JFK Assassination Forum

A veteran officer knows that shells have markings and would look without assuming.
“the shells at the scene indicate the suspect is armed with an automatic 38 rather than a pistol.”

Again, Hill never looked at the butt end of either shell. They looked like they were .38s. They were not. They were .38 Specials.

Mr. BENAVIDES - Well, I started--I seen him throw the shells and I started to stop and pick them up, and I thought I'd better not so when I came back, after I had gotten back, I picked up the shells.
Mr. BELIN - All right. Now, you said you saw the man with the gun throw the shells?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - Well, did you see the man empty his gun?
Mr. BENAVIDES - That is what he was doing. He took one out and threw it.
Mr. BELIN - Do you remember in which hand he was holding his gun?
Mr. BENAVIDES - No; I sure don't.
Mr. BELIN - Do you remember if he was trying to put anything in the gun also?
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes. As he turned the corner he was putting another shell in his gun.
Mr. BELIN - You saw him?
Mr. BENAVIDES - I mean, he was acting like. I didn't see him actually put a shell in his gun, but he acted like he was trying to reload it.
Maybe he was trying to take out another shell, but he could have been reloading it or something.
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Mrs. Charlie Virginia Davis - Well, we saw Oswald. We didn't know it was Oswald at the time. We saw that boy cut across the lawn emptying the shells out of the gun.
.......
Mrs. Charlie Virginia Davis - We watched him unload the shells out of his gun.
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Representative FORD - You saw him take the shells out of the gun?
BARBARA DAVIS -  No, sir; he was shaking them.
Representative FORD -  He was shaking them?
BARBARA DAVIS -  He was shaking them. I didn't see him actually use his hand to take them out. I mean he was sort of shaking them out.

A .38 automatic casing is marked “.38 AUTO”
A .38 Special is marked “.38 SPL”
A standard .38 round is marked “.38 CAL”

These markings are unambiguous.

If Sgt. Hill had been guessing, one would expect him to assume the casings were the more commonly used .38 Specials — not the relatively rare .38 automatics. That he identified the shells as automatics from the outset seems highly questionable.

Frankly, it's hard to believe this was an honest mistake.

Hill did not look at the butt end of either of the shells. He called out the gun as being a .38 automatic based on a false assumption. The shells looked like .38s.  It was an honest mistake. The actual shells recovered do not lie. They are .38 Specials, non-automatic. Oswald would have had no need to manually remove shells from an automatic.

“the shells at the scene indicate the suspect is armed with an automatic 38 rather than a pistol.”

Again, he never said that he saw "38". He saw  the shells. They looked like they were .38s. They were not. They were .38 Specials.

He claimed that he saw “38” and assumed they were automatics.
A .38 special shell and a .38 automatic are clearly stamped

He never claimed that he saw "38".

yet, it sounds like he looked right at them:

“the shells at the scene indicate the suspect is armed with an automatic 38 rather than a pistol.”
  Ducks in a row; thirty years too late

What he was saying is that the shells being at the scene indicate the suspect is armed with an automatic rather than a pistol. The suspect was armed with neither. He was armed with a revolver.