c. From the anterior portion of the laceration in the right

frontal lobe.

d. From the contused left fronto-parietal cortex.

e. From the line of transection of the spinal cord.

f. From the right cerebellar cortex.

g. From the superficial laceration of the basilar aspect of the left temporal lobe.

During the course of this examination seven (7) black and white and six (6) color 4x5 inch negatives are exposed but not developed (the cassettes containing these negatives have been delivered by hand to Rear Admiral George W. Burkley, MC, USN, White House Physician).

MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION:

BRAIN: Multiple sections from representative areas as noted above are examined. All sections are essentially similar and show extensive disruption of brain tissue with associated hemorrhage. In none of the sections examined are there significant abnormalities other than those directly related to the recent trauma.

HEART: Sections show a moderate amount of sub-epicardial fat. The coronary arteries, myocardial fibers, and endocardium are unremarkable.

LUNGS: Sections through the grossly described area of contusion in the right upper lobe exhibit disruption of alveolar walls and recent hemorrhage into alveoli. Sections are otherwise essentially unremarkable.

LIVER: Sections show the normal hepatic architecture to be well preserved. The parenchymal cells exhibit markedly granular cytoplasm indicating high glycogen content which is characteristic of the “liver biopsy pattern” of sudden death.

SPLEEN: Sections show no significant abnormalities.

KIDNEYS: Sections show no significant abnormalities aside from dilatation and engorgement of blood vessels of all calibers.

SKIN WOUNDS: Sections through the wounds in the occipital and upper right posterior thoracic regions are essentially similar. In each there is loss of continuity of the epidermis with coagulation necrosis of the tissues at the wound margins. The scalp wound exhibits several small fragments of bone at its margins in the subcutaneous tissue.

FINAL SUMMARY: This supplementary report covers in more detail the extensive degree of cerebral trauma in this case. However neither this portion of the examination nor the microscopic examinations alter the previously submitted report or add significant details to the cause of death.

J. J. HUMES CDR, MC, USN, 497831

6 December 1963

From: Commanding Officer, U. S. Naval Medical School

To: The White House Physician

Via: Commanding Officer, National Naval Medical Center

Subj: Supplementary report of Naval Medical School autopsy No. A63-272, John F, Kennedy; forwarding of

1. All copies of the above subject final supplementary report are forwarded herewith.

J. H. STOVER, JR.

- - - - - - - - - -

6 December 1963

FIRST ENDORSEMENT

From: Commanding Officer, National Naval Medical Center To: The White House Physician

1. Forwarded.

C. B. GALLOWAY

APPENDIX X

Expert Testimony

FIREARMS AND FIREARMS IDENTIFICATION

Three experts gave testimony concerning firearms and firearms identification: Robert A. Frazier and Cortlandt Cunningham of the FBI, and Joseph D. Nicol, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation of the State of Illinois. Frazier has been in the field of firearms identification for 23 years, following a 1-year course of specialized training in the FBI Laboratory. Cunningham has been in the field for 5 years, having also completed the FBI course. Nicol has been in the firearms identification field since 1941, having begun his training in the Chicago police crime laboratory. Each has made many thousands of firearms identification examinations.[A10-1] Frazier testified on the rifle, the rifle cartridge cases, and the rifle bullets; Cunningham on the revolver, the revolver cartridge cases, the revolver bullets, and the paraffin test; and Nicol on all the bullets and cartridge cases and the paraffin test.[A10-2] Nicol’s conclusions were identical to those of Frazier and Cunningham, except as noted.

General Principles

A cartridge, or round of ammunition, is composed of a primer, a cartridge case, powder, and a bullet. The primer, a metal cup containing a detonable mixture, fits into the base of the cartridge case, which is loaded with the powder. The bullet, which usually consists of lead or of a lead core encased in a higher strength metal jacket, fits into the neck of the cartridge case. To fire the bullet, the cartridge is placed in the chamber of a firearm, immediately behind the firearm’s barrel. The base of the cartridge rests against a solid support called the breech face or, in the case of a bolt-operated weapon, the bolt face. When the trigger is pulled, a firing pin strikes a swift, hard blow into the primer, detonating the priming mixture. The flames from the resulting explosion ignite the powder, causing a rapid combustion whose force propels the bullet forward through the barrel.

The barrels of modern firearms are “rifled,” that is, several spiral grooves are cut into the barrel from end to end. The purpose of the rifling is to set the bullet spinning around its axis, giving it a stability in flight that it would otherwise lack. The weapons of a given make and model are alike in their rifling characteristics; that is, number of grooves, number of lands (the raised portion of the barrel between the grooves) and twist of the rifling. When a bullet is fired through a barrel, it is engraved with these rifling characteristics. For example, all S. & W. .38/200 British Service Revolvers have five grooves and five lands, which twist to the right, and bullets fired through such a revolver will have five groove and land impressions, right twist.

In addition to rifling characteristics, every weapon bears distinctive microscopic characteristics on its components, including its barrel, firing pin, and breech face. While a weapon’s rifling characteristics are common to all other weapons of its make and model (and sometimes even to weapons of a different make or model), a weapon’s microscopic characteristics are distinctive, and differ from those of every other weapon, regardless of make and model. Such markings are initially caused during manufacture, since the action of manufacturing tools differs microscopically from weapon to weapon, and since the tools change microscopically while being operated. As a weapon is used, further distinctive microscopic markings are introduced by the effects of wear, fouling, and cleaning. As Frazier testified:

Q. Can you explain how you are able to come to a conclusion that a cartridge case was fired in a particular weapon to the exclusion of all other weapons?

MR. FRAZIER. Yes, sir; during the manufacture of a weapon, there are certain things done to the mechanism of it, which are by machine or by filing, by grinding, which form the parts of the weapon into their final shape. These machining and grinding and filing operations will mark the metal with very fine scratches or turning marks and grinding marks in such a way that there will be developed on the surface of the metal a characteristic pattern. This pattern, because it is made by these accidental machine-type operations, will be characteristic of that particular weapon, and will not be reproduced on separate weapons. It may be a combination of marks that--the face of the bolt may be milled, then it may be in part filed to smooth off the corners, and then, as a final operation, it may be polished, or otherwise adjusted during the hand fitting operation, so that it does have its particular pattern of microscopic marks.

The bolt face of the 139 rifle I have photographed and enlarged in this photograph [Commission Exhibit No. 558] to show the types of marks I was referring to.

* * * * *

The marks produced during manufacture are the marks seen on the bolt face; filing marks, machining marks of the various types, even forging marks or casting marks if the bolt happens to be forged or cast. And then variations which occur in these marks during the life of the weapon are very important in identification, because many of the machining marks can be flattened out, can be changed, by merely a grain of sand between the face of the cartridge case and the bolt at the time a shot is fired, which will itself scratch and dent the bolt face. So the bolt face will pick up a characteristic pattern of marks which are peculiar to it.

* * * * *

* * * [T]he marks which are placed on any bolt face are accidental in nature. That is, they are not placed there intentionally in the first place. They are residual to some machining operation, such as a milling machine, in which each cutter of the milling tool cuts away a portion of the metal; then the next tooth comes along and cuts away a little more, and so on, until the final surface bears the combination of the various teeth of the milling cutter. In following that operation, then, the surface is additionally scratched--until you have numerous--we call them microscopic characteristics, a characteristic being a mark which is peculiar to a certain place on the bolt face, and of a certain shape, it is of a certain size, it has a certain contour, it may be just a little dimple in the metal, or a spot of rust at one time on the face of the bolt, or have occurred from some accidental means such as dropping the bolt, or repeated use having flattened or smoothed off the surface of the metal.

* * * * *

* * * [A]s the blade of a milling machine travels around a surface, it takes off actually a dust--it is not actually a piece of metal--it scrapes a little steel off in the form of a dust--or a very fine powder or chip--that tooth leaves a certain pattern of marks--that edge. That milling cutter may have a dozen of these edges on its surface, and each one takes a little more. Gradually you wear the metal down, you tear it out actually until you are at the proper depth. Those little pieces of metal, as they are traveling around, can also scratch the face of the bolt--unless they are washed away. So that you may have accidental marks from that source, just in the machining operation.

Now, there are two types of marks produced in a cutting operation. One, from the nicks along the cutting edge of the tool, which are produced by a circular operating tool--which produce very fine scratches in a circular pattern. Each time the tool goes around, it erases those marks that were there before. And when the tool is finally lifted out, you have a series of marks which go around the surface which has been machined, and you will find that that pattern of marks, as this tool goes around, will change. In one area, it will be one set of marks--and as you visually examine the surface of the metal, these very fine marks will extend for a short distance, then disappear, and a new mark of a new type will begin and extend for a short distance. The entire surface, then, will have a--be composed of a series of circles, but the individual marks seen in the microscope will not be circular, will not form complete circles around the face of the bolt.

Q. Have you had occasion to examine two consecutive bolt faces from a factory?

A. Oh, yes.

Q. And what did you find on that examination?

A. There would be no similarity in the individual microscopic characteristics between the two bolt faces.

Q. There actually was none?

A. No, there was none.[A10-3]

* * * * *

Q. How are you able to conclude that a given bullet was fired in a given weapon to the exclusion of all other weapons, Mr. Frazier?

A. That is based again upon the microscopic marks left on the fired bullets and those marks in turn are based upon the barrel from which the bullets are fired.

The marks in the barrel originate during manufacture. They originate through use of the gun, through accidental marks resulting from cleaning, excessive cleaning, of the weapon, or faulty cleaning.

They result from corrosion in the barrel due to the hot gases and possibly corrosive primer mixtures in the cartridges used, and primarily again they result from wear, that is, an eroding of the barrel through friction due to the firing of cartridges, bullets through it.

In this particular barrel the manufacturer’s marks are caused by the drill which drills out the barrel, leaving certain marks from the drilling tool. Then portions of these marks are erased by a rifling tool which cuts the four spiral grooves in the barrel and, in turn, leaves marks themselves, and in connection with those marks of course, the drilling marks, being circular in shape, there is a tearing away of the surface of the metal, so that a microscopically rough surface is left.

Then removing part of those marks with a separate tool causes that barrel to assume an individual characteristic, a character all of its own.

In other words, at that time you could identify a bullet fired from that barrel as having been fired from the barrel to the exclusion of all other barrels, because there is no system whatever to the drilling of the barrel. The only system is in the rifling or in the cutting of the grooves, and in this case of rifle barrels, even the cutters wear down as the barrels are made, eventually of course having to be discarded or resharpened.

Q. Have you examined consecutively manufactured barrels to determine whether their microscopic characteristics are identical?

A. Yes, sir; I have three different sets of, you might say, paired barrels, which have been manufactured on the same machine, one after the other, under controlled conditions to make them as nearly alike as possible, and in each case fired bullets from those barrels could not be identified with each other; in fact, they looked nothing at all alike as far as individual microscopic characteristics are concerned. Their rifling impressions of course would be identical, but the individual marks there would be entirely different.[A10-4]

When a cartridge is fired, the microscopic characteristics of the weapon’s barrel are engraved into the bullet (along with its rifling characteristics), and the microscopic characteristics of the firing pin and breech face are engraved into the base of the cartridge case. By virtue of these microscopic markings, an expert can frequently match a bullet or cartridge case to the weapon in which it was fired. To make such an identification, the expert compares the suspect bullet or cartridge case under a comparison microscope, side by side with a test bullet or cartridge case which has been fired in the weapon, to determine whether the pattern of the markings in the test and suspect items are sufficiently similar to show that they were fired in the same weapon. This is exemplified by Frazier’s examination of Commission Exhibit No. 543, one of the cartridge cases found in the Texas School Book Depository Building after the assassination:

Q. Mr. Frazier, we were just beginning to discuss, before the recess, Commission Exhibit 559, which is a picture, as you described it, of Exhibit No. 543 and a test cartridge under a microscope * * *?

MR. FRAZIER. Yes, sir.

Q. Could you discuss, by using that picture, some of the markings which you have seen under the microscope and on the basis of which you made your identification?

A. Yes, sir. In the photograph I have drawn some small circles and numbered them, those circles, correspondingly on each side of the photograph. The purpose of the circles is not to point out all the similarities, but to call attention to some of them and to help orient in locating a mark on one with a mark on the opposite side of the photograph. In general the area shown is immediately outside of the firing pin in the bolt of the 139 rifle, on the left side of the photograph, and Commission Exhibit 543 on the right side.

The circles have been drawn around the dents or irregularly shaped ridges, small bumps, and depressions on the surface of the metal in six places on each side of the photograph. It is an examination of these marks, and all of the marks on the face of the breech, microscopically which permits a conclusion to be reached. The photograph itself actually is a substitute to show only the type of marks found rather than their nature, that is, their height, their width, or their relationship to each other, which is actually a mental, visual, comparison on the two specimens themselves.

Q. Referring for a second to this mental, visual, comparison, Mr. Frazier, would a person without firearms training--firearms-identification training--be able to look under a microscope and make a determination for himself concerning whether a given cartridge case had been fired in a given weapon?

A. In that connection that person could look through the microscope. He may or may not see these individual characteristics which are present, because he does not know what to look for in the first place, and, secondly, they are of such a nature that you have to mentally sort them out in your mind going back and forth between one area and the other until you form a mental picture of them in a comparison such as this.

If it was a different type of comparison, of parallel marks or something of that nature, then he could see the marks, but in either instance, without having compared hundreds and hundreds of specimens, he would not be able to make any statement as to whether or not they were fired from the same rifle.

Q. Would you say that this is, then, a matter of expert interpretation rather than a point-for-point comparison which a layman could make?

A. I would say so; yes. I don’t think a layman would recognize some of the things on these cartridge cases and some shown in the photographs as actually being significant or not significant, because there will be things present which have nothing whatsoever to do with the firing of the cartridge case in the gun.

There may be a depression in the primer to begin with, and there are no marks registered at that point as a result of the firing. Unless these things are known to occur, someone may actually arrive at a different conclusion, because of the absence of similar marks.

Q. Now having reference to the specific exhibit before you, which is 559--

A. Yes.

Q. Are all the marks shown in both photographs identical?

A. No.

Q. And could you go into detail on a mark which is not identical to explain why you would get such a result?

A. Well, for instance, between what I have drawn here as circle 4 and circle 5, there is a slanting line from the upper left to the lower right on C-6. This line shows as a white line in the photograph.

On the other side there is a rough, very rough ridge which runs through there, having an entirely different appearance from the relatively sharp line on C-6. The significant part of that mark is the groove in between, rather than the sharp edge of the mark, because the sharp corner could be affected by the hardness of the metal or the irregular surface of the primer and the amount of pressure exerted against it, pressing it back against the face of the bolt, at the time the cartridges were fired. So that you would never expect all the marks on one cartridge case to be identical with all the marks on the other cartridge case.

In fact, you would expect many differences. But the comparison is made on the overall pattern, contour, and nature of the marks that are present.

* * * * *

Q. Again there are dissimilar marks on these two pictures [of the firing-pin depressions on the cartridge case Commission Exhibit No. 543, and a test cartridge case], Mr. Frazier?

A. Yes; there are, for the same reason, that metal does not flow the same in every instance, and it will not be impressed to the same depth and to the same amount, depending on the type of metal, the blow that is struck, and the pressures involved.

Q. Is your identification made therefore on the basis of the presence of similarities, as opposed to the absence of dissimilarities?

A. No, that is not exactly right. The identification is made on the presence of sufficient individual microscopic characteristics so that a very definite pattern is formed and visualized on the two surfaces.

Dissimilarities may or may not be present, depending on whether there have been changes to the firing pin through use or wear, whether the metal flows are the same, and whether the pressures are the same or not.

So I don’t think we can say that it is an absence of dissimilarities, but rather the presence of similarities.[A10-5]

A bullet or cartridge case cannot always be identified with the weapon in which it was fired. In some cases, the bullet or cartridge case is too mutilated. In other cases, the weapon’s microscopic characteristics have changed between the time the suspect item was fired and the time the test item was fired--microscopic characteristics change drastically in a short period of time, due to wear, or over a longer period of time, due to wear, corrosion, and cleaning. Still again, the weapon may mark bullets inconsistently--for example, because the bullets are smaller than the barrel, and travel through it erratically.[A10-6]

The Rifle

The rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository shortly after the assassination was a bolt-action, clip-fed, military rifle, 40.2 inches long and 8 pounds in weight.[A10-7] Inscribed on the rifle were various markings, including the words “CAL. 6.5,” “MADE ITALY,” “TERNI,” and “ROCCA”; the numerals “1940” and “40”; the serial number C2766; the letters “R-E,” “PG,” and “TNI”; the figure of a crown; and several other barely decipherable letters and numbers.[A10-8] The rifle bore a very inexpensive Japanese four-power sight, stamped “4 x 18 COATED,” “ORDNANCE OPTICS INC.,” “HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA,” and “MADE IN JAPAN”[A10-9] and a sling consisting of two leather straps, one of which had a broad patch, which apparently had been inserted on the rifle and cut to length.[A10-10] The sling was not a standard rifle sling, but appeared to be a musical instrument strap or a sling from a carrying case or camera bag.[A10-11] A basic purpose of a rifle sling is to enable the rifleman to steady his grip, by wrapping the arm into the sling in a prescribed manner. The sling on the rifle was too short to use in the normal way, but might have served to provide some additional steadiness.[A10-12]

The rifle was identified as a 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano Italian military rifle, Model 91/38.[A10-13] This identification was initially made by comparing the rifle with standard reference works and by the markings inscribed on the rifle.[A10-14] The caliber was independently determined by chambering a Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5 millimeter cartridge in the rifle for fit, and by making a sulfur cast of the inside of the rifle’s barrel which was measured with a micrometer.[A10-15] (The caliber of a weapon is the diameter of the interior of the barrel, measured between opposite lands. The caliber of American weapons is expressed in inches; thus a .30-caliber weapon has a barrel which is thirty one-hundredths or three-tenths of an inch in diameter. The caliber of continental European weapons is measured in millimeters. A 6.5-millimeter caliber weapon corresponds to an American .257-caliber weapon, that is, its barrel diameter is about one-fourth inch.)[A10-16] The identification was later confirmed by a communication from SIFAR, the Italian Armed Forces Intelligence Service. This communication also explained the markings on the rifle, as follows: “CAL. 6.5” refers to the rifle’s caliber; “MADE ITALY” refers to its origin, and was inscribed at the request of the American importer prior to shipment; “TERNI” means that the rifle was manufactured and tested by the Terni Army Plant of Terni, Italy; the number “C2766” is the serial number of the rifle, and the rifle in question is the only one of its type bearing that serial number; the numerals “1940” and “40” refer to the year of manufacture; and the other figures, numbers, and letters are principally inspector’s, designer’s, or manufacturer’s marks.[A10-17]

The Model 91/38 rifle was one of the 1891 series of Italian military rifles, incorporating features designed by Ritter von Mannlicher and M. Carcano. The series originally consisted of 6.5-millimeter caliber rifles, but Model 38 of the series, designed shortly before World War II, was a 7.35-millimeter caliber. Early in World War II, however, the Italian Government, which encountered an ammunition supply problem, began producing many of these rifles as 6.5-millimeter caliber rifles, known as the 6.5-millimeter Model 91/38.[A10-18] The 91/38 has been imported into this country as surplus military equipment, has been advertised quite widely, and is now fairly common in this country.[A10-19]

Like most bolt-action military rifles, the 91/38 is operated by turning up the bolt handle, drawing the bolt to the rear, pushing the bolt forward, turning down the bolt handle, and pulling the trigger. Bringing the bolt forward and turning down the bolt handle compresses the spring which drives the firing pin, and locks the bolt into place. When the trigger is pulled, the cocked spring drives the firing pin forward and the cartridge is fired. The face of the bolt bears a lip, called the extractor, around a portion of its circumference. As the bolt is pushed forward, this lip grasps the rim of the cartridge. As the bolt is pulled back, the extractor brings the empty cartridge case with it, and as the cartridge case is being brought back, it strikes a projection in the ejection port called the ejector, which throws it out of the rifle. Meanwhile, a leaf spring beneath the clip has raised the next cartridge into loading position. When the bolt is brought forward, it pushes the fresh cartridge into the chamber. The trigger is pulled, the cartridge is fired, the bolt handle is brought up, the bolt is brought back, and the entire cycle starts again. As long as there is ammunition in the clip, one need only work the bolt and pull the trigger to fire the rifle.[A10-20]

The clip itself is inserted into the rifle by drawing back the bolt, and pushing the clip in from the top. The clip holds one to six cartridges.[A10-21] If six cartridges are inserted into the clip and an additional cartridge is inserted into the chamber, up to seven bullets can be fired before reloading.[A10-22] When the rifle was found in the Texas School Book Depository Building it contained a clip[A10-23] which bore the letters “SMI” (the manufacturer’s markings) and the number “952” (possibly a part number or the manufacturer’s code number).[A10-24] The rifle probably was sold without a clip; however, the clip is commonly available.[A10-25]

Rifle Cartridge and Cartridge Cases

When the rifle was found, one cartridge was in the chamber.[A10-26] The cartridge was a 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano cartridge, manufactured by the Western Cartridge Co., at East Alton, Ill. This type of cartridge is loaded with a full metal-jacketed, military type of bullet, weighing 160-161 grains. The bullet has parallel sides and a round nose. It is just under 1.2 inches long, and just over one-fourth inch in diameter.[A10-27] Its velocity is approximately 2,165 feet per second.[A10-28] The cartridge is very dependable; in tests runs by the FBI and the Infantry Weapons Evaluation Branch of the U.S. Army, the C2766 rifle was fired with this Western Cartridge Co. ammunition over 100 times, with no misfires. (In contrast, some of the other ammunition available on the market for this rifle is undesirable or of very poor quality).[A10-29] The cartridge is readily available for purchase from mail-order houses, as well as a few gunshops; some 2 million rounds have been placed on sale in the United States.[A10-30]

The presence of the cartridge in the chamber did not necessarily mean that the assassin considered firing another bullet, since he may have reloaded merely by reflex.[A10-31]

Apart from the cartridge in the rifle, three expended cartridge cases were found in the southeast portion of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building, lying between the south wall and a high stack of boxes which ran parallel to the wall.[A10-32] The cartridge cases were a short distance to the west of the southeast corner window in that wall.[A10-33] Based on a comparison with test cartridge cases fired from the C2766 rifle, the three cartridge cases were identified as having been fired from the C2766 rifle.[A10-34] (See Commission Exhibit No. 558, p. 556.) A test was run to determine if the cartridge-case-ejection pattern of the rifle was consistent with the assumption that the assassin had fired from the southeast window.[A10-35] In this test, 11 cartridges were fired from the rifle while it was depressed 45° downward, and 8 cartridges were fired from the rifle while it was held horizontally. The elevation of the ejected cartridge cases above the level of the ejection port, and the points on the floor at which the ejection cartridge cases initially landed, were then plotted. The results of these tests are illustrated by the diagrams, Commission Exhibits Nos. 546 and 547. Briefly, Commission Exhibit No. 547 shows that with the weapon depressed at a 45° angle, the cartridge cases did not rise more than 2 inches above the ejection port; with the weapon held horizontally, they did not rise more than 12 inches above the ejection port.[A10-36] Commission Exhibit No. 546 shows that if a circle was drawn around the initial landing points of the cartridge cases which were ejected in the test while the rifle was held depressed at 45°, the center of the circle would be located 86 inches and 80° to the right of the rifle’s line of sight; if a circle was drawn around the initial landing points of the cartridge cases ejected while the rifle was held horizontally, the center of the circle would be 80 inches and 90° to the right of the line of sight. In other words, the cartridge cases were ejected to the right of and at roughly a right angle to the rifle.[A10-37] The cartridge cases showed considerable ricochet after their initial landing, bouncing from 8 inches to 15 feet.[A10-38] The location of the cartridge cases was therefore consistent with the southeast window having been used by the assassin, since if the assassin fired from that window the ejected cartridge cases would have hit the pile of boxes at his back and ricocheted between the boxes and the wall until they came to rest to the west of the window.[A10-39]

The Rifle Bullets

In addition to the three cartridge cases found in the Texas School Book Depository Building, a nearly whole bullet was found on Governor Connally’s stretcher and two bullet fragments were found in the front of the President’s car.[A10-40] The stretcher bullet weighed 158.6 grains, or several grains less than the average Western Cartridge Co. 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano bullet.[A10-41] It was slightly flattened, but otherwise unmutilated.[A10-42] The two bullet fragments weighed 44.6 and 21.0 grains, respectively[A10-43] The heavier fragment was a portion of a bullet’s nose area, as shown by its rounded contour and the character of the markings it bore.[A10-44] The lighter fragment consisted of bullet’s base portion, as shown by its shape and by the presence of a cannelure.[A10-45] The two fragments were both mutilated, and it was not possible to determine from the fragments themselves whether they comprised the base and nose of one bullet or of two separate bullets.[A10-46] However, each had sufficient unmutilated area to provide the basis of an identification.[A10-47] Based on a comparison with test bullets fired from the C2766 rifle, the stretcher bullet and both bullet fragments were identified as having been fired from the C2766 rifle.[A10-48]

The Revolver

The revolver taken from Oswald at the time of his arrest was a .38 Special S. & W. Victory Model revolver.[A10-49] It bore the serial No. V510210, and is the only such revolver with that serial number, since S. & W. does not repeat serial numbers.[A10-50] The revolver was originally made in the United States, but was shipped to England, as shown by the English inspection or proof marks on the chambers.[A10-51] The revolver showed definite signs of use but was in good operating condition.[A10-52] The revolver was originally designed to fire a .38 S. & W. cartridge, whose bullet is approximately 12 or 13 grains lighter than the .38 Special, and approximately .12 inches shorter, but has a somewhat larger diameter.[A10-53] In the United States, the .38 Special is considered to be a better bullet than the .38 S. & W.,[A10-54] and the revolver was rechambered for a .38 Special prior to being sold in the United States.[A10-55] The weapon was not rebarreled, although the barrel was shortened by cutting off approximately 2¾ of its original 5 inches.[A10-56] The shortening of the barrel had no functional value, except to facilitate concealment.[A10-57]

The weapon is a conventional revolver, with a rotating cylinder holding one to six cartridges. It is loaded by swinging out the cylinder and inserting cartridges into the cylinder’s chambers. If all six chambers are loaded, the weapon can be fired six consecutive times without reloading.[A10-58] To extract empty cartridge cases, the cylinder is swung out and an ejector rod attached to the cylinder is pushed, simultaneously ejecting all the cartridge cases (and cartridges) in the cylinder. If both live cartridges and expended cartridge cases are in the cylinder, before pushing the ejection rod one can tip the cylinder and dump the live cartridges into his hand.[A10-59] The cartridge cases will not fall out, because they are lighter than the cartridges, and when fired they will have expanded so as to tightly fit the chamber walls.[A10-60]

In a crouched stance a person can fire five shots with the revolver in 3-4 seconds with no trouble, and would need no training to hit a human body four times in four or five shots at a range of 8 feet.[A10-61] A person who had any training with the weapon would not find its recoil noticeable.[A10-62]

Revolver Cartridges and Cartridge Cases

When Oswald was arrested six live cartridges were found in the revolver.[A10-63] Three were Western .38 Specials, loaded with copper-coated lead bullets, and three were Remington-Peters .38 Specials, loaded with lead bullets.[A10-64] Five additional live cartridges were found in Oswald’s pocket,[A10-65] all of which were Western .38 Specials, loaded with copper-coated bullets.[A10-66] The Western and Remington-Peters .38 Special cartridges are virtually identical--the copper coating on the Western bullets is not a full jacket, but only a gilding metal, put on principally for sales appeal.[A10-67]

Four expended cartridge cases were found near the site of the Tippit killing.[A10-68] Two of these cartridge cases were Remington-Peters .38 Specials and two were Western .38 Specials.[A10-69] Based on a comparison with test cartridge cases fired in the V510210 revolver, the four cartridge cases were identified as having been fired in the V510210 revolver.[A10-70]

Revolver Bullets

Four bullets were recovered from the body of Officer Tippit.[A10-71] In Nicol’s opinion one of the four bullets could be positively identified with test bullets fired from V510210 revolver, and the other three could have been fired from that revolver.[A10-72] In Cunningham’s opinion all four bullets could have been fired from the V510210 revolver, but none could be positively identified to the revolver[A10-73]--that is, in his opinion the bullets bore the revolver’s rifling characteristics, but no conclusion could be drawn on the basis of microscopic characteristics.[A10-74] Cunningham did not conclude that the bullets had not been fired from the revolver, since he found that consecutive bullets fired in the revolver by the FBI could not even be identified with each other under the microscope.[A10-75] The apparent reasons for this was that while the revolver had been rechambered for a .38 Special cartridge, it had not been rebarreled for a .38 Special bullet. The barrel was therefore slightly oversized for a .38 Special bullet, which has a smaller diameter than a .38 S. & W. bullet. This would cause the passage of a .38 Special bullet through the barrel to be erratic, resulting in inconsistent microscopic markings.[A10-76]

Based on the number of grooves, groove widths, groove spacing, and knurling on the four recovered bullets, three were copper-coated lead bullets of Western-Winchester manufacture (Western and Winchester are divisions of the same company), and the fourth was a lead bullet of Remington-Peters manufacture.[A10-77] This contrasts with the four recovered cartridge cases, which consisted of two Remington-Peters and two Westerns. There are several possible explanations for this variance: (1) the killer fired five cartridges, three of which were Western-Winchester and two of which were Remington-Peters; one Remington-Peters bullet missed Tippit; and a Western-Winchester cartridge case and the Remington-Peters bullet that missed were simply not found. (2) The killer fired only four cartridges, three of which were Western-Winchester and one of which was Remington-Peters; prior to the shooting the killer had an expended Remington-Peters cartridge case in his revolver, which was ejected with the three Western-Winchester and one Remington-Peters cases; and one of the Western-Winchester cases was not found. (3) The killer was using hand-loaded ammunition, that is, ammunition which is made with used cartridge cases to save money; thus he might have loaded one make of bullet into another make of cartridge case.[A10-78] This third possibility is extremely unlikely, because when a cartridge is fired the cartridge case expands, and before it can be reused it must be resized. There was, however, no evidence that any of the four recovered cartridge cases had been resized.[A10-79]

The Struggle for the Revolver

Officer McDonald of the Dallas police, who arrested Oswald, stated that he had struggled with Oswald for possession of the revolver and that in the course of the struggle, “I heard the snap of the hammer, and the pistol crossed my left cheek * * * the primer of one round was dented on misfire at the time of the struggle. * * *”[A10-80] However, none of the cartridges found in the revolver bore the impression of the revolver’s firing pin.[A10-81] In addition, the revolver is so constructed that the firing pin cannot strike a cartridge unless the hammer (which bears the firing pin) has first been drawn all the way back by a complete trigger pull.[A10-82] Had the hammer gone all the way back and then hit the cartridge, it is unlikely that the cartridge would have misfired.[A10-83] It would be possible for a person to interject his finger between the hammer and the cartridge, but the spring driving the hammer is a very strong one and the impact of the firing pin into a finger would be clearly felt.[A10-84] However, the cylinder and the trigger are interconnected and the trigger cannot be fully pulled back if the cylinder is grasped.[A10-85] Therefore, if Oswald had pulled on the trigger while McDonald was firmly grasping the cylinder, the revolver would not have fired, and if the gun was grabbed away at the same time the trigger would have snapped back with an audible sound.[A10-86]

The Paraffin Test

During the course of the interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald following the assassination a paraffin test was performed by the Dallas police on both of his hands and his right cheek. The paraffin cast of Oswald’s hands reacted positively to the test. The cast of the right cheek showed no reaction.[A10-87]

To perform the paraffin test, layers of warm liquid paraffin, interleaved with layers of gauze for reinforcement, are brushed or poured on the suspect’s skin. The warm sticky paraffin opens the skin’s pores and picks up any dirt and foreign material present at the surface. When the paraffin cools and hardens it forms a cast, which is taken off and processed with diphenylamine or diphenylbenzidine, chemicals which turn blue in the presence of nitrates. Since gunpowder residues contain nitrates, the theory behind the test is that if a cast reacts positively, i.e., if blue dots appear, it provides evidence that the suspect recently fired a weapon.[A10-88] In fact, however, the test is completely unreliable in determining either whether a person has recently fired a weapon or whether he has not.[A10-89] On the one hand, diphenylamine and diphenylbenzidine will react positively not only with nitrates from gunpowder residues, but nitrates from other sources and most oxidizing agents, including dichromates, permanganates, hypochlorates, periodates, and some oxides. Thus, contact with tobacco, Clorox, urine, cosmetics, kitchen matches, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, or soils, among other things, may result in a positive reaction to the paraffin test. Also, the mere handling of a weapon may leave nitrates on the skin.[A10-90] A positive reaction is, therefore, valueless in determining whether a suspect has recently fired a weapon. Conversely, a person who has recently fired a weapon may not show a positive reaction to the paraffin test, particularly if the weapon was a rifle. A revolver is so constructed that there is a space between the cylinder, which bears the chambers, and the barrel. When a revolver is fired, nitrate-bearing gases escape through this space and may leave residues on the hand.[A10-91] In a rifle, however, there is no gap between the chamber and the barrel, and one would therefore not expect nitrates to be deposited upon a person’s hands or cheeks as a result of his firing a rifle. As Cunningham testified:

Mr. CUNNINGHAM. * * * I personally wouldn’t expect to find any residues on a person’s right cheek after firing a rifle due to the fact that by the very principles and the manufacture and the action, the cartridge itself is sealed into the chamber by the bolt being closed behind it, and upon firing the case, the cartridge case expands into the chamber filling it up and sealing it off from the gases, so none will come back in your face, and so by its very nature, I would not expect to find residue on the right cheek of a shooter.[A10-92]

The unreliability of the paraffin test has been demonstrated by experiments run by the FBI. In one experiment, conducted prior to the assassination, paraffin tests were performed on 17 men who had just fired 5 shots with a .38-caliber revolver. Eight men tested negative in both hands, three men tested positive on the idle hand and negative on the firing hand, two men tested positive on the firing hand and negative on the idle hand, and four men tested positive on both their firing and idle hands.[A10-93] In a second experiment, paraffin tests were performed on 29 persons, 9 of whom had just fired a revolver or an automatic, and 20 of whom had not fired a weapon. All 29 persons tested positive on either or both hands.[A10-94] In a third experiment, performed after the assassination, an agent of the FBI, using the C2766 rifle, fired three rounds of Western 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano ammunition in rapid succession. A paraffin test was then performed on both of his hands and his right cheek. Both of his hands and his cheek tested negative.[A10-95]

The paraffin casts of Oswald’s hands and right cheek were also examined by neutron-activation analyses at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Barium and antimony were found to be present on both surfaces of all the casts and also in residues from the rifle cartridge cases and the revolver cartridge cases.[A10-96] Since barium and antimony were present in both the rifle and the revolver cartridge cases, their presence on the casts were not evidence that Oswald had fired the rifle. Moreover, the presence on the inside surface of the cheek cast of a lesser amount of barium, and only a slightly greater amount of antimony, than was found on the outside surface of the cast rendered it impossible to attach significance to the presence of these elements on the inside surface. Since the outside surface had not been in contact with Oswald’s cheek, the barium and antimony found there had come from a source other than Oswald. Furthermore, while there was more barium and antimony present on the casts than would normally be found on the hands of a person who had not fired a weapon or handled a fired weapon, it is also true that barium and antimony may be present in many common items; for example, barium may be present in grease, ceramics, glass, paint, printing ink, paper, rubber, plastics, leather, cloth, pyrotechnics, oilcloth and linoleum, storage batteries, matches and cosmetics; antimony is present in matches, type metal, lead alloys, paints and lacquers, pigments for oil and water colors, flameproof textiles, storage batteries, pyrotechnics, rubber, pharmaceutical preparations and calico; and both barium and antimony are present in printed paper and cloth, paint, storage batteries, rubber, matches, pyrotechnics, and possibly other items. However, the barium and antimony present in these items are usually not present in a form which would lead to their adhering to the skin of a person who had handled such items.[A10-97]

The Walker Bullet

On April 10, 1963, a bullet was recovered from General Walker’s home, following an attempt on his life.[A10-98] The bullet, which was severely mutilated, weighed 148.25 grains.[A10-99] This bullet had the rifling characteristics of the C2766 rifle and all its remaining physical characteristics were the same as the Western 6.5 millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano bullet. However, while the bullet could have been fired from the C2766 rifle, it was severely mutilated and in Frazier’s opinion could not be identified as having been fired or not fired from that rifle.[A10-100] Nicol agreed that a positive identification could not be made, but concluded there was “a fair probability” that the bullet had been fired from the same rifle as the test bullets.[A10-101]

FINGERPRINTS AND PALMPRINTS

Two experts gave testimony concerning fingerprints and palmprints: Sebestian Latona[A10-102] and Arthur Mandella.[A10-103] Latona is the supervisor of the Latent Fingerprint Section of the Identification Division of the FBI. He has been with that Division over 32 years, having begun as a student fingerprint classifier and worked up to his present position. Mandella is a detective and fingerprint instructor with the police department of the city of New York. He has been in the fingerprint field for 19 years. Both have made a vast number of fingerprint examinations and have testified in Federal, State, and military courts.[A10-104] Their conclusions were identical, except as noted.

General Principles[A10-105]

Fingerprints and palmprints are made by the ridges which cover the surface of the fingers and palms. These ridges first appear 2 or 3 months before birth, and remain unchanged until death. Commission Exhibit No. 634-A (p. 564) illustrates several common characteristics or “points” formed by the ridges; a clear fingerprint impression will contain anywhere from 85 to 125 such points. While many of the common points appear in almost every print, no two prints have the same points in the same relationship to each other.

A print taken by a law-enforcement agency is known as an “inked print,” and is carefully taken so that all the characteristics of the print are reproduced on the fingerprint card; a print which is left accidentally, such as a print left at the scene of a crime, is known as a latent print. To make an identification of a latent print, the expert compares the points in the latent print with the points in an inked print. If a point appearing in a latent print does not appear in the inked print, or vice versa, the expert concludes that the two prints were not made by the same finger or palm. An identification is made only if there are no inconsistencies between the inked and latent prints, and the points of similarity and their relative positions are sufficiently distinctive, and sufficient in number, to satisfy the expert that an identity exists.[A10-106]

There is some disagreement concerning whether a minimum number of points is necessary for an identification. Some foreign law-enforcement agencies require a minimum number of 16 points. However, in the United States, in which there has been a great deal of experience with fingerprints, expert opinion holds there is no minimum number of points, and that each print must be evaluated on its own merits.[A10-107]

Palmprints are as distinctive as fingerprints, but are not as popularly known. Possibly this is because law enforcement agencies usually record only fingerprints for their identification files, since fingerprints can be much more readily classified and filed than palmprints. Also, latent fingerprint impressions are probably more common than latent palmprint impressions, because persons generally touch objects with their fingers rather than their palms. However, palmprints will frequently be found on heavy objects, since the palms as well as the fingers are employed in handling such objects.[A10-108]

A latent print is the result of perspiration exuded by the sweat pores in the ridges. This perspiration is composed of water, protein or fatty materials, and sodium chloride (salt). A latent print can be developed--made visible--in several ways. Sometimes a latent print can be developed merely by the use of correct lighting. A second method is to brush the print very lightly with a powder, which adheres to its outline. Once a print is powdered it can be photographed, lifted, or both. (In lifting, an adhesive substance, such as scotch tape, is placed over a powdered print. When the adhesive is lifted the powder clings to its surface. The adhesive is then mounted.) However, powder is usually effective only on objects which have a hard, smooth, nonabsorbent surface, such as glass, tile, and various types of highly polished metals and is usually not effective on absorbent materials, such as paper or unfinished wood or metal, which absorb perspiration so that there is nothing on the material’s surface to which the powder can adhere. Prints on absorbent materials can sometimes be developed by iodine fumes, which may react with fatty or protein materials which have been absorbed into the object, or by a silver nitrate solution, which may react with sodium chloride which has been absorbed into the object.[A10-109]

Not every contact of a finger or palm leaves a latent print. For example, if the surface is not susceptible to a latent print, if the finger or palm had no perspiration, or if the perspiration was mostly water and had evaporated, no print will be found.[A10-110]

Objects in the Texas School Book Depository Building

A number of objects found in the Texas School Book Depository Building following the assassination were processed for latent fingerprints by the FBI--in some cases, after they had been processed by the Dallas police. These objects included the homemade wrapping paper bag found near the southeast corner window; the, C2766 rifle; three small cartons which were stacked near that window (which were marked “Box A,” “Box B,” and “Box C”),[A10-111] and a fourth carton resting on the floor nearby (marked “Box D”);[A10-112] the three 6.5-millimeter cartridge cases found near the window; and the cartridge found in the rifle. The results were as follows:

_The paper bag._--The FBI developed a palmprint and a fingerprint on the paper bag by silver nitrate. These were compared with the fingerprints and palmprints of Lee Harvey Oswald taken by the Dallas police, and were found to have been made by the right palm and the left index finger of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-113]

_The C2766 rifle._--The wood and metal of the rifle was absorbent, and not conducive to recording a good print.[A10-114] However, the Dallas police developed by powder some faint ridge formations on the metal magazine housing in front of the trigger and also developed by powder and lifted a latent palmprint from the underside of the barrel.[A10-115] The faint ridge formations were insufficient for purposes of effecting an identification,[A10-116] but the latent palmprint was identified as the right palm of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-117]

_The cartons._--Using the silver nitrate method, the FBI developed nine identifiable latent fingerprints and four identifiable latent palmprints on Box A,[A10-118] seven identifiable fingerprints and two identifiable palmprints on Box B,[A10-119] and two identifiable fingerprints and one identifiable palmprint on Box C.[A10-120] One of the fingerprints on Box A was identified as the right index fingerprint of Lee Harvey Oswald,[A10-121] and one of the palmprints on Box A was identified as the left palmprint of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-122] All the remaining prints on Box A were the palmprints of R. L. Studebaker, a Dallas police officer, and Forest L. Lucy, an FBI clerk, who shipped the cartons from Dallas to the FBI Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and fingerprints of Detective Studebaker. All but one of the fingerprints on Box B belonged to Studebaker and Lucy and one palmprint was that of Studebaker. The fingerprints on Box C were those of Studebaker and Lucy and the palmprint was Studebaker’s.[A10-123] One palmprint on Box B was unidentified.[A10-124]

The FBI developed two fingerprints on Box D by silver nitrate, and the Dallas police developed a palmprint on Box D by powder.[A10-125] The fingerprints belonged to Lucy. The palmprint was identified as the right palmprint of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-126] While the age of a print cannot be generally determined,[A10-127] this palmprint must have been relatively fresh, because the carton was constructed of cardboard, an absorbent material, and if a long period had elapsed between the time the print was made and the time it was powdered, the perspiration would have been absorbed into the cardboard, and the print could not have been developed by powder.[A10-128] Tests run by the FBI show that usually a latent impression on such cardboard cannot be developed by powder more than 24 hours after it is made.[A10-129] Latona felt that the maximum age of the palmprint on Box D at the time of development (which was shortly after the assassination), would have been 3 days;[A10-130] Mandella felt that the maximum time would have been a day and a half.[A10-131]

_The three cartridge cases and the cartridge case found in the rifle._--No prints were developed on the cartridge found in the rifle or on the three expended cartridge cases.[A10-132]

QUESTIONED DOCUMENTS

Two experts gave testimony concerning questioned documents: Alwyn Cole[A10-133] and James C. Cadigan.[A10-134] Cole apprenticed as a questioned document examiner for 6 years, from 1929 to 1935, and has been examiner of questioned documents for the U.S. Treasury Department since then. Cadigan has been a questioned document examiner with the FBI for 23½ years, following a specialized course of training and instruction. Both have testified many times in Federal and States courts.[A10-135] Their conclusions were identical, except as noted.

Both experts examined and testified on the following questioned documents: (1) The mail order to Klein’s Sporting Goods of Chicago, in response to which Klein’s sent the C2766 rifle; the accompanying money order; and the envelope in which the mail order and the money order were sent--all of which bore the name “A. Hidell” and the address “P.O. Box 2915, Dallas, Texas”;[A10-136] (2) the mail order to Seaport Traders, Inc., of Los Angeles, bearing the same name and address, in response to which the Seaport Traders sent the V510210 revolver;[A10-137] (3) part of an application for Post Office Box 2915, Dallas, Tex., opened October 9, 1962 and closed May 14, 1963, and two change-of-address orders relating to that box, dated October 10, 1962 and May 12, 1963--all signed “Lee H. Oswald,” and part of an application for Post Office Box 30061, New Orleans, La., naming “A. J. Hidell” as a party entitled to receive mail through the box, signed “L. H. Oswald”;[A10-138] (4) a spurious selective service system notice of classification and a spurious certificate of service in the U.S. Marine Corps, found in Oswald’s wallet after his arrest, both in the name “Alek James Hidell”;[A10-139] (5) a spurious smallpox vaccination certificate, found among Oswald’s belongings at his room at 1026 North Beckley, purportedly issued to Lee Oswald by “Dr. A. J. Hideel, P.O. Box 30016, New Orleans, La.”;[A10-140] and (6) a card, found in Oswald’s wallet after his arrest, reading “Fair Play for Cuba Committee New Orleans Chapter,” dated “June 15, 1963,” bearing the name “L. H. Oswald” and the signature “Lee H. Oswald,” and signed “A. J. Hidell” as chapter president.[A10-141] Cadigan also examined (7) the unsigned note, Commission Exhibit No. 1, written almost entirely in Russian, which Marina testified Oswald had left for her prior to his attempt on the life of General Walker;[A10-142] and (8) the homemade paper bag found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository following the assassination.[A10-143]

_General principles._[A10-144]--The area of questioned document examination encompasses many types of inquiries, the most familiar of which is the identification of handwriting. Handwriting identification is based upon the principle that every person’s handwriting is distinctive. As Cole testified:

Q. Mr. Cole, could you explain the basis on which you were able to make an identification of a questioned writing as being authored by the person who wrote a standard writing?

Mr. COLE. This is based upon the principle that every handwriting is distinctive, that since the mental and physical equipment for producing handwriting is different in every individual, each person produces his own distinctive writing habits. Of course, everyone learns to write in the beginning by an endeavor to repeat ideal letter forms but, practically no one is able to reproduce these forms exactly. Even though a person might have some initial success during the active period of instruction, he soon departs from these and develops his own habits. It may be said that habit in handwriting is that which makes handwriting possible. Habit is that which makes handwriting efficient. If it were not for the development of habit, one would be obliged to draw or sketch.

Some habit would be included even in those efforts. But the production of handwriting rapidly and fluently always involves a recording of personal writing habit. This has been confirmed by observation of a very large number of specimens over a long period of time, and it has further been demonstrated by, on my part, having a formal responsibility for rendering decisions about the identification of handwriting based upon an agreement of handwriting habit in situations where there would be a rigorous testing of the correctness of these decision by field investigators, for example, of the law-enforcement agencies, and a demonstration that these results were confirmed by other evidence.

This is the basis for identification of handwriting.[A10-145]

The same principles are generally applicable to hand printing,[A10-146] and in the balance of this section the term “handwriting” will be used to refer to both cursive or script writing and hand printing.

Not every letter in a questioned handwriting can be used as the basis of an identification. Most people learn to write letters in a standard or “copybook” form: a handwriting is distinctive only insofar as it departs significantly from such forms.[A10-147] Correspondingly, not every variation indicates nonidentification; no two acts are precisely alike and variations may be found within a single document. Like similarities, variations are significant only if they are distinctive.[A10-148] Moreover, since any single distinctive characteristic may not be unique to one person, in order to make an identification the expert must find a sufficient number of corresponding distinctive characteristics and a general absence of distinctive differences.[A10-149]

The possibility that one person could imitate the handwriting of another and successfully deceive an expert document examiner is very remote. A forger leaves two types of clue. First, he can seldom perfectly simulate the letter forms of the victim; concentrating on the reproduction of one detail, he is likely not to see others. Thus, the forger may successfully imitate the general form of a letter, but get proportions or letter connections wrong. In addition, the forger draws rather than writes. Forged writing is therefore distinguished by defects in the quality of its line, such as tremor, waver, patching, retouching, noncontinuous lines, and pen lifts in awkward and unusual places.[A10-150]

To make a handwriting identification, the handwriting in the document under examination (the questioned document) is compared against the handwriting in documents known to have been prepared by a suspect (the known or standard documents). This is exemplified by Cole’s examination of Commission Exhibit No. 773, the photograph of the mail order for the rifle and the envelope in which it was sent:

Q. Now, Mr. Cole, returning to 773, the questioned document, can you tell the Commission how you formed the conclusion that it was prepared by the author of the standards, that is, what steps you followed in your examination and comparison, what things you considered, what instruments or equipment you used, and so forth?

Mr. COLE. I made first a careful study of the writing on Commission Exhibit 773 without reference to the standard writing, in an effort to determine whether or not this writing contained what I would regard as a basis for identification, contained a record of writing habit, and as that--as a result of that part of my examination, I concluded that this is a natural handwriting. By that I mean that it was made at a fair speed, that it doesn’t show any evidence of an unnatural movement, poor line quality, tremor, waver, retouching, or the like. I regard it as being made in a fluent and fairly rapid manner which would record the normal writing habits of the person who made it.

I then made a separate examination of the standards, of all of the standard writings, to determine whether that record gave a record of writing habit which could be used for identification purposes, and I concluded that it, too, was a natural handwriting and gave a good record of writing habit.

I then brought the standard writings together with the questioned writing for a detailed and orderly comparison, considering details of letter forms, proportion, pen pressure, letter connections, and other details of handwriting habit * * *.[A10-151]

The standards used by Cole and Cadigan consisted of a wide variety of documents known to be in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald, including indorsements on his payroll checks, applications for employment, for a passport, for membership in the American Civil Liberties Union, and for a library card, and letters to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Marine Corps, the State Department, and the American Embassy in Russia.[A10-152]

The Mail Order for the C2766 Rifle, the Related Envelope, and the Money Order

The mail order and envelope for the C2766 rifle were photographed by Klein’s on microfilm, and then destroyed.[A10-153] To identify the handwriting an enlarged photograph was made which showed the handwriting characteristics with sufficient clarity to form the basis of an identification.[A10-154] Based on a comparison with the standards, the handwriting on the purchase order and the envelope were identified as Lee Harvey Oswald’s.[A10-155] The money order, which was retained by the post office after having been cashed by Klein’s,[A10-156] was also identified as being in Oswald’s handwriting.[A10-157] These identifications were made on the basis of numerous characteristics in which the writing in both the questioned and standard documents departed from conventional letter forms.[A10-158] For example, in the return address on the envelope, the left side of the “A” in “A. Hidell” was made by a downstroke followed by an upstroke which almost exactly traced the down-stroke, the “i” showed an elongation of the approach stroke and an exaggerated slant to the right, and the second “l” was somewhat larger than the first; the “B” in “Box” had an upper lobe smaller than the lower lobe; the “D” in “Dallas” exhibited a distinctive construction of the looped form at the top of a letter, and the “s” was flattened and forced over on its side; and the “x” in “Texas” was made in the form of a “u” with a cross bar. These characteristics were also present in the standards.[A10-159] In addition, these items, as well as other questioned documents, resembled the standards in their use of certain erroneous combinations of capital and lowercase letters.[A10-160] For example, in the mail order, “Texas” was printed with a capital “T,” “X,” “A,” and “S,” but a lowercase “e”; a similar mixture of capital and lowercase letters in “Texas” was found in the standards.[A10-161]

The writing on the purchase order and envelope showed no significant evidence of disguise (subject to the qualification that the use of hand printing on the mail order, rather than handwriting, may have been used for that purpose).[A10-162] However, it is not unusual for a person using an alias not to disguise his writing. For example, Cole, who is document examiner for the Treasury Department, has frequently examined forgeries evidencing no attempt at disguise. [A10-163]

Mail Order for the V510210 Revolver

Based on a comparison with the standards, the handwriting on the mail order[A10-164] for the V510210 revolver was also identified as Lee Harvey Oswald’s.[A10-165]

Post Office Box Applications and Change-of-Address Card

A post office box application consists of three parts: The first contains directions for use. The second provides applicant’s name, address, signature space, box number, date of opening and closing. The third part provides instruction space concerning delivery of mail and names of persons entitled to use the box.[A10-166] Under post office regulations[A10-167] the second part was retained by the Dallas Post Office for box 2915; it destroyed the third part after the box was closed. Based on the standards, the signature “Lee H. Oswald,” and other handwriting on the application, was identified as that of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-168] The postal clerk appeared to have filled in the balance.[A10-169]

The Fort Worth and Dallas post offices retained two change-of-address orders signed “Lee H. Oswald”: One to “Postmaster, Fort Worth, Tex.,” dated October 10, 1962, to send mail to “Oswald, Lee H” at 2703 Mercedes Av., Fort Worth, Texas” and forward to “Box 2915, Dallas, Texas”; the other to “Postmaster, Dallas, Texas” dated May 12, 1963, requested mail for post office box 2915 be forwarded to “Lee Oswald” at “4907 Magazine St., New Orleans, La.”[A10-170] Based on a comparison with the standards, the handwriting on these orders was identified as that of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-171]

The New Orleans post office retained the third part of the application for post office box 30061, New Orleans, La., dated June 11, 1963, and signed “L. H. Oswald.” [A10-172] Inserted in the space for names of persons entitled to receive mail through the box were written the names “A. J. Hidell” and “Marina Oswald.” On the basis of a comparison with the standards, the writing and the signature on the card was identified as the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-173]

The Spurious Selective Service System Notice of Classification and U.S. Marine Corps Certificate of Service

When Oswald was arrested he had in his possession a Selective Service System notice of classification and a certificate of service in the U.S. Marine Corps in the name of “Alek James Hidell,” and a Selective Service System notice of classification, a Selective Service System registration certificate, and a certificate of service in the U.S. Marine Corps in his own name.[A10-174] (See Cadigan Exhibits Nos. 19 and 21, p. 573.) The Hidell cards where photographic counterfeits.[A10-175] After Oswald’s arrest a group of retouched negatives were found in Mr. Paine’s garage at 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving, Tex.,[A10-176] among which were retouched negatives of the Oswald cards.[A10-177] A comparison of these retouched negatives with the Hidell and Oswald cards showed that the Hidell cards had been counterfeited by photographing the Oswald cards, retouching the resulting negatives, and producing photographic prints from the retouched negatives.

The Hidell Notice of Classification

_Face side._--The face of the Hidell notice of classification[A10-178] was produced from the face of the Oswald notice of classification[A10-179] by a two-step process. First, the counterfeiter photographed the Oswald notice, making a basic intermediate negative.[A10-180] He then opaqued out of this intermediate negative all of the information typed or handwritten onto the Oswald notice, including the name “Lee Harvey Oswald,” the selective service No., “41-114-39-532,” the signature of the official of the local board, and the mailing date. In addition, he made another intermediate negative of the lowermost third of the Oswald notice, which contained a printed legend setting forth various instructions relating to draft board procedures.[A10-181] This negative reproduced the printed material exactly, but reduced it in size.[A10-182] The two intermediate negatives were combined to produce a third negative, substantially identical to the basic intermediate negative except that, by virtue of the reduction in the size of the printed legend, a square space had been created in the lower left-hand corner.[A10-183] The counterfeiter then made a photographic print of this third negative, which contained blanks wherever typed or handwritten material had appeared on the original Oswald notice and a new space in the lower left-hand corner. Finally, new material was inserted into the blanks on the Hidell notice where typed or handwritten material had appeared on the Oswald notice.[A10-184] Thus the name “ALEK JAMES HIDELL,” the selective service No. “42-224-39-532,” and the mailing date “Feb. 5, 1962,” were typed into the appropriate blanks on the Hidell notice. Two typewriters were used in this typing, as shown by differences in the design of the typed figure “4,”[A10-185] and by differences in the strength of the typed impression.[A10-186] Probably the counterfeiter switched typewriters when he discovered that the ribbon of his first typewriter was not inked heavily enough to leave a clear impression (a problem which would have been aggravated by the fact that the glossy photographic paper used to make the Hidell notice did not provide a good surface for typewriting).[A10-187] The face of the notice also bore many uninked indentations, which could only be made out under strong side lighting.[A10-188] These indentations were apparently made with the typewriter set at stencil--that is, set so that the typewriter key struck the notice directly, rather than striking it through the inked typewriter ribbon.[A10-189] This may have been done as a dry-run practice, to enable the counterfeiter to determine how to properly center and aline the inserted material.[A10-190] A sidelight photograph showed that the names “ALEK,” “JAMES,” and “HIDELL” had each been typed in stencil at least twice before being typed in with the ribbon.[A10-191] A capital letter “O” had been stenciled prior to one of the stenciled “ALEK’s.”[A10-192] A serial number and a date of mailing had also been typed in stencil.[A10-193]

In addition to the typed material, a signature, “Alek J. Hidell,” was written in ink in the blank provided for the registrant’s signature, and another, somewhat illegible signature, apparently reading “Good Hoffer,” was written in ink in the blank provided for the signature of an official of the local board.[A10-194] This name differed from the name written in ink on the Oswald notice, which appeared to consist of a first name beginning with an “E” or a “G” and the surname “Schiffen.”[A10-195] However, the legibility of the name on the Oswald notice was also quite poor, and the counterfeiter might have been attempting to duplicate it. A possible reason for deleting the original name and substituting another is that if the name had not been deleted it would have been reproduced on the Hidell notice as a photographic reproduction, which would look less authentic than a pen-and-ink signature.[A10-196]

Based on a comparison with the handwriting in the standards, the signature “Alek J. Hidell” on the Hidell notice was identified as being in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-197] The signature “Good Hoffer” could not be positively identified, being almost illegible; however, it was not inconsistent with Oswald’s handwriting.[A10-198]

To complete the face of the Hidell notice a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald was inserted into the space in the lower left-hand corner which had been created by reducing the size of the printed legend at the bottom.[A10-199]

In creating the face of the Hidell notice, the counterfeiter left traces which enabled the experts to link together the Hidell notice, the retouched negatives, and the Oswald notice. To retouch the negatives the counterfeiter simply painted a red opaque substance on one side of the negative over the material he wished to delete. When the negative was printed, the opaquing prevented light from passing through, so that the print showed blanks wherever the negative had been opaqued. However, the original material was still clearly visible on the negative itself.[A10-200] In addition, at several points the typed or handwritten material in the Oswald notice had overlapped the printed material. For example, the signature of the official of the local board overlapped the letters “re” in the printed word “President,” “l” and “a” in the printed word “local,” and “viola” in the printed word “violation.” When this signature was opaqued out, the portions of the printed material which had been overlapped by the signature were either removed or mutilated. The consequent distortions were apparent on both the retouched negative and the Hidell notice itself. Similarly, the selective service number typed on the Oswald notice overlapped the margins of the boxes into which it was typed. Although the counterfeiter opaqued out the numerals themselves, the margins of the boxes remained thickened at the points where they had been overlapped by the numerals. These thickened margins were apparent on both the retouched negative and the Hidell notice.[A10-201]

_Reverse side._--The reverse side of the Hidell notice, which was pasted back-to-back to the face, was actually a form of the reverse side of a Selective Service System registration certificate. Essentially, it was counterfeited the same way as the face of the notice: a photograph was made of the reverse side of the Oswald registration certificate, the material which had been typed or stamped on the Oswald registration certificate was opaqued out of the resulting negative, and a photographic print was made from the retouched negative. This is shown by the negative, in which the opaqued-out information is still visible, and by defects in the printed material on the Hidell notice at point where typed-in material had overlapped printed material on the Oswald registration certificate.[A10-202]

As the final step, new information was typed on the print in the blanks which resulted from the retouching operation.[A10-203] Thus “GR” was substituted for “Blue” under color of eyes; “BROWN” was substituted for “Brn” under color of hair; “FAIR” was substituted for “Med.” under complexion; “5” [ft.] “9” [in.] was substituted for “5” [ft.] “11” [in.] under height; and “155” was substituted for “150” under weight. The name and address of the local board on the Oswald registration certificate were opaqued out, but substantially the same name and address were typed back onto the Hidell notice.[A10-204] As in the signature of the local board official on the face of the notice, a possible reason for deleting the original draft board name and the address and substituting substantially similar material in its place is that if the original material had not been deleted it would have reproduced as a photographic reproduction, which would look much less authentic than typed-in material.[A10-205]

A limited number of typed uninked indentations are also present. Thus the indented letters “CT” appear before the letters “GR” (under color of eyes) and the indented letters “EY” follow “GR.” An indented “9” appears above the visible “9” for the inch figure of height, and an indented “i” appears before the weight, “155.” Much of the typed material on the reverse side of the Hidell notice was not very legible under ordinary lighting, since it was typed with a typewriter which left a very weakly inked impression.[A10-206] In fact, it is difficult to tell whether some of the material, particularly the word “Brown” under color of hair, was put in by stencil or by ribbon.

