The record shows that the money order for the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was bought at a Dallas post office on Tuesday, March 12. It was purchased early in the morning, yet Oswald's time sheet shows that he had clocked in by 8:00 A.M. that day. The post office did not open until eight o'clock. Anthony Summers, Conspiracy, Paragon, 1989, page 213.
2) No one other than LHO was authorized to receive mail at the PO Box. Alex Hidell was NOT authorized to receive mail there.
FBI report of June 3, 1964: Our investigation has revealed that Oswald did not indicate on his application that others, including an "A. Hidell," would receive mail through the box in question, which was Post Office Box 2915 in Dallas. This box was obtained by Oswald on October 9, 1962, and relinquished by him on May 14, 1963. (CE 2585, Question 12) Sylvia Meagher, Accessories After the Fact, Vintage/Random,, 1967/1976, page 49.
3) The gun was ordered by Alex Hidell.
Order blank purchasing the rifle under the name of "Hidell". Harold Weisberg, Whitewash, Weisberg, 1965, page 29.
4) No one at the PO box could recall Oswald picking up ANY large package at the PO.
No postal worker has ever recalled giving Oswald any such package. Summers, page 551.
5) No one at the PO Box could recall Oswald picking up a rifle mailed to the box.
There is no proof that the rifle addressed to Hidell was handed over to Lee Harvey Oswald by the postal authorities. Meagher, page 50.
6) CONTRARY TO YOUR EARLIER CLAIM, no ammunition was ordered with the rifle from Kleins. WHERE did LHO/Hidell get the MC ammo? It was VERY unusual according to gunsmiths, not readily available.
When the Warren Report appeared, it presented no evidence that Oswald had purchased ammunition for this rifle. Meagher, page 112.
7) The ammo would have been over twenty years old and was poor to begin with according to experts.
Letter from H.J. Gebelein, Assistant Sales Service Manager, WINCHESTER-WESTERN Division, July 14, 1965: Concerning your inquiry on the 6.5 millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano cartridge, this is not being produced commercially by our company at this time. Any previous production on this cartridge was made against Government contracts which were completed back in 1944. Therefore, any of this ammunition whic is on the market today is Government surplus ammunition. Mark Lane, Rush to Judgment, Dell, 1966/1975, page 411.
8) Hidell ordered a 36" long gun. The MC found at the TBD was 40" long. NOT THE SAME GUN.
The actual advertisement offers a 36-inch Carcano rifle weighing 5-1/2 lbs., with catalogue number C20-T750. The rifle ordered by "Hidell" does not correspond with the longer [40.2-inch], heavier rifle found in the Book Depository. Meagher, page 48 footnote.
9) A gunsmith at the Aberdeen Proving Ground examined the MC and reported that the sight had been aligned as if for a left-handed person. Oswald was right handed.
From Aberdeen Proving Ground on April 6, 1964, to counsel for the Commission: There were three pieces in the scope examined by the BRL gunsmith. Two pieces were .015 inches thick, so placed as to elevate the scope with respect to the gun. One piece was .020 inches thick so placed as to point the scope leftward with respect to the gun. The gunsmith observed that the scope as we received it was installed as if for a left-handed man. (CE 2560) Meagher, page 106. Marina Oswald on December 3, 1963. . .told the FBI that Oswald was right-handed. (CE 1401, p. 297). Robert Oswald. . .when he appeared before the Commission on February 20, 1964, . .asserted categorically that Oswald had been right handed (1H 293-294) Meagher, ibid.
10) Sharpshooters for the MC test found the bolt so difficult to operate that it skewed their aim. They also found it to have an odd trigger pull.
"The pressure to open the bolt was so great that we tended to move the rifle off the target." Summers, page 46. There was also comment made about the trigger pull, which is different as far as these firers are concerned. It is in effect a two-stage operation. . .in the first stage the trigger is relatively free, and it suddenly required a greater pull to actually fire the weapon. [Army expert Ronald Simmons to Warren Commission March 31, 1964 (3H 447)] Meagher, page 101.
11) The sight was so unrelated to the rifle's line of fire, and so inexpertly attached , that IT COULD NOT EVEN BE ADJUSTED.
Letter from Hoover to Commission [XXVI, 104]: It is to be noted that at the time of firing these tests, the telescopic sight could not be properly aligned with the target since the sight reached the limit of its adjustment before reaching accurate alignment. Lane, page 123.
12) Witnesses described two shots coming almost simultaneously or even from an automatic weapon. This was impossible with the old hunk of junk purchased through Kleins. The rifle found had a worn and rusty firing pin.
The gap between shots 1 and 2. . .was extraordinarily short. It was, to be precise, a mere 1.66 seconds. Back in 1964, tests conducted by the FBI had shown that the rifle found in the Depository could not be aimed and fired in so short a time. Summers, page 46.
13) Experts were initially reluctant to even test fire this weapon because it had a nasty habit of blowing the firing pin out into the face of the shooter. They also had trouble opening the bolt.
Jack O'connor, after writing in The Rifle Book that the Mannlicher-Carcano action is "terrible", adds that the weapon has "a coy habit of blowing the firing pin out in the shooter's face". [WCR, 193] Lane, page 123.
14) There were no fibers from the clothes Oswald wore to work on the rifle. Fibers from the shirt Oswald was wearing when arrested WERE found on the rifle indicating the frame-up was in full sway as evidence was tampered with and created by rubbing the shirt he was wearing on the gun. But it was the WRONG SHIRT.
There is a special point to make about the fibers found on the rifle butt, which the FBI felt "could have come" from the shirt Oswald was wearing when arrested. Oswald himself remarked while in custody, and long before the forensic import of the shirt was known, that he had changed his shirt at his roominghouse after the assassination. If that was true, then the fibers tend to link Oswald to the rifle through a shirt he was not wearing at the time of the murder. Summers, pages 69-70.
15) This gun was part of a shipment of DEFECTIVE weapons available in lots of 25 for $3.00 each. Compare to Savage 99F at $121.50, Browning Mauser .30-06 $164.50, Winchester 70.300 caliber $134.95. This gun was TOTAL JUNK.
In his testimony when Sebastian Latona--one of the FBI experts on whom the Warren Commission relied--described the murder rifle as a "cheap old weapon" (4H 29), Commissioner Boggs seemed taken aback. "A what?" asked Boggs. "A cheap old weapon," replied Latona. The Commissioners should have been forewarned by other reports in its possession. Among these was an FBI report stating that the rifle in question was part of a shipment of rifles that was the subject of "a legal proceeding by the Carlo Riva Machine Shop to collect payment for the shipment of the rifles which Adam Consolidated Industries, Inc., claims were defective." (CE 1977) John Brinegar, owner of The Gun Sop in Dallas, told the FBI in March 1964 that the Carcano was "a very cheap rifle and could have been purchased for $3.00 each in lots of 25." (CE 2694, p. 11) Meagher, page 101.