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who advised that Mr. Johnson take the Presidential oath of office before the plane left Dallas.
Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes hastened to the plane to administer the oath.
Members of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential parties filled the central compartment of the plane to witness the swearing in.
At 2:38 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Lyndon Baines Johnson took the oath of office as the 36th President of the United States.
Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Johnson stood at the side of the new President as he took the oath of office.
Nine minutes later, the Presidential airplane departed for Washington, D.C.
Return to Washington, D.C.
On the return flight, Mrs. Kennedy sat with David Powers, Kenneth O'Donnell, and Lawrence O'Brien.
At 5:58 p.m. Eastern Standard Time,
Air Force One landed at Andrews Air Force Base, where President Kennedy had begun his last trip only 31 hours before.
Detailed security arrangements had been made by radio from the President's plane on the return flight.
The public had been excluded from the base, and only Government officials and the press were permitted near the landing area.
Upon arrival, President Johnson made a brief statement over television and radio.
President and Mrs. Johnson were flown by helicopter to the White House, from where Mrs. Johnson was driven to her residence under Secret Service escort.
The President then walked to the Executive Office Building, where he worked until 9 p.m.
Given a choice between the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland, and the Army's Walter Reed Hospital,
Mrs. Kennedy chose the hospital in Bethesda for the autopsy because the President had served in the Navy.
Mrs. Kennedy and the Attorney General,
with three Secret Service agents, accompanied President Kennedy's body on the 45-minute automobile trip from Andrews Air Force Base to the hospital.
On the 17th floor of the Hospital, Mrs. Kennedy and the Attorney General joined other members of the Kennedy family to await the conclusion of the autopsy.
Mrs. Kennedy was guarded by Secret Service agents in quarters assigned to her in the naval hospital.
The Secret Service established a communication system with the White House and screened all telephone calls and visitors.
The hospital received the President's body for autopsy at approximately 7:35 p.m.
X-rays and photographs were taken preliminarily and the pathological examination began at about 8 p.m.
The autopsy report noted that President Kennedy was 46 years of age, 72 and one half inches tall,
weighed 170 pounds, had blue eyes and reddish-brown hair.
The body was muscular and well developed with no gross skeletal abnormalities except for those caused by the gunshot wounds.
Under "Pathological Diagnosis" the cause of death was set forth as "Gunshot wound, head."
The autopsy examination revealed two wounds in the President's head.
One wound, approximately one-fourth of an inch by five-eighths of an inch (6 by 15 millimeters),
was located about an inch (2.5 centimeters) to the right and slightly above the large bony protrusion
(external occipital protuberance) which juts out at the center of the lower part of the back of the skull.
The second head wound measured approximately 5 inches (13 centimeters) in its greatest diameter,
but it was difficult to measure accurately because multiple crisscross fractures radiated from the large defect.
During the autopsy examination, Federal agents brought the surgeons three pieces of bone recovered from Elm Street and the Presidential automobile.
When put together, these fragments accounted for approximately three-quarters of the missing portion of the skull.
The surgeons observed, through X-ray analysis, 30 or 40 tiny dustlike fragments of metal
running in a line from the wound in the rear of the President's head toward the front part of the skull,
with a sizable metal fragment lying just above the right eye.
From this head wound two small irregularly shaped fragments of metal were recovered and turned over to the FBI.
The autopsy also disclosed a wound near the base of the back of President Kennedy's neck slightly to the right of his spine.
The doctors traced the course of the bullet through the body and, as information was received from Parkland Hospital,
concluded that the bullet had emerged from the front portion of the President's neck that had been cut away by the tracheotomy at Parkland.
The nature and characteristics of this neck wound are discussed fully in the next chapter.
After the autopsy was concluded at approximately 11 p.m., the President's body was prepared for burial.
This was finished at approximately 4 a.m.
Shortly thereafter, the President's wife, family and aides left Bethesda Naval Hospital.
The President's body was taken to the East Room of the White House where it was placed under ceremonial military guard.
Chapter 4. The Assassin: Part 1.
