Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Lee Oswald stored his bolt-action rifle inside a green and brown blanket in the garage of Ruth Paine's house in Irving, Texas. Paine, a friend of Oswald's wife, did not know the gun was there.

On the morning of the assassination, Lee Oswald rode in to work with Buell W. Frazier. He had unexpectedly visited his family at Ruth Paine's house the night before - a Thursday. (Usually Oswald only visited the family on weekends.)

Carrying a paper wrapping with something inside it, Oswald told Frazier (scroll down 50%) the package contained curtain rods which Ruth had given him for his boarding-house room. In fact, Ruth Paine personally turned over both of her curtain rods to the Warren Commission. They were marked as Commission Exhibits 275 and 276.

Police who searched the sixth floor of the Depository immediately after Kennedy was shot found paper wrappings, spent cartridges, and a high-powered rifle with a misaligned scope. All of that evidence is maintained by the National Archives. Images have been digitized for on-line viewing:

• Close-up of the scope on the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle



• Cartridge taken from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle



• One can compare that cartridge, with its intact bullet, to the "magic bullet" found on the President's stretcher at Parkland Memorial



• 6.5 mm cartridge case found on the 6th floor of the School Book Depository



• View looking into the empty shell



• Wrapping paper found on the sixth floor of the SBD after the shooting



• The Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was found behind boxes (the link takes you to Box "A") on the Book Depository's sixth floor



• Box "B"



• Box "C"



• Box "D"

Did the rifle, bearing serial number C2766, belong to Lee Harvey Oswald? Two famous photographs played a prominent role in answering that question during the official investigations. It was alleged that Marina took pictures of her husband, with the subject rifle, in the backyard of the Oswalds' home at 214 West Neely Street. Some experts claim the pictures were altered. Others believe they are authentic.

What did Marina say? She testified that she took her husband's picture, as he posed with his rifle, using the camera he gave to her.  It was, she said, the first time she had ever taken a picture.