Part 60

Mr. CADIGAN. Enlargement of a letter in the State Department file.

Mr. EISENBERG. In the State Department file?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. That will be Cadigan Exhibit No. 5.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 5.)

Mr. EISENBERG. The third is an enlargement of a second letter in the State Department file, the first letter having been dated "Received November 1, 1962," and this letter dated "December 7, 1962, Received December 11, 1962," is that correct?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. That will be Cadigan Exhibit No. 6.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 6.)

(Discussion off the record.)

Mr. EISENBERG. Next is a letter to the State Department without an apparent date, beginning, "Dear Sirs: Please forward receipts to me for final payment of my loan" and so forth, is that correct?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. That will be Cadigan Exhibit No. 7.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 7.)

Mr. EISENBERG. Next is another letter from the State Department file, reading, Dear Sirs, please add this $10.00 to my account No. 38210 dated October 8. Is that also from the State Department file, Mr. Cadigan?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. That will be Cadigan Exhibit No. 8.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 8.)

Mr. EISENBERG. Next is the letter to then Secretary of the Navy John B. Connally and a page from the letter to Brigadier General R. McC. Tompkins, is that correct?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. That will be Cadigan Exhibit No. 9.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 9.)

Mr. EISENBERG. That is in two parts, is that correct?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; it is two pages.

Mr. EISENBERG. Next is a photograph of the passport application referred to earlier?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. That will be Cadigan Exhibit No. 10.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 10.)

Mr. EISENBERG. And, finally, a photograph of the reverse side of that?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. Which will also be Cadigan Exhibit No. 10.

Now, in each case, Mr. Cadigan, were these photographs prepared by you or under your supervision?

Mr. CADIGAN. They were.

Mr. EISENBERG. And are they accurate photographs of the items described as being the subject of the photographs?

Mr. CADIGAN. They are.

Mr. EISENBERG. Now, Mr. Cadigan, with reference to your enlargement, Cadigan Exhibit No. 3-A, and your photographs of standards, Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 4 through 10, could you state some of the reasons which led you to the conclusion that Commission Exhibit No. 778, of which Cadigan Exhibit No. 3 is an enlargement, is in the writing of Lee Harvey Oswald, the author of the known documents?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; on Commission Exhibit----

Mr. EISENBERG. You can refer to your photographs.

Mr. CADIGAN. The enlarged photograph, Cadigan Exhibit No. 3-A, contains both handwriting and hand printing which was compared with the known standards, Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 4 through 10. I compared both the handwriting and the hand printing to determine whether or not the same combination of individual handwriting characteristics was present in both the questioned and the known documents. I found many characteristics, some of which I would point out.

On the order blank, in the "A. Hidell" and in the wording "Dallas Texas" which constitutes a part of the return address, the letter "A" in Cadigan Exhibit No. 3 is made in the same manner as the capital letter "A" on Cadigan Exhibit No. 10. The letter is formed with a short straight stroke beginning about halfway up the left side. The top of it is peaked or pointed. The right side is straight, and is shorter than the initial stroke. The capital letter "D" in Dallas is characterized by a staff or downstroke slanting at about a 30° angle. The lower loop in some instances is closed. In the word "Dallas" the loop is closed, and the body of the letter ends in a rounded loop formation. The same characteristic I found in Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 4, 5, and 6 as well as other exhibits. The word "Texas" on Cadigan Exhibit No. 3-A is characterized with the letter "x" made in an unusual manner in that the writer, after completing the body of the letter, makes an abrupt change of motion to the following letter "a." This same characteristic I observed in the known standard on Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 6, 9, and 4.

