Mr. DULLES. Who placed the cellophane material there, in your opinion?
Mr. LATONA. Well, I was told--my information was simply that the Dallas
Police Department had done so. I have no personal knowledge as to who
did it, other than information that the Dallas Police had examined the
weapon and they had found these visible marks on there, that they had
developed the prints.
Now, by what means they did it, I do not know, but I would assume they
used a gray powder.
Mr. DULLES. What was the purpose of putting the cellophane there?
Mr. LATONA. To protect the prints while the rifle was intransit to the
FBI.
Mr. EISENBERG. Now, when you received it with the cellophane cover,
what portion did it cover?
Mr. LATONA. Closest to the trigger area.
Mr. EISENBERG. On the trigger guard, closest to the trigger area?
Mr. LATONA. That's right.
Mr. EISENBERG. Was that on the right or left side of the weapon?
Mr. LATONA. Left side.
Mr. EISENBERG. And was there a print visible to you underneath the
cellophane?
Mr. LATONA. I could see faintly ridge formations there. However,
examination disclosed to me that the formations, the ridge formations
and characteristics, were insufficient for purposes of either effecting
identification or a determination that the print was not identical
with the prints of people. Accordingly, my opinion simply was that the
latent prints which were there were of no value.
Now, I did not stop there.
Mr. EISENBERG. Before we leave those prints, Mr. Latona, had those been
developed by the powder method?
Mr. LATONA. Yes; they had.
Mr. EISENBERG. Was that a gray powder?
Mr. LATONA. I assumed that they used gray powder in order to give them
what little contrast could be seen. And it took some highlighting and
sidelighting with the use of a spotlight to actually make those things
discernible at all.
Representative FORD. As far as you are concerned.
Mr. LATONA. That's right.
Mr. DULLES. Is is likely or possible that those fingerprints could have
been damaged or eroded in the passage from Texas to your hands?
Mr. LATONA. No, sir; I don't think so. In fact, I think we got the
prints just like they were. There had, in addition to this rifle and
that paper bag, which I received on the 23d--there had also been
submitted to me some photographs which had been taken by the Dallas
Police Department, at least alleged to have been taken by them, of
these prints on this trigger guard which they developed. I examined the
photographs very closely and I still could not determine any latent
value in the photograph.
So then I took the rifle personally over to our photo laboratory.
In the meantime, I had made arrangements to bring a photographer in
especially for the purpose of photographing these latent prints for
me, an experienced photographer--I called him in. I received this
material in the Justice Building. My office of operations is in the
Identification Division Building, which is at 2d and D Streets SW. So
I made arrangements to immediately have a photographer come in and see
if he could improve on the photographs that were taken by the Dallas
Police Department.
Well, we spent, between the two of us, setting up the camera, looking
at prints, highlighting, sidelighting, every type of lighting that we
could conceivably think of, checking back and forth in the darkroom--we
could not improve the condition of these latent prints.
So, accordingly, the final conclusion was simply that the latent print
on this gun was of no value, the fragments that were there.
After that had been determined, I then proceeded to completely process
the entire rifle, to see if there were any other prints of any
significance or value--any prints of value--I would not know what the
significance would be, but to see if there were any other prints. I
completely covered the rifle. I also had a firearms man----
Representative BOGGS. What do you cover it with?
Mr. LATONA. Gray fingerprint powder.
Representative BOGGS. What is that powder?
Mr. LATONA. It is usually a combination of chalk and mercury, or
possibly white lead and a little bit of resin material to give it some
weight.