Tracing the rifle

[Gil Jesus]

In 1958, Crescent Firearms purchased 500,000 rifles from the Italian Government. The final shipment of those rifles ( 520 cartons ) left Italy's port of Genoa after being identified as lot number 91594 and arrived in the New York via the steamer Elettra Fassio on October 15, 1960.

The 520 cartons were removed and trucked by the Waterfront Transfer Company to the Harborside Terminal, a bonded warehouse in New Jersey.


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As one can see, the CARTON NUMBERS are listed on the manifest. For example, "3086/3094" means that all cartons numbered from 3086 thru 3094 inclusive were on this shipment. The third entry down, 3305/3436, means that all cartons bearing numbers in that range were part of this shipment, including the carton 3376, which contained rifle # C2766.


In fact, ALL of the cartons listed in the February 1963 shipment to Klein's were part of this shipment.


The shipment was placed in storage and remained there for the next two years.

This is where the paper trial for carton 3376 ends.

Fred Rupp was a federally-licensed gun dealer who had a contract with Crescent Firearms to pick up rifles at the Harborside Warehouse and inspect, clean, test-fire, repack and ship them to Crescent's retail customers.


Klein's purchase order of 1/15/62 requested that 400 model 91TS rifles ( 36" troop specials ) be delivered in October, 1962.


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According to Harborside delivery order # 89238, Rupp removed the first 170 cartons on August 29, 1962. A list of the numbers of the cartons removed was on the manifest. CARTON 3376 WAS NOT AMONG THEM.

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Importers of rifles and gun dealers were required BY LAW to maintain a list of SERIAL NUMBERS of the rifles they imported. Rupp was required by law to keep a list of the serial numbers he removed from the warehouse ( which he did on the 8/29/62 manifest ) and the name of the retail customer he shipped them to. And Klein's was required to keep the serial numbers of rifle they sold to retail customers. ( 7 H 371 )

During the month of October, 1962, Rupp removed 264 more rifles from
lot 91594.


90 on October 4th


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70 on October 16


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64 on October 24


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40 on October 31


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On all of the subsequent shipping manifests of the rifles removed from
Harborside Warehouse by Fred Rupp, THE LIST OF CARTONS NUMBERS IS
ABSENT, even though on the 10/24 manifest, it is clearly marked "list
numbers of cases shipped".


Rupp removed a total of 434 Mannlicher Carcano 91/38 rifles in the
month of October 1962 from the lot of 520 rifles ( 91594 ) belonging
to Crescent Firearms. He told the FBI that he kept no record of the
carton numbers or serial numbers of the rifles he removed from
Harborside. ( CD 7, pg. 180 ) In other words, THERE IS NO EVIDENCE
THAT CARTON 3376 WAS AMONG the 434 rifles removed by Rupp, even though
the FBI said it was.


The FBI's " tracking of the rifle " included unsigned and undated
documents and manifests which listed neither the serial numbers nor
the carton numbers.


One of particular note is Crescent Firearms invoice # 3178.


Mr. BELIN. Mr. Waldman, referring to Waldman Deposition Exhibit No.
3, which are the serial numbers of the 100 rifles which were made in
this shipment from Crescent Firearms to you.......is there any way to
verify that this payment pertained to rifles which are shown on
Waldman Deposition Exhibit No. 3?


Mr. WALDMAN. The forms submitted by Crescent Firearms showing serial
numbers of rifles included in the shipment covered by their invoice
No. 3178 indicate that the rifle carrying serial No. C-2766 was
included in that shipment.


( 7 H 368 )


WHOA...WAIT A MINUTE...IT MOST CERTAINLY DOES NOT !!!!!


If you look closely at invoice # 3178, you'll see that ALL OF THE
CARTON NUMBERS HAVE LITTLE CHECKS ABOVE THEM EXCEPT CARTON NUMBER
3376.


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That means that in verifying the carton numbers in that shipment, 3376
was never verified as being a part of that shipment.

[Albert Doyle]

If you look closely at invoice # 3178, you'll see that ALL OF THE
CARTON NUMBERS HAVE LITTLE CHECKS ABOVE THEM EXCEPT CARTON NUMBER
3376.


That means that in verifying the carton numbers in that shipment, 3376
was never verified as being a part of that shipment.

So this leaves the possibility carton #3376 was segregated out of the shipment by CIA in order to fish guns out of it for covert purposes while mixing the order trail in with the Klein's shipment?

[Charles Drago]

Many/most of your questions may be answered by directing your attention to the first five chapters of And We Are All Mortal: New Evidence and Analysis in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, by George Michael Evica and published in 1978 by the University of Hartford.

Chapter 1 The Rifle: 6.5

Chapter 2 The Rifle: 7.65

Chapter 3 The Rifle: The Riva Modification

Chapter 4 The Rifle: 40.2

Chapter 5 The Rifle: New Evidence: the Andreotti/S.I.F.A.R. Document

The material extends over 62 pages and is too long to reproduce here.

AWAAM is long out of print, alas. But copies can be had via the Internet and, of course, The Last Hurrah book shop.

Charles

[Jim DiEugenio]

CD, that is not quite accurate.

Evica is coming at the rifle mystery from a different angle, the Riva modification.

What Gil is doing is approaching it more from Armstrong's POV, namely that the FBi knew that that rifle was never picked up by Oswald at the post office. Therefore, Hoover did three things:

1. He had Harry Holmes fake a paper trail at the post office with a phony money order that was out of order and never went through the Federal Reserve System.

2. Holmes and the COmmission then lied about the laws governing pick ups of packages, to disguise the fact that Alec Hidell could not have picked up the rifle.

