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wounds. This would be achieved by pressing the muzzle of the firearm against
the body and operating the trigger with the thumb of whichever hand was naturally
used.
The hand not operating the trigger would either hold the butt area or could
be used to steady the firearm by holding the barrel. The number of discharges is
not incompatible with self inflicted gunshot wounds. I have seen no evidence
in the documents or the photographs to support Professor Gibsons interpretation
of the sequence of the discharges. In my opinion it is possible that the discharge
most likely to have caused death could have occurred in the sequence later than
indicated by Professor Gibson but even if it had been the first discharge medical
experience shows that death is not necessarily instantaneous even when a vital
organ is damaged. I have personal knowledge of a case of suicide involving two
self inflicted wounds to the head from .455 calibre bullets and personal knowledge
of other gunshot injuries which did not result in instantaneous death even though
vital organs were severely damaged.
The use of .38 calibre bullets is no guarantee of death from a single discharge
even though vital organs are hit. Again I have personal knowledge of injuries
caused by three .38 bullets fired from cartridges giving higher kinetic energies
than those stated to have been used in the revolver shown in the photographs.
These injuries resulted in death some weeks after the injuries were inflicted.
One of the three discharges which hit the victim was in the frontal stomach area
and resulted in the loss of an unborn child before the death of the mother
occurred some three weeks later. The other two discharges caused injuries to
non vital areas of the body.
I can find no areas of disagreement with anything that Mr. Cimino says in his
statement nor in the transcript of his evidence at the inquest.
It appears from the evidence that there is some doubt about who is responsible
for taking hand swabs from suspected users of firearms. Had swabs been taken of the
deceased hands and had he been responsible for the five discharges from the revolver
I am confident that evidence to support this would have been obtained. What is more
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