The preceding chapter has established that the bullets which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally
were fired from the southeast corner window of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building
and that the weapon which fired these bullets was a Mannlicher-Carcano
6.5-millimeter Italian rifle bearing the serial number C2766.
In this chapter the Commission evaluates the evidence upon which it has based its conclusion concerning the identity of the assassin.
This evidence includes (1) the ownership and possession of the weapon used to commit the assassination,
(2) the means by which the weapon was brought into the Depository Building,
(3) the identity of the person present at the window from which the shots were fired,
(4) the killing of Dallas Patrolman J. D. Tippit within 45 minutes after the assassination, (5)
the resistance to arrest and the attempted shooting of another police officer by the man (Lee Harvey Oswald) subsequently accused of assassinating President Kennedy
and killing Patrolman Tippit,
(6) the lies told to the police by Oswald, (7)
the evidence linking Oswald to the attempted killing of Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker (Resigned, U.S. Army) on April 10, 1963,
and (8) Oswald's capability with a rifle.
Ownership And Possession Of Assassination Weapon
Purchase of Rifle by Oswald
Shortly after the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building, agents of the FBI
learned from retail outlets in Dallas that Crescent Firearms, Inc., of New York City,
was a distributor of surplus Italian 6.5-millimeter military rifles. During the evening of November 22, 1963,
a review of the records of Crescent Firearms revealed that the firm had shipped an Italian carbine, serial number C2766,
to Klein's Sporting Goods Co., of Chicago, Illinois.
After searching their records from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
the officers of Klein's discovered that a rifle bearing serial number C2766 had been shipped to one A. Hidell,
Post Office Box 2915, Dallas, Texas, on March 20, 1963.
According to its microfilm records, Klein's received an order for a rifle on March 13, 1963,
on a coupon clipped from the February 1963 issue of the American Rifleman magazine.
The order coupon was signed, in handprinting, "A. Hidell, P.O. Box 2915, Dallas, Texas."
It was sent in an envelope bearing the same name and return address in handwriting.
Document examiners for the Treasury Department and the FBI testified unequivocally
that the bold printing on the face of the mail-order coupon was in the handprinting of Lee Harvey Oswald and that the writing on the envelope was also his.
Oswald's writing on these and other documents was identified by comparing the writing and printing on the documents in question
with that appearing on documents known to have been written by Oswald, such as his letters, passport application, and endorsements of checks.
In addition to the order coupon the envelope contained a. U.S. postal money order for $21.45,
purchased as No. 2,202,130,462 in Dallas, Texas, on March 12, 1963.
The canceled money order was obtained from the Post Office Department.
Opposite the printed words "Pay To" were written the words "Kleins Sporting Goods,"
and opposite the printed word "From"
were written the words "A. Hidell, P.O. Box 2915 Dallas, Texas."
These words were also in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald.
From Klein's records it was possible to trace the processing of the order after its receipt.
A bank deposit made on March 13, 1963, included an item of $21.45. Klein's shipping order form
shows an imprint made by the cash register which recorded the receipt of $21.45 on March 13, 1963.
This price included $19.95 for the rifle and the scope, and $1.50 for postage and handling.
The rifle without the scope cost only $12.78.
According to the vice president of Klein's, William Waldman,
the scope was mounted on the rifle by a gunsmith employed by Klein's, and the rifle was shipped fully assembled in accordance with customary company procedures.
The specific rifle shipped against the order had been received by Klein's from Crescent on February 21, 1963.
It bore the manufacturer's serial number C2766.
On that date, Klein's placed an internal control number VC836 on this rifle.
According to Klein's shipping order form, one Italian carbine 6.5 x 4 x scope,
control number VC836, serial number C2766, was shipped parcel post to
"A. Hidell, P.O. Box 2915, Dallas, Texas," on March 20, 1963.
Information received from the Italian Armed Forces Intelligence Service has established that this particular rifle was the only rifle of its type
bearing serial number C2766.
The post office box to which the rifle was shipped was rented to "Lee H. Oswald" from October 9, 1962,
to May 14, 1963.
