Reply #33: I have been away but glad to be back.

[CTKA-Probe]

Now, in an older post I made the point about the silliness of getting caught up in this debate.

Either there was a Mauser or there was not one.

It makes no big difference to the case either way. So why get a hard on for it?

Evidence indicates there could have well have been one. But hell as I have said if by some small chance there was not a Mauser I am hardly going to weep into my beer. The Dallas policed proved so inept that day in and around the crime scene the question of the Mauser is almost a sideshow because of their dopey mishandling of it. It's conveniently forgotten by non Mauser advocates that their Keystone Cop like antics around the issue seriously affects the credibility of anything else pertaining to be Oswald's they encountered.

Thus trying (unsuccessfully) to stitch Mark Lane on the issue using Bugliosi detracts from numerous points.

So let's have a look at Monty Lutz first up.

MONTY LUTZ:

So what he gave a pretty picture show about similar looking European rifles. That neither proves nor disproves the argument nor does it take away from the rather stark facts that the cops utterly screwed up the identity of the murder weapon if not a Mauser.

Furthermore according to Mike Griffiths, during the 1986 mock Oswald trial sponsored by a British television company (yes the very trial that Bugliosi himself questioned Lutz) that to his (Lutz) knowledge no one had ever duplicated Oswald's alleged shooting feat. Now the problem is here that to my knowledge no one has ever replicated Dealey Plaza precisely as it was that day in terms of shooting at moving targets, wind and so on. And if you really think Gary Mack and others have given it a fair shake well you’re not going to like these links.

Reviews of Macks 'Inside the Target Car'.

http://www.ctka.net/2009/target_car_jd.html

Here's a review of other previous attempts by John Kelin.

http://www.ctka.net/2009/pigs.html

Happy reading.

WEITZMAN THE INTERNATIONAL MAUSER POET:

Mauser's were indeed made in many different countries. So what?

"It was strictly a mistaken identity which anybody could make. If you know anything about guns, a Mauser is a Mauser. What make it is, what country it was made in, can easily be misidentified because mostly your Mauser mechanism looks very similar."

Note within the sentence thus far he is talking about Mausers. Not Carcano's. But MAUSERS being hard to differentiate from which country they come from.

The next line is hilarious remember this guy was considered something of an arms specialist.

"Weitzman went on to say that the Carcano "was a Mauser-action rifle" and really was "an Italian Mauser."

Guns of this type are not called 'Mauser Action' weapons they are called 'Bolt-Action'. Lol, I mean we have Roger Craig saying it was a German Mauser, someone saying its Argentinean (I'll reveal who in a little bit) and now we have a cop calling it Italian. Of course he maybe trying to say that the Carcano is the equivalent of the Mauser but that's BS. The 7.65 Mauser is widely regarded by gun enthusiasts around the world as one of the best and most accurate rifles ever made. The Carcano though not quite as bad as it’s been hyped is not a patch on a Mauser nor its rival in any department just ask any Military Historian. You may note that the Mannlicher Carcano is nowhere near considered to be in the Top Ten and this is a show from the infamous Discovery Channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HdZ6WLrEnA&NR=1

I've gotta say so what the cops had all changed their tune by around 67. After seeing what happened to Craig wouldn't you wanna shut up? Oh yes for sure you will go after Craig. But regardless he was clearly there in the Depository and a photograph shows Craig in the vicinity of Fritz's homicide office. But as we shall see Will 'Barney Fife' Fritz has a starring role in the 'Magical Mauser' caper that any character assassination attempt on Craig will not shield this time round.

WERE THE DPD REALLY THAT STOOPID?:

It wasn't just a brief look or a quick glance that the DPD had. So you can dispose of that myth after reading this.

Richard Bartholomew "Telling Truth From Disinformation" writes.

"First, at days end, 12 full hours into the investigation, the Carcano was still being officially identified to the press as a Mauser at a press conference by Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade, who swore he got his information only from the police. All day long, when asked by the press, "...the police reported....a Mauser 7.65 rather than a Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5..." (Warren Report, p. 235). The weapon was not correctly identified to the public until 24 hours after the assassination when Police Chief Jesse Curry angered Wade and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover by publicizing the FBI's lab report giving the gun's correct identity. Wade and Hoover evidently preferred that the public know only the official, false, Mauser identification (see Graf/Bartholomew article).

