POTD: Carcano from the Same Store as Lee Harvey Oswald’s Rifle was Bought
Sam.S 07.06.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! On November 22nd, 1963 President John F Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. In the decades since a rather morbid curiosity and fascination with historical firearms has drawn the Carcano rifle into the spotlight. Here we have an example of an extremely similar rifle to Lee Harvey Oswald’s because it was purchased from the same sporting goods store. Rock Island Auction Company goes into more detail below:
“Ordered from Klein’s Sporting Goods of Chicago under the alias Alek Hidell, Oswald’s Model 38 Carcano was delivered fitted with a similar black leather sling, Ordnance Optics scope, and dark stock finish. Following a legal dispute over the ownership of the rifle, due to Oswald’s widow Marina selling her rights to it after the assassination, the carbine was declared government property, and now sits in the National Archives and Record Administration Building in Maryland. Included with this lot is 4 en-block clips (3 blue, one brass, the latter dated “953”, like the one in Oswald’s), 6 loose rounds of ammunition, one box of Western Cartridge Lot WCC-6000 ammunition, and a grouping of papers relating to the Kennedy Assassination in general and the Carcano in particular, including several copies of Life magazine. Also a list of serial numbers and configurations of other Carcano Rifles from the infamous shipment.”
Lot 3373: Carcano 1938 Carbine 6.5 mm [Photograph found in Auction Catalog #50, Rock Island Auction Company]. (n.d.). Retrieved July 5, 2021, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/50/3373/carcano-1938-carbine-65-mm
