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JFK First Day Evidence: Stored Away for 30 Years in an Old Briefcase, New Evidence Is Now Revealed by Former Dallas Police Crime Lab Detective R.W.

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Gary Savage has added new fuel to the fire with this publication. In addition to the great photos, many previously unseen, the folks who "hit the ground running" on 11/22/63 add new insight into the type of character Lee Harvey Oswald was. I particularly enjoyed some of the "in passing" things that were said about Oswald (i.e., hair pulling, flippant attitude, etc.) after his arrest and have since added them to my own Oswald file for future reference. It appears that the DPD did have enough physical evidence to secure a conviction, but I'm sure the conspiracy theorists will beg to differ. All in all, JFK FIRST DAY EVIDENCE is an excellent reference and sort of vindicates the work of the DPD, even though their work became tarnished when they threw Oswald to the wolves that Sunday morning.

Great book as previous reviewers have stated. I particularly liked the suppressed LHO belongings photo that included a Minox spy camera. The after market prices seem very high. I just purchased mine (autographed) from the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas for the list price of $25. They had at least 20 copies as of 9 Nov 2008.

Evidence gathered within hours or shortly after a crime is committed is the most reliable. Physical evidence, eyewitness statements, and the recollections of investigating police all go toward the overall "brief of evidence" which determines whether a matter is to go to Court or if further investigation is required. Gary Savage shows us this "First Day Evidence" - not tainted by time, memory loss or fabrication. The evidence from the Book Depository as it was collected on 22 November 1963 is presented in a clear, concise and chronological way. Along with many photographs not previously published and taken by Dallas Police as a result of their evidence gathering, this is an excellent book that dispels the myths that have been perpetuated over the past 3 decades, and shows that had Oswald not been shot by Jack Ruby - that the Dallas police had more than enough evidence to have Oswald convicted "beyond a reasonable doubt" in any trial that would have been forthcoming.

In the decades since November 22, 1963, the conspiracy
theorists have succeeded in convincing a large majority of the American people that the conclusions of the Warren Commission were incorrect, i.e. either Oswald didn't do it, or there was some major conspiracy, possibly involving other gunmen. However, there have been those, such as authors Norman Mailer and Gus Russo who started out as believers in the conspiracy, but being open minded, decided to took at the hard evidence again. This led them, and many others, to finally realize that Oswald was the lone gunman and probably acted on his own initiative. Oswald's brother, Robert, also accepts the hard evidence as proving that Lee Oswald was guilty.
For those who want to take a fresh look at the hard evidence, this book is a good place to start. This is the evidence that the Dallas Police Department collected ON THE FIRST DAY, at the scene of the JFK and Tippit murders. This evidence goes beyond what the Warren Commission saw and strengthens its case. The 1993 PBS television show "Frontline-Who was Lee Harvey Oswald" interviewed the authors and then presented photographs of the rifle to fingerprint analyst Vincent Scalice. He concluded beyond a shadow of a doubt that the fingerprints on the rifle handle were indeed those of Oswald. Before this time, palm prints had been lifted from the rifle, but the prints remained behind in Dallas while the rifle was sent to Washington, leading some to claim that a clear chain of evidence had been broken.
This is only one sample of the multitude of evidence presented against Oswald.
I strongly recommend this book for those who want a good grounding in the hard facts of this case in which to scrutinize the claims of those who are purveying the conspiracy theories fantasies.

"JFK First Day Evidence", a 1993 publication by Gary Savage, reveals the fact that more than enough evidence existed against Lee Harvey Oswald to convict him in a court of law for the two first-degree murders he was charged with in 1963.

And the utterly far-fetched notion that a band of clever "We'll-never-get-caught-no-matter-how-stupid-this-plot-sounds" conspirators (numbering God-knows how many in total number of plotters) could have somehow faked and/or manipulated ALL of this wealth of "Oswald-Did-This-Alone" evidence is just too silly to be given serious consideration.

For, if ALL of the "First Day Evidence" against Oswald was miraculously fabricated by evil conspirators (without a single non-plotter noticing a thing or spilling any beans), then those people who plotted JFK's assassination MUST have surely taken a lesson or two from the late Harry Houdini (or some other magnificently-talented magician or escape artist). Because any such contrived "plot" that has every single piece of credible evidence leading investigators (falsely!) straight to the conspirators' one and only innocent "Patsy" must certainly be labelled as "The Most Incredible Conspiracy Plot Ever Conceived".

But, naturally, many "CTers" (Conspiracy Theorists) seem to hold the exact opposite opinion regarding a goodly amount of the first-day evidence which proves, beyond any doubt, that Oswald was guilty. A large percentage of conspiracy believers feel, instead, that much of the first-day evidence proves that Oswald was completely innocent of shooting and killing both President John F. Kennedy and Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit on November 22nd, 1963. When, in fact, the first-day evidence does no such exonerating of a double-murderer named Oswald in the slightest manner.

CTers have the tendency of blowing up every tiny little mistake and erroneous piece of information (which have all been thoroughly explained in non-conspiratorial ways) to monumentally-important proportions in their quest to prove that some sort of conspiracy existed surrounding the deaths of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit.