Second, Mausers are not clip fed. No competent police identification expert in the world could honestly mistake a clip-fed rifle for a non-clip-fed rifle for 24 hours. And at the time of the assassination, 50-year-old Lieutenant John Carl Day, a 23-year police veteran, had been head of the Dallas identification bureau for seven years. The implications of these facts are thoroughly analyzed by Mr. Graf and me in our article on the gun. You be the judge of whose thinking is more prosaic, ours or Camper's."

The full work of 'The Gun That Didn't Smoke' by Graf and Bartholomew can be seen here.

http://www.assassinationresearch.com/v1n2/gtds.html

As can this Gem in which the supposedly incorrect Lane puts another nail in the "We only had a quick glance category'

"Posner ignores the earlier Enfield .303 identification altogether. He dismisses the Mauser identification by saying, "Firearms experts say they are easy to confuse without a proper exam (HSCA Vol. I, pp. 446-47; HSCA Vol. VII, p. 372.)" Posner gives no explanation for why, after a proper exam was made early that Friday afternoon by Lieutenant Day, the Mauser description continued uncorrected by the Dallas Police Department both internally to Police Chief Curry and public relations officer Captain Glen D. King, and externally to District Attorney Henry Wade and the press. He then ridicules Mark Lane for "trying to portray a simple mistake as evidence of conspiracy (Rush to Judgment, pp. 95-101)."

A simple mistake is it? Posner came a cropper on this and so has Bugliosi. Misidentification's of murder weapons in particularly by law enforcement officials are usually enough to acquit any suspect charged/or give powerful ammunition to the defence (pun wholly intended).

The rest of the above article is at this link.

http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/19th_Issue/camper.html

So let’s continue with the 3rd rate DPD angle (that unless I am horribly mistaken would have been pumped by any attorney).

Matthew Smith, JFK: The Second Plot.

"Those concerned with the finding of the rifle at the Book Depository and who had written affidavits, Boone and Weitzman, were pressed, under questioning by the Commission, to review their identification of it. The Mannlicher-Carcano, at first glance, looked very much like 7.65 Mauser, it is true. How would they account, though, for a situation in which they had been close enough to describe the colour of the sling and yet had made an error in identifying the rifle itself? After all, the Mannlicher-Carcano bears the legend 'Made in Italy' on the butt, whereas the German gun has the name 'Mauser' stamped on the barrel! Were these officers unable to read? In spite of any argument which might be brought to bear, they both, nonetheless, changed their testimony and conceded they had made a mistake."

This can be seen here. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKweitzman.htm

Now, blindness and illiteracy were certainly not a requisite to be in the police force the last time I looked. But hey this is the DPD circa 1963.

ADMITTING THE USE OF VIDEOTAPE TO INCRIMINATE OSWALD AND THE CARCANO. IS THAT REALLY A GOOD IDEA?

"A defence attorney would have been a fool to use this argument in a trial of LHO. The prosecuting attorneys would have admitted the videotape of the discovery of the rifle into evidence, along with the testimony of the people being cited by the defence stating they simply made a mistake by calling it a Mauser. Grasping at straws is not in the best interest of a defence attorney."

Okay firstly there were no video tapes back in the 1963 it was film reel. Thus you have some technical issues you may want to re-configure.

In the Alyea footage seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WQr4y1j4Gw we can clearly see two rifles in the link. Now for sure, I can understand that some cops had rifles on them in the depository but from what I have seen there’s no testimony what so ever about police officers dropping weapons searching for evidence in the area and what kind of cop would ever put (more like dump) a rifle (barrel side down) on the floor, and then leave it in full view of the 'supposedly discovered' murder weapon. Bright idea that one. Not only are you contaminating and confusing the crime scene but you've been caught doing it on film. Either that or there is another weapon that had been planted there. A Mauser maybe?

Thus I do not think that the prosecution would wanna use any evidence taken that day in the depository. Why? Well because as you will soon see with Alyea (the fellow who filmed the comings and goings) he states that the cops literally recreated the snipers perch for the cameras and covered up Fritzes amateurish handling of the shell casings and the rifle. Fritz according to Boone's testimony also considered the rifle a Mauser (Boone WC Vol III, Pg 295).