The Hidell Certificate of Service

The face and reverse side of the Hidell certificate of service were produced from the face and reverse side of the Oswald certificate of service[A10-207] by photographing the Oswald certificate, retouching the resulting negatives to eliminate typed and handwritten material, and making a photographic print from the retouched negative.[A10-208] As in the case of the notice of classification, this is shown by the negative itself, in which the opaqued-out information is still visible, and by defects in the printed material on the Hidell certificate at points where handwritten material had crossed over printed material on the Oswald certificate. Thus, in the Oswald certificate the upper portion of the name “Lee” in Oswald’s signature crosses the letter “u” in the printed word “signature.” The consequent mutilation of the printed letter “u” can be seen on the Hidell certificate. Similarly, the ending stroke in the letter “y” in the name “Harvey” in Oswald’s signature crosses the letter “n” in the printed word “certifying.” This stroke was not removed at all, and can be seen as a stroke across the “n” in the Hidell certificate.[A10-209] As the final step in producing the Hidell certificate, new material was typed into the blanks on the photographic print. On the face, the words “ALEK JAMES HIDELL” were typed into the blank where “LEE HARVEY OSWALD 1653230” had appeared. A sidelight photograph shows that these words had been typed in stencil at least twice before being typed in with the ribbon apparently to determine proper centering and alignment.[A10-210] In producing the reverse side of the Hidell certificate, the signature “Lee Harvey Oswald,” and the dates “24 October 1956” and “11 September 1959,” showing the beginning and end of the period of active service, had been opaqued out. No signature was inserted into resulting blank signature space. However, just below the word “of” in the printed line “signature of individual,” there are two vertical indentations which fill about three-fourths of the height of the signature blank, and a diagonal indentation which slants from approximately the base of the left vertical to approximately the midpoint of the right vertical--the total effect being of a printed capital letter “H.” Also, just below the second and third “i’s” in the printed word “individual” are two more vertical indentations, which could be the vertical strokes of “d’s” or “l’s”--although the circular portion of the letter “d” is not present.[A10-211] These indentations could have been made by any sharp instrument, such as a ballpoint pen which was not delivering ink, a stylus of the type used in preparing mimeograph forms, or even a toothpick.[A10-212] The indentations are brought out rather clearly in a sidelight photograph, but can also be seen on the card itself if the card is held so that light strikes it at an angle.[A10-213]

Into the space for the beginning of active service was typed the date “OCT. 13 1958.” The space for the end of active service contains several light-impression and stencil typewriting operations. It was apparently intended to read “OCT. 12 1961,” but because of the lightness of the impression and the many stenciled characters, the date is barely legible.[A10-214] Interestingly, one of the stenciled impressions in the blank for end of active service reads “24 October 1959,” as determined under a microscope, while a stenciled impression in the blank for beginning of active service reads “24 October 1957.”[A10-215]

The counterfeiting of the Hidell cards did not require great skill, but probably required an elementary knowledge of photography, particularly of the photographic techniques used in a printing plant.[A10-216] A moderate amount of practice with the technique would be required--perhaps half a dozen attempts. Practicing retouching on the balance of the negatives found at the Paine garage would have been sufficient.[A10-217] The retouching of the negatives could have been accomplished without any special equipment. However, the preparation of the negative, apart from retouching, would probably have required a very accurate camera, such as would be found in a photographic laboratory or printing plant.[A10-218]

The Vaccination Certificate

A government-printed form entitled “International Certificates of Vaccination or Revaccination against Smallpox”[A10-219] was found among Oswald’s belongings at his room at 1026 Beckley Avenue, Dallas.[A10-220] The form purported to certify that “LEE OSWALD” had been vaccinated against smallpox on “JUNE 8, 1963” by “DR. A.J. HIDEEL, P.O. BOX 30016, NEW ORLEANS, LA.” The card was signed “Lee H. Oswald” and “A. J. Hideel,” and the name and address “Lee H. Oswald, New Orleans, La.” were hand printed on the front of the card. All of this material, except the signatures and the hand printing, had been stamped onto the card. The Hideel name and address consisted of a three-line stamp--“DR. A. J. HIDEEL/P.O. BOX 30016/NEW ORLEANS, LA.” A circular, stamped, illegible impression resembling a seal appeared under a column entitled “Approved stamp.”[A10-221]

On the basis of a comparison with the standards, Cole identified all of the handwriting on the vaccination certificate, including the signature “A. J. Hideel,” as the writing of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-222] Cadigan identified all of the writing as Oswald’s except for the “A. J. Hideel” signature, which in his opinion was too distorted to either identify or nonidentify as Oswald’s handwriting.[A10-223] The stamped material on the certificate was compared with a rubber stamping kit which belonged to Oswald.[A10-224] In this kit was a rubber stamp with three lines of print assembled: “L. H. OSWALD/4907 MAGAZINE ST/NEW ORLEANS, LA.”[A10-225] Cole found a perfect agreement in measurement and design between the letters stamped on the certificate and the letters he examined from Oswald’s rubber stamping kit. However, he was unable to determine whether the characteristics of Oswald’s rubber stamping kit were distinctive, and therefore, while he concluded that Oswald’s rubber stamping kit could have made the rubber stamp impressions on the certificate, he was unable to say that it was the only kit which could have made the impressions.[A10-226] On the basis of the comparison between the words “NEW ORLEANS, LA.” set up in the rubber stamp in Oswald’s kit, and the words “NEW ORLEANS, LA.” on the certificate, Cadigan concluded that these words had been stamped on the certificate with Oswald’s rubber stamp. However, he could draw no conclusion as to the remaining stamped material, which was not directly comparable to the remaining lines set up on Oswald’s rubber stamp.[A10-227]

On close examination, the circular impression resembling a seal consisted of the words “BRUSH IN CAN,” printed in reverse.[A10-228] Apparently, the impression was made with the top of a container of solvent or cleaning fluid which bore these words in raised lettering. In the center of the impression was a mottled pattern which was similar to the blank areas on a date stamp found in Oswald’s rubber stamping kit.[A10-229]

The Fair Play for Cuba Committee Card

The Fair Play for Cuba Committee card had two signatures: “L. H. Oswald” and “A. J. Hidell.” Based on the standards, both Cole and Cadigan identified “L. H. Oswald” as the signature of Lee Harvey Oswald,[A10-230] but both were unable to identify the “A. J. Hidell” signature.[A10-231] Cadigan noted differences between the Hidell signature and Oswald’s handwriting, indicating the possibility that someone other than Oswald had authored the signature.[A10-232] Cole believed that the signature was somewhat beyond Oswald’s abilities as a penman.[A10-233] On the basis of a short English interlinear translation written by Marina Oswald, Cole felt that she might have been the author of the signature,[A10-234] but the translation did not present enough of her handwriting to make possible a positive identification.[A10-235] In subsequent testimony before the Commission, Marina stated that she was indeed the author of the Hidell signature on the card.[A10-236] Cadigan confirmed this testimony by obtaining further samples of Marina Oswald’s handwriting and comparing these samples with the signature on the card.[A10-237]

The Unsigned Russian-Language Note

Cadigan’s examination confirmed Marina’s testimony that the handwriting in the unsigned note, Commission Exhibit No. 1, was that of Lee Harvey Oswald.[A10-238] Since the note was written almost entirely in the Russian language, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet (as opposed to the Latin alphabet used in the English language), in making his examination Cadigan employed not only Oswald’s English language standards, but also letters written by Oswald in the Russian language.[A10-239]

The Homemade Wrapping Paper Bag

In the absence of watermarks or other distinctive characteristics, it is impossible to determine whether two samples of paper came from the same manufacturer.[A10-240] The homemade paper bag found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository following the assassination was made out of heavy brown paper and glue-bearing brown paper tape, neither of which contained watermarks or other distinctive characteristics.[A10-241] However, Cadigan compared the questioned paper and tape in the paper bag with known paper and tape samples obtained from the shipping department of the Texas School Book Depository on November 22, 1963, to see if the questioned items could have come from the shipping room.[A10-242] The questioned and known items were examined visually by normal, incidental, and transmitted natural and electric light, and under ultraviolet light;[A10-243] examined microscopically for surface, paper structure, color, and imperfections;[A10-244] examined for their felting pattern, which is the pattern of light and dark areas caused by the manner in which the fibers become felted at the beginning stages of paper manufacture;[A10-245] measured for thickness with a micrometer sensitive to one one-thousandth of an inch,[A10-246] subjected to a fiber analysis to determine the type of fibers of which they were composed, and whether the fibers were bleached or unbleached;[A10-247] and examined spectrographically to determine what metallic ions were present.[A10-248] The questioned and known items were identical in all the properties measured by these tests.[A10-249] (The width of the tape on the paper sack was 3 inches, while the width of the sample tape was 2.975, or twenty-five thousandths of an inch smaller; however, this was not a significant difference).[A10-250] In contrast, a paper sample obtained from the Texas School Book Depository shipping room on December 1, 1963, was readily distinguishable from the questioned paper.[A10-251]

Examination of the tape revealed other significant factors indicating that it could have come from the Texas School Book Depository shipping room. There were several strips of tape on the bag.[A10-252] All but two of the ends of these strips were irregularly torn; the remaining two ends had machine-cut edges. This indicated that the person who made the bag had drawn a long strip of tape from a dispensing machine and had torn it by hand into several smaller strips.[A10-253] Confirmation that the tape had been drawn from a dispensing machine was supplied by the fact that a series of small markings in the form of half-inch lines ran down the center of the tape like ties on a railroad track. Such lines are made by a ridged wheel in a tape dispenser which is constructed so that when a hand lever is pulled, the wheel, which is connected to the lever, pulls the tape from its roll and dispenses it. Such dispensers are usually found only in commercial establishments. A dispenser of this type was located in the Texas School Book Depository shipping room. The length of the lines and the number of lines per inch on the tape from the paper bag was identical to the length of the lines and the number of lines per inch on the tape obtained from the dispenser in the Texas School Book Depository shipping room.[A10-254]

WOUND BALLISTICS EXPERIMENTS

Purpose of the Tests

During the course of the Commission’s inquiry, questions arose as to whether the wounds inflicted on President Kennedy and Governor Connally could have been caused by the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building and Western Cartridge Co. bullets and fragments of the type found on the Governor’s stretcher and in the Presidential limousine. In analyzing the trajectory of the bullets after they struck their victims, further questions were posed on the bullet’s velocity and penetration power after exiting from the person who was initially struck. To answer these and related questions, the Commission requested that a series of tests be conducted on substances resembling the wounded portions of the bodies of President Kennedy and Governor Connally under conditions which simulated the events of the assassination.

The Testers and Their Qualifications

In response to the Commission’s request, an extensive series of tests were conducted by the Wound Ballistics Branch of the U.S. Army Chemical Research and Development Laboratories at Edgewood Arsenal, Md. Scientists working at that branch are engaged in full-time efforts to investigate the wound ballistics of missiles in order to test their effects on substances which simulate live human bodies.[A10-255] The tests for the Commission were performed by Dr. Alfred G. Olivier under the general supervision of Dr. Arthur J. Dziemian with consultation from Dr. Frederick W. Light, Jr.[A10-256] Dr. Olivier received his doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1953. Since 1957 he has been engaged in research on wound ballistics at Edgewood Arsenal and is now chief of the Wound Ballistics Branch.[A10-257] His supervisor, Dr. Dziemian, who is chief of the Biophysics Division at Edgewood Arsenal, holds a Ph. D. degree from Princeton in 1939, was a national research fellow in physiology at the University of Pennsylvania and was a fellow in anatomy at Johns Hopkins University Medical School.[A10-258] Since 1947, Dr. Dziemian has been continuously engaged in wound ballistics work at Edgewood Arsenal.[A10-259] In 1930, Dr. Light was awarded an M.D. degree from Johns Hopkins Medical School and in 1948 received his Ph. D. from the same institution.[A10-260] After serving a residency in pathology, he worked as a pathologist until 1940 when he returned to Johns Hopkins University to study mathematics. Since 1951, Dr. Light has been engaged in the study of the pathology of wounding at Edgewood Arsenal.[A10-261] All three of these distinquished scientists testified before the Commission.

General Testing Conditions

The Commission made available to the Edgewood Arsenal scientists all the relevant facts relating to the wounds which were inflicted on President Kennedy and Governor Connally including the autopsy report on the President, and the reports and X-rays from Parkland Hospital.[A10-262] In addition, Drs. Olivier and Light had an opportunity to discuss in detail the Governor’s wounds with the Governor’s surgeons, Drs. Robert R. Shaw and Charles F. Gregory.[A10-263] The Zapruder films of the assassination were viewed with Governor and Mrs. Connally to give the Edgewood scientists their version.[A10-264] The Commission also provided the Edgewood scientists with all known data on the source of the shots, the rifle and bullets used, and the distances involved. For purposes of the experiments, the Commission turned over to the Edgewood testers the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found on the sixth floor of the Depository Building.[A10-265] From information provided by the Commission, the Edgewood scientists obtained Western bullets of the type used by the assassin.[A10-266]

Tests on Penetration Power and Bullet Stability

Comparisons were made of the penetrating power of Western bullets fired from the assassination rifle with other bullets.[A10-267] From the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, the Western bullet was fired through two gelatin blocks totaling 72½ centimeters in length.[A10-268] As evidenced by Commission Exhibit No. 844, which is a photograph from a high-speed motion picture, the Western bullets passed through 1½ blocks in a straight line before their trajectory curved.[A10-269] After coming out of the second gelatin block, a number of the bullets buried themselves in a mound of earth.[A10-270]

Under similar circumstances, a bullet described as the NATO round M-80 was fired from a M-14 rifle.[A10-271] The penetrating power of the latter is depicted in Commission Exhibit No. 845 which shows that bullet possesses much less penetrating power with a quicker tumbling action. Those characteristics cause an early release of energy which brings the bullet to a stop at shorter distances.[A10-272] A further test was made with a 257 Winchester Roberts soft-nosed hunting bullet as depicted in Commission Exhibit No. 846. That bullet became deformed almost immediately upon entering the block of gelatin and released its energy very rapidly.[A10-273] From these tests, it was concluded that the Western bullet fired from the Mannlicher-Carcano had “terrific penetrating ability” and would retain substantial velocity after passing through objects such as the portions of the human body.[A10-274]

Tests Simulating President Kennedy’s Neck Wound

After reviewing the autopsy report on President Kennedy, the Edgewood scientists simulated the portion of the President’s neck through which the bullet passed. It was determined that the bullet traveled through 13½ to 14½ centimeters of tissue in the President’s neck.[A10-275] That substance was simulated by constructing three blocks: one with a 20-percent gelatin composition, a second from one animal meat and a third from another animal meat.[A10-276] Those substances duplicated as closely as possible the portion of the President’s neck through which the bullet passed.[A10-277] At the time the tests were conducted, it was estimated that the President was struck at a range of approximately 180 feet, and the onsite tests which were conducted later at Dallas established that the President was shot through the neck at a range of 174.9 feet to 190.8 feet.[A10-278] At a range of 180 feet, the Western bullets were fired from the assassination weapon, which has a muzzle velocity of approximately 2,160 feet per second, through those substances which were placed beside a break-type screen for measuring velocity.[A10-279] The average entrance velocity at 180 feet was 1,904 feet per second.[A10-280]

To reconstruct the assassination situation as closely as possible both sides of the substances were covered with material and clipped animal skin to duplicate human skin.[A10-281] The average exit velocity was 1,779 feet from the gelatin, 1,798 feet from the first animal meat and 1,772 feet from the second animal meat.[A10-282] Commission Exhibit No. 847 depicts one of the animal meats compressed to 13½ to 14½ centimeters to approximate the President’s neck and Commission Exhibit No. 848 shows the analogous arrangement for the gelatin.[A10-283] The photograph marked Commission Exhibit No. 849 shows the bullet passing through the gelatin in a straight line evidencing very stable characteristics.[A10-284]

Commission Exhibit No. 850 depicts the pieces of clipped animal skin placed on the points of entry and exit showing that the holes of entrance are round while the holes of exit are “a little more elongated.”[A10-285] From these tests, it was concluded that the bullet lost little of its velocity in penetrating the President’s neck so that there would have been substantial impact on the interior of the Presidential limousine or anyone else struck by the exiting bullet. In addition, these tests indicated that the bullet had retained most of its stability in penetrating the President’s neck so that the exit hole would be only slightly different from the appearance of the entry hole.[A10-286]

Tests Simulating Governor Connally’s Chest Wounds

To most closely approximate the Governor’s chest injuries, the Edgewood scientists shot an animal with the assassination weapon using the Western bullets at a distance of 210 feet.[A10-287] The onsite tests later determined that the Governor was wounded at a distance of 176.9 feet to 190.8 feet from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Depository Building.[A10-288] The average striking velocity of 11 shots at 210 feet was 1,929 feet per second and the average exit velocity was 1,664 feet per second.[A10-289]

One of the shots produced an injury on the animal’s rib very similar to that inflicted on Governor Connally.[A10-290] For purposes of comparison with the Governor’s wound, the Edgewood scientists studied the Parkland Hospital report and X-rays, and they also discussed these wounds with Dr. Shaw, the Governor’s chest surgeon.[A10-291] The similar animal injury passed along the animal’s eighth left rib causing a fracture which removed a portion of the rib in a manner very similar to the wound sustained by the Governor.[A10-292] The X-ray of that wound on the animal is reproduced as Commission Exhibit No. 852.[A10-293] A comparison with the Governor’s chest wound, shown in X-ray marked as Commission Exhibit No. 681, shows the remarkable similarity between those two wounds.[A10-294]

The bullet which produced the wound depicted in Commission Exhibits Nos. 851 and 852 was marked as Commission Exhibit No. 853 and possessed characteristics very similar to the bullet marked as Commission Exhibit No. 399 found on Governor Connally’s stretcher and believed to have been the bullet which caused his chest wound.[A10-295] Those bullets, identified as Commission Exhibits Nos. 399 and 853, were flattened in similar fashion.[A10-296] In addition, the lead core was extruded from the rear in the same fashion on both bullets.[A10-297] One noticeable difference was that the bullet identified as Commission Exhibit No. 853, which penetrated the animal, was somewhat more flat than Commission Exhibit No. 399 which indicated that Commission Exhibit No. 853 was probably traveling at somewhat greater speed than the bullet which penetrated the Governor’s chest.[A10-298] After the bullet passed through the animal, it left an imprint on the velocity screen immediately behind the animal which was almost the length of the bullet indicating that the bullet was traveling sideways or end over end.[A10-299] Taking into consideration the extra girth on the Governor, the reduction in the velocity of the bullet passing through his body was estimated at 400 feet.[A10-300] The conclusions from the animal shots are significant when taken in conjunction with the experiments performed simulating the injuries to the Governor’s wrist.

Tests Simulating Governor Connally’s Wrist Wounds

Following procedures identical to those employed in simulating the chest wound, the wound ballistics experts from Edgewood Arsenal reproduced, as closely as possible, the Governor’s wrist wound. Again the scientists examined the reports and X-rays from Parkland Hospital and discussed the Governor’s wrist wound with the attending orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Charles F. Gregory.[A10-301] Bone structures were then shot with Western bullets fired from the assassination weapon at a distance of 210 feet.[A10-302] The most similar bone-structure shot was analyzed in testimony before the Commission. An X-ray designated as Commission Exhibit No. 854 and a photograph of that X-ray which appears as Commission Exhibit No. 855 show a fracture at a location which is very similar to the Governor’s wrist wound depicted in X-rays marked as Commission Exhibits Nos. 690 and 691.[A10-303]

The average striking velocity of the shots was 1,858 feet per second.[A10-304] The average exit velocity was 1,786 feet per second for the 7 out of 10 shots from bone structures which could be measured.[A10-305] These tests demonstrated that Governor Connally’s wrist was not struck by a pristine bullet, which is a missile that strikes an object before hitting anything else.[A10-306] This conclusion was based on the following factors: (1) Greater damage was inflicted on the bone structure than that which was suffered by the Governor’s wrist;[A10-307] and (2) the bone structure had a smaller entry wound and a larger exit wound which is characteristic of a pristine bullet as distinguished from the Governor’s wrist which had a larger wound of entry indicating a bullet which was tumbling with substantial reduction in velocity.[A10-308] In addition, if the bullet found on the Governor’s stretcher (Commission Exhibit No. 399) inflicted the wound on the Governor’s wrist, then it could not have passed through the Governor’s wrist had it been a pristine bullet, for the nose would have been considerably flattened, as was the bullet which struck the bone structure, identified as Commission Exhibit No. 856.[A10-309]

Conclusions From Simulating the Neck, Chest, and Wrist Wounds

Both Drs. Olivier and Dziemian expressed the opinion that one bullet caused all the wounds on Governor Connally.[A10-310] The wound to the Governor’s wrist was explained by circumstances where the bullet passed through the Governor’s chest, lost substantial velocity in doing so, tumbled through the wrist, and then slightly penetrated the Governor’s left thigh.[A10-311] Thus, the results of the wound ballistics tests support the conclusions of Governor Connally’s doctors that all his wounds were caused by one bullet.[A10-312]

In addition, the wound ballistics tests indicated that it was most probable that the same bullet passed through the President’s neck and then proceeded to inflict all the wounds on the Governor. That conclusion was reached by Drs. Olivier and Dziemian based on the medical evidence on the wounds of the President and the Governor and the tests they performed.[A10-313] It was their opinion that the wound on the Governor’s wrist would have been more extensive had the bullet which inflicted that injury merely passed through the Governor’s chest exiting at a velocity of approximately 1,500 feet per second. Thus, the Governor’s wrist wound indicated that the bullet passed through the President’s neck, began to yaw in the air between the President and the Governor, and then lost substantially more velocity than 400 feet per second in passing through the Governor’s chest.[A10-314] A bullet which was yawing on entering into the Governor’s back would lose substantially more velocity in passing through his body than a pristine bullet.[A10-315] In addition, the greater flattening of the bullet that struck the animal’s rib (Commission Exhibit No. 853) than the bullet which presumably struck the Governor’s rib (Commission Exhibit No. 399) indicates that the animal bullet was traveling at a greater velocity.[A10-316] That suggests that the bullet which entered the Governor’s chest had already lost velocity by passing through the President’s neck.[A10-317] Moreover, the large wound on the Governor’s back would be explained by a bullet which was yawing although that type of wound might also be accounted for by a tangential striking.[A10-318]

Dr. Frederick W. Light, Jr., the third of the wound ballistics experts, testified that the anatomical findings alone were insufficient for him to formulate a firm opinion on whether the same bullet did or did not pass through the President’s neck first before inflicting all the wounds on Governor Connally.[A10-319] Based on the other circumstances, such as the relative positions in the automobile of the President and the Governor, Dr. Light concluded that it was probable that the same bullet traversed the President’s neck and inflicted all the wounds on Governor Connally.[A10-320]

Tests Simulating President Kennedy’s Head Wounds

Additional tests were performed on inert skulls filled with a 20 percent gelatin substance and then coated with additional gelatin to approximate the soft tissues overlying the skull.[A10-321] The skull was then draped with simulated hair as depicted in Commission Exhibit No. 860.[A10-322] Using the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and the Western bullets, 10 shots were fired at the reconstructed skulls from a distance of 270 feet which was the estimated distance at the time those tests were conducted.[A10-323] It was later determined through the onsite tests that President Kennedy was struck in the back of the head at a distance of 265.3 feet from the assassination weapon.[A10-324]

The general results of these tests were illustrated by the findings on one skull which was struck at a point most nearly approximating the wound of entry on President Kennedy’s head.[A10-325] The whole skull, depicted in Commission Exhibit No. 860, was struck 2.9 centimeters to the right and almost horizontal to the occipital protuberance or slightly above it, which was virtually the precise point of entry on the President’s head as described by the autopsy surgeons.[A10-326] That bullet blew out the right side of the reconstructed skull in a manner very similar to the head wounds of the President.[A10-327] The consequences on that skull are depicted in Commission Exhibits Nos. 861 and 862, which illustrate the testimony of Dr. Alfred G. Olivier, who supervised the experiments.[A10-328] Based on his review of the autopsy report, Dr. Olivier concluded that the damage to the reconstructed skull was very similar to the wound inflicted on the President.[A10-329]

Two fragments from the bullet which struck the test skull closely resembled the two fragments found in the front seat of the Presidential limousine. The fragment designated as Commission Exhibit No. 567 is a mutilated piece of lead and copper very similar to a mutilated piece of copper recovered from the bullet which struck the skull depicted in Commission Exhibit No. 860. The other fragment, designated as Commission Exhibit No. 569 which was found in the front seat of the Presidential limousine, is the copper end of the bullet.[A10-330] Commission Exhibit No. 569 is very similar to a copper fragment of the end of the bullet which struck the test skull.[A10-331] The fragments from the test bullet are designated as Commission Exhibit No. 857 and are depicted in a photograph identified as Commission Exhibit No. 858.[A10-332] A group of small lead particles, recovered from the test bullet, are also very similar to the particles recovered under the left jump seat and in the President’s head. The particles from the test bullet are a part of Commission Exhibit No. 857 and are depicted in photograph designated as Commission Exhibit No. 859.[A10-333] That skull was depicted as Commission Exhibit No. 862.[A10-334]

As a result of these tests, Dr. Olivier concluded that the Western bullet fired from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle at a distance of 270 feet would make the same type of wound found on the President’s head.[A10-335] Prior to the tests, Dr. Olivier had some doubt that such a stable bullet would cause a massive head wound like that inflicted on the President.[A10-336] He had thought it more likely that such a striking bullet would make small entrance and exit holes.[A10-337] The tests, however, showed that the bones of the skull were sufficient to deform the end of the bullet causing it to expend a great deal of energy and thereby blow out the side of the skull.[A10-338] These tests further confirmed the autopsy surgeons’ opinions that the President’s head wound was not caused by a dumdum bullet.[A10-339] Because of the test results, Dr. Olivier concluded that the fragments found on and under the front seat of the President’s car most probably came from the bullet which struck the President’s head.[A10-340] It was further concluded that the damage done to Governor Connally’s wrist could not have resulted from a fragment from the bullet which struck President Kennedy’s head.[A10-341]

HAIRS AND FIBERS

Testimony on hairs and fibers was given by Paul M. Stombaugh[A10-342] of the FBI. Stombaugh has been a specialist in hairs and fibers since 1960, when he began a 1-year period of specialized training in this field. He has made thousands of hair and fiber examinations, and has testified in Federal and State courts in approximately 28 States.[A10-343] Stombaugh examined and gave testimony on the following objects: (1) The green and brown blanket found in the Paine’s garage, Commission Exhibit No. 140; (2) the homemade paper bag found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository following the assassination, Commission Exhibit No. 142; (3) the shirt worn by Oswald on November 22, 1963, Commission Exhibit No. 150; and (4) the C2766 rifle, Commission Exhibit No. 139.

General Principles

_Hairs._--As shown in Commission Exhibit No. 666 (p. 587), a hair consists of a central shaft of air cells, known as the medulla; a cortex containing pigment granules (which give the hair its color) and cortical fusi (air spaces); and a cuticle and an outer layer of scales. Unlike fingerprints, hairs are not unique. However, human hairs can be distinguished from animal hairs by various characteristics, including color, texture, length, medullary structure and shape, shape of pigment, root size, and scale size. In addition, hairs of the Caucasian, Negroid, and Mongoloid human races can be distinguished from each other by color, texture, size and degree of fluctuation of diameter, thickness of cuticle, shape and distribution of pigment, and shape of cross-section. Moreover, even though individual hairs are not unique, the expert usually can distinguish the hairs of different individuals. Thus, Stombaugh, who had made approximately 1,000 comparison examinations of Caucasian hairs and 500 comparison examinations of Negroid hairs, had never found a case in which he was unable to differentiate the hairs of two different Caucasian individuals, and had found only several cases in which he could not distinguish, with absolute certainty, between the hairs of two different Negroid individuals.[A10-344]

_Fibers._--Like hairs, the various types of natural and artificial fibers can be distinguished from each other under the microscope. Like hairs too, individual fibers are not unique, but the expert usually can distinguish fibers from different fabrics. A major identifying characteristic of most fibers is color, and under the microscope many different shades of each color can be differentiated--for example, 50-100 shades of green or blue, and 25-30 shades of black. The microscopic appearance of three types of fibers--cotton, wool, and viscose--is illustrated in Commission Exhibit No. 665 (p. 589). Two of these, cotton and viscose, were the subject of testimony by Stombaugh. Cotton is a natural fiber. Under the microscope, it resembles a twisted soda straw, and the degree of twist is an additional identifying characteristic of cotton. Cotton may be mercerized or (more commonly) unmercerized. Viscose is an artificial fiber. A delustering agent is usually added to viscose to cut down its luster, and under the microscope this agent appears as millions of tiny spots on the outside of the fiber. The major identifying characteristics of viscose, apart from color, are diameter--hundreds of variations being possible--and size and distribution of delustering agent, if any.[A10-345]

_The blanket._--Stombaugh received the blanket, Commission Exhibit No. 140, in the FBI Laboratory at 7:30 a.m., on November 23, 1963.[A10-346] Examination showed that it was composed of brown and green fibers, of which approximately 1-2 percent were woolen, 20-35 percent were cotton, and the remainder were delustered viscose.[A10-347] The viscose fibers in the blanket were of 10-15 different diameters, and also varied slightly in shade and in the size and distribution of the delustering agent. (The apparent cause of those variations was that the viscose in the blanket consisted of scrap viscose.)[A10-348] The cotton also varied in shade, about seven to eight different shades of green cotton being present, but was uniform in twist.[A10-349]

When received by Stombaugh, the blanket was folded into approximately the shape of a narrow right triangle.[A10-350] A safety pin was inserted in one end of the blanket, and also at this end, loosely wrapped around the blanket, was a string.[A10-351] On the basis of creases in the blanket in this area it appeared that the string had been tied around the blanket rather tightly at one time while something was inside the blanket.[A10-352] Other creases and folds were also present, as illustrated in Commission Exhibit No. 663.[A10-353] Among these was a crease or hump approximately 10 inches long.[A10-354] This crease must have been caused by a hard protruding object approximately 10 inches long which had been tightly wrapped in the blanket, causing the yarn to stretch so that the hump was present even when the object had been extracted.[A10-355] The hump was approximately the same length and shape as the telescopic sight on the C2766 rifle, and its position with respect to the ends of the blanket was such (based on the manner in which the blanket was folded when Stombaugh received it) that had the rifle been in the blanket the telescopic sight could have made the hump.[A10-356]

The string wrapped around the blanket was made of ordinary white cotton.[A10-357] It had been tied into a granny knot (a very common knot tied right over right, right over right) and the dangling ends had been further tied into a bow knot (the knot used on shoelaces).[A10-358]

After receiving the blanket, Stombaugh scraped it to remove the foreign textile fibers and hairs that were present.[A10-359] He found numerous foreign textile fibers of various types and colors, and a number of limb, pubic, and head hairs, all of which had originated from persons of the Caucasian race, and had fallen out naturally, as was shown by the shape of their roots.[A10-360] Several of the limb and pubic hairs matched samples of Oswald’s limb and pubic hairs obtained by the Dallas police in all observable characteristics, including certain relatively unusual characteristics.[A10-361] For example, in both Oswald’s pubic hairs and some of the blanket pubic hairs, the color was a medium brown, which remained constant to the tip, where it changed to a very light brown and then became transparent, due to lack of color pigments; the diameters were identical, and rather narrow for pubic hairs; the hairs were very smooth, lacking the knobbiness characteristic of pubic hairs, and the upper two-thirds were extremely smooth for pubic hairs; the tips of the hairs were sharp, which is unusual for pubic hairs; the cuticle was very thin for pubic hairs; the scales displayed only a very small protrusion; the pigmentation was very fine, equally dispersed, and occasionally chained together, and displayed only very slight gapping; cortical fusi were for the most part absent; the medulla was either fairly continuous or completely absent; and the root area was rather clear of pigment, and contained only a fair amount of cortical fusi, which was unusual.[A10-362] Similarly, in both Oswald’s limb hairs and some of the limb hairs from the blanket the color was light brown through its entire length; the diameter was very fine and did not noticeably fluctuate; the tips were very sharp, which is unusual; the scales were of medium size, with very slight protrusion; there was a very slight gapping of the pigmentation near the cuticle; there was an unusual amount of cortical fusi, equally distributed through the hair shaft; and the medulla was discontinuous, granular, very bulbous, and very uneven.[A10-363]

Other limb, pubic, and head hairs on the blanket did not come from Oswald.[A10-364]

_The paper bag._--Stombaugh received the paper bag, Commission Exhibit No. 142, at 7:30 a.m. on November 23, 1963.[A10-365] No foreign material was found on the outside of the bag except traces of fingerprint powder and several white cotton fibers, which were of no significance, since white cotton is the most common textile, and at any rate the fibers may have come from Stombaugh’s white cotton gloves.[A10-366] Inside the bag were a tiny wood fragment which was too minute for comparison purposes, and may have come from the woodpulp from which the paper was made; a particle of a waxy substance, like candle wax; and a single brown delustered viscose fiber and several light-green cotton fibers.[A10-367]

The fibers found inside the bag were compared with brown viscose and green cotton fibers taken from the blanket. The brown viscose fiber found in the bag matched some of the brown viscose fibers from the blanket in all observable characteristics, i.e., shade, diameter, and size and distribution of delustering agent.[A10-368] The green cotton fibers found in the bag were, like those from the blanket, of varying shades, but of a uniform twist. Each green cotton fiber from the bag matched some of the green cotton fibers from the blanket in all observable characteristics, i.e., shade and degree of twist. Like the blanket cotton fibers, the cotton fibers found in the bag were unmercerized.[A10-369]

_The shirt._--Stombaugh received the shirt, Commission Exhibit No. 150, at 7:30 a.m. on November 23, 1963.[A10-370] Examination showed that it was composed of gray-black, dark blue, and orange-yellow cotton fibers.[A10-371] The orange-yellow and gray-black cotton fibers were of a uniform shade, and the dark-blue fibers were of three different shades.[A10-372] All the fibers were mercerized and of substantially uniform degree of twist.[A10-373]

_The C2766 rifle._--The rifle, Commission Exhibit No. 139, was received in the FBI Laboratory on the morning of November 23, 1963, and examined for foreign material at that time.[A10-374] Stombaugh noticed immediately that the rifle had been dusted for fingerprints, “and at the time I noted to myself that I doubted very much if there would be any fibers adhering to the outside of this gun--I possibly might find some in a crevice some place--because when the latent fingerprint man dusted this gun, apparently in Dallas, they use a little brush to dust with they would have dusted any fibers off the gun at the same time * * *.”[A10-375] In fact, most of the fibers Stombaugh found were either adhering to greasy, oily deposits or were jammed down into crevices, and were so dirty, old, and fragmented that he could not even determine what type of fibers they were.[A10-376] However, Stombaugh found that a tiny tuft of fibers had caught on a jagged edge on the rifle’s metal butt plate where it met the end of the wooden stock, and had adhered to this edge, so that when the rifle had been dusted for fingerprints the brush had folded the tuft into a crevice between the butt plate and the stock, where it remained.[A10-377] Stombaugh described these fibers as “fresh,”[A10-378] by which he meant that “they were clean, they had good color to them, there was no grease on them and they were not fragmented.”[A10-379] However, it was not possible to determine how long the fibers had been on the rifle, in the absence of information as to how frequently the rifle had been used.[A10-380] Examination showed that the tuft was composed of six or seven orange-yellow, gray-black, and dark-blue cotton fibers. These fibers were compared with fibers from the shirt, Commission Exhibit No. 150, which was also composed of orange-yellow, gray-black, and dark-blue cotton fibers. The orange-yellow and gray-black tuft fibers matched the comparable shirt fibers in all observable characteristics, i.e., shade and twist. The three dark-blue fibers matched two of the three shades of the dark-blue shirt fibers, and also matched the dark-blue shirt fibers in degree of twist.[A10-381] Based on these facts, Stombaugh concluded that the tuft of fibers found on the rifle “could easily” have come from the shirt, and that “there is no doubt in my mind that these fibers could have come from this shirt. There is no way, however, to eliminate the possibility of the fibers having come from another identical shirt.”[A10-382]

PHOTOGRAPHS

Two photographs of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle were found among Oswald’s possessions in Mrs. Ruth Paine’s garage at 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving, Tex.[A10-383] In one, Commission Exhibit No. 133-A, Oswald is holding the rifle generally in front of his body; in the other, Commission Exhibit No. 133-B, he is holding the rifle to his right. Also found at Mrs. Paine’s garage were a negative of 133-B and several photographs of the rear of General Walker’s house.[A10-384] An Imperial reflex camera,[A10-385] which Marina Oswald testified she used to take 133-A and 133-B, was subsequently produced by Robert Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald’s brother.[A10-386] Testimony concerning the photographs, the negative, and the camera was given by Lyndal D. Shaneyfelt of the FBI.[A10-387] Shaneyfelt has been connected with photographic work since 1937. He has made 100-300 photographic examinations, and has testified frequently on the subject in court.[A10-388]

_Photographs 133-A and 133-B._--The background and lighting in 133-A and 133-B are virtually identical; the only apparent difference between the two photographs is the pose. However, in 133-A the rifle is held in a position showing many more of its characteristics than are shown in 133-B.[A10-389] In order to bring out the details in the rifle pictured in 133-A, Shaneyfelt rephotographed 133-A and prepared prints of varying densities from the new negative.[A10-390] He also took two new photographs of the C2766 rifle itself: one shows the rifle in approximately the same position as the rifle pictured in 133-A. The other shows a man holding the rifle simulating the pose in 133-A.[A10-391] Shaneyfelt compared the actual rifle, the photograph 133-A, his rephotographs of 133-A, and the two new photographs to determine whether the rifle pictured in 133-A was the C2766 rifle. He found it to be the same in all appearances, noted no differences, and found a notch in the stock of the C2766 which also appeared very faintly in 133-A. However, he did not find enough peculiarities to positively identify the rifle in 133-A as the C2766 rifle, as distinguished from other rifles of the same configuration.[A10-392]

The rifle’s position in 133-B is such that less of its characteristics were visible than in 133-A; essentially, 133-B shows only the bottom of the rifle. However, the characteristics of the rifle visible in 133-B are also similar to the observable characteristics of the C2766 rifle, except that while the C2766 rifle was equipped with a homemade leather sling when it was found after the assassination, the rifle in 133-B seems to be equipped with a homemade rope sling.[A10-393] The portion of the sling visible in 133-A is too small to establish whether it is rope or leather, but it has the appearance of rope, and its configuration is consistent with the rope sling pictured in 133-B.[A10-394]

_The negative._--Shaneyfelt’s examination of the negative, Commission Exhibit No. 749, showed that the photograph, 133-B, had been printed directly or indirectly from the negative. It was Shaneyfelt’s opinion that 133-B had been directly from the negative, but he could not absolutely eliminate the possibility of an internegative, that is, the possibility that a print had been produced from the negative 749, a photograph had been taken of that print, and 133-B had been produced from the new negative, rather than from the original negative.[A10-395] “I think this is highly unlikely, because if this were the result of a copied negative, there would normally be evidence that I could detect, such as a loss of detail and imperfections that show up due to the added process.”[A10-396] In any event, any “intermediate” print would have been virtually indistinguishable from 133-B, so that Shaneyfelt’s testimony conclusively established that either 133-B or a virtually indistinguishable print had been produced from the negative 749.

_The camera._--The Imperial camera, Commission Exhibit No. 750, was a relatively inexpensive, fixed-focus, one-shutter-speed, box-type camera, made in the United States.[A10-397] Shaneyfelt compared this camera with the negative, Commission Exhibit No. 749, to determine whether this negative had been taken with the camera.[A10-398] To make this determination, Shaneyfelt compared the margins of the image on Commission Exhibit No. 749 with the margins of the image on a negative he himself had taken with the camera. Microscopic examination shows that the margins of a negative’s image, although apparently straight, are actually irregular. The irregularities usually do not show on a finished print, because they are blocked out to give the print a neat border.[A10-399] The cause of these irregularities can be best understood by examination of Commission Exhibit No. 751 (p. 594), a photograph of the Imperial camera with the back removed to show the camera’s film-plane aperture. When the camera’s shutter is opened, light exposes that portion of the film which is not blocked off by this aperture. The edges of the aperture, therefore, define the edges of the image which will appear on the developed negative. In effect, the edge of the image is a shadowgraph of the edge of the aperture. As Shaneyfelt testified:

* * * the basis of the examination was a close microscopic study of the negative made in the camera to study the shadowgraph that is made of the edge of the aperture.

As the film is placed across the aperture of the camera, and the shutter is opened, light comes through and exposes the film only in the opening within the edges. Where the film is out over the edges of the aperture it is not exposed, and your result is an exposed negative with a clear edge, and on the negative then, the edges of that exposure of the photograph, are actually shadowgraphs of the edges of the aperture.[A10-400]

The basis of the identification is that the microscopic characteristics of every film-plane aperture, like those of a rifle barrel, are distinctive, for much the same reason; that is, when the camera is manufactured, certain handwork is done which differs microscopically from camera to camera, and further differences accrue as the camera is used. As Shaneyfelt testified:

Q. Mr. Shaneyfelt, what is the basis of your statement, the theoretical basis of your statement, that every camera with this type of back aperture arrangement is unique in the characteristics of the shadowgraph it makes on the negative?

Mr. SHANEYFELT. It is because of the minute variations that even two cameras from the same mold will have. Additional handwork on cameras, or filing the edges where a little bit of plastic or a little bit of metal stays on, make individual characteristics apart from those that would be general characteristics on all of them from the same mold.

In addition, as the film moves across the camera and it is used for a considerable length of time, dirt and debris tend to accumulate a little--or if the aperture is painted, little lumps in the paint will make little bumps along that edge that would make that then individually different from every other camera.

Q. Is this similar then to toolmark identification?

Mr. SHANEYFELT. Very similar; yes.[A10-401]

Based on his examination of the shadowgraph on the negative, Commission Exhibit No. 749, Shaneyfelt determined that it had been taken with the Imperial camera.[A10-402]

Three edges of the shadowgraph of the film-plane aperture were also visible on one of the photographs of General Walker’s house, not having been blocked out in the making of the print. On the basis of these three margins, Shaneyfelt determined that this photograph had also been taken with Oswald’s Imperial Reflex camera. Shaneyfelt could not determine whether 133-A had been photographed with the Imperial camera, because the negative of 133-A had not been found, and the print itself did not show a shadowgraph area.[A10-403]

During his interrogations Oswald had been shown 133-A, and had claimed it was a composite--that the face in the picture was his, but the body was not.[A10-404] Shaneyfelt examined 133-A and 133-B to determine if they were composite pictures. He concluded that they were not:

* * * it is my opinion that they are not composites. Again with very, very minor reservation, because I cannot entirely eliminate an extremely expert composite. I have examined many composite photographs, and there is always an inconsistency, either in lighting of the portion that is added, or the configuration indicating a different lens used for the part that was added to the original photograph, things many times that you can’t point to and say this is a characteristic, or that is a characteristic, but they have definite variations that are not consistent throughout the picture.

I found no such characteristics in this picture.

In addition, with a composite it is always necessary to make a print that you then make a pasteup of. In this instance paste the face in, and rephotograph it, and then retouch out the area where the head was cut out, which would leave a characteristic that would be retouched out on the negative and then that would be printed.

Normally, this retouching can be seen under magnification in the resulting composite--points can be seen where the edge of the head had been added and it hadn’t been entirely retouched out.

This can nearly always be detected under magnification. I found no such characteristics in these pictures.

Q. Did you use the technique of magnification in your analysis?

A. Yes.[A10-405]

Furthermore, the negative, Commission Exhibit No. 749, showed absolutely no doctoring or composition.[A10-406] Since the negative was made in Oswald’s Imperial camera, Commission Exhibit No. 750, a composite of 133-B could have been made only by putting two pictures together and rephotographing them in the Imperial camera--all without leaving a discernible trace. This, to Shaneyfelt, was “in the realm of the impossible”:

In addition, in this instance regarding 133-B which I have just stated, I have identified as being photographed or exposed in the camera which is Exhibit 750, for this to be a composite, they would have had to make a picture of the background with an individual standing there, and then substitute the face, and retouch it and then possibly rephotograph it and retouch that negative, and make a print, and then photograph it with this camera, which is Commission Exhibit 750, in order to have this negative which we have identified with the camera, and is Commission Exhibit 749.

This to me is beyond reasonable doubt, it just doesn’t seem that it would be at all possible, in this particular photograph.[A10-407]

* * * * *

Q. You have the negative of this? [Referring to Exhibit 133B.]

A. We have the negative of 133B.

Q. You have the negative of 133B. That negative in itself shows no doctoring or composition at all?

A. It shows absolutely no doctoring or composition.

Q. So that the only composition that could have been made would have been in this process which you have described of picture on picture and negative and then photographing?

A. And then finally rephotographing with this camera.

Q. Rephotographing with this camera, this very camera?

A. That is correct, and this then, to me, becomes in the realm of the impossible.[A10-408]

Following the assassination, photographs similar to 133-A appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines.[A10-409] At least some of these photographs, as reproduced, differed both from 133-A and from each other in minor details.[A10-410] Shaneyfelt examined several of these reproductions and concluded that in each case the individual publisher had taken a reproduction of 133-A and retouched it in various ways, apparently for clarifying purposes, thus accounting for the differences between the reproductions and 133-A, and the differences between the reproductions themselves.[A10-411] Subsequently one of the publishers involved submitted the original photographs which it had retouched. Shaneyfelt’s examination of this photograph confirmed his original conclusion.[A10-412] The remaining publishers either confirmed that they had retouched the photographs they had used, or failed to contradict Shaneyfelt’s testimony after having been given an opportunity to do so.[A10-413]

APPENDIX XI

Reports Relating to the Interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald at the Dallas Police Department

As discussed in chapters IV and V, Lee Harvey Oswald was interrogated for a total of approximately 12 hours between 2:30 p.m. on Friday, November 22, 1963, and 11:15 a.m. on Sunday, November 24, 1963. There were no stenographic or tape recordings of these interviews. Several of the investigators present at one or more of the interrogation sessions, prior to testifying before the Commission, had prepared memoranda setting forth their recollections of the questioning of Oswald and his responses. The following are the most important of these reports.

REPORT OF CAPT. J. W. FRITZ, DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT

INTERROGATION OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD

We conducted the investigation at the Texas Book Depository Building on November 22, 1963, immediately after the President was shot and after we had found the location where Lee Harvey Oswald had done the shooting from and left three empty cartridge cases on the floor and the rifle had been found partially hidden under some boxes near the back stairway. These pieces of evidence were protected until the Crime Lab could get pictures and make a search for fingerprints. After Lt. Day, of the Crime Lab, had finished his work with the rifle, I picked it up and found that it had a cartridge in the chamber, which I ejected. About this time some officer came to me and told me that Mr. Roy S. Truly wanted to see me, as one of his men had left the building. I had talked to Mr. Truly previously, and at that time he thought everyone was accounted for who worked in the building. Mr. Truly then came with another officer and told me that a Lee Harvey Oswald had left the building. I asked if he had an address where this man lived, and he told me that he did, that it was in Irving at 2515 W. 5th Street.

I then left the rest of the search of the building with Chief Lumpkin and other officers who were there and told Dets. R. K. Sims and E. L. Boyd to accompany me to the City Hall where we could make a quick check for police record and any other information of value, and we would then go to Irving, Texas, in an effort to apprehend this man. While I was in the building, I was told that Officer J. D. Tippit had been shot in Oak Cliff. Immediately after I reached my office, I asked the officers who had brought in a prisoner from the Tippit shooting who the man was who shot the officer. They told me his name was Lee Harvey Oswald, and I replied that that was our suspect in the President’s killing. I instructed the officers to bring this man into the office after talking to the officers for a few minutes in the presence of Officers R. M. Sims and E. L. Boyd of the Homicide Bureau and possibly some Secret Service men. Just as I had started questioning this man, I received a call from Gordon Shanklin, Agent in Charge of the FBI office here in Dallas, who asked me to let him talk to Jim Bookhout, one of his agents. He told Mr. Bookhout that he would like for James P. Hosty to sit in on this interview as he knew about these people and had been investigating them before. I invited Mr. Bookhout and Mr. Hosty in to help with the interview.

After some questions about this man’s full name I asked him if he worked for the Texas School Book Depository, and he told me he did. I asked him which floor he worked on, and he said usually on the second floor but sometimes his work took him to all the different floors. I asked him what part of the building he was in at the time the President was shot, and he said that he was having his lunch about that time on the first floor. Mr. Truly had told me that one of the police officers had stopped this man immediately after the shooting somewhere near the back stairway, so I asked Oswald where he was when the police officer stopped him. He said he was on the second floor drinking a coca cola when the officer came in. I asked him why he left the building, and he said there was so much excitement he didn’t think there would be any more work done that day, and that as this company wasn’t particular about their hours, that they did not punch a clock, and that he thought it would be just as well that he left for the rest of the afternoon. I asked him if he owned a rifle, and he said that he did not. He said that he had seen one at the building a few days ago, and that Mr. Truly and some of the employees were looking at it. I asked him where he went to when he left work, and he told me that he had a room on 1026 North Beckley, that he went over there and changed his trousers and got his pistol and went to the picture show. I asked him why he carried his pistol, and he remarked, “You know how boys do when they have a gun, they just carry it.”

Mr. Hosty asked Oswald if he had been in Russia. He told him, “Yes, he had been in Russia three years.” He asked him if he had written to the Russian Embassy, and he said he had. This man became very upset and arrogant with Agent Hosty when he questioned him and accused him of accosting his wife two different times. When Agent Hosty attempted to talk to this man, he would hit his fist on the desk. I asked Oswald what he meant by accosting his wife when he was talking to Mr. Hosty. He said Mr. Hosty mistreated his wife two different times when he talked with her, practically accosted her. Mr. Hosty also asked Oswald if he had been to Mexico City, which he denied. During this interview he told me that he had gone to school in New York and in Fort Worth, Texas, that after going into the Marines, finished his high school education. I asked him if he won any medals for rifle shooting in the Marines. He said he won the usual medals.

I asked him what his political beliefs were, and he said he had none but that he belonged to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and told me that they had headquarters in New York and that he had been Secretary for this organization in New Orleans when he lived there. He also said that he supports the Castro Revolution. One of the officers had told me that he had rented the room on Beckley under the name of O. F. Lee. I asked him why he did this. He said the landlady did it. She didn’t understand his name correctly.

Oswald asked if he was allowed an attorney and I told him he could have any attorney he liked, and that the telephone would be available to him up in the jail and he could call anyone he wished. I believe it was during this interview that he first expressed a desire to talk to Mr. Abt, an attorney in New York. Interviews on this day were interrupted by showups where witnesses identified Oswald positively as the man who killed Officer Tippit, and the time that I would have to talk to another witness or to some of the officers. One of these showups was held at 4:35 pm and the next one at 6:30 pm, and at 7:55 pm. At 7:05 pm I signed a complaint before Bill Alexander of the District Attorney’s office, charging Oswald with the Tippit murder. At 7:10 pm Tippit was arraigned before Judge Johnston. During the second interview I asked Oswald about a card that he had in his purse showing that he belonged to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which he admitted was his. I asked him about another identification card in his pocket bearing the name of Alex Hidell. He said he picked up that name in New Orleans while working in the Fair Play for Cuba organization. He said he spoke Russian, that he corresponded with people in Russia, and that he received newspapers from Russia.

I showed the rifle to Marina Oswald, and she could not positively identify it, but said that it looked like the rifle that her husband had and that he had been keeping it in the garage at Mrs. Paine’s home in Irving. After this, I questioned Oswald further about the rifle, but he denied owning a rifle at all, and said that he did have a small rifle some years past. I asked him if he owned a rifle in Russia, and he said, “You know you can’t buy a rifle in Russia, you can only buy shotguns. I had a shotgun in Russia and hunted some while there.” Marina Oswald had told me that she thought her husband might have brought the rifle from New Orleans, which he denied. He told me that he had some things stored in a garage at Mrs. Paine’s home in Irving and that he had a few personal effects at his room on Beckley. I instructed the officers to make a thorough search of both of these places.

After reviewing all of the evidence pertaining to the killing of President Kennedy before District Attorney Henry Wade and his assistant, Bill Alexander, and Jim Allen, former First Assistant District Attorney of Dallas County, I signed a complaint before the District Attorney charging Oswald with the murder of President Kennedy. This was at 11:26 pm. He was arraigned before Judge David Johnston at 1:35 am, November 23, 1963.

Oswald was placed in jail about 12:00 midnight and brought from the jail for arraignment before Judge David Johnston at 1:36 am.

On November 23 at 10:25 AM Oswald was brought from the jail for an interview. Present at this time was FBI agent Jim Bookhout, Forrest Sorrells, special agent and in charge of Secret Service, United States Marshall Robert Nash, and Homicide officers. During this interview I talked to Oswald about his leaving the building and he told me he left by bus and rode to a stop near home and walked on to his house. At the time of Oswald’s arrest he had a bus transfer in his pocket. He admitted this was given to him by the bus driver when he rode the bus after leaving the building.

One of the officers had told me that a cab driver, William Wayne Whaley, thought he had recognized Oswald’s picture as the man who had gotten in his cab near the bus station and rode to Becklay Avenue. I asked Oswald if he had ridden a cab on that day, and he said, “Yes, I did ride in the cab. The bus I got on near where I work got into heavy traffic and was traveling too slow, and I got off and caught a cab.” I asked him about his conversation with the cab driver, and he said he remembered that when he got in the cab a lady came up who also wanted a cab, and he told Oswald to tell the lady to “take another cab”.

We found from the investigation the day before that when Oswald left home, he was carrying a long package. He usually went to see his wife of week ends, but this time he had gone on Thursday night. I asked him if he had told Buell Wesley Frazier why he had gone home a different night, and if he had told him anything about bringing back some curtain rods. He denied it.

During this conversation he told me he reached his home by cab and changed both his shirt and trousers before going to the show. He said his cab fare home was 85 cents. When asked what he did with his clothing he took off when he got home, he said he put them in the dirty clothes. In talking with him further about his location at the time the President was killed, he said he ate lunch with some of the colored boys who worked with him. One of them was called “Junior” and the other one was a little short man whose name he did not know. He said he had a cheese sandwich and some fruit and that was the only package he had brought with him to work and denied that he had brought the long package described by Mr. Frazier and his sister.

I asked him why he lived in a room, while his wife lived in Irving. He said Mrs. Paine, the lady his wife lived with, was learning Russian, that his wife needed help with the young baby, and that it made a nice arrangement for both of them. He said he didn’t know Mr. Paine very well, but Mr. Paine and his wife, he thought, were separated a great deal of the time. He said he owned no car, but that the Paines have two cars, and told that in the garage at the Paine’s home he had some sea bags that had a lot of his personal belongings, that he had left them there after coming back from New Orleans in September.

He said he had a brother, Robert, who lived in Fort Worth. We later found that this brother lived in Denton. He said the Paines were close friends of his.

I asked him if he belonged to the Communist Party, but he said that he had never had a card, but repeated that he belonged to the Fair Play for Cuba organization, and he said that he belonged to the American Civil Liberties Union and paid $5.00 dues. I asked him again why he carried the pistol to the show. He refused to answer questions about the pistol. He did tell me, however, that he had bought it several months before in Fort Worth, Texas.

I noted that in questioning him that he did answer very quickly, and I asked him if he had ever been questioned before, and he told me that he had. He was questioned one time for a long time by the FBI after he had returned from Russia. He said they used different methods, they tried the hard and soft, and the buddy method, and said he was very familiar with interrogation. He reminded me that he did not have to answer any questions at all until he talked to his attorney, and I told him again that he could have an attorney any time he wished. He said he didn’t have money to pay for a phone call to Mr. Abt. I told him to call “collect”, if he liked, to use the jail phone or that he could have another attorney if he wished. He said he didn’t want another attorney, he wanted to talk to this attorney first. I believe he made this call later as he thanked me later during one of our interviews for allowing him the use of the telephone. I explained to him that all prisoners were allowed to use the telephone. I asked him why he wanted Mr. Abt, instead of some available attorney. He told me he didn’t know Mr. Abt personally, but that he was familiar with a case where Mr. Abt defended some people for a violation of the Smith Act, and that if he didn’t get Mr. Abt, that he felt sure the American Civil Liberties Union would furnish him a lawyer. He explained to me that this organization helped people who needed attorneys and weren’t able to get them.

While in New Orleans, he lived at 1907 Magazine Street and at one time worked for the William Riley Company near that address. When asked about any previous arrests, he told me that he had had a little trouble while working with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and had a fight with some anti-Castro people. He also told me of a debate on some radio station in New Orleans where he debated with some anti-Castro people.

I asked him what he thought of President Kennedy and his family, and he said he didn’t have any views on the President. He said, “I like the President’s family very well. I have my own views about national policies.” I asked him about a polygraph test. He told me he had refused a polygraph test with the FBI, and he certainly wouldn’t take one at this time. Both Mr. Bookhout, of the FBI, and Mr. Kelley, and the Marshall asked Oswald some questions during this interview.

Oswald was placed back in jail at 11:33 am. At 12:35 pm Oswald was brought to the office for another interview with Inspector Kelley and some of the other officers and myself. I talked to Oswald about the different places he had lived in Dallas in an effort to find where he was living when the picture was made of him holding a rifle which looked to be the same rifle we had recovered. This picture showed to be taken near a stairway with many identifying things in the back yard. He told me about one of the places where he had lived.

Mr. Paine had told me about where Oswald lived on Neely Street. Oswald was very evasive about this location. We found later that this was the place where the picture was made. I again asked him about his property and where his things might be kept, and he told me about the things at Mrs. Paine’s residence and a few things on Beckley. He was placed back in jail at 1:10 PM.

At 6:00 PM I instructed the officers to bring Oswald back into the office, and in the presence of Jim Bookhout, Homicide officers, and Inspector Kelley, of the Secret Service, I showed Oswald an enlarged picture of him holding a rifle and wearing a pistol. This picture had been enlarged by our Crime Lab from a picture found in the garage at Mrs. Paine’s house. He said the picture was not his, that the face was his face, but that this picture had been made by someone superimposing his face, the other part of the picture was not him at all and that he had never seen the picture before. When I told him that the picture was recovered from Mrs. Paine’s garage, he said that the picture had never been in his possession, and I explained to him that it was an enlargement of the small picture obtained in the search. At that time I showed him the smaller picture. He denied ever seeing that picture and said that he knew all about photography, that he had done a lot of work in photography himself, that the small picture was a reduced picture of the large picture, and had been made by some person unknown to him. He further stated that since he had been photographed here at the City Hall and that people had been taking his picture while being transferred from my office to the jail door that someone had been able to get a picture of his face and that with that, they had made this picture. He told me that he understood photography real well, and that in time, he would be able to show that it was not his picture, and that it had been made by someone else. At this time he said that he did not want to answer any more questions and he was returned to the jail about 7:15 pm.

At 9:30 on the morning of November 24, I asked that Oswald be brought to the office. At that time I showed him a map of the City of Dallas which had been recovered in the search of his room on North Beckley. This map had some markings on it, one of which was about where the President was shot. He said that the map had nothing to do with the President’s shooting and again, as he had one in the previous interviews, denied knowing anything about the shooting of the President, or of the shooting of Officer Tippit. He said the map had been used to locate buildings where he had gone to talk to people about employment.

During this interview Inspector Kelley asked Oswald about his religious views, and he replied that he didn’t agree with all the philosophies on religion. He seemed evasive with Inspector Kelley about how he felt about religion, and I asked him if he believed in a Diety. He was evasive and didn’t answer this question.

Someone of the Federal officers asked Oswald if he thought Cuba would be better off since the President was assassinated. To this he replied that he felt that since the President was killed that someone else would take his place, perhaps Vice-President Johnson, and that his views would probably be largely the same as those of President Kennedy.

I again asked him about the gun and about the picture of him holding a similar rifle, and at that time he again positively denied having any knowledge of the picture or the rifle and denied that he had ever lived on Neely Street, and when I told him that friends who had visited him there said that he had lived there, he said that they were mistaken about visiting him there, because he had never lived there.

During this interview, Oswald said he was a Marxist. He repeated two or three times, “I am a Marxist, but not a Leninist-Marxist.” He told me that the station that he had debated on in New Orleans was the one who carried Bill Stakey’s program. He denied again knowing Alex Hidell in New Orleans, and again reiterated his belief in Fair Play for Cuba and what the committee stood for.

After some questioning, Chief Jesse E. Curry came to the office and asked me if I was ready for the man to be transferred. I told him we were ready as soon as the security was completed in the basement, where we were to place Oswald in a car to transfer him to the County Jail. I had objected to the cameras obstructing the jail door, and the Chief explained to me that these have been moved, and the people were moved back, and the cameramen were well back in the garage. I told the Chief then that we were ready to go. He told us to go ahead with the prisoner, and that he and Chief Stevenson, who was with him, would meet us at the County Jail.

Oswald’s shirt, which he was wearing at the time of arrest, had been removed and sent to the crime lab in Washington with all the other evidence for a comparison test. Oswald said he would like to have a shirt from his clothing that had been brought to the office to wear over the T-short that he was wearing at the time. We selected the best-looking shirt from his things, but he said he would prefer wearing a black Ivy League type shirt, indicating that it might be a little warmer. We made this change and I asked him if he wouldn’t like to wear a hat to more or less camouflage his looks in the car while being transferred as all of the people who had been viewing him had seen him bareheaded. He didn’t want to do this. Then Officer J. R. Leavalle handcuffed his left hand to Oswald’s right hand, then we left the office for the transfer.

