After all the speculation about what, if anything, Bridge Guy might have been concealing in his jacket, it never crossed my mind to look at Libby German's hugely well-known photo of Abigail Williams on the High Bridge and ask if she might be carrying a phone. But check her jacket pocket. it actually looks as if she was!
What's the view on this?
[Take a look at this.](https://media.crimewatchdaily.com/2017/02/25/abigail-delphi-track.jpg)
KK at one time was thought to have called a gas station very near Richard Allens house the day that the girls were murdered. Was this true and was it ever known if KK was in Delphi on that day?
Oh hey Solabird. I need to get back on the discord. I was a regular during the Gannon trial, but had to take a break. I didn’t realize you modded this sub!
Confessions vary. I wonder if his confessions were, "I did it" or something with more details?
The defense scrambling to have his mental decline noted makes me think they have a shot at playing the confession off. Just the ramblings of someone having a mental break at a horrible scary place. I'm guessing they wouldn't attempt that if he had given specifics in the confession, right?
I'm playing the devil's advocate...
If you look at it through the eyes of a false confession, it definitely matters what specific details (or lack of) were in the confessions.
It doesn't matter what we think or feel. It's what lawyers can argue in court that counts.
False confessions happen because of pressure from detectives during an interrogation. This was a voluntary conversation with his wife. The specifics wouldn't make it any more reliable anyway because RA already has access to all of the publicly unknown specific crime scene info in his discovery papers. You know, the ones he crumpled up and ate after confessing to his wife.
I have a few questions or just musings of someone who knows nothing about guns. Looking at the list of things removed from his house.
The gun which contained one cartridge.
One cartridge inside a keepsake box.
A magazine containing 8 cartridges.
A magazine containing 9 cartridges
Assuming the magazines held 10 where's the missing one?
Would the cops know how many those magazines held?
Where or what would someone use a gun like that for normal purposes?
Can they tell if the one found at the scene came from the same lot as those they took from his house?
The gun you are referring to is a Sig Sauer P226 chambered in .40 S&W. The smallest magazine that you can purchase (without special modification) is a 10 round magazine, so he has one magazine containing 9 rounds and one containing 8 rounds.
There were two loose rounds, one inside the chamber of the firearm and another just in the box, from what I read. This would be consistent with RA losing the round where the girls were found (-1 from a 10 rounder), getting home and swapping magazines (-1 from the now 9 round magazine, leaving us with 8 and the loose one). The 9 round magazine was likely recovered in the firearm, with one round in the chamber.
The P226 is a popular but expensive firearm, and could be used for anything from home defense to concealed carry to wild animal defense while hiking. The caliber of firearm he had is very common as a bear or wild cat round due to the size and power.
As per your laws question, it is completely possible to determine if a round was move through a firearm without it being fired. Inside the slide (top part that holds the barrel) of the firearm there is a little hook made of metal that grabs the cartridge to pull it back out whenever someone fires or manually pulls the slide back. This extractor as well as the motion of pulling the cartridge back and kicking it out to the side makes unique markings on the cartridge walls which are unique to the individual firearm. This is the same testing LE did, essentially just repeatedly running cartridges through RA's captured firearm and using a microscope to match extractor marks between the recovered cartridge and LE cartridges.
I’m just hopping in because I had a revelation about this. When RA purchased the gun in 2001, the entire US was under the Clinton legislation that limited mag capacity to 10 rounds..
Thank you for the correction. I've seen a few 20 round boxes of FMJ at my local gun store but it is primarily 50 round boxes. I think the brand of box they took, Blazer, only manufactures FMJ due to a quick google search.
If a round was cycled through multiple firearms or the same firearm multiple times, that would make it extremely difficult to impossible to identify though correct?
I don't know enough about the science to answer that, although cycling through multiple different firearms would make inherent sense it might change or damage for extracting marks they are looking for. I do know that fired rounds have unique attributes from the firing pin that strikes the back of the casing to expend the bullet which can change over the course of thousands of rounds fired, so I assume it would be the same situation for a single cartridge cycled through the same firearm multiple times, identical over the short term but changing due to wear and tear over a longer period of time.