In the address portion of the envelope, Cadigan Exhibit No. 3-A, appears the word "Dept." I noticed here, again, the same formation of the capital "D." In addition, the entire word "Dept" appears in the known standards on Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 5, 6, and 7. The characteristics I would point out here are in the letter "p" in Cadigan Exhibit No. 3, where the letter is made with a relatively long narrow staff, and the body of the letter is a rounded shape which projects above the staff. The letter "t" ends abruptly in a downstroke. In the handprinting appearing in the exhibit marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 3-A, the wording "Dallas, Texas" contains a number of the same characteristics as Cadigan Exhibit No. 5, where the same wording appears, and on Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 7 and 8. The writer uses a script-type "D," and prints the other letters in the word "Dallas." The "A" again is made in a similar way to the "A" in "A. Hidell," with a beginning of the downstroke approximately three-quarters of the way up the left side of the stroke. The letter is relatively narrow, and the right-hand side of the letter is straight. In the double "L" combinations there is a curve in the lower portion of the letter. The "S" has a flat top, slanting at approximately a 30-degree angle. In the word "Texas" in Cadigan Exhibit No. 3-A the writer has used a small "e" following the letter "T." The same characteristics will be noted on Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 5, 7, and 8.

Additionally, I noted that in addition to the shape of the letters themselves, the relative heights of the letters, the spacing between the letters, the slant of the letters in both the know and questioned documents are the same.

On Cadigan Exhibit No. 3-A, in the portion for address, appears the notation "P.O. Box 2915," and this same wording appears on Cadigan Exhibit No. 5, and on No. 7 and No. 8 except for the "P.O." portion. Here, again, I observed the same formation of the individual letters; the spacing, the style, the slant of the writings in both questioned and known were observed to be the same.

The tail of the "5" is made with a relatively long stroke and the same characteristic appears in the known standards. In the hand printed name "A. Hidell," on Cadigan Exhibit No. 3-A, another characteristic I noted was the very small-sized "i" in the name "Hidell." The writer makes this letter very short in contrast to the other letters in the name. This same characteristic I observed on Cadigan Exhibit No. 10, the passport application. With reference to the "i" dot on Cadigan Exhibit No. 3 in the name "Hidell," in the return portion, the dot is relatively high and between the body of the letter and the following letter "d." In the portion of the word "Chicago"--of the name "Chicago"--in the address portion on Cadigan Exhibit No. 3, the "i" dot is between the "o" and the "g" in "Chicago" and is well above the line of writing. On Cadigan Exhibit No. 4 I observed the same displacement of the "i" dot. In some instances, it is slightly to the right of the body of the letter, as in the word "citizenship" in the sixth line from the bottom, whereas in the word "direct" in the ninth line from the bottom the "i" dot is displaced one and a half letters to the right.

Based upon the combination of these individual characteristics which I have pointed out, as well as others, I reached the opinion that the handwriting and handprinting on Cadigan Exhibit No. 3-A were written by Lee Harvey Oswald, the writer of the known standards, Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 4 through 10.

Mr. EISENBERG. Now, Mr. Cadigan, the photographs which comprise Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 4 through 10 are actually somewhat more limited than the standards, in that they represent in some cases excerpts from the standards, is that correct? Such as excerpts from the Marine Corps file?

Mr. CADIGAN. That is correct.

Mr. EISENBERG. Now, when you refer to the standards, Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 4 through 10, do you mean by that that you based your conclusion only on the excerpts shown in Exhibits Nos. 4 through 10?

Mr. CADIGAN. No; the exhibits, Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 4 through 10, were merely prepared for demonstration purposes. The original examination and comparison was made using all of the writings, the handwriting and handprinting in the State Department file, the Marine Corps file, the passport application and the two letters, one to Governor Connally and one to Brigadier General Tompkins.

Mr. EISENBERG. That is, the documents which you identified very close to the beginning of the deposition, and which I referred to collectively as the standards?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. Mr. Cadigan, I now hand you Commission Exhibit No. 788, and ask you if you have examined that exhibit?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; I have.

Mr. EISENBERG. For the record, that is the money order which was included with the purchase order to Klein's. Have you prepared a photograph of that exhibit, Mr. Cadigan?

Mr. CADIGAN. I have.

Mr. EISENBERG. That will be Cadigan Exhibit No. 11.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 11.)

Mr. EISENBERG. And this was taken by you or under your supervision?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. And is it an accurate photograph of the money order, Exhibit No. 788?

Mr. CADIGAN. It is.