The Tippit killing, of course, is a murder that was so obviously committed by only Oswald that it's probably not a stretch of credibility to say that well over half of the evidence against him in the Tippit slaying could be tossed aside, and there would still be ample evidence remaining with which to arrive at a guilty verdict (had Oswald lived longer than two days following the murder in order to stand trial). But CTers still feel there's a need to make Oswald innocent of that murder too. Disgraceful.

Let's have a logical look at some of the "First Day Evidence" that CTers like to bring up continuously as "proof of conspiracy".........

THE TIPPIT MURDER MIX-UPS:

The controversy re. the "Revolver vs. an Automatic" weapon was fully explained by the DPD's Gerald Hill. Since all of the shells/(casings) were found in a small, confined area, Hill (and other police officers) had initially jumped to the incorrect conclusion that Tippit's killer was carrying an automatic weapon (which expels its cartridges automatically).

But Oswald had to physically open his gun's chamber and had to physically remove the shells himself in order to re-load (which he was seen doing by multiple witnesses at the corner of 10th Street and Patton Avenue, which is where all four shells were found, including one that was first picked up by one of the Davis women and taken inside her residence and then later recovered by police).

The fact that Oswald was described as "shaking" the gun in order to extract the shells also is a nifty little key piece of testimony -- due to the fact that spent shells in Oswald's particular .38 revolver had a tendency to stick, and therefore extra physical effort (i.e. shaking) of the gun was required to remove the empty shells. Again, perfectly matching what both Davis women testified to later.

Also -- Re. the "mixed" variety of shell casings that were recovered at 10th Street:

Four bullet shells were recovered and four bullets were taken out of J.D. Tippit's body -- but it wasn't a perfect "match" of Remington-Peters shells/bullets to Winchester-Western shells/bullets.

CTers feel this is concrete proof that Oswald's gun was not the gun used to kill Tippit (or at least they'll say not the ONLY gun used).

And seeing as how the majority of CTers seem to feel that a "Frame The Patsy Named Oswald" conspiracy plot was in place prior to November 22nd, here's a question that I doubt any CTer can answer in a believable manner re. the pre-11/22 actions of these amazing "Patsy Planners" -- i.e.: WHY on Earth would they (those who were seeing to every little detail of Oswald's "Patsy-ism" and "framing") make a ridiculous error like that?

In other words, WHY in the world wouldn't the "Dream Team Of Patsy Plotters" have seen to it that there was an exact MATCH of shells found on the ground to align properly with the bullets taken from Tippit?

These guys are smart enough to actually get such a PERFECT-looking Oswald "imposter" (so as to fool over a dozen witnesses at the scene), and they're smart enough to actually have stolen (evidently) some spent bullet shells from Oswald's own gun prior to 11/22/63, and they're smart enough to have Oswald acting like a very guilty man in the EXACT area of the Tippit crime ---

And yet they're stupid enough to pull a mismatch boner with the bullets and shell cartridges?

Anybody buyin' this bill of pro-CT goods? I'm certainly not purchasing it.

A much more logical scenario has Oswald firing a fifth shot which missed Tippit (a shot which earwitness Ted Callaway always claims he heard from his car lot nearby, having never once wavered in this "5th-Shot" belief). This 5th bullet was never recovered, although there is some evidence that a 5th bullet shell WAS recovered by Barbara Davis' father-in-law (with Mr. Davis keeping the shell as a "keepsake").

It's advisable, however, to take that father-in-law story with a grain of salt, because it's never been confirmed, and said shell was "misplaced" after Mr. Davis' death. But BOTH Davis ladies have said that it was true that Mr. Davis had picked up a shell on 11-22-63 and it was later found by Barb Davis among Mr. Davis' effects.

CTers also need to realize the fact that Oswald had an even division of Remington and Winchester bullets (unfired) in his gun when arrested (3 of each type precisely). And those were the EXACT types of bullets AND shells that were scattered through Tippit's body and on the ground at the murder scene.

Anyone believing in Oswald's innocence in the Tippit murder is either completely ignorant of the wealth of evidence against him -- or that person has a large "CT Only" agenda. (Or, is just a flat-out, grade-A fool.)

Take your pick.


THE "MAUSER" VS. "CARCANO" CONTROVERSY:

The same kind of "Why Did The Plotters Do It This Way?" questions could be asked concerning numerous other aspects of the JFK and Tippit murders as well.

For instance:

Conspiracy theorists love to fall back on the info that a "Mauser" rifle was supposedly found on the 6th Floor of the Texas School Book Depository after JFK's murder. CTers want to believe that the Dallas police discovered NOT Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5mm weapon -- but, instead, a German-made "7.65mm Mauser" rifle was found on the 6th Floor. This, of course, begs the natural follow-up inquiry of:

WHY would these Patsy-framers (bent on having OSWALD'S OWN CARCANO DISCOVERED AND PROVEN TO BE THE ONLY MURDER WEAPON IN THE CASE) "plant" the WRONG TYPE OF GUN to be found on the 6th Floor?!

