LHO and GSR? Be careful...

[Benjamin Cole]

One source of controversy in the JFKA was the testing of LHO's cheek, the paraffin test, which detected no gunshot residue.

There were always some problems with the GSR test, such as it was administered too long after the gunshots were fired to be definitive (at best).

Then, such tests can provide false negatives, if the shooter washes his face or even perspires. LHO might have washed his face when he visited his rooming house to pick up a revolver, or at the Texas Theater. Moving quickly after leaving his rooming house, he may have perspired.

If LHO was indeed an intel asset, he night have known to simply cover his face with paper, or Saran wrap, when firing.

But there is a bigger problem.

Evidently, long ago the Buffalo Police Department conducted tests on GSR and rifles, and concluded GSR tests not useful for such firearms, according to a 1974 article printed in The Spectrum, the college newspaper for SUNY-Buffalo.

https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=spec19740220-01.1.8&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN----------

"However, the (Buffalo Police) lab spokesman cautioned that the paraffin test was an extremely unreliable measure of whether the subject had indeed fired a gun. Specifically, he explained that bolt-loading guns, such as the Mannlicher Carcano allegedly used by Oswald, would not necessarily result in a positive paraffin test.

The Buffalo police abandoned the paraffin test after such tests on a subject shooting 100 rounds with a rifle failed to produce a positive measure. He explained this could account for the absence of nitrates on Oswald's cheeks."

---30---

Well, 100 rounds.

The FBI claimed to have conducted similar tests with bolt-action rifles for the WC, and obtained similar results, but hitherto I tended to dismiss the FBI testing as baloney.

Now, I wonder. 

Here is an impartial study done on GSR's (not related to the JFKA), and it also concluded that GSR tests on rifles were not reliable.

https://ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/43632NCJRS.pdf

"It is hazardous to draw conclusions from such a small number of cases. Shotgun cases gave 4 positive results out of 5 and rifles only 3 out of 8."

That is, only three out of eight makes of rifles resulted in GSR on users. Five did not.

Each to his own, but the negative GSR test on LHO's cheek are not be definitive, or even suggestive.

IMHO, caveat emptor, and draw your own conclusions.

[Michael T. Griffith]

One source of controversy in the JFKA was the testing of LHO's cheek, the paraffin test, which detected no gunshot residue.

There were always some problems with the GSR test, such as it was administered too long after the gunshots were fired to be definitive (at best).

Then, such tests can provide false negatives, if the shooter washes his face or even perspires. LHO might have washed his face when he visited his rooming house to pick up a revolver, or at the Texas Theater. Moving quickly after leaving his rooming house, he may have perspired.

If LHO was indeed an intel asset, he night have known to simply cover his face with paper, or Saran wrap, when firing.

But there is a bigger problem.

Evidently, long ago the Buffalo Police Department conducted tests on GSR and rifles, and concluded GSR tests not useful for such firearms, according to a 1974 article printed in The Spectrum, the college newspaper for SUNY-Buffalo.

https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=spec19740220-01.1.8&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN----------

"However, the (Buffalo Police) lab spokesman cautioned that the paraffin test was an extremely unreliable measure of whether the subject had indeed fired a gun. Specifically, he explained that bolt-loading guns, such as the Mannlicher Carcano allegedly used by Oswald, would not necessarily result in a positive paraffin test.

The Buffalo police abandoned the paraffin test after such tests on a subject shooting 100 rounds with a rifle failed to produce a positive measure. He explained this could account for the absence of nitrates on Oswald's cheeks."

---30---

Well, 100 rounds.

The FBI claimed to have conducted similar tests with bolt-action rifles for the WC, and obtained similar results, but hitherto I tended to dismiss the FBI testing as baloney.

Now, I wonder. 

Here is an impartial study done on GSR's (not related to the JFKA), and it also concluded that GSR tests on rifles were not reliable.

https://ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/43632NCJRS.pdf

"It is hazardous to draw conclusions from such a small number of cases. Shotgun cases gave 4 positive results out of 5 and rifles only 3 out of 8."

That is, only three out of eight makes of rifles resulted in GSR on users. Five did not.

Each to his own, but the negative GSR test on LHO's cheek are not be definitive, or even suggestive.

IMHO, caveat emptor, and draw your own conclusions.

The Buffalo PD tests did not include neutron activation analysis (NAA) testing of the paraffin casts. NAA is far more sensitive than the regular spectrographic or SEM testing that was commonly used with paraffin casts. The Oak Ridge test done for the FBI involved NAA testing and also a control test with several riflemen firing a Mannlicher-Carcano. In every single case, 100% accuracy, NAA detected nitrates in the paraffin casts of the men who had fired a Carcano.

I think it's safe to say that if the Oak Ridge NAA testing of Oswald's paraffin cast had found evidence of nitrates and/or other chemical indicators that he'd fired a rifle on 11/22, WC apologists would be hailing this as evidence of his guilt.

The most exhaustive analysis of the testing of Oswald's paraffin cast is Pat Speer's chapter on the subject in his online book A New Perspective on the Kennedy Assassination:

https://www.patspeer.com/chapter4fcastsofcontention

Here's a greatly shortened version of Speer's analysis titled "Bugliosi Fails the Paraffin Test":

https://www.whokilledjfk.net/paraffin_test.htm

Jeremy Bojczuk's article "Oswald's Paraffin Casts" is a helpful introduction to this key evidence:

https://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/t2049-oswald-s-paraffin-casts

See also my comments in my thread "WC-FBI Suppressed NAA Evidence that Oswald Did NOT Fire a Rifle on 11/22/63":
https://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,4438.0.html

[Benjamin Cole]

MTG--

I will stick with my story on this one, that the tip of the TSBD6 rifle was sticking outside the building when fired, and thus left no GSR on the shooter's checks. Bolt-action rifles generally do not leave traceable amounts of GSR on shooters cheeks.

Now, on NAA testing.

If NAA testing was so accurate..then it should have found something on LHOs' cheek or paraffin test. After all, GSR was found on LHO's hands, and he worked with print materials, known to give false positive GSR readings, and he sat in a police car, also known to give off false positives.

Actually, check the history on the paraffin tested by NAA. The chain of evidence is very dubious. As I recall, on DPD'er took it home as a souvenir.

I agree, the NAA should have found minute traces of GSR on LHO's paraffin, even if he only brushed his face with his hands, since he had lots of GSR on his hands, and he sat in a police car, and he worked with print materials. But it did not. That makes me wonder...was that even LHO's paraffin?

And check this out: Negative GSR results even after NAA are common:

Abstract

The results of gunshot residue (GSR) tests in 112 suicide cases investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command over a ten-year period are described. Only suicide cases in which there was certainty that the victim fired a weapon were examined in an effort to reduce ambiguous results. Previous case work research by Rudzitis indicated that positive GSR test results were encountered in suicides 62% of the time using various combinations of neutron activation analysis (NAA) and atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). Threshold values of 0.2-micrograms antimony and 0.3-micrograms barium (0.2-micrograms antimony and 0.5-micrograms barium after 1985) used by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory resulted in positive GSR results in suicide cases 38% of the time. The effects of time, location of body, handling of the body, weapon type, caliber, and condition of the hands on GSR results are examined. Case studies involving suicides by unit armorers are discussed.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2313262/

---30---


So, the NAA tests are not 100% accurate. Even people who committed suicide by gun, who obviously should have some GSR on them, often do not according to NAA and even better AAS testing.

I contend LHO is a strong suspect for having fired the M-C on 11/22, from the TSBD6 window. The NAA paraffin tests are inconclusive, and the chain of evidence fishy anyway.