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

Mr. Jenner. When was your marriage again, please?

Mr. Oswald. I have never stated it before, sir. It was in November—November 20 or 21, 1956.

Mr. McKenzie. Off the record.

(Discussion off the record.)

Mr. Jenner. The question has been asked of you as to the date of your marriage.

Mr. Oswald. This was in November 1956, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Had you been courting your present wife prior to that time?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Was your mother acquainted with her?

Mr. Oswald. Yes sir; she was.

Mr. Jenner. Did she—did her objections to your marriage, in addition to those you stated—were there any personalities in the sense of her objecting to your fiance?

Mr. Oswald. None that I recall, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Did you have any feeling that there was any personality in the sense of objection on her part, or lack of approval of your fiance?

Mr. Oswald. If I might say, sir, I feel sure there was, and in my mind right now—I can think of really no one that she ever approved of to the extent of my friend, either boys or girls.

Mr. Jenner. Was that also true of your brother, John Pic? And I will also ask you about Lee Harvey.

Mr. Oswald. John very seldom, if memory serves me correct, ever brought any of his friends over to the house, to meet mother.

Mr. Jenner. Presented them to mother, you mean?

Mr. Oswald. Presented them to mother.

Mr. Jenner. Was that his choice?

Mr. Oswald. I would say so now that I believe it would have been his choice.

Mr. Jenner. He preferred not to?

Mr. Oswald. This would be my assumption, that he preferred not to.

Mr. Jenner. Not presenting his friends to your mother?

Mr. Oswald. Yes sir; that is correct.

Mr. Jenner. Would you answer the same question as to Lee, as to whether he brought his friends to your home?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I believe he did. He quite frequently played around the house with friends there in the neighborhood.

Mr. Jenner. They were children, however, in the immediate neighborhood?

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

Mr. Jenner. He is five years younger than you.

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir. He would have been 13 in 1952, this period we are talking about.

Mr. Jenner. We are interested in this matter of the antipathy existing between you and John on the one hand and your mother on the other. Had that gone on for sometime? In order that I don't violate the same thing that I raise with you occasionally, let me take you back to the military school days, or to Bethlehem Orphanage. Did a measure of antipathy exist at that time?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I don't believe it did.

Mr. Jenner. When did it really arise in any marked degree?

Mr. Oswald. I believe after her divorce from Mr. Ekdahl.

Mr. Jenner. That was in June 1948.

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir. And from the time that we moved to the Young Street address in Fort Worth.

Mr. Jenner. At or about that time?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Would you refresh my recollection as to when that was? Was that in 1948?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; it was.

Mr. Jenner. Would you please indicate how that antipathy or that change was evident? What change of attitude was there, either on the part of you boys, or on her part, or on the part of all of you?

Mr. Oswald. Perhaps, sir, for the first time in any period, all of us were together. And perhaps, sir—I say perhaps this would be correct—she did not know myself and my older brother John at that particular time to any extent.

Mr. Jenner. You had been away at school pretty much?

Mr. Oswald. That is correct.

Mr. Jenner. But you had been home for three months in the summertime?

Mr. Oswald. That is correct. But still, searching my own mind, I certainly felt this way at that time. And John and I were not accustomed to her. Certainly I cannot speak for John. But for myself, on that point, I would say we were not accustomed to her. We had become—there again I say we—John and I—I feel like I certainly had become more disciplined and used to being disciplined by men, and not used to having a woman around the house. I believe this was perhaps my feeling at that time.

Mr. Jenner. All right. Now, if we can return to the events of April 1959, did your mother appear to you to have been injured?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; she did.

Mr. Jenner. What evidence was there of her injury?

Mr. Oswald. There appeared to be a little swelling in the upper part of the nose.

Mr. Jenner. Any scratch or other skin break?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir; none that I recall.

Mr. Jenner. Did you form an opinion at that time as to whether her injury was major or minor?

Mr. Oswald. I asked her about it, or she volunteered the information of how the accident occurred, and that she had been seeing doctors, and so forth. And I did recall her stating to me that she had been to either two or three doctors, and none of them had said anything was wrong with her, and then she was insisting that there was definitely something wrong, and she was continuing to see other doctors.

Mr. Jenner. Had that sort of thing occurred prior thereto, in which your mother felt that she was ill and she went to physicians, and the physicians indicated otherwise?

Mr. Oswald. Not to my knowledge, sir.

Mr. Jenner. She was not chronic in that respect?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir, not to my knowledge.

Mr. Dulles. Was she hospitalized at any time in connection with this injury?

Mr. Oswald. Not to my knowledge, sir.

Mr. Dulles. Did she have to give up her work for a period of time, or did she continue working?

Mr. Oswald. I believe she did miss a short period of time when the accident occurred.

Mr. Dulles. Thank you.

Mr. Jenner. But she was at work on the day you visited her?

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

Mr. Jenner. Were you forewarned that your brother was returning from the service earlier than he was scheduled to return?

Mr. Oswald. No, sir, I don't believe I was.

Mr. Jenner. Were you forewarned that he was returning at all at this particular time—that is, on or about the 11th of September, 1959?

Mr. Oswald. If I may take a moment, please, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Yes, sir.

Mr. Oswald. No, sir, I was not aware that he was being released from the service earlier.

Mr. Jenner. Had you received any communication from him prior to his return—that is a communication that was reasonably near the time of his return?

Mr. Oswald. The only one that I have a record of, sir, is a letter dated—postmarked June 6, 1959, at Santa Ana, California, addressed to me at my Fort Worth address of 7313 Davenport, return address, Pfc. L. H. Oswald, Santa Ana, California. The letter itself is undated.

Mr. Jenner. You have made reference, Mr. Oswald, to a letter you received in an envelope postmarked June 6, 1959, from your brother. You have the original of that letter before you?

Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I do.

Mr. Jenner. Now, that letter—did you receive in addition to this letter until September 11, 1959, any other letter from your brother?

Mr. Oswald. Not that I can recall, sir, or that I have record of.

Mr. Jenner. Now, this letter in the third paragraph reads, "Well, pretty soon I will be getting out of the Corps, and I know what I want to be and how I am going to be it, which I guess is the most important thing in my life"—"in life." Have I read it correctly?

Mr. Oswald. You have, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Did you respond to that letter?

Mr. Oswald. Not to my recollection did I respond to the letter, sir.

Mr. Jenner. Now, when your brother was mustered out, on or about September 11, 1959, did you have a discussion with him with respect to this subject matter—that is what he wanted to be in life, and how he was going to go about it?