Inasmuch as this report was made from rough notes and memory, it is entirely possible that one of these questions could be in a separate interview from the one indicated in this report. He was interviewed under the most adverse conditions in my office which is 9 feet 6 inches by 14 feet, and has only one front door, which forced us to move this prisoner through hundreds of people each time he was carried from my office to the jail door, some 20 feet, during each of these transfers. The crowd would attempt to jam around him, shouting questions and many containing slurs. This office is also surrounded by large glass windows, and there were many officers working next to these windows. I have no records in this office and was unable to record the interview. I was interrupted many times during these interviews to step from the office to talk to another witness or secure additional information from officers needed for the interrogation.

REPORTS OF AGENTS OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

FD-302 (Rev 3-3-59) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 11/23/63

LEE HARVEY OSWALD, 1026 North Beckley, Dallas, Texas, was interviewed by Captain WILL FRITZ of the Homicide Bureau, Dallas Police Department. Special Agents JAMES P. HOSTY, JR. and JAMES W. BOOKHOUT were present during this interview. When the Agents entered the interview room at 3:15 p.m., Captain FRITZ had been previously interviewing LEE HARVEY OSWALD for an undetermined period of time. Both Agents identified themselves to OSWALD and advised him they were law enforcement officers and anything he said could be used against him. OSWALD at this time adopted a violent attitude toward the FBI and both Agents and made many uncomplimentary remarks about the FBI. OSWALD requested that Captain FRITZ remove the cuffs from him, it being noted that OSWALD was handcuffed with his hands behind him. Captain FRITZ had one of his detectives remove the handcuffs and handcuff OSWALD with his hands in front of him.

Captain FRITZ asked OSWALD if he ever owned a rifle and OSWALD stated that he had observed a MR. TRUELY (phonetic), a supervisor at the Texas Schoolbook Depository on November 20, 1963, display a rifle to some individuals in his office on the first floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository, but denied ever owning a rifle himself. OSWALD stated that he had never been in Mexico except to Tijuana on one occasion. However, he admitted to Captain FRITZ to having resided in the Soviet Union for three years where he has many friends and relatives of his wife.

OSWALD also admitted that he was the secretary for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans, Louisiana a few months ago. OSWALD stated that the Fair Play for Cuba Committee has its headquarters in New York City. OSWALD admitted to having received an award for marksmanship while a member of the U.S. Marine Corps. He further admitted that he was living at 1026 N. Beckley in Dallas, Texas, under the name of O. H. LEE. OSWALD admitted that he was present in the Texas Schoolbook Depository on November 22, 1963, where he has been employed since October 15, 1963. OSWALD stated that as a laborer, he has access to the entire building which has offices on the first and second floors and storage on the third and fourth, as well as the fifth and sixth floors. OSWALD stated that he went to lunch at approximately noon and he claimed he ate his lunch on the first floor in the lunchroom; however he went to the second floor where the Coca-Cola machine was located and obtained a bottle of Coca-Cola for his lunch. OSWALD claimed to be on the first floor when President JOHN F. KENNEDY passed this building.

After hearing what had happened, he said that because of all the confusion there would be no work performed that afternoon so he decided to go home. OSWALD stated he then went home by bus and changed his clothes and went to a movie. OSWALD admitted to carrying a pistol with him to this movie stating he did this because he felt like it, giving no other reason. OSWALD further admitted attempting to fight the Dallas police officers who arrested him in this movie theater when he received a cut and a bump.

OSWALD frantically denied shooting Dallas police officer TIPPETT or shooting President JOHN F. KENNEDY. The interview was concluded at 4:05 p.m. when OSWALD was removed for a lineup.

on 11/22/63 at Dallas, Texas

File # DL 89-43

by Special Agents JAMES P. HOSTY, JR. and JAMES W. BOOKHOUT /wvm

Date dictated 11/23/63

This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI, and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.

FD-302 (Rev. 3-3-59) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 11/23/63

LEE HARVEY OSWALD, interviewed in offices of the Dallas Police Department, was advised that he did not have to make any statement, any statement he made could be used against him in court and of his right to an attorney. He was requested to furnish descriptive and biographical data concerning himself.

The following was obtained from his responses and examination of contents of his wallet:

OSWALD declined to explain his possession of a photograph of a Selective Service card in the name of “ALEK JAMES HIDELL”.

When interview had been substantially completed and OSWALD was asked as to his present employment, he stated he thought perhaps interview to obtain descriptive information was too prolonged, that he had declined to be interviewed by any other officers previously, and did not desire to be interviewed by this agent. He remarked “I know your tactics--there is a similar agency in Russia. You are using the soft touch and, of course, the procedure in Russia would be quite different.”

OSWALD was advised questions were intended to obtain his complete physical description and background. Upon repetition of the question as to his present employment, he furnished same without further discussion.

Race White Sex Male Date of Birth October 18, 1939 Place of Birth New Orleans, Louisiana Height 5’ 9” Weight 140 Hair Medium brown, worn medium length, needs haircut Eyes Blue-gray Scars No tattoos or permanent scars Relatives Mother--MARGUERITE OSWALD, unknown address, Arlington, Texas, practical nurse (has not seen for about one year) Father--ROBERT LEE OSWALD deceased, August 31, 1939, New Orleans, Louisiana Wife--MARINA; two infant children Brothers--JOHN OSWALD, address unknown, last known at Fort Worth, Texas, five or six years ago, age about 30, works with pharmaceuticals, but not graduate pharmacist; ROBERT OSWALD, 7313 Davenport, Fort Worth, Texas (wife--VADA, two small children), works for brick company (believed Acme)

Dress at Time of Interview Black trousers, brown “salt and pepper”, long sleeved shirt, bare-headed

Contents of Wallet Had card in possession, LEE HARVEY OSWALD, Social Security No. 433-54-3937

Photo of Selective Service System card with photo of OSWALD, “Notice of Classification” and name “ALEK JAMES HIDELL, SSN 42-224-39-5321”. Card shows classification IV____(?). Bears date February 5, 1962, reverse side shows card from Texas Local Board, 400 West Vickery, Fort Worth, Texas. Card shows erasures and retyping of the information indicated and bears longhand signature “ALEK J. HIDELL”. Signature of member or clerk of local board (indistinct, may be GOOD____).

Local Board 114, Forth Worth, LEE HARVEY OSWALD, SSN 41-114-39-532, address 3124 West 5th Street, Fort Worth, Texas, registered September 14, 1959. Date of birth October 18, 1939, New Orleans, 5’ 11”, 150 lbs., blue eyes, brown hair. Mrs. ZOLA Z. BURGER, Clerk.

Snapshot photo of woman, apparently wife

Snapshot photo of infant

White card with longhand, “Embassy USSR, 1609 Decatur, NW, Washington, D. C., Consular REZHUYEHKO” (indistinct)

Department of Defense Identification No. N4,271,617, issued to LEE H. OSWALD, expiration date December 7, 1962, Private First Class, E-2, MCR/INAC, Service No. 1653230. Card shows date of birth October 18, 1939, 5’ 11”, 145 lbs., brown hair, gray eyes.

Dallas Public Library card, undated, expiration date December 7, 1965, issued to LEE HARVEY OSWALD, 602 Elsbeth, Dallas, school or business--Jaggers--Chiles-- Stovall, followed by the name JACK L. BOWEN, 1916 Stevens Forest Drive, WH 8-8997.

U. S. Forces, Japan Identification card issued to LEE H. OSWALD, Private, Service No. 1653230, organization--MACS-1 MAG-11 1st MAW. Identification card #00646, issued, May 8, 1958. Date of birth October 18, 1939, American.

Card, “Compliments GA--JO Enkanko Hotel, telephone number ED 5-0755 of reverse side.

Certificate of Service in Armed Forces of United States, issued to LEE HARVEY OSWALD, 1653230, reflected honorably served on active duty, U. S. Marine Corps, October 24, 1956--September 11, 1959.

Card of “Fair Play for Cuba Committee, 799 Broadway, New York 3, New York, telephone ORegon 4-8295”, issued to LEE H. OSWALD, May 28, 1963, filed by V. T. LEE as Executive Secretary

Card of “Fair Play for Cuba, New Orleans Chapter”, issued to L. H. OSWALD, June 15, 1963, filed by A. T.(?) HIDELL, Chapter President (note name HIDELL on fictitious Selective Service card)

Selective Service notice of classification card to LEE HARVEY OSWALD, Selective Service No. 41-114-39-532, IV-A; dated February 2, 1960, from Local Board 114, Fort Worth, Texas

$13.00 in currency, consisting of one $5.00 bill and eight $1.00 bills

Residence 2515 West 5th Street, Irving, Texas, phone BL 3-1628 (residence of wife for past five weeks)

Room in rooming house, 1026 North Beckley, for about five weeks. Phone number unknown.

Previous Residences 4706 Magazine Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, no phone (about three months)

602 Elsbeth, no phone (about seven months), Dallas, Texas

Unrecalled street in Fort Worth, Texas, (a few months), with brother in Fort Worth, Texas, for a few months.

Previously in Soviet Union, until July, 1962.

Occupations Photography--Jaggers--Chiles--Stovall, 522 Browder, Dallas, Texas

Factory worker, William B. Riley Company (Coffee and Coffee Canisters), 644 Magazine Street, New Orleans, Louisiana

Unemployed for several months

Employed with Texas State Book Depository, Dallas, Texas, September, 1963, stock work, filing orders, etc.

on 11/22/63 at Dallas, Texas

File # 89-43

by Special Agent MANNING C. CLEMENTS /mac

Date dictated 11/23/63

This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.

FD-302 (Rev 3-3-59) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 11/25/63

LEE HARVEY OSWALD was interviewed at the Homicide and Robbery Bureau, Dallas Police Department, by Captain J. W. FRITZ in the presence of Special Agent JAMES W. BOOKHOUT, Federal Bureau of Investigation. OSWALD was advised of the identity and official capacity of said agent and the fact that he did not have to make any statement, that any statement he did make could be used in a court of law against him, and that any statement made must be free and voluntary and that he had the right to consult with an attorney.

OSWALD stated that he did not own any rifle. He advised that he saw a rifle day before yesterday at the Texas School Book Depository which MR. TRULY and two other gentlemen had in their possession and were looking at.

OSWALD stated that on November 22, 1963, at the time of the search of the Texas School Book Depository building by Dallas police officers, he was on the second floor of said building, having just purchased a Coca-cola from the soft-drink machine, at which time a police officer came into the room with pistol drawn and asked him if he worked there. MR. TRULY was present and verified that he was an employee and the police officer thereafter left the room and continued through the building. OSWALD stated that he took this Coke down to the first floor and stood around and had lunch in the employees lunch room. He thereafter went outside and stood around for five or ten minutes with foreman BILL SHELLY, and thereafter went home. He stated that he left work because, in his opinion, based upon remarks of BILL SHELLY, he did not believe that there was going to be any more work that day due to the confusion in the building. He stated after arriving at his residence, then he went to a movie, where he was subsequently apprehended by the Dallas Police Department.

OSWALD stated that his hours of work at the Texas School Book Depository are from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., but that he is not required to punch a time clock. His usual place of work in the building is on the first floor; however, he frequently is required to go to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh floors of the building in order to get books and this was true on November 22, 1963, and he had been on all of the floors in the performance of his duties on November 22, 1963.

on 11/22/63

at Dallas, Texas

File # DL 89-43

by Special Agent JAMES W. BOOKHOUT /wvm

Date dictated 11/24/63

This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.

FD-302 (Rev 3-3-59)

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 11/25/63

LEE HARVEY OSWALD was interviewed by Captain J. W. FRITZ, Homicide and Robbery Bureau, Dallas Police Department. OSWALD was advised of the identity of SA JAMES W. BOOKHOUT, and his capacity as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was informed of his right to an attorney, that any statement he might make could be used against him in a court of law, and that any statement which he might make must be free and voluntary. He furnished the following information in the presence of T. J. TULLY, U.S. Secret Service; DAVID B. GRANT, Secret Service; ROBERT I. NASH, United States Marshall; and Detectives BILLY L. SENKEL and FAY M. TURNER of the Homicide and Robbery Bureau, Dallas Police Department.

Following his departure from the Texas School Book Depository, he boarded a city bus to his residence and obtained transfer upon departure from the bus. He stated that officers at the time of arresting him took his transfer out of his pocket.

OSWALD advised that he had only one post office box which was at Dallas, Texas. He denied bringing any package to work on the morning of November 22, 1963. He stated that he was not in the process of fixing up his apartment and he denied telling WESLEY FRAZIER that the purpose of his visit to Irving, Texas, on the night of November 21, 1963, was to obtain some curtain rods from MRS. RUTH PAINE.

OSWALD stated that it was not exactly true as recently stated by him that he rode a bus from his place of employment to his residence on November 22, 1963. He stated actually he did board a city bus at his place of employment but that after about a block or two, due to traffic congestion, he left the bus and rode a city cab to his apartment on North Beckley. He recalled that at the time of getting into the cab, some lady looked in and asked the driver to call her a cab. He stated that he might have made some remarks to the cab driver merely for the purpose of passing the time of day at that time. He recalled that his fare was approximately 85 cents. He stated that after arriving at his apartment, he changed his shirt and trousers because they were dirty. He described his dirty clothes as being a reddish colored, long sleeved, shirt with a button-down collar and gray colored trousers. He indicated that he had placed these articles of clothing in the lower drawer of his dresser.

OSWALD stated that on November 22, 1963, he had eaten lunch in the lunch room at the Texas School Book Depository, alone, but recalled possibly two Negro employees walking through the room during this period. He stated possibly one of these employees was called “Junior” and the other was a short individual whose name he could not recall but whom he would be able to recognize. He stated that his lunch had consisted of a cheese sandwich and an apple which he had obtained at MRS. RUTH PAINE’s residence in Irving, Texas, upon his leaving for work that morning.

OSWALD stated that MRS. PAINE receives no pay for keeping his wife and children at her residence. He stated that their presence in MRS. PAINE’s residence is a good arrangement for her because of her language interest, indicating that his wife speaks Russian and MRS. PAINE is interested in the Russian language.

OSWALD denied having kept a rifle in MRS. PAINE’s garage at Irving, Texas, but stated that he did have certain articles stored in her garage, consisting of two sea bags, a couple of suitcases, and several boxes of kitchen articles and also kept his clothes at MRS. PAINE’s residence. He stated that all of the articles in MRS. PAINE’s garage had been brought there about September, 1963, from New Orleans, Louisiana.

OSWALD stated that he has had no visitors at his apartment on North Beckley.

OSWALD stated that he has no receipts for purchase of any guns and has never ordered any guns and does not own a rifle nor has he ever possessed a rifle.

OSWALD denied that he is a member of the Communist Party.

OSWALD stated that he purchased a pistol, which was taken off him by police officers November 22, 1963, about six months ago. He declined to state where he had purchased it.

OSWALD stated that he arrived about July, 1962, from USSR and was interviewed by the FBI at Fort Worth, Texas. He stated that he felt they overstepped their bounds and had used various tactics in interviewing him.

He further complained that on interview of RUTH PAINE by the FBI regarding his wife, that he felt that his wife was intimidated.

OSWALD stated that he desired to contact Attorney ABT, New York City, indicating that ABT was the attorney who had defended the Smith Act case about 1949-1950. He stated that he does not know Attorney ABT personally. Captain FRITZ advised OSWALD that arrangements would be immediately made whereby he could call Attorney ABT.

OSWALD stated that prior to coming to Dallas from New Orleans he had resided at a furnished apartment at 4706 Magazine Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. While in New Orleans, he had been employed by WILLIAM B. RILEY Company, 640 Magazine Street, New Orleans.

OSWALD stated that he has nothing against President JOHN F. KENNEDY personally; however in view of the present charges against him, he did not desire to discuss this phase further.

OSWALD stated that he would not agree to take a polygraph examination without the advice of counsel. He added that in the past he has refused to take polygraph examinations.

OSWALD stated that he is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union and added that MRS. RUTH PAINE was also a member of same.

With regard to Selective Service card in the possession of OSWALD bearing photograph of OSWALD and the name of ALEK JAMES HIDELL, OSWALD admitted that he carried this Selective Service card but declined to state that he wrote the signature of ALEK J. HIDELL appearing on same. He further declined to state the purpose of carrying same or any use he has made of same.

OSWALD stated that an address book in his possession contains the names of various Russian immigrants residing in Dallas, Texas, whom he has visited with.

OSWALD denied shooting President JOHN F. KENNEDY on November 22, 1963, and added that he did not know that Governor JOHN CONNALLY had been shot and denied any knowledge concerning this incident.

on 11/23/63

at Dallas, Texas

File # DL 89-43

by Special Agent JAMES W. BOOKHOUT /wvm

Date dictated 11/24/63

This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.

FD-302 (Rev. 3-3-59) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Date 11/25/63

LEE HARVEY OSWALD was interviewed at the Homicide and Robbery Bureau, Dallas Police Department, at 6:35 p.m., by Captain J. W. FRITZ in the presence of Special Agent JAMES W. BOOKHOUT, Federal Bureau of Investigation. OSWALD was advised of the identity and official capacity of said Agent and the fact that he did not have to make any statement, that any statement he did make could be used in a court of law against him, and that any statement made must be free and voluntary and that he had the right to consult with an attorney.

Captain J. W. FRITZ exhibited to LEE HARVEY OSWALD a photograph which had been obtained by the Dallas Police Department in a search, by starch warrant, of the garage at the residence of MRS. RUTH PAINE, located at Irving, Texas, which photograph reflects OSWALD holding a rifle and wearing a holstered pistol. OSWALD was asked if this was a photograph of himself. OSWALD stated that he would not discuss the photograph without advice of an attorney. He stated that the head of the individual in the photograph could be his but that it was entirely possible that the Police Department had superimposed this part of the photograph over the body of someone else. He pointed out that numerous news media had snapped his photograph during the day and the possibility existed that the police had doctored up this photograph.

OSWALD denied that he had purchased any rifle from Kleins Store in Chicago, Illinois.

OSWALD complained of a lineup wherein he had not been granted a request to put on a jacket similar to those worn by some of the other individuals in the lineup.

on 11/23/63 at Dallas, Texas

File # DL 89-43

by Special Agent JAMES W. BOOKHOUT /wvm

Date dictated 11/24/63

This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FBI. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.

REPORTS OF INSPECTOR THOMAS J. KELLEY, U.S. SECRET SERVICE

FIRST INTERVIEW OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD

At about 10:30 A.M., November 23, 1963, I attended my first interview with Oswald. Present during the interview at the Homicide Division, Dallas Police Department, were Special Agent Jim Bookhout, FBI; Captain Will Fritz, Homicide Division, Dallas Police Department; U.S. Marshal Robert Nash; SA David Grant and SAIC Sorrels; and Officers Boyd and Hall of Captain Fritz’s detail. The interview was not recorded. Mr. Sorrels and my presence was as observers, since Oswald was being held for murder and his custody and interrogation at that time was the responsibility of the Dallas Police Department.

In response to questions by Captain Fritz, Oswald said that immediately after having left the building where he worked, he went by bus to the theater where he was arrested; that when he got on the bus he secured a transfer and thereafter transferred to other buses to get to his destination. He denied that he brought a package to work on that day and he denied that he had ever had any conversation about curtain rods with the boy named Wesley who drove him to his employment. Fritz asked him if he had ridden a taxi that day and Oswald then changed his story and said that when he got on the bus he found it was going too slow and after two blocks he got off the bus and took a cab to his home; that he passed the time with the cab driver and that the cab driver had told him that the President was shot. He paid a cab fare of 85¢.

In response to questions, he stated that this was the first time he had ever ridden in a cab since a bus was always available. He said he went home, changed his trousers and shirt, put his shirt in a drawer. This was a red shirt, and he put it with his dirty clothes. He described the shirt as having a button down collar and of reddish color. The trousers were grey colored.

He said he ate his lunch with the colored boys who worked with him. He described one of them as “Junior”, a colored boy, and the other was a little short negro boy. He said his lunch consisted of cheese, bread, fruit, and apples, and was the only package he had with him when he went to work.

He stated that Mrs. Paine practices Russian by having his wife live with her. He denied that he had ever owned a rifle. He said he does not know Mr. Paine very well but that Paine usually comes by the place where his wife was living with Mrs. Paine on Friday or Wednesday. He stated that Mr. Paine has a car and Mrs. Paine has had two cars. He said in response to questions by Captain Fritz that his effects were in Mrs. Paine’s garage and that they consisted of two sea bags with some other packages containing his personal belongings and that he had brought those back from New Orleans with him sometime in September. He stated that his brother, Robert, lived at 7313 Davenport Street, Fort Worth, and that the Paines were his closest friends in town. He denied that he had ever joined the Communist party; that he never had a Communist card. He did belong to the American Civil Liberties Union and had paid $5 a year dues. He stated that he had bought the pistol that was found in his possession when he was arrested about seven months ago. He refused to answer any questions concerning the pistol or a gun until he talked to a lawyer.

Oswald stated that at various other times he had been thoroughly interrogated by the FBI; that they had used all the usual interrogation practices and all their standard operating procedure; that he was very familiar with interrogation, and he had no intention of answering any questions concerning any shooting; that he knew he did not have to answer them and that he would not answer any questions until he had been given counsel. He stated that the FBI had used their hard and soft approach to him, they used the buddy system; that he was familiar with all types of questioning and had no intention of making any statements. He said that in the past three weeks when the FBI had talked to his wife, they were abusive and impolite; that they had frightened his wife and he considered their activities obnoxious. He stated that he wanted to contact a Mr. Abt, a New York lawyer whom he did not know but who had defended the Smith Act “victims” in 1949 or 1950 in connection with a conspiracy against the Government; that Abt would understand what this case was all about and that he would give him an excellent defense. He stated in returning a question about his former addresses that he lived at 4907 Magazine Street in New Orleans at one time and worked for the William Riley Company; that he was arrested in New Orleans for disturbing the peace and paid a $10 fine while he was demonstrating for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee; that he had a fight with some anti-Castro refugees and that they were released while he was fined.

Upon questioning by Captain Fritz, he said, “I have no views on the President.” “My wife and I like the President’s family. They are interesting people. I have my own views on the President’s national policy. I have a right to express my views but because of the charges I do not think I should comment further.” Oswald said, “I am not a malcontent; nothing irritated me about the President.” He said that during 1962 he was interviewed by the FBI and that he at that time refused to take a polygraph and that he did not intend to take a polygraph test for the Dallas police. At this time Captain Fritz showed a Selective Service Card that was taken out of his wallet which bore the name of Alex Hidell. Oswald refused to discuss this after being asked for an explanation of it, both by Fritz and by James Bookhout, the FBI Agent. I asked him if he viewed the parade and he said he had not. I then asked him if he had shot the President and he said he had not. I asked him if he had shot Governor Connally and he said he had not. He did not intend to answer further questions without counsel and that if he could not get Abt, then he would hope that the Civil Liberties Union would give him an attorney to represent him. At that point Captain Fritz terminated the interview at about 11:30 A.M., 11-23-63.

Thomas J. Kelley Inspector

INTERVIEWS WITH LEE HARVEY OSWALD ON NOVEMBER 23, 1963

At about 12:35 P.M., November 23, 1963, Lee Oswald was interviewed in the offices of Captain Will Fritz of the Homicide Division, Dallas Police Department. Among those present at this interview were Inspector Kelley, Captain Fritz, Detectives Senkel and Tiernon of the Homicide Division and SA James Bookout, FBI. Captain Fritz conducted the interview which was concerned mostly with Oswald’s place of residence in Dallas and was an attempt to ascertain where the bulk of Oswald’s belongings were located in Dallas. As a result of the interview, Oswald furnished information to Captain Fritz that most of his personal effects, including a sea bag, were in the garage at the address of Mrs. Paine, 2515 West 5th Street, Irving, Texas.

The interview was concluded about 1:10 P.M. and immediately thereafter members of the Homicide Division secured a search warrant and recovered Oswald’s effects from the home of Mrs. Paine. Found among the effects were two different poses in snapshot type photographs taken of Oswald holding a rifle in one hand and holding up a copy of a paper called the _Militant_ and “The Worker” in the other hand. Oswald was wearing a revolver in a holster on his right side. This photograph was enlarged by the Dallas Police Laboratories and was used as a basis of additional questioning of Oswald at approximately 6:00 P.M. that same evening.

On November 23, 1963, at 6:00 P.M., in the office of Captain Fritz, Homicide Division, Dallas Police Department, I was present at an interview with Oswald. Also present were Captain Fritz, FBI Agent Jim Bookhoutt, and four officers from the Homicide Division. This interview was conducted with Oswald for the purpose of displaying to him the blow-ups of photographs showing him holding a rifle and a pistol which were seized as a result of the search warrant for the garage of Mrs. Paine at 2515 West 5th Street, Irving, Texas. When the photographs were presented to Oswald, he sneered at them saying that they were fake photographs; that he had been photographed a number of times the day before by the police and apparently after they photographed him they superimposed on the photographs a rifle and put a gun in his pocket. He got into a long argument with Captain Fritz about his knowledge of photography and asked Fritz a number of times whether the smaller photograph was made from the larger or whether the larger photograph was made from the smaller. He said at the proper time he would show that the photographs were fakes. Fritz told him that the smaller photograph was taken from his effects at the garage. Oswald became arrogant and refused to answer any further questions concerning the photographs and would not identify the photographs as being a photograph of himself. Captain Fritz displayed great patience and tenacity in attempting to secure from Oswald the location of what apparently is the backyard of an address at which Oswald formerly lived, but it was apparent that Oswald, though slightly shaken by the evidence, had no intention of furnishing any information.

The interview was terminated at about 7:15 P.M.

Thomas J. Kelley Inspector

CO-2-34,030

U. S. Secret Service

November 29, 1963

Chief Inspector Kelley

Preliminary Special Dallas Report # 3

Covers third interview with Oswald and circumstances immediately following his murder

This interview started at approximately 9:30 AM on Sunday, November 24, 1963. The interview was conducted in the office of Captain Will Fritz of the Homicide Bureau, Dallas Police. Present at the interview in addition to Oswald were Captain Fritz, Postal Inspector Holmes, SAIC Sorrels, Inspector Kelley and four members of the Homicide Squad. The interview had just begun when I arrived and Captain Fritz was again requesting Oswald to identify the place where the photograph of him holding the gun was taken. Captain Fritz indicated that it would save the Police a great deal of time if he would tell them where the place was located. Oswald refused to discuss the matter. Captain Fritz asked, “Are you a Communist?” Oswald answered, “No, I am a Marxist but I am not a Marxist Leninist”. Captain Fritz asked him what the difference was and Oswald said it would take too long to explain it to him. Oswald said that he became interested in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee while he was in New Orleans; that he wrote to the Committee’s Headquarters in New York and received some Committee literature and a letter signed by Alex Hidell. He stated that he began to distribute that literature in New Orleans and it was at that time that he got into an altercation with a group and he was arrested. He said his opinions concerning Fair Play for Cuba are well known; that he appeared on Bill Stukey’s television program in New Orleans on a number of occasions and was interviewed by the local press often. He denies knowing or ever seeing Hidell in New Orleans, said he believed in all of the tenets of the Fair Play for Cuba and the things which the Fair Play for Cuba Committee stood for which was free intercourse with Cuba and freedom for tourists of the both countries to travel within each other’s borders.

Among other things, Oswald said that Cuba should have ~folded~ full diplomatic relationship with the United States. I asked him if he thought that the President’s assassination would have any effect on the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. He said there would be no change in the attitude of the American people toward Cuba with President Johnson becoming President because they both belonged to the same political party and the one would follow pretty generally the policies of the other. He stated that he is an avid reader of Russian literature whether it is communistic or not; that he subscribes to “The Militant”, which, he says, is the weekly of the Socialist party in the United States (it is a copy of “The Militant” that Oswald is shown holding in the photograph taken from his effects at Irving Street). At that time he asked me whether I was an FBI Agent and I said that I was not that I was a member of the Secret Service. He said when he was standing in front of the Textbook Building and about to leave it, a young crew-cut man rushed up to him and said he was from the Secret Service, showed a book of identification, and asked him where the phone was. Oswald said he pointed toward the pay phone in the building and that he saw the man actually go to the phone before he left.

I asked Oswald whether as a Marxist he believed that religion was an opiate of the people and he said very definitely so that all organized religions tend to become monopolistic and are the causes of a great deal of class warfare. I asked him whether he considered the Catholic Church to be an enemy of the Communist philosophy and he said well, there was no Catholicism in Russia; that the closest to it is the Orthodox Churches but he said he would not further discuss his opinions of religion since this was an attempt to have him say something which could be construed as being anti-religious or anti Catholic.

Capt. Fritz displayed an Enco street map of Dallas which had been found among Oswald’s effects at the rooming house. Oswald was asked whether the map was his and whether he had put some marks on it. He said it was his and remarked “My God don’t tell me there’s a mark near where this thing happened”. The mark was pointed out to him and he said “What about the other marks on the map?--I put a number of marks on it. I was looking for work and marked the places where I went for jobs or where I heard there were jobs”.

Since it was obvious to Captain Fritz that Oswald was not going to be cooperative, he terminated the interview at that time.

I approached Oswald then and, out of the hearing of the others except perhaps one of Captain Fritz’s men, said that as a Secret Service agent, we are anxious to talk with him as soon as he had secured counsel; that we were responsible for the safety of the President; that the Dallas Police had charged him with the assassination of the President but that he had denied it; we were therefore very anxious to talk with him to make certain that the correct story was developing as it related to the assassination. He said that he would be glad to discuss this proposition with his attorney and that after he talked to one, we could either discuss it with him or discuss it with his attorney, if the attorney thought it was the wise thing to do, but that at the present time he had nothing more to say to me. Oswald was then handed some different clothing to put on. The clothing included a sweater. Captain Fritz made a number of telephone calls to ascertain whether the preparations he had placed into effect for transferring the prisoner to the County Jail were ready and upon being so advised, Captain Fritz and members of the Detective Bureau escorted Oswald from the Homicide Office on the third floor to the basement where Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby.

On the completion of the interview, SAIC Sorrels and I proceeded to the office of the Chief of Police on the third floor and were discussing the interview when we heard that Oswald had been shot. We both ran down the steps to the basement. I arrived in the ante-room where they had dragged Oswald. SAIC Sorrels located and interviewed Ruby. Someone was bending over Oswald with a stethoscope and he appeared to be unconscious in very serious condition at that time. I asked Captain Fritz what had happened and he said Oswald had been shot by one Jack “Rubio” whom the police knew as a tavern operator. Shortly thereafter a stretcher arrived and I accompanied the stretcher to the ambulance which had been hastily backed into the garage. I observed that during the transfer that Oswald was unconscious; when the ambulance drove away from the building, I attempted to board a cruiser that apparently was going to follow the ambulance but I was unable to get into the car before it pulled away. Special Agents Warner and Patterson had heard of the shooting on their radio, proceeded to Parkland Hospital where Oswald was being taken and arrived vary shortly after Oswald had arrived at the emergency entrance and was being taken into the emergency treatment room. One or the other of these agents was in close proximity to Oswald while he was being treated. When I arrived at the hospital, I rode up on the elevator with Dr. Shaw who had looked at Oswald as he had come in and was being recalled to the operating room where Oswald had been taken. While Oswald was in the operating room, no one other than medical personnel was present but a Dallas policeman who had accompanied Oswald in the ambulance was standing in the doorway of the operating room in operating room scrub clothes. No other investigating personnel were in the vicinity. In the immediate vicinity of the detective was Special Agent Warner. Oswald made no statements from the time he was shot until the time of his death. He was unconscious during the ambulance run to the hospital which I verified through Detective Daugherty, who accompanied him. He did not regain consciousness at any time during the treatment until he died. At the time of his death, myself, Detective Daugherty and Colonel Garrison of the Texas State Police were on the fifth floor of the hospital arranging a security room in which to take Oswald, in the event he survived the operating room treatment. It was never necessary to use this room and upon learning of his death, I proceeded to the morgue to arrange for his family to view the body. When the family heard of the death they were in the process of being interviewed by Special Agents Kunkel and Howard, and requested to be brought to the hospital. Oswald’s brother, Robert, who had also come to the hospital, was being interviewed by Special Agent Howlett. Before the post mortem was performed, Oswald’s family, with the exception of Robert, viewed the body. Robert arrived too late to view the body before the autopsy had started and was not permitted by hospital authorities to view the body. The family was accompanied during the viewing by the hospital chaplain.

After making arrangements through the chaplain and another clergyman for the burial of the body, the family was returned to a secluded spot under the protection of Special Agents Kunkel and Howard, and the Irving Texas police. Precaution was taken to insure their safety in view of the excitement caused by the killing of Oswald. Special Agents Howard and Kunkel did an excellent job in handling the security of this family detail and insuring their safety. Thereafter, I was called by SAIC Bouck who advised me that the President and the Attorney General were concerned about the safety of this family and instructed that all precautions should be taken to insure that no harm befell them. SAIC Bouck was advised that the family was presently under our protection; we would continue providing protection until further notice.

Later that same day, I was contacted by SA Robertson of the FBI who asked whether we had someone with the family. He was assured that we had. He requested to be advised where the family had been taken. Since their ultimate destination was unknown to me at the time, I assured him that when I learned of their whereabouts I would relay it to him. He said that they received instructions from the Attorney General and President Johnson that precaution should be taken to insure the family safety.

At 11 pm, Sunday, November 24th, I was advised of the location of the family and immediately notified Robertson and inquired whether they now wished to take over their protection. He said no they had no such instructions, they merely wished to be assured that someone was looking out for their safety. I assured them that adequate protection was being provided and that they were available for interviews by the FBI. He stated that they did not wish to interview the family at this time; that they merely wanted to make sure they were in safe hands.

TJK:VS

REPORT OF U.S. POSTAL INSPECTOR H. D. HOLMES

Dallas, Texas

December 17, 1963

_MEMORANDUM OF INTERVIEW_

Informal memorandum furnished by Postal Inspector H. D. Holmes, Dallas, Texas, of an interview he took part in with Lee H. Oswald on Sunday morning, November 24, 1963, between the approximate hours of 9:25 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. Those present, in addition to Inspector Holmes, were Captain Will Fritz, Dallas Police, Forrest V. Sorrels, Local Agent in Charge, Secret Service, and Thomas J. Kelly, Inspector, Secret Service. In addition, there were three Detectives who were apparently assigned to guarding Oswald as none of them took part in the interrogation.

Oswald at no time appeared confused or in doubt as to whether or not he should answer a question. On the contrary, he was quite alert and showed no hesitancy in answering those questions which he wanted to answer, and was quite skillful in parrying those questions which he did not want to answer. I got the impression that he had disciplined his mind and reflexes to a state where I personally doubted if he would ever have confessed. He denied, emphatically, having taken part in or having had any knowledge of the shooting of the policeman Tippitt or of the President, stating that so far as he is concerned the reason he was in custody was because he “popped a policeman in the nose in a theater on Jefferson Avenue.”

P. O. BOXES--He was questioned separately about the three boxes he had rented, and in each instance his answers were quick, direct and accurate as reflected on the box rental applications. He stated without prompting that he had rented Box 2915 at the Main Post Office for several months prior to his going to New Orleans, that this box was rented in his own name, Lee H. Oswald, and that he had taken out two keys to the box, and that when he had closed the box, he directed that his mail be forwarded to him at his street address in New Orleans.

He stated that no one received mail in this box other than himself, nor did he receive any mail under any other name than his own true name; that no one had access to the box other than himself nor did he permit anyone else to use this box. He stated it was possible that on rare occasions he may have handed one of the keys to his wife to go get his mail but certainly nobody else. He denied emphatically that he ever ordered a rifle under his name or any other name, nor permitted anyone else to order a rifle to be received in this box. Further, he denied that he had ever ordered any rifle by mail order or bought any money order for the purpose of paying for such a rifle. In fact, he claimed he owned no rifle and had not practiced or shot a rifle other than possibly a .22, small bore rifle, since his days with the Marine Corp. He stated that “How could I afford to order a rifle on my salary of $1.25 an hour when I can’t hardly feed myself on what I make.”

When asked if he had a post office box in New Orleans he stated that he did, for the reason that he subscribed to several publications, at least two of which were published in Russia, one being the hometown paper published in Minsk where he met and married his wife, and that he moved around so much that it was more practical to simply rent post office boxes and have his mail forwarded from one box to the next rather than going through the process of furnishing changes of address to the publishers. When asked if he permitted anyone other than himself to get mail in box 30061 at New Orleans, he stated that he did not. It will be recalled that on this box rent application he showed that both Marina Oswald and A. J. Hidell were listed under the caption “Persons entitled to receive mail through box”. After denying that anyone else was permitted to get mail in the box, he was reminded that this application showed the name Marina Oswald as being entitled to receive mail in the box and he replied “well so what, she was my wife and I see nothing wrong with that, and it could very well be that I did place her name on the application”. He was then reminded that the application also showed the name A. J. Hidell was also entitled to receive mail in the box, at which he simply shrugged his shoulders and stated “I don’t recall anything about that”.

He stated that when he came back to Dallas and after he had gone to work for the Texas School Book Depository, he had rented a box at the nearby Terminal Annex postal station, this being Box 6225, and that this box was also rented in his name, Lee H. Oswald. He stated he had only checked out one key for this box, which information was found to be accurate, and this key was found on his person at the time of his arrest. He professed not to recall the fact that he showed on the box rental application under name of corporation “Fair Play For Cuba Committee” and “American Civil Liberties Union”. When asked as to why he showed these organizations on the application, he simply shrugged and said that he didn’t recall showing them. When asked if he paid the box rental fee or did the organizations pay it, he stated that he paid it. In answer to another question, he also stated that no one had any knowledge that he had this box other than himself.

ORGANIZATIONS- MEMBERSHIP IN--With respect to American Civil Liberties Union he was a little evasive stating something to the effect that he had made some effort to join but it was never made clear whether he had or had not been accepted. He stated that he first became interested in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, after he went to New Orleans, that it started out as being a group of individuals who, like him, who thought and had like political opinions. They did decide to organize, and did organize after a fashion, but denied that they had any president or any elected officers. He stated that he, himself, could probably be considered the secretary since he wrote some letters on their behalf and attempted to collect dues which, if I recall, were $1.00 per month. He also stated that there was a “Fair Play for Cuba Committee” in New York which was better organized. He denied that he was sent to Dallas for the purpose of organizing such a cell in Dallas.

When asked if he was a communist, he stated emphatically not, that he was a Marxist. Someone asked the difference and he stated that a communist is a Lenin-Marxist, that he himself was a pure Marxist, and when someone asked the difference, he stated that it was a long story and if they didn’t know, it would take too long to tell them. He stated further that he had read about everything written by or about Karl Marx.

When asked as to his religion, he stated that Karl Marx was his religion, and in response to further questioning he stated that some people may find the Bible interesting reading, but it was not for him, stating further that even as a philosophy there was not much to the Bible.

MARINE CORP SERVICE--Captain Fritz made some mention of his dishonorable discharge from the Marine Corp at which point he bristled noticeably, stating that he had been discharged with an “honorable” discharge and that this was later changed due to his having attempted to denounce his American Citizenship while he was living in Russia. He stated further that since his change of citizenship did not come to pass, he had written a letter to Mr. Connally, then Secretary of the Navy, and after considerable delay, received a very respectful reply wherein Connally stated he had resigned to run for Governor of Texas, and that his letter was being referred to the new Secretary, a Mr. Cork, Kurth, or something like that. He showed no particular animosity toward Mr. Connally while discussing this feature.

MAP--Captain Fritz advised him that among his effects in his room, there was found a map of the City of Dallas that had some marks on it and asked him to explain this map. Oswald said he presumed he had reference to an old City map which he had on which he had made some X’s denoting location of firms that had advertised job vacancies. He stated that he had no transportation and either walked or rode a bus and that as he was constantly looking for work, in fact had registered for employment at the Texas Employment Bureau, and that as he would receive leads either from newspaper ads or from the Bureau or from neighbors, he would chart these places on the map to save time in his traveling. He said to the best of his recollection, most of them were out Industrial, presumably meaning Industrial Blvd. When asked as to why the X at the location of the Texas School Book Depository at Elm and Houston, he stated that “Well, I interviewed there for a job, in fact, got the job, therefore the X”.

When asked as to how he learned about this vacancy, he stated that “Oh, it was general information in the neighborhood, I don’t recall just who told me about it, but I learned it from people in Mrs. Paynes’ neighborhood” and that all the people around there were looking out for possible employment for him.

ACTIVITY JUST PRIOR TO AND IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT--To an inquiry as to why he went to visit his wife on Thursday night, November 21, whereas he normally visited her over the weekend, he stated that on this particular weekend he had learned that his wife and Mrs. Payne were giving a party for the children and that they were having in a “houseful” of neighborhood children and that he just didn’t want to be around at such a time. Therefore, he made his weekly visit on Thursday night.

When asked if he didn’t bring a sack with him the next morning to work, he stated that he did, and when asked as to the contents of the sack, he stated that it contained his lunch. Then, when asked as to the size or shape of the sack, he said “Oh, I don’t recall, it may have a small sack or a large sack, you don’t always find one that just fits your sandwiches.” When asked as to where he placed the sack when he got in the car, he said in his lap, or possibly the front seat beside him, as he always did because he didn’t want to get it crushed. He denied that he placed any package in the back seat. When advised that the driver stated that he had brought out a long parcel and placed it in the back seat, he stated “Oh, he must be mistaken or else thinking about some other time when he picked me up.”

When asked as to his whereabouts at the time of the shooting, he stated that when lunch time came, and he didn’t say which floor he was on, he said one of the Negro employees invited him to eat lunch with him and he stated “You go on down and send the elevator back up and I will join you in a few minutes.” Before he could finish whatever he was doing, he stated, the commotion surrounding the assassination took place and when he went down stairs, a policeman questioned him as to his identification and his boss stated that “he is one of our employees” whereupon the policeman had him step aside momentarily. Following this, he simply walked out the front door of the building. I don’t recall that anyone asked why he left or where or how he went. I just presumed that this had been covered in an earlier questioning.

A. J. HIDELL IDENTIFICATION CARD--Captain Fritz asked him if he knew anyone by the name of A. J. Hidell and he denied that he did. When asked if he had ever used this name as an alias, he also made a denial. In fact, he stated that he had never used the name, didn’t know anyone by this name, and never had heard of the name before. Captain Fritz then asked him about the I.D. card he had in his pocket bearing such a name and he flared up and stated “I’ve told you all I’m going to about that card. You took notes, just read them for yourself, if you want to refresh your memory.” He told Captain Fritz that “You have the card. Now you know as much about it as I do.”

* * * * *

About 11:00 a.m. or a few minutes thereafter, someone handed through the door several hangers on which there were some trousers, shirts, and a couple of sweaters. When asked if he wanted to change any of his clothes before being transferred to the County jail, he said “Just give me one of these sweaters.” He didn’t like the one they handed him and insisted on putting on a black slip-over sweater than had some jagged holes in it near the front of the right shoulder. One cuff was released while he slipped this over the head, following which he was again cuffed. During this change of clothing, Chief of Police Curry came into the room and discussed something in an inaudible undertone with Captain Fritz, apparently for the purpose of not letting Oswald hear what was being said. I have no idea what this conversation was, but just presume they were discussing the transfer of the prisoner. I did not go downstairs to witness the further transfer of the prisoner.

H. D. HOLMES Postal Inspector Dallas 22, Texas

APPENDIX XII

Speculations and Rumors

Myths have traditionally surrounded the dramatic assassinations of history. The rumors and theories about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln that are still being publicized were for the most part first bruited within months of his death. Wherever there is any element of mystery in such dramatic events misconceptions often result from sensational speculations.

Lacking the testimony of Lee Harvey Oswald, it has been necessary to reconstruct painstakingly all of the facts that led the Commission to the conclusion that Oswald assassinated President Kennedy, acting alone and without advice or assistance. The Commission has found no credible evidence that he was a member of a foreign or domestic conspiracy of any kind. Nor was there any evidence that he was involved with any criminal or underworld elements or that he had any association with his slayer, Jack Ruby, except as his victim. The evidence on these issues has been set forth in great detail in this report.

In addition the Commission has inquired into the various hypotheses, rumors, and speculations that have arisen from the tragic developments of November 22-24, 1963. It is recognized that the public judgment of these events has been influenced, at least to some extent, by these conjectures.

Many questions have been raised about the facts out of genuine puzzlement or because of misinformation which attended some of the early reporting of the fast-crowding events of these 3 days. Most of the speculation and attempted reconstruction of these events by the public centered on these basic questions: Was Lee Harvey Oswald really the assassin of the President; why did he do it; did he have any accomplices; and why did Ruby shoot Oswald? Many of the theories and hypotheses advanced have rested on premises which the Commission feels deserve critical examination.

Many people who witnessed the assassination and the killing of Oswald or were present in the area were a major source of diverse and often contradictory information. As is easily understood under such circumstances, all of the witnesses did not see and hear the same thing or interpret what they saw and heard the same way and many changed their stories as they repeated them. Moreover, they were interviewed at different times after the event by different people and often under circumstances which made accurate reporting extremely difficult.

Even the occupants of the cars in the Presidential motorcade were not entirely in agreement in their accounts because they, too, saw and heard what happened from different positions. Moreover, those closest to the assassination were subjected to a physical and emotional strain that tended to affect their recollections of what they thought they saw or heard. Consequently, the presentation of the news from Dallas included much misinformation. This, to some extent, was unavoidable, but the widespread and repetitive dissemination of every scrap of information about the President’s assassination and its aftermath has helped to build up a large number of erroneous conclusions. The manner in which local authorities released information about the investigation, sometimes before it could be verified in all detail, has further contributed to the fund of ill-founded theories. Typographical mistakes in the press and failure to transcribe sound accurately from tapes resulted in errors, some of which have remained uncorrected in print at the time of the publication of this report.

Much of the speculation that has persisted in one form or another since November 22-24 came from people who usually spoke in good faith. Some of the errors have resulted simply from a lack of complete knowledge at the time of the event. In this category are the statements attributed to doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital who attended the dying President and described his wounds to the press afterward. It remained for the autopsy in Washington, completed early the next morning, to ascertain the full facts concerning the wounds. The correction of earlier assertions of fact on the basis of later and fuller analysis or investigation is a normal part of the process of accumulation of evidence. But it is not often that the process is conducted in such an intense glare of worldwide publicity, and later corrections have difficulty overtaking the original sensational reports.

There is still another category of speculation and rumor that complicated and broadened the work of the Commission. Numerous people claimed to have seen Oswald or Ruby at various times and places in the United States or abroad. Others insisted that during the days following the assassination, they had detected significant actions on television that were witnessed by no one else. Still others assumed from a widely published picture that Oswald was standing on the steps of the entrance to the Texas School Book Depository at the time the President was shot. Throughout the country people reported overheard remarks, conversations, threats, prophesies, and opinions that seemed to them to have a possible bearing on the assassination. More than a few informants initially told their speculations or professed firsthand information to newspaper and television reporters. Later, many of them changed or retracted their stories in telling them to official investigators.

The U.S. investigative agencies expended much valuable time and effort inquiring into these leads. Investigations of a vast number of rumors and speculations reached into almost every part of the United States and to most of the other continents of the world.

The Commission’s work was also handicapped by those witnesses and other persons connected with the investigation who sold for publication evidence pertinent to the investigation. These persons sold pictures and documents and even recollections, sometimes before the Commission had an opportunity to receive their evidence. Some of the evidence thus published was changed from its original form and gave misleading impressions to the public. The piecemeal release of this evidence, sometimes in distorted or exaggerated form, and often out of context, provided the basis for new speculations and rumors or served to reinforce already current ones. The practice was frequently harmful to the work of the Commission and a disservice to the public.

This appendix is intended to clarify the most widespread factual misunderstandings. False or inaccurate speculations concerning the assassination and related events are set forth below together with brief summary statements of what the Commission has found to be the true facts. The citation following each Commission finding is either to that portion of the report in which the subject is discussed more fully, to the evidence in the record supporting the finding, or to both. For complete answers to these speculations, the sources cited in the footnotes should be consulted. The speculations are considered under the following headings:

1. The source of the shots. 2. The identity of the assassin. 3. Oswald’s movements between 12:33 and 1:15 p.m. on November 22, 1963. 4. The murder of Patrolman Tippit. 5. Oswald after his arrest. 6. Oswald in the Soviet Union. 7. Oswald’s trip to Mexico City. 8. Oswald and U.S. Government agencies. 9. Conspiratorial relationships. 10. Miscellaneous charges.

THE SOURCE OF THE SHOTS

There have been speculations that some or all of the shots aimed at President Kennedy and Governor Connally came from the railroad overpass as the Presidential automobile approached it, or from somewhere other than the Texas School Book Depository Building. Related speculations maintain that the shots came from both the railroad overpass and the Texas School Book Depository Building. These are supported by a number of assertions that have been carefully examined by the Commission in the course of its investigation and rejected as being without foundation. They are set forth below, together with the results of the Commission’s investigation.

_Speculation._--The shots that killed the President came from the railroad overpass above the triple underpass.

_Commission finding._--The shots that entered the neck and head of the President and wounded Governor Connally came from behind and above. There is no evidence that any shots were fired at the President from anywhere other than the Texas School Book Depository Building.[A12-1]

_Speculation._--The railroad overpass was left unguarded on November 22.

_Commission finding._--On November 22 the railroad overpass was guarded by two Dallas policemen, Patrolmen J. W. Foster and J. C. White, who have testified that they permitted only railroad personnel on the overpass.[A12-2]

_Speculation._--There are witnesses who alleged that the shots came from the overpass.

_Commission finding._--The Commission does not have knowledge of any witnesses who saw shots fired from the overpass. Statements or depositions from the 2 policemen and 13 railroad employees who were on the overpass all affirm that no shots were fired from the overpass. Most of these witnesses who discussed the source of the shots stated that they came from the direction of Elm and Houston Streets.[A12-3]

_Speculation._--A rifle cartridge was recovered on the overpass.

_Commission finding._--No cartridge of any kind was found on the overpass nor has any witness come forward to claim having found one.[A12-4]

_Speculation._--A witness to the assassination said that she saw a man run behind the concrete wall of the overpass and disappear.

_Commission finding._--Mrs. Jean L. Hill stated that after the firing stopped she saw a white man wearing a brown overcoat and a hat running west away from the Depository Building in the direction of the railroad tracks. There are no other witnesses who claim to have seen a man running toward the railroad tracks. Examination of all available films of the area following the shooting, reexamination of interviews with individuals in the vicinity of the shooting, and interviews with members of the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas County sheriff’s office failed to corroborate Mrs. Hill’s recollection or to reveal the identity of the man described by Mrs. Hill.[A12-5]

_Speculation._--Immediately after the shooting a motorcycle policeman was seen racing up the grassy embankment to the right of the shooting scene pursuing a couple seeking to flee from the overpass.

_Commission finding._--There are no witnesses who have ever stated this and there is no evidence to support the claim. A motorcycle policeman, Clyde A. Haygood, dismounted in the street and ran up the incline. He stated that he saw no one running from the railroad yards adjacent to the overpass. Subsequently, at 12:37 p.m., Haygood reported that the shots had come from the Texas School Book Depository Building.[A12-6]

_Speculation._--More than three shots, perhaps as many as five or six, were fired at the President and Governor Connally.

_Commission finding._--The weight of the evidence indicates that three shots were fired, of which two struck President Kennedy. There is persuasive evidence from the experts that one of these two bullets also struck Governor Connally. Some witnesses claimed that they heard more than three shots but, as fully described in chapter III, the great majority heard only three shots.[A12-7]

_Speculation._--At least four or five bullets have been found.

_Commission finding._--After the assassination, metal remains of bullets were recovered. These included an almost whole bullet of 158.6 grains, fragments weighing 44.6 grains and 21.0 grains, and other fragments too small to be identified. These metal remains indicate that at least two shots were fired. The Commission believes that three shots were fired.[A12-8]

_Speculation._--A bullet was found on the stretcher used for President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital.

_Commission finding._--No bullet was found on the stretcher used by President Kennedy. An almost whole bullet was found when it rolled off the stretcher used by Governor Connally.[A12-9]

_Speculation._--A bullet was found in the grass near the scene of the assassination shortly afterward by a deputy sheriff of Dallas County, E. R. Walthers.

_Commission finding._--Walthers has denied that he found a bullet at any time or that he told anyone that he had found one. With another deputy sheriff he made a diligent search for such a bullet 2 or 3 days after the assassination.[A12-10]

_Speculation._--The Presidential car stopped momentarily or almost came to a complete halt after the first shot. This is evidence that the driver had the impression that the first shot came from the front and therefore hesitated to drive closer to the overpass.

_Commission finding._--The Presidential car did not stop or almost come to a complete halt after the firing of the first shot or any other shots. The driver, Special Agent William E. Greer, has testified that he accelerated the car after what was probably the second shot. Motion pictures of the scene show that the car slowed down momentarily after the shot that struck the President in the head and then speeded up rapidly.[A12-11]

_Speculation._--The Presidential car had a small round bullet hole in the front windshield. This is evidence that a shot or shots were fired at the President from the front of the car.

_Commission finding._--The windshield was not penetrated by any bullet. A small residue of lead was found on the inside surface of the windshield; on the outside of the windshield was a very small pattern of cracks immediately in front of the lead residue on the inside. The bullet from which this lead residue came was probably one of those that struck the President and therefore came from overhead and to the rear. Experts established that the abrasion in the windshield came from impact on the inside of the glass.[A12-12]

_Speculation._--The throat wound sustained by the President was the result of a shot fired from the front according to doctors at Parkland Hospital.

_Commission finding._--Doctors at Parkland Hospital originally believed that the throat wound could have been either an entry or exit wound, but they made no examination to determine entry and exit wounds. Subsequently, when the evidence of the autopsy became available, the doctors at Parkland agreed that it was an exit wound.[A12-13]

_Speculation._--It is inconceivable that the doctors at Parkland Hospital did not turn the President over on his face and notice the bullet hole in the back of his neck.

_Commission finding._--Doctors at Parkland Hospital have testified that the President remained on his back while he was at Parkland Hospital for treatment and that they did not turn him over at any time; they were busy trying to save his life. Consequently, they were never aware of the hole in the back of his neck until they were notified of it later.[A12-14]

_Speculation._--The first shot struck the President in the throat as the car was proceeding along Houston Street toward the Texas School Book Depository. The car then made a left turn on to Elm Street and proceeded for some distance before additional shots were fired at the President.

_Commission finding._--Before the autopsy findings made it clear that the shots were fired from the rear, there was speculation that the first shot may have been fired before the Presidential car turned on to Elm Street. As this report demonstrates, all of the shots that struck the President were fired from the rear and in a time period inconsistent with the theory that the first shot struck him while his car was coming down Houston Street. Motion pictures taken at the time show that the first shot struck the President after the car had turned onto Elm Street and was proceeding away from the Depository.[A12-15]

THE ASSASSIN

Speculations tending to support the theory that Oswald could not have assassinated President Kennedy are based on a wide variety of assertions. Among these are statements that Oswald could not have been acquainted with the motorcade route before he came to work on November 22, that he may well have carried curtain rods rather than a rifle in a brown paper package he brought with him, that there may have been other people in the building who could have fired the rifle, that Oswald could not have fired the shots in the time available to him, that he was not a good enough marksman to have scored the hits with the rifle, that there were other people in the lunchroom of the Depository Building when he was confronted by Patrolman M. L. Baker, and that there are no eyewitnesses who could identify Oswald as having been in the window. Each of these speculations is dealt with below in the light of the testimony and evidence considered by the Commission.

_Speculation._--Oswald could not have known the motorcade route before he arrived at work on November 22.

_Commission finding._--The motorcade route was published in both Dallas papers on November 19 and was therefore available at least 72 hours before Oswald reported for work on November 22.[A12-16]

_Speculation._--The route as shown in the newspaper took the motorcade through the Triple Underpass via Main Street, a block away from the Depository. Therefore, Oswald could not have known that the motorcade would pass directly by the Texas School Book Depository Building.

_Commission finding._--The motorcade route as published showed the motorcade turning right off Main Street onto Houston for one block and then left on Elm to the access road to the Stemmons Freeway. This route was clearly indicated in published descriptions and maps of the motorcade route. There was no mention of continuing on Main Street through the Triple Underpass.[A12-17]

_Speculation._--The motorcade route was changed on November 22 after the map had been printed. The motorcade was shifted from Main Street over to Elm Street to bring it by the Texas School Book Depository Building.

_Commission finding._--The motorcade route was decided upon on November 18 and published in the Dallas newspapers on November 19. It was not changed in any way thereafter. The route called for the motorcade to turn off Main Street at Houston, go up to Elm, and then turn left on Elm Street.[A12-18]

_Speculation._--The normal and logical route would have been straight down Main Street through the Triple Underpass to the Stemmons Freeway. It is possible to drive from Main onto the access road to the Stemmons Freeway from a point beyond the underpass.

_Commission finding._--The normal, direct, and only permissible route to the Stemmons Freeway from Main Street is via Houston and Elm Streets. Any attempt to turn onto the access road to the Stemmons Freeway from Main Street beyond the Triple Underpass would have been extremely difficult because of a concrete strip dividing Elm and Main Streets. Such an attempt would have required making an S-turn beyond the strip at a very tight angle, thereby slowing the Presidential car almost to a stop.[A12-19]

_Speculation._--Oswald may well have carried curtain rods to work on November 22 in the brown paper package he was observed to bring into the building because he lived in a room where he needed them.

_Commission finding._--According to Oswald’s landlady at 1026 North Beckley Avenue, Mrs. A. C. Johnson, the room had venetian blinds, curtain rods, and curtains while Oswald was living there. The curtain rods in the Paine garage that belonged to Mrs. Paine were still there after Oswald went to work on November 22. Mrs. Paine and Marina Oswald testified that Oswald had not spoken to them about curtain rods. After the assassination the empty package was found near the window from which the shots were fired, but no curtain rods were found.[A12-20]

_Speculation._--Oswald spent the morning of November 22 in the company of other workers in the building and remained with them until they went downstairs to watch the President go by, no later probably than 12:15.

_Commission finding._--Oswald did not spend the morning in the company of other workers in the building, and before the assassination he was last seen in the building on the sixth floor at about 11:55 a.m. by Charles Givens, another employee.[A12-21]

_Speculation._--It is probable that the chicken lunch, remains of which were found on the sixth floor, was eaten by an accomplice of Oswald who had hidden on the sixth floor overnight.

_Commission finding._--The chicken lunch had been eaten shortly after noon on November 22 by Bonnie Ray Williams, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository, who after eating his lunch went to the fifth floor where he was when the shots were fired. Oswald did not eat the chicken lunch, nor did he drink from the soft drink bottle found near the chicken lunch.[A12-22]

_Speculation._--Laboratory tests showed remains of the chicken lunch found on the sixth floor were 2 days old.

_Commission finding._--The chicken lunch remains had been left there shortly after noon on November 22 by Bonnie Ray Williams.[A12-23]

_Speculation._--An amateur 8-millimeter photograph taken at 12:20 p.m., 10 minutes before the assassination of President Kennedy, showed two silhouettes at the sixth-floor window of the Depository.

_Commission finding._--A film taken by an amateur photographer, Robert J. E. Hughes, just before the assassination, shows a shadow in the southeast corner window of the sixth floor. This has been determined after examination by the FBI and the U.S. Navy Photographic Interpretation Center to be the shadow from the cartons near the window.[A12-24]

_Speculation._--A picture published widely in newspapers and magazines after the assassination showed Lee Harvey Oswald standing on the front steps of the Texas School Book Depository Building shortly before the President’s motorcade passed by.

_Commission finding._--The man on the front steps of the building, thought or alleged by some to be Lee Harvey Oswald, is actually Billy Lovelady, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository, who somewhat resembles Oswald. Lovelady has identified himself in the picture, and other employees of the Depository standing with him, as shown in the picture, have verified that he was the man in the picture and that Oswald was not there.[A12-25]

_Speculation._--The post office box in Dallas to which Oswald had the rifle mailed was kept under both his name and that of A. Hidell.

_Commission finding._--It is not known whether Oswald’s application listed the name A. Hidell as one entitled to receive mail at the box. In accordance with U.S. Post Office regulations, the portion of the application listing the names of persons other than the applicant entitled to receive mail was discarded after the box was closed on May 14, 1963. During the summer of 1963, Oswald rented a post office box in New Orleans, listing the name “Hidell” in addition to his own name and that of his wife. Hidell was a favorite alias used by Oswald on a number of occasions. Diligent search has failed to reveal any person in Dallas or New Orleans by that name. It was merely a creation for his own purposes.[A12-26]

_Speculation._--The President’s car was going at a speed estimated at from 12 to 20 miles per hour, thus presenting a target comparable to the most difficult that a soldier would encounter under battlefield conditions.