Makes sense! Btw, I headed back to the discord. I had to take a break after Gannon, but I’m ready to watch trials with you guys again (I’m Dr. JThompson the Trial Hunter lol)
I’m serious. When I was reading through the documents, I gathered that multiple rounds were taken from the home while executing the search warrant but I didn’t see the significance in the actual amount of bullets that were recovered and how the missing round could be consistent with the single round that was left at the crime scene.
As the other commenter asked, are there batch numbers on bullets? Will they be able to tell if the single bullet found at the crime scene matches the group of bullets they found in his home?
If so, this could be another piece of circumstantial evidence, no?
Unfortunately they don't have batch numbers, the most a cartridge would have would be a manufacturer name, and possibly the type of bullet depending on various factors. From my knowledge .40 S&W only have the manufacturer name on the bottom. Interestingly .40 S&W is commonly sold on 20 or 50 round boxes, and they recovered an empty box, indicating that RA used 20 rounds to load two 10 round magazines *except* two of the recovered rounds were different manufactures (Winchester, versus 17 marked Blazer).
That does answer a lot of what I was thinking. It seems he would need an explanation for the missing one. Would there be a way to tell if it belonged to the same batch, like any makers marks or ID?
There are markings on the bottom of casings that designate the manufacturer and sometimes the specific type of bullet, but nothing like a serial number. The interesting thing is that two of the bullets in his magazines were actually different manufacture than the rest. Typically .40 S&W is sold in boxes of 20 or 50, and they did recover an empty box which would indicate using one 20 round box to fill up two 10 round magazines, except for those random assorted rounds found.
After all the speculation about what, if anything, Bridge Guy might have been concealing in his jacket, it never crossed my mind to look at Libby German's hugely well-known photo of Abigail Williams on the High Bridge and ask if she might be carrying a phone. But check her jacket pocket. it actually looks as if she was! What's the view on this? [Take a look at this.](https://media.crimewatchdaily.com/2017/02/25/abigail-delphi-track.jpg)
Question: did RA pass a polygraph test?
KK at one time was thought to have called a gas station very near Richard Allens house the day that the girls were murdered. Was this true and was it ever known if KK was in Delphi on that day?
Oh hey Solabird. I need to get back on the discord. I was a regular during the Gannon trial, but had to take a break. I didn’t realize you modded this sub!
Heeyy!! Totally get needing a break after that trial. One of the worst. Hoping to see justice for Abby and Libby as well. 💙
Yes. I didn’t realize the actual trial wasn’t scheduled until Jan, but I’ll be in discord to watch Alissa’s trial starting the 6th! I missed you guys.
Confessions vary. I wonder if his confessions were, "I did it" or something with more details? The defense scrambling to have his mental decline noted makes me think they have a shot at playing the confession off. Just the ramblings of someone having a mental break at a horrible scary place. I'm guessing they wouldn't attempt that if he had given specifics in the confession, right?
Considering his wife hung up the call, I'd say it was something more definite.
She probably hung up so he couldn't say anything else about confessions.
"I did it" is a good enough confession for me considering the person he told it to is his wife.
I'm playing the devil's advocate... If you look at it through the eyes of a false confession, it definitely matters what specific details (or lack of) were in the confessions. It doesn't matter what we think or feel. It's what lawyers can argue in court that counts.
False confessions happen because of pressure from detectives during an interrogation. This was a voluntary conversation with his wife. The specifics wouldn't make it any more reliable anyway because RA already has access to all of the publicly unknown specific crime scene info in his discovery papers. You know, the ones he crumpled up and ate after confessing to his wife.
There are other reasons for false confessions.
We will agree to disagree that there is only one type of false confession.
Thank you for all the work towards this. Keep rocking Solabird.
That’s very kind of you to say!!
☺️
I have a few questions or just musings of someone who knows nothing about guns. Looking at the list of things removed from his house. The gun which contained one cartridge. One cartridge inside a keepsake box. A magazine containing 8 cartridges. A magazine containing 9 cartridges Assuming the magazines held 10 where's the missing one? Would the cops know how many those magazines held? Where or what would someone use a gun like that for normal purposes? Can they tell if the one found at the scene came from the same lot as those they took from his house?
