What happened to the Mauser?

[Matt Grantham]

Mr. BALL. Are you with some company?
Mr. CASTER. Yes; I am assistant manager for Southwestern Publishing Co. with offices at 411 Elm Street.
Mr. BALL. You have offices in the Texas School Book Depository Building?
Mr. CASTER. Yes.
Mr. BALL. You rent those offices from the Texas School Book Depository?
Mr. CASTER. The offices are furnished in connection with our work with the Depository.
Mr. BALL. Will you tell me something about yourself, where you were born and where you were raised and educated?
Mr. CASTER. Yes; I was born in New Mexico, educated in New Mexico, received my college degrees at New Mexico Highlands University at Las Vegas, N. Mex. I taught school in New Mexico from 1939 until I started to work with Southwestern Publishing Co. in 1952. There was a period of about 2 years that I spent in the U.S. Navy.
Mr. BALL. And have you had your offices since 1952 in the Texas School Book Depository Building?
Mr. CASTER. The offices have been in the Texas School Book Depository Building, but not in this particular building here. We have occupied three places since I have been with the Southwestern Publishing Co.
Mr. BALL. Your office is on which floor?
Mr. CASTER. Second floor.
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.
Mr. BALL. Who owned them?
Mr. CASTER. I had just purchased them during the noon hour that day.
Mr. BALL. Well, tell us about it---what were the circumstances of the purchase?
Mr. CASTER. Well, I left the Depository during the noon hour and had lunch and, while out for the lunch hour, I stopped by Sanger-Harris sporting goods department to look for a rifle for my son's birthday---I beg your pardon, Christmas present--son's Christmas present, and while I was there I purchased the single-shot .22--single shot--and at the same time was looking at some deer rifles. I had, oh, for several years been thinking about buying a deer rifle and they happened to have one that I liked and I purchased the .30-06 while I was there.
Mr. BALL. And did they box them up?
Mr. CASTER. They were in cartons; yes.
Mr. BALL. And then you went back to work, I guess?
Mr. CASTER. Yes; I picked both rifles up in cartons just like they were, this was during the noon hour, and as I entered the Texas School Book Depository Building on my way up to the buying office, I stopped by Mr. Truly's office, and while I was there we examined the two rifles that I had purchased.
Mr. BALL. Did you take them out of the carton?
Mr. CASTER. Yes; I did.
Mr. BALL. Who was there besides you and Mr. Truly?

[Mitch Todd]

Anna-Marie also discovered an empty envelope, originally marked, "Shell 7.5

found in Dealey Plaza 11/22/63. This would be an expended cartridge found

somewhere in Dealey Plaza, presumably not far from where it was fired; and

regardless of where in Dealey Plaza it was found (which the envelope doesn't

state), it's a 7.5 caliber, not a 6.5 caliber like the Mannlicher-Carcano. No

one outside a very select circle, apparently, ever heard of this item before.

Why is the envelope empty? Written right after the previously quoted

description: "DETERMINED OF NO VALUE AND DESTROYED."


Well, looks like we had a 7.65 bullet recovered but no Mauser.The letter describing the delivery to Baltimore of the need to have 2 agents pick up the gun that killed JFK AND "the bullet that struck Gov. Connally" creates a REAL problem for LNs. It was written by SAC Gordon Shanklin on 11-22-63 & the agents delivered it on 12/3/63. BTW, I posted the picture of the rifle w/o the scope....it is NOT the rifle that was held by the strap (Manlicher Carcano 6.5) found on the 6th floor of the TSBD.The empty envelope in the National Archives labeled 7.65 and recovered in Dealey Plaza is a problem as well. Well come to think of it there were 4 wounds in JFK and Connally, bullet hole in the windshield,hole in the chrome trim, hole in the curb (chiseled up & removed), 2 bullet holes in the the man hole cover, one in the grass etc.   

7.5 would be for a Lebel and not a Mauser. I guess you can rechamber the Mauser for 7.5mm Lebel, but who would want to?

[Jerry Freeman]

The building was surrounded by reporters, film camera and photographers.

Everything was done either long beforehand or long afterward.
The cops had what they were looking for.

Yeah a Mauser looks similar to a Carcano.... let's see, a barrel-a stock-a bolt- a trigger


 

 
 

[Jake Maxwell]

Walt, The Caster/Ball interview posted in this thread seems to make it very clear that there was a Mauser... and there are also pictures - film footage, that seems to indicate there was a Mauser... I don't think this is disinformation....

[Jake Maxwell]

Jim, I've seen part of a film with a rifle being handled and observed by several onlookers, but I don't think I've seen film of a rifle being lowered from the TSD.... Is there a link... or where to look?
Thanks.... Jake

[Walt Cakebread]

Walt, The Caster/Ball interview posted in this thread seems to make it very clear that there was a Mauser... and there are also pictures - film footage, that seems to indicate there was a Mauser... I don't think this is disinformation....

Believe what ever floats yer boat....But I 'm 99.9% certain that there was no mauser found in the TSBD (or on the roof)that day.

[Jerry Freeman]

A group of Dallas Police Department detectives, including Will Fritz, Seymour Weitzman, Roger Craig, Eugene Boone and Luke Mooney searched the Texas School Book Depository soon after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. On the sixth floor they discovered a rifle hidden beneath some boxes. The detectives identified it as a 7.65 Mauser. District Attorney Henry M. Wade, in a television interview, told the nation that the rifle was a Mauser.

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKSmannlicher.htm