_Commission finding._--During the period between the time that the first and second shots struck the President, the Presidential car was traveling at an average speed of approximately 11.2 miles per hour. Expert witnesses testified that the target is regarded as a favorable one because the car was going away from the marksman in a straight line.[A12-27]

_Speculation._--Oswald could not have fired three shots from the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle in 5½ seconds.

_Commission finding._--According to expert witnesses, exacting tests conducted for the Commission demonstrated that it was possible to fire three shots from the rifle within 5½ seconds. It should be noted that the first loaded shell was already in the chamber ready for firing; Oswald had only to pull the trigger to fire the first shot and to work the bolt twice in order to fire the second and third shots. They testified that if the second shot missed, Oswald had between 4.8 and 5.6 seconds to fire the three shots. If either the first or third shot missed, Oswald had in excess of 7 seconds to fire the three shots.[A12-28]

_Speculation._--Oswald did not have the marksmanship ability demonstrated by the rifleman who fired the shots.

_Commission finding._--Oswald qualified as a sharpshooter and a marksman with the M-1 rifle in the Marine Corps. Marina Oswald testified that in New Orleans her husband practiced operating the bolt of the rifle. Moreover, experts stated that the scope was a substantial aid for rapid, accurate firing. The Commission concluded that Oswald had the capability with a rifle to commit assassination.[A12-29]

_Speculation._--The name of the rifle used in the assassination appeared on the rifle. Therefore, the searchers who found the rifle on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository should have been able to identify it correctly by name.

_Commission finding._--An examination of the rifle does not reveal any manufacturer’s name. An inscription on the rifle shows that it was made in Italy. The rifle was identified by Captain Fritz and Lieutenant Day, who were the first to actually handle it.[A12-30]

_Speculation._--The rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository was identified as a 7.65 Mauser by the man who found it, Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman.

_Commission finding._--Weitzman, the original source of the speculation that the rifle was a Mauser, and Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone found the weapon. Weitzman did not handle the rifle and did not examine it at close range. He had little more than a glimpse of it and thought it was a Mauser, a German bolt-type rifle similar in appearance to the Mannlicher-Carcano. Police laboratory technicians subsequently arrived and correctly identified the weapon as a 6.5 Italian rifle.[A12-31]

_Speculation._--There is evidence that a second rifle was discovered on the roof of the Texas School Book Depository or on the overpass.

_Commission finding._--No second rifle was found in either of these places or in any other place. The shots that struck President Kennedy and Governor Connally came from the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.[A12-32]

_Speculation._--It is possible that there was a second Mannlicher-Carcano rifle involved in the assassination. The Irving Sports Shop mounted a scope on a rifle 3 weeks before the assassination.

_Commission finding._--Dial D. Ryder, an employee of the Irving Sports Shop, has stated that he found on his workbench on November 23 an undated work tag with the name “Oswald” on it, indicating that sometime during the first 2 weeks of November three holes had been bored in a rifle and a telescopic sight mounted on it and bore-sighted. However, Ryder and his employer, Charles W. Greener, had no recollection of Oswald, of his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, of the transaction allegedly represented by the repair tag, or of any person for whom such a repair was supposedly made. The rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository had two holes in it bored for the installation of a scope prior to shipment to Oswald in March 1963. The Commission concluded that it is doubtful whether the tag produced by Ryder was authentic. All of the evidence developed proves that Oswald owned only the one rifle--the Mannlicher-Carcano--and that he did not bring it or a second rifle to the Irving Sports Shop.[A12-33]

_Speculation._--Ammunition for the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository had not been manufactured since the end of World War II. The ammunition used by Oswald must, therefore, have been at least 20 years old, making it extremely unreliable.

_Commission finding._--The ammunition used in the rifle was American ammunition recently made by the Western Cartridge Co., which manufactures such ammunition currently. In tests with the same kind of ammunition, experts fired Oswald’s Mannlicher-Carcano rifle more than 100 times without any misfires.[A12-34]

_Speculation._--The assertion that Oswald’s palmprint appeared on the rifle is false. The FBI told newsmen in an off-the-record briefing session that there was no palmprint on the rifle.

_Commission finding._--The FBI confirmed that the palmprint lifted by the Dallas police from the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building was Oswald’s palmprint. The FBI informed the Commission that no FBI agent made statements of any type to the press concerning the existence or nonexistence of this print.[A12-35]

_Speculation._--If Oswald had been gloveless, he would have left fingerprints on the rifle because he would not have had time to wipe the prints off the rifle after he had fired it.

_Commission finding._--An FBI fingerprint expert testified that the poor quality of the metal and wooden parts would cause them to absorb moisture from the skin, thereby making a clear print unlikely. There is no evidence that Oswald wore gloves or that he wiped prints off the rifle. Latent fingerprints were found on the rifle but they were too incomplete to be identified.[A12-36]

_Speculation._--Gordon Shanklin, the special agent in charge of the Dallas office of the FBI, stated that the paraffin test of Oswald’s face and hands was positive and proved that he had fired a rifle.

_Commission finding._--The paraffin tests were conducted by members of the Dallas Police Department and the technical examinations by members of the Dallas City-County Criminal Investigation Laboratory. The FBI has notified the Commission that neither Shanklin nor any other representative of the FBI ever made such a statement. The Commission has found no evidence that Special Agent Shanklin ever made this statement publicly.[A12-37]

_Speculation._--Marina Oswald stated that she did not know that her husband owned a rifle nor did she know that he owned a pistol.

_Commission finding._--There is no evidence that Marina Oswald ever told this to any authorities. On the afternoon of November 22, she told the police that her husband owned a rifle and that he kept it in the garage of the Paine house in Irving. Later, at Dallas police headquarters, she said that she could not identify as her husband’s the rifle shown her by policemen. When Marina Oswald appeared before the Commission she was shown the Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5 rifle found on the sixth floor of the Depository and identified it as the “fateful rifle of Lee Oswald.”[A12-38]

_Speculation._--The picture of Oswald taken by his wife in March or April 1963 and showing him with a rifle and a pistol was “doctored” when it appeared in magazines and newspapers in February 1964. The rifle held by Oswald in these pictures is not the same rifle that was found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building.

_Commission finding._--Life magazine, Newsweek, and the New York Times notified the Commission that they had retouched this picture. In doing so, they inadvertently altered details of the configuration of the rifle. The original prints of this picture have been examined by the Commission and by photographic experts who have identified the rifle as a Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5, the same kind as the one found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. FBI experts testified that the picture was taken with Oswald’s camera.[A12-39]

_Speculation._--The rifle picture of Oswald was a composite one with Oswald’s face pasted on somebody else’s body.

_Commission finding._--Marina Oswald has testified that she took this picture with a camera owned by her husband and subsequently identified as Oswald’s Imperial Reflex camera. She identified the man in the picture as her husband. Experts also state the picture was not a composite.[A12-40]

_Speculation._--After firing the shots, Oswald could not have disposed of the rifle and descended the stairs to the lunchroom in time to get a drink from a soft drink machine and be there when Patrolman Baker came in.

_Commission finding._--A series of time tests made by investigators and by Roy S. Truly and Patrolman M. L. Baker at the request of the Commission, show that it was possible for Oswald to have placed the rifle behind a box and descended to the lunchroom on the second floor before Patrolman Baker and Truly got up there. Oswald did not have a soft drink bottle in his hand at the time he was confronted by Baker and he was not standing by the soft drink machine. He was just entering the lunchroom; Baker caught a glimpse of him through the glass panel in the door leading to the lunchroom vestibule.[A12-41]

_Speculation._--There were other people present in the lunchroom at the time that Baker and Truly saw Oswald there.

_Commission finding._--Baker and Truly have both stated that there was no one in the lunchroom other than Oswald at the time that they entered. No other witness to this incident has been found.[A12-42]

_Speculation._--Police were sealing off all exits from the building by the time Oswald got to the second floor.

_Commission finding._--Police may have begun to take up positions at the exits to the building as early as 12:33, but it is unlikely that they had blocked them off completely until 12:37 p.m. at the earliest. Oswald was seen in an office, walking toward an exit leading to the front stairway, at about 12:33 p.m. Oswald probably had at least 7 minutes in which to get out of the building without being stopped.[A12-43]

OSWALD’S MOVEMENTS BETWEEN 12:33 AND 1:15 P.M.

One of the major theses urged in support of the theory that Oswald did not murder Patrolman Tippit was that his known movements after he left the Texas School Book Depository would not have permitted him to have arrived at 10th Street and Patton Avenue in time to encounter Tippit by 1:16 p.m. Careful reenactments by investigative agencies and by members of the Commission staff of Oswald’s movements from the time he left the Texas School Book Depository until he encountered Tippit verified that Oswald could reach his roominghouse at 1026 North Beckley Avenue at approximately 1 p.m. or earlier. The housekeeper at the roominghouse testified that Oswald spent only a few minutes at the house, leaving as hurriedly as he had arrived. During police interrogation after his arrest, Oswald admitted to riding both bus and taxi in returning to his roominghouse after the assassination of the President. From 1026 North Beckley Avenue, Oswald could easily have walked the nine tenths of a mile to 10th Street and Patton Avenue where he encountered Tippit.

_Speculation._--A detailed and remarkably clear description of Oswald was sent over the police radio in Dallas at 12:36 p.m., November 22, 1963.

_Commission finding._--The radio logs of the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office show that no description of a suspect in the assassination of the President was broadcast before 12:45 p.m. on that day. No reference to Oswald by name was broadcast before he was arrested. The description of the suspect that was broadcast was similar to that of Oswald, but it lacked some important specific details such as color of hair and eyes. The information for the initial broadcasts most probably came from Howard Brennan, who saw Oswald in the window when he was firing the rifle.[A12-44]

_Speculation._--Oswald did not have time for all of the movements imputed to him between his departure from the Texas School Book Depository and his encounter with Tippit.

_Commission finding._--Time tests of all of Oswald’s movements establish that these movements could have been accomplished in the time available to him.[A12-45]

_Speculation._--Oswald was stopped by police as he left the building and was permitted to pass after he told them he worked in the building.

_Commission finding._--The Commission has found no witness who saw Oswald leave the building. This speculation is probably a misinterpretation of the fact that he was stopped in the lunchroom by Patrolman Baker before he left the building and was allowed to proceed after Truly, the Depository superintendent, identified him as an employee there. Police did not seal off the building until at least several minutes after Oswald could have left.[A12-46]

_Speculation._--The log of the cabdriver who took Oswald to North Beckley Avenue, William W. Whaley, shows that Oswald entered his cab at 12:30 p.m. Since this occurred at some distance from the point of the President’s assassination, Oswald could not have shot the President.

_Commission finding._--Whaley’s log does show 12:30 p.m., but he has testified that he was not accurate in logging the time that passengers entered his cab, that he usually logged them at 15-minute intervals, and that it was undoubtedly some time later than 12:30 when Oswald entered his cab. Sometimes he did not make entries in his logbook until three or four trips later. The bus transfer in Oswald’s possession was issued after 12:36 p.m. The Commission has determined that Oswald probably entered Whaley’s cab at about 12:47 or 12:48 p.m.[A12-47]

_Speculation._--The distance from the Greyhound terminal in Dallas, where Oswald entered the cab, to North Beckley Avenue, where he probably left the cab, is something over 3 miles--normally a 10-minute cab drive. Given the traffic jam that existed at the time, it is doubtful that Whaley could have made the trip in less than 15 minutes. One estimate has placed the time at 24 minutes from the Greyhound terminal to Oswald’s roominghouse.

_Commission finding._--The distance from the Greyhound bus terminal at Jackson and Lamar Streets to the 500 block of North Beckley is 2.5 miles. Oswald actually got out in the 700 block of North Beckley. The distance was, therefore, less than 2.5 miles. Whaley has testified to the Commission that the trip took 6 minutes. Test runs made by members of the Commission staff under traffic conditions somewhat similar to those that existed on November 22, took approximately 5 minutes and 30 seconds. To walk from Beckley and Neely, which is the 700 block of Beckley, where Oswald probably left the cab, to 1026 North Beckley, took Commission staff members 5 minutes and 45 seconds.[A12-48]

_Speculation._--Oswald was on his way to Jack Ruby’s apartment when he was stopped by Patrolman Tippit.

_Commission finding._--There is no evidence that Oswald and Ruby knew each other or had any relationship through a third party or parties. There is no evidence that Oswald knew where Ruby lived. Accordingly, there is neither evidence nor reason to believe that Oswald was on his way to Ruby’s apartment when he was stopped by Tippit.[A12-49]

MURDER OF TIPPIT

Speculations on the murder of Tippit centered about assertions that he was elsewhere than he was supposed to be when he was shot, that he knew the man who shot him, and that the description of the murderer given by one of the eyewitnesses did not fit Oswald’s description.

The Commission found that Tippit was unquestionably patrolling in an area to which he had been directed by police headquarters. There was no evidence to support the speculation that Tippit and Oswald knew each other or had ever seen each other before. The description of the murderer imputed to one of the witnesses was denied by her and had no support from any other eyewitness.

_Speculation._--Tippit was driving alone in his police car even though standing orders for police in Dallas were that radio cars of the type Tippit was driving must have two policemen in them.

_Commission finding._--Dallas police officials stated that department policy required about 80 percent of the patrolmen on the day shift, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., to work alone. Tippit was one of the patrolmen assigned to work alone that day.[A12-50]

_Speculation._--Tippit was violating an order he had received the day before not to leave the sector to which he had been assigned. This sector was supposed to be in downtown Dallas at the time he stopped Oswald.

_Commission finding._--A review of Tippit’s file in the Dallas Police Department and the department’s radio log revealed that following the shooting of the President, Tippit was directed to move into and remain in the central Oak Cliff area available for any emergency.[A12-51]

_Speculation._--The police had been withdrawn from the area in which Tippit found Oswald.

_Commission finding._--Other police cars were operating in the Oak Cliff area at the same time as Tippit. They participated in the subsequent search for and apprehension of Tippit’s slayer.[A12-52]

_Speculation._--Tippit violated a procedure governing radio cars when he failed to notify headquarters that he was stopping to question a suspect.

_Commission finding._--The Dallas Police Department had no requirement or regulation for police officers to notify headquarters when stopping to question a suspect. Therefore, Tippit did not violate any police radio procedure in failing to notify the radio dispatcher that he was stopping Oswald.[A12-53]

_Speculation._--Tippit could not have recognized Oswald from the description sent out over the police radio.

_Commission finding._--There is no certain way of knowing whether Tippit recognized Oswald from the description put out by the police radio. The Dallas Police Department radio log shows that the police radio dispatcher at 1:29 p.m. noted a similarity between the broadcast descriptions of the President’s assassin and Tippit’s slayer. It is conceivable, even probable, that Tippit stopped Oswald because of the description broadcast by the police radio.[A12-54]

_Speculation._--Tippit and his killer knew each other.

_Commission finding._--Investigation has revealed no evidence that Oswald and Tippit were acquainted, had ever seen each other, or had any mutual acquaintances. Witnesses to the shooting observed no signs of recognition between the two men.[A12-55]

_Speculation._--Mrs. Helen Markham, a witness to the slaying of Tippit, put the time at just after 1:06 p.m. This would have made it impossible for Oswald to have committed the killing since he would not have had time to arrive at the shooting scene by that time.

_Commission finding._--The shooting of Tippit has been established at approximately 1:15 or 1:16 p.m. on the basis of a call to police headquarters on Tippit’s car radio by another witness to the assassination, Domingo Benavides. In her various statements and in her testimony, Mrs. Markham was uncertain and inconsistent in her recollection of the exact time of the slaying.[A12-56]

_Speculation._--Mrs. Helen Markham is the only witness to the killing of Tippit.

_Commission finding._--Other witnesses to the killing of Tippit include Domingo Benavides, who used Tippit’s car radio to notify the police dispatcher of the killing at 1:16 p.m., and William Scoggins, a cabdriver parked at the corner of 10th Street and Patton Avenue. Barbara Jeanette Davis and Virginia Davis saw a man with a pistol in his hand walk across their lawn immediately after they heard the sound of the shots that killed Tippit. The man emptied the shells from his pistol and turned the corner from 10th Street onto Patton Avenue. All of these witnesses, except Benavides, subsequently picked Oswald out of a lineup as the slayer. Benavides did not feel that he could make a positive identification and never attended a lineup for the purpose.[A12-57]

_Speculation._--Mrs. Markham said that the man she saw shooting Tippit was about 30, short, with bushy hair, and wearing a white coat. Since Oswald does not fit this description he could not be the killer.

_Commission finding._--In evaluating Helen Markham’s testimony the Commission is aware of allegations that she described the killer of Patrolman Tippit as short, stocky, and with bushy hair, which would not be a correct description of Oswald. It has also been alleged that Mrs. Markham identified Oswald in the lineup because of his clothing rather than his appearance. When Oswald appeared in the lineup at which Mrs. Markham was present, he was not wearing the jacket which he wore at the time of the shooting, and Mrs. Markham has testified that her identification was based “mostly from his face.”[A12-58] Moreover, Mrs. Markham has denied that she ever described the man who killed Tippit as short, stocky, and with bushy hair. The Commission reviewed the transcript of a telephone conversation in which Mrs. Markham was alleged to have made such a description. In the transcription Mrs. Markham reaffirmed her positive identification of Oswald and denied having described the killer as short, stocky, and bushy haired.[A12-59]

_Speculation._--Another witness to the slaying of Patrolman Tippit, an unidentified woman, was interviewed by the FBI but was never called as a witness by the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. This witness is alleged to have stated that she saw two men involved in the shooting and that they ran off in opposite directions afterward.

_Commission finding._--The only woman among the witnesses to the slaying of Tippit known to the Commission is Helen Markham. The FBI never interviewed any other woman who claimed to have seen the shooting and never received any information concerning the existence of such a witness. Two women, Barbara Jeanette Davis and Virginia Davis, saw the killer immediately after the shooting as he crossed the lawn at the corner of Patton Avenue and 10th Street, but they did not witness the shooting itself. They were both interviewed by the FBI and appeared before the Commission. The Commission has no evidence that there was any witness to the slaying other than those identified in chapter IV.[A12-60]

_Speculation._--No witness saw Oswald between the time he was supposed to have reloaded his gun near the scene of the slaying and his appearance at the shoestore on Jefferson Boulevard.

_Commission finding._--Six witnesses identified Oswald as the man they saw in flight after the murder of Tippit. The killer was seen, gun in hand, by Ted Callaway and Sam Guinyard in the block of Patton Avenue between 10th Street and Jefferson Boulevard after the shooting of Tippit. They saw him run to Jefferson and turn right. On the evening of November 22, Callaway and Guinyard picked Oswald out of a police lineup as the man they saw with the gun. Two other men, Warren Reynolds and Pat Patterson, saw a man with a pistol in his hand running south on Patton Avenue. They followed him for a block on Jefferson Boulevard and then lost sight of him. Both men subsequently identified pictures of Oswald as the man they saw with the gun. Harold Russell also saw a man with a gun running south on Patton Avenue and later identified him from pictures as Oswald. Mrs. Mary Brock saw a man she later identified as Oswald walk at a fast pace into the parking lot behind the service station at the corner of Jefferson and Crawford, where Oswald’s jacket was found shortly after.[A12-61]

_Speculation._--When Oswald left his roominghouse at about 1 p.m. on November 22 he had on a zipper-type tan plaid jacket.

_Commission finding._--The jacket that Oswald was wearing at the time of the slaying of Tippit was a light-gray jacket. According to Marina Oswald, her husband owned only two jackets--one blue and the other light gray. The housekeeper at 1026 North Beckley Avenue, Mrs. Earlene Roberts, was not certain about the color of the jacket that Oswald was wearing when he left the house.[A12-62]

_Speculation._--Oswald wore an olive-brown plain jacket which is visible in all the pictures of him after his arrest.

_Commission finding._--At the time of his arrest, Oswald was not wearing a jacket. The jacket that was subsequently recovered in a parking lot and identified as Oswald’s was a light-gray one. There are no witnesses who have stated that Oswald was wearing an olive-brown jacket immediately before or after his arrest. The Commission has seen no pictures of Oswald taken subsequent to his arrest that show him in such a jacket. Pictures taken shortly after his arrest show him in the shirt that Mrs. Bledsoe described him as wearing when she saw him on the bus at approximately 1:40 p.m.[A12-63]

_Speculation._--Oswald’s landlady, Mrs. A. C. Johnson, said that Oswald never had a gun in the room.

_Commission finding._--In her testimony before the Commission, Mrs. Johnson said that he “never brought that rifle in my house. * * * He could have had this pistol, I don’t know, because they found the scabbard.”[A12-64] As shown in chapter IV, Oswald kept his rifle in the Paine garage in Irving while he was living in Dallas during October and November. The pistol was small and easily concealed.[A12-65]

_Speculation._--There was absolutely no place to hide a gun in Oswald’s room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue.

_Commission finding._--In the search of Oswald’s room after his apprehension police found a pistol holster. Oswald’s landlady, Mrs. A. C. Johnson, stated that she had not seen the holster before. There is no reason to believe that Oswald could not have had both a pistol and the holster hidden in the room. Oswald’s pistol was a small one with the barrel cut down to 2¼ inches. It could have been concealed in a pocket of his clothes.[A12-66]

_Speculation._--Oswald did not pick up the revolver from his room at 1 p.m.

_Commission finding._--There is reason to believe that Oswald did pick up the revolver from his room, probably concealing it beneath his jacket. This likelihood is reinforced by the finding of the pistol holster in the room after the assassination, since this indicates that Oswald did not store the pistol at the home of Mrs. Paine where he spent the night before the assassination.[A12-67]

_Speculation._--No one saw Oswald enter the Texas Theatre.

_Commission finding._--A nearby shoe store manager, Johnny C. Brewer, and the theatre cashier, Julia Postal, saw Oswald enter the lobby of the theatre from where he went on into the theatre proper.[A12-68]

_Speculation._--Not a single one of the people in the Texas Theatre at the time of Oswald’s arrest has come forward or been brought forward to give an eyewitness account of the arrest.

_Commission finding._--Johnny C. Brewer, the shoe store manager, and two patrons of the theatre--John Gibson and George Jefferson Applin, Jr.--were present in the theatre and testified before the Commission on the circumstances of Oswald’s arrest at the Texas Theatre. Only 6 or 7 people were seated on the main floor of the theatre.[A12-69]

_Speculation._--There is no independent witness aside from the police who testified that Oswald was carrying a gun when arrested by the police.

_Commission finding._--Johnny Brewer testified before the Commission that he saw Oswald pull a gun and that he saw it taken away from him by a policeman.[A12-70]

OSWALD AFTER HIS ARREST

The Commission found that assertions that the Dallas police treated Oswald brutally and denied him his constitutional rights to legal counsel had no foundation in fact. Insinuations that Dallas police officials and District Attorney Henry M. Wade fabricated or altered evidence to establish the guilt of Oswald were baseless. It is true that police officials and the district attorney made errors in giving evidential information to the press, but these were clearly the result of misapprehensions or ignorance rather than intent, and at the worst represent bad judgment. At least one imputed fabrication of fact, further embellished by repetition, never really occurred. Sinister connotations were evoked by the attribution to the district attorney of the statement that a taxicab driver named Darryl Click drove Oswald from downtown Dallas to the area of his roominghouse in Oak Cliff. It has been correctly ascertained that no such taxicab driver existed in Dallas. On the other hand, the district attorney, who was quoted in a newspaper transcript as making the statement, never made the statement nor did any one else. Audio tapes of the district attorney’s press conference make clear that the person who transcribed the conference rendered a reference to the “Oak Cliff” area of Dallas as a person, “Darryl Click”. This error in transcription is the sole source for the existence of a “Darryl Click” as a taxicab driver.

_Speculation._--Oswald was the victim of police brutality.

_Commission finding._--Oswald resisted arrest in the Texas Theatre and drew a gun. He received a slight cut over his right eye and a bruise under his left eye in the course of his struggles. During the time he was in police custody, he was neither ill-treated nor abused.[A12-71]

_Speculation._--Oswald was never formally charged with the assassination of the President; he was charged only with the shooting of Patrolman J. D. Tippit.

_Commission finding._--Oswald was arraigned for the murder of President Kennedy before Justice of the Peace David Johnston on the fourth floor of the Police Department building at 1:35 a.m., November 23. Previously, he had been arraigned before Johnston for the murder of Tippit at 7:10 p.m., November 22.[A12-72]

_Speculation._--The police questioned Oswald extensively about the Tippit murder on the first day of his detention. They did not question him about the assassination of President Kennedy.

_Commission finding._--Dallas police officials stated that they questioned Oswald repeatedly on November 22 about the assassination of President Kennedy and his relationship to it. At the first interrogation, Captain Fritz asked Oswald to account for himself at the time the President was shot. FBI agents who were present also stated that he was questioned about the assassination of the President.[A12-73]

_Speculation._--Oswald’s attempts to get legal counsel were deliberately thwarted by the police and he was cut off from outside calls that would have permitted him to obtain a lawyer.

_Commission finding._--On November 23, Oswald was visited by the president of the Dallas Bar Association, H. Louis Nichols, who offered him help in getting a lawyer; Oswald refused the offer. Oswald was told by the police that he could use the telephone when he wished, and he did make telephone calls. He attempted to call attorney John Abt in New York but was unsuccessful in reaching him. Mrs. Paine testified that at Oswald’s request she tried without success to reach Abt. Oswald was also visited by his wife, mother, and brother, to any of whom he could have turned for help in getting counsel.[A12-74]

OSWALD IN THE SOVIET UNION

Oswald’s residence in the Soviet Union for more than 2½ years aroused speculation after his arrest that he was an agent of the Soviet Union or in some way affiliated with it. This speculation was supported by assertions that he had received exceptionally favored treatment from the Soviet Government in securing permission to enter and leave the country, especially the latter, because his Russian wife and child were permitted to leave with him. The careful analysis of these speculations in chapter VI of this report led to the Commission’s conclusion that there is no credible evidence that Oswald was an agent of the Soviet Government and that he did not receive unusually favorable treatment in entering or leaving the Soviet Union or in returning to the United States.

_Speculation._--A young private in the Marine Corps in the 1950’s could not study Marxism, learn Russian, and read Soviet newspapers without any adverse repercussions in his unit.

_Commission finding._--Although Oswald’s interest in the Soviet Union was well known, his interest in Marxism was apparently known to only a few of his fellow marines. While stationed in California, he studied Russian. In February 1959, while still in the Marines, he took an official test on his proficiency in Russian and was rated “Poor.” In California at about this time he probably read a Russian-language newspaper. The reactions of his fellow Marines who were aware of his interests in Marxism and the Soviet Union were apparently not antagonistic and did not deter him from pursuing these interests.[A12-75]

_Speculation._--Oswald learned Russian during his service in the Marines as part of his military training.

_Commission finding._--Oswald never received any training from the Marine Corps in the Russian language. His studies of Russian were entirely on his own time and at his own initiative.[A12-76]

_Speculation._--Oswald could not have saved $1,600 from his Marine pay for his trip to Russia in 1959.

_Commission finding._--In November 1959, Oswald told an American reporter in Moscow, Aline Mosby, that he had saved $1,500 (not $1,600) while in the Marines. It is entirely consistent with Oswald’s known frugality that he could have saved the money from the $3,452.20 in pay he received while he was in the Marines. Moreover, despite his statement to Aline Mosby, he may not actually have saved $1,500, for it was possible for him to have made the trip to Russia in 1959 for considerably less than that amount.[A12-77]

_Speculation._--It is probable that Oswald had prior contacts with Soviet agents before he entered Russia in 1959 because his application for a visa was processed and approved immediately on receipt.

_Commission finding._--There is no evidence that Oswald was in touch with Soviet agents before his visit to Russia. The time that it took for him to receive his visa in Helsinki for entrance to the Soviet Union was shorter than the average but not beyond the normal range for the granting of such visas. Had Oswald been recruited as a Russian agent while he was still in the Marines, it is most improbable that he would have been encouraged to defect. He would have been of greater value to Russian intelligence as a Marine radar operator than as a defector.[A12-78]

_Speculation._--Soviet suspicion of Oswald is indicated by the fact that he was sent off to work in a radio plant in Minsk as an unskilled hand at the lowest rate of pay although he qualified as a trained radar and electronics technician.

_Commission finding._--The Soviet Government probably was suspicious of Oswald, as it would be of any American who appeared in Moscow and said he wanted to live in the Soviet Union. Under the circumstances it is to be expected that he would be placed in a position that would not involve national security. Moreover, Oswald had been a radar operator, not a technician, in the Marines. His total income in Russia was higher than normal because his pay was supplemented for about a year by payments from the Soviet “Red Cross,” an official agency of the Soviet Government. Oswald believed that these payments really came from the MVD. It is a policy of the Soviet Government to subsidize defectors from Western nations who settle in the Soviet Union, in order that their standard of living may not be too much lower than their previous standard in their own country. [A12-79]

_Speculation._--Oswald was trained by the Russians in a special school for assassins at Minsk.

_Commission finding._--Commission investigations revealed no evidence to support this claim or the existence of such a school in Minsk during the time Oswald was there. Oswald belonged to a hunting club near Minsk, but there is no evidence that this was other than an ordinary hunting club.[A12-80]

_Speculation._--Marina Oswald’s father was an important part of the Soviet intelligence apparatus.

_Commission finding._--Marina Oswald’s father died while she was still an infant. This reference is presumably to her uncle, Ilya Prusakov, who was an executive in the lumber industry, which position carried with it the rank of lieutenant colonel or colonel in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). Since 1953 the MVD has not been concerned with internal security or other police functions.[A12-81]

_Speculation._--It was most exceptional that Oswald was able to bring his wife and child out of the Soviet Union with him.

_Commission finding._--There is no reason to believe that the Oswalds received unusually favorable treatment in being permitted or assisted to leave the Soviet Union together. Other American citizens have brought their Russian wives out of the Soviet Union, both before and after Oswald.[A12-82]

_Speculation._--Oswald never would have been permitted to return to the United States if Soviet intelligence had not planned to use him in some way against the United States.

_Commission finding._--There is no evidence that Oswald had any working relationship with the Soviet Government or Soviet intelligence. The Russians have permitted other American defectors to return to the United States.[A12-83]

_Speculation._--Since the exit visa for Marina Oswald was granted so promptly the Soviet authorities must have wanted Marina to accompany her husband.

_Commission finding._--Marina Oswald’s exit visa application was not acted upon with unusual rapidity. It took at least 5½ months from the time the Oswalds applied until they were notified of permission in December 1961. There have been many instances where visas were granted more quickly to other Soviet wives of American citizens.[A12-84]

_Speculation._--Soviet authorities gave Oswald notice a month and a half in advance that they had granted him an exit visa, an unprecedented act for the Soviet Government.

_Commission finding_--The Oswalds were notified on December 25, 1961, that their requests for exit visas had been granted by Soviet authorities. Marina Oswald picked up her visa, valid until December 1, 1962, on January 11, 1962, 17 days after receiving notice that it was available. Oswald did not pick up his visa until May 22. The Soviets did not give the Oswalds any advance notice; the visas could have been picked up immediately had the Oswalds so desired. Because his exit visa had a 45-day expiration time after date of issuance, Lee Oswald delayed picking it up until he knew when he was leaving. He could not arrange a departure date until he received permission from the Department of State in May to return to the United States.[A12-85]

OSWALD’S TRIP TO MEXICO CITY

Oswald’s trip to Mexico City in late September and early October 1963, less than 2 months before he assassinated President Kennedy, has provoked speculation that it was related in some way to a conspiracy to murder the President. Rumors include assertions that he made a clandestine flight from Mexico to Cuba and back and that he received a large sum of money--usually estimated at $5,000--which he brought back to Dallas with him. The Commission has no credible evidence that Oswald went to Mexico pursuant to a plan to assassinate President Kennedy, that he received any instructions related to such an action while there, or that he received large sums of money from any source in Mexico.

_Speculation_--Oswald could not have received an American passport in June 1963 within 24 hours without special intervention on his behalf.

_Commission finding_--Oswald’s passport application was processed routinely by the Department of State. No person or agency intervened specially on his behalf to speed the issuance of the passport. The passports of 24 other persons, on the same list sent to Washington from New Orleans, were authorized at the same time. The Passport Office of the Department of State had no instructions to delay issuance of or to deny a passport to Oswald.[A12-86]

_Speculation._--The Walter-McCarran Act specifically requires anyone who has attempted to renounce his U.S. citizenship to file an affidavit stating why he should receive a U.S. passport. Therefore, Oswald should have been required to file such an affidavit before receiving his passport in June 1963.

_Commission finding._--The Internal Security Act of 1950 (Walter-McCarran Act) contains no reference to an affidavit being required of a U.S. citizen who has attempted to expatriate himself.[A12-87]

_Speculation._--Oswald did not have money for his trip to Mexico in September 1963.

_Commission finding._--An analysis of Oswald’s finances by the Commission indicates that he had sufficient money to make the trip to and from Mexico City. There is no evidence that he received any assistance in financing his trip to Mexico. The total cost of his 7-day trip has been reliably estimated at less than $85.[A12-88]

_Speculation._--Oswald was accompanied on his trip to Mexico City by a man and two women.

_Commission finding._--Investigation has revealed that Oswald traveled alone on the bus. Fellow passengers on the bus between Houston and Mexico City have stated that he appeared to be traveling alone and that they had not previously known him.[A12-89]

_Speculation._--While in Mexico, Oswald made a clandestine flight to Havana and back.

_Commission finding._--The Commission has found no evidence that Oswald made any flight to Cuba while he was in Mexico. He never received permission from the Cuban Government to enter Cuba nor from the Mexican Government to leave Mexico bound for Cuba. A confidential check of the Cuban airline in Mexico City indicates that Oswald never appeared at its office there.[A12-90]

_Speculation._--Oswald came back from Mexico City with $5,000.

_Commission finding._--No evidence has ever been supplied or obtained to support this allegation. Oswald’s actions in Mexico City and after his return to Dallas lend no support to this speculation.[A12-91]

_Speculation._--On November 27, 1963, in a speech at the University of Havana, Fidel Castro, under the influence of liquor, said “The first time that Oswald was in Cuba * * *.” Castro therefore had knowledge that Oswald had made surreptitious visits to Cuba.

_Commission finding._--Castro’s speeches are monitored directly by the U.S. Information Agency as he delivers them. A tape of this speech reveals that it did not contain the alleged slip of the tongue. Castro did refer to Oswald’s visit to the “Cuban Embassy” in Mexico which he immediately corrected to “Cuban consulate.” The Commission has found no evidence that Oswald had made surreptitious visits to Cuba.[A12-92]

OSWALD AND U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Rumors and speculations that Oswald was in some way associated with or used by agencies of the U.S. Government grew out of his Russian period and his investigation by the FBI after his return to the United States. Insinuations were made that Oswald had been a CIA agent or had some relationship with the CIA and that this explained the supposed ease with which he received passports and visas. Speculation that he had some working relationship with the FBI was based on an entry in Oswald’s notebook giving the name and telephone number of an agent from the FBI office in Dallas. The Directors of the CIA and the FBI have testified before the Commission that Oswald was never in the employ of their agencies in any capacity. The Commission has concluded on the basis of its own investigations of the files of Federal agencies that Oswald was not and had never been an agent of any agency of the U.S. Government (aside from his service in the Marines) and was not and had never been used by any U.S. Government agency for any purpose. The FBI was interested in him as a former defector and it maintained a file on him.

_Speculation._--Oswald was an informant of either the FBI or the CIA. He was recruited by an agency of the U.S. Government and sent to Russia in 1959.

_Commission finding._--Mrs. Marguerite Oswald frequently expressed the opinion that her son was such an agent, but she stated before the Commission that “I cannot prove Lee is an agent.”[A12-93] The Directors of the CIA and of the FBI testified before the Commission that Oswald was never employed by either agency or used by either agency in any capacity. Investigation by the Commission has revealed no evidence that Oswald was ever employed by either the FBI or CIA in any capacity.[A12-94]

_Speculation._--Oswald told Pauline Bates, a public stenographer in Fort Worth, Tex., in June 1962, that he had become a “secret agent” of the U.S. Government and that he was soon going back to Russia “for Washington.”

_Commission-finding._--Miss Bates denied a newspaper story reporting that Oswald had told her that he was working for the U.S. Department of State. She stated that she had assumed incorrectly that he was working with the Department of State when he told her that the State Department had told him in 1959 that he would be on his own while in the Soviet Union.[A12-95]

_Speculation._--The FBI tried to recruit Oswald. An FBI agent’s name, telephone number, and automobile license number were found among Oswald’s papers.

_Commission finding._--FBI officials have testified that they had never tried to recruit Oswald to act on behalf of the FBI in any capacity. The Commission’s investigation corroborates this testimony. An FBI agent, James P. Hosty, Jr., had given his name and telephone number to Mrs. Ruth Paine so that she could call and give him Oswald’s address in Dallas when she learned it. Mrs. Paine and Marina Oswald have stated that Mrs. Paine gave Oswald a slip of paper with the agent’s name and telephone number on it. Marina Oswald had taken down the license number of Hosty’s car on one of his visits and given it to her husband.[A12-96]

_Speculation._--Dallas police must have known where Oswald was living in the city because Mrs. Paine had given the address of Oswald’s room on North Beckley Avenue to the FBI some time before the assassination.

_Commission-finding._--Mrs. Paine had never given the address of Oswald’s roominghouse to the FBI, nor had she known the address prior to the assassination. Therefore, the Dallas police could not have learned the address from the FBI which did not know the address before the assassination. The Dallas Police did not know that Oswald was in the city before the assassination.[A12-97]

_Speculation._--It has been FBI policy for 20 years to inform employers of Communists or suspected Communists employed by them. It is a mystery, therefore, how Oswald retained his job at the Texas School Book Depository.

_Commission finding._--The FBI advised the Commission that it has never been its policy to inform employers that they have Communists or suspected Communists working for them and that the FBI does not disseminate internal security information to anyone outside the executive branch of the U.S. Government. FBI agents had no contacts with Texas School Book Depository officials until after the assassination.[A12-98]

_Speculation._--Municipal and Federal police had observed Oswald closely for some time but had not regarded him as a potential killer.

_Commission finding._--The Dallas police had not been aware of Oswald’s presence in the city before the assassination. The FBI knew that Oswald was in Dallas from an interview with Mrs. Paine, but no FBI agents had interviewed him there before the assassination. The FBI had not regarded him as a potential killer.[A12-99]

_Speculation._--The FBI probably knew that Oswald had the rifle before the President’s murder because it was most unlikely that it could have traced the ownership of the rifle within 1 day if it had not already had information on the rifle.

_Commission finding._--The FBI successfully traced the purchase of the rifle by Oswald within 24 hours of the assassination. It had had no previous information about the rifle.[A12-100]

_Speculation._--The FBI interviewed Oswald 10 days before the assassination.

_Commission finding._--The last FBI interview with Oswald, before the assassination, took place in New Orleans in August 1963, when he asked to see an FBI agent after his arrest by police for disturbing the peace, the outcome of his distribution of Fair Play for Cuba handbills. Neither Special Agent Hosty nor any other FBI agent saw or talked with Oswald between his return to Dallas, on October 3, and November 22. Hosty did interview Mrs. Paine at her home about Oswald on November 1 and 5, 1963. He also saw Marina Oswald briefly on November 1 at Mrs. Paine’s house, but he did not interview her.[A12-101].

CONSPIRATORIAL RELATIONSHIPS

Rumors concerning accomplices and plots linked Oswald and Ruby with each other, or with others, including Patrolman J. D. Tippit, Gen. Edwin A. Walker, and Bernard Weissman of the nonexistent American Factfinding Committee, in a conspiratorial relationship. The Commission made intensive inquiry into the backgrounds and relationships of Oswald and Ruby to determine whether they knew each other or were involved in a plot of any kind with each other or others. It was unable to find any credible evidence to support the rumors linking Oswald and Ruby directly or through others. The Commission concluded that they were not involved in a conspiratorial relationship with each other or with any third parties.

_Speculation._--Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, and Patrolman J. D. Tippit lived within a few blocks of each other.

_Commission finding._--Oswald’s room was 1.3 miles from Ruby’s apartment and Tippit lived 7 miles away from Ruby. Tippit’s residence was about 7 miles from Oswald’s room.[A12-102]

_Speculation._--Since Oswald did not have the money to repay the $435.61 he had received from the Department of State to cover part of the expenses of his return from Russia, he must have received help from some other source. Ruby lent Oswald money to pay back the loan and lent him small amounts of money thereafter.

_Commission finding._--The Commission has no credible evidence that Oswald received any money from Ruby or anyone else to repay his State Department loan, nor that he received small amounts of money from Ruby at any time. An exhaustive analysis of Oswald’s income and expenditures, made for the Commission by an Internal Revenue Service expert, reveals that Oswald had sufficient funds to make the State Department repayments from his earnings.[A12-103]

_Speculation._--Just before Oswald was shot by Ruby, he looked directly at Ruby in apparent recognition of him.

_Commission finding._--The Commission has been unable to establish as a fact any kind of relationship between Ruby and Oswald other than that Oswald was Ruby’s victim. The Commission has examined television tapes and motion picture films of the shooting and has been unable to discern any facial expression that could be interpreted to signify recognition of Ruby or anyone else in the basement of the building.[A12-104]

_Speculation._--The Dallas police suspected Oswald and Ruby of being involved in an attack on General Walker and planned to arrest the two when the FBI intervened, at the request of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and asked the police not to do so for reasons of state.

_Commission finding._--This allegation appeared in the November 29, 1963, issue (actually printed on November 25 or 26) of a German weekly newspaper, Deutsche National Zeiting und Soldaten Zeitung, published in Munich. The allegation later appeared in the National Enquirer of May 17, 1964. The Commission has been reliably informed that the statement was fabricated by an editor of the newspaper. No evidence in support of this statement has ever been advanced or uncovered. In their investigation of the attack on General Walker, the Dallas police uncovered no suspects and planned no arrests. The FBI had no knowledge that Oswald was responsible for the attack until Marina Oswald revealed the information on December 3, 1963.[A12-105]

_Speculation._--Ruby and Oswald were seen together at the Carousel Club.

_Commission finding._--All assertions that Oswald was seen in the company of Ruby or of anyone else at the Carousel Club have been investigated. None of them merits any credence.[A12-106]

_Speculation._--Oswald and General Walker were probably acquainted with each other since Oswald’s notebook contained Walker’s name and telephone number.

_Commission finding._--Although Oswald’s notebook contained Walker’s name and telephone number there was no evidence that the two knew each other. It is probable that this information was inserted at the time that Oswald was planning his attack on Walker. General Walker stated that he did not know of Oswald before the assassination.[A12-107]

_Speculation._--Patrolman J.D. Tippit, Bernard Weissman, and Jack Ruby met by prearrangement on November 14, 1963, at the Carousel Club.

_Commission finding._--Investigation has revealed no evidence to support this assertion. Nor is there credible evidence that any of the three men knew each other.[A12-108]

_Speculation._--Ruby’s sister, Mrs. Eva Grant, said that Ruby and Tippit were “like two brothers.”

_Commission finding._--Mrs. Grant has denied ever making this statement or any statement like it, saying it was untrue and without foundation. Ruby was acquainted with another Dallas policeman named Tippit, but this was G.M. Tippit of the special services bureau of the department, not the Tippit who was killed.[A12-109]

_Speculation._--Jack Ruby was one of the most notorious of Dallas gangsters.

_Commission finding._--There is no credible evidence that Jack Ruby was active in the criminal underworld. Investigation disclosed no one in either Chicago or Dallas who had any knowledge that Ruby was associated with organized criminal activity.[A12-110]

_Speculation._--The shooting in Dallas on January 23, 1964, of Warren A. Reynolds, who witnessed the flight of Patrolman Tippit’s slayer on November 22 and followed him for a short distance, may have been connected in some way with the assassination of President Kennedy and the slaying of Patrolman Tippit. A man arrested for the attempt on Reynolds, Darrell Wayne Garner, was released as a result, in part, of testimony by Betty (Nancy Jane Mooney) MacDonald, who had allegedly worked at one time as a stripper at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club.

_Commission finding._--This rumor, originally publicized by a newspaper columnist on February 23, 1964, was apparently based on the alleged connection between Betty MacDonald and the Carousel Club. Investigation revealed no evidence that she had ever worked at the Carousel Club. Employees of the club had no recollection that she had ever worked there. Betty MacDonald was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace on February 13, 1964. After being placed in a cell at the Dallas city jail, she hanged herself. The Commission has found no evidence that the shooting of Warren Reynolds was in any way related to the assassination of President Kennedy or the murder of Patrolman Tippit.[A12-111]

OTHER RUMORS AND SPECULATIONS

Many rumors and speculations difficult to place in the categories treated above also required consideration or investigation by the Commission. In some way or other, much of this miscellany was related to theories of conspiracy involving Oswald. The rest pertained to peripheral aspects that were of sufficient import to merit attention. The Commission’s findings are set forth below.

_Speculation._--Oswald was responsible in some way for the death of Marine Pvt. Martin D. Schrand.

_Commission finding._--This rumor was mentioned by at least one of Oswald’s fellow Marines. Private Schrand was fatally wounded by a discharge from a riot-type shotgun while he was on guard duty on January 5, 1958, near the carrier pier, U.S. Naval Air Station, Cubi Point, Republic of the Philippines. The official Marine investigation in 1958 found that Schrand’s death was the result of an accidental discharge of his gun and that no other person or persons were involved in the incident. The rumor that Oswald was involved in Schrand’s death in some way may have had its origin in two circumstances: (1) Oswald was stationed at Cubi Point at the time of Schrand’s death; (2) on October 27, 1957, while stationed in Japan, Oswald accidentally shot himself in the left elbow with a .22 derringer that he owned. The Commission has found no evidence that Oswald had any connection with the fatal shooting of Private Schrand.[A12-112]

_Speculation._--The Texas School Book Depository is owned and operated by the city of Dallas, and Oswald was therefore a municipal employee. Accordingly, he could have secured his job at the Depository only if someone in an official capacity vouched for him.

_Commission finding._--The Texas School Book Depository is a private corporation unconnected with the city of Dallas. Oswald therefore was not a municipal employee. He obtained his position at the Depository with the assistance of Mrs. Ruth Paine, who learned of a possible opening from a neighbor and arranged an interview for him with Superintendent Roy S. Truly at the Depository.[A12-113]

_Speculation._--Prior to the assassination Dallas police searched other buildings in the area of the Texas School Book Depository but not the School Book Depository itself.

_Commission finding._--The Dallas police and the Secret Service both notified the Commission that, other than the Trade Mart, they had searched no buildings along the route of the President’s motorcade or elsewhere in Dallas in connection with the President’s visit. It was not Secret Service practice to search buildings along the routes of motorcades.[A12-114]

_Speculation._--Sheriff E. J. Decker of Dallas County came on the police radio at 12:25 p.m. with orders to calm trouble at the Texas School Book Depository.

Commission finding.--The final edition of the Dallas Times-Herald of November 22 (p. 1, col. 1) reported that “Sheriff Decker came on the air at 12:25 p.m.” and stated: “‘I don’t know what’s happened. Take every available man from the jail and the office and go to the railroad yards off Elm near the triple underpass.’” The article in the Times-Herald did not mention the time that the President was shot. The radio log of the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office shows that Sheriff Decker came on the air at 40 seconds after 12:30 p.m. and stated: “Stand by me. All units and officers vicinity of station report to the railroad track area, just north of Elm--Report to the railroad track area, just north of Elm.” The radio log does not show any messages by Sheriff Decker between 12:20 p.m. and 40 seconds after 12:30 p.m.[A12-115]

_Speculation._--Police precautions in Dallas on November 22 included surveillance of many people, among them some who did no more than speak in favor of school integration.

_Commission finding._--The Dallas Police Department notified the Commission that on November 22 it had no one under surveillance as a precaution in connection with President Kennedy’s visit except at the Trade Mart. The Commission received no evidence that the Dallas police had under surveillance people who spoke in favor of school integration.[A12-116]

_Speculation._--Oswald was seen at shooting ranges in the Dallas area practicing firing with a rifle.

_Commission finding._--Marina Oswald stated that on one occasion in March or April 1963, her husband told her that he was going to practice firing with the rifle. Witnesses have testified that they saw Oswald at shooting ranges in the Dallas area during October and November 1963. Investigation has failed to confirm that the man seen by these witnesses was Oswald.[A12-117]

_Speculation._--Oswald could drive a car and was seen in cars at various places.

_Commission-finding._--Oswald did not have a driver’s license. Marina Oswald and Ruth Paine have testified that he could not drive a car, and there is no confirmed evidence to establish his presence at any location as the driver of a car. Mrs. Paine did give Oswald some driving lessons and he did drive short distances on these occasions.[A12-118]

_Speculation._--Oswald received money by Western Union telegraph from time to time for several months before the assassination of President Kennedy.

_Commission finding._--An employee in the Western Union main office in Dallas, C. A. Hamblen, made statements that he remembered seeing Oswald there on some occasions collecting money that had been telegraphed to him. In his testimony before the Commission, Hamblen was unable to state whether or not the person he had seen was Lee Harvey Oswald. Western Union officials searched their records in Dallas and other cities for the period from June through November 1963 but found no money orders payable to Lee Oswald or to any of his known aliases. A Western Union official concluded that the allegation was “a figment of Mr. Hamblen’s imagination.”[A12-119] The Commission has found no evidence to contradict this conclusion.[A12-120]

_Speculation._--On his way back from Mexico City in October 1963, Oswald stopped in Alice, Tex., to apply for a job at the local radio station.

_Commission finding._--This rumor apparently originated with the manager of radio station KOPY, Alice, who stated that Oswald visited his office on the afternoon of October 4 for about 25 minutes. According to the manager, Oswald was driving a battered 1953 model car and had his wife and a small child in the car with him. Oswald traveled from Mexico City to Dallas by bus, arriving in Dallas on the afternoon of October 3. The bus did not pass through Alice. On October 4, Oswald applied for two jobs in Dallas and then spent the afternoon and night with his wife and child at the Paine residence in Irving. Investigation has revealed that Oswald did not own a car and there is no convincing evidence that he could drive a car. Accordingly, Oswald could not have been in Alice on October 4. There is no evidence that he stopped in Alice to look for a job on any occasion.[A12-121]

_Speculation._--Oswald or accomplices had made arrangements for his getaway by airplane from an airfield in the Dallas area.

_Commission finding._--Investigation of such claims revealed that they had not the slightest substance. The Commission found no evidence that Oswald had any prearranged plan for escape after the assassination.[A12-122]

_Speculation._--One hundred and fifty dollars was found in the dresser of Oswald’s room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue after the assassination.

_Commission finding._--No money was found in Oswald’s room after the assassination. Oswald left $170 in the room occupied by his wife at the Paine residence in Irving. At the time of his arrest Oswald had $13.87 on his person.[A12-123]

_Speculation._--After Oswald’s arrest, the police found in his room seven metal file boxes filled with the names of Castro sympathizers.

_Commission finding._--The Dallas police inventories of Oswald’s property taken from his room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue do not include any file boxes. A number of small file boxes listed in the inventory as having been taken from the Paine residence in Irving contained letters, pictures, books and literature, most of which belonged to Ruth Paine, not to Oswald. No lists of names of Castro sympathizers were found among these effects.[A12-124]

_Speculation._--Oswald’s letters vary so greatly in quality (spelling, grammar, sentence structure) that he must have had help in preparing the better constructed letters or someone else wrote them for him.

_Commission finding._--There is no evidence that anyone in the United States helped Oswald with his better written letters or that anyone else wrote his letters for him. His wife stated that he would write many drafts of his more important letters. His mother indicated that he would work hard over the drafts of some of his letters. It is clear that he did take greater pains with some of his letters than with others and that the contrasts in quality were accordingly substantial. It is also clear that even his better written letters contained some distinctive elements of spelling, grammar, and punctuation that were common to his poorer efforts. Oswald wrote in his diary that he received help from his Intourist Guide, Rima Shirokova, in the preparation of his letter of October 16, 1959, to the Supreme Soviet.[A12-125]

_Speculation._--A Negro janitor who was a witness to the shooting and was supposed to be able to identify Oswald as the killer was held in protective custody by the Dallas police until he could appear before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.

_Commission finding._--Investigation revealed that this story had no foundation in fact. No such witness was kept in protective custody by the Dallas police for appearance before the Commission. The story had its origin in a newspaper account based on hearsay.[A12-126]

_Speculation._--The Secret Service incarcerated Marina Oswald immediately after the assassination.

_Commission finding._--Marina Oswald was given protection by the Secret Service for a period of time after the assassination. She had freedom to communicate with others at anytime she desired, to go where she pleased, or to terminate the protection at any time.[A12-127]

_Speculation._--Mrs. Marguerite Oswald was shown a photograph of Jack Ruby by an FBI agent the night before Ruby killed her son.

_Commission finding._--On the night of November 23, 1963, Special Agent Bardwell D. Odum of the FBI showed Mrs. Marguerite Oswald a picture of a man to determine whether the man was known to her. Mrs. Oswald stated subsequently that the picture was of Jack Ruby. The Commission has examined a copy of the photograph and determined that it was not a picture of Jack Ruby.[A12-128]

_Speculation._--The son of the only witness to the Tippit slaying was arrested after talking to some private investigators and soon plunged to his death from an unbarred jail window.

_Commission finding._--According to Mrs. Helen Markham, one of the witnesses to the Tippit slaying, Mrs. Marguerite Oswald and two men who claimed to be reporters from Philadelphia sought to interview her on June 27, 1964. Mrs. Markham did not wish to be interviewed and put them off. Afterward, Mrs. Markham’s son, William Edward Markham, talked with Mrs. Oswald and the men about the Oswald matter and the shooting of Patrolman Tippit. William Edward Markham had been in Norfolk, Va., at the time of the assassination and had not returned to Dallas until May 7, 1964. He had no personal knowledge of the shooting of Patrolman Tippit. On June 30, 1964, another of Mrs. Markham’s sons, James Alfred Markham, was arrested at Mrs. Markham’s apartment by Dallas Police on a charge of burglary. While trying to escape, he fell from the bathroom of the apartment to a concrete driveway about 20 feet below. He was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, treated for injuries, and after 6½ hours was taken to jail. As of July 31, 1964, he was in Dallas County Jail awaiting trial. There was also a warrant outstanding against him for parole violation.[A12-129]

_Speculation._--The headquarters detachment of the U.S. Army, under orders from [Secretary of Defense Robert S.] McNamara’s office, began to rehearse for the funeral more than a week before the assassination.

_Commission finding._--This assertion is based on an interview with U.S. Army Capt. Richard C. Cloy that appeared in the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger of February 21, 1964. The newspaper quotes Captain Cloy, who was a member of the Army unit charged with conducting funeral ceremonials in honor of deceased Chiefs of State, as having said that, “we were in a state of readiness and had just finished a funeral rehearsal because there was grave concern for President Hoover’s health. But we never expected that our practice was preparing us for President Kennedy.”[A12-130]

_Speculation._--The ship in which Oswald went to Europe in 1959 stopped in Havana on the way.