Mr. EISENBERG. Did you compare Exhibit No. 788 with the standards to determine whether Exhibit No. 788 had been written by Lee Harvey Oswald?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. What was your conclusion?

Mr. CADIGAN. That the postal money order, Cadigan Exhibit No. 11, had been prepared by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. EISENBERG. The postal money order is Commission Exhibit No. 788 and your picture is Cadigan Exhibit No. 11, is that correct?

Mr. CADIGAN. That is correct.

Mr. EISENBERG. Could you explain some of the points of identity which led you to the conclusion that you formed?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; I think that using the wording "Dallas, Texas" appearing on Commission Exhibit No. 839 as an example of some of the handwriting characteristics present on this exhibit----

Mr. EISENBERG. You mean Cadigan Exhibit No. 11?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes. In the wording "Dallas, Texas," the writing is quite characteristic. I noted, again, the overall size, spacing, slant, and relative proportions of letters on Cadigan Exhibit No. 11 were the same as on Cadigan Exhibit No. 6, and that the letter "D" was characterized on Cadigan Exhibit No. 11 with a relatively short staff, with a rather long retrace on the left side of the staff, the body of the letter ending in a large curling stroke. The small letter "a" is rather narrow and somewhat flat. There is a rather long smooth connecting stroke between the "a" and the double letter "l." The "s" is almost triangular in shape, and has no ending stroke or tail to the right.

Further, on Cadigan Exhibit No. 11, in the word "Texas" I noted again the rather unusual shape of the small letter "x," in that it appears almost as though it were a letter "u." The capital letter "T" in "Texas" has a very long curved beginning stroke and a small eyelet or loop in the lower portion of the letter.

I noted these same characteristics on Cadigan Exhibit No. 6 in the wording Dallas, Texas, and certain of the letters on Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 6, 7, 8, and the entire word "Texas" in Cadigan Exhibit No. 4.

I noted also, again, that the small letter "p" in the word "sporting" on Cadigan Exhibit No. 11 was made the same as the "p's" in the known standards as well as on Cadigan Exhibit No. 3 in the word "Dept," in that the staff is long, in the form of a long closed loop, and the upper portion of the letter extends above the staff and the body of the letter is not closed to the staff.

I further noted that on Cadigan Exhibit No. 11 the wording "P.O. Box 2915" contained the same characteristics as the same wording in Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 5, 6, and 7. And here again, based on a combination of personal handwriting characteristics in the entire writing, I reached the opinion that Cadigan Exhibit No. 11 had been written by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. EISENBERG. Mr. Cadigan, I now hand you Commission Exhibit No. 135, which, for the record, is an order used for the purchase of the revolver that was apparently used to murder Officer Tippit, and I ask you whether you examined that exhibit.

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; I have.

Mr. EISENBERG. And have you taken a photograph of that exhibit?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. Which you now have before you?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; I have an enlarged photograph.

Mr. EISENBERG. And that would be Cadigan Exhibit No. 12.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 12.)

Mr. EISENBERG. This was taken by you or under your supervision?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. It is an accurate photograph of Exhibit No. 135?

Mr. CADIGAN. It is.

Mr. EISENBERG. Mr. Cadigan, did you compare Commission Exhibit No. 135 with the standard or known writings of Lee Harvey Oswald?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; I did.

Mr. EISENBERG. What was your conclusion as to the origin of 135?

Mr. CADIGAN. That it was written by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. EISENBERG. And can you give some of the reasons that led you to form that conclusion?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; here again, it is the presence of the same combination of individual handwriting characteristics, both handwriting and handprinting. For example, again the wording "Dallas, Texas," is handprinted on Cadigan Exhibit No. 12, and the same characteristics appear in the same wording on Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 9, 7, 6, and 8. The formation of the individual letters on Cadigan Exhibit No. 12, the spacing of the letters, the proportions of the letters, were found to be the same as on the known standards.

Additionally, the capital letter "D" in the name "Drittal" on Cadigan Exhibit No. 12 has a rather unusual appearance in the upper portion of the letter in that it is very pointed and wedge-shaped, and I found this same shape present on the reverse side of the passport application on Cadigan Exhibit No. 10, page 2 in the word "Dec."

