President's Commission on the Assassination of - The Warren Commission (Complete Edition)

Mr. Oswald. There are three signatures.

Mr. Jenner. Are you familiar with all of them?

Mr. Oswald. May I ask my attorney something here?

Mr. Jenner. Surely.

Mr. McKenzie. Mr. Jenner, if I may interrupt you, and pardon me for doing so—on page 3 there is likewise a signature. And I think perhaps he should start at that page.

Mr. Jenner. That is a fine suggestion.

Will you now refer to page 3. Does it bear a signature?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; it does.

Mr. Jenner. Are you familiar with that signature?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I am.

Mr. Jenner. Whose signature is it?

Mr. Oswald. Mrs. Marina N. Oswald.

Mr. Jenner. Turn to page 4. There are several signatures on that page, is that correct?

Mr. Oswald. That is correct. There are three.

Mr. Jenner. Are you familiar with any of them?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I am.

Mr. Jenner. Would you take them in order, taking the uppermost one first. Indicate whether you are familiar with that signature, and whose signature it is.

Mr. Oswald. It is my own signature, Robert Oswald.

Mr. Jenner. The next under that?

Mr. Oswald. Mr. James H. Martin.

Mr. Jenner. Are you familiar with that signature?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. And it is his signature?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Who is Mr. James H. Martin?

Mr. Oswald. He was, at that time, when this contract was signed, appointed as Marina's business agent. But employed at the Inn of the Six Flags at Arlington, Tex.

Mr. Jenner. He has been identified in previous sessions before the Commission.

And there is a third signature?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; there is.

Mr. Jenner. And are you familiar with that signature?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I am.

Mr. Jenner. Whose is it, please?

Mr. Oswald. Mr. John M. Thorne, Attorney.

Mr. Jenner. And he is the Mr. Thorne that we have identified a few moments ago?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. He was at that time the attorney for Mrs. Marina Oswald?

Mr. Oswald. That is correct.

Mr. Jenner. Is there a fourth signature?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; there is not.

Mr. Jenner. Were those signatures affixed in your presence?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; they were.

Mr. Dulles. Mr. Jenner, I believe these are photostatic copies, are they not, that are being identified?

Mr. Jenner. Yes, sir.

Mr. McKenzie, would you please make a statement with respect to that?

Mr. McKenzie. Yes, sir. I was going to at this time, Mr. Jenner, state for the record that Exhibit 276 is a photostatic copy. And this photostatic copy was furnished to me by Mrs. Marina N. Oswald.

Mr. Dulles. Where is the original of that?

Mr. McKenzie. Marina N. Oswald has the original.

Mr. Dulles. Has that been so compared, that we know this is a true copy?

Mr. McKenzie. Mr. Chairman. Pardon me.

I retract that statement.

Marina N. Oswald furnished to me a copy of this exhibit, but it was a signed copy, and it was an original copy.

Mr. Jenner. A duplicate original?

Mr. McKenzie. Yes. And I presume Mr. James Martin had the original, since it is addressed to him.

Mr. Dulles. And both the original and this duplicate bear these signatures, do they?

Mr. McKenzie. I have never seen the original, sir, but I presume that they do. And I think Robert Oswald here can clarify that, because he was present at the time that the original was signed, and also the duplicate copies.

Mr. Oswald. That is correct.

Mr. Dulles. And the duplicates were signed by the same parties as the original?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Representative Ford. May I ask—did you get a copy of the original at the time?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir. I received a copy in the mail the second day after the signatures were signed. My copies were unsigned.

Mr. Jenner. Mr. Oswald, were you present when all of the copies were contemporaneously signed, if they were contemporaneously signed?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I was.

Mr. Jenner. So you know of your own knowledge that what has been termed here the original, which may be in the possession of Mr. Martin, was signed, and was signed in your presence?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. And the document which we are now discussing is a photostatic copy of a carbon copy of the original?

Mr. Oswald. That is correct.

Mr. Jenner. Executed contemporaneously with the original?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Would you have any further questions?

Mr. Dulles. No, I have no further questions.

Shall we admit this at this time, or do you want to wait until you have gone through them all, and then admit them all?

Mr. Jenner. It might be more convenient to identify them all, because they are of a series, if I have your permission.

Mr. Dulles. Certainly.

Mr. McKenzie. The next document is Commission Exhibit 277, and purports to be a photocopy, or is a photocopy of a purported contract between Marina N. Oswald and Robert Oswald, bearing the date of December 9, 1963, and purportedly signed by Marina N. Oswald, Robert L. Oswald, John M. Thorne, attorney, and James H. Martin, approved as to form, and consisting of two pages.

Mr. Jenner. Now, if you would turn to the second page, please, sir—I notice a recital, "Executed by the undersigned parties this Ninth day of December A.D., 1963," and what purports to be your signature.

Was this document, or that of which this is a Xerox copy, executed on that date?

Mr. Oswald. I do not have a calendar before me. If the ninth day of December was a Monday, it was signed on that date.

Mr. Jenner. Mr. Dulles is checking the calendar.

Mr. Dulles. I am afraid I don't have a 1963 calendar here.

Mr. Jenner. I am observing a calendar, and the ninth was a Monday.

Mr. McKenzie, does the previous document also bear a date?

Mr. McKenzie. It bears the date of December 6, Mr. Jenner.

Mr. Jenner. December 6, then, was a Saturday.

Mr. McKenzie. If Monday was the ninth, Friday was the sixth.

Mr. Jenner. Was the previous exhibit, which is numbered 276, executed on December 6th?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; it was not.

Mr. Jenner. On what date was it executed?

Mr. Oswald. It was executed on Monday, December 9th.

Mr. Jenner. Despite its bearing a date of December 6th, it was actually executed on the ninth, when Commission Exhibit 277 was executed?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; that is correct.

Mr. Jenner. Now, directing your attention to the second page of Exhibit No. 277, that likewise bears a series of signatures. I ask you first whether those signatures were affixed in your presence?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; they were.

Mr. Jenner. Now, was the document now identified as 277, which is a Xerox copy—was the original of Exhibit 277 executed at the same time as the copy which you have produced for us executed?

Mr. Oswald. May I have that again, please, sir?

Yes, sir; that is correct.

Mr. Jenner. That is, there were a series of papers, original and carbon copies, signed, at one and the same time?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. And all of them were signed in your presence?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. All right.

Now, there are four signatures on that page. Would you proceed to state your familiarity with those signatures and identify them?

Mr. Oswald. All right.

Left to right, as the signatures appear—my signature, Robert L. Oswald.

Mr. Jenner. And to the right of that?

Mr. Oswald. And to the right of that, the signature of Mrs. Marina N. Oswald, which I am familiar with.

The next signature is Mr. John M. Thorne, attorney, and I am familiar with his signature.

And the last signature that appears on this second page, Mr. James H. Martin. I am also familiar with his signature.