Mr. BALL. Didn’t he ( Oswald ) say that he had seen a rifle at the building ?
Mr. FRITZ. Yes sir; he told me that he had seen a rifle at the building 2 or 3 days before that Mr. Truly and some men were looking at. ( 4 H 214 )

The Warren Commission concluded that two Dallas Sheriff’s Deputies and a Deputy Constable who identified the rifle found on the sixth floor were mistaken in their identification of it as a 7.65 Mauser. Any “misidentifcation” was blamed on Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman who was first to identify it. The Commission said:

“Weitzman did not handle the rifle and did not examine it at close range… thought it was a Mauser … [and eventually] police laboratory technicians subsequently arrived and correctly identified the weapon as a 6.5 Italian rifle.” ( Report 645-646 )

The Commission never considered that more than one rifle had been found in the building. It, as well as its supporters over the decades, have considered the identification of the rifle found on the sixth floor as a Mauser just a simple error.

But other evidence indicates that might not be the case.

A sporterized 30.06 Mauser in the building

Two days before the assassination, an employee in the building, Warren Caster, brought two rifles into the building. Caster was the assistant manger of the Southwest Publishing Company, which had its offices inside the Texas School Book Depsoitory. The rifles he brought into the building were a single shot .22 ( a Christmas gift for his son ) and the other, a 30.06 Mauser that had been sporterized.

Mr. BALL. Did you ever bring any guns into the School Book Depository Building?
Mr. CASTER. Yes; I did.
Mr. BALL. When?
Mr. CASTER. I believe it was on Wednesday, November 20, during the noon hour.
Mr. BALL. Whose guns were they?
Mr. CASTER. They were my guns.
Mr. BALL. And what kind of guns were they?
Mr. CASTER. One gun was a Remington, single-shot, .22 rifle, and the other was a .30-06 sporterized Mauser. ( 7 H 387 )

William Shelley handled the .22 rifle Caster brought into the building that Wednesday and described the 30.06 in testimony:
Mr. BALL. And was there another make of gun too—there was, wasn’t there?
Mr. SHELLEY. Yes; I believe there was a .30-06 Mauser that had been converted. It was a foreign make converted to a .30-06. ( 7 H 390 )

November 22: an imported 30.06 in the window

Assassination witness Arnold Rowland was standing across the street from the TSBD and saw a man in the sixth floor window. He described the rifle he saw in the hands of the man:

Mr. SPECTER – Can you describe the rifle with any more particularity than you already have?
Mr. ROWLAND – No. In proportion to the scope it appeared to me to be a .30-odd size 6, a deer rifle with a fairly large or powerful scope.
Mr. SPECTER – When you say, .30-odd-6, exactly what did you mean by that?
Mr. ROWLAND – That is a rifle that is used quite frequently for deer hunting. It is an import. ( 2 H 170 )

The Argentine rifle

In a June 1964 interview with KSFO in San Francisco, Dallas Police Sgt. Gerald Hill said that he was told by another officer that the rifle found on the sixth floor of the TSBD “was made in Argentina”.

This seems to be corroborated by a network news report identifying a rifle found in the building as an “Argentine-made bolt-action rifle of World War II vintage”.

Where did the news network get the description that it was an Argentine-made rifle ?

So this evidence indicates that a foreign-made rifle converted to a 30.06 was in the building and a rifle found on the sixth floor was made in Argentina. A witness ( Rowland ) who saw a rifle in the hands of the man in the window described it as an imported 30.06 deer rifle.

The Argentine 7.65 Mauser

In those days, one of the most sought after rifles to convert to a 30.06 was the model 91 7.65 Argentine Mauser. The Model 91 was an exceptionally accurate weapon. In this video, the 7.65 Argentine is fired at 250 and 300 feet using the iron sights only and its shots hit the gong 5 times out of 5. You can hear the bullet hit the gong after each shot.

In its sporterized version, it left 10 or 12 inches of barrel beyond the end of the wooden stock.

A sporterized rifle firing at the President was what assassination witness James Worrell described. He was standing in front of the TSBD when the shooting started and at the sound of the first shot he said he looked up and saw “12 inches of a gun barrel sticking out of a window of the building”.

The 12″ barrel he described could not have been belonged to the Mannlicher-Carcano ( CE 139 ), whose barrel only extended a few inches beyond the wooden stock.

In light of all this evidence, we must reconsider the descriptions given by the Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman and Sheriff’s Deputies Eugene Boone and Roger Craig of a rifle found on the sixth floor.

