(Testimony of Robert A. Frazier Resumed)
Mr. Frazier.
No, sir; The Western Cartridge Co. has always manufactured, in my experience, very dependable ammunition. There is other ammunition on the market available for this particular rifle in this caliber, which in my opinion is undependable or would be a very poor quality of ammunition. It may have been a confusion between that other ammunition of the same caliber and this Western ammunition.
Mr. Eisenberg.
Can you elaborate as to what that other ammunition consists of?
Mr. Frazier.
Certain companies have imported into the United States cartridges of foreign manufacture. Those I have seen for this rifle were of Italian manufacture. They have pulled the military bullets from those cartridges and reloading hunting type or soft-point bullets into the cartridges. In doing that, they did not, apparently, take any great pains in loading them. Occasionally, the mouth of the case would be bent over and the bullet driven in right on top of the bent case.
I have seen split cartridge cases, even before they were fired, badly corroded cartridge cases. All in all, the ammunition is of generally poor overall appearance, and it has been reported to me that it was of poor firing quality.
I have not fired any of it, personally.
Mr. Eisenberg.
Have you heard anything about the dependability of the Italian-made ammunition, unreloaded?
Mr. Frazier.
No, sir; not as such.
However, I have experienced the examination of Italian ammunition of various years of manufacture and, of course, various makes. And I think it is rather poor quality in this particular caliber, primarily due to the very short seating depth to which bullets of this type are seated in the cartridge, which causes the bullets to loosen very readily in the cartridge case even before they are loaded into a clip or fired.
Mr. Eisenberg.
Did you notice, Mr. Frazier, in your examination of targets and so forth, whether there was any marked degree of yaw or tumbling by the bullets?
Mr. Frazier.
No evidence at all of tumbling or yaw.
Mr. Eisenberg.
In your opinion, would the firing of 60 shots materially affect the microscopic characteristics of Exhibit 139?
Mr. Frazier.
It would change them, if not completely, practically completely.
Mr. Eisenberg.
Mr. Frazier, some witnesses to the assassination have stated that they heard more than three shots. Can you think of any reason why they might have come to that conclusion--in terms of acoustical properties of high-velocity bullets?
Mr. Frazier.
They could very readily have heard other sounds which could be confused with shots. It is apparent--it is obvious with any weapon in which the bullet travels faster than the speed of sound, which is 1,127, approximately, feet per second, the bullet itself will cause a shock wave or a sound wave, and a person standing in front of that weapon will hear the report of the bullet passing and then subsequently the sound will reach them of the cartridge explosion, which could very easily be confused with two shots. There will be the crack of the bullet going by, overhead or in the vicinity, and then the sound of the shot.
So that you would hear for three shots actually six reports, which could have caused some confusion.
Mr. Eisenberg.
Mr. Frazier, I now hand you a bullet in a pill box which is marked Q-188. I ask you whether you are familiar with this bullet.
I would like to state for the record that this bullet was found in the Walker residence after the attempted assassination of General Walker.
Mr. Mccloy.
As far as you know, we have no proof of that yet?
Mr. Eisenberg.
That is right.
Mr. Frazier.
Yes, I am familiar with it. I have made an examination of that bullet.
With reference to this bullet, I could furnish everything except the weight of it.
|
