(Testimony of Mark Resumed In Open Session Lane)
Mr. Lane.
This is allegedly a picture taken in the Dallas Police Station, showing the alleged murder weapon.
The Chairman.
That is No. 339, Mr. Lane?
Mr. Lane.
Yes, sir, and I would call the Commission's attention to the curved line of the stock present in Exhibit 339, and obviously absent from every other picture, indicating that in no event is the rifle allegedly in the hands of Lee Oswald, in Exhibits 334 through 338 comparable to the alleged murder weapon as shown in the Dallas police station.
And should the Commission decide to investigate the obviously doctored pictures that have been circulated so widely in our country, I would refer the Commission investigators to the Times Picayune of New Orleans, published on November 24, 1963, in which an Associated Press story indicated that the Dallas police chief, Jesse Curry, stated that he had in his possession photographs found in the home of Lee Harvey Oswald's Russian-born wife which linked Oswald with the rifle used in the assassination of President Kennedy. Curry said in the article attributed to Curry--
Mr. Rankin.
Do you wish to make that a part of the record?
Mr. Lane.
Yes.
Mr. Rankin.
That will be Exhibit 340.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 340 for identification.)
Mr. Lane.
The article attributes a statement to Curry indicating that he, the Dallas Police Chief, found the pictures in the suburban Irving, Tex., home in which Marina Oswald lived, and stated that Mr. Curry had said that the pictures will be used in evidence in Oswald's murder trial. This was published, I assume, prior to the time that Oswald was himself killed on that day.
Representative Ford.
Would the date of the paper be on the back side?
The Chairman.
It is on the front. November 24th.
Mr. Lane.
I would like to offer this as an exhibit.
Mr. Rankin.
This is marked Commission Exhibit 341.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 341, for identification.)
Mr. Lane.
Exhibit 341 is a page or portion of a page of the New York Times, on Sunday, December 8, with a picture of the alleged murder weapon, secured, according to the credit line under the picture, from the United Press International, indicating clearly that that rifle is not the rifle allegedly being held by Mr. Oswald in any of the pictures so widely circulated throughout our country.
Mr. Rankin.
On what do you base that last conclusion, Mr. Lane? Would you point out to the Commission the differences as you see them?
Mr. Lane.
Yes; the reference of the stock. The stock has a clearly curved and bent line in this picture.
Mr. Rankin.
That is in Exhibit 341?
Mr. Lane.
Yes, and it is present in none of the pictures of Oswald holding the rifle; 336, for example, in Newsweek magazine shows almost a straight stock. Some of them show even an absolutely straight stock.
Exhibit 335 from the New York Times shows a perfectly straight stock--which is not only a stock unlike this particular Italian 6.5 millimeter carbine, but is a stock I believe unlike any rifle stock produced during the 20th century, and possibly the 19th century, anywhere. Rifle experts seem to agree that every stock must have in it some break, so that it is possible to place your hand around the rifle while your finger holds the trigger. And there is no break in the doctored photographs, in the stock portrayed on the doctored photographs.
I have checked many rifle catalogs. This is not my field, and I don't qualify as an expert. But I have checked many rifle catalogs, and have only seen rifles with a break where the stock becomes narrow enough for one's hand to grasp it while pulling the trigger.
Mr. Rankin.
Is that the basis of your opinion that you have just given, that it doesn't have a break in it, and that other rifles for any period later than you have described do?
Mr. Lane.
Well, several persons who have described themselves as rifle exports have made that statement to me.
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