_Commission finding._--Oswald boarded the SS _Marion Lykes_ in New Orleans and it sailed on September 20, 1959. It docked in Le Havre, France, on October 8 with only one previous stop--at another French port, La Pallice.[A12-131]

APPENDIX XIII

Biography of Lee Harvey Oswald

EARLY YEARS

Marguerite Claverie, the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald, was born in New Orleans in 1907,[A13-1] into a family of French and German extraction.[A13-2] Her mother died a few years after Marguerite was born, leaving her and five other young children in the care of their father, a streetcar conductor.[A13-3] Although Marguerite describes herself as “a child of one parent,” she recalls being “one of the most popular young ladies in the [grammar] school,” and thinks of her childhood as a “very full happy” one.[A13-4] Her older sister, Mrs. Lillian Murret, remembers Marguerite as “a very pretty child, a very beautiful girl,”[A13-5] as does a former acquaintance, Clem H. Sehrt, who knew the Claveries.[A13-6] The family was poor but, according to Mrs. Murret, was a “happy family * * * singing all the time.”[A13-7] Marguerite had 1 year of high school.[A13-8] Shortly before she was 17, she went to work as a receptionist for a law firm in New Orleans.[A13-9]

In August 1929, while she was still working at the law firm, Marguerite married Edward John Pic, Jr.,[A13-10] a quiet man of her own age, who worked as a clerk for T. Smith & Son, a New Orleans stevedoring company.[A13-11] The marriage was not a success, and by the summer of 1931 she and Pic were separated.[A13-12] Marguerite was then 3 months pregnant; she told her family that Pic did not want any children and refused to support her.[A13-13] Pic ascribed the separation simply to their inability to get along together.[A13-14] A boy was born on January 17, 1932, whom Marguerite named John Edward Pic.[A13-15] Pic saw his son occasionally until he was about 1 year old; after that, he did not see the boy again[A13-16] but contributed to his support until he was 18 years old.[A13-17]

During her separation from her first husband, Marguerite saw a great deal of Robert Edward Lee Oswald, an insurance premium collector,[A13-18] who also was married but was separated from his wife.[A13-19] In 1933, Marguerite was divorced from Pic[A13-20] and, Oswald’s wife also having obtained a divorce,[A13-21] they were married in a Lutheran church on July 20.[A13-22] Marguerite has described the period of her marriage to Oswald as “the only happy part” of her life.[A13-23] A son was born on April 7, 1934, who was named for his father;[A13-24] Oswald wanted to adopt John Pic, but his mother objected on the ground that John’s father might cut off the support payments.[A13-25] In 1938, the Oswalds purchased a new house on Alvar Street for $3,900,[A13-26] in what John remembered as “a rather nice neighborhood.”[A13-27] The house was across the street from the William Frantz School,[A13-28] which first John and later both he and Robert, Jr., attended.[A13-29] On August 19, 1939, little more than a year after the Oswalds bought the Alvar Street house, Robert Oswald died suddenly of a heart attack.[A13-30]

Two months later, on October 18, 1939, a second son was born.[A13-31] He was named Lee after his father; Harvey was his paternal grandmother’s maiden name.[A13-32] For a while after her husband’s death, Mrs. Oswald remained in the Alvar Street house without working; she probably lived on life insurance proceeds.[A13-33] Sometime in 1940, she rented the house to Dr. Bruno F. Mancuso, the doctor who had delivered Lee.[A13-34] (Dr. Mancuso continued to rent the house until 1944,[A13-35] when Marguerite obtained a judgment of possession against him.[A13-36] She sold the house for $6,500 to the First Homestead and Savings Association, which resold it to Dr. Mancuso.)[A13-37] She herself moved to a rented house at 1242 Congress Street, where she lived for about half a year.[A13-38] For part of this period after Oswald’s death, the two older boys were placed in the Infant Jesus College, a Catholic boarding school in Algiers, La., a suburb of New Orleans.[A13-39] Neither they nor their mother liked this arrangement,[A13-40] which John thought was intended to save money;[A13-41] it lasted for less than a year, after which the boys returned to the school Frantz and then transferred to the George Washington Elementary School.[A13-42]

On March 5, 1941, Mrs. Oswald purchased a frame[A13-43] house at 1010 Bartholomew Street, for $1,300.[A13-44] According to John’s recollection, the neighborhood was not as pleasant as Alvar Street; the house had a backyard, and the family kept a dog named “Sunshine.”[A13-45] A neighbor, Mrs. Viola Peterman, recalls that Mrs. Oswald kept to herself but appeared to be “a good mother to her children.”[A13-46] She opened a shop in the front room, where she sold things like sewing supplies and small groceries.[A13-47] Oswald’s Notion Shop, as it was called,[A13-48] failed to make money,[A13-49] and on January 16, 1942, Mrs. Oswald sold the house back to the Third District Home Association, from which she had purchased it, for a profit of $800.[A13-50]

Probably in contemplation of the sale of the house, Mrs. Oswald applied in December 1941 to the Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Orphan Asylum Association for the admission of her two older sons to the orphan asylum, known as the Bethlehem Children’s Home; she stated on the application that she could contribute $20 per month to their maintenance and would supply shoes and clothing.[A13-51] She had inquired also about Lee, who was too young to be admitted.[A13-52] John and Robert were accepted and entered the home on January 3, 1942.[A13-53]

Mrs. Oswald moved to an apartment at 831 Pauline Street,[A13-54] and returned to work. In December 1942, she listed her occupation as “telephone operator”;[A13-55] this may be the job she held at the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., a company for which she worked at some point during this period.[A13-56] She left Lee for much of this time with his aunt, Mrs. Murret, who thought him a good looking, friendly child, but could not devote a great deal of attention to him because she had five children of her own.[A13-57] In the late spring of 1942, Lee was watched for several weeks by Mrs. Thomas Roach, who lived with her husband in the same house as the Oswalds.[A13-58] Lee evidently did not get along with Mrs. Roach who told the next occupant of the house that Lee was a bad, unmanageable child who threw his toy gun at her.[A13-59] Apparently referring to the Roaches, Mrs. Oswald testified that she had once hired a couple to care for Lee; the couple neglected him, so she “put them out” and cared for Lee herself until Mrs. Murret was able to help her again.[A13-60] Soon after the incident with the Roaches, Mrs. Oswald moved again,[A13-61] this time to 111 Sherwood Forest Drive, near the Murrets.[A13-62]

Mrs. Murret took care of Lee for several months longer. Near Lee’s third birthday, Mrs. Oswald again inquired about his admission into the Bethlehem Children’s Home,[A13-63] perhaps because a disagreement with her sister made it impossible to leave him with her any longer.[A13-64] He was admitted on December 26.[A13-65] On his application, Mrs. Oswald agreed to contribute $10 per month and to supply shoes and clothing, as for the other boys.[A13-66]

Lee remained in the home for about 13 months, but according to John’s testimony, left on several occasions to spend short periods of time with his mother or the Murrets.[A13-67] John and Robert have pleasant memories of the home,[A13-68] which apparently gave the children a good deal of freedom.[A13-69] Robert described it as nondenominational but having “a Christian atmosphere”; “it might have been just a Protestant home.”[A13-70] Mrs. Oswald visited them regularly,[A13-71] and they occasionally left the home to visit her or the Murrets.[A13-72]

In July 1943, Mrs. Oswald was hired to manage a small hosiery store.[A13-73] This is probably the store to which she referred in her testimony as the “Princess Hosiery Shop on Canal Street,” at which, she testified, she was left by herself and “in 6 days’ time * * * hired four girls.”[A13-74] Her employer remembers her as a neat, attractive, and hardworking woman, an aggressive person who would make a good manager.[A13-75] She was not good with figures, however, and after several months he discharged her.[A13-76] At about this same time, she met Edwin A. Ekdahl, an electrical engineer older than herself, who was originally from Boston but was then working in the area.[A13-77] They saw each other often. Ekdahl met the boys[A13-78] and, according to John’s testimony, on at least one occasion, they all spent a weekend at a summer resort area in Covington, La.[A13-79]

By January 1944, Mrs. Oswald and Ekdahl had decided to marry.[A13-80] She withdrew Lee from the Children’s Home[A13-81] and moved with him to Dallas, where Ekdahl expected to be located.[A13-82] They planned to postpone the marriage until the end of the school year so that the older boys could complete the year at the home before they left it.[A13-83] In the meantime, she would care for Ekdahl,[A13-84] who was recovering from a serious illness, probably a heart attack.[A13-85] Mrs. Oswald has testified that when she arrived in Dallas, she decided that she did not want to marry Ekdahl after all.[A13-86] Using part of the proceeds from the sale of the Alvar Street house,[A13-87] she purchased a house at 4801 Victor Street,[A13-88] a portion of which she rented.[A13-89] In June, John and Robert left the Children’s Home and joined their mother in Dallas.[A13-90] They entered the nearby Davy Crockett Elementary School the following September.[A13-91]

Ekdahl visited Mrs. Oswald on weekends and stayed at Victor Street.[A13-92] By the following year she had resolved her doubts about marrying him, influenced in part by his substantial income[A13-93] and perhaps by the visit some time earlier of his sister, who favored the marriage because of his ill health.[A13-94] Explaining that she expected to travel a great deal, Mrs. Oswald tried unsuccessfully to return the older boys to the home in February 1945.[A13-95] She and Ekdahl were married in May.[A13-96] After a brief honeymoon, they returned to Victor Street.[A13-97]

Ekdahl got along well with the boys, on whom he lavished much attention.[A13-98] John testified that Ekdahl treated them as if they were his own children and that Lee seemed to find in Ekdahl “the father he never had”; John recalled that on one occasion he told Lee that Ekdahl and his mother had become reconciled after a separation, and that “this seemed to really elate Lee, this made him really happy that they were getting back together.”[A13-99]

Because Ekdahl’s business required him to make frequent trips, in September, John and Robert were placed in the Chamberlain-Hunt Military Academy at Port Gibson, Miss.;[A13-100] their mother paid the tuition herself, using the proceeds from the sale of the Alvar Street property.[A13-101] They remained at the academy for the next 3 years, returning home only for vacations.[A13-102] Lee accompanied his parents on their travels.[A13-103] Mrs. Myrtle Evans, who had known both Marguerite and Ekdahl before their marriage,[A13-104] testified that Marguerite insisted on keeping Lee with her; Mrs. Evans thought that Marguerite was “too close” to Lee and “spoiled him to death,” which hurt her marriage to Ekdahl.[A13-105]

Sometime in the fall after John and Robert were at boarding school, the Ekdahls moved to Benbrook, a suburb of Fort Worth, where they lived on Granbury Road,[A13-106] in a house of stone or brick, set on a large plot of land.[A13-107] Records of the Benbrook Common School show Lee’s admission into the first grade on October 31; his birth date is incorrectly given as July 9, 1939, his mother presumably having given that date to satisfy the age requirement.[A13-108] On February 8, 1946, he was admitted to the Harris Hospital in Fort Worth with “acute mastoiditis.”[A13-109] A mastoidectomy was performed without complications, and Lee left the hospital in 4 days.[A13-110] (In 1955, Lee indicated on a school form that he had an “abnormal ear drum in left ear,”[A13-111] presumably a reference to the mastoidectomy; but when he entered the Marines 1 year later, physical examination disclosed no physical defects.)[A13-112]

The Ekdahls’ marriage quickly broke down. Before they had been married a year, Marguerite suspected Ekdahl of infidelity.[A13-113] She thought him stingy,[A13-114] and there were frequent arguments about his insistence that she account for her expenditures and his refusal to share his money with her.[A13-115] In the summer of 1946, she left Ekdahl, picked up John and Robert at Chamberlain-Hunt, and moved with the boys to Covington, La.,[A13-116] where they lived for at least part of the time at 311 Vermont Street. [A13-117] Mrs. Evans described them at Covington, possibly during this summer, as “really a happy family”; Lee seemed like a normal boy but “kept to himself” and seemed not “to want to be with any other children.”[A13-118] The separation continued after the two boys returned to boarding school, and in September Lee was enrolled in the Covington Elementary School.[A13-119] His record at Benbrook had been satisfactory--he was present on 82 school days and absent on 15, and received all A’s and B’s[A13-120]--but he had not completed the work of the first grade, in which he was enrolled for a second time.[A13-121]

Lee received no grades at the Covington School, from which he was withdrawn on January 23, 1947,[A13-122] because his parents, now reconciled, were moving to Fort Worth, where they lived at 1505 Eighth Avenue.[A13-123] Four days later, he enrolled in the Clayton Public School; he was still in the first grade, which he completed in May with B’s in every subject except physical education and health, in which he received A’s.[A13-124] In the fall, he entered the second grade in the same school but, relations between his parents having deteriorated again, was withdrawn before any grades were recorded.[A13-125]

After the move to Fort Worth, the Ekdahls continued to argue frequently; according to John, “they would have a fight about every other day and he would leave and come back.”[A13-126] That summer, Marguerite obtained what she regarded as proof that Ekdahl was having some sort of affair. According to her testimony, a neighbor told her that Ekdahl had been living on Eighth Avenue with another woman while she was in Covington.[A13-127] Then, at a time when Ekdahl was supposed to be out of town,[A13-128] she went with John and several of his friends to an apartment in Fort Worth; one of the boys posed as a telegram carrier, and when the door opened she pushed her way into the apartment and found Ekdahl in his shirt sleeves in the company of a woman in a negligee.[A13-129]

Despite this apparent confirmation of her suspicions, Marguerite continued to live with Ekdahl until January 1948.[A13-130] In January, according to Ekdahl’s allegations in the subsequent divorce proceedings, she “directed * * * [him] to leave the home immediately and never to return,” which he did.[A13-131] Ekdahl filed suit for divorce in March.[A13-132] The complaint alleged that Marguerite constantly nagged Ekdahl and argued “with reference to money matters,” accused him of infidelity, threw things at him, and finally ordered him out of the house; that these acts were unprovoked by Ekdahl’s conduct toward her; that her acts endangered his already impaired health; and that her “excesses, harsh and cruel treatment and outrages” toward him made it impossible for them to live together.[A13-133] She denied all these allegations.[A13-134] After a trial, at which John testified and, he thought, Lee was called to the stand but was excused without testifying,[A13-135] the jury found on special issues that Marguerite was “guilty of excesses, cruel treatment, or outrages” unprovoked by Ekdahl’s conduct.[A13-136] On June 24, the court granted the divorce and approved an agreement between the parties disposing of their property between them and awarding Marguerite $1,500; at her request, the divorce restored to Marguerite her former name, Marguerite C. Oswald.[A13-137]

While the divorce suit was pending, Marguerite moved from Eighth Avenue to a house on 3300 Willing Street, next to railroad tracks.[A13-138] The boys found her there in May when they returned from the military academy; for John, the move signified that they “were back down in the lower class again.”[A13-139] Lee’s withdrawal from the Clayton School on March 18, 1948,[A13-140] probably coincided with the move to Willing Street. He entered the Clark Elementary School on the following day, and in June completed the second grade with a record mostly of B’s and A’s.[A13-141] Philip Vinson, a classmate at the Clayton School, has described Lee at that time as “a quiet type of kid,” who “didn’t make a lot of noise.”[A13-142] Lee was “stocky and well built,” which made other boys look up to him and regard him as the leader of one of their schoolyard “gangs.”[A13-143] Vinson thought that Lee was not a bully and got along with his classmates, but had the impression that he rarely played with them or brought them home after school.[A13-144]

Shortly after the divorce, Mrs. Oswald purchased a small house in Benbrook, on what is now San Saba Street;[A13-145] John has testified that it had a single bedroom, in which Lee slept with his mother, and a screened porch where John and Robert slept.[A13-146] Mrs. Oswald worked at a department store in Fort Worth, and left the three boys home alone.[A13-147] A neighbor, Mrs. W. H. Bell, has stated that Lee seemed to enjoy being by himself and to resent discipline;[A13-148] another neighbor, Otis R. Carlton, stated that he once saw Lee chase John with a knife and throw it at him, an incident which, Carlton said, their mother passed off as a “little scuffle.”[A13-149] At the end of the summer, Carlton purchased the property. He stated that he appraised it at $2,750 at Mrs. Oswald’s request; she then insisted that he had made an offer to purchase at that price, which he finally agreed to do.[A13-150]

After the house was sold, the family returned to Fort Worth, a move necessitated by Mrs. Oswald’s, and now John’s, employment.[A13-151] Mrs. Oswald bought a two-bedroom, frame house at 7408 Ewing, from which Robert and Lee could walk to school.[A13-152] John, who was then 16, obtained a job as a shoe stockboy at Everybody’s Department Store; he testified that he wanted to finish high school at the military academy, but that his mother advised him to leave school and help to support the family.[A13-153] He gave her $15 per week out of his salary of $25.[A13-154] Robert returned to school.[A13-155]

Lee entered the third grade at the Arlington Heights Elementary School.[A13-156] He remained at Arlington Heights for the entire school year, completing the third grade with a satisfactory record, which included A’s in social studies, citizenship, elementary science, art, and music, and a D in spelling.[A13-157] In September 1949, he transferred to the Ridglea West Elementary School, where he remained for the next 3 years.[A13-158] Lee’s record at Ridglea is not remarkable in any respect. In the fourth and fifth grades, he received mostly B’s; in the sixth grade, B’s and C’s predominate.[A13-159] He received D’s in both the fifth and sixth grades in spelling and arithmetic; in the fourth and sixth grades, C’s are recorded for Spanish,[A13-160] which may account for his rudimentary familiarity with that language later on.[A13-161] In the fourth grade his IQ was recorded at 103; on achievement tests in each of the 3 years, he twice did best in reading and twice did worst in spelling.[A13-162]

Lee is generally characterized as an unexceptional but rather solitary boy during these years. His mother worked in a variety of jobs,[A13-163] and, according to her own testimony, told Lee not to contact her at work except in an emergency.[A13-164] He ordinarily returned home alone directly after school, in obedience to his mother’s instructions.[A13-165] A fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Clyde I. Livingston, described him as a lonely boy, quiet and shy, who did not easily form friendships with other students.[A13-166] But Richard W. Garrett has stated that he was a classmate of Lee in the fourth or fifth grade and found him easy to get along with; he recalled playing with Lee often at school and sometimes walking home together with him.[A13-167] Mrs. Livingston recalled that at Christmas 1949, Lee gave her a puppy and afterward came to her home to see the puppy and talk to her and her family.[A13-168]

Lee’s relationship with his brothers was good but limited by the difference in their ages.[A13-169] He still had a dog,[A13-170] but there were few children of his age in the neighborhood, and he appears to have been by himself after school most of the time.[A13-171] He read a lot,[A13-172] had a stamp collection, and played chess and Monopoly with his brothers.[A13-173] Mrs. Murret remembered that on a visit to her home in New Orleans, Lee refused to play with other children or even to leave the house; he preferred to stay indoors and read (mostly “funnybooks”) or listen to the radio.[A13-174] After several weeks with the Murrets, Lee wrote to his mother and asked her to come for him.[A13-175] Hiram Conway, a neighbor on Ewing Street, thought Lee was an intelligent child, who picked things up easily; although he did not recall many specific incidents to support his impressions, Conway regarded Lee as “a bad kid,” who was “quick to anger” and “mean when he was angry, just ornery.”[A13-176] John’s general picture of Lee in these years is that of “a normal healthy robust boy who would get in fights and still have his serious moments.”[A13-177]

John returned to high school in January 1949, but continued to work part time.[A13-178] Early in 1950, he entered the Coast Guard.[A13-179] Robert left school soon after John’s departure and went to work full time, contributing most of his earnings to the support of his family.[A13-180] He returned to school in 1951-52, and after completing his junior year in high school, joined the Marines in July 1952.[A13-181] In August, Mrs. Oswald and Lee moved to New York, where John was living with his wife and a very young baby in an apartment at 325 East 92d Street; the apartment belonged to John’s mother-in-law, who was temporarily away.[A13-182] Mrs. Oswald has explained that with Robert gone she did not want Lee to be alone while she worked and that she went to New York City “not as a venture,” but because she “had family” there.[A13-183]

The visit began well. John testified of his meeting with Lee: “We met in the street and I was real glad to see him and he was real glad to see me. We were real good friends.”[A13-184] He took about a week of leave and showed Lee the city; he remembered trips to the Museum of Natural History and Polk’s Hobby Shop, and a ride on the Staten Island ferry.[A13-185] But when it became obvious that his mother intended to stay, the atmosphere changed. Mrs. Oswald did not get along with John’s wife, with whom she quarreled frequently.[A13-186] There was difficulty about her failure to contribute anything towards her own and Lee’s support.[A13-187] According to John, his wife liked Lee and would have been glad to have him alone stay with them but felt that his mother set Lee against her; they never suggested that Lee remain with them since they knew that it would not work out.[A13-188] The visit ended when Lee threatened Mrs. Pic with a pocket knife during a quarrel,[A13-189] and she asked Mrs. Oswald to leave.[A13-190] John testified that during this same quarrel Lee hit his mother, who appeared to have lost all control over him.[A13-191] The incident permanently destroyed the good relationship between Lee and his brother.[A13-192]

Mrs. Oswald and Lee moved uptown to a one-room basement apartment[A13-193] in the Bronx, at 1455 Sheridan Avenue.[A13-194] While they were still at the Pics, he had been enrolled at the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran School on Watson Avenue.[A13-195] He was withdrawn on September 26, after several weeks of irregular attendance, and 4 days later enrolled in the seventh grade of Public School 117, a junior high school.[A13-196] Mrs. Oswald found a job at one of the Lerner Shops, a chain of dress shops for which she had worked briefly in Fort Worth several years before.[A13-197] In January, they moved again, to 825 East 179th Street,[A13-198] and a few weeks later, she left the employ of Lerner Shops.[A13-199] In April, she was working at Martin’s Department Store in Brooklyn, where she earned $45 per week;[A13-200] in May, she went to work for a chain of hosiery shops, with which she remained until December.[A13-201] Lee was registered at Public School 117 until January 16, 1953,[A13-202] although the move to 179th Street, which took him out of that school district, probably took place before that date.[A13-203] He had been at Public School 117 for 64 schooldays, out of which he had been present on 15 full and 2 half days;[A13-204] he had received failing grades in most of his courses.[A13-205]

Lee’s truancy increased after he moved; he was now located in the school district of Public School 44 but refused to go to school there.[A13-206] On one occasion that spring, an attendance officer located Lee at the Bronx Zoo; the officer testified that Lee was clean and well dressed, but was surly and referred to the officer as a “damned Yankee.”[A13-207] Several truancy hearings were held in January, at the first of which at least, both Mrs. Oswald and Lee evidently failed to appear.[A13-208] At a hearing on January 27, by which time it was known that Lee was living in the Public School 44 district, it was decided to commence judicial proceedings if his truancy continued.[A13-209] Meanwhile, on January 16, his mother called the Community Service Society, to which she had been referred by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, and asked for an appointment to discuss the problem.[A13-210] She mentioned that a truancy hearing had been held and said that Lee would not attend school despite the threat of official action; she thought that his behavior was due to difficulty in adjusting to his new environment.[A13-211] An appointment was scheduled for January 30, but she failed to appear, and the case was closed.[A13-212] Sometime in February, the Pics visited the Oswalds. John testified that his mother told him about Lee’s truancy and asked how she could get Lee to accept psychiatric aid. Nothing came of these discussions.[A13-213]

On March 12, the attendance officer in charge of Lee’s case filed a petition in court which alleged that Lee had been “excessively absent from school” between October and January, that he had refused to register at Public School 44 or to attend school there, and that he was “beyond the control of his mother insofar as school attendance is concerned.”[A13-214] On the same day, Mrs. Oswald appeared in court alone and informed the presiding judge that Lee refused to appear in court.[A13-215] Evidently impressed by the proceedings, however, Lee did register at Public School 44 on March 23.[A13-216] Nevertheless, on April 16, Justice Delany declared him a truant, and remanded him to Youth House until May 7 for psychiatric study.[A13-217]

In accordance with the regular procedures at Youth House, Lee took a series of tests and was interviewed by a staff social worker and a probation officer, both of whom interviewed Mrs. Oswald as well.[A13-218] Their findings, discussed more fully in chapter VII of the Commission’s report, indicated that Lee was a withdrawn, socially maladjusted boy, whose mother did not interest herself sufficiently in his welfare and had failed to establish a close relationship with him.[A13-219] Mrs. Oswald visited Lee at Youth House and came away with a highly unfavorable impression; she regarded it as unfit for her son.[A13-220] On the basis of all the test results and reports and his own interview with Lee, Dr. Renatus Hartogs, the chief staff psychiatrist, recommended that Lee be placed on probation with a requirement that he seek help from a child guidance clinic, and that his mother be urged to contact a family agency for help; he recommended that Lee not be placed in an institution unless treatment during probation was unsuccessful.[A13-221]

Lee returned to court on May 7. He and his mother appeared before Justice McClancy, who discussed the Youth House reports with them.[A13-222] He released Lee on parole until September 24, and requested that a referral be made to the Community Service Society for treatment.[A13-223] The probation officer called the society on the same day but was told that it would probably not be able to take the case because of its already full case load and the intensive treatment which Lee was likely to require;[A13-224] it confirmed this position 1 week later and closed the case on May 31.[A13-225] An application was made to the Salvation Army also, which turned it down because it could not provide the needed services.[A13-226]

During the few weeks of school which remained, Lee attended school regularly, and completed the seventh grade with low but passing marks in all his academic subjects.[A13-227] (He received a failing mark in a home economics course.)[A13-228] His conduct was generally satisfactory and he was rated outstanding in “Social-Participation”; the record indicates that he belonged to a model airplane club and had a special interest in horseback riding.[A13-229] Robert Oswald visited New York that summer, while he was on leave from the Marines.[A13-230] Lee did not appear to him to be unhappy or to be acting abnormally, nor did Robert observe that relations between Lee and his mother were strained.[A13-231] Lee’s truancy the previous fall and winter was apparently discussed only in passing, when Mrs. Oswald mentioned that Lee had had to appear before a judge.[A13-232]

On September 14, Lee entered the eighth grade at Public School 44.[A13-233] His parole was due to end 10 days later. On September 24, however, Mrs. Oswald telephoned the probation officer and advised that she could not appear in court; she added that there was no need for her to do so, since Lee was attending school regularly and was now well adjusted.[A13-234] The parole was extended until October 29, before which date the school was to submit a progress report.[A13-235] The report was highly unfavorable. Although Lee was attending school regularly, his conduct was unsatisfactory; teachers reported that he refused to salute the flag, did little work, and seemed to spend most of his time “sailing paper planes around the room.”[A13-236] On October 29, Mrs. Oswald again telephoned to say that she would be unable to appear. Justice Sicher continued Lee’s parole until November 19 and directed the probation officer to make a referral to the Berkshire Industrial Farm or Children’s Village.[A13-237]

Before the next hearing, Mrs. Oswald discussed Lee’s behavior with the school authorities, who indicated to the probation officer that Lee’s behavior improved considerably after her visit to the school.[A13-238] He did, in fact, receive passing grades in most of his subjects in the first marking period. His report also contains notations by his teachers that he was “quick-tempered,” “constantly losing control,” and “getting into battles with others.”[A13-239] Both Lee and his mother appeared in court on November 19. Despite Mrs. Oswald’s request that Lee be discharged, Justice Sicher stated his belief that Lee needed treatment, and continued his parole until January 28, 1954; the probation officer was directed to contact the Big Brothers counseling service in the meantime.[A13-240]

At the request of the probation officer, the Big Brothers office contacted Mrs. Oswald in December, and on January 4 a caseworker visited her and Lee at home.[A13-241] The caseworker reported that he was cordially received but was told by Mrs. Oswald that continued counseling was unnecessary; she pointed out to him that Lee now belonged to the West Side YMCA, which he attended every Saturday. The caseworker reported, however, that Lee was plainly “displeased with the idea of being forced to join various ‘Y’ organizations about which he cared little.” Mrs. Oswald declared her intention to return to New Orleans and was advised to obtain Lee’s release from the court’s jurisdiction before she left.[A13-242] On the following day, she called the probation officer, who was away on vacation, and was advised by his office again not to take Lee out of the jurisdiction without the court’s consent.[A13-243] The same advice was repeated to her by the Big Brothers caseworker on January 6. [A13-244] Through all these contacts, Mrs. Oswald had evidenced reluctance to bring Lee into court, prompted probably by fear that he would be retained in some sort of custody as he had been at the time of the commitment to Youth House.[A13-245] Without further communication to the court, Mrs. Oswald and Lee returned to New Orleans sometime before January 10.[A13-246] On March 11, the court dismissed the case.[A13-247]

In New Orleans, Lee and his mother stayed with the Murrets at 757 French Street while they looked for an apartment.[A13-248] Lee enrolled in the eighth grade at Beauregard Junior High School on January 13[A13-249] and completed the school year without apparent difficulty.[A13-250] He entered the ninth grade in September and again received mediocre but acceptable marks.[A13-251] In October 1954, Lee took a series of achievement tests, on which he did well in reading and vocabulary, badly in mathematics.[A13-252] At the end of the school year, on June 2, 1955, he filled out a “personal history.” He indicated that the subjects which he liked best were civics, science, and mathematics; those he liked least were English and art. His vocational preferences were listed as biology and mechanical drawing; his plans after high school, however, were noted as “military service” and “undecided.” He said that reading and outdoor sports were his recreational activities and that he liked football in particular. In response to the question whether he had “any close friends in this school,” he wrote, “no.”[A13-253]

Lee is remembered by those who knew him in New Orleans as a quiet, solitary boy who made few friends.[A13-254] He was briefly a member of the Civil Air Patrol,[A13-255] and considered joining an organization of high school students interested in astronomy;[A13-256] occasionally, he played pool or darts with his friend, Edward Voebel.[A13-257] Beyond this, he seems to have had few contacts with other people. He read a lot, starting at some point to read Communist literature which he found at the public library;[A13-258] he walked or rode a bicycle, sometimes visiting a museum.[A13-259] Except in his relations with his mother, he was not unusually argumentative or belligerent, but he seems not to have avoided fights if they came; they did come fairly frequently, perhaps in part because of his aloofness from his fellows and the traces of a northern accent in his speech.[A13-260] His only close friendship, with Voebel, arose when Voebel helped him tend his wounds after a fight.[A13-261] Friends of Mrs. Oswald thought that he was demanding and insolent toward her and that she had no control over him.[A13-262]

While Lee was in the eighth and ninth grades, Mrs. Oswald worked first at Burt’s Shoestore[A13-263] and then at the Dolly Shoe Co.[A13-264] One of her employers at Dolly, where she worked as a cashier and salesclerk, remembered her as a pleasant person and a good worker.[A13-265] At her request, the company hired Lee to work part time; he worked there, mostly on Saturdays, for about 10 weeks in 1955.[A13-266] On the “personal history” record which he filled out in school, he stated that he had been a “retail shoesalesman”;[A13-267] but his employer recalled that they had tried to train him as a salesman without success and that he had in fact been a stockboy.[A13-268]

After a short period with the Murrets, Mrs. Oswald and Lee had moved to an apartment owned by Myrtle Evans at 1454 Saint Mary Street, which she and Mrs. Murret helped to furnish; later they moved to a less expensive apartment in the same building, the address of which was 1452 Saint Mary Street.[A13-269] Relations between Mrs. Oswald and Mrs. Evans became strained,[A13-270] and in the spring of 1955 the Oswalds moved to a new apartment at 126 Exchange Place in the French Quarter.[A13-271] Although Lee gave the Exchange Place address on a school form at the end of the ninth grade,[A13-272] the school authorities had apparently not been advised of these moves earlier, because Mrs. Oswald did not want Lee to be transferred from Beauregard, which she considered a good school.[A13-273] During the summer of 1955, Robert left the Marine Corps and spent a week with his mother and Lee in New Orleans before moving to Fort Worth; he found Lee unchanged.[A13-274]

That fall, Lee entered the 10th grade at Warren Easton High School.[A13-275] He had been there for about a month when he presented to the school authorities a note written by himself to which he had signed his mother’s name. It was dated October 7, 1955, and read:

To whom it may concern,

Becaus we are moving to San Diego in the middle of this month Lee must quit school now. Also, please send by him any papers such as his birth certificate that you may have. Thank you.

Sincirely Mrs. M. Oswald[A13-276]

He dropped out of school a few days later, shortly before his 16th birthday.[A13-277] After his birthday, he tried to enlist in the Marines, using a false affidavit from his mother that he was 17.[A13-278] (Some years before, John Pic had joined the Marine Corps Reserve by means of his mother’s false affidavit that he was 17.)[A13-279] The attempt failed, and, according to his mother’s testimony, Lee spent the next year reading and memorizing the “Marine Manual,” which he had obtained from Robert and “living to when he is age 17 to join the Marines.”[A13-280] He worked for the rest of the school year. Between November 10 and January 14, he was a messenger boy for Gerald F. Tujague, Inc., a shipping company, where he earned $130 per month.[A13-281] His employer remembers him as a quiet, withdrawn person.[A13-282] In January he worked briefly as an office boy for J. R. Michels, Inc.[A13-283] For several months thereafter, he was a messenger for the Pfisterer Dental Laboratory.[A13-284] His military record subsequently described his prior civilian jobs as follows:

Performed various clerical duties such as distributing mail, delivering messages & answering telephone. Helped file records & operated ditto, letter opening & sealing machines.[A13-285]

Anticipating that Lee would join the Marines as soon as he was 17, Mrs. Oswald moved in July 1956 to Fort Worth,[A13-286] where she took an apartment at 4936 Collinswood for herself, Lee, and Robert.[A13-287] In September, Lee enrolled in the 10th grade at the Arlington Heights High School[A13-288] but attended classes for only a few weeks. He dropped out of school on September 28.[A13-289] A few days later, he wrote the following letter to the Socialist Party of America:

October 3, 1956

Dear Sirs;

I am sixteen years of age and would like more information about your youth League, I would like to know if there is a branch in my area, how to join, ect., I am a Marxist, and have been studying socialist principles for well over fifteen months I am very interested in your Y.P.S.L.

Sincerely

/s/ Lee Oswald[A13-290]

Accompanying the letter was an advertisement coupon, on which he had checked the box requesting information about the Socialist Party.[A13-291]

Lee became 17 on October 18. He enlisted in the Marines on October 24.[A13-292]

MARINES

On October 26, 1956, Lee Harvey Oswald reported for duty at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Calif., where he was assigned to the Second Recruit Training Battalion.[A13-293] He was 68 inches tall and weighed 135 pounds; he had no physical defects.[A13-294] On October 30, he took a series of aptitude tests, on which he scored significantly above the Marine Corps average in reading and vocabulary and significantly below the average in tests in arithmetic and pattern analysis. His composite general classification score was 105, 2 points below the Corps average. He scored near the bottom of the lowest group in a radio code test.[A13-295] His preference of duty was recorded as Aircraft Maintenance and Repair, the duty assignment for which he was recommended.[A13-296]

While he was at San Diego, Oswald was trained in the use of the M-1 rifle.[A13-297] His practice scores were not very good,[A13-298] but when his company fired for record on December 21, he scored 212, 2 points above the score necessary to qualify as a “sharpshooter” on a marksman/sharpshooter/expert scale.[A13-299] He did not do nearly as well when he fired for record again shortly before he left the Marines.[A13-300] He practiced also with a riot gun and a .45-caliber pistol when he was in the Marines but no scores were recorded.[A13-301]

Oswald was given a 4.4 rating in both “conduct” and “proficiency” at the Recruit Depot, the highest possible rating being 5.0 and an average rating of 4.0 being required for an honorable discharge.[A13-302] On January 18, 1957, he reported to Camp Pendleton, Calif., for further training and was assigned to “A” Company of the First Battalion, Second Infantry Training Regiment.[A13-303] He was at Pendleton for a little more than 5 weeks, at the end of which he was rated 4.2 in conduct and 4.0 in proficiency.[A13-304] Allen R. Felde, a fellow recruit who was with Oswald at San Diego and Pendleton, has stated that Oswald was generally unpopular and that his company was avoided by the other men.[A13-305] When his squad was given its first weekend leave from Pendleton, all eight men took a cab to Tijuana, Mexico. Oswald left the others and did not rejoin them until it was time to return to camp. Felde said that this practice was repeated on other trips to Los Angeles; Oswald accompanied the men on the bus to and from camp but did not stay with them in the city.[A13-306] On February 27, he went on leave for 2 weeks,[A13-307] during which he may have visited his mother in Fort Worth.[A13-308]

On March 18, he reported to the Naval Air Technical Training Center at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla.[A13-309] For the next 6 weeks he attended an Aviation Fundamental School, in which he received basic instruction in his specialty, including such subjects as basic radar theory, map reading, and air traffic control procedures.[A13-310] This course, as well as his next training assignment at Keesler Air Force Base, required Oswald to deal with confidential material.[A13-311] He was granted final clearance up to the “confidential” level on May 3, “after [a] careful check of local records had disclosed no derogatory data.”[A13-312] He completed the course on the same day, ranking 46th in a class of 54 students.[A13-313] On the previous day, he had been promoted to private, first class, effective May 1.[A13-314] At Jacksonville, he received ratings of 4.7 in conduct and 4.5 in proficiency, the highest ratings he ever attained.[A13-315]

Oswald left for Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., on the day his course was completed;[A13-316] he traveled, probably by overnight train, in a group of six marines led by Pfc. Daniel P. Powers, the senior marine in charge.[A13-317] At Keesler, he attended the Aircraft Control and Warning Operator Course, which included instruction in aircraft surveillance and the use of radar.[A13-318] Powers was not sure whether he had met Oswald before the trip to Biloxi[A13-319] but remembers him there as “a somewhat younger individual, less matured than the other boys,” who “was normally outside the particular group of marines that were in this attachment to Keesler.”[A13-320] (Oswald was in fact 3 years younger than Powers.)[A13-321] Powers testified that Oswald had the nickname “Ozzie Rabbit.”[A13-322] Oswald generally stayed to himself, often reading; he did not play cards or work out in the gym with the others.[A13-323] He spent his weekends alone, away from the base; Powers thought he left Biloxi and perhaps went “home” to New Orleans, less than 100 miles away.[A13-324] He finished the course seventh in a class of 30 marines on June 17,[A13-325] and on June 25, was given an MOS (military occupational specialty) of Aviation Electronics Operator.[A13-326] On June 20, he went on leave,[A13-327] possibly visiting his mother.[A13-328] His ratings at Keesler were 4.2 in conduct and 4.5 in proficiency,[A13-329] which Powers thought was “pretty good.”[A13-330]

On July 9, Oswald reported at the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, Calif., near Santa Ana.[A13-331] He was classified as a replacement trainee and attached to the Fourth Replacement Battalion.[A13-332] Six weeks later, on August 22, he departed from San Diego for Yokosuka, Japan, on board the U.S.S. _Bexar_.[A13-333] Powers testified that while on board, Oswald taught him to play chess, which they played frequently, sometimes for more than 4 hours a day.[A13-334] Like most of the men on board, Oswald read a lot from the books which were available. Powers thought he read “a good type of literature,” remembering in particular Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”[A13-335]

The _Bexar_ docked at Yokosuka on September 12.[A13-336] Oswald was assigned to Marine Air Control Squadron No. 1 (MACS-1), Marine Air Group 11, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, based at Atsugi, about 20 miles west of Tokyo.[A13-337] Oswald was a radar operator in MACS-1, which had less than 100 men.[A13-338] Its function was to direct aircraft to their targets by radar, communicating with the pilots by radio.[A13-339] The squadron had also the duty of scouting for incoming foreign aircraft, such as straying Russian or Chinese planes, which would be intercepted by American planes.[A13-340]

On October 27, when Oswald opened his locker to remove some gear, a derringer .22 caliber pistol fell to the floor and discharged; the bullet hit him in the left elbow.[A13-341] Paul Edward Murphy, a fellow marine who was in the next cubicle, heard the shot, rushed in, and found Oswald sitting on the locker looking at his arm; without emotion, Oswald said to Murphy, “I believe I shot myself.”[A13-342] He was in the naval hospital at Yokosuka until November 15.[A13-343]

The Judge Advocate General concluded that Oswald had “displayed a certain degree of carelessness or negligence” by storing a loaded revolver in his locker, but that his injury was incurred “in the line of duty” and was not the result “of his own misconduct.”[A13-344] He was, however, charged with possession of an unregistered privately owned weapon in violation of general orders. A court-martial followed on April 11, 1958, when Oswald’s unit returned from maneuvers, and on April 29 he was sentenced to be confined at hard labor for 20 days, to forfeit $25 per month for 2 months, and to be reduced to the grade of private.[A13-345] The confinement was suspended for 6 months, after which that portion of the sentence was to be remitted.[A13-346]

Five days after Oswald left the hospital, MACS-1 embarked aboard the _Terrell County_, LST 1157, for maneuvers in the Philippine Islands area,[A13-347] According to Powers’ recollection, the squadron was expected to return to Atsugi after maneuvers were completed, but an international crisis developed; since another operation was scheduled for a few months later, the squadron debarked at Cubi Point (Subic Bay) in the Philippines and set up a temporary installation.[A13-348] While he was in the Philippines, Oswald passed a test of eligibility for the rank of corporal;[A13-349] in a semiannual evaluation, however, he was given his lowest ratings thus far: 4.0 in conduct and 3.9 in proficiency.[A13-350] The unit participated in exercises at Corregidor, from which it sailed for Atsugi on March 7, 1958, aboard the U.S.S. _Wexford County_, LST 1168.[A13-351] The _Wexford County_ reached Atsugi 11 days later.[A13-352]

Oswald was court-martialed a second time on June 27, for using “provoking words” to a noncommissioned officer (a sergeant) on June 20, at the Bluebird Cafe in Yamato, and assaulting the officer by pouring a drink on him.[A13-353] The findings were that Oswald spilled the drink accidentally, but when the sergeant shoved him away, Oswald invited the sergeant outside in insulting language.[A13-354] Oswald admitted that he was rather drunk and had invited the sergeant outside but did not recall insulting him.[A13-355] He was sentenced to be confined at hard labor for 28 days and to forfeit $55;[A13-356] in addition, suspension of the previous sentence of confinement was withdrawn.[A13-357] He was in confinement until August 13.[A13-358] Meanwhile, a previously granted extension of oversea duty was canceled,[A13-359] and he was given ratings of 1.9 in conduct and 3.4 in proficiency.[A13-360]

On September 14, Oswald sailed with his unit for the South China Sea area; the unit was at Ping Tung, North Taiwan on September 30, and returned to Atsugi on October 5.[A13-361] On October 6, he was transferred out of MACS-1 and put on general duty, in anticipation of his return to the United States.[A13-362] He spent several days thereafter in the Atsugi Station Hospital.[A13-363] On October 31, he received his last oversea ratings: 4.0 in both conduct and proficiency.[A13-364]

Oswald appears generally to have been regarded by his fellows overseas as an intelligent person who followed orders and did his work well, but who complained frequently.[A13-365] He did not associate much with other marines and continued to read a great deal.[A13-366] Paul Murphy testified that Oswald could speak “a little Russian” while he was overseas.[A13-367] Powers believed that Oswald became more assertive in Japan and thought that he might have had a Japanese girl friend.[A13-368] He departed from Yokosuka on board the USNS _Barrett_ on November 2, and arrived in San Francisco 13 days later.[A13-369] On November 19, he took 30 days’ leave.[A13-370]

On December 22, Oswald was assigned to Marine Air Control Squadron No. 9 (MACS-9) at the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, where he had been briefly before he went overseas.[A13-371] He was one of about seven enlisted men and three officers who formed a “radar crew,” engaged primarily in aircraft surveillance.[A13-372] This work probably gave him access to certain kinds of classified material, some of which, such as aircraft call signs and radio frequencies, was changed after his defection to Russia.[A13-373] For part of his time at El Toro, Oswald may have been assigned to clerical or janitorial tasks on the base.[A13-374] Some of his associates believed rumors,[A13-375] incorrect according to official records,[A13-376] that he had lost his clearance to work on radar crews; one recalled hearing that Oswald had once had clearance above the “confidential” level and had lost it because he “had poured beer over a staff NCO’s head in an enlisted club in Japan, and had been put in the brig.”[A13-377]

The officer in command of the radar crew, Lt. John E. Donovan, found him “competent in all functions,” and observed that he handled himself calmly and well in emergency situations.[A13-378] Donovan thought Oswald was not a leader but that he performed competently on occasions when, as the senior man present, he served as crew chief.[A13-379] This estimate was generally shared by his fellows, most of whom thought that he performed his assigned duties adequately but was deficient in disciplinary matters and such things as barracks inspection.[A13-380] One of them recalled that after a number of bad inspections, the other members of Oswald’s quonset hut complained about him and secured his transfer to another hut.[A13-381] He was thought to be an intelligent person, somewhat better educated and more intellectually oriented than other men on the base.[A13-382] A few of the men thought it more accurate to describe him as someone who wanted to appear intelligent.[A13-383] He had a pronounced interest in world affairs, in which he appears to have been better informed than some of the officers, whose lack of knowledge amused and sometimes irritated him; he evidently enjoyed drawing others, especially officers, into conversations in which he could display his own superior knowledge.[A13-384]

It seems clear from the various recollections of those who knew him at El Toro that by the time Oswald returned to the United States, he no longer had any spirit for the Marines; the attitudes which had prompted his enlistment as soon as he was eligible were entirely gone, and his attention had turned away from the Marines to what he might do after his discharge. While no one was able to predict his attempt to defect to Russia within a month after he left the Marines, the testimony of those who knew him at El Toro, in contrast to that of his associates in Japan, leaves no doubt that his thoughts were occupied increasingly with Russia and the Russian way of life. He had studied the Russian language enough by February 25, 1959, to request that he be given a foreign language qualification test; his rating was “poor” in all parts of the test.[A13-385] Most of the marines who knew him were aware that he was studying Russian;[A13-386] one of them, Henry J. Roussel, Jr., arranged a date between Lee and his aunt, Rosaleen Quinn, an airline stewardess who was also studying Russian.[A13-387] (Miss Quinn thought that Oswald spoke Russian well in view of his lack of formal training; she found the evening uninteresting.[A13-388] Donovan, with whom she had a date later, testified that she told him that Oswald was “kind of an oddball.”)[A13-389] He read, and perhaps subscribed to, a newspaper, possibly printed in Russian, which his associates connected with his Russian bent.[A13-390]

Most of those who knew him were able to recount anecdotes which suggest that he was anxious to publicize his liking for things Russian, sometimes in good humor and sometimes seriously. Some of his fellows called him “Oswaldskovich,” apparently to his pleasure.[A13-391] He is said to have had his name written in Russian on one of his jackets;[A13-392] to have played records of Russian songs “so loud that one could hear them outside the barracks”;[A13-393] frequently to have made remarks in Russian[A13-394] or used expressions like “da” or “nyet,”[A13-395] or addressed others (and been addressed) as “Comrade”;[A13-396] to have come over and said jokingly, “You called?” when one of the marines played a particular record of Russian music.[A13-397]

Connected with this Russophilia was an interest in and acceptance of Russian political views and, to a lesser extent, Communist ideology. Less obvious to his fellows generally,[A13-398] it nevertheless led him into serious discussions with some of them. Donovan, who was a graduate of the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University,[A13-399] thought Oswald was “truly interested in international affairs”[A13-400] and “very well versed, at least on the superficial facts of a given foreign situation.”[A13-401] He recalled that Oswald had a particular interest in Latin America[A13-402] and had a good deal of information about Cuba in particular.[A13-403] Oswald expressed sympathy for Castro but, according to Donovan, “what he said about Castro was not an unpopular belief at that time.”[A13-404] Donovan believed that Oswald subscribed to the Russian newspaper--which Donovan thought was a Communist newspaper--not only in order to read Russian but also because he thought it “presented a very different and perhaps equally just side of the international affairs in comparison with the United States newspapers.”[A13-405] Donovan was clear, on the other hand, that he never heard Oswald “in any way, shape or form confess that he was a Communist, or that he ever thought about being a Communist.”[A13-406]

Private Kerry Thornley described himself as a close acquaintance, but not a good friend, of Oswald, whom he met in the spring of 1959;[A13-407] he later wrote an unpublished novel in which he drew heavily on his impressions of Oswald.[A13-408] Thornley generally corroborates Donovan’s testimony but thought Oswald definitely believed that “the Marxist morality was the most rational morality to follow” and communism, “the best system in the world.”[A13-409] Thornley thought this belief was “theoretical,” a “dispassionate appraisal” which did not indicate “any active commitment to the Communist ends”; he described Oswald as “idle in his admiration for communism.”[A13-410] He recalled discussions about Marxism in which Oswald criticized capitalism and praised the Soviet economic system.[A13-411] Thornley testified that his association with Oswald ended when, in response to Oswald’s criticism of a parade in which they both had to march, he said “Well, comes the revolution you will change all that.” Oswald, he said, looked at him “like a betrayed Caesar” and walked away.[A13-412] Thornley attributed Oswald’s decision to go to Russia to a growing disillusionment with the United States, especially its role in the Far East, and a conviction that communism would eventually prevail.[A13-413] He was surprised by the decision but expected Oswald to adjust to Russian life and remain in Russia permanently.[A13-414]

Another marine, Nelson Delgado, met Oswald soon after the latter arrived at El Toro.[A13-415] They were about the same age and had similar interests; Oswald enjoyed trying to speak Spanish with Delgado, who spoke it fluently.[A13-416] Delgado regarded him as a “complete believer that our way of government was not quite right,” but did not think he was a Communist.[A13-417] Their discussions were concerned more with Cuba than Russia.[A13-418] They both favored the Castro government and talked--“dreaming,” Delgado said--about joining the Cuban Army or Government and perhaps leading expeditions to other Caribbean islands to “free them too.”[A13-419] Oswald told Delgado that he was in touch with Cuban diplomatic officials in this country; which Delgado at first took to be “one of his * * * lies,”[A13-420] but later believed.[A13-421]

Oswald’s interest in Russia and developing ideological attachment to theoretical communism apparently dominated his stay at El Toro. He was still withdrawn from most of his fellows, although his special interests appear to have made him stand out more there than he had at other posts and to have given him a source for conversation which he had hitherto lacked.[A13-422] According to several of the witnesses, names like “Ozzie Rabbit” still clung to him;[A13-423] others recalled no nickname or only shortened versions of his real name.[A13-424] His reading acquired direction; books like “Das Kapital” and Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984” are mentioned in the testimony concerning this period.[A13-425] He played chess;[A13-426] according to one of his opponents he chose the red pieces, expressing a preference for the “Red Army.”[A13-427] He listened to classical music.[A13-428] For a short time, he played on the squadron football team.[A13-429] According to Donovan, who coached the team, Oswald was not very good; he lacked team spirit and often tried to call the plays, which was not his job.[A13-430] Delgado thought Oswald was a mediocre player.[A13-431] Donovan did not know whether Oswald quit or was thrown off the team.[A13-432] He spent most of his weekends alone, as he had at Keesler, and did not leave the post as often as the other men.[A13-433] Delgado once rode with him on the train to Los Angeles but separated from him there; Oswald returned to the base after one night.[A13-434] Delgado recalls that on another weekend Oswald accepted his invitation to go to Tijuana: they stayed there for one night.[A13-435]

At the end of January 1959 and at the end of July, Oswald was given his semiannual ratings, scoring 4.0 in conduct both times, and 4.0 and 4.2 in proficiency.[A13-436] (The July ratings were repeated in September, when he was transferred from MACS-9 in preparation for his discharge.)[A13-437] On March 9, he was promoted as of March 1, to the rank of private, first class, for the second time.[A13-438] He took a series of high school level general educational development tests on March 23 and received an overall rating of “satisfactory.” His best scores, in the 76th and 79th U.S. percentiles, were in English composition and physical sciences; his worst was English literature, in which he placed in the 34th percentile.[A13-439]

In the spring, Oswald applied to Albert Schweitzer College in Churwalden, Switzerland, for admission to the spring term in 1960; the application is dated March 19.[A13-440] Schweitzer is a small school, which specializes in courses in religion, ethics, science, and literature. He claimed a proficiency in Russian equal to 1 year of schooling[A13-441] and that he had completed high school by correspondence with an average grade of 85 percent.[A13-442] He listed philosophy, psychology, ideology, football, baseball, tennis and stamp-collecting as special interests, and writing short stories “on contemporary American life” as his vocational interest.[A13-443] Jack London, Charles Darwin, and Norman Vincent Peale were listed as favorite authors.[A13-444] He claimed membership in the YMCA and the “A.Y.H. Association,” and said that he had participated in a “student body movement in school” for the control of juvenile delinquency.[A13-445] Asked to give a general statement of his reasons for wanting to attend the college, he wrote:

In order to aquire a fuller understanding of that subject which interest me most, Philosophy. To meet with Europeans who can broaden my scope of understanding. To receive formal Education by Instructers of high standing and character. To broaden my knowlege of German and to live in a healty climate and Good moral atmosphere.[A13-446]

On the basis of these representations, Oswald’s application was approved by the college.[A13-447] He enclosed a registration fee of $25 in a letter dated June 19, in which he said that he was “looking forward to a fine stay.”[A13-448] Few of the other marines seem to have known about this application. He told Delgado, however, that he planned to attend a Swiss school to study psychology, and Delgado knew that some application had been made.[A13-449] Another marine, Richard Call, also knew something of his plans.[A13-450]

Oswald was obligated to serve on active duty until December 7, 1959 (the date having been adjusted to compensate for the period of confinement),[A13-451] On August 17, he submitted a request for a dependency discharge, on the ground that his mother needed his support.[A13-452] The request was accompanied by an affidavit of Mrs. Oswald and corroborating affidavits from an attorney, a doctor, and two friends, attesting that she had been injured at work in December 1958, and was unable to support herself.[A13-453] Oswald had previously made a voluntary allotment of part of his salary to his mother, under which arrangement she received $40 in August, and had submitted an application for a “Q” allotment (dependency allowance) in her behalf of $91.30; one payment of the “Q” allotment, for the month of August, was made in September.[A13-454] On August 28, the Wing Hardship or Dependency Discharge Board recommended that Oswald’s request for a discharge be approved;[A13-455] approval followed shortly.[A13-456] On September 4, he was transferred from MACS-9 to the H. & H. Squadron,[A13-457] and on September 11, he was released from active duty and transferred to the Marine Corps Reserve, in which he was expected to serve until December 8, 1962.[A13-458] He was assigned to the Marine Air Reserve Training Command at the Naval Air Station in Glenview, Ill.[A13-459]

Almost exactly 1 year later, on September 13, 1960, Oswald was given an “undesirable discharge” from the Marine Corps Reserve,[A13-460] based on:

reliable information which indicated that he had renounced his U.S. citizenship with the intentions of becoming a permanent citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Further, that petitioner brought discredit to the Marine Corps through adverse newspaper publicity, which was generated by the foregoing action, and had thereby, in the opinion of his commanding officer, proved himself unfit for retention in the naval service.[A13-461]

SOVIET UNION

On September 4, the day on which he was transferred out of MACS-9 in preparation for his discharge, Oswald had applied for a passport at the Superior Court of Santa Ana, Calif. His application stated that he planned to leave the United States on September 21 to attend the Albert Schweitzer College and the University of Turku in Finland, and to travel in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, and Russia.[A13-462] The passport was routinely issued 6 days later.[A13-463]

Oswald went directly home after his discharge, and arrived in Fort Worth by September 14.[A13-464] He told his mother that he intended to get a job on a ship or possibly in the “export-import business.”[A13-465] If he stayed in Fort Worth, he said, he would be able to earn only about $30 per week; on a ship, he would earn “big money” and be able to send substantial amounts home.[A13-466] Three days after he arrived in Fort Worth, he left for New Orleans.[A13-467] While he was in Fort Worth he had registered his dependency discharge and entry into the Marine Reserve at the Fort Worth Selective Service Board,[A13-468] and visited his brother Robert and his family.[A13-469] He also gave his mother $100.[A13-470]

On September 17, Oswald spoke with a representative of Travel Consultants, Inc., a New Orleans travel bureau; he filled out a “Passenger Immigration Questionnaire,” on which he gave his occupation as “shipping export agent” and said that he would be abroad for 2 months on a pleasure trip. He booked passage from New Orleans to Le Havre, France, on a freighter, the SS _Marion Lykes_, scheduled to sail on September 18, for which he paid $220.75.[A13-471] On the evening of September 17, he registered at the Liberty Hotel.[A13-472]

The _Marion Lykes_ did not sail until the early morning of September 20.[A13-473] Before its departure, Oswald wrote his mother a letter, which was her last news of him until she read stories of his defection in Fort Worth newspapers:

Dear Mother:

Well, I have booked passage on a ship to Europe, I would of had to sooner or later and I think it’s best I go now. Just remember above all else that my values are very different from Robert’s or your’s. It is difficult to tell you how I feel, Just remember this is what I must do. I did not tell you about my plans because you could hardly be expected to understand.

I did not see aunt Lilian while I was here. I will write again as soon as I land.

Lee[A13-474]

The _Marion Lykes_ carried only four passengers.[A13-475] Oswald shared his cabin with Billy Joe Lord, a young man who had just graduated from high school and was going to France to continue his education. Lord testified that he and Oswald did not discuss politics but did have a few amicable religious arguments, in which Oswald defended atheism. Oswald was “standoffish,” but told Lord generally about his background, mentioning that his mother worked in a drugstore in Fort Worth and that he was bitter about the low wages which she received. He told Lord that he intended to travel in Europe and possibly to attend school in Sweden or Switzerland if he had sufficient funds.[A13-476] The other two passengers were Lt. Col. and Mrs. George B. Church, Jr., who also found Oswald unfriendly and had little contact with him. Oswald told them that he had not liked the Marine Corps and that he planned to study in Switzerland; they observed some “bitterness” about his mother’s difficulties, but did not discuss this with him. No one on board suspected that he intended to defect to Russia.[A13-477]

Oswald disembarked at Le Havre on October 8. He left for England that same day, and arrived on October 9.[A13-478] He told English customs officials in Southampton that he had $700 and planned to remain in the United Kingdom for 1 week before proceeding to a school in Switzerland. But on the same day, he flew to Helsinki, Finland, where he registered at the Torni Hotel; on the following day, he moved to the Klaus Kurki Hotel.[A13-479]

Oswald probably applied for a visa at the Russian consulate on October 12, his first business day in Helsinki.[A13-480] The visa was issued on October 14. It was valid until October 20 and permitted him to take one trip of not more than 6 days to the Soviet Union.[A13-481] He also purchased 10 Soviet “tourist vouchers” which cost $30 apiece.[A13-482] He left Helsinki by train on the following day, crossed the Finnish-Russian border at Vainikkala, and arrived in Moscow on October 16.[A13-483]

He was met at the Moscow railroad station by a representative of “Intourist,” the state tourist agency, and taken to the Hotel Berlin, where he registered as a student.[A13-484] On the same day he met the Intourist guide assigned to him during his stay in Russia, a young woman named Rima Shirokova. They went sightseeing the next day. Almost immediately he told her that he wanted to leave the United States and become a citizen of the Soviet Union. According to Oswald’s “Historic Diary,” she later told him that she had reported his statement to Intourist headquarters, which in turn had notified the “Passport and Visa Office” (probably the Visa and Registration Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the MVD[A13-485]). She was instructed to help Oswald prepare a letter to the Supreme Soviet requesting that he be granted citizenship. Oswald mailed such a letter that same day.[A13-486] (The “Historic Diary” is Oswald’s handwritten account of his life in Russia.[A13-487] The earlier entries were written after the events which they describe; later, in Minsk, he probably kept a contemporaneous record of his experiences.[A13-488] The Commission has used the diary, which Oswald may have written with future readers in mind, only as Oswald’s record of his private life and personal impressions as he sought to present them and has relied wherever possible on official documents, correspondence, and the testimony of witnesses.)

The diary records that when Oswald told Rima Shirokova that he intended to defect she was “flabbergassted,” but agreeed to help.[A13-489] She was “politly sympathetic but uneasy” when he told her that he wanted to defect because he was “a Communist, ect.”[A13-490] As an Intourist guide, Rima toured parts of Moscow with Oswald in the next few days. His primary concern, however, appeared to be his effort to become a Soviet citizen, and she also aided him in his dealings with the Soviet Government.[A13-491] He thought that Rima felt sorry for him and tried to be a friend because he was “someth. new.”[A13-492] On his 20th birthday, 2 days after he arrived in Russia, she gave him Dostoevski’s “The Idiot,”[A13-493] in which she had written: “Dear Lee, Great congratulations! Let all your dreams come true! 18.X 1959”[A13-494]

On October 19, Oswald was probably interviewed in his hotel room by a man named Lev Setyayev, who said that he was a reporter for Radio Moscow seeking statements from American tourists about their impressions of Moscow,[A13-495] but who was probably also acting for the KGB.[A13-496] Two years later, Oswald told officials at the American Embassy that he had made a few routine comments to Setyayev of no political significance. The interview with Setyayev may, however, have been the occasion for an attempt by the KGB, in accordance with regular practice, to assess Oswald or even to elicit compromising statements from him; the interview was apparently never broadcast.[A13-497] (As discussed in ch. VI of this report, the Commission is aware that many of the Soviet officials with whom Oswald came into contact were employees of the KGB, the agency which has primary jurisdiction for the treatment of defectors.)

On the following day, Rima Shirokova told him that the “Pass. and Visa Dept.” wanted to see him,[A13-498] and on the morning of October 21, he was interviewed by an official concerning his application for citizenship. The official offered little information and no encouragement; he told Oswald only that he would check to see if the visa could be extended. Oswald returned to the Hotel Berlin.[A13-499] That afternoon, he was notified that his visa had expired and that he had to leave Moscow within 2 hours.[A13-500]

Oswald responded to the unfavorable decision by cutting himself above his left wrist, in an apparent suicide attempt. Rima Shirokova found him unconscious in his hotel room and had him taken to the Botkinskaya Hospital. His diary states: “Poor Rimmea stays by my side as interrpator (my Russian is still very bad) far into the night, I tell her ‘Go home’ (my mood is bad) but she stays, she is ‘my friend.’”[A13-501]

For 3 days Oswald was confined in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. He was examined by a psychiatrist, who concluded that he was not dangerous to other people and could be transferred to the “somatic” department. Hospital records containing the results of the examination[A13-502] state that Oswald came to Russia in order to apply for citizenship, and that “in order to postpone his departure he inflicted the injury upon himself.”[A13-503] They note that Oswald understood some Russian and, presumably based on information which he provided, that he had “graduated from a technical high school in radio technology and radio electronics.”[A13-504] The record states: “He claims he regrets his action. After recovering he intends to return to his homeland.”[A13-505]

Oswald resented being in the psychiatric ward and told Rima Shirokova that he wanted a transfer.[A13-506] She visited him at the hospital frequently and his diary records that “only at this moment” did he “notice [that] she is preety.”[A13-507] Another entry for the hospital period says: “Afternoon I am visited by Roza Agafonova of the hotel tourist office, who askes about my health, very beautiful, excelant Eng., very merry and kind, she makes me very glad to be alive.”[A13-508] These entries reflect an attitude gentler and friendlier than his attitude before the suicide attempt, when he seemed to be coldly concerned only with his status in Russia. Once Oswald was out of the psychiatric ward, he found the hospital more pleasant. The new ward, which he shared with 11 other patients, was “airy,” and the food was good. His only complaint, according to his diary, was that an “elderly American” patient was distrustful of him because he had not registered at the American Embassy and because he was evasive about the reasons for his presence in Moscow and confinement in the hospital.[A13-509]

He was released from the hospital on October 28,[A13-510] and, accompanied by Rima Shirokova, was driven to the Hotel Berlin in an Intourist car. After he said goodby to Lyudmila Dmitrieva, head of the Intourist office at the Berlin, and to Roza Agafonova, another Intourist employee at the hotel, he checked out of the Berlin and registered at the Metropole,[A13-511] a large hotel under the same administration as the Berlin.[A13-512] The Government had undoubtedly directed him to make the change. His visa had expired while he was in the hospital, and his presence in Russia was technically illegal; he had received no word that the decision that he must leave had been reversed. Later that day, however, Rima told him that the “Pass and Registration Office” wished to talk to him about his future.[A13-513] According to the diary, when Oswald appeared at the office he was asked whether he still wanted to become a Soviet citizen and he replied that he did; he provided his Marine Corps discharge papers for identification. He was told that he could not expect a decision soon, and was dismissed. During this interview, Oswald was apparently questioned about the interview which preceded his hospitalization, which led him to conclude that there had been no communication between the two sets of officials.[A13-514] That evening he met Rima, on whom he vented his frustration at being put off by the authorities.[A13-515]

Oswald ate only once on the following day; he stayed near the telephone, fully dressed and ready to leave immediately if he were summoned. He remained in his room for 3 days, which seemed to him “like three years,”[A13-516] until October 31, when he decided to act. He met Rima Shirokova at noon and told her that he was impatient, but did not say what he planned to do; she cautioned him to stay in his room “and eat well.”[A13-517] She left him after a short while and, a few minutes later, he took a taxi to the American Embassy, where he asked to see the consul. (See Commission Exhibits Nos. 24, 912, 913, pp. 264, 263, 261.) When the receptionist asked him first to sign the tourist register, he laid his passport on the desk and said that he had come to “dissolve his American citizenship.” Richard E. Snyder, the Second Secretary and senior consular official,[A13-518] was summoned, and he invited Oswald into his office.[A13-519]

Oswald’s meeting with Snyder, at which Snyder’s assistant, John A. McVickar, was also present, is more fully discussed in appendix XV to the Commission’s report. Oswald declared that he wanted to renounce his American citizenship; he denounced the United States and praised the Government of the Soviet Union. Over Oswald’s objections, Snyder sought to learn something of Oswald’s motives and background and to forestall immediate action. Oswald told him that he had already offered to tell a Soviet official what he had learned as a radar operator in the Marines. The interview ended when Snyder told Oswald that he could renounce his citizenship on the following Monday, 2 days later, if he would appear personally to do so. During the interview, Oswald handed to Snyder a note[A13-520] which suggests that he had studied and sought to comply with section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides for loss of American citizenship.[A13-521] The note contains paragraphs which read like inartistic attempts to cast off citizenship in three of the ways specified by the statute. The attempts failed but there is no reason to doubt that they were sincere. Snyder has testified that he believed that Oswald would immediately have formally renounced his citizenship had he been permitted to do so.[A13-522]

The interview lasted for less than an hour. Oswald returned to his hotel angry about the delay but “elated” by the “showdown” and sure that he would be permitted to remain after his “sign of * * * faith” in the Russians.[A13-523] Soon after he returned to the hotel, he was approached by A. I. Goldberg, a reporter for the Associated Press, whom the Embassy had told about Oswald’s actions. Oswald refused to speak to him.[A13-524] He answered a few questions for two other reporters, R. J. Korengold and Miss Aline Mosby, but again refused to be interviewed.[A13-525] Thereafter, the news services made repeated unsuccessful attempts to interview him, which he thought was an indirect form of pressure from the Embassy to return to the United States.[A13-526]

On the day after Oswald’s meeting with Snyder, his family read in the newspapers about his appearance at the Embassy and tried to contact him. Mrs. Oswald testified that she was shocked at her son’s decision to defect but respected his motives for doing so; later she suspected that he had been forcibly removed to Russia.[A13-527] She placed a telephone call to him,[A13-528] but he either refused to speak to her[A13-529] or cut her off very quickly.[A13-530] So too, on November 2, he rejected the Embassy’s efforts to deliver or read on the telephone a telegram from his brother Robert.[A13-531] A call from Robert was either canceled before it was completed or was refused.[A13-532] Robert’s telegram, along with a message asking Oswald to contact him immediately, which Robert had asked the State Department to deliver,[A13-533] was finally sent to Oswald from the Embassy by registered mail.[A13-534]

A few days later, the Embassy received a letter from Oswald dated November 3 which requested that his citizenship be revoked.[A13-535] The letter stated that he had appeared at the Embassy “for the purpose of signing the formal papers to this effect” and protested against the “conduct of the official” who had refused him “this legal right.” Oswald noted that his application for Soviet citizenship was pending and said that if it were granted he would ask the Soviet Government “to lodge a formal protest” on his behalf.[A13-536] The Embassy replied on November 9 that Oswald could renounce his citizenship by appearing at the Embassy and executing the necessary papers.[A13-537]

Oswald’s diary describes the period from November 2 to November 15, during which he continued to isolate himself, as “days of utter loneliness.”[A13-538] On November 8, he wrote to his brother:

Dear Robert

Well, what shall we talk about, the weather perhaps? Certainly you do not wish me to speak of my decision to remain in the Soviet Union and apply for citizenship here, since I’m afraid you would not be able to comprehend my my reasons. You really dont know anything about me. Do you know for instance that I have waited to do this for well over a year, do you know that I * * * [phrase in Russian] speak a fair amount of Russian which I have been studing for many months.