Again, I noted the rather long tail or ending stroke on the number "5" in the address portion of this exhibit. Again, based on finding the same combination of individual handwriting habits in the questioned and known writings, I concluded that Commission Exhibit No. 135 was written by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. EISENBERG. Mr. Cadigan, I hand you Commission Exhibit No. 791, which, for the record, is an application by Oswald for post office box 2915, dated October 9, 1962, and ask you whether you have examined that exhibit?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. And have you prepared a photograph of that exhibit, Mr. Cadigan?

Mr. CADIGAN. I have.

Mr. EISENBERG. That will be Cadigan Exhibit No. 13.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 13.)

Mr. EISENBERG. Was this prepared by you or under your supervision?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. And is it a true and accurate photograph of 791?

Mr. CADIGAN. It is.

Mr. EISENBERG. Did you attempt to determine whether Commission Exhibit No. 791 had been prepared by the author of the standards, Lee Harvey Oswald?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. What was your conclusion?

Mr. CADIGAN. That Lee Harvey Oswald had prepared the hand printing, signature, and date on Commission Exhibit No. 791. This excludes the box number and the wording "Dallas, Tex.," in the lower right portion.

Mr. EISENBERG. Can you give some of the reasons why you came to that conclusion?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; the reasons are basically the same, the presence of the same combination of both handwritten and hand printed characteristics in the known and questioned exhibits. On Cadigan Exhibit No. 18 we have the hand printed wording----

Mr. EISENBERG. Cadigan Exhibit No. 18?

Mr. CADIGAN. Cadigan Exhibit No. 10, excuse me, the passport application, we have the wording "LEE OSWALD." This hand printed signature is quite distinctive in the formation of the individual letters, in the spacing of the letters, and their slant. For example, the letter "L" on both Cadigan Exhibit No. 13 and on Cadigan Exhibit No. 10, there is a small hook in the upper left portion where the downstroke begins, and there is a little tent or hill at the base of the letter. The double letter "E's" also have a curve, a dent at the base of the letter, although not so pronounced. Both letters, both letter "E's," are approximately the same height as the "L."

In the last name "OSWALD" on Cadigan Exhibit No. 13 and on Cadigan Exhibit No. 10 the "O" has a pointed or tented appearance in the upper right portion, and the ending stroke curves down into the body of the letter. The "S" and "W" in both the questioned and known are smaller than the following capital letter "A." This capital letter "A" in both instances is made in the same manner as previously described on other exhibits. The writer uses a lower-case or small "l," and a lower-case or small "d" for the last two letters of his name, the "d" portion or the letter "d" in both instances being made with a straight-slanted stroke, then an abrupt circular stroke to the left.

In addition on this same exhibit I noted the formation of the letter "i." The exhibit I refer to is Cadigan Exhibit No. 13--the "i" being made very small in relation to the other letters adjacent to it.

This document also bears the signature "Lee H. Oswald" which, again, is a very characteristic signature. It appears in Cadigan Exhibit No. 13, the questioned document, and Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The signature I noted was written rather rapidly. It is somewhat distorted in appearance. The initial "L" has a rather long curved beginning stroke and relatively narrow upper and lower portions of the letter. The letter "H" is made with two parallel strokes and it can be seen that there is a very little retrace from the base of the first stroke in the letter to the top of the second stroke in the letter.

The "O" combination is rather unusual in that the writer swings into the letter "s" from the top of the "O." Also, as the signature progresses to the right it increases in size, and very noticeably in the "ld" portion where the "d" stands well above the line of writing. And in this particular signature there is a long-swinging stroke from the top of the "d," having a shape similar to a "u" lying on its side. The base of the letter has a very sharp angular formation.

Again, based on a combination of the same individual handwriting and hand printing characteristics, I reached the opinion that Commission Exhibit No. 791 was prepared by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. EISENBERG. Mr. Cadigan, I now hand you Commission Exhibit No. 793, consisting of a change-of-address card relating to box 2915. Have you examined that exhibit?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; I have.

Mr. EISENBERG. And have you prepared a photograph thereof?

