Lee Harvey Oswald's 38 Revolver:

FBI Exhibit

- I set-out to write how the 38 S&W was enough gun for an assassin to have killed Police Officer Tippet with four shots - but the story becomes VERY murky very quickly ..And, while debate still lingers over whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of U S President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, - many people accept that he did murder Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit later that afternoon. 

The weapon used is described as a modified Smith & Wesson Victory Model in 38 S&W, manufactured for export to England as part of the Lend-Lease program in W.W.II, and brought back into USA following the war.

 Patrolman Tippit was struck four times at nearly point blank range and died instantly. Despite their somewhat notorious record as an assassin's weapon, revolvers chambered for the .38 S&W cartridge are what they always have been - handy low-recoil firearms suitable for a wide variety of applications.

.. EXCEPT this gun likely was re- chambered into a larger .38" S&W SPECIAL caliber.

On January 27, 1963, someone, possibly Lee, mail-ordered a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver (Commando model number 1905, serial number V510210) from Seaport Traders, Inc, located at 1221 South Grand in Los Angeles, California. The purchaser used the name of A. J. Hiddel, to whom it was shipped. The price of the handgun was $29.95. 

As manufactured - it had a standard five-inch barrel, but L M Johnson, of Van Nuys, California, modified the gun by cutting down the barrel to two and a quarter inches and rechambering it to accept .38 special ammunition as opposed to .38 S&W short ammunition.

The "Commando" name was actually a Wartime Colts model Name.

Oswald was arrested at the Texas Theatre with, we are told, a revolver tucked away in the waistband of his slacks.... It was a Smith & Wesson .38 special two-inch 'Commando' model revolver and cost $29.95. Connecting the weapon supposedly taken from Lee to the shooting of Tippit is problematic. A radio broadcast by Sergeant Gerald Hill, one of the first policemen to arrive at the scene of the Patrolman Tippit murder, was transmitted as follows:

"The shell at the scene indicates that the suspect is armed with an automatic .38 rather than a pistol." The handgun allegedly taken from Oswald at the time of his arrest was a .38 revolver, not an automatic. Sergant Hill made his statement after Officer J. M. Poe, another officer on the scene, showed him a Winston cigarette package containing three empty bullet shells, which Domingo Benavides [witness in nearby truck] had turned over to him after the shooting.

 Ammunition for a revolver is not interchangeable with ammunition for an automatic, and the shells on either type of ammunition are clearly marked -- ".38 spl" (special for revolvers) or ".38 auto" (automatic)..

.After he was arrested, and accused of shooting President Kennedy and policeman Tippit, Oswald denied owning a Smith & Wesson handgun or a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle -- which were linked to him through a phony name and post-office box.

This man had to be stopped.
He was the most dangerous criminal in the history of the world.
Here was a man who was able
to go from one location to another with the swiftness of Superman,
to change his physical characteristics at will and
who pumped four automatic slugs into a police officer with a revolver --
indeed a master criminal!"
~ Roger Craig

The Gun That Did Not Exist?

Next, Newcomb/Adams shift focus to Oswald's possession of a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver at the time of his arrest. They cite the Dodd Committee hearings and claim that a chart based on ATF-prepared Seaport Trader records, shows that the gun dealer "did not ship a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver to Dallas in 1963." 

The chart, Dodd Committee Exhibit 28, is reproduced in the manuscript to underscore the claim. [8] This oft-cited passage has been used as the cornerstone of critical claims that the revolver attributed to Oswald was a "plant," dropped into Oswald's hand at the Texas Theater (or switched with Oswald's "real" gun), and that the paper trail later presented was fabricated to frame Oswald. Yet the record - and Newcomb/Adams' own manuscript - shows that Exhibit 28 was based on an incomplete record.

I don't have the means to untangle this story .. perhaps a professional investigative journalist might be able to clarify the 'facts' about Oswald's guns. - The story of Oswald's killer - Jack Ruby's 38" Special Lightweight Colt Cobra revolver is much clearer:

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2016/12/jack-leon-ruby-colt-cobra-revolver.html

Of course neither the 38 S&W (Bullet Dia .361 inch) nor the 38 S&W Special (Bullet dia. .357 inch) is actually measured at .380" ..

Once you have read both of my stories about these two killers .. you will feel much better after a nice long shower to wash-off the grime of New World corruption & violence..

Marty K.