I have been told that I will not _have_ to leave the Soviet Union if I do not care to. this than is my decision. I will not leave this country, the Soviet Union, under any conditions, I will never return to the United States which is a country I hate.

Someday, perhaps soon, and than again perhaps in a few years, I will become a citizen of the Soviet Union, but it is a very legal process, _in any event_, I will not have to leave the Soviet Union and I will never * * * [word missing].

I recived your telegram and was glad to hear from you, only one word bothered me, the word “mistake.” I assume you mean that I have made a “mistake” it is not for you to tell me that you cannot understand my reasons for this very action.

I will not speak to anyone from the United States over the telephone since it may be taped by the Americans.

If you wish to corespond with me you can write to the below address, but I really don’t see what we could take about if you want to send me money, that I can use, but I do not expect to be able to send it back.

Lee[A13-539]

Oswald’s statement that he had been told that he could remain in Russia was not true. According to his diary, he was not told until later that he could remain even temporarily in Russia,[A13-540] and only in January was he told that he could remain indefinitely.[A13-541] The Embassy tried to deliver a typed copy of a telegram from his brother John on November 9; Oswald refused to answer the knock on his door, and the message was then sent to him by registered mail.[A13-542]

Toward the end of this waiting period, probably on November 13, Aline Mosby succeeded in interviewing Oswald.[A13-543] A reporter for United Press International, she had called him on the telephone and was told to come right over, Oswald’s explanation being that he thought she might “understand and be friendly” because she was a woman.[A13-544] She was the first person who was not a Soviet citizen to whom he granted an interview since his meeting with Snyder at the Embassy on October 31. Miss Mosby found him polite but stiff; she said that he seemed full of confidence, often showing a “small smile, more like a smirk,” and that he talked almost “non-stop.” Oswald said to her that he had been told that he could remain in the Soviet Union and that job possibilities were being explored; they thought it probably would be best, he said, to continue his education. He admitted that his Russian was bad but was confident that it would improve rapidly. He based his dislike for the United States on his observations of racial prejudice and the contrast between “the luxuries of Park Avenue and workers’ lives on the East Side,” and mentioned his mother’s poverty; he said that if he had remained in the United States he too would have become either a capitalist or a worker. “One way or another,” he said, “I’d lose in the United States. In my own mind, even if I’d be exploiting other workers. That’s why I chose Marxist ideology.”

Oswald told his interviewer that he had been interested in Communist theory since he was 15, when “an old lady” in New York handed him “a pamphlet about saving the Rosenbergs.” But when Mosby asked if he were a member of the Communist Party he said that he had never met a Communist and that he “might have seen” one only once, when he saw that “old lady.” He told her that while he was in the Marine Corps he had seen American imperialism in action, and had saved $1,500 in secret preparation for his defection to Russia. His only apparent regrets concerned his family: his mother, whom he had not told of his plans, and his brother, who might lose his job as a result of the publicity.[A13-545]

The interview lasted for about 2 hours. According to Oswald’s own account, he exacted a promise from Miss Mosby that she would show him the story before publication but she broke the promise; he found the published story to contain distortions of his words.[A13-546] Miss Mosby’s notes indicate that he called her to complain of the distortions, saying in particular that his family had not been “poverty-stricken” and that his defection was not prompted by personal hardship but that was “a matter only of ideology.”[A13-547]

According to the diary, Oswald was told in mid-November that he could remain temporarily in Russia “until some solution was found with what to do” with him.[A13-548] Armed with this “comforting news,”[A13-549] he granted a second interview, again to a woman, on November 16.[A13-550] Miss Priscilla Johnson of the North American Newspaper Alliance knocked on the door of his room at the Metropole, and Oswald agreed to come to her room at the hotel that evening. This interview lasted about 5 hours, from 9 p.m. until about 2 in the morning. During the interview he frequently mentioned the fact that he would be able to remain in Russia, which gave him great pleasure, but he also showed disappointment about the difficulties standing in the way of his request for Soviet citizenship. He repeated most of the information he had given Aline Mosby and again denied having been a member of the Communist Party or even ever having seen a Communist in the United States. When Miss Johnson asked him to specify some of the socialist writers whose works he had read during the past 5 years, he could name only Marx and Engels; the only title he could recall was “Das Kapital.” They talked for a long while about Communist economic theory, which Miss Johnson thought was “his language”; she became convinced that his knowledge of the subject was very superficial.[A13-551] He commented that the Russians treated his defection as a “legal formality,” neither encouraging nor discouraging it.[A13-552] When she suggested that if he really wished to renounce his American citizenship he could do so by returning to the Embassy, he said that he would “never set foot in the Embassy again,” since he was sure that he would be given the “same run-around” as before. He seemed to Miss Johnson to be avoiding effective renunciation, consciously or unconsciously, in order to preserve his right to reenter the United States.[A13-553]

For the rest of the year, Oswald seldom left his hotel room where he had arranged to take his meals, except perhaps for a few trips to museums. He spent most of his time studying Russian, “8 hours a day” his diary records. The routine was broken only by another interview at the passport office; occasional visits from Rima Shirokova; lessons in Russian from her and other Intourist guides; and a New Year’s visit from Roza Agafonova, who gave him a small “Boratin” clown as a New Year’s present.[A13-554] He replied to a letter from Robert in a letter quoted at length in chapter VII of this report, which contains his most bitter statements against the United States.[A13-555] Robert received a third letter on December 17, in which Oswald said that he would not write again and did not wish Robert to write to him. The letter concluded:

I am starting a new life and I do not wish to have anything to do with the old life.

I hope you and your family will always be in good health.

Lee[A13-556]

His mother mailed him a personal check for $20 dated December 18. It was returned to her on January 5 with the notation that he could not “use this check, of course”; he asked her to send him $20 in cash and added that he had little money and needed “the rest,” presumably a reference to the $100 he had given her in September. Mrs. Oswald later sent him a money order for about $25.[A13-557]

On January 4, Oswald was summoned to the Soviet Passport Office and given Identity Document for Stateless Persons No. 311479.[A13-558] He was told that he was being sent to Minsk,[A13-559] an industrial city located about 450 miles southwest of Moscow and with a population in 1959 of about 510,000.[A13-560] His disappointment that he had not been granted Soviet citizenship was balanced by relief that the uncertainty was ended; he told Rima Shirokova that he was happy.[A13-561] On the following day, he went to a Government agency which the Russians call the “Red Cross”; it gave him 5,000 rubles (about 500 new rubles, or $500 at the official exchange rate).[A13-562] He used 2,200 rubles to pay his hotel bill and 150 rubles to purchase a railroad ticket to Minsk.[A13-563]

Oswald arrived in Minsk on January 7. He was met at the station by two “Red Cross” workers who took him to the Hotel Minsk. Two Intourist employees, both of whom spoke excellent English, were waiting for him.[A13-564] One of them, a young woman named Roza Kuznetsova, became his close friend and attended his 21st birthday party in October 1960.[A13-565] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2609, p. 271.) On the following day, Oswald met the “Mayor,” who welcomed him to Minsk, promised him a rent-free apartment, and warned him against “uncultured persons” who sometimes insulted foreigners.[A13-566]

Oswald reported for work at the Belorussian Radio and Television Factory on January 13.[A13-567] Two days earlier he had visited the factory and met Alexander Ziger, a Polish Jew who had emigrated to Argentina in 1938 and went to Russia in 1955. Ziger was a department head at the factory; he spoke English, and he and his family became good friends of Oswald and corresponded with him after his return to the United States.[A13-568] The factory, a major producer of electronic parts and systems, employed about 5,000 persons.[A13-569] Oswald’s union card described him as a “metal worker”;[A13-570] Marina testified that he fashioned parts on a lathe.[A13-571] As Oswald later described it, the shop in which he worked, called the “experimental shop,”[A13-572] employed 58 workers and 5 foremen. It was located in the middle part of the factory area in a 2-story building made of red brick. The workday began at 8 o’clock sharp. Work was assigned according to “pay levels,” which were numbered from one to five plus a top “master” level. A worker could ask to be tested for a higher level at any time.[A13-573]

Oswald had hoped to continue his education in Russia, and was disappointed by his assignment to a factory.[A13-574] His salary varied from 700 to perhaps as high as 900 rubles per month ($70-$90).[A13-575] Although high compared with the salaries of certain professional groups in Russia, which in some areas have not grown proportionately with the wages of factory workers,[A13-576] his salary was normal for his type of work.[A13-577] It was supplemented, however, by 700 rubles per month, which he received from the “Red Cross,” and, according to Oswald, his total income was about equal to that of the director of the factory.[A13-578] In August he applied for membership in the union;[A13-579] he became a dues-paying member in September.[A13-580]

Undoubtedly more noteworthy to most Russians than his extra income was the attractive apartment which Oswald was given in March 1959. It was a small flat with a balcony overlooking the river,[A13-581] for which he paid only 60 rubles a month.[A13-582] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2606, p. 271.) Oswald describes it in his diary as “a Russian dream.”[A13-583] Had Oswald been a Russian worker, he would probably have had to wait for several years for a comparable apartment, and would have been given one even then only if he had a family.[A13-584] The “Red Cross” subsidy and the apartment were typical of the favorable treatment which the Soviet Union has given defectors.[A13-585]

Oswald’s diary records that he enjoyed his first months in Minsk. His work at the factory was easy and his coworkers were friendly and curious about life in the United States; he declined an invitation to speak at a mass meeting. He took Roza Kuznetsova, his interpreter and language teacher,[A13-586] to the theater, a movie, or an opera almost every night, until he moved into his apartment and temporarily lost contact with her. He wrote in his diary, “I’m living big and am very satisfied.”[A13-587] In March or April, he met Pavel Golovachev, a co-worker at the factory, whom Oswald described as intelligent and friendly and an excellent radio technician. (See Commission Exhibit No. 2609, p. 271.) Oswald helped Golovachev with English.[A13-588] They became friends,[A13-589] and corresponded after Oswald returned to the United States until at least as late as September 1963.[A13-590]

The spring and summer passed easily and uneventfully. There were picnics and drives in the country, which Oswald described as “green beauty.”[A13-591] On June 18, he obtained a hunting license and soon afterward purchased a 16-gage single-barrel shotgun. His hunting license identifies him as “Aleksy Harvey Oswald.” (He was called “Alec” by his Russian friends, because “Lee” sounded foreign to them and was difficult for them to pronounce.)[A13-592] He joined a local chapter of the Belorussian Society of Hunters and Fishermen, a hunting club sponsored by his factory, and hunted for small game in the farm regions around Minsk about half a dozen times in the summer and fall. The hunters spent the night in small villages and often left their bag with the villagers; Oswald described the peasant life which he saw as crude and poor.[A13-593] Sometime in June, he met Ella German, a worker at the factory, of whom he later said he “perhaps fell in love with her the first minute” he saw her.[A13-594] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2609, p. 271.)

At the same time, however, the first signs of disillusionment with his Russian life appeared. He noted in his diary that he felt “uneasy inside” after a friend took him aside at a party and advised him to return to the United States.[A13-595] Another entry compared life in Minsk with military life:

I have become habituatated to a small cafe which is where I dine in the evening. The food is generaly poor and always eactly the same, menue in any cafe, at any point in the city. The food is cheap and I don’t really care about quiality after three years in the U.S.M.C.[A13-596]

In an entry for August-September, he wrote that he was becoming “increasingly concious of just what sort of a sociaty” he lived in.[A13-597]

He spent New Year’s Day at the home of Ella German and her family. They ate and drank in a friendly atmosphere, and he was “drunk and happy” when he returned home. During the walk back to his apartment he decided to ask Ella to marry him. On the following night, after he had brought her home from the movies, he proposed on her doorstep. She rejected him, saying that she did not love him and that she was afraid to marry an American. She said that the Polish intervention in the 1920’s had led to the arrest of all people in the Soviet Union of Polish origin and she feared that something similar might happen to Americans some day. Oswald was “too stunned to think,” and concluded that she had gone out with him only because she was envied by the other girls for having an American as an escort.[A13-598] But in one of the entries in the diary he appears to have attributed her failure to love him to “a state of fear which was always in the Soviet Union.”[A13-599] His affection for Ella German apparently continued for some time;[A13-600] he had his last formal date with her in February and remained on friendly terms with her as long as he was in Russia.[A13-601]

After he returned to the United States, Oswald often commented on Russian life. He discussed the Soviet systems of public education[A13-602] and medical care.[A13-603] He observed to one acquaintance that everyone in Russia was trained to do something,[A13-604] and discussed with another the system of regular wage and salary increases.[A13-605] His most frequent criticisms concerned the contrast between the lives of ordinary workers and the lives of Communist Party members. He told an acquaintance in Dallas that the working class in the Soviet Union made just about enough to buy clothing and food and that only party members could afford luxuries.[A13-606] On another occasion, he remarked that if he had had as much money as some of the “managers,” he could have visited the Black Sea resorts.[A13-607] He complained about the lack of freedom in Russia;[A13-608] the lack of opportunity to travel;[A13-609] inadequate housing;[A13-610] and the chronic scarcity of food products.[A13-611] To one acquaintance, he observed that the party members were all “opportunists,” who “shouted the loudest and made the most noise,” but who were interested only in their own welfare.[A13-612]

He expressed similar views in a manuscript which he worked on in Russia[A13-613] and probably intended to publish; soon after he returned to the United States, he hired a stenographer to prepare a typed draft from his notes.[A13-614] Oswald described the manuscript, which amounted to 50 typed pages, as “a look into the lives of work-a-day average Russians.”[A13-615]

The manuscript describes the factory in which Oswald worked and suggests that political considerations of which Oswald disapproved dominated its operation. He attributed the lack of unemployment to the shortage of labor-saving machinery and the heavy load of bureaucracy, which kept “tons of paper work” flowing in and out of the factory and required a high foreman-worker ratio.[A13-616] In addition, he wrote, there was “a small army of examiners, committees, and supply checkers and the quality-control board.”[A13-617]

He described life in Russia, including life at the factory, as centered around the “Kollective.” The head of the Kollective in his shop, Comrade Lebizen, saw to it that everyone maintained shop discipline, attended party meetings, and received all the new propaganda as it came out. He hung the walls of the shop with signs and slogans of the Communist Party. Meetings of the Kollective were “so numerous as to be staggering.” In a single month, there were scheduled one meeting of the professional union, four political information meetings, two young Communist meetings, one meeting of the production committee to discuss ways of improving work, two Communist Party meetings, four meetings of the “School of Communist Labor,” and one sports meeting. All but one of them were compulsory for Communist Party members and all but three were compulsory for everyone.[A13-618] (Marina Oswald testified that her husband did not attend the courses in Marxism and Leninism given in the factory for party members and those who wished to become party members.)[A13-619] They were scheduled so as not to interfere with work, and lasted anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Oswald said that no one liked the meetings, which were accepted “philosophically”; at the political meetings especially, everyone paid strict attention, and party members were posted in the audience to watch for the slightest sign that anyone’s attention might relax, even for a moment.[A13-620]

Oswald wrote that the “spontaneous” demonstrations on Soviet holidays or for distinguished visitors were almost as well organized as the Kollectivist meetings at the factory.[A13-621] He noted that elections were supervised to ensure that everyone voted, and that they voted for the candidates of the Communist Party. The manuscript touches on other aspects of Soviet life--as the housing shortage and the corruption which it evoked, the “rest-homes” where workers had their vacations, television and the omni-present radio, and Russian reading habits.[A13-622] This writing also may include only what Oswald thought might be acceptable.

On January 4, 1961, I year after he had been issued his “stateless” residence permit, Oswald was summoned to the passport office in Minsk and asked if he still wanted to become a Soviet citizen. He replied that he did not, but asked that his residence permit be extended for another year.[A13-623] The entry in his diary for January 4-31 reads: “I am stating to reconsider my disire about staying. The work is drab. The money I get has nowhere to be spent. No nightclubs or bowling allys, no places of recreation acept the trade union dances. I have had enough.”[A13-624]

The American Embassy in Moscow had not heard from Oswald after it received his letter of November 3, 1959.[A13-625] On February 13, 1961, it received an undated letter from him which had been mailed in Minsk about a week earlier. He asked for the return of his passport and stated that he wanted to return to the United States if he could “come to some agreement [with the American Government] concerning the dropping of any legal proceedings” against him. He noted that he had not become a Soviet citizen and was living in Russia with “nonpermanent type papers for a foreigner,” and said that he did not appear personally because he could not leave Minsk without permission. The letter concluded: “I hope that in recalling the responsibility I have to America that you remember yours in doing everything you can to help me, since I am an American citizen.”[A13-626] In this letter, Oswald referred to a previous letter which he said had gone unanswered; there is evidence that such a letter was never sent.[A13-627]

The Second Secretary, Richard Snyder, answered on February 28 that Oswald would have to appear at the Embassy personally to discuss his return to the United States.[A13-628] In the meantime, Oswald’s mother, who in January had inquired at the Department of State about his whereabouts,[A13-629] had been notified of his letter.[A13-630] A second letter from Oswald, posted on March 5, reached the Embassy on March 20; it reiterated that he was unable to leave Minsk without permission and asked that “preliminary inquiries * * * be put in the form of a questionnaire” and sent to him.[A13-631] His diary entry for this period records his “state of expectation about going back to the U.S.,” and adds that a friend had approved his plans but warned him not to discuss them with others.[A13-632] (The Soviet authorities had undoubtedly intercepted and read the correspondence between Oswald and the Embassy and knew of his plans.[A13-633] Soon after the correspondence began, his monthly payments from the “Red Cross” were cut off.)[A13-634] Having informed Washington,[A13-635] the Embassy wrote to Oswald on March 24, stating again that he would have to come to Moscow.[A13-636] Later, the Department of State decided that Oswald’s passport should be returned to him only if he appeared at the Embassy for it and the Embassy was satisfied, after exploring the matter with him, that he had not renounced his citizenship.[A13-637]

Sometime in the second week of March, Miss Katherine Mallory, who was on tour in Minsk with the University of Michigan symphonic band, found herself surrounded by curious Russian citizens. A young man who identified himself as a Texan and former marine stepped out of the crowd and asked if she needed an interpreter; he interpreted for her for the next 15 or 20 minutes. Later he told her that he despised the United States and hoped to stay in Minsk for the rest of his life. Miss Mallory is unable to swear that her interpreter was Oswald, but is personally convinced that it was he.[A13-638]

A few days later, probably on March 17, Oswald attended a trade union dance with a friend, Erik Titovyets, at the Palace of Culture for Professional Workers in Minsk.[A13-639] The dance followed a lecture by a Russian woman who had recently returned from a trip to the United States.[A13-640] Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova arrived too late to hear the lecture[A13-641] but was at the dance. Oswald noticed her and asked Yuriy Merezhinskiy, the son of the lecturer and a friend of both Oswald and Marina, to introduce him to her. Oswald asked her to dance. According to the diary, they liked each other immediately and he obtained her telephone number before she left.[A13-642] Marina testified that she told Oswald that she might see him at another dance, but did not give him her telephone number.[A13-643] Oswald was smitten.[A13-644]

Marina Prusakova was 19 years old when she met Oswald. (See Commission Exhibit No. 1395, p. 270.) She was born on July 17, 1941, at Severodvinsk (formerly Molotovsk), Arkhangel Oblast’, Russia.[A13-645] A few years later, her mother, Klavdiya Vasilievna Prusakova, married Aleksandr Ivanovich Medvedev, who became the only father Marina knew.[A13-646] While she was still a young girl, Marina went to Arkhangel’sk, Arkhangel Oblast’, to live with her maternal grandparents, Tatyana Yakovlevna Prusakova and Vasiliy Prusakov. Her grandfather died when Marina was about 4 years old; she continued to live with her grandmother for some time.[A13-647] When she was not more than 7, she moved to Zguritva, Moldavian SSR (formerly called Bessarabia) to live with her mother and stepfather, who was an electrical worker.[A13-648] In 1952, the family moved to Leningrad,[A13-649] where her stepfather obtained a job in a power station.[A13-650] Marina testified that neither he nor her mother was a member of the Communist Party.[A13-651]

In Leningrad, Marina attended the Three Hundred and Seventy-Fourth Women’s School. After she had completed the seventh grade at the school in 1955,[A13-652] she entered the Pharmacy Teknikum for special training, which she had requested on the ground that her mother was ill and Marina might need to have a specialty in order to support herself. While she was at the Teknikum, she joined the Trade Union for Medical Workers[A13-653] and, in her last year there, worked part time in the Central Pharmacy in Leningrad. She graduated from the Teknikum with a diploma in pharmacy in June 1959.

Marina’s mother had died in 1957, during Marina’s second year at the Teknikum; she continued to live with her stepfather, but had little contact with him. She testified that she did not get along with her stepfather, whom she displeased by her fresh conduct; she said that she was not easily disciplined[A13-654] and was a source of concern to him.[A13-655] Because of the friction between them, Marina regarded her childhood as an unhappy one.

After her graduation, Marina was assigned to a job preparing and packing orders in a pharmaceutical warehouse in Leningrad; as a new employee she had the right to leave this job within 3 days after the assignment,[A13-656] and she did so after the first day. She took no job for the next 2 months, at the end of which she went to live in Minsk with an aunt and uncle, the Prusakovs, who had no children. She had known them since she was a child and there was a mutual affection between her and them.[A13-657] Her uncle, a member of the Communist Party,[A13-658] was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and headed the local bureau concerned with lumber. The Prusakovs had one of the best apartments in a building reserved for MVD employees.[A13-659]

Marina was 18 when she arrived in Minsk. She had had boyfriends in Leningrad but was not interested in marriage. In October 1960 she started work in the drug section of the Third Clinical Hospital where she earned about 450 rubles per month;[A13-660] at about the same time she became a member of the local Komsomol, the Communist youth organization.[A13-661] Her friends were mostly students, whose social life consisted of meeting in cafes to sip coffee, read newspapers, gossip, and carry on discussions. The group of friends “ran together,” and Marina did not attach herself to a particular boyfriend. She enjoyed this life, which she had been leading for about 7 months when she met Oswald at the dance at the Palace of Culture in March 1961.[A13-662]

When Marina met Oswald, she thought he was from one of the Russian-speaking Baltic countries because he spoke with an accent; later that same evening she learned that he was an American.[A13-663] She met him again at another dance a week later.[A13-664] They danced together most of the evening, at the end of which he walked home with her. They arranged to meet again the following week.[A13-665] Before the scheduled time, Oswald called to say that he was in the hospital and that Marina should visit him there.[A13-666] Medical records furnished to the Commission by the Russian Government show that Oswald was admitted to the Clinical Hospital--Ear, Nose, and Throat Division, on Thursday, March 30, 1961.[A13-667] Marina visited him often,[A13-668] taking advantage of her uniform to visit him outside regular visiting hours, which were only on Sunday.[A13-669] On Easter Sunday, the first Sunday after his admission to the hospital, she brought him an Easter egg.[A13-670] On a subsequent visit, he asked her to be his fiancee, and she agreed to consider it.[A13-671] He left the hospital on April 11.[A13-672]

During these visits, Marina apparently discussed with Oswald his reasons for coming to Russia and his current status. According to her later account, he told her that he had surrendered his American documents to the Embassy in Moscow and had told American officials that he did not intend to return to the United States. He did not say definitely that he was no longer an American citizen, but said in answer to a question about his citizenship that he could not return to the United States.[A13-673]

Oswald visited Marina regularly at her aunt and uncle’s apartment; they were apparently not disturbed by the fact that he was an American and did not disapprove of her seeing him. He continued to ask her to marry him and, according to her recollection, she accepted his proposal on April 20;[A13-674] Oswald’s diary puts the date 5 days earlier.[A13-675] Marina testified that she believed that Oswald could not return to the United States when she agreed to marry him, and that she had not married him in hope of going to the United States.[A13-676]

After filing notice of their intent to marry at the registrar, obtaining the special consent necessary for an alien to marry a citizen, and waiting the usual 10 days, they were married on April 30.[A13-677] The diary entry for the wedding day reads:

two of Marinas girl friends act as bridesmaids. We are married. At her aunts home we have a dinner reception for about 20 friends and neboribos who wish us happiness (in spite of my origin and accept [accent?] which was in general rather disquiting to any Russian since for. are very rare in the soviet Union even tourist. After an evening of eating and drinking in which * * * [Marina’s uncle] started a fright [fight?] and the fuse blow on an overloaded circite we take our leave and walk the 15 minutes to our home. We lived near each other, at midnight we were home.[A13-678]

They both took 3 days off from their jobs, which they spent in Minsk.[A13-679]

Oswald wrote in his diary for May 1, 1 day after the wedding: “In spite of fact I married Marina to hurt Ella I found myself in love with Marina.”[A13-680] The next entry, marked simply “May,” reads in part:

The trasistion of changing full love from Ella to Marina was very painfull esp. as I saw Ella almost every day at the factory but as the days & weeks went by I adjusted more and more [to] my wife mentaly * * * She is maddly in love with me from the very start. Boat rides on Lake Minsk walks through the parks evening at home or at Aunt Valia’s place mark May.”[A13-681]

And in June: “A continuence of May, except that; we draw closer and closer, and I think very little now of Ella.”[A13-682]

Sometime within the first month or two after they were married Oswald told his wife that he was anxious to return to the United States. The diary says that he told her “in the last days” of June and that she was “slightly startled” but encouraged him to do as he wished.[A13-683] Marina’s recollection is that she learned of his plan between May and July. Embassy records show that Oswald notified the Embassy in a letter received on May 25 that he was married and his wife would seek to accompany him to the United States.[A13-684] At about this time, the Oswalds began to make inquiries in Soviet offices about exit visas.[A13-685]

While these preparations were being made, the Oswalds apparently enjoyed their new life.[A13-686] They ate most of their meals in cafes or at restaurants where they worked.[A13-687] For amusement, they went boating, attended the opera, concerts, the circus, and films; occasionally, they gathered with a group of friends for a cooperative meal at someone’s apartment.[A13-688] His Russian improved, but he retained an accent and never learned to speak grammatically or to write well.[A13-689] He read the English language edition of the Daily Worker and books, also in English, on Marxism and Leninism; he also read some Russian newspapers.[A13-690]

Before he married Marina (and presumably before February, when he had begun his efforts to return to the United States) Oswald had applied for admission to the Patrice Lumumba Friendship University in Moscow. He received a letter dated May 3 apologizing for the delay in responding to his application and turning it down on the ground that the university had been established exclusively for students from the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.[A13-691] Oswald expressed his disappointment at having been turned down to Marina.[A13-692]

Oswald reopened his correspondence with his family on May 5, with a friendly letter to his brother Robert. He said nothing about his contacts with the American Embassy, but mentioned that he had married, and that he had a job as a “metal-smith” and was living well. He asked his brother for their mother’s address, and encouraged him to come to Minsk for a visit.[A13-693] Robert answered the letter quickly. On May 31, Oswald wrote again and expressed his pleasure at having heard from Robert after so long. Apparently in response to an offer to send him whatever he needed, Oswald wrote that he needed nothing and thanked Robert for the thought; he suggested, however, that Marina might like a small wedding present. At the end of the letter he said that he did not know whether he would ever return to the United States; he said that before he could return he would have to obtain the permission of the Soviet Union for him and Marina to leave and insure that no charges would be lodged against him in the United States. In this letter, he mentioned that he was in touch with the Embassy in Moscow.[A13-694] At about this time, Oswald wrote also to his mother.[A13-695]

On May 25, the Embassy received a letter mailed in Minsk about 10 days before, in which Oswald asked for assurances that he would not be prosecuted if he returned to the United States, and informed the Embassy that he had married a Russian woman who would want to accompany him.[A13-696] The Embassy communicated this development to Washington[A13-697] and did not answer Oswald immediately. In addition, he had had no word since March concerning the return of his passport. Impatient for action,[A13-698] he appeared without warning at the Embassy on July 8; it was a Saturday and the offices were closed.[A13-699] He used the house telephone to reach Snyder, who came to the office, talked with him briefly, and suggested that he return on the following Monday.[A13-700] Oswald called Marina and asked her to join him in Moscow. She arrived on Sunday, July 9,[A13-701] and they took a room at the Hotel Berlin,[A13-702] where he had stayed when he first arrived in Russia.

Oswald returned to the Embassy on Monday. Marina waited outside during his interview with Snyder,[A13-703] who asked to see Oswald’s Soviet papers and questioned him closely about his life in Russia and possible expatriating acts. Oswald stated that he was not a citizen of the Soviet Union and had never formally applied for citizenship, that he had never taken an oath of allegiance to the Soviet Union, and that he was not a member of the factory trade union organization. He said that he had never given Soviet officials any confidential information that he had learned in the Marines, had never been asked to give such information, and “doubted” that he would have done so had he been asked.[A13-704] Some of Oswald’s statements during this interview were undoubtedly false. He had almost certainly applied for citizenship in the Soviet Union[A13-705] and, at least for a time, been disappointed when it was denied.[A13-706] He possessed a membership card in the union organization.[A13-707] In addition, his assertion to Snyder that he had never been questioned by Soviet authorities concerning his life in the United States is simply unbelievable.

Oswald showed anxiety, already displayed in his letters, that he might be prosecuted and imprisoned if he returned to the United States. Snyder told him informally that he did not know any grounds on which he would be prosecuted but that he could give no assurances in this regard.[A13-708] Snyder testified that Oswald seemed to have matured while he was in Russia and did not show the bravado and arrogance which characterized his first contacts with the Embassy. Oswald told him that he had “learned a hard lesson the hard way” and had acquired a new appreciation of the United States and the meaning of freedom.[A13-709]

Since Oswald’s passport would expire on September 10, 1961,[A13-710] before which date he probably would not be able to obtain Russian exit papers, he filled out an application for its renewal.[A13-711] On a questionnaire attached to the application,[A13-712] he reiterated his oral statements that he had obtained only a residence permit in the Soviet Union and was still an American national. On the basis of Oswald’s written and oral statements, Snyder concluded that he had not expatriated himself and returned his passport, stamped valid only for direct travel to the United States,[A13-713] to him. Accompanied by his wife,[A13-714] Oswald came to the Embassy again on the following day,[A13-715] to initiate procedures for her admission to the United States as an immigrant; they had a routine interview with McVickar, Snyder’s assistant.[A13-716] Three days later, they returned to Minsk.[A13-717]

On the same day, Oswald wrote to his brother. He told Robert that he had his passport again and that he and Marina were doing everything possible to leave the Soviet Union. Apparently referring to his initial reappearance at the Embassy in quest of his passport, he wrote: “I could write a book about how many feeling have come and gone since that day.” The letter closed with an affectionate greeting to his brother and his family.[A13-718] The letter’s tone of firm purpose to return to the United States in the face of heavy odds reflected Oswald’s attitude thereafter.

As soon as they returned to Minsk, the Oswalds began to work with local authorities for permission to leave the country.[A13-719] His diary entry for July 16 through August 20 reads,

We have found out which blanks and certificates are nessceary to apply for a exit visa. They number about 20 papers; birth certificates, affidavit, photos, ect. On Aug 20th we give the papers out they say it will be 3½ months before we know wheather they let us go or not. In the meantime Marina has had to stade 4 differant meeting at the place of work held by her boss’s at the direction of “someone” by phone. The Young Comm. leauge headquttes also called about her and she had to go see them for 1½ hours. The purpose (expressed) is to disuade her from going to the U.S.A. Net effect: Make her more stubborn about wanting to go. Marina is pregnet. We only hope that the visas come through soon.[A13-720]

In a letter dated July 15, he reported their efforts to the Embassy, and said that he would keep it informed “as to the overall picture.” The letter mentioned that Marina was having difficulties at work because of her decision to leave but added that such “tactics” were “quite useless” and that Marina had “stood up well, without getting into trouble.”[A13-721] For August 21 through September 1, the diary reads:

I make repeated trips to the passport & visa office, also to Ministry of For. Affairs in Minsk, also Min. of Internal Affairs, all of which have a say in the granting of a visa. I extrackted promises of quick attention to us.[A13-722]

For September through October 18, “No word from Min. (‘They’ll call us.’).”[A13-723]

Marina testified that when the news of her visit to the American Embassy in July reached Minsk, she was dropped from membership in “Komsomol,” the Communist Youth Organization,[A13-724] and that “meetings were arranged” at which “members of the various organizations” attempted to dissuade her from leaving the Soviet Union.[A13-725] Her aunt and uncle did not speak to her for “a long time.”[A13-726] Paul Gregory, to whom Marina taught Russian in the United States, testified that she once referred to this period of her life in Minsk as “a very horrible time.”[A13-727]

Oswald wrote to the Embassy again on October 4, to request that the U.S. Government officially intervene to facilitate his and his wife’s applications for exit visas.[A13-728] He stated that there had been “systematic and concerted attempts to intimidate [Marina] * * * into withdrawing her application for a visa” which had resulted in her being hospitalized for a 5-day period on September 22 for “nervous exhaustion.”[A13-729] Marina has denied that she was hospitalized for a nervous disorder[A13-730] and he made no mention of it in his diary or letters to his family; he probably lied to the Embassy. The Embassy replied to his letter on October 12, saying that it had no way of influencing Soviet conduct on such matters and that its experience had been that action on applications for exit visas was “seldom taken rapidly.”[A13-731]

In October 1961 Marina took her annual vacation.[A13-732] She and Oswald agreed that she should get a “change of scenery,”[A13-733] and she spent about 3 weeks with an aunt in Khar’kov. It is possible that they were not getting along well together during this period.[A13-734] A diary entry after her return indicates that they were having some quarrels and that she was wavering in her decision to go to the United States, which Oswald attributed to anxiety about their applications for visas and the fact that she was pregnant; he in turn dreaded the approach of the “hard Russian winter.”[A13-735] He noted in his diary that he was lonely while she was gone, but that he and his friend “Erich,” presumably Erik Titovyets, went to some dances and other public amusements.[A13-736] On his 22nd birthday he went alone to see his favorite opera, “The Queen of Spades.”[A13-737] Marina sent him a gold and silver cup, inscribed “To my dear husband on his birthday, 18/x/61” and other gifts, for which he wrote to thank her.[A13-738] She returned on November 12, in Oswald’s words, “radient, with several jars of preserses for me from her aunt.”[A13-739]

Sometime after Marina’s return Oswald applied for an interview with Col. Nicolay Aksenov, an official in the local MVD, in an effort to expedite their application for exit visas; he was told by the colonel’s subordinates that they were competent to handle the matter. Oswald then insisted that Marina seek an interview; she agreed reluctantly. The interview was granted;[A13-740] Marina thought that this might have been due to the fact that her uncle was also a high-ranking official in the Minsk MVD, but she did not believe that he would personally have presumed on his official position to obtain special treatment.[A13-741] Colonel Aksenov questioned her about her reasons for wanting to go to the United States and, noticing that she was pregnant, suggested that she at least delay her departure so that her child could be born in Russia, but did not otherwise try to discourage her. He finally told her that there were many others seeking visas and that she and her husband would have to wait their turn.[A13-742]

Throughout this period, Oswald continued to correspond with his mother and brother. His letters contained the usual chatter among members of a family and occasional references to the progress of the visa applications.[A13-743] He wrote to the Embassy on November 1, saying that if, as he anticipated, his residence permit were renewed in January for another year, it would be over his protest.[A13-744] On November 13 the Embassy replied, telling Oswald that retention of his Soviet passport, which was of the kind issued to persons considered to be stateless, or an extension of it, would not prejudice his claim to American citizenship. The letter added that he could discuss the renewal of his American passport whenever he appeared in person at the Embassy to do so.[A13-745]

Late in December, Oswald wrote a letter to Senator John G. Tower of Texas, which was received in Washington near the end of January. He stated that he was an American citizen and that the Soviet Government refused to permit him and his wife to leave the Soviet Union. He asked Senator Tower to raise “the question of holding by the Soviet Union of a citizen of the U.S., against his will and expressed desires.” The letter was referred to the State Department and no further action concerning it was taken.[A13-746] On December 25, Marina was called to the Soviet Passport Office and told that exit visas would be granted to her and her husband; she was surprised, having doubted that she would ever be permitted to leave. Oswald wrote to the Embassy on December 27 that they would be given visas and asked that his passport be extended without another trip to Moscow; he added, however, that he would come to Moscow if this would expedite the processing of his application. In his diary, he wrote, “It’s great (I think?).”[A13-747] Before the year ended, Marina went on maternity leave from her job.[A13-748] They spent New Year’s Eve at a dinner party given by the Zigers.[A13-749]

Oswald wrote to his mother on January 2, 1962, and told her that he and his wife expected to arrive in the United States sometime around March. He asked her to contact the local Red Cross and request that it put his case before the International Rescue Committee or some other group which aids immigrants to the United States. He told her that he would need about $800 and that she should insist on a gift rather than a loan; he told her not to send any of her own money.[A13-750] Despite his instructions, she requested a loan from the Red Cross.[A13-751] On January 13, Oswald wrote to the International Rescue Committee himself; he asked for $800 with which to purchase two tickets from Moscow to Texas.[A13-752] He wrote to the Committee again on January 26, this time asking for $1,000.[A13-753]

In the meantime, letters of Oswald[A13-754] and the American Embassy,[A13-755] both dated January 5, crossed in the mail. The Embassy’s letter suggested that since there might be difficulties in obtaining an American visa for Marina, he consider returning alone and bringing her over later. He replied on the 16th that he would not leave Russia without her.[A13-756] In his letter, Oswald requested that the U.S. Government loan him the money for his and Marina’s airplane tickets or arrange a loan from another source. The Embassy replied on January 15 that Marina had not yet obtained an American visa and that no evidence had yet been submitted that she would not become a public charge in the United States.[A13-757] It suggested that Oswald’s mother or some other close relative file an affidavit of support in Marina’s behalf. Before receiving this letter, Oswald wrote out such a document himself[A13-758] and mailed it to the Embassy.[A13-759]

On January 23, after receiving the Embassy’s letter, he wrote that his own affidavit should be sufficient, since he had been away from the United States for more than 2 years and could not be expected to obtain an affidavit from someone else.[A13-760] But on the same day, he wrote to his mother asking that she file an affidavit of support with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.[A13-761] On January 24, the Embassy acknowledged receipt of his affidavit, but again suggested that he obtain one from someone else.[A13-762]

Late in January, Oswald received a letter from his mother telling him that he had been given a dishonorable discharge from the Marines.[A13-763] (The discharge had actually been “undesirable,” a less derogatory characterization.)[A13-764] This apparently revived his fear of prosecution, and on January 30, he wrote to his brother for more information.[A13-765] On the same day he wrote also to John B. Connally, Jr., then Governor of Texas, who Oswald believed was still Secretary of Navy. The letter read:

I wish to call your attention to a case about which you may have personal knowlege since you are a resident of Ft. Worth as I am.

In November 1959 an event was well publicated in the Ft. Worth newspapers concerning a person who had gone to the Soviet Union to reside for a short time, (much in the same way E. Hemingway resided in Paris.)

This person in answers to questions put to him by reporteds in Moscow criticized certain facets of american life. The story was blown up into another “turncoat” sensation, with the result that the Navy department gave this person a belated dishonourable discharge, although he had received an honourable discharge after three years service on Sept. 11, 1959 at El Toro, Marine corps base in California.

These are the basic facts of _my_ case.

I have and allways had the full sanction of the U.S. Embassy, Moscow USSR, and hence the U.S. goverment. In as much as I am returning to the U.S.A. in this year with the aid of the U.S. Embassy, bring with me my family (since I married in the USSR) I shall employ all means to right this gross mistake or injustice to a boni-fied U.S. citizen and _ex_-service man. The U.S. government has no charges or complaints against me. I ask you to look into this case and take the neccessary steps to repair the damage done to me and my family. For information I would direct you to consult the American Embassy, Chikovski St. 19/21, Moscow, USSR.[A13-766]

Connally referred the letter to the Department of the Navy,[A13-767] which sent Oswald a letter stating that the Department contemplated no change in the undesirable discharge.[A13-768] On March 22, Oswald wrote to the Department insisting that his discharge be given a further, full review.[A13-769] The Department promptly replied that it had no authority to hear and review petitions of this sort and referred Oswald to the Navy Discharge Review Board.[A13-770] Oswald filled out the enclosed application for review in Minsk but did not mail it until he returned to the United States.[A13-771]

The Department of State had notified Oswald’s mother that it would need $900 to make the travel arrangements for her son and daughter-in-law.[A13-772] On February 1, Oswald sent his mother a brief letter rejecting her suggestion that she try to raise money by telling the newspapers about his financial plight.[A13-773] Five days later, the Embassy wrote to Oswald and asked him to make formal application for a loan.[A13-774] Oswald wrote to his mother again on February 9, reminding her to file an affidavit of support and asking that she send him clippings from the Fort Worth newspapers about his defection to Russia, a request which he later repeated to his brother. He told her that he wanted to know what had been written about him, so that he could be “forewarned.”[A13-775]

Oswald took Marina to the hospital on the morning of February 15. A baby girl was born at about 10 a.m.[A13-776] He had gone on to the factory where news of the birth awaited him on his arrival.[A13-777] In accordance with regular hospital practice,[A13-778] he did not see the baby until Marina left the hospital.[A13-779] He was excited by the child,[A13-780] who was named “June Lee” in accordance with the Russian custom and law that a child’s second name must be the father’s first name or a variation of it. He had wanted to name his child “June Marina,” and protested the application of the law to her, since he had a United States passport. His diary contains the wry comment, “Po-Russki.”[A13-781] His coworkers at the factory gave the Oswalds “one summer blanket, 6 light diapers, 4 warm diapers, 2 chemises, 3 very good warm chemises, 4 very nice suits and two toys” for the baby.[A13-782] Marina came home on February 23.[A13-783]

There was less urgency about the departure for the United States after June Lee was born.[A13-784] Oswald wrote to his mother,[A13-785] and brother,[A13-786] that he would probably not arrive for several months. The Embassy received a letter on March 3, in which Oswald applied for a loan of $800;[A13-787] the Embassy replied that it was authorized to loan him only $500.[A13-788] It had in the meantime decided that his own affidavit of support for Marina would be sufficient under the circumstances.[A13-789] On March 15, he received notification from the Immigration and Naturalization Service that Marina’s application for a visa had been approved.[A13-790] By March 28, he had received an affidavit of support in Marina’s behalf from his mother’s employer, Byron K. Phillips,[A13-791] which he filed although it was no longer necessary to do so.[A13-792] A few days before, Marina, still on maternity leave, had quit her job.[A13-793] Discussions with the Embassy to complete financial and travel arrangements continued in April and May.[A13-794] In a letter to Robert on April 12, Oswald wrote that only “the American side” was holding up their departure, but added that the winter being over, he didn’t “really * * * want to leave until the beginning of fall, since the spring and summer * * * [in Russia] are so nice.”[A13-795]

On May 10, the Embassy wrote that everything was in order and suggested that Oswald come to the Embassy with his family to sign the final papers.[A13-796] At his request,[A13-797] he was discharged from the factory on about May 18.[A13-798] His work had apparently never been very good. Marina testified that he was rather lazy and resented having to take orders.[A13-799] This estimate is confirmed by a report of the plant director and personnel department chief, filed on December 11, 1961, which was apparently a routine assessment of his work. The report noted that he did not “display the initiative for increasing his skill” in his job, that he was “over-sensitive * * * to remarks from the foremen, and * * * careless in his work”; Oswald took “no part in the social life of the shop” and kept “very much to himself.”[A13-800]

Oswald picked up his Soviet exit visa on May 22;[A13-801] at about this time, he also had an interview with an official of the MVD to obtain final clearance for his departure.[A13-802] He wrote to Robert that he and his family would leave for Moscow on the following day and depart for England 10 to 14 days later. He expected to cross the Atlantic by ship, probably docking in New Orleans. Returning to a point which he had made in an earlier letter to his mother, he commented that he knew from the newspaper clippings what Robert had said about him when he left for Russia; he thought that Robert had talked too much at that time, and asked that Robert say nothing to the newspapers now.[A13-803]

The Oswalds arrived in Moscow by May 24[A13-804] and on that date filled out various documents at the American Embassy;[A13-805] Marina was given her American visa.[A13-806] Final arrangements for their emigration were made with Soviet officials.[A13-807] On June 1, Oswald signed a promissory note at the Embassy for a repatriation loan of $435.71.[A13-808] He and his family boarded a train for Holland,[A13-809] which passed through Minsk that night.[A13-810] They crossed the Soviet frontier at Brest on June 2. Two days later, they departed from Holland on the SS _Maasdam_.[A13-811] Onboard ship, the Oswalds stayed by themselves; Marina testified that she did not often go on deck because she was poorly dressed and Oswald was ashamed of her.[A13-812]

Probably while he was on board the _Maasdam_ Oswald wrote some notes on ship stationery, which appear to be a summary of what he thought he had learned by living under both the capitalist and Communist systems. The notes reflect his unhappy and deepening feeling of disillusionment with both the Soviet Union and the United States. Oswald observed that although reform groups may oppose the government in power, they always declare that they are for their people and their country, and he asked what “would happen if somebody was to stand up and say he was utterly opposed not only to the governments, but to the people, too the entire land and complete foundations” of his society. He condemned existing political groups and proposed the formation of a third choice between communism and capitalism, neither of which was acceptable to him. “I have lived,” he said, “under both systems, I have _sought_ the answers and although it would be very easy to dupe myself into believing one system is better than the other, I know they are not.” In these notes, he acknowledged that his “Red Cross” subsidy had been paid by the Soviet Government rather than the international organization, and said, “I shall never sell myself intentionlly, or unintentionlly to anyone again.”[A13-813] (Commission Exhibit No. 25, p. 273.) It was probably also onboard ship that Oswald wrote two sets of answers to questions which he anticipated about his decision to go to Russia and later to return to the United States. Although the sets of answers are somewhat similar, but the tone of one is apologetic, while the other suggests that Oswald went to Russia to study the Soviet system, but remained a loyal American and owed no apologies.[A13-814]

The _Maasdam_ landed at Hoboken, N.J., on June 13.[A13-815] The Oswalds were met by Spas T. Raikin, a representative of the Traveler’s Aid Society, which had been contacted by the Department of State; Raikin had the impression that Oswald was trying to avoid meeting anyone. He told Raikin that he had only $63 and had no plans either for that night or for travel to Fort Worth, and accepted the society’s help, according to Raikin, “with confidence and appreciation.”[A13-816] They passed through the immigration office without incident,[A13-817] and Raikin helped them through customs.[A13-818]

The society referred the Oswalds to the New York City Department of Welfare, which helped them find a room at the Times Square Hotel.[A13-819] Oswald told both Raikin and representatives of the welfare department that he had been a marine stationed at the American Embassy in Moscow, had married a Russian girl, renounced his citizenship, and worked in Minsk; he soon found out, he said, that the Russian propaganda was inaccurate but had not been able to obtain an exit visa for his wife and child for more than 2 years. He said also that he had paid the travel expenses himself.[A13-820]

The welfare department called Robert Oswald’s home in Fort Worth. His wife answered and said that they would help. She contacted her husband who sent $200 immediately.[A13-821] Oswald refused to accept the money and insisted that the department itself should pay the fare to Texas; he threatened that they would go as far as they could on $63 and rely on local authorities to get them the rest of the way. In the end he accepted the money.[A13-822] On the afternoon of June 14, the Oswalds left New York by plane for Fort Worth.[A13-823]

FORT WORTH, DALLAS, NEW ORLEANS

Oswald had originally indicated that he and his family would stay with his mother in Vernon, Tex.[A13-824] His decision to stay with Robert Oswald in Fort Worth apparently had been prompted by his brother’s invitation in a letter to him in Russia.[A13-825] Oswald listed only his brother as a relative on an “Intake Interview” form which he prepared for the New York Department of Welfare.[A13-826]

Robert took his wife and children to Love Field, the Dallas airport, to meet Lee and Marina and their baby, June Lee.[A13-827] He testified that the most noticeable change in his brother’s appearance was that he had become rather bald; he seemed also to be somewhat thinner than he had been in 1959. Robert thought that his brother had picked up “something of an accent” but, except for these changes was “the same boy” whom he had known before.[A13-828] Lee commented on the absence of newspaper reporters and seemed to Robert to be disappointed that none had appeared.[A13-829] Later on, Lee was anxious to avoid publicity.[A13-830]

Robert drove the Oswalds to his home at 7313 Davenport Street.[A13-831] For a few days, Lee seemed tense,[A13-832] but the brothers got along well,[A13-833] and to Robert it was “more or less * * * [as if Lee] had not been to Russia”; they were “just together again.”[A13-834] They did not discuss politics, according to Robert because of a “tacit agreement” between them.[A13-835] Lee indicated to his brother that he hoped to have his undesirable discharge from the Marines corrected.[A13-836] Robert and his wife “took to Marina and June,” and enjoyed showing Marina “things that she had never seen before.”[A13-837] Marina rested and took care of her baby, and when she could, helped in the household.[A13-838] She testified that, apart from a trip to the library, Lee spent about a week “merely talking.”[A13-839]

On June 18, 4 days after he arrived in Fort Worth, Oswald went to the office of Mrs. Pauline Virginia Bates, a public stenographer whose name he had found in the telephone directory,[A13-840] and asked her to type a manuscript from the “scraps of paper,” on which he had recorded his impressions of the Soviet Union.[A13-841] Intrigued by his tale that he had just returned from the Soviet Union and had smuggled his notes out of that country, she agreed to type the notes for $1 per page or $2 an hour, 50 cents less than her usual hourly rate.[A13-842] On that day and the succeeding 2 days, Mrs. Bates spent 8 hours typing for Oswald while he remained in her office helping her with the notes and translating portions of them which were in Russian.[A13-843] At the end of each session he collected his notes and as much of the manuscript as she had done and took them away with him.[A13-844] On June 20, he gave Mrs. Bates $10 for the 10 completed pages; he told her that he had no more money and refused to accept her offer to postpone payment or continue the work for nothing.[A13-845]

Oswald told Mrs. Bates that there was an engineer in Fort Worth who wanted to help him publish his notes.[A13-846] On June 19,[A13-847] he had called Peter Gregory, a petroleum engineer who was born in Siberia and taught Russian at the Fort Worth Public Library as a “civic enterprise.”[A13-848] He asked if Gregory could give him a letter testifying to his ability to read and speak Russian, so that he could obtain work as an interpreter or translator. Gregory suggested that Oswald come to his office, where Gregory opened a Russian book at random and asked Oswald to read from it. Oswald read well, and Gregory gave him the letter he wanted.[A13-849] Gregory and Oswald had lunch together and discussed Oswald’s life in the Soviet Union,[A13-850] but, according to Gregory’s testimony, nothing was said about publishing Oswald’s manuscript.[A13-851] About a week later, Gregory and his son Paul, a college student, visited the Oswalds at Robert Oswald’s home and arranged for Marina to give Paul lessons in Russian during the summer.[A13-852]

On June 26, Oswald was interviewed by FBI agents in Fort Worth.[A13-853] One of the agents who interviewed him described him as tense and “drawn up”; he said that Oswald “exhibited an arrogant attitude * * * and [was] inclined to be just a little insolent.”[A13-854] Oswald declined to say why he had gone to Russia, saying that he refused to “relive the past.”[A13-855] He said that he had not attempted to obtain Soviet citizenship, had not been approached by Soviet officials for information about his experiences in the Marines, and had not offered them such information. Marina’s Soviet passport required her to notify the Soviet Embassy in Washington of her address in this country, and Oswald told the agents that he planned to contact the Embassy for this purpose within a few days.[A13-856] He promised to notify the FBI if he were contacted by Soviet agents “under suspicious circumstances or otherwise.”[A13-857] Oswald told his brother about the interview, saying that it had been “just fine.”[A13-858]

Oswald and his family remained with Robert for about a month.[A13-859] While they were there his mother moved to Fort Worth from Crowell, Tex.,[A13-860] and, sometime in July they moved into her apartment at 1501 West Seventh Street.[A13-861] Mrs. Oswald testified that she had visited them at Robert’s house in June[A13-862] and moved to Fort Worth because she thought that the house was too crowded and wanted to help them.[A13-863] Mrs. Oswald described the period when her son and his family lived with her as “a very happy month”; according to her testimony, she and her son and daughter-in-law got along well. She mentioned that she not only helped Marina keep house and care for the baby but also aided her son in his efforts to find employment.[A13-864] Marina testified, however, that Lee did not get along well with his mother and that he decided after several weeks that they should move to their own apartment.[A13-865] He did not file a change-of-address card at the post office when the family moved to West Seventh Street, as he did when they made their next move,[A13-866] so he may have contemplated from the beginning that they would stay with his mother for only a short while. Around the middle of August,[A13-867] the Oswalds moved to a one-bedroom furnished apartment at 2703 Mercedes Street, for which they paid $59.50 in advance for 1 month’s rent.[A13-868]

In the third week in July, Oswald had obtained a job as a sheet metal worker with the Louv-R-Pak Division of the Leslie Welding Co.,[A13-869] a manufacturer of louvers and ventilators,[A13-870] to which he had been referred by the Texas Employment Commission.[A13-871] On his application for employment, filled out several days before, he wrote falsely that he had had experience as a sheet metal worker and machinist in the Marines and had been honorably discharged.[A13-872] He usually worked 8 or 9 hours a day, for which he was paid $1.25 an hour.[A13-873] Marina testified that Oswald did not like his work,[A13-874] but he was regarded as a good employee[A13-875] and remained with the company until October, when he quit.[A13-876] On the job, he kept to himself and was considered uncommunicative.[A13-877]

Mrs. Oswald visited her son and his family at their apartment and tried to help them get settled; she testified that she bought some clothes for Marina and a highchair for the baby but that Oswald told her that he did not want her to buy “things for his wife that he himself could not buy.”[A13-878] Finally, Oswald apparently decided that he did not want his mother to visit the apartment anymore and he became incensed when his wife permitted her to visit despite his instructions.[A13-879] After he moved to Dallas in October, Oswald did not see his mother or communicate with her in any way until she came to see him after the assassination.[A13-880] Witnesses have described the Mercedes Street apartment as “decrepit” and very poorly furnished;[A13-881] there was no telephone service.[A13-882] Acquaintances observed that Marina and the baby were poorly clothed, that the Oswalds had little food, and that at first there was not a bed for the baby.[A13-883]

On August 16, the FBI again interviewed Oswald. This interview took place in the back seat of a car in front of his home and covered substantially the same material as the previous interview. Oswald again denied having made any deal with representatives of the Soviet Union. He protested his undesirable discharge from the Marines, and stated that his wife was registered at the Soviet Embassy. He still refused to discuss why he had gone to the Soviet Union, but he was less hostile than he had been during the previous interview.[A13-884] According to his wife, however, he was very upset by the interest the FBI showed in him.[A13-885]

The Oswalds became acquainted with a growing number of people of the Russian-speaking community in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, who were tied together socially by a common origin, language, and religion. The group was not restricted to people from Russia but was composed primarily of people from Eastern European countries.[A13-886] The Oswalds’ initial contact with this group was through Peter Gregory. Marina gave conversational Russian lessons to Paul Gregory 2 days a week during August and early September, for which she was paid $35. Most of the lessons took place at the Mercedes Street apartment and Oswald was generally present.[A13-887] In addition, Paul Gregory occasionally took the Oswalds shopping; after they became friendly, he had a number of discussions with Oswald, some of them politically oriented.[A13-888]

Sometime around August 25, Peter Gregory invited the Oswalds and several members of the Russian community to his house for dinner. One of the guests was George Bouhe, a Dallas accountant and a leader of the Russian community. He was very interested in meeting and conversing with Marina, because she had spent much of her life in Leningrad, which was his birthplace.[A13-889] Also present was Mrs. Anna Meller, the Russian-born wife of a Dallas department store employee.[A13-890] Near the end of August, the Oswalds met Declan Ford, a consulting geologist in the Dallas area, and his Russian-born wife at Mrs. Meller’s home. The Oswalds were also introduced to Mrs. Elena Hall, who was born in Tehran, Iran, of Russian parentage. She worked in a dental laboratory and at this time was divorced from her former husband John Hall, whom she subsequently remarried. In order to obtain dental aid for Marina, George Bouhe had brought her to Mrs. Hall’s house.[A13-891] In early September, the Oswalds met Alexander Kleinlerer, another member of the Russian group, who was then courting Mrs. Hall.[A13-892] Mrs. Max Clark was introduced to Marina during this period by George Bouhe and Anna Meller. Max Clark met the Oswalds at a later time.[A13-893] At about the same time, they were visited by George De Mohrenschildt, a petroleum engineer born in Russia,[A13-894] who had heard of them from one of the Russian-speaking group.[A13-895] Later on, the Oswalds met his wife, Jeanne, and his daughter and son-in-law, Gary and Alexandra Taylor.[A13-896]

Most of the members of the Russian community were interested in the Oswalds not only because they needed help, but also because they could provide the latest information about what was happening in Russia.[A13-897] Some members of the group were at first apprehensive about them because the apparent ease with which they had left Russia seemed suspicious.[A13-898] Nevertheless, many of the group provided small amounts of money, groceries, clothing, and furniture for the Oswalds; George Bouhe, Anna Meller, and Elena Hall were the primary contributors, although others provided help in the form of transportation and groceries.[A13-899] These acquaintances occasionally visited the Oswalds, and the Oswalds in turn visited some of them in Dallas.[A13-900]

It was evident that Oswald did not appreciate the help of the Russian community.[A13-901] At least once he flew into a rage and shouted that he did not need any of the things that people were giving to him.[A13-902] Some felt that he resented the gifts because he could not give his wife what the others were providing;[A13-903] he apparently was critical of them also because he felt that they were overly concerned with improving themselves economically.[A13-904]

Oswald became increasingly unpopular with his Russian-speaking acquaintances, partly because of his resentment of their assistance.[A13-905] Alexander Kleinlerer stated that none of them cared for Oswald “because of his political philosophy, his criticism of the United States, his apparent lack of interest in anyone but himself and because of his treatment of Marina.”[A13-906] Some of them believed that Oswald was mentally disturbed.[A13-907] However, they felt sorry for Marina and the child and continued to help.[A13-908]

On a weekend afternoon early in October, the Oswalds were visited by his mother and a number of people from the Russian community, including George Bouhe, Anna Meller, the Halls, the De Mohrenschildts, and the Taylors.[A13-909] Oswald had apparently decided to look for a new job, and discussed his lack of job prospects and the fact that his rent was overdue.[A13-910] He was advised to seek employment in the Dallas area.[A13-911] Elena Hall invited Marina to move into her house in Fort Worth until Oswald found a job in Dallas. She accepted the proposal, and Mrs. Hall moved Marina, her daughter June, and the Oswalds’ few household goods in a pickup truck belonging to the dental laboratory where she was employed.[A13-912]

Oswald worked at the Leslie Welding Co. on Monday, October 8, but failed to appear on the following day. He was already in Dallas.[A13-913] He falsely told his wife that he had been discharged,[A13-914] and told George Bouhe that the job had been a temporary one.[A13-915] Sometime later, the company received an undated letter from him stating that he had “moved permanently to Dallas,” and asking that the wages due him be forwarded to him at box 2915 in Dallas.[A13-916] He did not tell his mother that he was leaving Fort Worth.[A13-917]