Experts on handwriting identification from the Treasury Department and the FBI
testified that the signature and other writing on the application for that box were in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald
as was a change-of-address card dated May 12, 1963,
by which Oswald requested that mail addressed to that box be forwarded to him in New Orleans, where he had moved on April 24.
Since the rifle was shipped from Chicago on March 20, 1963, it was received in Dallas during the period when Oswald rented and used the box.
It is not known whether the application for post office box 2915 listed "A. Hidell" as a person entitled to receive mail at this box.
In accordance with postal regulations, the portion of the application which lists names of persons, other than the applicant, entitled to receive mail
was thrown away after the box was closed in May 1963.
Postal Inspector Harry D. Holmes of the Dallas Post Office testified, however, that when a package is received for a certain box,
a notice is placed in that box regardless of whether the name on the package is listed on the application as a person entitled to receive mail through that box.
The person having access to the box then takes the notice to the window and is given the package.
Ordinarily, Inspector Holmes testified, identification is not requested because it is assumed that the person with the notice is entitled to the package.
Oswald's use of the name "Hidell" to purchase the assassination weapon was one of several instances in which he used this name as an alias.
When arrested on the day of the assassination, he had in his possession a Smith & Wesson 38 caliber revolver
purchased by mail-order coupon from Seaport-Traders, Inc., a mail-order division of George Rose & Co., Los Angeles.
The mail-order coupon listed the purchaser as "A. J. Hidell Age 28"
with the address of post office box 2915 in Dallas.
Handwriting experts from the FBI and the Treasury Department testified that the writing on the mail-order form was that of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Among other identification cards in Oswald's wallet at the time of his arrest were a Selective Service notice of classification,
a Selective Service registration certificate, and a certificate of service in the U.S. Marine Corps, all three cards being in his own name.
Also in his wallet at that time
were a Selective Service notice of classification and a Marine certificate of service in the name of Alek James Hidell.
On the Hidell Selective Service card there appeared a signature, "Alek J. Hidell,"
and the photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Experts on questioned documents from the Treasury Department and the FBI testified that the Hidell cards were counterfeit photographic reproductions
made by photographing the Oswald cards, retouching the resulting negatives, and producing prints from the retouched negatives.
The Hidell signature on the notice of classification was in the handwriting of Oswald.
In Oswald's personal effects found in his room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue in Dallas
was a purported international certificate of vaccination signed by "Dr. A. J. Hideel,
Post Office Box 30016, New Orleans
It certified that Lee Harvey Oswald had been vaccinated for smallpox on June 8, 1963.
This, too, was a forgery. The signature of "A. J. Hideel" was in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald.
There is no "Dr. Hideel" licensed to practice medicine in Louisiana.
There is no post office box 30016 in the New Orleans Post Office
but Oswald had rented post office box 30061 in New Orleans on June 3, 1963,
listing Marina Oswald and A. J. Hidell
as additional persons entitled to receive mail in the box. The New Orleans postal authorities had not discarded the portion of the application
listing the names of those, other than the owner of the box, entitled to receive mail through the box.
Expert testimony confirmed that the writing on this application was that of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Hidell's name on the post office box application was part of Oswald's use of a nonexistent Hidell
to serve as president of the so-called New Orleans Chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
Marina Oswald
testified that she first learned of Oswald's use of the fictitious name "Hidell" in connection with his pro-Castro activities in New Orleans.
According to her testimony, he compelled her to write the name "Hidell" on membership cards in the space designated for the signature of the "Chapter President."
The name "Hidell" was stamped on some of the "Chapter's" printed literature and on the membership application blanks.
Marina Oswald testified,
quote, I knew there was no such organization. And I know Hidell is merely an altered Fidel, and I laughed at such foolishness.
end quote. Hidell was a fictitious president of an organization of which Oswald was the only member.
When seeking employment in New Orleans,
Oswald listed a "Sgt. Robert Hidell" as a reference on one job application and "George Hidell" as a reference on another.
