Warren Commission Failure: Palm Print from a Corpse
Memos reveal last-minute doubts of investigators about key evidence tying Oswald to JFK's assassination. The account of Oswald's mortician indicates tampering.
As the Warren Commission neared the conclusion of its investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, questions emerged that cast doubt on one of its key pieces of evidence: the palm print found on Lee Harvey Oswald’s rifle.
Three uncovered memos reveal just how deep those doubts went. And an interview with the man who prepared Oswald’s corpse for burial compounds those doubts and raises the possibility the palm print was a fraud.
The Doubts
The first memo, dated Aug. 28, 1964, and addressed within the FBI, notes that J. Lee Rankin, the Commission’s general counsel, raised a “serious question” about the legitimacy of the palm print attributed to Oswald. In a meeting with Warren Commission staffers and FBI agents Rankin wondered aloud whether this crucial piece of evidence was genuinely lifted from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle or if it was planted from another source. What’s more, Rankin stated that the Dallas Police made no mention of the palm print for several days after the assassination, only publicly acknowledging it after a specific FBI request.
Mr. Rankin advised because of the circumstances that now exist there was a serious question in the minds of the Commission as to whether or not the palm impression that has been obtained from the Dallas Police Department is a legitimate latent palm impression removed from the rifle barrel or whether it was obtained from some other source and that for this reason this matter needs to be resolved.
But the story doesn’t end there.
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