NARA's Internal Notice of the Report
NARA2000-075
NOTICE
Expiration Date: 01/21/2001
Lab tests on JFK assassination evidence now complete
All employees
We are releasing today a report on laboratory analyses of evidence from the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
The evidence analyzed was Warren Commission Exhibit (CE) #567 containing the nose portion of a bullet recovered from the limousine in which the President was riding. The exhibit, which has been in NARA custody since 1966, consisted of five fragments: one copper and lead fragment with adhering fibrous debris, and four smaller pieces of organic material. Tests were made of the debris and the organic material to determine their composition for possible relevance to the Commission's conclusion that alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
In requesting such tests, the Department of Justice said that if "alleged fiber evidence embedded in the bullet nose recovered from the front seat of the limousine" was "consistent with the President's shirt collar, tie, and tie liner," then there might have been a "different trajectory than that previously identified" by the Warren Commission. Scientists concluded from the test that the fibers were of non-textile origin and did not come from the clothing of John F. Kennedy, nor of John B. Connally. The Department of Justice also had speculated that the organic fragments might shed light on the assassination, but DNA analysis of them proved inconclusive.
Most of the analysis was accomplished on site at NARA. Instrumental analysis of a portion of the fibrous material was undertaken at the FBI Laboratory (Washington, DC); histological preparations of samples taken from the four organic fragments were processed at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (Walter Reed Complex); and mitochondrial DNA examinations of samples taken from the four organic fragments were conducted at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (Rockville, MD).
The final report on the investigation, entitled "Further Scientific Examination of JFK Assassination Evidence," describes the scientific decision-making process, summarizes the findings, and appends the individual laboratory reports. The three investigative agencies that cooperated on the project were the FBI Laboratory, The Armed Forces Medical Examiner, and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory. The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of the Maimonides Medical Center and the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education supplied independent participants in the testing.
For work on this matter, I wish to express particular appreciation to Margaret Kelly (NWTD), who coauthored the summary report, and Steven Tilley (NWCTF).
For questions regarding this notice, please contact Jerry George (NCOM) in room 4400, AII; on 301-713-7360, ext. 264; by fax on 301-713-7344; or by email.
JOHN W. CARLIN
Archivist