While they were in Fort Worth, the Oswalds were having marital problems.[A13-918] Several people noted that Marina had a blackened eye when they visited her at the Mercedes Street apartment.[A13-919] She told her mother-in-law and George Bouhe that her husband had struck her, but said to Anna Meller that she had walked into a door.[A13-920] It seems clear that Oswald had in fact hit her.[A13-921] People observed friction between the Oswalds on various occasions,[A13-922] although their disputes became more apparent later. Marina has written that this was a difficult period for them and that her husband was “very irritable” and sometimes some completely trivial thing would “drive him into a rage.”[A13-923]

She testified that:

* * * immediately after coming to the United States Lee changed. I did not know him as such a man in Russia. * * * He helped me as before, but he became a little more of a recluse * * * He was very irritable, sometimes for a trifle * * *[A13-924]

She has denied, however, that their separation was the result of quarrels between them.[A13-925]

Marina spent the first few weeks after Oswald’s departure at Elena Hall’s house in Fort Worth, except for a brief stay at Gary Taylor’s house in Dallas after one of her appointments at the Baylor Dental Clinic.[A13-926] While she was in Dallas, Mrs. De Mohrenschildt brought her to the clinic on October 8, October 10, and October 15;[A13-927] George Bouhe had given Mrs. De Mohrenschildt the money to cover the expense of Marina’s dental care.[A13-928]

Even before Oswald went to Dallas, some of his acquaintances were helping him in his effort to find a job there.[A13-929] George De Mohrenschildt directed him to Samuel B. Ballen, a Dallas financial consultant, but no employment resulted.[A13-930] George Bouhe recommended that Oswald go to the Texas Employment Commission in Dallas; and Anna Meller had her husband ask Mrs. Helen Cunningham, a counselor in the clerical and sales division of the Dallas office of the employment commission, to help Oswald find a job.[A13-931] Oswald first came into the office of the employment commission on October 9. He was reluctant to accept industrial employment, and was placed in the clerical category and turned over to Mrs. Cunningham for counseling. He indicated that he had an interest in writing. The results of general aptitude tests which he had taken at the Fort Worth employment office had been transmitted to the Dallas office, and indicated that he had some aptitude in this direction and for clerical work. It was noted on his application form that he had “outstanding verbal-clerical potential.” He demonstrated ability to perform many skilled and semi-skilled jobs, and there was some indication that he could do college work. Mrs. Cunningham gave him three special tests: for general clerical work, work as an insurance claims examiner, and drafting work. He scored high on all three. His application form indicated that he did not have a driver’s license, and noted: “well-groomed and spoken, business suit, alert replies--expresses self extremely well.” He told Mrs. Cunningham that he hoped to develop qualifications for responsible junior executive employment by a work-study program at a local college but that this must be delayed because of his immediate financial needs and responsibilities.[A13-932]

Mrs. Cunningham concluded that although Oswald would be classified for clerical work, she should try to get him any available job, since he badly needed money. He was referred to an architect for an opening as a messenger but was not hired. On October 11, he was referred to Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall Co., a graphic arts company, in response to a call from John Graef, head of the photographic department of the company, who had told the employment commission that he needed a photoprint trainee. Oswald was enthusiastic about his prospects and apparently made a good impression; Graef picked him over several other applicants.[A13-933] On the following day he began working in his new position as a trainee making prints of advertising material. He worked a 40-hour week at approximately $1.35 per hour; his take-home pay varied from $49 to $74 a week.[A13-934] According to his wife, “he liked his work very much.”[A13-935]

Oswald moved into the YMCA on October 15, and stayed there until October 19, paying $2.25 a night.[A13-936] He had used the Taylors’ address and telephone number as a place where he could be reached,[A13-937] but on October 9 had also rented post office box 2915 under his own name at the main post office on Ervay Street.[A13-938] On October 10, he filed a change-of-address form indicating that mail for 2703 Mercedes Street should be forwarded to the box.[A13-939] Marina has written that Oswald wrote her letters and telephoned her during the separation.[A13-940]

On October 16, Mrs Hall brought Marina and June to Dallas to have June baptized. Marina apparently did this surreptitiously, because her husband opposed baptism; they did not contact him in Dallas, but left birthday gifts for him at the Taylors. Oswald did not appear very disturbed when he found out about the baptism.[A13-941]

Two days later, Mrs. Hall had an automobile accident and went to the hospital, where she remained until October 26; Marina remained in the Hall house. Mrs. Max Clark and Alexander Kleinlerer, a friend of Mrs. Hall, checked up to make sure that she was getting along without too much trouble.[A13-942] After Oswald left the YMCA on October 19, he moved to a room or apartment somewhere in Dallas,[A13-943] which has not been located.[A13-944] It seems likely, however, that during that time he spent several weekends with Marina at the Hall house.[A13-945]

Four days after Mrs. Hall returned from the hospital, she left for New York to visit friends. By the time she returned, Marina had moved to a three-room apartment at 604 Elsbeth Street in Dallas, which Oswald had rented on Saturday, November 3;[A13-946] the landlady stated that he had looked at the apartment about a week before. The monthly rent was $68, in addition to which he had to pay several dollars a month for utilities. He paid the rent plus a $5 deposit on November 3,[A13-947] but probably spent that night with Marina at the Hall house. On Sunday the Taylors helped the Oswalds move their belongings to the Elsbeth Street apartment with a rented trailer.[A13-948] Oswald had asked Kleinlerer to help them move, and Kleinlerer also was present when they departed.[A13-949]

Soon after the Oswalds were reunited, their marital difficulties started again. While they were moving to Elsbeth Street, Kleinlerer noticed that Oswald slapped his wife for not having the zipper on her dress completely closed.[A13-950] They argued over his refusal to allow her to smoke.[A13-951] There was a quarrel also when he told the landlady that Marina was from Czechoslovakia; he was angered when Marina, who disapproved of this deception, told the landlady the truth.[A13-952]

Although several people tried to help Marina improve her scanty knowledge of English, Oswald discouraged this,[A13-953] perhaps because he wanted to keep up his Russian.[A13-954] Some witnesses testified that she commented about his sexual abilities.[A13-955] He apparently continued to beat her, and once she suggested to George De Mohrenschildt that she should “get away” from Oswald. When De Mohrenschildt criticized Oswald’s conduct, Oswald replied, “It is my business.”[A13-956] Marina testified that when they moved into the Elsbeth Street apartment, her husband became “nervous and irritable” and was very angry over “trifles.”[A13-957] She said that it was sometimes her fault that he beat her,[A13-958] for example when she wrote to an old boyfriend in Russia that she wished she had married him; the letter was returned for postage due, and Oswald read it.[A13-959]

Because of this quarreling, a few of their acquaintances felt that Marina would be better off alone. George Bouhe offered to help her if she promised to leave Oswald permanently.[A13-960] Finally, in early November, Marina, helped by the De Mohrenschildts, moved into Anna Meller’s house with the intention not to return to Oswald. He was apparently quite upset and did not want Marina to leave him.[A13-961]

Oswald did not visit his wife at Anna Meller’s house,[A13-962] and for a short time did not even know where she was.[A13-963] According to Marina, he called her after she moved and they met at De Mohrenschildt’s house. He asked her to return home. She insisted that he stop quarreling and that he change his ways. He said that he could not change. Marina would not agree to return home with him and he left.[A13-964]

Marina was uncomfortable at the Meller house, where there was very little room. She moved to Katherine Ford’s house[A13-965] where she apparently stayed from November 11 to 17. She indicated that she had decided never to return to her husband;[A13-966] it was Mrs. Ford’s impression that Marina was going to stay at other people’s houses until a permanent place could be found for her.[A13-967] When Mr. Ford returned from a business trip on November 17, Marina and June moved to the home of Mrs. Frank Ray, where they spent the day. Mrs. Ray, the wife of a Dallas advertising man, was also of Russian origin. Since Mrs. Ray had no baby bed, Marina returned to the Fords that evening. On the next day, however, Marina moved her belongings to the Rays’ house. That same day, Oswald called and asked to visit his wife, whom he had called and written. Mr. Ray picked him up and took him to Marina.[A13-968]

Marina testified that at this meeting Oswald professed his love for her. She stated: “I saw him cry * * * [he] begged me to come back, asked my forgiveness, and promised that he would try to improve, if only I would come back.”[A13-969] On another occasion she said: “* * * he cried and you know a woman’s heart--I went back to him. He said he didn’t care to live if I did not return.”[A13-970] That same day she decided to return to him. Mr. Ray packed her belongings and took her back to the Elsbeth Street apartment.[A13-971]

Members of the Russian community who had taken care of Marina so that she would not have to live with Oswald felt that their efforts had been in vain. George Bouhe was so irritated that he never again tried to help either of the Oswalds.[A13-972] Contacts between them and members of the Russian community diminished markedly.[A13-973] Oswald did not care for most of these people and made his feelings apparent.[A13-974] Even the De Mohrenschildts, whom he liked most, saw much less of them.[A13-975] Lydia Dymitruk, another Russian born woman in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, testified that she saw the Oswalds on only one occasion, and did not care to see them again. She drove Marina and June, who had a high fever, to the hospital; Oswald told the hospital that he was unemployed in order to avoid paying for June’s treatment and later left Mrs. Dymitruk without thanking her.[A13-976] Mrs. Ford testified that Marina had told her that she contemplated suicide during this period because Oswald was treating her badly and she had no friends; she felt that she had “no way out.”[A13-977] Marina acknowledged to the Commission that she had had such thoughts.[A13-978]

In an effort to renew family ties, Robert Oswald wrote to Lee and John Pic on November 17, inviting them and their families to Thanksgiving dinner. Lee accepted the invitation. He and Marina traveled to Fort Worth by bus on Thanksgiving Day, and John Pic and Robert met them at the station.[A13-979] Pic had not seen his half-brother for 10 years. He observed, as many others have also attested, that Lee seemed to be a good father and to take an active interest in June.[A13-980] After dinner, Marina phoned Paul Gregory, who later drove the Oswalds to his house for sandwiches and then took them to the bus station for the return trip to Dallas.[A13-981] Thereafter, Robert spoke to his brother once by telephone and received a post card and a letter from him, but he eventually lost contact with Lee and did not see him again until after the assassination.[A13-982]

Despite his disillusionment with Soviet life, Oswald kept up his interest in Russia. He wrote to the Soviet Embassy in Washington for information on how to subscribe to Russian periodicals and for “any periodicals or bulletins which you may put out for the benefit of your citizens living, for a time, in the U.S.A.”[A13-983] He subsequently subscribed to several Russian journals.[A13-984] In December 1962, the Soviet Embassy received a card in Russian, signed “Marina and Lee Oswald,” which conveyed New Year’s greetings and wishes for “health, success and all of the best” to the employees at the Embassy.[A13-985] The Oswalds continued to correspond with acquaintances in Russia.[A13-986]

Soon after his return to this country, Oswald had started to correspond with the Communist Party, U.S.A., and the Socialist Workers Party. He subscribed to the Worker in August 1962.[A13-987] He wrote for additional literature from these organizations, and attempted to join the Socialist Workers Party, which, however, had no branch in Texas.[A13-988] He sent samples of his photographic work to the Socialist Workers Party, the Worker, and the Hall-Davis Defense Committee, and offered to aid them in printing and photographic work in connection with posters; these offers were not accepted.[A13-989]

He continued to read a great deal on a variety of subjects.[A13-990] George Bouhe testified that Oswald’s fare consisted of books by Marx, Lenin, “and similar things.”[A13-991] Marina said that he read books of a historical nature, including H. G. Wells’ two volume “Outline of History,” and biographies of Hitler, Kennedy, and Khrushchev.[A13-992]

Despite the Oswalds’ break with the Russian community, De Mohrenschildt, knowing that they would be alone during the Christmas season, asked the Fords whether he could bring the Oswalds to a party celebrating the Russian Christmas at the Fords’ home; the Fords assented. The party was attended by many members of the Russian community.[A13-993] Oswald spoke at length with Yaeko Okui, a Japanese woman who had been brought to the party by Lev Aronson, first cellist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra;[A13-994] she told Federal investigators that she never saw Oswald again.[A13-995] The Oswalds were not invited to three other Russian Christmas season gatherings which occurred during the next few days.[A13-996]

Marina visited the De Mohrenschildts several times after Christmas.[A13-997] They invited both Lee and Marina to a small dinner party in February 1963; also present were Everett Glover, a chemist employed in Dallas, and his roommate Volkmar Schmidt.[A13-998] On February 22, Glover had a gathering at his house, one of the purposes of which was to permit his friends, many of whom were studying Russian, to meet the Oswalds.[A13-999] They were the objects of much attention.[A13-1000] Marina conversed at length with another guest named Ruth Paine, who had recently separated from her husband, Michael Paine, a research engineer at the Bell Helicopter plant in Fort Worth. Mrs. Paine, who was studying Russian, obtained Marina’s address[A13-1001] and shortly thereafter wrote Marina asking to see her. Marina responded by inviting Mrs. Paine to visit her.[A13-1002]

The Oswalds moved out of their Elsbeth Street apartment on March 3, 1963, to an upstairs apartment several blocks away at 214 West Neely Street. Oswald inquired about the apartment in response to a “For Rent” sign; the rent was $60 per month, not including utilities,[A13-1003] They moved without assistance, carrying their belongings in their hands and in a baby stroller.[A13-1004] Marina preferred the Neely Street apartment because it had a porch and was, she felt, more suitable for June.[A13-1005]

Aware of Oswald’s difficulties in obtaining employment, George Bouhe had advised him as early as October 1962 to attend a night school in Dallas.[A13-1006] On January 14, Oswald enrolled in a typing course in the night school of Crozier Technical High School, and started attending on January 28. The class ran from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesday, and Thursdays. Although Oswald reviewed a typing textbook at home, he attended the course irregularly and stopped going altogether on about March 28.[A13-1007]

Ruth Paine and Marina started to exchange visits in March. Mrs. Paine invited the Oswalds for dinner, and on April 20 she took them on a picnic. When Oswald was not present, the two women frequently discussed their respective marital problems, and Marina disclosed to Mrs. Paine that she was pregnant.[A13-1008] Marina wrote of these meetings:

One day we were invited to a friend’s house, where I met Ruth Paine, who was studying Russian here in America and wanted to improve her conversational knowledge. We began to see each other. Ruth would come to see me with her children. This was very good for both me and for June. She was growing up alone and becoming terribly wild, so the company of other children was good for her. Sometimes we went out on picnics at a nearby lake. Lee loved to fish, and we would look and rejoice if he caught a little fish. Several times we went to visit Ruth who lived in Irving.[A13-1009]

Using the name of A. J. Hidell, Oswald had ordered a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver from Los Angeles on a form which he dated January 27. On March 12, he ordered a rifle from Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago under the name of A. Hidell.[A13-1010] Oswald used the name “Alek James Hidell” on identification cards which he probably produced at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall. One of his fellow employees taught him various photographic techniques, which he could have used to prepare not only these cards, but also the samples of his work which he sent to various organizations.[A13-1011]

Both weapons were shipped on March 20.[A13-1012] Oswald kept the rifle in a small storeroom at the Neely Street apartment. He spent long periods of time in the storeroom, which he told Marina she was not to enter.[A13-1013] He told her that he intended to use the rifle for hunting[A13-1014] and that he practiced with it. She saw him leave with it once, and clean it several times.[A13-1015] He also posed for two pictures, taken by Marina in the backyard of the Neely apartment, in which he held his rifle and copies of the Worker and the Militant and the revolver was strapped to his belt. He gave one of the pictures to his wife and asked her to keep it for June.[A13-1016]

Over the weekend of March 9-10, Oswald photographed the alley which runs behind the home of Gen. Edwin Walker, and probably at about the same time he photographed the rear of Walker’s home and a nearby railroad track and right-of-way.[A13-1017] He prepared and studied a notebook in which he outlined a plan to shoot General Walker, and he looked at bus schedules.[A13-1018] He went to the Walker residence on the evening of April 6 or 7, planning to make his attack. However, he changed his plans, hid his rifle nearby, and determined to act on the following Wednesday, April 10, when a nearby church was planning a meeting which, Oswald reasoned, would create a diversion that would help him escape.[A13-1019] On Wednesday, Oswald left a note for Marina telling her what to do if he were apprehended. He retrieved his rifle and fired at Walker, but the bullet narrowly missed Walker’s head. Oswald secreted his rifle again and took the bus home.[A13-1020]

When Oswald told Marina what he had done, she became angry and made him promise never to repeat such an act. She testified that she kept his letter, intending to give it to the authorities if he repeated his attempt. He told Marina that he was sorry he had missed Walker and said that the shooting of Walker would have been analogous to an assassination of Hitler.[A13-1021] Several days later, the De Mohrenschildts visited the Oswalds, bringing an Easter present for June. During the visit, Jeanne De Mohrenschildt saw the rifle and told her husband about it. Without any knowledge of the truth, De Mohrenschildt jokingly intimated that Oswald was the one who had shot at Walker. Oswald apparently concluded that Marina had told De Mohrenschildt of his role in the attempt and was visibly shaken.[A13-1022]

On April 6, Oswald was dropped by Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall because, in his supervisor’s opinion, he could not do the work, although he was trying; in addition, he did not get along with his fellow employees.[A13-1023] The fact that he brought a Russian newspaper to work may also have been of some significance.[A13-1024] Marina testified that her husband, who had always worried about his job security at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall,[A13-1025] was quite upset by the loss of his job since he had liked the work.[A13-1026]

Oswald again resorted to the Texas Employment Commission.[A13-1027] On April 8, he informed the Commission that he was seeking employment but was referred to no employers. He stated that he had been laid off at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall due to lack of work.[A13-1028] On April 12, he made a claim for unemployment benefits; 4 days later the commission mailed him a determination disapproving his claim because of insufficient wage credits.[A13-1029]

For a while after the Oswalds moved into the Neely Street apartment they got along well,[A13-1030] but they soon began to quarrel.[A13-1031] Oswald was apparently still preventing Marina from learning English,[A13-1032] and there is some indication that he continued to beat her.[A13-1033] Since February, he had been urging her to return to Russia.[A13-1034] Marina wrote several letters to the Russian Embassy requesting a visa to return to Russia;[A13-1035] she testified, however, that Oswald forced her to write them, and that she never wanted to return to Russia.[A13-1036]

When Ruth Paine visited the Oswalds at their apartment on April 24, she was surprised to learn that Oswald was packed and ready to leave for New Orleans by bus. He explained that he had been unable to find employment in or around Dallas, and that Marina had suggested that he go to New Orleans since he had been born there.[A13-1037] Marina has testified that the real reason behind her suggestion was that she wanted to get him out of town because of the Walker incident.[A13-1038] Mrs. Paine offered to drive Marina to New Orleans at a later date, and also to have Marina and June stay with her rather than at the apartment in the meantime. Oswald helped the women pack Mrs. Paine’s car, and the two women moved everything from the Neely Street apartment to the Paine house in Irving.[A13-1039]

When he arrived at the bus station in New Orleans, Oswald telephoned his aunt, Lillian Murret, to ask if he could stay at her home at 757 French Street while he looked for employment. She had been unaware that he had returned from Russia or that he was married and had a child and was surprised to hear from him. She said that she did not have room to accommodate three guests, but that since he was alone he was welcome.[A13-1040]

Oswald had been born in New Orleans, and on his return showed great interest in finding out what had happened to the other members of his father’s family. He visited the cemetery where his father was buried and called all the Oswalds in the telephone book. By this method he located one relative, Mrs. Hazel Oswald of Metairie, La., the widow of William Stout Oswald, his father’s brother. He visited her at her home; she gave him a picture of his father and told him that as far as she knew the rest of the family was dead.[A13-1041]

On April 26, Oswald began his search for employment. He went to the employment office of the Louisiana Department of Labor and stated that he was qualified as a commercial photographer, shipping clerk, or “darkroom man.” The interviewer noted on Oswald’s application card: “Will travel on limited basis. Will relocate. Min. $1.25 hr. Neat. Suit. Tie. Polite.”[A13-1042] Although the employment commission made a few referrals, Oswald relied primarily upon newspaper advertisements, and applied for a number of positions.[A13-1043] Mrs. Murret testified that he would spend the day job hunting, return to her home for supper, watch television, and go to bed.[A13-1044]

On April 29, he filed a request for reconsideration of the employment commission’s disapproval of his unemployment compensation claim. His complaint that he had not been credited for his employment at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall was ruled valid on May 8, and he was granted maximum benefits of $369, payable at the rate of $33 per week. He filed interstate claims on May 7 and 15, and received $33 in response to the latter; the former claim was filed before the expiration of the prescribed waiting period.[A13-1045] Not only had Oswald in fact been working since May 10, but he included on his claim sheet, as concerns with which he had sought work, fictitious employers and employers whom he apparently had not contacted.[A13-1046]

Oswald wrote to Marina: “All is well. I am living with Aunt Lillian. She has very kindly taken us in. I am now looking for work. When I find it I will write you.”[A13-1047] And on May 3, he wrote to Marina and Ruth Paine: “Girls, I still have not found work, but I receive money from the unemployment office in the amount 15 to 20 dollars. They were mistaken in the Dallas office when they refused, but I straightened everything out. Uncle ‘Dyuz’ offered me a loan of $200.00 if needed. Great, eh?!”[A13-1048]

On May 9, responding to a newspaper advertisement, Oswald completed an application for employment with William B. Reily Co., Inc., at 640 Magazine Street, an enterprise engaged in the roasting, grinding, canning, bagging, and sale of coffee. On his application form, Oswald listed as references in addition to John Murret, “Sgt. Robert Hidell” and “Lieut. J. Evans,” both apparently fictitious names.[A13-1049] His application was approved and he began work on May 10, at the rate of $1.50 per hour. His task was the lubrication of the company’s machinery.[A13-1050] Oswald did not enjoy this work,[A13-1051] and told his wife and Mrs. Paine that he was working in commercial photography.[A13-1052]

Also on May 9, Oswald obtained an apartment at 4905 Magazine Street with the help of Myrtle Evans, who had known him when he was a child. The rent was $65 a month. Oswald moved in on May 10,[A13-1053] after telephoning Marina on the ninth and asking her to come to New Orleans. Ruth Paine testified that the invitation elated Marina: “Papa nas lubet”--“Daddy loves us,” she repeated again and again. Mrs. Paine drove Marina and June to New Orleans; they left Dallas on May 10, spent the night in Shreveport, and arrived on the 11th. Mrs. Paine stayed with the Oswalds for 3 days; the three of them, with June and Mrs. Paine’s children, toured the French Quarter. On May 14, Mrs. Paine left New Orleans to return to her home.[A13-1054]

The Murrets and the Oswalds exchanged visits from time to time; Marina testified that the Murrets were very good to them.[A13-1055] Mrs. Murret’s daughter, Marilyn, took the Oswalds on an outing.[A13-1056] But, according to Marina’s testimony, aside from Ruth Paine and Ruth Kloepfer and her daughters, the Murrets were the only social visitors the Oswalds had.[A13-1057] Ruth Kloepfer was a clerk of the Quaker Meeting in New Orleans whom Ruth Paine had written in the hope that she might know some Russian-speaking people who could visit Marina. Mrs. Kloepfer herself visited the Oswalds but made no attempt to direct any Russian-speaking people to them.[A13-1058]

On July 19, Oswald was dismissed by Reily because of inefficiency and inattention to his work. He had spent many of his working hours next door at the Crescent City Garage, where he read gun magazines and discussed guns with one of the owners, Adrian Alba.[A13-1059] On the following Monday, July 22, Oswald again visited the Louisiana employment office to seek new employment and file a claim for unemployment compensation. Thereafter, he collected unemployment compensation weekly and, although apparently making some effort to obtain another job, again listed a number of fictitious job applications on his unemployment compensation claim forms.[A13-1060] He soon gave up his search for employment, and began to spend his days at home reading.[A13-1061] He received another setback on July 25, when he was notified that in response to the request for review which he had made in 1962, his undesirable discharge from the Marine Corps had been affirmed.[A13-1062]

During this period, Oswald began to evidence thoughts of returning to the Soviet Union or going to Cuba. On June 24 he applied for a new passport, which he received on the following day.[A13-1063] Apparently at Oswald’s request,[A13-1064] Marina wrote to the Russian Embassy, expressing a desire to return to Russia and indicating that she would be accompanied by her husband. She explained that she wanted to return because of family problems, including the impending birth of her second child.[A13-1065] Accompanying her letter was a letter written by Oswald dated July 1, in which he asked the Embassy to rush an entrance visa for his wife and requested that his visa be considered separately.[A13-1066] Marina believed that Oswald was really planning to go only to Cuba.[A13-1067] She testified that “his basic desire was to get to Cuba by any means, and that all the rest of it was window dressing for that purpose.”[A13-1068]

During the early days of the New Orleans period, the Oswalds’ marriage was more harmonious than it had been previously. Marina wrote:

* * * our family life in New Orleans was more peaceful. Lee took great satisfaction in showing me the city where he was born. We often went to the beach, the zoo, and the park. Lee liked to go and hunt crabs. It is true, that he was not very pleased with his job * * * We did not have very much money, and the birth of a new child involved new expenses * * * As before, Lee spent a great deal of time reading.[A13-1069]

Marina testified, however, that after they had been in New Orleans for a while, Oswald became depressed and that she once found him alone in the dark crying.[A13-1070] She wrote to Ruth Paine that his “love” had ceased soon after Mrs. Paine had left New Orleans.[A13-1071] Mrs. Paine testified, however, that she had noticed friction between the Oswalds before she left.[A13-1072] On July 11, Mrs. Paine wrote Marina that if Oswald did not wish to live with her any more and preferred that she return to the Soviet Union, she could live at the Paines’ house. Although Mrs. Paine had long entertained this idea, this was the first time she explicitly made the invitation. She renewed the invitation on July 12, and again on July 14; she attempted to overcome any feeling which Marina might have that she would be a burden by stating that Marina could help with the housework and help her learn Russian, and that she would also provide a tax advantage.[A13-1073]

Marina replied that she had previously raised the subject of a separation and that it had led to arguments. She stated that she was happy and that for a considerable period of time Oswald had been good to her. She attributed this improved attitude to the fact that he was anticipating their second child. Marina turned down Mrs. Paine’s invitation but said that she would take advantage of it if things became worse.[A13-1074] Mrs. Paine replied that she was taking a trip north to visit her parents and would visit Marina in New Orleans about September 18. She also suggested that Marina come to her house for the birth of the baby.[A13-1075]

On July 6, Eugene Murret, a cousin of Oswald who was studying to be a Jesuit Priest in Mobile, Ala., wrote and asked if Oswald could come to Mobile and speak at the Jesuit House of Studies about “contemporary Russia and the practice of Communism there.” Oswald accepted, and on July 27 he and his family, joined by some of the Murrets, traveled to Mobile; Charles Murret paid the expenses. Oswald spoke concerning his observations in Russia and conducted a question and answer period; he impressed his listeners as articulate. He indicated that he had become disillusioned during his stay in Russia, and that in his opinion the best political system would be one which combined the best points of capitalism and communism.[A13-1076] While he left his listeners with the impression that he was an atheist, he avoided a direct discussion of religion. The group returned to New Orleans on July 28.[A13-1077]

In late May and early June, Oswald had apparently begun to formulate plans for creating a New Orleans branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Using the name “Lee Osborne” he ordered a number of printed circulars demanding “Hands off Cuba” in large letters, and application forms and membership cards for the proposed chapter.[A13-1078] On August 5, he visited a store managed by Carlos Bringuier, a Cuban refugee and avid opponent of Castro and the New Orleans delegate of the Cuban student directorate. Oswald indicated an interest in joining the struggle against Castro. He told Bringuier that he had been a marine and was trained in guerrilla warfare, and that he was willing not only to train Cubans to fight Castro but also to join the fight himself. The next day Oswald returned to the store and left his “Guidebook for Marines” for Bringuier.[A13-1079]

On August 9, Bringuier saw Oswald passing out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets. Bringuier and his companions became angry and a dispute resulted. Oswald and the three Cuban exiles were arrested for disturbing the peace.[A13-1080] Oswald spent the night in jail and was interviewed the next day by a lieutenant of the New Orleans Police Department. At Oswald’s request, an FBI agent also interviewed him. Oswald maintained that he was a member of the New Orleans branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee which, he claimed, had 35 members. He stated also that he had been in touch with the president of that organization, A. J. Hidell.[A13-1081] Oswald was in fact the only member of the “New Orleans branch,” which had never been chartered by the National Fair Play for Cuba Committee.[A13-1082] Later that day Oswald was released on bail, and 2 days later he pleaded guilty to the charges against him and paid a $10 fine. The charges against the Cuban exiles were dismissed.[A13-1083] Marina testified that the arrest upset Lee and that he “became less active, he cooled off a little” after it.[A13-1084]

On August 16, Oswald, assisted by at least one other person who was a hired helper, again passed out Fair Play for Cuba literature, this time in front of the International Trade Mart. That night, television newscasts ran pictures of Oswald’s activities.[A13-1085] (This hindered Oswald’s subsequent attempts to obtain employment in New Orleans.)[A13-1086] Bringuier sent one of his friends to Oswald’s home to pose as a Castro sympathizer and attempt to obtain information about Oswald, but Oswald apparently saw through the ruse.[A13-1087]

William Stuckey, a radio broadcaster with a program called “Latin Listening Post,” had long been looking for a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee to appear on his program. He learned about Oswald from Bringuier, and visited Oswald on August 17. Later that day, Stuckey recorded an interview with Oswald which was cut to about 5 minutes and played back on the show that evening.[A13-1088] Two days later, Stuckey asked the news director of the station if he could run the entire tape, but the director felt that a debate with a local opponent of Castro would be of greater public interest. Consequently, Stuckey arranged for a debate between Oswald and Bringuier on a 25-minute daily public affairs program called “Conversation Carte Blanche,” which took place on August 21.[A13-1089] Oswald defended the Castro regime and discussed Marxism. He was put on the defensive when his defection to Russia was brought up,[A13-1090] and Stuckey later testified that he thought that the program had finished the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans.[A13-1091] However, Stuckey also testified that Oswald seemed to be a clean-cut and intelligent person who conducted himself very well during the interviews and debates.[A13-1092]

Oswald wrote several times to V. T. Lee, then national director of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, telling him, sometimes in exaggerated terms, of his activities.[A13-1093] He wrote also to the Communist Party and asked whether, in view of his prior defection, he should “continue to fight, handicapped as it were, by * * * [his] past record, [and] compete with anti-progressive forces, above-ground or * * * should always remain in the background, i.e., underground.” [A13-1094] The Party replied that “often it is advisable for some people to remain in the background, not underground.” [A13-1095] And although Oswald wrote four letters to V. T. Lee during the summer,[A13-1096] there is no evidence that Oswald heard from him after May 29.

Ruth Paine arrived in New Orleans on September 20, and spent three nights with the Oswalds. During this stay, Mrs. Paine found relations between them much improved. Nonetheless, it was decided that Marina would go back with her to Irving for the birth of the baby. Marina and Mrs. Paine toured Bourbon Street while Oswald stayed home and did some packing for Marina’s return to Texas.[A13-1097] On Sunday, September 22, Oswald and Mrs. Paine finished loading the station wagon with the Oswalds’ household belongings.[A13-1098]

MEXICO CITY

Marina Oswald testified that sometime in August her husband first told her of his plan to go to Mexico and from there to Cuba, where he planned to stay; he had given up a plan to hijack an airplane and fly directly to Cuba, which plan Marina consistently opposed.[A13-1099] On September 17, he obtained from the Mexican consulate general in New Orleans a “Tourist Card,” FM-8 No. 24085, good for one journey into Mexico for no longer than 15 days. Typed in the blank, “Appelidos y nombre,” was “Lee, Harvey Oswald,” “Fotogrofo”; the intended destination was shown as Mexico City.[A13-1100] (The comma between “Lee” and “Harvey” seems to have been an error.)[A13-1101] On the application Oswald stated that he was employed at “640 Rampart”; he was in fact unemployed.[A13-1102] (See Commission Exhibits Nos. 2478, 2481, p. 300.)

Marina and June departed with Mrs. Ruth Paine for Irving on the morning of September 23.[A13-1103] Before she left, Oswald told Marina that she should not tell anyone about his impending trip to Mexico.[A13-1104] Marina kept this secret until after the assassination.[A13-1105] On the previous day, Oswald’s landlord had seen Mrs. Paine’s car being packed and had asked Oswald, whose rent was about 15 days overdue, whether he was leaving. Oswald told him that Marina was leaving temporarily but that he would remain.[A13-1106] A neighbor testified that on the evening of September 24, he saw Oswald, carrying two pieces of luggage, hurriedly leave the Magazine Street apartment and board a bus.[A13-1107] Though uncertain of the exact date, a city busdriver recalls that at the same time of day and at the same location he picked up a man who was carrying two suitcases of different sizes and helped him place them so that they would not disturb the other passengers. The driver remembers that the man asked directions to the Greyhound bus station. He discharged the passenger at an intersection where he could board a Canal Street car and transfer to another bus which would go past the Greyhound and Continental Trailways stations.[A13-1108] The landlord found Oswald’s apartment vacant on September 25.[A13-1109]

Oswald appears to have taken with him a Spanish-English dictionary;[A13-1110] his address book;[A13-1111] his 1963 passport and old passport;[A13-1112] his correspondence with the Communist Party and with the Soviet Embassy in Washington, some of which was in Russian;[A13-1113] proof of his marriage;[A13-1114] newspaper clippings concerning his arrest and his interest in the activities of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee[A13-1115] (activities which, Marina testified, he had undertaken because he thought that they would help him when he got to Cuba);[A13-1116] evidence that he was the “Director” of the New Orleans chapter of the Committee;[A13-1117] and various other cards, such as a work card, which he had obtained in Russia.[A13-1118] He took also several sheets of notepaper on which he had written a summary of important events in his life which he presumably intended to call to the attention of Cuban and Soviet officials in Mexico City to convince them to let him enter Cuba. On these sheets he had recorded facts about his Marine service, including the dates of his enlistment and discharge, the places where he had served, and the diplomas that he had received from military school. Recorded also were notes on his stay in the Soviet Union, his early interest in Communist literature, his ability to speak Russian, his organization of the New Orleans chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, his contact with police authorities in connection with his work for the Committee, and his experience in “street agitation,” as a “radio speaker and lecturer,” and as a photographer.[A13-1119] The two pieces of luggage which Oswald took with him were a small, blue, zipper bag[A13-1120] and a large, olive-colored bag,[A13-1121] both made of cloth. He carried the smaller bag with him throughout the trip, but, at least from Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City, checked the larger one through to his destination.[A13-1122]

Oswald remained in New Orleans until September 25. His precise whereabouts on the night of September 24 are uncertain, but in view of his limited finances, he probably returned to the apartment to sleep after checking his luggage at a bus station or spent the night at an inexpensive hotel or roominghouse. Some time after 5 a.m. on September 25, he collected a Texas unemployment compensation check for $33 at his New Orleans post office box. He cashed the check between 8 a.m. and noon at a store about six blocks from his apartment on Magazine Street.[A13-1123] This gave him about $200 for the trip to Mexico.[A13-1124]

He left New Orleans by bus,[A13-1125] probably on Continental Trailways Bus No. 5121, departing New Orleans at 12:20 p.m. on September 25, and scheduled to arrive in Houston at 10:50 p.m.; that bus is the only one on which Oswald could have left New Orleans after noon on September 25[A13-1126] and arrived in Houston before midnight.[A13-1127] Sometime in the evening he called the home of Horace Elroy Twiford, a member of the Socialist Labor Party who had received Oswald’s name from the party’s headquarters in New York and sent him a copy of its official publication, the “Weekly People.”[A13-1128] Mrs. Twiford, who answered the telephone,[A13-1129] believes that the call was made locally, before 10 p.m. It may have been made from Beaumont or some other stop on the route; however, in view of the bus schedule, it probably was made in Houston later than Mrs. Twiford remembered.[A13-1130] Oswald told Mrs. Twiford that he was a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and that he hoped to see her husband for a few hours that evening before he flew to Mexico. He wanted also to find out how Twiford had obtained his name and address. Mrs. Twiford told Oswald that her husband, a merchant seaman, was at sea but would be happy to see him at some other time; she offered to take a message. Oswald said that he could not await her husband’s return because he was flying to Mexico.[A13-1131] The Twifords have stated that they had no other contact with Oswald.[A13-1132]

An employee of the U.S. Selective Service System has stated that an individual calling himself “Harvey Oswald” appeared at her office in Austin, Tex., immediately after lunch on September 25, and discussed with her the possibility of rectifying his undesirable discharge from the Marine Corps.[A13-1133] Despite the employee’s reputability and apparent sincerity, all of the information which she furnished with respect to Oswald’s appearance and conversation could have been derived from news media, consciously or unconsciously, by the time she told the FBI her story. Other persons in Austin who, according to the employee’s testimony, should also have observed Oswald failed to corroborate her testimony.[A13-1134] No other evidence tending to show that Oswald was in Austin at this time has been discovered.

The telephone call which Oswald made to the Twifords on the evening of September 25, indicates that he was either in Houston or on his way there when he made it, since the purpose of the call was to make an appointment to see Twiford in Houston that evening. Oswald could not have left New Orleans on September 25, been in Austin 521 miles away by early afternoon, and returned 162 miles to Houston by night unless he traveled by air; airline records contain no indication that Oswald was on such flights.[A13-1135] It is very unlikely that he had with him enough money beyond what he needed for the trip to Mexico City to take such flights, and the poor state of his finances at this time plus his well-established frugality make it extremely unlikely that he would have considered it worthwhile to do so even if he could. There is no evidence that Oswald was in such a hurry to reach Mexico that he would have felt it necessary to travel by airplane rather than a less expensive means of travel. He took a bus from Houston to Mexico City, lived very inexpensively there, and took a bus back to Dallas; there is no apparent reason why he would have interrupted such an inexpensive trip to fly to Austin and then to Houston. He told a passenger whom he met on the next leg of his trip that he had come from New Orleans, and made no reference to Austin.[A13-1136]

On September 26, Oswald boarded Continental Trailways bus No. 5133 in Houston and departed at 2:35 a.m. for Laredo, Tex., via Corpus Christi and Alice.[A13-1137] Two British tourists, Dr. and Mrs. John B. McFarland, who boarded No. 5133 in Houston, noticed Oswald when they awoke at about 6 a.m. Oswald told them that he was going to Cuba via Mexico City, and they inferred from conversation with him that he had left New Orleans early in the afternoon of September 25 and that he was going to Cuba via Mexico City. He said also that he was secretary of the New Orleans branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and that he hoped to see Fidel Castro in Cuba. The bus was scheduled to arrive in Laredo at approximately 1:20 p.m.[A13-1138]

Oswald crossed the border from Laredo to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, between 1:30 and 2 p.m.[A13-1139] From Nuevo Laredo, he traveled to Mexico City aboard bus No. 516 of the Flecha Roja Bus Line, which departed at 2:15 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Mexico City at 9:45 a.m. on the following day; he held baggage claim check No. 320435.[A13-1140] He was seen on the bus by the McFarlands and by two Australian girls who boarded the bus on the evening of September 26 at Monterrey.[A13-1141] He occupied the seat next to an elderly Englishman, who told the girls that the young man sitting next to him apparently had been to Mexico before.[A13-1142] The man next to Oswald was probably Albert Osborne, a native of the British Isles who has worked as an itinerant preacher in the Southern United States and Mexico for many years. Osborne denied that he sat beside Oswald; but in view of his inconsistent and untrue responses to Federal investigators concerning matters not directly related to Oswald, the Commission believes that his denial cannot be credited. It appeared to the other passengers on the bus that Osborne and Oswald had not previously met; extensive investigation has revealed no other contact between them.[A13-1143]

In the course of the 20-hour bus trip, Oswald initiated two conversations with the Australian girls, during which he mentioned his visit to Russia and recommended the Hotel Cuba in Mexico City as a “clean and cheap” hotel; he told them, apparently falsely, that he had stayed there on previous occasions. He said that when he had seen them board the bus with their heavy suitcases, he had been under the impression that they were Mexican and had therefore asked the man next to him how to say “How can I help you?” in Spanish. From this they inferred that Oswald did not speak Spanish, an impression which is shared by every witness who met Oswald on his trip and is supported by notations which he made on documents that he carried.[A13-1144] He got off the bus at every stop and ate large meals, always eating by himself; the girls thought he ate so much because he could not make himself understood in Spanish and had to order by pointing at the menu.[A13-1145] The bus arrived in Mexico City 15 minutes late, at 10 a.m.[A13-1146] Oswald left the bus station by himself and had no known further contact with any of the people with whom he had spoken on the bus.[A13-1147]

Oswald registered at the Hotel del Comercio within an hour of his arrival in Mexico City. He stayed there throughout his visit.[A13-1148] The hotel, located not far from the commercial heart of the city and within four blocks of the bus station, is one of a group of hotels located near the intercity bus terminals and has perhaps the best appearance of the group.[A13-1149] It is known by personnel in other hotels that the owner of the Hotel del Comercio can understand and speak a little English.[A13-1150] Oswald registered as “Lee, Harvey Oswald,” and gave his occupation as “photo.”[A13-1151] He had room 18 which cost $1.28 per day.[A13-1152]

After he had registered, Oswald turned promptly to the task of obtaining permission to enter Cuba. Mexican officials would not permit a U.S. citizen without a Cuban visa to board a plane for Cuba even if he had an American passport, but would permit passage if he had a visa even though the passport proscribed travel to Cuba.[A13-1153] Oswald had a 1963 American passport (stamped invalid for travel to Cuba)[A13-1154] but had neither a regular Cuban visa nor an intransit visa which would permit a short stay in Cuba on his way to Russia or some other country. His address book contained the telephone number and address of a Cuban airline, but there is evidence that he never visited its office.[A13-1155]

He visited the Cuban Embassy on Friday, September 27 and spoke with Senora Silvia Tirado de Duran, a Mexican citizen employed there. Senora Duran later made a signed statement to the Mexican police that Oswald:

* * * applied for a visa to Cuba in transit to Russia and based his application on his presentation of his passport in which it was recorded that he had been living in the latter country for a period of three years, his work permit from that same country written in the Russian language and letters in the same language, as well as proof of his being married to a woman of Russian nationality and being the apparent Director in the city of New Orleans of the organization called “Fair Play for Cuba” with the desire that he should be accepted as a “friend” of the Cuban Revolution * * * [A13-1156]

He apparently also stated that he was a member of the Communist Party and displayed documents which he claimed to be evidence of his membership.[A13-1157] He said that he intended to go to Cuba on September 30 and to remain there for 2 weeks, or longer if possible, and then go on to Russia.[A13-1158] Senora Duran took down the relevant date and filled out the appropriate application. Oswald left the Embassy but was to return in the afternoon.[A13-1159]

Then, or possibly even before his initial visit to the Cuban Embassy Oswald went to the Soviet Embassy where he spoke with either Pavel Antonovich Yatskov or Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov.[A13-1160] They are both consular officials serving also as agents of the KGB.[A13-1161] Oswald later said that he had dealt with “Kostin,”[A13-1162] undoubtedly a reference to Kostikov. He was unable to obtain a Soviet visa then. Marina said that the officials at the Soviet Embassy “refused to have anything to do with him.”[A13-1163]

Oswald returned to the Cuban Embassy later that afternoon, this time bringing with him passport photographs which he may have obtained in the United States.[A13-1164] Senora Duran telephoned the Soviet Embassy to inquire about the status of Oswald’s Russian visa and was told that there would be a delay of about 4 months.[A13-1165] Oswald became “highly agitated and angry,” particularly when he learned that he could not obtain an intransit visa to Cuba before he acquired a Russian visa. Senora Duran called the Cuban consul, then Eusibio Azque, to speak to him. The discussion between Oswald and Azque developed into a heated argument, which ended when Azque told Oswald that in his opinion people like Oswald were harming the Cuban Revolution and that so far as Azque was concerned, he would not give Oswald a visa.[A13-1166] Senora Duran wrote her name and the phone number of the Embassy on a piece of paper which she gave to Oswald in case he wished to contact her again. He copied this information into his address book.[A13-1167] Senora Duran forwarded the Cuban visa application to Havana;[A13-1168] the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied on October 15 that the visa could be issued only after Oswald had obtained a Russian visa.[A13-1169] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2564, p. 303.)

Oswald contacted the Russian and Cuban Embassies again during his stay in Mexico.[A13-1170] He had no greater success than he had before. Marina testified that when he returned to Texas, he was convinced that his trip had been a failure and disappointed at having been unable to go to Cuba.[A13-1171] A month later, in a painstakingly composed[A13-1172] letter to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, Oswald ascribed his failure to “a gross breach of regulations” on the part of the Cuban Embassy. “Of corse,” he wrote, “the Soviet Embassy was not at fault, they were, as I say unprepared.”[A13-1173]

The hotel maid said that Oswald generally was gone by the time she arrived at 9 a.m. The night watchman said he usually returned at about midnight,[A13-1174] which is not unusual, in view of the late hour at which Mexico City’s evening activities begin. He ate several lunches at a small restaurant immediately adjacent to the hotel, coming to the restaurant shortly after 2 p.m., and ordering food by pointing to the menu, apparently with some consideration of cost; he spent between 40 and 48 cents for each meal. He ate the soup of the day, rice, and either meat or eggs, but refused dessert and coffee; the waitress concluded that Oswald did not realize that the items which he refused were included in the price of the lunch.[A13-1175] He was seen with no other person either at his hotel or at the restaurant.[A13-1176] A hotel guest stated that on one occasion he sat down at a table with Oswald because there was no empty table in the restaurant, but that neither spoke to the other because of the language barrier.[A13-1177]

Although the Soviet and Cuban Embassies are within two blocks of each other, they are some distance from Oswald’s hotel.[A13-1178] He must, therefore, have traversed a substantial portion of the city on more than one occasion. Marina testified that he told her that he had seen a bullfight,[A13-1179] which would normally have been on Sunday afternoon, and that he had visited museums[A13-1180] and done some sightseeing.[A13-1181] He apparently also saw one or more motion pictures, either American with Spanish subtitles or Mexican with English subtitles.[A13-1182] From notations in his Spanish-English dictionary and on his guide map of Mexico City, it appears that Oswald intended to attend a jai alai game[A13-1183] but he almost certainly did not do so.[A13-1184]

He purchased several postcards depicting bullfights and tourist attractions, which he brought back to Marina.[A13-1185] She had told him before he left that she would like Mexican silver bracelets as a souvenir, and he brought her a silver bracelet inscribed with her name.[A13-1186] Marina suspected, almost certainly correctly, that the bracelet, of Japanese origin, did not come from Mexico.[A13-1187] No such jewelry is known to be sold in or around Mexico City, because of a high duty[A13-1188] but the bracelet is of a type commonly sold in 5-and-10-cent stores in Dallas.[A13-1189] Oswald did not buy the Mexican phonograph records which Marina had requested, despite the notation, “records,” which he had placed in his dictionary.[A13-1190]

On Monday, September 30, Oswald began to prepare for his return to the United States. He appeared at the Agencia de Viages, Transportes Chihuahuenses,[A13-1191] and purchased international exchange orders costing $20.30 for travel on a Transportes del Norte bus from Mexico City to Laredo and by Greyhound bus directly from Laredo to Dallas. The travel agency made a reservation for him on Transportes del Norte bus No. 332, departing Mexico City at 8:30 a.m. on October 2. The seat, No. 12, was reserved in the name of the travel agency, which recorded the reservation in the name of “H. O. Lee.”[A13-1192] The employee who made the reservation testified that he probably wrote the name that way because he was copying from Oswald’s tourist card, which read “Lee, Harvey Oswald.”[A13-1193] (The manifest for Transportes Frontera bus No. 340, leaving Mexico City for Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2, 1963, contains the name “Oswld” [sic], which apparently was added to the manifest after the trip;[A13-1194] in any event, Oswald did not take bus 340.)[A13-1195]

On October 1, Oswald paid his hotel bill through that night.[A13-1196] The hotel night watchman remembers helping Oswald obtain a taxicab at about 6:30 or 7 on the following morning.[A13-1197] Transportes del Norte bus No. 332 left as scheduled at about 8:30 a.m.; at Monterrey the passengers were shifted to a relief bus, No. 373, scheduled to depart for Laredo at 10 p.m. that evening.[A13-1198] Fellow passengers recall that Oswald was pulled off the bus by Mexican officials at the border, because of some alleged irregularity in his Mexican tourist papers; one passenger overheard him mumbling complaints about the Mexican immigration officials when he returned to the bus.[A13-1199] They remember also that Oswald was hurriedly “gulping” down a banana after the bus reached customs, perhaps because he believed that he could not take fruit into the United States.[A13-1200] (Marina has testified that her husband liked bananas and frequently ate them.)[A13-1201] One of the passengers testified that Oswald annoyed him by keeping his overhead light on to read after 10 p.m.[A13-1202] He may have conversed with an elderly woman on the bus, but he was not traveling with her.[A13-1203]

At about 1:35 a.m. on October 3, Oswald crossed the International Bridge from Nuevo Laredo into Texas.[A13-1204] He traveled from Laredo to Dallas via San Antonio, on Greyhound bus No. 1265, substantially following Interstate Route 35 for the entire trip[A13-1205] leaving Laredo at 3 a.m. and arriving in Dallas at about 2:20 p.m. on the same day.[A13-1206]

DALLAS

Oswald did not contact his wife immediately when he returned to Dallas. He went to the office of the employment commission, where he filed an unemployment compensation claim[A13-1207] and announced that he was again looking for work.[A13-1208] He spent the night at the YMCA, where he registered as a serviceman in order to avoid paying the membership fee.[A13-1209] On the following day, he applied for a job as a typesetter trainee at the Padgett Printing Co. He made a favorable impression on the department foreman, but the plant superintendent called Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall and decided not to hire Oswald because of the unfavorable responses which his inquiries produced.[A13-1210] Later that day, Oswald telephoned Marina and asked her to have Mrs. Paine pick him up in Dallas. Marina refused, and he hitchhiked out to the Paine home,[A13-1211] where he spent part or all of the weekend.[A13-1212] Marina testified that although her husband “changed for the better” and treated her better after his Mexican trip,[A13-1213] she did not want to live with him because she was pregnant and thought it would be better “to be with a woman who spoke English and Russian.”[A13-1214] On Monday, October 7, Mrs. Paine drove Oswald to the bus station, and he returned to Dallas to look for a job and a place to live.[A13-1215]

Oswald thought that the YMCA was too expensive for him, and intended to rent a room.[A13-1216] He inquired about a room at 1026 North Beckley, where he lived later, but on October 7 there were no vacancies.[A13-1217] He next responded to a “For Rent” sign at a rooming house at 621 Marsalis Street. He obtained a room, for which he paid the weekly rent of $7 in advance, and moved in on the same day.[A13-1218] He immediately resumed his job-hunting, relying partially on referrals by the employment commission.[A13-1219] He spent much of the time when he was not looking for work in his room.[A13-1220] He telephoned his wife daily.[A13-1221] She wrote: “Lee called twice a day, was worried about my health and about June.”[A13-1222] On Friday, Oswald told his landlady, Mrs. Mary Bledsoe, that he was going to Irving for the weekend but would return the following week. She refused to rent the room to him for another week because she didn’t like him.[A13-1223]

Oswald spent the weekend of October 12-13 at Mrs. Paine’s home, during which time she gave him a driving lesson.[A13-1224] He told her that he had received the last of the unemployment checks due him, and that it had been smaller than the previous ones. Mrs. Paine testified that Oswald was extremely discouraged because his wife was expecting a baby, he had no job prospects in sight, and he no longer had any source of income.[A13-1225]

On Monday, Mrs. Paine drove Oswald into Dallas, since she had other business there.[A13-1226] He picked up his bag from Mrs. Bledsoe’s roominghouse[A13-1227] and later that day rented a room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue from Mrs. A. C. Johnson for $8 a week. He registered as O. H. Lee and moved in immediately.[A13-1228] Oswald felt that this room was more comfortable than the previous one, particularly because he had television and refrigerator privileges.[A13-1229] He apparently continued to spend most of his evenings in his room.[A13-1230] He borrowed books from the library[A13-1231] and had subscriptions to various periodicals, including Time, the Worker, the Militant, and some Russian periodicals.[A13-1232]

On that Monday, Mrs. Paine mentioned the Oswalds’ financial and employment problems to neighbors whom she was visiting. Mrs. Linnie Mae Randle, who was also present, remarked that she thought that her younger brother, Buell Wesley Frazier, who worked at the Texas School Book Depository, had said that there was a job opening there. When Marina heard of this, she asked Mrs. Paine to call the Depository to see if there was an opening.[A13-1233] Mrs. Paine called Roy S. Truly, superintendent of the Depository, who indicated that he would talk to Oswald if he would apply in person.[A13-1234] When Oswald telephoned the Paine house on Monday evening, Mrs. Paine told him about this possibility.[A13-1235] On the next day, Oswald was interviewed by Truly and hired in a temporary capacity. He began work on Wednesday, October 16. His duties were to fill book orders; his hours were 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., for which he received $1.25 an hour.[A13-1236]

Both the Oswalds were elated with the new job,[A13-1237] although it apparently required little skill or experience[A13-1238] and he indicated that he still hoped to obtain a better job.[A13-1239] He did a satisfactory job at the Depository,[A13-1240] but he kept to himself and very few of his fellow employees got to know him.[A13-1241]

During his first week at work, Oswald became acquainted with Frazier, with whom he arranged to ride to Irving on weekends.[A13-1242] On Friday, October 18, Frazier drove him from work to the Paine home;[A13-1243] since it was his birthday, Marina and Ruth Paine had arranged a small celebration.[A13-1244] On Sunday, he stayed with June and the Paine children, while Mrs. Paine drove Marina to Parkland Hospital where she gave birth to a second daughter, Rachel.[A13-1245] He went to work on Monday, but that evening visited Marina in the hospital and spent the night in Irving.[A13-1246] Marina wrote:

Monday evening Lee visited me in the hospital. He was very happy at the birth of another daughter and even wept a little. He said that two daughters were better for each other--two sisters. He stayed with me about two hours.[A13-1247]

Oswald returned to Dallas the next morning.[A13-1248]

Oswald wrote to Arnold Johnson of the Communist Party, U.S.A., that on the evening of October 23, he had attended an “ultra right” meeting headed by Gen. Edwin A. Walker.[A13-1249] Two evenings later, he accompanied Michael Paine to a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union, held at Southern Methodist University.[A13-1250] At this meeting, a statement was made to the effect that members of the John Birch Society should not be considered anti-Semitic; Oswald rose and stated that at the meeting which he had attended 2 days earlier, he had heard a number of anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic statements. Later in the evening, Oswald became involved in a discussion with several people, including Frank Krystinik, who was employed with Paine at the Bell Helicopter plant. During this conversation, Oswald expressed Marxist views and declared that he was a Marxist, although denying that he was a Communist. He admitted that the United States was superior to the Soviet Union in the area of civil liberties and praised President Kennedy for his work in that connection.[A13-1251] Krystinik testified that he got the impression that Oswald did not fully understand the views he was expounding.[A13-1252]

Throughout that week Oswald telephoned his wife to inquire about her health and that of the baby. He spent the weekend at the Paine home, to which Marina and Rachel had returned during the week.[A13-1253] On Friday, November 1, he obtained post office box No. 6225 at the Terminal Annex Post Office Station. He indicated that the box would also be used to receive mail for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and the American Civil Liberties Union.[A13-1254] Once again he spent the weekend in Irving.[A13-1255]

Throughout this period, the FBI had been aware of the whereabouts of the Oswalds. There was a record in the Dallas office of the FBI that Oswald subscribed to the Worker, engaged in Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities and had traveled to Mexico.[A13-1256] An FBI agent visited the Paine home on November 1 and, accompanied by another agent, again on November 5, and spoke briefly with Mrs. Paine. On neither occasion was Oswald present.[A13-1257] Ruth Paine noted the agent’s name and telephone number and, in accordance with her husband’s instructions, Marina noted the license number of the agent’s automobile, all of which was subsequenty reported to Oswald.[A13-1258] Both Mrs. Paine and Marina testified that Oswald was troubled by the FBI’s interest in him.[A13-1259] He declared that the FBI was “trying to inhibit” his activities,[A13-1260] and wrote the Soviet Embassy in Washington:

The Federal Bureu of Investigation is not now interested in my activities in the progressive organization “Fair Play for Cuba Committee” of which I was secretary in New Orleans (state Louisiana) since I no longer reside in that state. However, the F.B.I. has visted us here in Dallas, Texas, on November 1st. Agent James P. Hasty warned me that if I engaged in F.P.C.C. activities in Texas the F.B.I. will again take an “interest” in me.

This agent also ‘suggested’ to Marina Nichilayeva that she could remain in the United States under F.B.I. ‘protection’, that is, she could defect from the Soviet Uion, of couse, I and my wife strongly protested these tactics by the notorious F.B.I.

Please inform us of the arrival of our Soviet entrance visa’s as soon as they come.[A13-1261] (See Commission Exhibit 15, p. 311.)

Marina testified that the statements, both by and to the FBI agents, to which her husband referred in this letter, were in fact never made.[A13-1262]

The following Friday, November 8, Oswald as usual drove to the Paine house with Frazier.[A13-1263] On Saturday Mrs. Paine took him to the Texas Drivers’ License Examining Station, but because it was an election day the station was closed. Oswald stayed at the Paines through Monday, November 11, which was Veterans Day. During the weekend, Mrs. Paine gave Oswald a second driving lesson.[A13-1264]

Oswald did not go to Irving on the next weekend. His wife had asked him not to come because Michael Paine, with whom Oswald did not get along, would be there to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. Also, she felt that because he had stayed for 3 days the preceding weekend, he would abuse Mrs. Paine’s hospitality if he returned so soon. Oswald telephoned Marina on Saturday afternoon and said that he had returned to the drivers’ license examining station that morning but had not waited because there was a long line.[A13-1265]

On Sunday, November 17, at Marina’s request, Ruth Paine telephoned Oswald at the Beckley Avenue number, which he had given to Marina. When she asked for him, she was told that no one by that name lived at the address, which greatly surprised her. On the next day, Oswald telephoned his wife. When she indicated that she had been upset by the fact that there had been no Lee Oswald at the number which she had asked Mrs. Paine to call, Oswald became angry; he said that he was using a fictitious name and that she should not have called the Beckley Avenue number.[A13-1266] He did not telephone on the following day, which was unusual.[A13-1267]

On the morning of Thursday, November 21, Oswald asked Frazier to take him to Irving when he went home that evening, saying that he wanted to pick up some curtain rods.[A13-1268] His arrival was a surprise because he generally asked Mrs. Paine’s permission before arriving for a visit.[A13-1269] The women thought that he had come to Irving because he felt badly about arguing with his wife about the use of the fictitious name.[A13-1270] He said that he was lonely, because he had not come the preceding weekend, and told Marina that he “wanted to make his peace” with her.[A13-1271] He spent the time before dinner on the lawn playing with his daughter.[A13-1272] However, when he attempted to talk to his wife she would not answer, which upset him. He asked her to live with him in Dallas, and she refused.[A13-1273] After supper, Oswald watched television while the women cleaned the house and prepared their children for bed.[A13-1274] He retired early in the evening at about 9.[A13-1275]

APPENDIX XIV

Analysis of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Finances From June 13, 1962, Through November 22, 1963

The following analysis of Lee Harvey Oswald’s receipts and expenditures for the period June 13, 1962, through November 22, 1963, contains a complete record of all funds that he and his wife are reported to have received and disbursed from all known sources. It also contains an estimate for food, clothing, and incidental expenses, which include telephone calls, money order and check cashing fees, postage, local transportation costs, personal care goods and services, local newspapers, and similar small items. Oswald’s expenditures for food, clothing, and incidentals were estimated at $100 per month, except for those months in which his wife and children resided with relatives or acquaintances. The estimate reflects Oswald’s frugal living habits during this period, as described in chapter VI of this report. The Commission has been advised by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor that this estimate is a little higher than would be normal for a family in Oswald’s income class residing in the southern region of the United States. (See Commission Exhibit No. 1169.)

