John F. Kennedy assassination rifle

In March 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, using the alias "A. Hidell", purchased by mail order the infantry carbine (described by the Warren Commission as a "Mannlicher–Carcano") with a telescopic sight.

[4] Marina Oswald later testified she was told by Lee that the rifle was also used before in an attempt to assassinate retired U.S. Army General Edwin Walker in Dallas.

Before its shipment to New York Harbor in September 1960, the rifles were refurbished in Storo, Trentino at the Riva plant (which worked for the Beretta Group).

[7] On January 27, 1963, Oswald ordered a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson "Victory" Model .38 Special revolver from Seaport Traders of Los Angeles, using the name A. J. Hidell, and his post office box as address, for $29.95 (equivalent to $308 in 2024) plus postage and handling.

Due to policies on shipping of pistols to prevent them from being sent to minors, he was required to pick it up directly at the offices of the Railway Express Agency in Dallas.

[8][9] On March 12, 1963, Oswald placed his second mail-order: this time it was for the mentioned "6.5 Italian Carbine" from Klein's Sporting Goods located in Chicago, as advertised in the February 1963 American Rifleman.

[12] Oswald asked his wife Marina in late March to take several photographs of him posing in their backyard with the rifle and pistol and holding copies of the newspapers The Worker and The Militant.

[21] Marina testified that, after she and Lee moved their belongings to the Paine home in September 1963, she found the rifle in the blanket while searching for a part for her child's crib.

[26][27][28] About half an hour after the assassination of President Kennedy, a floor-by-floor search of the Texas School Book Depository Building was commenced by Dallas police, joined by sheriff's deputies.

[29] The rifle was found by Deputy Sheriff Seymour Weitzman and Officer Gene Boone among cartons on the sixth floor.

[30][31] The two officers who found the rifle—and later Captain Fritz—picked it up by the sling, but did not handle it until the arrival of Lt. Carl Day of the crime scene search section of the identification bureau.

Ballistic experts testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) that this likely occurred when the rifle was rapidly fired and the cartridge was ejected.

Sebastian Latona, supervisor of the Latent Fingerprint section of the FBI's Identification Division,[38] testified that the palm print found on the barrel of the rifle belonged to Lee Harvey Oswald.

Initially misidentified as being a German-made Mauser rifle, the Dallas police, upon examination in their lab, determined it to be an Italian-made Carcano.

[42] Joseph D. Nicol, superintendent of the Illinois Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, and Robert A. Frazier, FBI special agent, testified to the Warren Commission.

[43] A distinctive gouge mark and identical dimensions also identify it as the rifle Oswald is holding in several photographs taken in his backyard by his wife in March 1963.

[46][47][48] Agents of the FBI learned on November 22, 1963, from retail gun dealers in Dallas that Crescent Firearms, Inc., of New York City, was a distributor of surplus Italian 6.5-millimeter military rifles.

[61] In the crevice between the butt-plate and the wooden stock of the Carcano rifle recovered from the Texas School Book Depository, a tuft of several cotton fibers of dark blue, grey-black and orange-yellow shades were found.

Military experts, after examining his records, characterized his firearms proficiency as "above average" and said he was, when compared to American civilian males of his age, "an excellent shot".

[citation needed] For the test, 11 marksmen from diverse backgrounds were invited to participate: 3 Maryland State Troopers, 1 weapons engineer, 1 sporting goods dealer, 1 sportsman, 1 ballistics technician, 1 ex-paratrooper, and 3 H. P. White employees.

Five of the six shots hit the third target at 265 feet (81 m), the distance of President Kennedy from the sixth floor window when he was struck in the head.

Lattimer performed ballistic tests and other research to prove that Lee Harvey Oswald was likely the sniper who shot and killed President John F. Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.

Vincent Bugliosi put forward the hypothesis that Oswald aimed the Carcano with the open sights, which reduced the time necessary to take the three shots postulated by the Warren Commission.

He notes that, with the downward slope on Dealey Plaza, President Kennedy's head would have appeared to Oswald to be a stationary target as the vehicle moved down and away at a slow speed.

This would have been further exacerbated by the steep downward angle from the sixth floor of the Depository building to the limo, which would have made the shot go even higher than what Oswald would have been aiming at.

[75] In 2008, the Discovery Channel produced a documentary that played out several different versions of the Kennedy assassination on a dummy that had been specifically designed for ballistics tests, recreating the elevation, wind speed and distance at a California shooting range.

Their forensic analysis, backed by computer models, showed that it was most likely that the shot that killed President Kennedy came from the Texas School Book Depository.

In response, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division of the Internal Revenue Service began an in rem forfeiture proceeding against the rifle and the pistol.

[80] Thereafter, in November 1966, the U.S. Attorney General, acting under the authority provided by Public Law 89-318,[81] published his determination that the various items considered by the Warren Commission, including the weapons which were the subject of the forfeiture proceeding, should be acquired by the United States.

The buyer sued the U.S. government for damages of $5 million for the taking of the weapons, but his claim was rejected by the court, which set the case for trial, and wrote: The demand of plaintiff for $5,000,000 is on its face inequitable — in fact unconscionable — and would appear to be based on some projected market value which could only arise from the fact that these are curiosities which derive their character as such from the assassination and which can be exhibited on a profit basis.