'In May 1964, Gallagher used a scientific technique -- neutron activation analysis (BAA) -- to more precisely identify the fragements...."What security measures were taken to guard the evidence while in the state of California?" "Well, all the time I was working with the samples, every place I went with samples in my possession, I had two armed guards [U.S.marshalls] on either side of me"....His research on NAA was supported by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) as well as the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration of the U.S. Department of Justice.
....
Dr. Guinn found that when it came to most manufactured rounds of ammunition, NAA could not detect any differences in metallic composition between bullets of the same production lot (a lot consisting of several batches of melts of lead) -- they were essentially carbon copies of each other, However, Mannlicher-Carcano ammunition was very "unusual" in that the bullets seemed to have very little uniformity within a production lot. Bullets (which consist of 98 to 88 percent lead, the rest being tace elements) from a single box of twenty cartridges from the same lot varied widely in their composition, particularly with respect to the (most important [italics]) (for NAA purposes) of the three major trace elements, antimony, which manufacturers add to harden the bullet. (The other two most common elements are silver and copper.)
In fact, the Mannlicher-Carcano ammunition made by Western Cartridge varied so much that individual bullets from a single box of ammunition could be identified and distinguished from each other, and hence are ideal for NAA since the possibility of a mere coincidence when you find a match is substantially reduced....The emissions given off by the sample as the radioactivity decays are then recorded, in Guinn's case by a "high-resolution germanium" detector or counter, an instrument that is a great deal more sensitive and sophisticated than the relatively crude Geiger counter featured so prominently in movies made at the dawn of the atomic age. Since various elements form different radioisotopes, the counter not only distinguishes them in the sample material, but also is capable of measuring their relative quantities with extraordinary precision.'
(Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, pp. 812-13)
Bugliosi, however, never mentions arsenic in his book, not only another element that hardens bullets, but also an insecticide that was used on cotton in Clinton mafia country.
