Post by Gil Jesus on Sept 7, 2021 8:03:45 GMT -5
THE TIPPIT SHELLS
By Gil Jesus (2021)
...the cartridge cases found near the scene of the shooting were fired from the revolver in the possession of Oswald at the time of his arrest, to the exclusion of all other weapons.." (WC Report, pg. 176)
Based on the evidence I've seen, I would concede that the empty shells currently in evidence were, in fact, fired from the revolver also in evidence. I base this opinion on the fact that the breech and firing pin markings on the shells in evidence matched the breech and firing pin markings on the test shells fired by the FBI.
But I cannot accept that they were fired at the Tippit murder scene. I believe that there is sufficient evidence that police tampered with these shells by means of substitution.
Back in 1964, at least one member of the Warren Commission suspected this.
A QUESTION OF SUBSTITUTION
Warren Commission member Rep. Boggs began a line of questioning of FBI expert Cortlandt Cunningham that suggested that Boggs suspected evidence tampering by police.
He asked Cunningham if the Oswald bullets were the same bullets used by police departments:
Representative BOGGS. Is this a police weapon as well?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Yes; and a very good one. Not in that particular caliber. In other words, the caliber----
Representative BOGGS. That is what I meant.
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. 38 S&W is not a popular cartridge in this country. The .38 Special is.
Representative BOGGS. 38 Special is?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Yes, sir. That cartridge.
Representative BOGGS. With police forces?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. We use it. Most of your larger police forces use the . 38 Special. It is a better cartridge. (3 H 478)
Boggs' line of questioning was then cut off by assistant counsel Eisenberg, who changed the subject.
WITNESS IDENTIFICATION
But there IS evidence that the shells currently in the National Archives may not be the shells that were found at the murder scene.
Four shells were found at the scene: two by Domingo Benavides, which he gave to Officer J.M. Poe. One by Barbara Davis, who lived in the corner house, which she gave to Capt. G.M. Doughty and the last by her sister Virginia Davis later that day, which she gave to an unidentified Dallas Officer. (they say C.N. Dhority)
Commission Exhibit 2011 is the FBI report on the shells recovered at the Tippit murder scene. It says that NONE of the three witnesses who found the shells were able to identify the shells currently in evidence as the shells they found.
In addition, Officer Poe, who marked the shells with his initials, was unable to find his initials on ANY of the shells and thus could not identify the shells as the ones Benavides gave him.
In spite of this lack of evidence that the shells were found near the Tippit scene, the Commission accepted the identification of officers who handled the shells further down the chain of possession as evidence that the shells were found at the murder scene.
Of course, they never considered the shells may have been switched.
THE SHELLS AT THE SCENE INDICATE....'
More evidence of substitution comes in the radio broadcast of Sgt. Gerald Hill. He allegedly got two shells from Sgt. Pete Barnes who got them from Officer Poe.
Sawyer Exhibit A is a transcript of the Dallas Police radio traffic. In that transcript, Sgt. Hill radioed that "the shells at the scene indicate the suspect is armed with an automatic 38 rather than a pistol."
The fact that he used the terminology "the shells indicate" says he read them.
Over the years, Hill has admitted making a mistake in his description of the shells. He claimed that he saw "38" and assumed they were automatics.
But this is not a mistake a veteran detective could have made because these shells like all shells are clearly head-stamped with identification.
.38 automatic shells are marked "38 AUTO", 38 Special shells are marked "38 SPL" and regular 38 shells are marked "38 CAL".
One would think that if he were assuming the shells were one thing or another, he would assume that they were the more popular shell. But in this case, he assumed that they were the less popular automatics.
I find that hard to believe.
And yet with all this evidence of substitution by police there is still more evidence: the bullets removed from Tippit's body do not match the shells.
THE MATCH GAME
Four bullets were removed from Tippit's body, one at the hospital so the Dallas Police would have a "known" for their bullet tests and the other three at his autopsy. Three of the bullets in evidence are Winchester-Westerns and the fourth is a Remington-Peters.
But of the four shells in evidence, two are Winchester-Westerns and two are Remington-Peters.
How is it that the shells don't match the bullets ? The Commission and its apologists theorize that there was a fifth shot ( a Remington-Peters ) that missed and a Winchester-Western shell that was never found.
But missed shots don't vanish into thin air. They hit things.
What did it hit? A house? A tree? A car?
In order to prove a missed shot, you have to show where it hit, like the shot that missed in Dealey Plaza. That hit the curb.
Otherwise, the theory that a shot missed is just that ---- a theory.
Not evidence.
All of these many years later, no evidence of a missed shot has ever surfaced. You would think that the fame associated with the discovery of that bullet would drive any Dale Myers wannabe to his local TruValue store for a metal detector.
Finally, there's the Dallas Police broadcast that the killer was armed with an automatic pistol.
THE UNFIRED ROUNDS
The Dallas Police claimed to have retrieved 5 unfired 38 special cartridges from the shirt pocket of Lee Harvey Oswald. But upon closer examination of these cartridges, we see corrosion on the shell part.
For those of us who have carried guns or worked with guns know that this corrosion is a result of the cartridge having been in a gunbelt or bullet slide for a long period of time. Before the days of speed loaders and bullet pouches, this was the way we carried extra ammunition for revolvers.
Oswald owned neither a bullet slide nor a gun belt.
But the police did.
CONCLUSION
There seems to be enough evidence here to question whether or not the Dallas Police tampered with the shells in this murder.
The witnesses who found the shells could not identify the shells in evidence as the shells they found.
The first police officer who came into possession of the shells and marked them could not identify the shells as the ones he received.
A veteran detective Sergeant identified the shells as automatics.
The shells do not match the bullets in number and type.
38 Special ammunition was commonly used by police departments at that time and readily available to anyone who wanted to make a switch.
The unfired rounds show corrosion consistent with having spent a long time in a gun belt or bullet slide both of which Oswald didn't own but were commonly used by police officers.