3. The FBI then disguised the fact that the particular rifle in question was not shipped by Harborside to Klein's at the time the FBI and WC said it was, in order to be ordered by LHO at the time the FBI said he did.

This is truly a sad and discouraging case of perfidy in the evidentiary record. In fact it confirms one of my longstanding beliefs about the first generation of critics: they did not go far enough. THey just accepted things like Oswald and the rifle for the reason that they could not imagine just how bad the FBI and WC really were.

They then turned on Garrison when they said he went too far, but in fact not even Garrison imagined just how bad it was.

Oswald never ordered that rifle and he never had it in his belongings. Period.

[Gil Jesus]

Jim, I couldn't have articulated it better than you did. I have a major problem with Crescent's invoice # 3178, which was used by the WC to "prove" that carton 3376 and thus rifle C2766 was part of the February shipment. The cartons on that document were checked by someone who either shipped or received them and all were checked off EXCEPT carton 3376.

I'm not convinced that carton 3376 / rifle C2766 was part of that shipment.

I'm more inclined to believe the affidavit of Louis Feldsott of Crescent that the C2766 rifle was sold to Klein's on June 18, 1962.

[Albert Doyle]

This is truly a sad and discouraging case of perfidy in the evidentiary record. In fact it confirms one of my longstanding beliefs about the first generation of critics: they did not go far enough. THey just accepted things like Oswald and the rifle for the reason that they could not imagine just how bad the FBI and WC really were.

They then turned on Garrison when they said he went too far, but in fact not even Garrison imagined just how bad it was.

Oswald never ordered that rifle and he never had it in his belongings. Period.

As useless as adding this is, after Unspeakable I now understand the true level of corruption and intimidation involved with this. Like everyone else, I had no idea it was this bad. The government was completely overturned by an outright coup that was protected by the fact no one would suspect they would dare go as far as they did. If you look at the people who ended up dead they were ones who didn't protect themselves from the Unspeakable simply because they trusted that the institutional conspirators would never go that far. They were wrong. The ones who lived were ones who shut-up and surfaced after Stone's JFK or were compromisable enough to be defeated by the official story. Plausible deniability works best with a good dose of 'above suspicion' I guess.

This is a true room full of mirrors now. Watch your step, because the floor you're seeing there might not be real.



.

[Jim DiEugenio]

Louis Feldsott's affidavit in Volume XI, says that the rifle was sold to Klein's on June 18, 1962. (p. 205)

But the warehouse records said that the first batch of the rifles were not removed from Harborside until August 29th.

Armstrong flatly says that C2766 and carton #3376 was not removed on August 29th either. (p. 445) ANd that Fred Rupp never got that carton.(ibid) Rupp worked for Crescent and checked their orders before being shipped out to customers.

Now the WC and FBI eventually decided that the Klein's order was made in January 1963.

How could they do this? On all Rupp's orders for these types of rifles, which he removed from Harborside, not a single carton was listed! (ibid)

To say, as someone as goofy as Von Pein does, that this was somehow nothing to raise an eyebrow about is just, well, Von Peinian. Rupp was a licensed gun dealer. He was required to keep track of cartons and serial numbers. You could not keep track of serial numbers without the carton numbers. He then linked up those numbers to the retail purchaser. That way law enforcement could track a weapon from wholesaler to retailer to purchaser. Which is important in every murder case.

Except this one, of course.

[Charles Drago]

In fact it confirms one of my longstanding beliefs about the first generation of critics: they did not go far enough. THey just accepted things like Oswald and the rifle for the reason that they could not imagine just how bad the FBI and WC really were.

Technically accurate. But I think we can agree that slack deserves to be cut.

Here's the point: It was the first generation of critics who instilled in the rest of us not just the requisite skills and insight to question authority, but also the confidence to do so.

They did not have the benefit of antecedents.

Thanks to them, we do.

They could not imagine.

Thanks to them, we can.

They were pioneers traversing terra incognita. So much to investigate, so little time.

We stand on their shoulders.

[Bernice Moore]

Gil; good work, just an addition, that i recall i believe from Harvey and LEE , The day that lho supposedly bought the m/o at 10.30am i am thnking, when checked, he was at work, also when checked the post office box that he mailed his letter from, was some 10 blocks away, in an opposite direction from all, nothing made sense, but then again none does...thanks..b

[Gil Jesus]

Louis Feldsott's affidavit in Volume XI, says that the rifle was sold to Klein's on June 18, 1962. (p. 205)

But the warehouse records said that the first batch of the rifles were not removed from Harborside until August 29th.

Armstrong flatly says that C2766 and carton #3376 was not removed on August 29th either. (p. 445) ANd that Fred Rupp never got that carton.(ibid) Rupp worked for Crescent and checked their orders before being shipped out to customers.

Now the WC and FBI eventually decided that the Klein's order was made in January 1963.

How could they do this? On all Rupp's orders for these types of rifles, which he removed from Harborside, not a single carton was listed! (ibid)

To say, as someone as goofy as Von Pein does, that this was somehow nothing to raise an eyebrow about is just, well, Von Peinian. Rupp was a licensed gun dealer. He was required to keep track of cartons and serial numbers. You could not keep track of serial numbers without the carton numbers. He then linked up those numbers to the retail purchaser. That way law enforcement could track a weapon from wholesaler to retailer to purchaser. Which is important in every murder case.

Except this one, of course.

You raise a good point here. While looking at the Harborside manifests, the one dated 8/29/62 has the carton numbers listed on it, while the other four do not.
Why would Harborside list the carton numbers on only the first 170 rifles removed from their warehouse and not the rest ?

Regardless of whether their procedure was listing the carton numbers or not, shouldn't that procedure be the same on ALL of the manifests ?

Very strange.