Warren Commission supporters have always relied on two things: 1.) that Seymour Weitzman was mistaken and 2.) that Roger Craig was a liar.

But there is no documentation by any of the deputies who were present when the rifle on the sixth floor was discovered that described it as a Mannlicher-Carcano or being “6.5 cal.” or “Made in Italy”.

Mistaken indentifcation ?

Deputy Boone is credited with finding the rifle, but his report submitted to the sheriff’s department indicates that the rifle he found, “appeared to be a 7.65 Mauser with a telescopic sight”.

Police officers are trained to be precise when describing evidence in their reports. How Boone could be so precise with the time he found the rifle and be so wrong as to the type of rifle is puzzling.
Boone also testified that Capt. Will Fritz identified the rifle as a 7.65 Mauser, a fact that Fritz, in his testimony denied.

Then there is the question if the deputies didn’t inspect the rifle, why did they choose the caliber of 7.65 ? Did they pick it out of thin air ? There were Mausers of different calibers. Why not 7.63 ? Or 7.92 ? Or even the 6.5 that was supposedly on the rifle ? If they were describing the rifle by its action only, why didn’t they just describe it as a Mauser ? Where did the 7.65 come from ?

No, you can’t describe a rifle by its caliber without examining its markings.
Try it some time.

Did Fritz lie about calling it a Mauser ? Was Boone just repeating what he heard Fritz say ?
The Commission never asked. They accepted Fritz’s denial and concluded the deputies were mistaken.

Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman arrived at the time Fritz was examining the rifle. In his sworn affidavit, Weitzman described the rifle found on the sixth floor as a “7.65 Mauser bolt action.”

Because statements made in an affidavit are sworn to be true and made under the penalty of perjury, they are made with the utmost attention to detail and precision. You don’t usually find statements that are “guesses” in a sworn affidavit.

Contrary to the Commission’s conclusion, this was not a case of mistaken indentity. The Commission claimed that Weitzman didn’t get a close view of the rifle.

Then how could he have possibly known from a distance it had a 4/18 scope ?

Because he got close enough to read its markings.

And the proof of that comes from Deputy Roger Craig who told Lincoln Carle that not only did Weitzman identify the rifle as a 7.65 Mauser, he walked over to it and POINTED to the Mauser label on the rifle.

Sounds like Weitzman got close enough to me.

Weitzman suffered over the years for his honesty. He was hounded by the press and even researchers about his “mistake” until he finally gave in and “admitted” he was wrong about the rifle.
But one Deputy did not give in and maintained to his dying day that a rifle found on the sixth floor was a 7.65 Mauser.

That Deputy was Roger Craig.

The adamant Roger Craig

In this 1976 documentary, Two Men in Dallas, Craig describes to Lincoln Carle the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the rifle.

The news outlets took the deputies’ description of the rifle as being a Mauser and ran with it.

The media added to the myth of misidentification by describing the rifle as a Mauser while showing pictures and video of the Mannlicher-Carcano.

In fact, the “corrected” identifcation of the murder weapon as being a Mannlicher-Carcano didn’t hit the airwaves until Saturday evening, after documents had been “found” connecting the Mannlicher-Carcano to “A.Hidell.”

All of a sudden, the second rifle found in the Texas School Book Depository vanished into history and the myth of its misidentification was born.

Corroboration for that comes from an ATF agent named Frank Ellsworth, who helped search the building on November 22nd.

They weren’t the only ones who decribed a Mauser.

Off. Bobby Hargis

Motorcycle Officer Bobby Hargis was quoted by the Dallas Times Herald on 11/22 as saying, ” It looked to me like a Mauser, one they sell surplus for deer rifles.”

A Question of Credibility

For many years now, Warren Commission apologists and many researchers alike have questioned the credibility of the deputies who found the rifle on the sixth floor. Their solution to the credibility issue is simple: in anything Boone and Weitzman saw or heard, they were mistaken. Craig was a liar.

But the real credibility problem may lie with the man who brought the two rifles into the building two days before the motorcade.

The Conflicting Accounts of Warren Caster

On December 5, 1963, Warren Caster was interviewed by the FBI. He told them that the rifle he purchased was an American-made 30.06, that he showed it to Mr. Truly in Truly’s office on the second floor and that he did not show the two rifles to anyone else.

But Truly’s office was on the first floor and Truly testified that they examined the rifle on the counter near the front door on the first floor. ( 7 H 382 ) William Shelley also testified that he picked up and handled the .22 rifle. ( 7 H 390 )

But in his testimony, Caster completely reversed what he told the FBI on December 5th and admitted that Shelley was present when he showed the rifle to Truly and that “there were workers there at the time.” ( 7 H 388 )

Caster also gave conflicting accounts of when exactly the rifles left the building. He told the FBI that he took the rifles and put them in the trunk of his car at “approximately 4:30 pm” on the 20th.

