Mr. Stombaugh.

No.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Why was that?

Mr. Stombaugh.

I could see no need of it at that time.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Let's return then to the fibers which you referred to as being fresh, which you said you found in the crevice of the butt plate, and I will ask Mr. Dulles' question in reverse: What do you mean by fresh, why do you call these fresh?

Mr. Stombaugh.

In the first place, this was just a small tuft. They were adhering to the gun on a small jagged edge. In other words, the gun had caught on a piece of fabric and pulled these fibers loose. They were clean, they had good color to them, there was no grease on them and they were not fragmented. They looked as if they had just been picked up. They were folded very neatly down in the crevice.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Were these fibers in a position where they could have easily been knocked off by rough use?

Mr. Stombaugh.

No; they were adhering to the edge rather tightly.

Mr. Eisenberg.

In the crevice?

Mr. Stombaugh.

Well, it had the jagged edge sticking up and the fibers were folded around it and resting in the crevice.

Mr. Dulles.

I think you testified, though, that might have been done in part by the dusting?

Mr. Stombaugh.

Yes, sir; I believe when the fingerprintman dusted it he probably ran his brush along the metal portion here.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Of the butt plate?

Mr. Stombaugh.

Of the butt plate, and at the time the brush folded these down into the crevice.

Mr. Eisenberg.

What led you to the particular conclusion that they had been folded into the crevice by the dusting?

Mr. Stombaugh.

Because of the presence of fingerprint powder being down in and through the crevice here. It looked as if it had been dusted with a brush. You could make out the bristlemarks of the brush itself.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Now assuming your conclusion is accurate that they were dusted into the crevice, and had not been in the crevice originally but had merely adhered to the jagged edge, how much--how rough a handling would it have taken to have gotten them loose from that jagged edge?

Mr. Stombaugh.

Well, I would imagine if one took a brush and started brushing pretty hard these would have worked loose and come out.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Would the use of the weapon itself have jarred them loose?

Mr. Stombaugh.

I doubt it. I doubt it.

Mr. Eisenberg.

I am talking now about the jagged edge position, and not the crevice position.

Mr. Stombaugh.

You mean breaking them loose? They were adhering to the jagged edge.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Yes.

Mr. Stombaugh.

It might, of course there are a lot of factors here you don't know, but they were adhering pretty tightly to the gun. I believe through ordinary handling of the gun eventually they would have worked loose and fallen off.

Mr. Eisenberg.

What I can't understand is, when you are talking about the handling of the gun are you talking about the position in which you found them, or are you talking about the position which you deduced they were in before you found them brushed into the crevice?

Mr. Stombaugh.

Well, both. The position I found them in. I had to take a pair of tweezers and work them out.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Yes?

Mr. Stombaugh.

And after I had the fibers lifted up which could have been the original position they were in, then I had to pull them off. They were wrapped around rather snugly to the sharp edge.

Mr. Eisenberg.

Now, returning once more to this question of freshness. Would you say they had been placed there within 1 hour, or 1 day, or 1 week of the time when you received the rifle or longer?

Mr. Stombaugh.

I couldn't say in that regard to any period of time. I refer, by