Mr. EISENBERG. What I am referring to is this: on the basis of that
would you draw an inference that the person had taken--whoever made
this bag--had taken two lengths of tape from a dispensing machine and
had subsequently torn it up into smaller strips, or do you think he had
one length of tape from a dispensing machine which he subsequently tore
up into smaller strips?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. From the ends that I could see, now I don't know whether
there were any ends underneath which I did not have a chance to look
at, I don't have anything in my notes, but from what I can see it would
appear he took a strip of tape, machine-cut from a dispenser, and used
that entire strip, thus using up both ends of the tape because we have
two machine-cut ends.
Mr. EISENBERG. In other words, it would be a machine-cut strip at the
beginning of the tape which the person pulled out, left over from the
last cut?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. That is right.
Mr. EISENBERG. And a machine-cut at the end, where the person himself
ripped the tape from the machine?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. That is correct.
Mr. EISENBERG. And you infer that he then divided it into smaller
strips on the occasion when he made the bag?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes, sir; he pulled one strip, of course, he could have
pulled two or three strips, I don't know, but it would appear he took
one strip of tape and tore it into smaller pieces to be used on the bag.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you notice any bulges or creases or folds apart from
the fold used in making of the bag?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. No; I didn't. I noticed that one end of the bag had been
torn.
Mr. EISENBERG. Now, would you say that the absence of bulges would be
inconsistent with the carrying of a heavy object or an irregularly
shaped object in the bag?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Well, I don't believe I am qualified to answer that
question, because I actually am not an expert in paper.
Mr. EISENBERG. All right. We will leave that to the questioned document
examiner and we will take it up with him.
Did you notice anything else about the bag relating to its gross
physical characteristics and its shape, apart from any debris which you
may have found inside or outside the bag?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. No, sir; just an oblong homemade bag was the impression
I received from looking at it.
Mr. EISENBERG. Do you think it was, if it was in fact a homemade bag,
do you think it was a well-made bag, Mr. Stombaugh? Did you form any
opinion as to that?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. In my opinion, just a personal opinion, the person was
aware as to how to make a bag, to seal the ends by folding both corners
in and then folding them flat.
Mr. EISENBERG. You just demonstrated that both corners originally were
folded by the crease lines, and you folded it over again to show how it
was made?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; this makes a neat and also a secure corner or end
to the bag, to prevent losing any of the contents.
Mr. EISENBERG. Mr. Stombaugh, did you examine the outside of this paper
bag----
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; I did.
Mr. EISENBERG. Exhibit 142 and also 626, to see if there were any
foreign items on the surface?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; I did.
Mr. EISENBERG. And what did you find?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. I found that the bag had previously been dusted for
latent fingerprints because I found traces of what appeared to be
fingerprint powder on it.
I was using white gloves at the time I examined this and the gloves
became quite soiled from the fingerprint powder.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you find anything else?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. No; nothing on the outside of the bag.
Mr. EISENBERG. How did you conduct that examination, by the way?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. With a low-power microscope.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you find any cotton fibers on the outside of the bag
at all, Mr. Stombaugh, white or colored?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. There were white cotton fibers on the outside but I
was using a pair of white cotton gloves, so these would be of no
value. White cotton is the most common thing we have in the way of
textiles, and therefore it just doesn't have sufficient individual
characteristics to be of value for comparison and identification
purposes. It is for this reason that we use gloves of this material.
Mr. EISENBERG. And those fibers may have come from your white cotton
gloves?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; they could very easily have come from my gloves
from handling the object with a pair of gloves on.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you proceed to examine the inside of the paper bag
to see if there were any foreign objects?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; I did.
Mr. EISENBERG. What were your conclusions?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. I removed the debris from the inside of the bag by
opening the bag as best I could, and tapping it and knocking the
debris on to a small piece of white paper, and I found a very small
number of fibers. Upon examining these fibers, I found a single brown,
delustered, viscose fiber and several light-green cotton fibers from
the inside of the bag. I also found a minute particle of wood and a
single particle of a waxy substance.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you attach any significance to the particle of wood,
Mr. Stombaugh?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. No; it was too minute for identification purposes. It
could have come from any surface, including the bag itself. Sometimes
all of the wood used in the manufacture of paper doesn't go into a
pulp, and this might be a very tiny such fragment.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you examine the wood fragment?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. I looked at it microscopically.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you attempt to compare it with the wood of the
Exhibit 139, which is a rifle?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; the wood particle from the bag was too minute for
comparison purposes. There wasn't much you could do with it, it was
very small.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you attach any significance to the body wax--or to
the wax, I should say?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. The wax particle I noticed, and I recalled having seen
wax on the shirt, Exhibit No. 673, so therefore I put that aside for a
spectrographic examination and comparison of the wax particle from the
inside of the bag with the wax from the shirt.