Both names were found to be fictitious.
Moreover, the use of "Alek" as a first name for Hidell is a further link to Oswald because "Alek" was Oswald's nickname in Russia.
Letters received by Marina Oswald from her husband signed "Alek" were given to the Commission.
Oswald's Palmprint on Rifle Barrel
Based on the above evidence, the Commission concluded that Oswald purchased the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Depository Building.
Additional evidence of ownership was provided in the form of palmprint identification which indicated that Oswald had possession of the rifle he had purchased.
A few minutes after the rifle was discovered on the sixth floor of the Depository Building
it was examined by Lt. J. C. Day of the identification bureau of the Dallas police.
He lifted the rifle by the wooden stock after his examination convinced him that the wood was too rough to take fingerprints.
Capt. J. W. Fritz then ejected a cartridge by operating the bolt,
but only after Day viewed the knob on the bolt through a magnifying glass and found no prints.
Day continued to examine the rifle with the magnifying glass, looking for possible fingerprints.
He applied fingerprint powder to the side of the metal housing near the trigger, and noticed traces of two prints.
At 11:45 p.m. on November 22,
the rifle was released to the FBI and forwarded to Washington where it was examined on the morning of November 23
by Sebastian F. Latona, supervisor of the Latent Fingerprint Section of the FBI's Identification Division.
In his testimony before the Commission, Latona stated that when he received the rifle, the area where prints were visible was protected by cellophane.
He examined these prints, as well as photographs of them which the Dallas police had made, and concluded that:
the formations, the ridge formations and characteristics, were insufficient for purposes of either effecting identification
or a determination that the print was not identical with the prints of people.
Accordingly, my opinion simply was that the latent prints which were there were of no value, end quote.
Latona then processed the complete weapon but developed no identifiable prints.
He stated that the poor quality of the wood and the metal would cause the rifle to absorb moisture from the skin, thereby making a clear print unlikely.
On November 22, however, before surrendering possession of the rifle to the FBI Laboratory,
Lieutenant Day of the Dallas Police Department had "lifted" a palmprint from the underside of the gun barrel
quote, near the firing end of the barrel about 3 inches under the woodstock when I took the woodstock loose, end quote,
"Lifting" a print involves the use of adhesive material to remove the fingerprint powder which adheres to the original print.
In this way the powdered impression is actually removed from the object.
The lifting had been so complete in this case that there was no trace of the print on the rifle itself when it was examined by Latona.
Nor was there any indication that the lift had been performed.
Day, on the other hand, believed that sufficient traces of the print had been left on the rifle barrel,
because he did not release the lifted print until November 26, when he received instructions to send "everything that we had" to the FBI.
The print arrived in the FBI Laboratory in Washington on November 29, mounted on a card on which Lieutenant Day had written the words
quote, off underside gun barrel near end of grip C2766, end quote,
The print's positive identity as having been lifted from the rifle
was confirmed by FBI Laboratory tests which established that the adhesive material bearing the print
also bore impressions of the same irregularities that appeared on the barrel of the rifle.
Latona testified that this palmprint was the right palmprint of Lee Harvey Oswald.
At the request of the Commission, Arthur Mandella,
fingerprint expert with the New York City Police Department, conducted an independent examination and also determined that this was the right palmprint of Oswald.
Latona's findings were also confirmed by Ronald G. Wittmus, another FBI fingerprint expert.
In the opinion of these experts, it was not possible to estimate the time which elapsed between the placing of the print on the rifle and the date of the lift.
Experts testifying before the Commission agreed that palmprints are as unique as fingerprints for purposes of establishing identification.
Oswald's palmprint on the underside of the barrel demonstrates that he handled the rifle when it was disassembled.
A palmprint could not be placed on this portion of the rifle, when assembled, because the wooden foregrip covers the barrel at this point.
The print is additional proof that the rifle was in Oswald's possession.
Fibers on Rifle
In a crevice between the butt plate of the rifle and the wooden stock
was a tuft of several cotton fibers of dark blue, gray-black, and orange-yellow shades.