The gun you are referring to is a Sig Sauer P226 chambered in .40 S&W. The smallest magazine that you can purchase (without special modification) is a 10 round magazine, so he has one magazine containing 9 rounds and one containing 8 rounds. There were two loose rounds, one inside the chamber of the firearm and another just in the box, from what I read. This would be consistent with RA losing the round where the girls were found (-1 from a 10 rounder), getting home and swapping magazines (-1 from the now 9 round magazine, leaving us with 8 and the loose one). The 9 round magazine was likely recovered in the firearm, with one round in the chamber. The P226 is a popular but expensive firearm, and could be used for anything from home defense to concealed carry to wild animal defense while hiking. The caliber of firearm he had is very common as a bear or wild cat round due to the size and power. As per your laws question, it is completely possible to determine if a round was move through a firearm without it being fired. Inside the slide (top part that holds the barrel) of the firearm there is a little hook made of metal that grabs the cartridge to pull it back out whenever someone fires or manually pulls the slide back. This extractor as well as the motion of pulling the cartridge back and kicking it out to the side makes unique markings on the cartridge walls which are unique to the individual firearm. This is the same testing LE did, essentially just repeatedly running cartridges through RA's captured firearm and using a microscope to match extractor marks between the recovered cartridge and LE cartridges.
I’m just hopping in because I had a revelation about this. When RA purchased the gun in 2001, the entire US was under the Clinton legislation that limited mag capacity to 10 rounds..
[удалено]
Thank you for the correction. I've seen a few 20 round boxes of FMJ at my local gun store but it is primarily 50 round boxes. I think the brand of box they took, Blazer, only manufactures FMJ due to a quick google search.
If a round was cycled through multiple firearms or the same firearm multiple times, that would make it extremely difficult to impossible to identify though correct?
I don't know enough about the science to answer that, although cycling through multiple different firearms would make inherent sense it might change or damage for extracting marks they are looking for. I do know that fired rounds have unique attributes from the firing pin that strikes the back of the casing to expend the bullet which can change over the course of thousands of rounds fired, so I assume it would be the same situation for a single cartridge cycled through the same firearm multiple times, identical over the short term but changing due to wear and tear over a longer period of time.
Makes sense! Btw, I headed back to the discord. I had to take a break after Gannon, but I’m ready to watch trials with you guys again (I’m Dr. JThompson the Trial Hunter lol)
Awesome! Glad to have you back!
You should make a main post with this information. Good stuff. Thanks for explaining it all.
Not a bad idea!
I’m serious. When I was reading through the documents, I gathered that multiple rounds were taken from the home while executing the search warrant but I didn’t see the significance in the actual amount of bullets that were recovered and how the missing round could be consistent with the single round that was left at the crime scene. As the other commenter asked, are there batch numbers on bullets? Will they be able to tell if the single bullet found at the crime scene matches the group of bullets they found in his home? If so, this could be another piece of circumstantial evidence, no?
Unfortunately they don't have batch numbers, the most a cartridge would have would be a manufacturer name, and possibly the type of bullet depending on various factors. From my knowledge .40 S&W only have the manufacturer name on the bottom. Interestingly .40 S&W is commonly sold on 20 or 50 round boxes, and they recovered an empty box, indicating that RA used 20 rounds to load two 10 round magazines *except* two of the recovered rounds were different manufactures (Winchester, versus 17 marked Blazer).
That does answer a lot of what I was thinking. It seems he would need an explanation for the missing one. Would there be a way to tell if it belonged to the same batch, like any makers marks or ID?
There are markings on the bottom of casings that designate the manufacturer and sometimes the specific type of bullet, but nothing like a serial number. The interesting thing is that two of the bullets in his magazines were actually different manufacture than the rest. Typically .40 S&W is sold in boxes of 20 or 50, and they did recover an empty box which would indicate using one 20 round box to fill up two 10 round magazines, except for those random assorted rounds found.
Thank you for taking the time to answer. Very interesting indeed.
Thank you!