Lee Harvey Oswald Receipts and Expenditures June 13, 1962, to Nov. 22, 1963

_Expendi- _Bal- _Receipts_ tures_ ance_ June 1962: On hand on arrival, New York City[A14-1] $63.00 Received from Robert Oswald[A14-2] 200.00 Received from Marguerite Oswald[A14-3] 10.00 Transportation in New York City[A14-4] $10.35 Plane fare, New York City to Dallas, including luggage[A14-5] 201.04 Hotel bill, New York City[A14-6] 15.21 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses[A14-7] 5.00 Public stenographer[A14-8] 10.00 Estimated repayment, Robert Oswald[A14-9] 30.00 ------ ------ Total 273.00 271.60 ====== ====== Cash on hand, June 30, 1962 $1.40

July 1962: Net salary[A14-10] 46.82 Estimated repayment, Robert Oswald[A14-11] 10.00 Subscription for Time magazine[A14-12] 3.87 ------ ------ Total 46.82 13.87 ====== ====== Cash on hand, July 31, 1962 34.35

August 1962: Net salary[A14-13] $207.31 Repayment, State Department loan[A14-14] $10.00 Estimated repayment, Robert Oswald[A14-15] 50.00 Rent and utilities[A14-16] 71.50 Subscription for the Worker[A14-17] 2.00 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses[A14-18] 75.00 ------ ------ Total 207.31 208.50 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Aug. 31, 1962 $33.16

September 1962: Net salary[A14-19] 187.59 Received from Paul Gregory[A14-20] 35.00 Rent and utilities[A14-21] 71.50 Repayment, State Department loan[A14-22] 9.71 Estimated repayment, Robert Oswald[A14-23] 50.00 Subscription for the Russian humor magazine “Krokodil”[A14-24] 2.20 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses 100.00 ------ ------ Total 222.59 233.41 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Sept. 30, 1962 22.34

October 1962: Net salary[A14-25] 228.22 Received from George Bouhe[A14-26] 5.00 Repayment, State Department loan[A14-27] 10.00 Rent, room in YMCA[A14-28] 9.00 Post office box rental[A14-29] 4.50 Estimated repayment, Robert Oswald[A14-30] 60.00 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses[A14-31] 50.00 ------ ------ Total 233.22 133.50 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Oct. 31, 1962 122.06

November 1962: Net salary[A14-32] 315.71 Rent[A14-33] 73.00 Rental of U-Haul Trailer[A14-34] 5.00 Repayment, State Department loan[A14-35] 10.00 Bus fare, Dallas to Fort Worth and return[A14-36] 4.60 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses[A14-37] 50.00 ------ ------ Total 315.71 142.60 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Nov. 30, 1962 295.17

December 1962: Net salary[A14-38] $243.13 Rent[A14-39] $68.00 Post office box rental[A14-40] 4.50 Repayment, State Department loan[A14-41] 190.00 Subscription for the Militant[A14-42] 1.00 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses 100.00 ------ ------ Total 243.13 363.50 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Dec 31, 1962 $174.80

January 1963: Net salary[A14-43] 247.12 Rent and utilities[A14-44] 75.13 Repayment, State Department loan[A14-45] 206.00 Deposit, Smith & Wesson revolver[A14-46] 10.00 Fee paid Crozier Tech High School[A14-47] 9.00 Subscription for Ogonek, Agitator, Sovetskaya Belorussiya[A14-48] 13.20 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses 100.00 ------ ------ Total 247.12 413.33 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Jan. 31, 1963 8.59

February 1963: Net salary[A14-49] 256.95 Rent and utilities[A14-50] 71.64 Subscription for the Worker[A14-51] 7.00 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses 100.00 ------ ------ Total 256.95 178.64 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Feb. 28, 1963 86.90

March 1963: Net salary[A14-52] 327.55 Rent and utilities[A14-53] 78.76 Post office box rental[A14-54] 4.50 Cost of rifle[A14-55] 21.45 Subscription for Time magazine[A14-56] 3.82 Balance due on revolver and freight charge[A14-57] 21.22 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses 100.00 ------ ------ Total 327.55 229.75 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Mar. 31, 1963 184.70

April 1963: Net salary[A14-58] $108.86 Income Tax refund[A14-59] 57.40 Rent and utilities[A14-60] $62.97 Bus fare from Dallas to New Orleans[A14-61] 13.85 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses[A14-62] 100.00 ------ ------ Total 166.26 176.82 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Apr. 30, 1963 $174.14

May 1963: Net salary[A14-63] 107.44 Unemployment compensation check[A14-64] 33.00 Rent and utilities[A14-65] 75.00 Subscription for the Militant[A14-66] 1.00 Dues and printing--Fair Play for Cuba[A14-67] 9.00 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses[A14-68] 100.00 ------ ------ Total 140.44 185.00 ====== ====== Cash on hand, May 31, 1963 129.58

June 1963: Net salary[A14-69] 216.00 Rent and utilities[A14-70] 67.85 Post office box rental[A14-71] 4.00 Printing--Fair Play for Cuba[A14-72] 15.23 New alien registration card[A14-73] 5.00 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses 100.00 ------ ------ Total 216.00 192.08 ====== ====== Cash on hand, June 30, 1963 153.50

July 1963: Net salary[A14-74] 224.97 Rent and utilities[A14-75] 72.22 Printing--Fair Play for Cuba[A14-76] 3.50 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses 100.00 ------ ------ Total 224.97 175.72 ====== ====== Cash on hand, July 31, 1963 202.75

August 1963: Unemployment compensation payments[A14-77] 165.00 Rent and utilities[A14-78] 73.54 Fine[A14-79] 10.00 Distribution, Fair play for Cuba circulars[A14-80] 2.00 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses 100.00 ------ ------ Total 165.00 185.54 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Aug. 31, 1963 182.21

Sept. 1-24, 1963: Unemployment compensation payments[A14-81] $132.00 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses[A14-82] $100.00 ------ ------ Total 132.00 100.00 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Sept. 24, 1963 [A14-83]$214.21

Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 1963: Mexican trip: Estimated transportation cost[A14-84] 50.55 Hotel plus estimated food cost[A14-85] 18.70 Estimated cost of entertainment and miscellaneous items[A14-86] 15.20 ------ Total 84.45 ====== Cash on hand, Oct. 2, 1963 [A14-87]129.76

Oct. 3-31, 1963: Unemployment compensation payments[A14-88] 39.00 Net salary[A14-89] 104.41 Rent, rooms and YMCA[A14-90] 33.25 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses[A14-91] 75.00 ------ ------ Total 143.41 108.25 ====== ====== Cash on hand, Oct. 31, 1963 164.92

Nov. 1-22, 1963: Net salary[A14-92] 104.41 Room rent[A14-93] 24.00 Post office box rental[A14-94] 3.00 American Civil Liberties Union dues[A14-95] 2.00 Bus and taxi fares Nov. 22, 1963[A14-96] 1.23 Estimated cost of food, clothing, and incidental expenses[A14-97] 75.00 ------ ------ Total 104.41 105.23

Cash on hand, Nov. 22, 1963 164.10 ======== ======== ====== Grand total, June 13, 1962- Nov. 22, 1963 3,665.89 3,501.79 164.10 ======== ======== ====== Contents of Oswald’s wallet 170.00 Cash taken from Oswald when arrested 13.87 ------ Total [A14-98]183.87

APPENDIX XV

Transactions Between Lee Harvey Oswald and Marina Oswald, and the U.S. Department of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the U.S. Department of Justice

From September 4, 1959, when he applied for his first passport, until shortly before the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald had numerous dealings with the U.S. Department of State in Washington and with the American Embassy in Moscow. In connection with Marina Oswald’s entry into the United States, the dealings also extended to the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the Department of Justice. During the course of these dealings, the Department of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service were called upon to decide a series of legal and administrative questions which arose under the laws of this country. In order to determine whether Lee Harvey Oswald or his wife received any treatment not accorded others in similar positions, the Commission has examined the manner in which the transactions with the Oswalds were handled and the manner in which the relevant legal questions were resolved. In light of the facts then available and the applicable statutes, regulations, and practices in force at the time, the Commission has found no indication that the treatment accorded the Oswalds was illegal or different in any respect from the treatment that other persons similarly situated would have received.

ISSUANCE OF PASSPORT IN 1959

On September 4, 1959, while on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, Oswald applied for a passport before a clerk of the superior court at Santa Ana, Calif.[A15-1] On the application Oswald stated that he intended to leave the United States for 4 months on approximately September 21, 1959, by ship from New Orleans, La., and that the purposes of his trip would be to attend the Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland[A15-2] and the University of Turku in Finland, and to visit Cuba, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Finland and Russia as a tourist. With the application, Oswald submitted a statement signed by a Marine officer that he was to be discharged from the Corps on September 10, 1959.[A15-3] The passport, No. 1733242, was routinely issued on September 10, 1959.[A15-4] At the time, the United States proscribed travel to none of the countries named in Oswald’s application.

OSWALD’S ATTEMPTS TO RENOUNCE HIS U.S. CITIZENSHIP

American officials in Moscow had no knowledge that Oswald was in Russia until October 31, 1959,[A15-5] more than 2 weeks after he had arrived, since he failed to register at the U.S. Embassy, as Americans traveling through Russia normally did.[A15-6] However, on October 31, 1959, a Saturday, Oswald presented himself at the American Embassy in Moscow.[A15-7] He placed his passport on the receptionist’s desk and informed her that he had come to “dissolve his American citizenship.”[A15-8] She immediately summoned the consul, Richard E. Snyder, who invited Oswald into his office.[A15-9] In the room with Snyder was his assistant, John A. McVickar, who observed what ensued.[A15-10] Snyder recalled Oswald as “neatly and very presentably dressed,”[A15-11] but he also remembered his arrogance. Oswald seemed to “know what his mission was. He took charge, in a sense, of the conversation right from the beginning.”[A15-12]

Oswald stated at once that he was there to renounce his citizenship[A15-13] and that “his allegiance was to the Soviet Union.”[A15-14] He said he had already applied for Soviet citizenship.[A15-15] He said he knew the provisions of American law on loss of citizenship and did not want to hear them reviewed by Snyder.[A15-16] Having taken his passport back from the receptionist, Oswald put it on Snyder’s desk.[A15-17] Snyder noticed that Oswald had inked out the portion which would have shown his address in the United States.[A15-18] Oswald also presented Snyder with a note[A15-19] which he had prepared in advance, which reads:

I Lee Harey Oswald do herby request that my present citizenship in the United States of america, be revoked.

I have entered the Soviet Union for the express purpose of appling for citizenship in the Soviet Union, through the means of naturalization.

My request for citizenship is now pending before Suprem Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

I take these steps for political reasons. My request for the revoking of my American citizenship is made only after the longest and most serious considerations.

I affirm that my allegiance is to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.[A15-20]

Oswald told Snyder that he had not mentioned his intent to remain in the Soviet Union to the Soviet Embassy in Helsinki at the time he had applied for his tourist visa.[A15-21] Oswald’s passport, upon which his Soviet visa was stamped, shows that by the 31st of October he had already overstayed his visa, despite a 1-day extension which he had received.[A15-22]

Oswald gave as his “principal reason” for wanting to renounce his citizenship, “I am a Marxist.”[A15-23] He stated that he admired the system and policies of the Soviet Union and desired to serve the Soviet State, and that his intent to defect to the Soviet Union had been formed long before he was discharged from the Marine Corps.[A15-24] Shortly after the interview, Snyder observed that Oswald had “displayed all the airs of a new sophomore partyliner.”[A15-25] At one point, Oswald alluded to hardships endured by his mother as a “worker” and said he did not intend to let this happen to him.[A15-26] He stated that his Marine service in Okinawa and elsewhere had given him a chance “to observe American imperialism,” and he displayed some resentment at not having been given a higher rank in the Marine Corps.[A15-27] Oswald stated to Snyder that he had voluntarily told Soviet officials that he would make known to them all information concerning the Marine Corps and his specialty therein, radar operation, as he possessed.[A15-28]

Snyder did not permit Oswald to renounce his citizenship at that time. He told Oswald that his renunciation could not be effected on a Saturday, but that if he would return on a day when the Embassy was open for business, the transaction could then be completed.[A15-29] Snyder testified that his real reason for delaying Oswald was that he believed, as a matter of sound professional practice, that no one should be permitted to renounce his American citizenship precipitously; such an act has extremely serious consequences, and, once accomplished, it is irrevocable.[A15-30] Snyder noticed that Oswald was young, apparently not well educated and obviously in a highly emotional state.[A15-31] Snyder testified: “particularly in the case of a minor, I could not imagine myself writing out the renunciation form, and having him sign it, on the spot, without making him leave my office and come back at some other time, even if it is only a few hours intervening.”[A15-32] Snyder’s decision was also influenced by his familiarity with a recent unfavorable incident in which an American citizen by the name of Petrulli had been allowed to renounce his citizenship hastily, without awareness that Petrulli was mentally ill at the time.[A15-33] Snyder was able to persuade Oswald to tell him his home address and the name of his mother, however, by saying that no progress on his renunciation could be made without this information.[A15-34] The State Department has advised that Snyder’s treatment of Oswald “was in line * * * with the general policy of the Department to discourage expatriation of American citizens.”[A15-35]

The same day, the Embassy sent a telegram to the Department of State, advising that Oswald had appeared there in an attempt to renounce his American citizenship, and setting out most of the details of the interview with Snyder.[A15-36] Copies were immediately furnished to the FBI[A15-37] and the CIA.[A15-38] The telegram was followed on November 2, 1959, by an Embassy report addresed to the Department of State,[A15-39] which concluded:

* * * in view of the Petrulli case and other considerations, the Embassy proposes to delay action on Oswald’s request to execute an oath of renunciation to the extent dictated by developments and subject to the Department’s advice.[A15-40]

Copies of this memorandum were also furnished both Federal security agencies.[A15-41]

After having received the telegram of October 31, 1959,[A15-42] but not the Embassy Despatch of November 2, 1959, the State Department on November 2, 1959, sent a telegram to the Moscow Embassy which read in part:

If Oswald insists on renouncing U.S. citizenship, Section 1999 Revised Statutes precludes Embassy withholding right to do so regardless status his application pending Soviet Government and final action taken Petrulli case.[A15-43]

This telegram, like most of the communications from the Department regarding Oswald, was prepared in the Passport Office and cleared by the Office of Eastern European Affairs and the Office of Soviet Union Affairs.[A15-44]

Oswald never returned to the Embassy.[A15-45] On November 6, 1959, the Embassy received[A15-46] a handwritten letter from Oswald on the stationery of the Metropole Hotel, dated November 3, 1959, which read:

I, Lee Harvey Oswald, do hereby request that my present United States citizenship be revoked.

I appeered in person, at the consulate office of the United States Embassy, Moscow, on Oct. 31st, for the purpose of signing the formal papers to this effect. This legal right I was refused at that time.

I wish to protest against this action, and against the conduct of the official of the United States consular service who acted on behalf of the United States government.

My application, requesting that I be considered for citizenship in the Soviet Union is now pending before the Surprem Soviet of the U.S.S.R.. In the event of acceptance, I will request my government to lodge a formal protest regarding this incident.[A15-47]

The Embassy immediately informed the Department of the receipt of this letter and advised that it intended to reply to Oswald by letter telling him that, if he wished, he could appear at the Embassy on any normal business day and request that the necessary expatriation documents be prepared.[A15-48] On the same day, November 6, the Embassy sent Oswald a letter so advising him.[A15-49] From then until November 30 the Embassy attempted to communicate with Oswald on several occasions to deliver messages from his relatives in the United States urging him to reconsider, but he refused to receive the messages or talk to anyone from the Embassy.[A15-50] The messages were therefore sent to him by registered mail.[A15-51]

On November 16, 1959, Priscilla Johnson, an American newspaperwoman stationed in Moscow, interviewed Oswald at the Metropole Hotel.[A15-52] On November 17, 1959, she informed the Embassy of her interview, and the information was recorded in a file memorandum.[A15-53] Oswald told Miss Johnson that he was scheduled to leave Moscow within a few days. She thought that Oswald “may have purposely not carried through his original intent to renounce [citizenship] in order to leave a crack open.”[A15-54] The Embassy accordingly informed the Department of State about 2 weeks later that Oswald had departed from the Hotel Metropole within the last few days.[A15-55] According to his “Historic Diary”[A15-56] and other records available to the Commission,[A15-57] however, Oswald probably did not in fact leave Moscow for Minsk until about January 4, 1960. Miss Johnson’s report of her interview with Oswald was the last information about him which the U.S. Government was to receive until February 13, 1961.[A15-58]

On March 6, 1960, Oswald’s mother asked Representative James C. Wright, Jr., of Texas to help her locate her son. The Congressman forwarded her inquiry to the Department of State, which in turn sent it to the Embassy.[A15-59] In response, the Embassy in Moscow informed the Department on March 28, 1960, that they had had no contact with Oswald since November 9, 1959.[A15-60] The Embassy went on to say that it had no evidence that Oswald had expatriated himself “other than his announced intention to do so.” It believed, therefore, that since Oswald was presumably still an American citizen, the American Government could properly make inquiry concerning him through a note to the Soviet Foreign Office. The Embassy went on to suggest, however, that it would be preferable if Oswald’s mother wrote a letter to her son which could then be forwarded by the Department to the Soviet Government.[A15-61]

The Department replied on May 10, 1960, that no action should be taken in the case other than on a request voluntarily submitted by a member of Oswald’s family.[A15-62] On June 22, a second communication was dispatched, asking whether the Embassy had been able to contact Oswald.[A15-63] On July 6, 1960, the Embassy replied that it had received no further communication with anyone on the subject of Oswald and that in view of the Department’s memorandum of May 10, 1960, it intended to take no further action in the matter.[A15-64] Mrs. Oswald apparently took no steps to follow up on her original inquiry.

Under the procedures in effect in 1960, a “refusal sheet” was prepared in the Department of State Passport Office whenever circumstances created the possibility that a prospective applicant would not be entitled to receive an American passport.[A15-65] The records section of the Passport Office, on the basis of the refusal sheet, would prepare what was known as a lookout card[A15-66] and file it in the lookout file in the Passport Office. Whenever anyone applied for a passport from any city in the world, his application was immediately forwarded to this office, and his name and date of birth checked against the lookout file.[A15-67] If a lookout card was found, appropriate action, including the possible refusal of a passport, was taken.[A15-68] Passport Office procedures also provided that the lookout card would be removed from a prospective applicant’s file whenever facts warranted an unquestioned passport grant.[A15-69]

On March 25, 1960, the Passport Office had made up a “refusal sheet” on Lee Harvey Oswald, typed across which was the explanation that Oswald “may have been naturalized in the Soviet Union or otherwise * * * expatriated himself.”[A15-70] An Operations Memorandum stating the reasons for which the card had been prepared was drawn up on March 28 and also put on file[A15-71] and a copy sent to the Embassy. It advised the Embassy to take no further action on the Oswald case unless it came into possession of evidence upon which to base the preparation of a certificate of loss of nationality. Included in the operations memorandum was the following:

An appropriate notice has been placed in the lookout card section of the Passport Office in the event that Mr. Oswald should apply for documentation at a post outside the Soviet Union.[A15-72]

Despite these indications that a lookout card was prepared, the Department of State on May 18, 1964, informed the Commission that “investigations, to date, failed to reveal any other indication or evidence that a lookout card was ever prepared, modified or removed.” No such card was ever located, and certain file entries indicate that such a card was never prepared.[A15-73]

The State Department has advised the Commission that as of October 1959 the Department had “developed information which might reasonably have caused it to prepare * * * a lookout card for Lee Harvey Oswald.”[A15-74] The Passport Office employee who prepared the refusal sheet for Oswald has suggested as a possible explanation of the failure to prepare a lookout card that between the day she prepared the refusal sheet and the time the records section would normally have prepared the lookout card, Oswald’s file was temporarily pulled from its place because the Department received some additional correspondence from the Embassy. When the file was returned, she suggested, it may have been assumed that the card had already been prepared.[A15-75]

Had a lookout card been prepared on the ground of possible expatriation, it would have been removed and destroyed after the decision was made in 1961 that Oswald had not expatriated himself and thus prior to the time that he applied for a second passport in June 1963. Hence, the Department’s apparent failure to prepare a lookout card on Oswald had no effect on its future actions. As of February 20, 1964, the Department issued additional regulations regarding the manner in which the lookout file is to be handled.[A15-76] On March 14, 1964, a category was established for returned defectors, so that these persons automatically have lookout cards in their files, and on July 27, 1964, the Office of Security of the Department of State issued a procedural study of the lookout-card system, with recommendations.[A15-77]

RETURN AND RENEWAL OF OSWALD’S 1959 PASSPORT

Negotiations Between Oswald and the Embassy

On February 1, 1961, as a result of a visit by Oswald’s mother to the Department of State on January 25, 1961,[A15-78] the Department sent a request to the Moscow Embassy as follows:

The Embassy is requested to inform the [Soviet] Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Mr. Oswald’s mother is worried as to his present safety, and is anxious to hear from him.[A15-79]

The inquiry went to the Embassy by diplomatic pouch and was received in Moscow on February 10 or 11.[A15-80] On February 13, before the Embassy had acted on the Department’s request,[A15-81] the Embassy received an undated letter from Oswald postmarked Minsk, February 5. The letter stated:

Since I have not received a reply to my letter of December 1960, I am writing again asking that you consider my request for the return of my American passport.

I desire to return to the United States, that is if we could come to some agreement concerning the dropping of any legal proceedings against me. If so, than I would be free to ask the Russian authorities to allow me to leave. If I could show them my American passport, I am of the opinion they would give me an exit visa.

They have at no time insisted that I take Russian citizenship. I am living here with non-permanent type papers for a foreigner.

I cannot leave Minsk without permission, therefore I am writing rather than calling in person.

I hope that in recalling the responsibility I have to america that you remember your’s in doing everything you can to help me since I am an american citizen.[A15-82]

Despite Oswald’s reference to his letter of December 1960, there is no indication that he had written to the Embassy previously.[A15-83] Furthermore, his diary refers to his February 1 letter as his “first request” concerning his return to the United States.[A15-84]

On February 28, 1961, the Embassy wrote Oswald that he would have to come to Moscow to discuss the passport and expatriation matters.[A15-85] Then on March 20, 1961, a second letter from Oswald, dated March 12, was received by the Embassy. It read:

In reply to your recent letter. I find it inconvenient to come to Moscow for the sole purpose of an interview.

In my last letter I believe I stated that I cannot leave the city of Minsk without permission.

I believe there exist in the United States also a law in regards to resident foreigners from Socialist countries, traveling between cities.

I do not think it would be appropriate for me to request to leave Minsk in order to visit the American Embassy. In any event, the granting of permission is a long drawn out affair, and I find that there is a hesitation on the part of local officials to even start the process.

I have no intention of abusing my position here, and I am sure you would not want me to.

I see no reasons for any preliminary inquires not to be put in the form of a questionnaire and sent to me.

I understand that personal interviews undobtedly make to work of the Embassy staff lighter, than written correspondence, however, in some cases other means must be employed.[A15-86]

After receiving the first letter postmarked February 5, the Embassy on February 28 forwarded a despatch to the Department informing it of Oswald’s letter and its reply to Oswald. At that time, the Embassy also inquired of the Department whether Oswald would be subject to prosecution on any grounds if he should return to the United States and, if so, whether Oswald should be so informed. The Department was also asked whether there was any objection to returning Oswald’s 1959 passport to him by mail, since that might facilitate his application for a Soviet exit visa.[A15-87] Upon receiving Oswald’s March 20 letter, the Embassy again consulted with Washington. The Embassy proposed that it write Oswald repeating that he must come to Moscow if he wanted to discuss reentering the United States and pointing out that the Soviet government did not object to such visits by American citizens.[A15-88] Such a letter was mailed to Oswald on March 24.[A15-89]

In the meantime, the State Department was considering the Embassy despatch of February 28, 1961.[A15-90] Although a different response was originally recommended by a staff member in the Passport Office,[A15-91] the Department instructed the Embassy on April 13 that for security reasons Oswald’s passport should be given to him only if he personally appeared at the Embassy and that even then he was to receive the document only after a full investigation had been made and the Embassy was satisfied that he had not renounced his American citizenship. Also, he was to present evidence that he had made arrangements to depart from the Soviet Union to travel to the United States, and his passport was to be stamped valid for direct return to the United States only. The Department also told the Embassy that Oswald could not be advised whether or not he would be prosecuted for any possible offenses should he return to the United States.[A15-92] Matters remained in this posture for over a month. During the interim, Oswald met and married Marina Nikolaevna Prusakova.[A15-93]

On May 26, 1961, the Embassy sent a despatch to the Department[A15-94] advising that on May 25, 1961, it had received a letter from Oswald postmarked Moscow, May 16, 1961.[A15-95] In his latest letter Oswald said he wanted “to make it clear” that he was asking for full guarantees that he would not be prosecuted “under any circumstances” should he return to the United States. Oswald went on to say that if the Embassy could not give him these assurances, he would “endeavor to use my relatives in the United States, to see about getting something done in Washington.” He also informed the Embassy that he was married to a Russian woman who would want to accompany him back to his native country, and he once again repeated his reluctance to come to Moscow. The Embassy suggested that it reply to Oswald by repeating that the question of citizenship could only be made on the basis of a personal interview, and by advising Oswald of the requirements and procedures pertaining to his wife’s immigration. The despatch noted that Oswald’s letter referred to his present Soviet internal passport in which he claimed to be designated as “without citizenship,” and observed: “It would appear on this basis that Oswald has not yet expatriated himself under Section 349(a) (1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.” The Embassy inquired whether the Department considered Oswald entitled “to the protection of the United States Government while he continues to reside abroad under present circumstances in the absence of reasonable evidence that he has committed an expatriating act?”

The Department answered the despatch under date of July 11, 1961. It said that it was not entirely clear what the description “without citizenship” means, i.e., “whether he is without Soviet citizenship or without any citizenship.” The instructions continued:

In any event in the absence of evidence showing that Mr. Oswald has definitely lost United States citizenship he apparently maintains that technical status. Whether he is entitled to the protection of the United States pending any further developments concerning his precise status is a matter which will be left to the Embassy’s discretion in the event an emergency situation should arise. In a situation of this kind, not of an emergency nature, the facts should be submitted to the Department.

It is noted that the Embassy intends to seek the Department’s prior advice before granting Mr. Oswald documentation as a United States citizen upon any application he may submit.

The Embassy’s careful attention to the involved case of Mr. Oswald is appreciated * * *[A15-96]

However, on Saturday, July 8, 1961, before the Embassy had received the response from Washington, Oswald appeared without warning at the Embassy in Moscow. Snyder came down to meet Oswald after Oswald called him on the house telephone, and after a brief talk, asked Oswald to return on Monday, July 10.[A15-97] Later that day Oswald telephoned his wife and told her to come to Moscow, which she did the next day.[A15-98] Oswald returned alone to the American Embassy on Monday, where Snyder questioned him about his life in Russia. According to a memorandum which Snyder prepared shortly afterwards:

Twenty months of the realities of life in the Soviet Union have clearly had a maturing effect on Oswald. He stated frankly that he learned a hard lesson the hard way and that he had been completely relieved about his illusions about the Soviet Union * * * Much of the arrogance and bravado which characterized him on his first visit to the Embassy appears to have left him.[A15-99]

Oswald told Snyder that despite the statement he had given him in October 1959, he had never applied for Soviet citizenship, but only for permission to reside in the Soviet Union. He presented his Soviet internal passport, which described him as without citizenship of any kind. Oswald said that he had been employed since January 13, 1960, as a metal worker in the research shop in the Byelorussian Radio and Television Factory in Minsk. He claimed that he had taken no oath of allegiance of any kind, and that he had not been required to sign any papers in connection with this employment. He added that he was not a member of the factory trade union organization. Oswald said that he was earning 90 rubles ($90) a month and that he had saved about 200 rubles ($200) toward travel expenses to the United States. He denied that he had made any derogatory statements concerning the United States to radio, press, or TV in the Soviet Union, and he denied that he had turned over any information to the Russians as he had threatened to do in the 1959 interview with Snyder.[A15-100]

During the course of the interview Oswald filled out an application for renewal of his American passport.[A15-101] The renewal application was required since Oswald’s existing passport would expire on September 10, 1961,[A15-102] and it was extremely unlikely that he would be able to obtain the requisite Soviet departure documents before that time. The renewal application contained a printed statement which set forth, in the disjunctive, a series of acts which, if committed by the applicant, would either automatically disqualify him from receiving a passport on the ground that he had lost his American citizenship, or would raise a question whether he might be so disqualified. The printed statement was preceded by two phrases, “have,” and, “have not,” the first phrase being printed directly above the second. One carbon copy of the application indicates Oswald signed the document after the second phrase, “have not,” had been typed over, thereby apparently admitting that he had committed one or more of the acts which would at least raise a question as to whether he had expatriated himself. Snyder was not able to remember with certainty to which of the acts listed on the statement Oswald’s mark was intended to refer, but believed it may have been to “swearing allegiance to a foreign state.” [A15-103] He points out that the strikeout of “have not” may also have been a clerical error.[A15-104] On the actual signed copy of the application kept in the files of the Moscow Embassy, which is not a carbon copy of the copy sent to the Department, the strikeout is slightly above the “have;” therefore, since the “have” is itself printed above the “have not,” the strikeout may have been intended to obliterate the “have.”[A15-105]

In any event, Oswald filled out the supplementary questionnaire which was required to be completed if the applicant admitted he had performed one or more of the possibly expatriating acts. He signed the questionnaire under oath.[A15-106] Snyder testified that it was routine for any kind of “problem case” to fill out the supplementary questionnaire.[A15-107] The Passport Office employee who processed the Oswald case in Washington testified that she routinely regarded the questionnaire rather than the application itself as the controlling document for expatriation purposes, so that she probably paid no attention to the strikeout.[A15-108]

The pertinent questions included on the questionnaire, with Oswald’s answers, read as follows:

2.(a) Are you known or considered in your community to be a national of the country in which you are residing? _No._ (Yes or No)

(b) If your answer to 2(a) is “No,” explain why not. _On my document for residence in the USSR my nationality is American._

3.(a) Have you ever sought or obtained registration as a national of a foreign country, applied for or obtained a passport, certificate, card document or other benefit therefrom in which you were described as a national of a country other than the United States? _No._ (Yes or No)

(b) If your answer to 3(a) is “Yes,” did you voluntarily seek or claim such benefits? (Yes or No) If “No,” please explain.

_I recived a document for residence in the USSR but I am described as being “Without citizenship.”_

4.(a) Have you ever informed any local or national official of a foreign state that you are a national of the United States? _No._ * * *

(b) If your answer to 4(a) is “No,” explain why not. _On my document for residence in the USSR, my nationality is American._

6.(a) Have you ever taken an oath or made an affirmation or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state? _No._ * * *

8. Have you ever accepted, served in, or performed the duties of any office, post or employment under the government of a foreign state or political subdivision thereof? _No._ * * * _I do not regard factory employment as state employment, as is meant in the question above._[A15-109]

On the basis of these answers, and on the basis of the statements Oswald made orally during the interview, Snyder concluded that Oswald had not lost his citizenship. Snyder therefore handed him back his passport. Pursuant to the instructions from Washington, it was stamped, “This passport is valid only for direct travel to the United States.”[A15-110]

In a despatch dated July 11, 1961,[A15-111] the Embassy informed the Department of State of its conclusion that Oswald had not lost his American citizenship and requested that, if Washington agreed with the conclusion, “the Embassy be authorized to renew Oswald’s passport at its discretion.” The despatch, with which Oswald’s application and supplemental questionnaire[A15-112] were enclosed, informed the Department that Oswald was questioned at length at the Embassy and that no evidence was revealed of any act which might be considered as having caused the loss of his American citizenship.

The Embassy added in the despatch--

It is our intention not to renew it [the passport] without the Department’s prior approval of the enclosed renewal application, and then only upon evidence of a present need for the renewal in connection with his efforts to return to the United States.[A15-113]

Oswald appeared at the Embassy once again on July 11, 1961, this time accompanied by Marina, in order to complete the papers necessary to obtain permission for his wife to enter the United States.[A15-114] In a letter dated July 16, 1961, Oswald informed the American Embassy about his and Marina’s application to the Soviet officials for permission to leave Russia, and described the harassment which Marina was allegedly undergoing because of her attempts to leave the country.[A15-115]

Based upon Snyder’s recommendation and the information in its files, the Passport Office on August 18, 1961, concluded that Oswald had not expatriated himself.[A15-116] Therefore, on that date, the Department of State sent a despatch to the Embassy in Moscow stating that they concurred in the Embassy’s recommendation of July 11, 1961, with respect to Oswald’s citizenship:

We concur in the conclusion of the Embassy that there is available no information and/or evidence to show that Mr. Oswald has expatriated himself under the pertinent laws of the United States.

The renewal of Mr. Oswald’s passport, issued on September 10, 1959, is authorized upon his referenced application if no adverse reason is known, to take place upon his presentation of evidence that he needs such renewal in connection with his efforts to return to the United States as indicated in the final sentence on page 2 of Despatch 29. As requested in the final paragraph of the Despatch the Embassy may perform this citizenship function for Mr. Oswald at its discretion.

Any passport renewal granted to Mr. Oswald should be limited to his passport needs and, as stated in the second paragraph of the Department’s A-173, April 13, 1961 his passport should be made valid for direct return to the United States. The additional precaution set forth in the same paragraph should be observed and his passport should be delivered to him on a personal basis only. When available, a report of his travel data should be submitted, as well as a report of any intervening developments.[A15-117]

On October 12, 1961, the Embassy wrote the Department to inform it of four letters it had received from Oswald dated July 15, August 8, and October 4, and an undated letter received in August. With reference to these letters, the despatch noted:

* * * that Oswald is having difficulty in obtaining exit visas for himself and his Soviet wife, and that they are subject to increasing harassment in Minsk. In replying to Oswald’s latest letter, the Embassy pointed out that it has no way of influencing Soviet action on exit visas. It informed him that the question of his passport renewal could be discussed with him personally at the Embassy. In answer to Oswald’s question, the Embassy notified him that the petition to classify his wife’s status had not yet been approved.[A15-118]

The Department on December 28, 1961, informed the Embassy that the Passport Office approved the manner of the Embassy’s reply to Mr. Oswald with respect “to his receiving further passport facilities.”[A15-119] After a further exchange of correspondence between Oswald and the Embassy, dealing primarily with Oswald’s difficulties in obtaining the necessary Soviet clearance, his impatience in receiving American approval for Marina’s entry into the United States, and his efforts to obtain a repatriation loan,[A15-120] the passport problem was finally concluded on May 24, 1962, when the Embassy renewed Oswald’s passport for 30 days, stamped it valid for direct return to the United States only and handed it to him.[A15-121] A week later he used it to return to the United States.[A15-122]

The decision that Oswald was entitled to a new passport because he had not expatriated himself was made for the Embassy by the consul, Richard E. Snyder.[A15-123] For the Department it was made initially by Miss Bernice L. Waterman, a worker in the Passport Office for 36 years, and was then approved by her area chief, by the head of the Foreign Operations Division, and by the Legal Division of the Passport Office.[A15-124] Snyder and Miss Waterman have both testified that they reached their decisions independently and without influence from any other person.[A15-125] The Director of the Passport Office and the Legal Adviser to the State Department both stated that after a review of the record they concluded that Oswald had not expatriated himself and that Snyder and Waterman, therefore, acted correctly.[A15-126]

Legal Justification for the Return and Reissue of Oswald’s Passport

Since he was born in the United States, Oswald was an American citizen.[A15-127] However, Congress has provided that by performing certain acts, a person may forfeit his American citizenship. Thus Oswald would have become expatriated while in Russia if he obtained naturalization in the Soviet Union, renounced U.S. nationality, took an oath of allegiance to the Soviet Union, or voluntarily worked for the Soviet Government in a post requiring that the employee take an oath of allegiance.

_Naturalization in a foreign state._--Section 349(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 provides that a U.S. citizen shall lose his nationality by “obtaining naturalization in a foreign state upon his own application * * *.”[A15-128] Although Oswald applied for Soviet citizenship, he never received it.[A15-129] Thus, Oswald did not expatriate himself under section 349(a)(1).

_Formal renunciation of U.S. nationality._--Section 349(a)(6) of the act provides that a U.S. citizen shall lose his citizenship by:

* * * making a formal renunciation of nationality before a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States in a foreign state, in such form as may be prescribed by the Secretary of State.[A15-130]

In accordance with this statute, the Secretary has promulgated regulations prescribing the manner in which renunciation is to be effected.[A15-131] The regulations provide, among other things, that 4 copies of the renunciation form are to be executed and the original and one copy sent to the Department. The Department must then approve the form and advise the appropriate consular official, who may then furnish a copy of the form to the person to whom it relates. The form itself requires the person to subscribe it in the presence of a consular official, and it must also be signed by this official.[A15-132]

Though in 1959 Oswald clearly stated to officials at the American Embassy, both orally and in writing, that he desired to renounce his U.S. citizenship, he at no time took the steps required by the statute and regulations to effect his renunciation. Oswald did not execute the proper forms, he did not sign his letter of October 31 or November 3, 1959, in the presence of a consular official, and neither letter was signed by such an official.[A15-133] Because section 349(a)(6) in terms requires compliance with the form prescribed by the Secretary of State, Oswald did not expatriate himself under that section.

_Oath of allegiance to a foreign state._--Section 349(a)(2) of the act provides that a U.S. citizen shall lose his nationality by:

* * * taking an oath or making an affirmation or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof.[A15-134]

In his letter of October 31, 1959, Oswald wrote: “I affirm that my allegiance is to the union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”[A15-135] Both in this letter and in his letter of November 3, 1959, he stated that his application for citizenship in the Soviet Union was pending before the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.[A15-136]

Oswald’s letters no doubt were intended to express allegiance to the Soviet Union in a manner inconsistent with continued allegiance to the United States, as the statute has been held to require.[A15-137] However, since 1940, it has been well established that in order for an oath of allegiance to a foreign state to work an expatriation from the United States, it must be given to an official of the foreign state, and not to a party unconnected with the foreign state.[A15-138] This requirement can be viewed as a necessary corollary of the broader, but less clearly established, principle that the oath must be taken in accord with the requirements of the foreign state.[A15-139] Although Lee Harvey Oswald wrote that his allegiance was to the Soviet Union,[A15-140] there is no indication that he had ever actually taken an oath or declaration or that any such oath was taken before an official of the Soviet Government. He, therefore, did not expatriate himself under section 349(a)(2).

_Employment under the government of a foreign state._--Section 349(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 provides that a U.S. citizen shall lose his nationality by:

(a) accepting, serving in, or performing the duties of any office, post, or employment under the government of a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof, if he has or acquires the nationality of such foreign state; or (b) accepting, serving in, or performing the duties of any office, post of employment under the government of a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof, for which office, post, or employment an oath, affirmation, or declaration of allegiance is required. * * *[A15-141]

While Oswald was employed in a state-owned factory in Minsk, he did not acquire Russian nationality, and there is no indication that he had to take any oath when he obtained this employment.[A15-142] Furthermore, prior judicial decisions indicate that merely working in a government-owned factory does not result in expatriation even if an oath was required to be taken in connection with such employment.[A15-143] Several cases decided under an earlier but similar statutory provision held that where a person took a government job in order to subsist, such employment was considered involuntary since it was based on economic duress, and thus it did not result in expatriation.[A15-144] Thus, Oswald did not expatriate himself under section 349(a)(4).

The Commission therefore concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald had not expatriated himself by any acts performed between October 16, 1959, and May 1962, and concurs in the opinion of the State Department that his passport was properly returned to him in July 1961 and properly reissued in May 1962.

AUTHORIZATION FOR MARINA OSWALD TO ENTER THE UNITED STATES

Negotiations Between Oswald and the Embassy

On July 11, 1961, Oswald and his wife appeared at the Embassy in Moscow before John A. McVickar.[A15-145] Together they executed papers to set in motion the procedures for her admittance to the United States as a nonquota immigrant under the provisions applicable to the wife of an American citizen.[A15-146] The interview was routine. McVickar asked Marina whether she was a member of any Communist organization and she replied that she was a member of the Trade Union of Medical Workers[A15-147] but she denied she was or ever had been a member of the Komsomol,[A15-148] the Communist youth organization, or any other Communist organization.[A15-149] Marina Oswald has since admitted to the Commission that at one time she was a member of The Komsomol, but was expelled, according to her testimony, when it was learned that she intended to accompany her husband to the United States.[A15-150] The Embassy forwarded the papers pertaining to her application to the State Department on August 28, 1961.[A15-151]

Marina Oswald’s ability to obtain a nonquota immigrant visa depended on the favorable resolution of 3 questions. First, it had to be determined that she was the wife of an American citizen,[A15-152] which depended on whether her husband had expatriated himself. Second, it was necessary to determine that she was not and had not been affiliated with a Communist organization on other than an involuntary basis.[A15-153] Third, it had to be determined that she was not likely to become a public charge after she was admitted to the United States.[A15-154] Section 243(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act[A15-155] presented a fourth issue. This section of the act prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas by American Consuls stationed in countries which have refused to accept or have unduly delayed accepting the return of persons sought to be deported from the United States. The Soviet Union had been designated as such a country in 1953. However, the sanctions of section 243(g) are often waived; and even if they were not waived in Marina’s case, she could obtain her visa at an American Embassy in some other country on her way from the Soviet Union to the United States, if she were otherwise entitled to the visa.[A15-156]

In a despatch dated August 28, 1961, the Embassy requested from the Department a security advisory opinion on Marina Oswald’s application to enter the United States. The Embassy wrote:

A favorable advisory opinion and approval of * * * [Mrs. Oswald’s] petition is recommended together with a waiver of the sanctions imposed by section 243(g) of the Act. * * *

In connection with her employment and her professional training, she has been a member of the Soviet Trade Union for Medical Workers since 1957. Such membership is routinely considered to be involuntary. * * *[A15-157]

The Department initiated a check on Marina Oswald with the CIA, the FBI, the Department’s own Office of Security, and Passport Office.[A15-158] The security check turned up no derogatory information on her, so that in early October 1961 the Department cabled Moscow that the available information concerning the applicant established her eligibility to enter the country as a nonquota immigrant.[A15-159]

The Department’s decision assumed that prior to obtaining her visa to enter the United States, Marina Oswald would provide some reasonable assurance that she was not likely to become a public charge after she had arrived there. The Department later encountered some difficulty in deciding that she had met this requirement. She knew no one in the United States other than the members of her husband’s family, and they lacked the means to furnish any substantial financial guarantees. After considerable correspondence on the matter with Oswald[A15-160] and with the Department,[A15-161] the Embassy decided to accept Oswald’s own affidavit to support his wife as sufficient assurance that she would not become a public charge. The Embassy’s reasons were set forth in a memorandum dated March 16, 1962:

It appears that * * * [Oswald] can find no one in the United States who is able and willing to execute an affidavit of support for his wife. Furthermore, Oswald has been able to obtain no concrete offer of employment in the United States. On the other hand, he is trained in a trade which should make him readily employable and he and his family will be able to live with his mother in Texas until he has found work and become otherwise settled. Taking into consideration the latter factors, Oswald’s legal obligation to support his wife, and the unusual circumstances of the case which make it difficult for Oswald to provide the usual financial evidence, the responsible consular officer * * * [is] willing to accept Oswald’s unsubstantiated affidavit as sufficient to overcome the public charge provisions of the law.[A15-162]

The necessity of relying solely upon Oswald’s own affidavit, however, was eliminated somewhat later when the Department received an affidavit of support from the employer of Oswald’s mother in Vernon, Tex.[A15-163]

By law the Attorney General must also pass upon an applicant’s eligibility, and this responsibility has been delegated to the District Directors of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.[A15-164] The machinery to get approval of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for Marina Oswald’s admission to the United States was set in motion on October 6, 1961. On that date the Visa Office of the Department of State sent a letter to the District Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Dallas, Tex., requesting the Service to take action on her immigrant visa.[A15-165] The letter transmitted her marriage certificate, a check for $10 from Lee Harvey Oswald, and a “Petition to Classify Status of Alien For Issuance of Immigrant Visa.” The petition was signed by Oswald and was on behalf of Marina, asking that she be classified in “the status of the alien beneficiary for issuance of an immigrant visa as * * * the spouse of a United States citizen.”[A15-166] The letter from the Visa Office stated:

Mrs. Oswald has been the object of an investigation by the Department and has been found, in the Department’s opinion, not ineligible to secure a visa.[A15-167]

On the basis of this communication, the Immigration and Naturalization Service at its Dallas, Tex., office instituted a field investigation on Lee Harvey Oswald.[A15-168] Routine checks with the Federal Security agencies and with local law enforcement authorities turned up no new derogatory information, and no evidence was uncovered that Oswald was ever a member of the Communist Party or other subversive groups.[A15-169] A record check was made in New Orleans, La., and a birth certificate was found for Lee Harvey Oswald, proving that he was an American citizen by birth.[A15-170] On October 17, 1961, an investigator from the Dallas office interviewed Oswald’s brother, Robert, who expressed the view that Lee was just a “mixed up kid” who had emigrated to Russia because he had become embittered, possibly over something that had happened while he was in the Marine Corps.[A15-171]

On January 25, 1962, the results of the field investigation in Dallas were consolidated in a report[A15-172] which, with a covering memorandum,[A15-173] was sent to the District Director of the Service in San Antonio the next day. The accompanying memorandum noted that the immigrant inspector who processed the case had endorsed it “approved,” but the author of the memorandum overruled the decision of the inspector on the grounds that the sanctions under section 243(g) should not be waived.[A15-174] The reasons for denying the waiver were stated as follows:

OI [Operations Instructions] 205.3, as you know, provides that the District Director may waive sanctions in an individual meritorious case for a beneficiary of a petition filed by a reputable relative where no substantial derogatory security information is developed. I am of the opinion that both of these restrictions are present in this case.[A15-175]

On January 30, 1962, the District Director at San Antonio affirmed the decision of the Dallas office, including the decision that the sanctions imposed under section 243(g) not be waived.[A15-176] He concluded that Oswald’s recent statements to the American Embassy in Moscow to the effect that he had learned from his experiences in Russia were not sufficient to relieve the doubts which were raised regarding his loyalty to the United States by the arrogant, anti-American statements he made when he entered Russia in 1959.[A15-177]

San Antonio forwarded its decision to Washington in a letter dated January 31, 1962, in which Marina Oswald’s petition and all the aforementioned memoranda and reports were included.[A15-178] However, because Washington had previously indicated its impatience at not yet having received anything on the Oswald case, the San Antonio office also telegraphed its decision to Washington about a week later,[A15-179] the telegram, presumably being received by Washington before the letter of January 31. The Washington copy of this telegram has a handwritten note on the lower portion which indicates that on February 12 an officer in the Visa Office of the State Department informed the Immigration and Naturalization Service by telephone: “Political desk of opinion, we’re better off with subject in U.S. than in Russia.”[A15-180]

Nonetheless, the Washington office of the Service concurred in the field decision that the provisions of section 243(g) should not be waived.[A15-181] However, the Washington office pointed out that the correct disposition should be not to deny the visa petition as the field offices had proposed, but to grant the petition and indorse it to read, “Waiver of sanctions imposed under section 243(g) of the Act is not authorized.”[A15-182]

On February 28, 1962, the Dallas office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service notified the Department of State in Washington and the American Embassy in Moscow of this disposition. The communication from the Dallas office noted that Oswald “has been notified at his Minsk, Russia, address of the approval of the petition in his wife’s behalf.”[A15-183] Oswald later told the Embassy that he had received the notice on March 15.[A15-184] On March 9, 1962, the Department of State also notified the Embassy in Moscow that Oswald’s wife was entitled to nonquota status but that the Immigration and Naturalization Service would not waive section 243(g) of the Act. The Embassy was told to inform Oswald of this fact if he asked about it. The memorandum indicated that the Embassy might suggest that Marina could proceed to some other country to file her visa application and thus avoid the sanction.[A15-185]

The Moscow Embassy on March 16, 1962, asked the Embassy at Brussels if Mrs. Oswald could obtain her visa in Brussels.[A15-186] The Brussels Embassy replied affirmatively and said a visa could be issued to Marina within 2 or 3 days of her arrival.[A15-187] The Marina Oswald file accordingly was sent to the Embassy at Brussels.[A15-188]

The plan to obtain the visa in Belgium was rendered unnecessary, however, when the Immigration and Naturalization Service reversed its position regarding the waiver of section 243(g). On March 16, the Soviet desk at the Department of State took initial action to attempt to secure such a change by sending a memorandum to the Visa Office within the Department, urging that the Immigration and Naturalization Service be asked to reconsider its decision.[A15-189] According to this memorandum:

SOV believes it is in the interest of the U.S. to get Lee Harvey Oswald and his family out of the Soviet Union and on their way to this country as soon as possible. An unstable character, whose actions are entirely unpredictable, Oswald may well refuse to leave the USSR or subsequently attempt to return there if we should make it impossible for him to be accompanied from Moscow by his wife and child.

Such action on our part also would permit the Soviet Government to argue that, although it had issued an exit visa to Mrs. Oswald to prevent the separation of a family, the United States Government had imposed a forced separation by refusing to issue her a visa. Obviously, this would weaken our Embassy’s position in encouraging positive Soviet action in other cases involving Soviet citizen relatives of U.S. citizens.[A15-190]

Soon thereafter, however, the Department of State notified its Moscow Embassy that the decision was under review and instructed it to withhold action pending the outcome of the reconsideration.[A15-191]

The Visa Office first contacted the Washington office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service informally, and was advised, according to a contemporaneous notation:

* * * that case had been carefully considered and decision made at Assistant or Deputy Associate Commissioner level. Therefore, although not wishing to comment on likelihood of reversal, [INS officer] felt that any letter requesting a review of the case should come from the Director or Acting Administrator.[A15-192]

On March 27, 1962, such a letter was written from an acting administrator in the Department of State to the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization. The letter read in part:

I appreciate the difficulty this case presents for your Service, because of Mr. Oswald’s background, and the fact that granting a waiver of the sanction makes it appear that this Government is assisting a person who is not altogether entitled to such assistance. However, if the Embassy at Moscow is unable to issue Mrs. Oswald a visa, it would appear that she and indirectly the Oswalds’ newborn child are being punished for Mr. Oswald’s earlier indiscretions. I might also point out that this Government has advanced Mr. Oswald a loan of $500.00 for repatriation.

More important, however, is the possibility that if Mrs. Oswald is not issued a visa by the Embassy, the Soviet Government will be in a position to claim that it has done all it can to prevent the separation of the family by issuing Mrs. Oswald the required exit permission, but that this Government has refused to issue her a visa, thus preventing her from accompanying her husband and child. This would weaken the Embassy’s attempts to encourage positive action by the Soviet authorities in other cases involving Soviet relatives of United States citizens.

Because of these considerations and because I believe it is in the best interests of the United States to have Mr. Oswald depart from the Soviet Union as soon as possible, I request that the section 243(g) sanction be waived in Mrs. Oswald’s case.[A15-193]

The Immigration and Naturalization Service ultimately reversed its original position and granted the waiver on May 9, 1962. The letter reversing its initial decision states that the matter has been “carefully reviewed in this office” and that “in view of the strong representations” made in the letter of March 27, the sanctions imposed pursuant to section 243(g) were thereby waived in behalf of Mrs. Oswald.[A15-194]

Actually, the Office of Soviet Affairs had informally learned on May 8 that the May 9 letter would be signed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.[A15-195] On the strength of the assurance that a written reversal would be forthcoming immediately, the State Department quickly telegraphed the Moscow Embassy reporting that the waiver had been granted.[A15-196] Marina Oswald completed her processing when she, her husband, and daughter came to Moscow in May 1962 on their way from Minsk to the United States.[A15-197]

Legal Justification for the Decisions Affecting Marina Oswald

_Wife of a citizen of the United States._--Section 205 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 provides for the admission into the United States of persons married to American citizens.[A15-198] Once it was determined that Lee Harvey Oswald was born in the United States[A15-199] and had not expatriated himself, his American citizenship was established. Marina Oswald submitted a marriage certificate to show that she was his wife.[A15-200] This requirement was, therefore, satisfied.

_Assurance that Marina Oswald would not become a public charge._--Section 212(a)(15) of the act provides that aliens will not be admitted to the United States if, in the opinion of the responsible Government official, they “are likely at any time to become public charges.”[A15-201] The pertinent Department of State regulations provide that a determination to exclude an alien for this reason must be “predicated upon circumstances which indicate that the alien will probably become a charge upon the public after entry into the United States.”[A15-202]

In 1962, Oswald was 22 years old and in good health. He had lived in the United States for 17 years before joining the Marine Corps and was, therefore, familiar with its language and customs. He had gained job experience by working 2½ years in a factory which produced electronic equipment. Under these circumstances the Department was not unreasonable in concluding that Oswald’s own affidavit that he would support his wife was sufficient assurance that she was not likely to become a charge upon the public after her entry into the United States. The receipt of the affidavit from Marguerite Oswald’s employer provided a possible alternative basis for reaching this decision, but since a favorable ruling had already been made on the basis of Oswald’s affidavit, the Embassy had no reason to consider the sufficiency of the second affidavit.

_Membership in a Communist organization._--Under section 212(a) (28) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, an alien will not be admitted to the United States if he is or was a member of, or affiliated with, a Communist organization unless:

* * * such an alien establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer when applying for a visa and the consular officer finds that (i) such membership or application is or was involuntary, or is or was solely when under sixteen years of age, by operation of law, or for purposes of obtaining employment, food rations, or other essentials of living and where necessary for such purposes * * *[A15-203]

At the time Marina Oswald applied for a visa she was a member of the Soviet Trade Union for Medical Workers.[A15-204] According to the Department of State, the

* * * long-standing interpretation [of the statute] concurred in by the State and Justice Departments [is] that membership in a professional organization or trade union behind the Iron Curtain is considered involuntary unless the membership is accompanied by some indication of voluntariness, such as active participation in the organization’s activities or holding an office in the organization.[A15-205]

Since there was no evidence that Marina Oswald actively participated in the union’s activities or held an office in the organization, her union membership was properly held not to bar her admission to this country.

Although Marina Oswald declared that she was not a member of the Komsomol or any other Communist organization, she was in fact a member of the Komsomol, the Communist youth organization.[A15-206] If this fact had been known to the State Department, Marina Oswald would not necessarily have been denied a visa, although a careful investigation into the nature of the membership would have been required.[A15-207] However, had her membership in the Komsomol become known to the Department after her denial of such membership, it is possible that she would have been excluded from the United States on the ground of having willfully misrepresented a material fact.[A15-208]

Judicial decisions are not in agreement as to what constitutes a “material fact” such that its intentional misrepresentation warrants exclusion of the alien.[A15-209] Some cases indicate that a misrepresentation in an application for a visa involves a material fact even if the alien would not definitely have been excluded on the true facts;[A15-210] others hold that a misstatement is material only if it referred to such facts as would have justified refusing the visa had they been disclosed.[A15-211] The Visa Office of the Department of State has announced that it applies a “rule of probability” under which a misstatement will be deemed material only if it concealed facts which probably would have resulted in a denial of a visa.[A15-212]

_Waiver of the provisions of section 243(g)._--Section 243(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, by its terms, prevented issuance of a visa to Marina Oswald by the Moscow Embassy. The section provides that upon notification of the Secretary of State by the Attorney General that a country has refused or unduly delayed the acceptance of a deportable alien from the United States who is a subject or was a resident of that country, consular officers in such country are not to issue visas to citizens of the country. The section had been invoked against Russia on May 26, 1953. Nonetheless, although section 243(g) does not contain an express provision for waiver, the Justice Department has concluded that the Attorney General possesses such waiver powers.[A15-213] Pursuant to this decision, the Department has granted waivers in over 600 cases from the Soviet Union since 1953.[A15-214] The waiver procedures followed in 1962 were prescribed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The relevant provision reads:

Before adjudicating a petition for an eligible beneficiary residing in the USSR, Czechoslovakia or Hungary, against which sanctions have been imposed, the district director shall obtain a report of investigation regarding the petitioner which shall include an affiliation of a subversive nature disclosed by a neighborhood investigation, local agency records and responses to Form G-135a. * * * If no substantial derogatory security information is developed, the district director may waive the sanctions in an individual meritorious case for a beneficiary of a petition filed by a reputable relative to accord status under Section 101(a)(27) (A) or Section 203(a) (2), (3) or (4). * * * If substantial adverse security information relating to the petitioner is developed, the visa petition shall be processed on its merits and certified to the regional commissioner for determination whether the sanctions should be waived. The assistant commissioner shall endorse the petition to show whether the Waiver is granted or denied, and forward it and notify the appropriate field office of the action taken. * * *[A15-215]

State Department regulations are much less explicit.[A15-216] The State Department’s visa instructions for the guidance of consular officers provide, “The sanctions will be waived only in individual meritorious cases in behalf of a beneficiary of a petition filed by a reputable relative pursuant to [sections] of the act.”[A15-217]

Because Lee Harvey Oswald signed the petition on Marina’s behalf, his character was relevant to whether the sanctions of section 243(g) could be waived for her. The file on Lee Harvey Oswald which was maintained by the Department of State and made available to the Department of Justice for purposes of passing on his wife’s application contained the facts relating to Oswald’s attempted expatriation. However, despite the derogatory material in the Oswald file, the Immigration and Naturalization Service regulations did not require automatic denial of the waiver; they provided only that if adverse security information were developed, “the visa petition shall be processed on its merits and certified to the regional commissioner for determination whether the sanctions should be waived.” This procedure was followed in Marina’s case and the factors considered in reaching the decision do not appear to be inappropriate. The State Department successfully urged that the original decision of the Immigration and Naturalization Service be reversed because this would be in the best interests of future United States dealings with the Soviet Union on behalf of American citizens, and because it seemed unfair to punish Lee Harvey Oswald’s wife and baby for his own earlier errors.[A15-218] Prevention of the separation of families is among the most common reasons underlying the frequent waivers of section 243(g).[A15-219]

OSWALD’S LETTER TO SENATOR TOWER

Sometime shortly before January 26, 1962, an undated letter from Lee Harvey Oswald was received in the office of the U.S. Senator from Texas, John G. Tower.[A15-220] The letter reads as follows:

My name is Lee Harvey Oswald, 22, of Fort Worth up till October 1959, when I came to the Soviet Union for a residenaul stay. I took a residenual document for a non-Soviet person living for a time in the USSR. The American Embassy in Moscow is familier with my case

Since July 20th 1960, I have unsucessfully applied for a Soviet Exit Visa to leave this country, the Soviets refuse to permit me and my Soviet wife, (who applied at the U.S. Embassy Moscow, July 8, 1960 for immigration status to the U.S.A.) to leave the Soviet Union. I am a citizen of the United States of America (passport No. 1733242, 1959) and I bessech you, Senator Tower, to rise the question of holding by the Soviet Union of a citizen of the U.S., against his will and expressed desires.[A15-221]

The letter was read in Senator Tower’s office by a caseworker on his staff. According to the caseworker and the Senator’s press secretary, the letter was forwarded as a matter of routine on January 26 to the Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations, Department of State. The letter was forwarded with a cover letter, machine signed by the Senator, stating that he did “not know Oswald, or any of the facts concerning his reasons for visiting the Soviet Union; nor what action, if any, this Government can or should take on his behalf.” The cover letter pointed out that Oswald’s inquiry should have gone to the executive branch of the Government and that for this reason the Senator was forwarding it “for whatever action the Department may consider appropriate.”[A15-222] On February 1 an officer at the Department of State telephoned the Senator’s office and spoke briefly with the caseworker on the Oswald case. She made a memorandum of the call which notes, “Senator should not become involved in such case--therefore State will report to us the course which they follow regarding Lee Harvey Oswalt [sic].”[A15-223] About a week later the Department of State forwarded to Senator Tower copies of some of the correspondence which the Department had had with Oswald and informed the Senator that if he wished to be kept informed on further developments regarding Oswald he could contact the Department of State.[A15-224] Neither the Senator nor any member of his staff contacted the Department again nor did they take any other action in respect to the matter.[A15-225]

THE LOAN FROM THE STATE DEPARTMENT

In a letter dated January 5, 1962, Oswald said that he would like to make arrangements for a loan from the Embassy or some private organization for part of the airplane fares.[A15-226] The Embassy on February 6, 1962, replied that he would have to supply certain personal and financial data.[A15-227] The letter also said that after repatriation he would not be furnished a passport for travel abroad until he had repaid the money.

Between February 6, 1962, and May 1, 1962, Oswald attempted to secure a loan from the Red Cross[A15-228] and the International Rescue Committee[A15-229] in the United States. The State Department on February 1 wrote Oswald’s mother a letter asking whether she could advance the money.[A15-230] Oswald later wrote both his mother and the Department advising each that his mother should not be bothered in reference to the loan.[A15-231] Ultimately, after an exchange of communications between the Embassy and Washington,[A15-232] the Department approved a loan to Oswald for passage to New York only, directing the Embassy to “Keep cost minimum.”[A15-233] On June 1 Oswald signed a promissory note for $435.71.[A15-234]

Statutory authority for making such a loan was conferred by title 5, section 170(a), of the U.S. Code, which authorizes the Secretary of State to “make expenditures, from such amounts as may be specifically appropriated therefor, for unforeseen emergencies arising in the diplomatic and consular service.” Since 1947, the Department of State’s annual appropriation act has included a sum for expenses necessary “to enable the Secretary of State to meet unforeseen emergencies arising in the Diplomatic and Consular Service. * * *”[A15-235] In recent years, the accompanying reports submitted by the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives have stated, “These funds are used for relief and repatriation loans to the U.S. citizens abroad and for other emergencies of the Department.”[A15-236] Out of the amount appropriated to meet unforeseen emergencies arising in the Diplomatic and Consular Service, the Secretary of State has annually allotted approximately $100,000 to meet the expenses of indigent U.S. nationals, including those in the Soviet Union, who request repatriation loans. From 1959 to 1963, 2,343 such loans were granted.[A15-237]

Section 423.2-1 of the Department’s regulations provides that repatriation loans may be granted only to destitute U.S. nationals:

a. Who are in complete and unquestioned possession of their citizenship rights;

b. Who are entitled to receive United States passports;