He told the Warren Commission he left for the day “around 4 o’clock”. ( ibid. )

In addition, there’s no witness to support his claim that he removed the rifles from the building when he left for the day.

He told the FBI that his rifle was an American-made rifle manufactured by Kodiak Arms of North Haven Connecticut.
But William Shelley examined the rifle and said it was a “foreign make” converted to a 30.06. ( 7 H 390 )

On March 19, 1964, Caster provided the FBI with an alibi for the first time, which it never looked into, that he was having lunch with Professor Vernon V. Payne at North Texas State University in Denton when the President was assassinated.

Professor Payne was head of the Business School at NTSU and one wonders if his wife happened to be another “Mrs. Payne” who owned a station wagon.
North Texas State University was a hotbed of right-wing extremism and its political groups were aligned with General Walker and his anti-Kennedy stand.

A hot potato

The Warren Commission did everything it could to avoid the issue of rifles in the building until May 14, 1964, when it deposed Warren Caster.

And when they finally deposed him, they did so with the utmost dispatch. His testimony covered a whole two pages. Just two pages for a man who brought two rifles into the Texas School Book Depository two days before the assassination.

The FBI never obtained his weapon for identification or test-fired it, if for no other reason than to eliminate it as a possible murder weapon.

In comparison, they published over 18 pages of testimony from William Crowe, the emcee of Jack Ruby’s club who had no information on the assassination of the President.

An upper floor encounter

In his original affidavit, Dallas Officer Marrion Baker said that in their climb up rear stairwell, he and Roy Truly encountered a man on “the third or fourth floor” who was “walking away from the stairway” and who Truly vouched for. This man, Baker said was wearing “a light brown jacket”.

This was NOT the second floor Oswald-in-the-lunchroom-vestibule encounter. This was a second, separate encounter with a man who was coming down the rear stairwell, heard the commotion on the second floor and tried to duck out on the floor he was on.
That’s why Baker saw him walking away from the stairway.

Who was this man ? Was it Truly’s pal Warren Caster ? Is that who Truly vouched for ?
Only Truly would know and he was never asked.

The FBI fails — again

Caster’s conflicting accounts should have been a red flag for the FBI to look further into him. They should have examined his rifle to see if it had a scope and the sales records of its purchase. They should have:

Checked his alibi.
Looked at the cars Professor Payne owned.

Examined his rifle to see if it had been fired. Dusted it for prints. Showed it to the Deputies. Showed it to the witnesses.

Included his picture in a picture lineup and shown that lineup to witnesses who claimed to have seen the man with the rifle on the sixth floor, if for no other reason, than to eliminate him as a suspect.

The FBI’s interviews of 72 witnesses who worked in the building centered on their having seen a stranger in the building on the day of the assassination. But not one was asked if they had seen Warren Caster in the building on that day.

They should have looked into both Caster and Prof. Payne to ascertain if they had any connection to the anti-Castro Cubans or the Young Republican Club at NTSU that was planning to “rub Kennedy’s dick in the ground” when he came to Dallas. ( 17 H 539 )

An Attempt in Dallas From a Book Building

This would have been imperative due to the claim of Elizabeth Cole, who attended a Foreign Students Convention at Rutgers University during the first week of November, 1963, when she overheard a Cuban student telling another of the upcoming assassination of President Kennedy.

According to Cole, ” the City of Dallas and a book company therein were the assassination attempt would be made. Miss Cole stated that at the time she understood the book company to which the student referred to, be a book publishing company.

Seeing that Caster brought two rifles into the building two days before the assassination, that witnesses described a rifle similar to the one he owned as firing at the President and that his alibi was a college that seethed with right-wing hatred for Kennedy, Caster should have warranted a closer examination.

The fact that Cubans were discussing an attempt on Kennedy two weeks prior to the assassination involving a book publishing company in Dallas and Caster’s employment by the Southwest Publishing Company should have caused the FBI to leave no stone unturned.

Caster should have been pressured to prove everything he said. Everything.
That’s what they should have and would have done in a normal criminal investigation.
Instead they just took his word and let it die.

That was because this was not a normal homicide investigation.
This was an investigation to gather evidence against one suspect, Oswald.

Any evidence to the contrary was ignored, suppressed or simply vanished into thin air.
Just like the Mauser did.