Mr. DAY. Detective Studebaker.
Mr. BELIN. Whose knee appears?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; showing. Identical shots, we just made both to be
sure that one of us made it, and it would be in focus.
Mr. BELIN. For this reason I am introducing only 718, if that is
satisfactory.
Mr. McCLOY. Very well.
Mr. BELIN. How did you stand to take the picture, Exhibit 718?
Mr. DAY. I was on top of a stack of boxes to the south of where the gun
was found.
Mr. BELIN. I wonder if you could put on Exhibit 719 the location with
an "X" where you stood to take the picture, 718.
Mr. DAY. I was in that position looking this way, but you can't tell
which box I was on looking from that angle.
Mr BELIN. I mean, you have placed an "X" on Exhibit 719. Were you
sitting or standing on top of a stack of boxes in that general area?
Mr. DAY. Kneeling.
Mr. BELIN. Kneeling?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. In what direction would your face have been?
Mr. DAY. Facing north and down.
Mr. BELIN. Facing north and looking down?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; to the floor.
Mr. BELIN. Can you see the rifle at all in Exhibit 719?
Mr. DAY. No, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Had the rifle been removed when 719 was taken, if you know?
Mr. DAY. I don't remember.
Mr. BELIN. Could you locate with an arrow on Exhibit 719 the place
where the rifle would have been?
Mr. DAY. Here.
Mr. BELIN. You have so noted with an arrow on 719. Was the rifle
resting on the floor or not?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. It was?
Mr. DAY. The rifle was resting on the floor.
Mr. BELIN. What else did you do in connection with the rifle at that
particular time?
Mr. DAY. Captain Fritz was present. After we got the photographs I
asked him if he was ready for me to pick it up, and he said, yes. I
picked the gun up by the wooden stock. I noted that the stock was too
rough apparently to take fingerprints, so I picked it up, and Captain
Fritz opened the bolt as I held the gun. A live round fell to the floor.
Mr. BELIN. Did you initial that live round at all?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; my name is on it.
Mr. BELIN. When did you place your name on this live round, if you
remember?
Mr. DAY. How?
Mr. BELIN. When?
Mr. DAY. At the time, that was marked at the scene.
Mr. BELIN. Handing you Commission Exhibit No. 141. I will ask you to
state if you know what this is.
Mr. DAY. It has "Day" on it where I scratched it on the small end where
the slug goes into the shell.
Mr. BELIN. What is this, what is Exhibit 141?
Mr. DAY. That is the live round that fell from the rifle when Captain
Fritz opened the bolt.
Mr. BELIN. What did you do with this after you put your name on it?
Mr. DAY. Captain Fritz took possession of it. I retained possession of
the rifle.
Mr. BELIN. Did you process this live round at all for prints?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; I did. I did not find any prints.
Mr. McCLOY. Before Captain Fritz ejected the live cartridge, did you
dust the rifle for fingerprints?
Mr. DAY. Not before.
Mr. BELIN. Did you dust the bolt for fingerprints?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Before the live round was ejected?
Mr. DAY. No, no; the only part that Captain Fritz touched was the round
nob. I looked at it through a glass and decided there was not a print
there, and it would be safe for him to open the bolt.
Mr. BELIN. You did this before it was ejected, before the live round
was ejected?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Who held the rifle while you looked at it with the glass?
Mr. DAY. I held it.
Mr. BELIN. In one hand?
Mr. DAY. One hand, using the glass with the other.
Mr. BELIN. How did you try to process the live round for prints?
Mr. DAY. With black fingerprint powder.
Mr. BELIN. Let me ask you this in an effort, perhaps, to save time. In
all of your processing of prints did you use anything other than this
black powder at the scene that day?
Mr. DAY. No, sir.
Mr. BELIN. So whenever you say you processed for prints you used black
powder, is that correct?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. McCLOY. When was the rifle as such dusted with fingerprint powder?
Mr. DAY. After ejecting the live round, then I gave my attention to
the rifle. I put fingerprint powder on the side of the rifle over the
magazine housing. I noticed it was rather rough.
I also noticed there were traces of two prints visible. I told Captain
Fritz it was too rough to do there, it should go to the office where I
would have better facilities for trying to work with the fingerprints.
Mr. McCLOY. But you could note with your naked eye or with a magnifying
glass the remnants of fingerprints on the stock?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; I could see traces of ridges, fingerprint ridges, on
the side of the housing.
Mr. BELIN. Lieutenant Day, as I understand it, you held the stock of
the rifle when Captain Fritz operated the bolt?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Now, when you first came over to see the rifle, was it
easily visible or not?
Mr. DAY. I beg pardon?
Mr. BELIN. When you first came over to see the rifle, when you were
first called there, what is the fact as to whether or not it was easily
visible?
Mr. DAY. No, sir; you had to look over the box and down to see it. You
could not see it ordinarily walking down the aisle.
Mr. BELIN. Was anything resting on top of it?
Mr. DAY. On top of the gun?
Mr. BELIN. Yes.
Mr. DAY. No, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Do you have any estimate as to how wide or what the width
was of that particular area in which the rifle was placed? In other
words, the area between the boxes, how much space was there?
Mr. DAY. It was just wide enough to accommodate that rifle and hold it
in an upright position.
Mr. BELIN. Was the location at which you found the rifle completely
surrounded by boxes or was it kind of like two parallel rows of boxes
without boxes at either end of it?
Mr. DAY. There was three or four rows of boxes there.
Mr. BELIN. What I mean is this: If you can visualize a narrow squared
"O," was it more like a narrow squared "O" so far as the boxes were
concerned, with sort of an island of space in the center or was it more
like just two basic rows of boxes with nothing at either end?
Mr. DAY. I don't quite follow you there.
Mr. BELIN. I will restate the question this way.
Mr. DAY. There were four parallel lines of boxes. The second line from
the north side was not completely filled. In other words, there was
vacant places in this particular line.
Mr. BELIN. I am going to hand you what has been marked Commission
Exhibit 139 and ask you to state if you know what this is.
Mr. DAY. This is the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas Book
Store at 411 Elm Street, November 23, 1963.
Mr. BELIN. What date?
Mr. DAY. November 22, 1963.
Mr. BELIN. Does it have any identification mark of yours on it?
Mr. DAY. It has my name "J. C. Day" scratched on the stock.
Mr. BELIN. And on the stock you are pointing to your name which is
scratched as you would hold the rifle and rest it on the stock,
approximately an inch or so from the bottom of the stock on the sling
side of the stock, is that correct?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Do you have any recollection as to what the serial number
was of that?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; I recorded it at the time, C-2566.