Mr. DAY. C-2766, excuse me.
Mr. BELIN. Do you have any record of that with you or not?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; this is the record I made of the gun when I took it
back to the office. Now, the gun did not leave my possession.
Mr. BELIN. From the time it was found at the School Book Depository
Building?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; I took the gun myself and retained possession, took
it to the office where I dictated----
Mr. BELIN. Could you just read into the record what you dictated.
Mr. DAY. To my secretary. She wrote on the typewriter: "4 x 18, coated,
Ordinance Optics, Inc., Hollywood, California, 010 Japan. OSC inside a
clover-leaf design."
Mr. BELIN. What did that have reference to?
Mr. DAY. That was stamped on the scopic sight on top of the gun. On the
gun itself, "6.5 caliber C-2766, 1940 made in Italy." That was what was
on the gun.
I dictated certain other stuff, other information, for her to type for
me.
Mr. BELIN. Well, you might just as well dictate the rest there.
Mr. DAY. "When bolt opened one live round was in the barrel. No prints
are on the live round. Captain Fritz and Lieutenant Day opened the
barrel. Captain Fritz has the live round. Three spent hulls were found
under the window. They were picked up by Detective Sims and witnessed
by Lieutenant Day and Studebaker. The clip is stamped 'SMI, 9 x 2.'"
Mr. BELIN. Could you tell us what other processing you did with this
particular rifle?
Mr. DAY. Beg pardon?
Mr. BELIN. What other processing did you do with this particular rifle?
Mr. DAY. I took it to the office and tried to bring out the two prints
I had seen on the side of the gun at the bookstore. They still were
rather unclear. Due to the roughness of the metal, I photographed them
rather than try to lift them.
I could also see a trace of a print on the side of the barrel that
extended under the woodstock. I started to take the woodstock off and
noted traces of a palmprint near the firing end of the barrel about 3
inches under the woodstock when I took the woodstock loose.
Mr. BELIN. You mean 3 inches from the small end of the woodstock?
Mr. DAY. Right--yes, sir.
Mr. McCLOY. From the firing end of the barrel, you mean the muzzle?
Mr. DAY. The muzzle; yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Let me clarify the record. By that you mean you found it on
the metal or you mean you found it on the wood?
Mr. DAY. On the metal, after removing the wood.
Mr. BELIN. The wood. You removed the wood, and then underneath the wood
is where you found the print?
Mr. DAY. On the bottom side of the barrel which was covered by the
wood, I found traces of a palmprint. I dusted these and tried lifting
them, the prints, with scotch tape in the usual manner. A faint
palmprint came off.
I could still see traces of the print under the barrel and was going to
try to use photography to bring off or bring out a better print. About
this time I received instructions from the chief's office to go no
further with the processing, it was to be released to the FBI for them
to complete. I did not process the underside of the barrel under the
scopic sight, did not get to this area of the gun.
Mr. BELIN. Do you know what Commission Exhibit No. 637 is?
Mr. DAY. This is the trace of palmprint I lifted off of the barrel of
the gun after I had removed the wood.
Mr. BELIN. Does it have your name on it or your handwriting?
Mr. DAY. It has the name "J. C. Day," and also "11/22/63" written on it
in my writing off the underside gun barrel near the end of foregrip,
C-2766.
Mr. BELIN. When you lift a print is it then harder to make a photograph
of that print after it is lifted or doesn't it make any difference?
Mr. DAY. It depends. If it is a fresh print, and by fresh I mean hadn't
been there very long and dried, practically all the print will come off
and there will be nothing left. If it is an old print, that is pretty
well dried, many times you can still see it after the lift. In this
case I could still see traces of print on that barrel.
Mr. BELIN. Did you do anything with the other prints or partial prints
that you said you thought you saw?
Mr. DAY. I photographed them only. I did not try to lift them.
Mr. BELIN. Do you have those photographs, sir? I will mark the two
photographs which you have just produced Commission Exhibits 720 and
721. I will ask you to state what these are.
Mr. DAY. These are prints or pictures, I should say, of the latent--of
the traces of prints on the side of the magazine housing of the gun No.
C-2766.
Mr. BELIN. Were those prints in such condition as to be identifiable,
if you know?
Mr. DAY. No, sir; I could not make positive identification of these
prints.
Mr. BELIN. Did you have enough opportunity to work and get these
pictures or not?
Mr. DAY. I worked with them, yes. I could not exclude all possibility
as to identification. I thought I knew which they were, but I could not
positively identify them.
Mr. BELIN. What was your opinion so far as it went as to whose they
were?
Mr. DAY. They appeared to be the right middle and right ring finger of
Harvey Lee Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. BELIN. At the time you had this did you have any comparison
fingerprints to make with the actual prints of Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. DAY. Yes, sir; we had sets in Captain Fritz' office. Oswald was in
his custody, we had made palmprints and fingerprints of him.
Mr. BELIN. Is there any other processing that you did with the rifle?
Mr. DAY. No, sir.
Mr. BELIN. At what time, if you know, did you release the rifle to the
FBI?
Mr. DAY. 11:45 p.m. the rifle was released or picked up by them and
taken from the office.
Mr. BELIN. Was that on November 22?
Mr. DAY. November 22, 1963.
Mr. BELIN. At what time did these same photographs which are the same
as Commission Exhibit 720 and 721 of this print----
Mr. DAY. About 8 o'clock, somewhere around 8 o'clock, in that
neighborhood.
Mr. BELIN. Of what date?
Mr. DAY. November 22, 1963.
Mr. BELIN. What about the lift which has previously been marked as
Commission Exhibit 637?
Mr. DAY. About what?
Mr. BELIN. When did you turn that over to the FBI?
Mr. DAY. I released that to them on November 26, 1963. I did not
release this----