Mr. CADIGAN. I have.

Mr. EISENBERG. That will be Cadigan Exhibit No. 14.

(The document referred to was marked Cadigan Exhibit No. 14.)

Mr. EISENBERG. This photograph is an accurate reproduction of Commission Exhibit No. 793?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; it is.

Mr. EISENBERG. Mr. Cadigan, getting back for a moment to Cadigan Exhibit No. 13, I see that there is another picture shown on that exhibit, apart from the one as to which you testified.

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. Can you describe that?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes. That is a Post Office Department Form 1093, application for post office box, and the post office box number is 6225, and it is signed, Lee H. Oswald.

Mr. EISENBERG. And why is that included on the picture with Cadigan Exhibit No. 13, or rather on the picture with Commission Exhibit No. 791? Is that because they were both from----

Mr. CADIGAN. No; it is part of another post office application that does not relate to box 2916.

Mr. EISENBERG. Did you have any particular reason for printing that up with the photograph of Exhibit No. 791?

Mr. CADIGAN. No. I think it may have been part of another exhibit which has not as yet been introduced.

Mr. EISENBERG. Does your identification of Exhibit No. 791 in any way depend upon that photograph?

Mr. CADIGAN. No; not at all.

Mr. EISENBERG. So we can disregard it for our purposes?

Mr. CADIGAN. If you want to, I can take it out.

Mr. EISENBERG. Well, it is in.

Mr. CADIGAN. I mean I can just cut it along here.

Mr. EISENBERG. I would rather leave it in, since it is in the record.

Mr. CADIGAN. All right.

Mr. EISENBERG. I just wanted to make sure that it didn't need to be discussed as part of the identification of Exhibit No. 791, and I take it it does not?

Mr. CADIGAN. No.

Mr. EISENBERG. Now, getting back to Commission Exhibit No. 793 and the photograph thereof, which is Cadigan Exhibit No. 14, did you attempt to determine whether Commission Exhibit No. 793 had been prepared by Lee Harvey Oswald?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes.

Mr. EISENBERG. The photograph of which is Cadigan Exhibit No. 14. And what was your conclusion on that?

Mr. CADIGAN. Again, that Commission Exhibit No. 793 was written by Lee Harvey Oswald, again based upon finding the same combination of individual handwriting and hand printing characteristics in both the questioned writing and the known standards.

Mr. EISENBERG. Could you discuss some of those common characteristics?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes. Here, again, the entire word "Dallas" and the word Texas is made in a very characteristic manner which I have described before, and which appears on Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 9, 6, 7, and 8.

The signature "Lee H. Oswald" was found to have the same characteristics as the known signatures, although here I noted that in the ending "d" in Oswald the stroke was less cursive than the ending "d" in Cadigan Exhibit No. 13, in that the writer makes a rather narrow loop and does not cross the staff of the letter "d." I noted this characteristic, also, in Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 9 and 10. I would like to point out that here, again, the writer varies his individual characteristics, which is entirely normal and expected, and actually it adds weight to the characteristic to find that it does vary to some degree. All writing, particularly signatures, are never exactly duplicated and some variation is normally expected, and finding the same variations in both questioned and known signatures increases the value of it, so that, again, the presence of the same combination of handwriting and hand printing characteristics in Cadigan Exhibit No. 14 in the known exhibits enabled me to reach the opinion that Commission Exhibit No. 793 was written by Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. EISENBERG. You used the term "cursive" in respect to this. Can you explain the meaning of that term?

Mr. CADIGAN. Yes; the ending "d" stroke is made with a flourish or a sweeping motion on Cadigan Exhibit No. 13, and on Cadigan Exhibit No. 14 the stroke ends abruptly at the staff of the letter.

Mr. EISENBERG. And why do you call one "more cursive"?

Mr. CADIGAN. Merely for description.

Mr. EISENBERG. Can you explain the meaning of the term "cursive" apart from your use in this instance?

Mr. CADIGAN. I think cursive has also been used to describe the roundness of writing as opposed to an angular shape. I think it also is sometimes used to distinguish between handwriting and hand printing.