Wowzer! A Mauser?
Early reports from newsman and authorities on November 22nd 1963 indicated that the weapon allegedly used to assassinate President Kennedy was a 7.65 German Mauser bolt action rifle. The rifle had been found by Dallas police on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, a building which overlooked the Presidential motorcade at the time of the assassination. Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade passed on this bit of information to the press with a moderate degree of certainty, and various news anchors such as Walter Cronkite presented the Mauser claim as fact to the American public.
Within a matter of hours, these initial reports were corrected, and news-hungry Americans were informed that the alleged murder weapon was actually a 6.5 Italian Mannlicher Carcano bolt action rifle with a leather strap and telescopic sight attached. The Mannlicher Carcano was traced to the post office box of one A.J. Hiddell. A false identification card with that name had been found on the person of a suspect the Dallas Police had in custody for the murder of patrolman J.D. Tippit. This suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, had been working in the Texas School Book Depository at the time of the shooting. The Warren Commission later confirmed that this was indeed the weapon used to assassinate the President, and that Oswald was the one who had fired it. To this day, the rifle sits in the National as an important part of American history.
But what about the initial claim that the weapon found in the Depository was a 7.65 Mauser? The man who found the gun, Deputy Eugene Boone, signed a sworn affidavit claiming the weapon in question had been identified as a Mauser. Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig, who was present when the rifle was found, even claims to have seen “7.65 Mauser” written stamped on the murder weapon. Did the Dallas Police really find another rifle in the Texas School Book Depository, or was it simply a matter of mistaken identity? If the Dallas Police did indeed find a Mauser, what happened do it? Did someone else later plant the Carcano to implicate Oswald? Although a Mauser and a Carcano bear a superficial resemblance to each other, the only real connection is that they were both bolt action rifles used against American soldiers during World War II.
The Dallas policemen who initially inspected the murder weapon, Eugene Boone, Seymour Weitzman, Roger Craig, led by Homicide Captain Fritz, must have quickly identified the firearm as an enemy weapon from World War II. Since most people think of Germans as the main adversary in the Second World War, not the Italians, the officers must have assumed it was of German origin, and thus a Mauser. Even though they were familiar with firearms, these men were probably not familiar with what guns were made in what country during World War II. Seen in that light, a couple of Dallas cops not knowing the difference between the different guns various soldiers of the Axis powers used during World War II seems quite plausible. In his final testimony, Boone admitted that he had had been mistaken in his initial identification of the murder weapon. The Carcano story became part of the official history.
But Roger Craig never changed his story. Some people insist he was a liar, others claim he was an American hero. Either way, he went to his grave insisting that the gun found that day on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository was unquestionably a 7.65 German Mauser. And the sad series of occurrences which led Mr. Craig to that grave is perhaps one of the most heartbreaking footnotes to the Kennedy Assassination tragedy. Craig’s refusal to change his story about the Mauser, like all the other officers had done, caused him to be ostracized by his peers. He was fired from the Dallas Police Department in 1967, apparently for discussing sensitive information with a journalist. Roger Craig never found steady work again, he lost his wife, and then began suffering a series of bizarre accidents which left him severely injured. He was shot at, driven off the side of the road, and at one point his car engine mysteriously exploded. The injuries induced by these incidents left Mr. Craig in almost constant physical pain. In 1975, Roger Craig took his own life.
[...] The Murder Weapon(s) [...]
Why not a 7.63 Mauser? They saw a 7.65 Mauser and sighned their report saying they did.
Why not a 7.90 Mauser? Why? Because they found a 7.65 Mauser. That’s what they saw.
They did not find a Carrcano because they found a Mauser.
There is a difference between a butter knife and a butcher knife. If they’d found a butcher knife they would have said they found a butcher knife and would not have said they found a butter knife and would not have even thought of an nother kind of knife.
That is until pressure was brought to bear.
And yes Craig is a hero along with Oswald in my opinion!
jim feemster
“Why not a 7.63 Mauser? They saw a 7.65 Mauser and sighned their report saying they did”
7.63 Mauser is a type of ammunition, not a type of rifle.
When Boone found the rifle, he was not allowed to approach the weapon, let alone inspect it. How could he have seen what the rifle said on it, let alone ascertain what country it had been manufactured in? Boone’s affidavit never claims that the rifle he found had been positively identified as a Mauser, only that it “appeared” to be. For his part, Weitzman says he only got a glance at the rifle, and was not allowed to inspect it, let alone identify its country of origin. Only when the weapon was actually inspected in detail was the country of its manufacture ever positively identified. And it was identified as Italian, a Mannlicher Carcano in fact.
A butter knife is a tiny little knife, and a butcher knife is a very large knife. A Mannlicher Carcano, a 7.65 Mauser, and a 7.9 Mauser are all rifles, and if you just get a glance at them, you’re probably not going to be able to figure out what country they were made in. The simple fact is, Wietzman and Boone never positively identified the rifle as a Mauser, and they never claimed to have either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HlCswKHMuE This is a tv report that a British 303 rifle and three 303 spent shells were found in the TSBD. This was the rifle convesgated by Dallas police from Buell Fraziers house. Deputy Boone and Weitzman both state in their written reports that the rifle found on the sixth floor was a 7.65 Mauser. In their affidavits Boone changed his to, it appeared to be a mauser, Weitzman didn’t he stated it was a 7.65 Mauser. But in his W.C. testimony he stated he thought it was a Mauser action rifle ( ref. to a bolt action ) and he only got a glimps of it. There were reporters on the sixth floor with the police and every one wanted to get the scoope on every one else, they were firing reports of rumors without checking or confirming the facts. The rifle was a Carcano found on the sixth floor, the photos taken show that, when Lt. Day carried from the TSBD to the station, it was a Carcano.
roger craig also said that the actual finding was staged.. they had found the gun before, but “re-found” it because the first time they didnt film it..