Mr. EISENBERG. Yes?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. I have here in my notes "several light green cotton
fibers," which would be approximately two or three.
Mr. EISENBERG. Do you recall whether they represented two or three
different shades?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; they were all different from each other but each
matched the cotton fibers in the blanket.
Mr. EISENBERG. So you had two or three cotton fibers of two or three
shades of green in the bag, and they matched against these two or three
of the seven or eight shades of green cotton which were in the blanket,
is that a correct recapitulation?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes.
Mr. EISENBERG. And you say there are 50 to 100--approximately--green
shades of cotton that can be distinguished under the microscope?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; I would say that is true. This would vary from dark
green, of course, all the way up to light-pale green.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you find anything else within the bag, Mr. Stombaugh?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. No, sir; that is all I found inside the bag.
Mr. EISENBERG. Now, what do you think the degree of probability is, if
you can form an opinion, that the fibers from the bag, fibers in the
bag, ultimately came from the blanket?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. When you get into mathematical probabilities, it is
something I stay away from, since in general there are too many unknown
factors. All I would say here is that it is possible that these fibers
could have come from this blanket, because this blanket is composed
of brown and green woolen fibers, brown and green delustered viscose
fibers, and brown and green cotton fibers.
Now these 3 different types of fibers have 6 different general colors,
and if we would multiply that, say by a minimum of 5 different shades
of each so you would have 30 different shades you are looking for, and
3 different types of fibers. Here we have only found 1 brown viscose
fiber, and 2 or 3 light green cotton fibers. We found no brown cotton
fibers, no green viscose fibers, and no woolen fibers.
So if I had found all of these then I would have been able to say these
fibers probably had come from this blanket. But since I found so few,
then I would say the possibility exists, these fibers could have come
from this blanket.
Mr. EISENBERG. Now, let me ask you a hypothetical question, Mr.
Stombaugh. First, I hand you Commission Exhibit 139, which consists of
a rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository
Building, and I ask you, if the rifle had lain in the blanket, which
is 140, and were then put inside the bag, 142, could it have picked up
fibers from the blanket and transferred them to the bag?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes.
Mr. EISENBERG. Are there any further questions as to the blanket?
Mr. DULLES. Do you have any, Mr. Murray?
Mr. MURRAY. I have none, Mr. Dulles.
Mr. EISENBERG. Do you recognize Exhibit 139? Are you familiar with that?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; I am.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you examine that in the laboratory?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; I did.
Mr. EISENBERG. Do you know when you made that examination?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. On the morning of November 23, 1963.
Mr. EISENBERG. Is your mark on it?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes, sir; here is my mark.
Mr. EISENBERG. Which consists of your initials?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. My initials, and the date 11-23-63. Do you mind if I
check to see if this is unloaded?
Mr. EISENBERG. Did you examine the rifle to determine whether it
contained on its surface or crevices any hair or other debris?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; I did.
Mr. EISENBERG. Can you tell us how you made that examination?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes, sir. The gun was to be treated for latent
fingerprints also, so I wore a pair of white cotton gloves to protect
any latents that might be present on the gun. I placed the gun under
a low-powered microscope and examined the gun from the end of the
barrel to the end of the stock, removing what fibers I could find from
crevices adhering to the gun.
I noticed immediately upon receiving the gun that this gun had been
dusted for latent fingerprints prior to my receiving it. Latent
fingerprint powder was all over the gun; it was pretty well dusted
off, and at the time I noted to myself that I doubted very much if
there would be any fibers adhering to the outside of this gun--I
possibly might find some in a crevice some place--because when the
latent fingerprint man dusted this gun, apparently in Dallas, they use
a little brush to dust with they would have dusted any fibers off the
gun at the same time; so this I noted before I ever started to really
examine the gun.
Mr. EISENBERG. Were you unhappy at all about that?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. I was; however, it is not uncommon for fingerprint
processing to be given priority consideration. They wanted to know
whether or not the gun contained any fibers to show that it had been
stored in this blanket, and with all the obstructions and the crevices
on the metal parts of this gun, ordinarily a fiber would adhere pretty
well, unless you take a brush and brush it off, and then you brush it
on the floor and it is lost.
Mr. EISENBERG. Who was "they," you said "they" wanted to know?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Well, this is our Dallas office. They sent the gun in
wanting to know this fact.
Mr. EISENBERG. Proceed.
Mr. DULLES. It was dusted by the Dallas police, was it, first?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. I don't know who dusted it.
Mr. EISENBERG. For the record, I believe that will be shown later that
it was dusted by Dallas police.
As far as you know, did it come into your office, into your laboratory
before it went to the identification division, latent fingerprint
section?
Mr. STOMBAUGH. Yes; I received this gun from Special Agent Vincent
Drain of the Dallas FBI office. It was crated very well. I opened the
crate myself and put my initials on the gun and at that time I noted it
had been dusted for latent prints.
So I proceeded to pick off what fibers were left from the small
crevices and small grease deposits which were left on the gun.