax and put it over my
hands?
Mr. BARNES. It wouldn't be hot wax. It would have to be at a degree
where it would be melted. Take a paint brush, small paint brush, dip it
into the paraffin, and paint your hand as you would be painting a wall,
and you build this paraffin up around and around your hand, front and
back, until you get a layer approximately a quarter of an inch thick.
Then you wrap the hands in gauze, just a layer of gauze around it for
reenforcement purposes such as you would put steel and concrete to
reenforce it, and then on top of this gauze we put another layer of
paraffin. In fact, several layers of paraffin on top of the gauze to
round it out to make it more firm so that when we remove this paraffin
from around his hands, we take a pair of surgical scissors and cut down
each side, and it slips off just like you were removing a glove.
Mr. BELIN. You would make two cuts then, one along the side of the
little finger and one along the side of the thumb?
Mr. BARNES. Well, really it is a =V=-cut on the thumb and forefinger,
and a straight parallel line down the left- or right-little finger.
Mr. BELIN. On the side of the palm of the hand?
Mr. BARNES. Right.
Mr. BELIN. Have you done any reading as to what this test shows and
what its limitations are at all?
Mr. BARNES. Well, yes; the purpose of it is when you put the heated
paraffin on the hand, for the nitrates which might be on the hand, to
be stuck to the paraffin that you place on there.
This paraffin that you place on the hand--I will rephrase this a little
bit.
When you put the paraffin on your hand, the nitrates that might be on
your hands will stick to the paraffin as it cools, and when you remove
the paraffin, then this nitrate or powder residue which might be on the
hands will be hardened into the paraffin and will slip off with the
paraffin.
Mr. BELIN. Now when you say nitrates, I believe you used the word
"residue"?
Mr. BARNES. Powder residue and nitrates.
Mr. BELIN. Is nitrate a compound which is in gunpowder residue?
Mr. BARNES. That is what they call the dermal nitrate test, I believe
is the correct name that they give it.
Mr. BELIN. Does gunpowder generally have included in it some sort of
nitrate compound?
Mr. BARNES. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. If I were firing a pistol, would this pistol leave a nitrate
on my hands that would be detectable by the paraffin test?
Mr. BARNES. It should, unless it is awful tight.
Mr. BELIN. What do you mean by "awful tight"?
Mr. BARNES. You could have an automatic which very easily could keep
you from having nitrate on your hands.
Mr. BELIN. Well, let's assume that we were taking a .38 caliber pistol.
You have seen the pistol which Lee Harvey Oswald had in his possession
at the time he was apprehended.
Let's assume I were firing that pistol. Would it leave some residue on
my hand?
Mr. BARNES. It should.
Mr. BELIN. Suppose I were to wash my hands between the time I fired it
and the time you took the paraffin test?
Mr. BARNES. It would hurt the test.
Mr. BELIN. It would cut down the test?
Mr. BARNES. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Now if I were firing it, would it necessarily show on both
hands? Suppose I were right-handed?
Mr. BARNES. Depends on the location of your left hand.
Mr. BELIN. Well, generally from your experience, is there any
particular location for a right-handed person to keep his hand when he
is firing a pistol?
Mr. BARNES. Police officers are taught to keep their left hand near the
pistol handle.
Mr. BELIN. As an element of controlling it?
Mr. BARNES. As an element of controlling, and also an element which, if
you should get wounded in your right shoulder, you would have the left
hand to take the gun.
Mr. BELIN. If you keep it near then, I assume that you would get the
nitrate on the other hand, too, or not?
Mr. BARNES. Very likely that you would.
Mr. BELIN. Suppose I were unloading a pistol and taking the cartridge
case out and putting them in my left hand or handling the chamber where
the cartridge cases had been, would this leave nitrate deposits on my
hand?
Mr. BARNES. It is possible.
Mr. BELIN. Suppose you were to examine my hands and you were to find
no nitrate deposits at all. Would you say that this conclusively shows
that I did not fire a pistol?
Mr. BARNES. No.
Mr. BELIN. Well, does it conclusively show I had not fired a pistol
within the last 6 or 8 or 10 hours?
Mr. BARNES. No.
Mr. BELIN. Why do you say that?
Mr. BARNES. Well, a lot would depend what kind of pistol.
Mr. BELIN. Well, suppose it were a .38 caliber pistol?
Mr. BARNES. Then it would depend on whether you had cleaned your hands
or whether you had had gloves on.
Mr. BELIN. Well, suppose I were to tell you I didn't have gloves on.
Mr. BARNES. Had you washed your hands?
Mr. BELIN. Well, would this make much of a difference?
Mr. BARNES. Washing your hands would make a difference.
Mr. BELIN. All right, now, suppose you were to examine me for firing
a rifle such as a bolt-action rifle rather than an automatic or
semiautomatic. Would you expect to find nitrate residue on my hands
that a paraffin test would show?
Mr. BARNES. Chances are smaller on a rifle than it would be with a
revolver.
Mr. BELIN. Why?
Mr. BARNES. Because your chamber is enclosed.
Mr. BELIN. What difference does that make?
Mr. BARNES. The powder couldn't get out like a pistol where the
cylinder is open, and there is no casing around the cylinder of a
revolver, and the chamber of a rifle, it is enclosed with the metal all
the way around.
Mr. BELIN. Well, I operate the bolt on the rifle, does that make a
difference about letting the gas or residue escape?
Mr. BARNES. No; all your explosives have already gone down the barrel.
It is not coming down the side when you operate the chamber. There is
no pressure there.
Mr. BELIN. What you are saying then is, that it is the pressure at the
time of firing in an open chamber that creates the major portion of
this residue?
Mr. BARNES. That's right.
Mr. BELIN. If you were to have a positive nitrate test on a person's
hands, and by positive, I mean it would show the presence of nitrate,
would you say, without knowing anything about the firearm that the
person fired, that it was more likely that he had fired a .38 caliber
revolver, or a bolt-action rifle?