Sorry Jean,
I can no longer accept anything from the McAdams files as useful. I
encountered a file there purporting to tell the 'truth' about Tom Wilson
with the new technology for looking at photographs and films. It was
blatantly false when compared with a book talking about Wilson and his
process. Not that the book spoke too highly of Wilson, the McAdams
article did! The article that McAdams had put away was loaded with
bloated brags about things that Wilson never did and never 'bragged'
about. It made Wilson look bad, which was probably the intent. Being
aware of McAdams LN status, I have to avoid his files where they contain
'hit' pieces like the Wilson article.
If I were to hunt down articles on fingerprinting, I would encounter
these:
http://www.jfk-online.com/prints.html
http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2926&context=jclc
The first is by Gary Savage and talks about his uncle who was on the
Dallas police force. He mentions further prints of Oswald's that were
found on the trigger guard housing (3 right hand fingers) which I'm
assuming that you were speaking of. I must thank you for bringing up the
further prints on the rifle which were found on the OUTSIDE.
Now if Oswald was lacking in caution as to NOT wipe down the rifle, did
he plan on it being used in a criminal investigation of HIMSELF? While
not well educated, he wasn't a dummy. He was able to speak well enough to
make an impression on a radio audience. Given reasonable intelligence,
wouldn't he have seen to the problem of fingerprints if he were going to
murder the president? While he used the Hidell name to buy the rifle, he
knew he was printed in the service and prints would be a giveaway.
Handling the MC rifle was either the act of someone that believed he was
innocent of a crime, or someone who didn't care if he were blamed for a
crime. In Oswald's case, he ran and tried to hide (theater), so that we
must assume that he didn't want to be held or blamed for a crime. That
leaves the other choice, which says that Oswald didn't think there was any
serious crime in what he was last doing with the rifle.
As to the supposed easy trip down the stairs from the 6th floor, I had
heard that a woman (Victoria Adams) that worked at the TSBD was going down
the stairs immediately after the shots, and she would have seen or heard
someone going down them at the same time. She didn't see Oswald, which
certainly limits his time to escape from the 6th floor and get to his Coke
in the lunchroom.
Chris