Mr. EISENBERG. And what were the results?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. They were entirely different.
Mr. EISENBERG. Was there any analysis made of the wax in the bag as to
its origin, do you know?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. It was examined by the spectrographic examiner and he
found it was just common wax.
Mr. EISENBERG. When you say common wax, do you mean the kind you wax a
floor with?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. No; more like that which could have come from a candle,
candle wax.
Mr. EISENBERG. What about the wax on the shirt as to origin?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. It was paraffin.
Mr. EISENBERG. Now you also said there were several fibers, Mr.
Stombaugh?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes, sir; I did. There was a single brown delustered
viscose fiber and several light-green cotton fibers.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did this single brown viscose fiber match the fibers
from the blanket, Exhibit 140?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; it did.
Mr. EISENBERG. In what characteristics were they matched?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. The fibers in the blanket had a large number of brown
viscose fibers, delustered and one fiber I found in the bag was also a
viscose fiber of the same type and color as seen under a low-powered
microscope. The delustering spots seen on the fiber were the same size,
and both fibers were approximately the same diameter.
Mr. EISENBERG. How common is viscose, Mr. Stombaugh, as a fiber?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Viscose is fairly common. It is used in many types of
garments; it depends on the quality of the garment.
Mr. EISENBERG. And this was delustered viscose, did you say?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes.
Mr. EISENBERG. How common is delustered viscose?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. It is most common, I would say. It is more common than
lustrous.
Mr. EISENBERG. Generally speaking, how many variations of diameter
would a delustered viscose come in?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. This is entirely up to the manufacturer. He can
make viscose any diameter he wants, and there could be hundreds of
variations in the diameter of viscose fibers.
Mr. EISENBERG. But the fiber you found in the paper bag, 142, matched
the fibers you found in the Exhibit 140?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes, sir; but the viscose fibers in the blanket varied
in size also.
Mr. EISENBERG. To what extent?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. There were 10 to 15 different diameters of viscose in
this blanket. It appeared to me as if the blanket was made of scrap
viscose, scrap fibers.
Mr. EISENBERG. So that the diameters would be random?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. They were random; yes, sir.
Mr. EISENBERG. Now, what about the color, was the color a match
between the fiber found in 140--in 142--and the fiber which is in the
composition of 140, the blanket?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; the color matched some of the viscose fibers, the
brown viscose fibers in the blanket. Of course, these colors also
varied slightly but not to any great extent, not like the diameter.
Mr. EISENBERG. Were there any other common characteristics between the
viscose fibers found in the blanket and the viscose fibers found in the
paper bag?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. The viscose fiber I found in the bag matched in all
observable microscopic characteristics some of the viscose fibers found
in the composition of this blanket. This would be the diameter, the
diameter of that same fiber would have the same size of delustering
markings, same shape, same form, and also same color.
Mr. EISENBERG. Now, what about the green cotton fiber that you found
in the paper bag, Mr. Stombaugh, how did that compare with the green
cotton fiber--was it a green cotton fiber that your testimony mentioned?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; there were several light green cotton fibers.
Mr. EISENBERG. How did they compare with the green cotton fibers which
are contained in the composition of the blanket?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. These matched in all observable microscopic
characteristics.
Mr. EISENBERG. And those were what?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. The color and the amount of twist of the cotton fibers
were the same as the color and twist found in these. Mainly the color
is what we go by on cotton.
Mr. EISENBERG. Were they mercerized or unmercerized?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. They were not mercerized.
Mr. EISENBERG. How common is cotton as a fiber, Mr. Stombaugh?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Cotton is the most common fiber used.
Mr. EISENBERG. And what about nonmercerized cotton, as to commonness?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. You would find more unmercerized cotton in use than
mercerized, because to mercerize cotton is an added production factor
used in cotton.
Mr. EISENBERG. How great a variation do you get in degree of twist?