On November 23, 1963,
these fibers were examined by Paul M. Stombaugh, a special agent assigned to the Hair and Fiber Unit of the FBI Laboratory.
He compared them with the fibers found in the shirt which Oswald was wearing when arrested in the Texas Theatre.
This shirt was also composed of dark blue, gray- black and orange-yellow cotton fibers.
Stombaugh testified that the colors, shades, and twist of the fibers found in the tuft on the rifle matched those in Oswald's shirt.
Stombaugh explained in his testimony that in fiber analysis, as distinct from fingerprint or firearms identification,
it is not possible to state with scientific certainty that a particular small group of fibers come from a certain piece of clothing
to the exclusion of all others because there are not enough microscopic characteristics present in fibers.
Judgments as to probability will depend on the number and types of matches.
He concluded, quote, There is no doubt in my mind that these fibers could have come from this shirt.
There is no way, however, to eliminate the possibility of the fibers having come from another identical shirt, end quote,
Having considered the probabilities as explained in Stombaugh's testimony,
the Commission has concluded that the fibers in the tuft on the rifle most probably came from the shirt worn by Oswald when he was arrested,
and that this was the same shirt which Oswald wore on the morning of the assassination.
Marina Oswald testified that she thought her husband wore this shirt to work on that day.
The testimony of those who saw him after the assassination was inconclusive about the color of Oswald's shirt,
but Mary Bledsoe, a former landlady of Oswald, saw him on a bus approximately 10 minutes after the assassination
and identified the shirt as being the one worn by Oswald primarily because of a distinctive hole in the shirt's right elbow.
Moreover, the bus transfer which he obtained as he left the bus was still in the pocket when he was arrested.
Although Oswald returned to his roominghouse after the assassination and when questioned by the police, claimed to have changed his shirt,
the evidence indicates that he continued wearing the same shirt which he was wearing all morning and which he was still wearing when arrested.
In light of these findings the Commission evaluated the additional testimony of Stombaugh
that the fibers were caught in the crevice of the rifle's butt plate, quote, in the recent past, end quote,
Although Stombaugh was unable to estimate the period of time the fibers were on the rifle he said that the fibers, quote,
were clean, they had good color to them, there was no grease on them and they were not fragmented. They looked as if they had just been picked up, end quote.
The relative freshness of the fibers is strong evidence that they were caught on the rifle on the morning of the assassination or during the preceding evening.
For 10 days prior to the eve of the assassination Oswald had not been present at Ruth Paine's house in Irving, Texas, where the rifle was kept.
Moreover, the Commission found no reliable evidence that Oswald used the rifle at any time between September 23,
when it was transported from New Orleans, and November 22, the day of the assassination.
The fact that on the morning of the assassination Oswald was wearing the shirt from which these relatively fresh fibers most probably originated,
provides some evidence that they were placed on the rifle that day
since there was limited, if any, opportunity for Oswald to handle the weapon during the 2 months prior to November 22.
On the other hand Stombaugh pointed out that fibers might retain their freshness if the rifle had been
quote, put aside, end quote, after catching the fibers.
The rifle used in the assassination probably had been wrapped in a blanket for about 8 weeks prior to November 22.
Because the relative freshness of these fibers might be explained by the continuous storage of the rifle in the blanket,
the Commission was unable to reach any firm conclusion as to when the fibers were caught in the rifle.
The Commission was able to conclude, however, that the fibers most probably came from Oswald's shirt.
This adds to the conviction of the Commission that Oswald owned and handled the weapon used in the assassination.
Photograph of Oswald With Rifle
During the period from March 2, 1963, to April 24, 1963,
the Oswalds lived on Neely Street in Dallas in a rented house which had a small back yard.
One Sunday, while his wife was hanging diapers, Oswald asked her to take a picture of him holding a rifle, a pistol
and issues of two newspapers later identified as the Worker and the Militant.
Two pictures were taken. The Commission has concluded that the rifle shown in these pictures is the same rifle which was found on the sixth floor of the Depository Building