DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Gil Jesus and Tom Rossley, as usual, want to misrepresent stuff.
Dr. Lattimer's reference to "C2766" on HIS OWN rifle was obviously
merely an innocent error. And I fully explain why this is obviously
the case in the December 2006 post linked here.
Footnote --- The 2006 post above was written mainly in response to Tom
Rossley's idiotic claim made on his ridiculous "Who Killed JFK?" website,
wherein he says this:
"He [Dr. John K. Lattimer] claims that he owns the same rifle [CE139]. REPEAT..."THE SAME RIFLE"."
Excerpt from my 2006 message regarding "C2766":
"As I said before, Lattimer's "C2766" remark was obviously an error....because (as I shall provide below) Lattimer tells us MULTIPLE times elsewhere in his book "Kennedy And Lincoln" that he was NOT using Oswald's exact rifle. Heck, even the very page cited by Tom R. (Page 250) contains info that contradicts Tom's "C2766" claims.....
"...Exactly like Oswald's. This [scope] was mounted exactly as on the rifle from the same lot (Warren Commission Exhibit 139) that was demonstrated unequivocally by the Warren Commission to have been used to fire both of the bullets..." -- John K. Lattimer; Page 250 of "Kennedy And Lincoln" (c.1980)
The overall language used on the VERY PAGE TOM R. SAYS PROVES LATTIMER IS A LIAR shows a reasonable person that Mr. Lattimer was merely in error re his one "C2766" remark.
And when coupled with the following FOUR additional rifle references scattered throughout Lattimer's K&L publication, it's quite clear that Lattimer wasn't using Oswald's exact rifle.....
"I used a 6.5mm Mannlicher-Carcano carbine of the same model as that used by Oswald (model 91-38)..." -- JKL; Page 232
"I had examined Oswald's rifle at the National Archives..." -- JKL; Page 292
"We had procured four rifles of exactly the same type used by Oswald. .... We then selected, from our four sample rifles, the one that most closely resembled his, in both condition and ease of operation, for use in our firing tests." -- JKL; Page 295
"Although we had to be content with four rifles of the same model as used by Oswald, the FBI used his actual rifle, and always with the same results: none of the bullets ever tumbled [unless they struck something else prior to striking a simulated Connally target]." -- JKL; Pages 271 & 276"
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Additional Footnote --- Jim DiEugenio, in his review of Vincent Bugliosi's
book, uses CE2562 (an April 1964 letter from J. Edgar Hoover to J. Lee
Rankin concerning rifles that had very similar, but not IDENTICAL,
serial numbers) as partial defense of his argument that there were,
indeed, multiple Mannlicher-Carcano Model 91/38 rifles manufactured
with the exact same "C2766" serial number on them.
But CE2562 really doesn't buttress DiEugenio's argument (or anyone's)
at all in this "Same Serial Number" respect. Because in CE2562, as we
can plainly see spelled out by Mr. Hoover in his correspondence to Rankin
of the Warren Commission, Hoover makes reference to two different rifles
with DIFFERENT unique numbers on them -- one with the number "C2766"
on it (which was Oswald's), and a separate reference to a rifle with just
the number "2766" on it (lacking the "C" prefix).
CE2562 goes on to reveal that the same serial "number" might
occasionally be stamped on different Carcano rifles that were
manufactured at different MC plants, but the key is: These duplicate
serial numbers were not really FULL duplicate serial numbers at all,
because some of these so-called duplicates would have a "letter"
prefix in front of the four-digit number, while others would not have
the prefix.
I have yet to see anyone produce an exact duplicate of a Mannlicher-
Carcano Model 91/38 rifle that has the exact same FULL serial number
that was stamped on Lee Oswald's rifle ("C2766").
Has anyone ever seen proof that such a second (or third) gun with that
FULL serial number ("C2766") ever existed?
To date, I have certainly not seen such proof. Nor, I doubt, will I
ever see such proof produced.
David Von Pein
September 8, 2008