Thus you can read Alyeas comments here and then get a hint of how Reitzes and Myers react to stuff they disagree with.

http://www.jfk-online.com/alyea.html

As we can clearly see Reitzes is not satisfied with his results in getting Alyea to refute his comments and he then gets Dale Myers to try and discredit him by using one of Alyeas original statements. But this only succeeds in linking Alyea more closely to the 'Mauser' leak.

"The gun was found across the length of the room from where he fired. It was stashed between boxes. I had difficulty in filming. They did not want me close to the window or to the gun. I asked permission to go to the window to film. A Secret Service man said, 'You are close enough.' I asked the Secret Service man to take pictures of the stashed gun. I set the camera but he wiggled the camera. I got a picture of them taking the gun from the hiding place and dusting it for fingerprints. After this the Crime Lab man, Captain Will Fritz - and I have footage of this - pulled the bolt back and a live round came out. They dusted the gun for fingerprints. This was my third camera. They wouldn't let me out of the building and they wouldn't let anyone else in. I never saw my film on the air because I had to get the film to someone outside. This was the first film from there. We had Mal Couch's film of the crowd but not of the President being hit. There's a story for you. I actually handed it out through the door but it had been publicized over the air and established everywhere that I had thrown it out of the building through a window. I hesitate to tell you the real story. I started to throw it out of the building but being so close and knowing that we had the other film, I wanted our station to be the first to show a film of the assassination. A A.J. L'Hoste was under the window. I yelled out to him. In actuality I tossed the film out the front door to Ron Reiland who had gotten back from covering the apprehension of Oswald at the Texas Theatre. This was another ABC exclusive. There were 2 policemen at the Depository door. They were not sure that I should get things outside. Ron was outside and I was inside. One of the policemen there called a Lieutenant and while they were calling him, I threw the film out....."

Reiland is a rather fascinating case. Jim DiEugenio in his review of 'JFK the Lost Tapes' commented on footage of WFAA cameraman Ron Reiland being interviewed.

"Reiland tells the audience that the weapon discovered at the Depository was an Argentine Mauser."

Now admittedly Alyea has not said much here about the weapon type but the word from the Cops may well have been picked up by Alyea and then passed onto Reiland a little later. So good one Dale! The prosecution are gonna love you for this. You've probably named the first police/press leak of the afternoon. The problem for Dale 'Selective Amnesia' Myers is that he hates to admit fault with his beloved DPD. Even the Warren Commission Report in Chapter V entitled 'Detention and Death of Oswald' couldn't ignore the problems and expressed great concern (44 pages of it to be precise) about the two bodies violations of Oswald's civil liberties (WCR pgs 196-240).

Thus let us now take a good look at Lieutenant Day and the media and then have another look at how it likely came out to the press (which is after all where most of the hype surrounding it has come from). This is once again from Graff and Bartholomew who quote directly from George Michael Evica.

"Lieutenant Day was credited by the Warren Commission with identifying the rifle in his possession as an Italian 6.5 mm. weapon. The Commission, however, supplied neither evidence nor documentation for its statement. Those references it did give to `document' the alleged Day identification were irrelevant to the Commission's assertion. And Day himself seemed to deny the Commission's statement: `I didn't describe the rifle to anyone other than police officers.' One of those `police officers' seems to have been public relations officer Captain Glen D. King, but if Day did describe the weapon he examined to King, and King (doing his job) passed that description on to the working press the afternoon and evening of the 22nd, either Day described the rifle as a 7.65 Mauser, or King thought Day described it as such, since that description prevailed." (Evica, A Certain Arrogance. Pg 24)

Conclusion: Barney 'Fritz' Fife and his pals actions both documented and filmed (not videoed) render the Mauser issue redundant. It could have been a popgun and these guys wouldn't have been able to identify it. So there goes that angle and there goes any reliability and credibility the DPD had in the case. Thus what of the Mauser itself? Well some of you out there reading this have a strong argument in suspecting that they played dumb on it too save their asses. But in doing so helped destroy their case.

Those really are some rosey options for the prosecution to contend with don't you think?

Like I have said I don't really care. Either way the DPD are screwed on the issue, and I didn't even bother mentioning the rumour of the British 303 in any great depth. This conversation bores me completely and utterly.

But I'll let you read Jim Di's demolition of Vince Bugliosi in 1-9 parts (10th coming soon) and then you can tell me how good and credible the prosecutions case would have been. This little piece for those of you new to the demolition of Bugliosi is just the beginning.

http://www.ctka.net/2008/bugliosi_review.html