How God-awful stupid is this piece of pre-assassination "framing" of their "Patsy"?

Also -- Do CTers believe the plotters would plant a gun which has NO ties to the so-called "planted" CE399 bullet at Parkland? Nor would this "Mauser" have been linked to any of the bullet fragments found inside the limousine.

Sheer idiocy.

The same line of thought applies to the "revolver vs. automatic" discrepancy at the Tippit murder site. Why let the cops think it was an AUTOMATIC for even a second if the gun Oswald has on him is a REVOLVER? Just plain stupid on the plotters' part.

Same with the three spent shells found on the 6th Floor of the TSBD. Some CTers think that at least one of these shells did NOT come from Oswald's 6.5mm rifle. But why? Why "plant" a different type of shell that is only going to PROVE A CONSPIRACY EXISTS?

And, the biggie -- it's the same question that can be asked of the conspirators regarding the multi-gunmen "Patsy" plot so many CTers buy into -- I.E.: Why would we (the real killers/conspirators) even want to shoot John Kennedy from a variety of different locations when our ONE PATSY is located only in the Depository? It's just plain dumb!

Plus: Why would we (the many non-Oswald assassins) want to fire so many bullets at the target so closely together, so that witnesses can later say: "I heard two shots really close together".

Could these Patsy-framers have BEEN more reckless and silly if they had tried? If so, please inform me as to how they could have been more needlessly reckless with their plot.

Common sense fails to enter the minds of CTers regarding these very simple questions, IMO. (And, I guess, no such common sense entered the heads of the "plotters" either re. these matters -- that is if you want to actually believe the CTers here, and believe that some goofball assassins PRE-PLANNED all these MISTAKES and silly errors for the police to find.)

A much more logical explanation is just what Dallas police officials Boone, Hill, Curry, et al, have said from Day 1:

The police aren't perfect machines. They're human. And make mistakes.

The labelling of the rifle as a Mauser was a mistake. (Perfectly logical one too at the time, because both types of rifles look similar in nature at first glance.)

The assumption of an "automatic" gun being used at the Tippit murder scene was perfectly logical, but it was, too, a mistake. Explained by Gerry Hill fully afterwards, but no CTer wishes to believe this officer's story.

The mismatch of shells and bullets at the Tippit scene does NOT automatically indicate "conspiracy" or "two killers" or "two guns".

Acceptable explanations for the "mismatch" are indeed plausible. But no CTer wishes to buy into the far more reasonable explanation of a shell that simply was not ever recovered from a fifth shot which missed Officer Tippit (a shot which was heard by at least one earwitness).

Instead, the much more UNlikely pro-conspiracy-slanted scenarios burst through the ever-so-small crack of doubt surrounding JFK's murder (re. the divergent accounts of the evidence).

(I omit any crack of doubt re. Tippit's murder; because even WITH the mismatch of shells, the OTHER evidence is just simply way too overwhelming to believe anything other than Oswald killing Tippit by himself.)

A huge problem with the continuing belief in crazy conspiracies that just do not follow any common sense and logic is the failure of almost all CTers to evaluate separate aspects of the case (where discrepancies in the record do exist) in the reasoned light of good old common sense -- and the CTers' failure to ever look at things from a Pre-Assassination point-of-view. I've yet to encounter one conspiracy advocate who looks at things in the pre-11/22 manner in which I've detailed.

Another very interesting piece of first-day evidence (which could actually be categorized as "First Minutes Evidence") that leads straight to the building where Lee Harvey Oswald was located during the President's murder is the fact that EVERY single newsman who initially reported the shooting to the rest of the world (via the wire services, TV, and radio) claimed -- within minutes of the last shot being heard -- that "three shots" were fired at JFK's motorcade in Dealey Plaza (with the majority of these three-shot witnesses also thinking the shots had come from behind the President's car, from the direction of the TSBD).

If there had been many more than just three shots fired, as most CTers believe, it's utterly remarkable that all of the people who were in a direct position to tell what they saw and heard to the world within minutes of the event, via the media, heard precisely the same number of shots that it was later determined were fired from Oswald's rifle from the Book Depository (matching precisely the THREE spent bullet shells found on the 6th Floor too).

How did the "plotters" manage to have all of these various news reporters (Merriman Smith, Jack Bell, Bob Clark, Robert MacNeil, Pierce Allman, Jay Watson, and Jerry Haynes, among still others) hear exactly the same number of shots, a number (3) that the conspirators NEEDED to have witnesses hear in order to bolster their "Patsy" plot against Lee Oswald?

Pretty amazing indeed, if there had, in fact, been up to 8 or 10 gunshots resounding through Dealey Plaza that afternoon (as some CTers advocate).

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The overall evidence surrounding the JFK assassination and the J.D. Tippit murder investigation (including both the "First Day" variety of evidence and otherwise) tells us, undeniably, that Lee Harvey Oswald was responsible for murdering two people on November 22, 1963. To believe otherwise is to live in the dark and murky world of make-believe, unsupportable, wish-it-were-so conspiracy theories.