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

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The President's Commission reconvened at 1:15 p.m.

Mr. Dulles. You may proceed, Mr. Jenner.

Mr. Jenner. Mr. Oswald, I have asked you—may I inquire of you whether during the noon hour recess you have read Commission Exhibit 295, which is a letter of November 26, 1959, from your brother to you?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I have.

Mr. Jenner. And have you also read the letter that preceded that one, to wit, the letter of November 8, 1959, which is to you from your brother, which is Commission Exhibit No. 294?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I have.

Mr. Jenner. Now, Mr. Chairman, the letter of November 8, which is the earlier of these two letters—this was written by Lee Harvey Oswald shortly after he arrived in Moscow in 1959. In substance, he said in the letter that he supposed his brother Robert, the witness here, did not wish to speak of his decision, that is, of Lee Harvey Oswald's decision to remain in the Soviet Union and apply for citizenship there, since Robert would not be able—and now I quote—"to comprehend my reasons"—that is Lee Harvey Oswald's reasons. "You really don't know anything about me. Do you know for instance, that I have wanted to do this for well over a year? Do you know that I speak a fair amount of Russian, which I have been studying for months?"

The letter also said that he would not leave the Soviet Union under any conditions, and would never return to the United States, "which is a country I hate." He made reference to the fact that he received a telegram from Robert in which Robert had apparently said that he thought Lee "was making a mistake."

Now, directing your attention to the November 8 letter first, would you please state your reaction when you read that letter?

(At this point the letters of November 8, 1959 and November 26, 1959 were physically set forth in the transcript of testimony. In order to achieve consistency in the handling of the exhibits upon the printing of the testimony, those letters are not reproduced in the printed transcript. They are reproduced in the exhibit section as Commission Exhibits Nos. 294 and 295.)

Mr. Oswald. I recall my reactions to this letter, sir. It was something I more or less expected in general, since this was, more or less in general what the newspapers had been publishing.

Mr. Jenner. Is that the only reason you make that remark—that you had expected it in general solely because of what you read in the newspapers, or had there been any other factor that led you to have that expectation?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; there was no other factor that led be to believe that anything like this was going to happen prior to the happening. My reaction to the letter, as I have stated, was solely in general expecting from what I read in the newspaper that the letter would be something of this nature when I did hear from him.

Mr. Jenner. Had you had any conversation prior thereto during your lifetime and that of your brother Lee in which he expressed his views of the character that he wrote in this letter of November 8, 1959?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I most certainly did not.

Mr. Jenner. Had you ever discussed with him, in any conversation between you and your brother Lee, with or without your brother John present or your mother, in which his feeling toward or reaction to the government of the United States had been discussed?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; at no time, as I stated yesterday, have we ever discussed politics, and most assuredly I did not have any inclination in any degree that anything of this nature was in his mind.

Mr. Jenner. So the views expressed by your brother in the letter of November 8 came to you as a complete surprise?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; with the qualification that this is what I expected after reading the newspapers.

Mr. Dulles. May I ask one question there.

When your brother left, after that short stay following his service in the Marine Corps, did you know that he was going to Russia—did he say anything to you about going to Russia at that time?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; he did not.

Mr. Jenner. What did he say to you as to his plans?

Mr. Oswald. That he was going to New Orleans, Louisiana, to visit my Aunt Lillian.

Mr. Jenner. Your Aunt Lillian whom?

Mr. Oswald. Murret.

Mr. Jenner. The family you identified yesterday—the Murret branch of your family?

Mr. Oswald. I don't recall identifying them.

Mr. Jenner. There was one occasion yesterday.

Mr. Oswald. All right. Yes, sir; that is correct. And that he was——

Mr. Jenner. That is an Aunt on which side—your father's or mother's?

Mr. Oswald. My mother's side. And that he was going to visit with them, and at the same time find a job in New Orleans, and make his home in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Mr. Jenner. Did he give you any indication at any time during his stay—this was in Fort Worth?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. During his stay in Fort Worth, upon his return and discharge from the service, and while he was there, that gave you any indication whatsoever of any intention on his part to leave the country?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; none whatsoever.

Mr. Jenner. Whether he was going to go to Europe, Russia, or anywhere else?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir. The only information he gave me was that he was going only to New Orleans, Louisiana, from Fort Worth, Texas.

Mr. Jenner. Did you spend a good deal of time with him while he was in Fort Worth, Texas, in this interim period?

Mr. Oswald. Approximately one day out of the two or three days he was there.

Mr. Jenner. Are you suggesting that most of your contact with him during this period was on one of those days, or that the total amount of time that you spent with him during that period aggregated one day?

Mr. Oswald. I believe, sir, that I at least talked to him on the telephone on one day, and then the next day he spent the day at our home.

Mr. Jenner. And that is the day that you went off hunting, which you testified about yesterday?

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

Mr. Jenner. And never during any of the contact that you had with him did he imply or state directly that he had any contemplation of a trip which would take him out of the United States?

Mr. Oswald. That is correct.

Mr. Dulles. You didn't know about his having applied for a new passport?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir, I did not know he applied for any passport.

Mr. Jenner. During the day that he visited you, did your mother visit at your home on that day?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; she did not.

Mr. Jenner. At any time during the period between his discharge from the Marines and his arrival in Fort Worth, and his departure, was there any occasion on which both you, your mother, and your brother Lee were together?

Mr. Oswald. None that I recall, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Was there any discussion between you at any time during that period of the reason, if any special reason, for his discharge from the Marine Corps, earlier than he might have been discharged in normal course, which as I understand would have been in December of that year?

Mr. Oswald. I believe, sir, we had a brief discussion on that.

Mr. Jenner. Who initiated it?

Mr. Oswald. I feel certain like I did.

Mr. Jenner. And what did you do? Ask him—just tell us what you asked him. And why you were curious, if you were.

Mr. Oswald. To the best of my memory, I asked him—because I was aware of his approximate date of discharge, his regular date of discharge, or release from the service, and I asked him why he was discharged or released earlier than that date. And his reply was that mother had written the Red Cross and requested that he be released earlier.

Mr. Jenner. Written the Red Cross?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir. I also——