ROB CAPRIO SAID:
1) The Barbee Specimen: This was a fully intact bullet found at 1615
Stemmons Freeway in the summer of 1966. It was found by William
Barbee and it was embedded in the roof of a building that was about
1/4 of a mile from the TSBD and was in the line of fire from the
alleged SN. Mr. Barbee turned it over to the FBI in December 1967 for
analysis, he had not thought before it could be tied to the
assassination, but recent publicity made him change his mind. The FBI
lab determined it to be a .30 caliber full metal jacketed bullet. Its
rifling pattern of 4 grooves, right hand twist, was consistent with a
.30 government carbine (M-1 likely), NOT a Carcano rifle. The FBI lost
interest when it was determined not to be from LHO's alleged rifle,
why? The CIA had a number of M-1 .30 carbines with silencers as well,
but this was never explored. The M-1 was not used by hardly any
civilians in 1963 (were not released by the government for this use
until the summer of that year) for hunting, and the full metal
jacketed bullet was illegal for hunting purposes.
2) The Haythorne Specimen: Another bullet was found atop the Massey
bldg. in 1967 by Richard Haythorne, a roofer who was working on the
bldg. The Massey bldg. was about 8 blocks away from the TSBD and was
located at 1200 block of Elm St., and the bldg. has since been torn
down. Haythorne's attorney held it until it was given to the HSCA for
examination. The HSCA would utilize the services of the Washington
D.C. police dept., where it was determined that the bullet was a
jacketed, soft-point, .30 caliber bullet, weighing 149 grains and was
consistent with the .30 caliber ammo produced by Remington-Peters. The
six groove, right hand twist of the rifling marks on the bullet
indicated that the bullet was NOT shot from LHO's alleged Carcano.
This was a popular hunting load at the time.
3) The Lester Specimen: This was a bullet fragment and it was
discovered by Richard Lester in 1974. Its precise location was 500
yards from the TSBD and 61 paces east of the triple overpass
abutment. Mr. Lester turned the fragment over to the FBI for testing
in December 1976. In July 1977, the FBI reported its findings for the
fragment, which consisted of the base portion of a bullet and weighed
52.7 grains, was consistent with the diameter of a 6.5mm bullet. It
was also determined that the fragment came from a metal jacketed
bullet that was a either hollow point or soft point. The rifling
characteristics DID NOT match those of a Carcano. It did have a 4
groove, right hand twist pattern like the Carcano, but the spacing was
further apart. Again, no one seemed interested in where it came from.
4) The Dal-Tex Specimen: A rusty shell casing was found on the rooftop
of the Dal-Tex bldg. in 1977 by an air-conditioning repair man. The
bldg. is just east of the TSBD, across Houston St. What was most
interesting about this case was the crimping it had around the edges
of the neck, which indicates it was either hand-loaded or was used in
conjuction with a sabot (allows a smaller caliber bullet to be fired
from a higher velocity gun).
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
But how in hell could those first two bullets be connected with the
JFK shooting? Were the assassins aiming at Kennedy, or at the roofs
of other tall buildings many blocks from Dealey Plaza?
~shrug~
BTW, Vince Bugliosi talks about the Lester bullet and the 1967 "Massey
Roofing" bullet in "Reclaiming History"....but the name "Barbee"
doesn't appear in the book's index at all (although that person might
still be mentioned somewhere in the book, because I've discovered
several omissions in the index, including Steve Barber, Saundra
Spencer, and Robert Knudsen, who are all covered in great detail
within "RH", but they aren't mentioned in the index at all).
And as far as I can recall, these "other bullets" aren't mentioned
very frequently even in most pro-conspiracy books. Go figure. So, it
would appear that even most conspiracy theorists don't deem these
bullets that were supposedly "found" YEARS after the assassination to
be credible or valuable evidence regarding the events of 11/22/63.
Anyway, here's what VB says about two of the four bullet specimens
brought up in this thread:
"A bullet fragment and a mutilated slug, which critics have
touted as evidence of a second rifle, were subjected to analysis in
1978. The fragment had been found in 1967 by a roofer working on top
of the Massey Roofing Company building in the 1200 block of Elm
Street--eight blocks from Dealey Plaza. The roofer gave it to his
attorney, Bill Mason, who in turn gave it to the HSCA ten years later,
in April 1977. (7 HSCA 358)
"The technical assistant to the HSCA firearms panel, George R.
Wilson, determined that it was a jacketed, soft-point .30 caliber
bullet, probably manufactured by Remington-Peters. The HSCA found no
reason to connect it with the assassination. (7 HSCA 362, 358)
"The mutilated slug has become much more famous in assassination
lore. On November 26, 1976, Richard Harold "Dick" Lester, a Dallas
nighttime security guard with a seventh-grade education, called the
Dallas FBI office and stated that for several years he had been going
to Dealey Plaza "looking around," and claimed that approximately two
years earlier, while using a metal detector in the area of the
assassination, he discovered what he believed to be a 6.5-millimeter
slug.
"On December 1, two Dallas FBI special agents, Robert P. Gemberling
and Larry Steging, interviewed Lester. He showed them the slug and said
he had found it on the railroad overpass directly above the south side of
Commerce Street between the narrow roadway and the fence.
"His only explanation for waiting two years to call them was
that a KRLD radio talk show on the assassination in the late evening
of November 22, 1976, had caused him to think it would be a good idea.
Lester turned the slug, heavily mutilated, over to the agents and they
sent it to the FBI lab in Washington, D.C., for analysis." -- Vincent
Bugliosi; Pages 446-447 of "Reclaiming History" (Endnotes)
David Von Pein
December 2007
December 2011
LINK TO ORIGINAL POST (DECEMBER 28, 2007)
