Nov. 24, 1963 - The Dallas police offered today a mass of evidence which they contend proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy. The evidence made available by the local police, the FBI, and the Secret Service, included finger and palm prints showing that Oswald was near the window where the assassin’s bullets were fired, ballistic evidence that Oswald’s rifle had fired the bullets, and a letter Oswald wrote ordering the weapon from a mail-order store. Local authorities said they had an airtight case against the young malcontent, who was shot to death this afternoon by a Dallas nightclub operator 48 hours after the President’s death. Gordon Shanklin, FBI agent in charge at Dallas, said today that the rifle that killed the President had been traced to Oswald. He noted other pieces of evidence which have been assembled by the Dallas police, the FBI, and the Secret Service:
— A bullet that Secret Service men removed from a stretcher at Parkland Hospital after the shooting and two bullet fragments removed from the Presidential automobile matched bullets fired by the rifle that agents found inside the Texas School Book Depository warehouse. The bullets were fired by a 6.5-mm. Italian-made Mannlicher-Carcano rifle (pictured).
— Oswald ordered a 6.5-mm. rifle with telescopic sight from a Chicago store last spring. The rifle was sent to an “A. Hidell,” at Oswald’s post office box in Dallas. It arrived by parcel post on March 20.
— Samples of Oswald’s handwriting were sent yesterday to the FBI laboratory in Washington, where they were found to match the handwriting in the letter ordering the rifle.
— FBI identification experts developed a latent fingerprint and a palm print from a brown paper bag found near the window of the school book warehouse. The bag was apparently part of a chicken lunch the assassin ate in the building. The fingerprint matched Oswald’s left index finger. “The palm print was identical with the right palm print of Oswald,” said Mr. Shanklin.
— Dallas policemen obtained a statement from Oswald’s Russian-born wife, Marina, that he had had a rifle in the garage of her living quarters on the night before the assassination. The young woman said the rifle was not there on the next day.
— A paraffin test, used to determine whether a person has fired a weapon recently, was administered to Oswald shortly after he was apprehended Friday, one hour after the assassination. It showed that particles of gunpowder from a weapon, probably a rifle, remained on Oswald’s cheek and hands.
— One of Oswald’s co-workers at the depository said Oswald carried a long package to work with him Friday morning. Police have said Oswald told the worker the packaged contained window shades.
— Oswald’s behavior, when he was arrested in a Dallas movie theater, betrayed his knowledge that he was being sought by the police. Witnesses quoted him as saying, “Well, it’s all over now,” when the police apprehended him. He drew a revolver and attempted to fire it at a patrolman.
