Nicoletti's Rifle

[Hal Loflin]

I searched this forum and couldn't find anything so forgive me if this has already been discussed. In Files' video I don't see where he states the caliber of the gun that Nicoletti fired or if it was suppressed (silencer). He tells of sighting in the guns outside of Dallas/Mesquite but doesn't mention the caliber. Has this come out and was the gun equipped with a silencer?THanks

[Dealey Joe]

Hal As far as I can remember I have never heard about exactly what gun Chuck used?Someone here may know?

[Hal Loflin]

I did find where Files had mentioned to Vernon cleaning a Marlin rifle along with the Fireball back at the hotel room in Mesquite after the assassination. The online info I was reading stated that it could very well have been a 30.06 but that had been re-chambered for a 6.5 round.

[Devlin MacGregor]

Mr. Loflin:Please post your authoritative sources, direct links, or exact quotes for your 2 statements below so that we may all study them together here.Otherwise what you state above remains Hearsay, rumor, or conjecture, does it not ? Thank You.

[Hal Loflin]

Devlin MacGregor wrote:Mr. Loflin:Please post your authoritative sources, direct links, or exact quotes for your 2 statements below so that we may all study them together here.Otherwise what you state above remains Hearsay, rumor, or conjecture, does it not ? Thank You.I would say it is hearsay and speculation. The above information, which i got the caliber wrong, came from a quote from Bob Vernon while he was a Files supporter. Here is the quote:"Files originally said that Nicoletti used a Marlin 7.62 when he fired into Kennedy's head from the DalTex building. . . . I recalled that 7.62 would seemingly be a military weapon. And I did not recall Marlin ever producing a military weapon. So I called the Marlin factory. They confirmed that no such weapon had ever been made by them....but their 30.06 hunting rifle could be reconfigured, I believe they said to hold 5 rounds."

[Ed Teach]

I have been looking for this information as well. As has been said before on this forum although I am to new to remember who said it Marlin did work on a handful of Johnson rifles for Johnson. These prototypes guns would be extremely rare less than 9 or 10 counting some other prototypes made by another company. One thing unique about the Marlin Johnson was that it used a standard model 1903 clip as opposed to the rotary clips employed in other Johnson rifles. Now here is something about the Marlin Johnson's and Johnson M1941 models in particular that may have relevance to this discussion - it is very easy to take the rifle into two pieces because of the nature of it's construction and operation. Files talk about cars with hidden weapon compartments dovetails very nicely with such a weapon.The Marlin Johnson rifles are extremely extremely rare. It is just conjecture on my part but it seems to me that a professional hitman just might be the type of person to own such a weapon. Couple that with the fact that the Marlin's are prototypes and thus probably extremely well made (they are trying to win a military contract with this weapon...the Garand was chosen instead for various reasons) with very precision tolerances and the known fact that Johnson rifles in general were very accurate and with the break off barrel factor leads me to conclude that it would be an almost perfect sniper's rifle. Another thing - semi auto...6 shots as fast as you can pull the trigger. Oswald probably could have shot that many times in that many seconds had he been using one of these long guns!30.06Again just conjecture but I think the back of the head shot from deep inside a second floor room of Dal Tex was made with this gun (Nicoletti's) but more on that in a later post.