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

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Would you describe to the Commission what he did to cause you to think that he was changing?

Mrs. Oswald. Generally he was—usually he was quite as he always was. He used to help me. And he was a good family man. Sometimes, apparently without reason, at least I did not know reasons, if any existed, he became quite a stranger. At such times it was impossible to ask him anything. He simply kept to himself. He was irritated by trifles.

Mr. Rankin. Do you recall any of the trifles that irritated him, so as to help us to know the picture?

Mrs. Oswald. It is hard to remember any such trifling occurrences, sometimes such a small thing as, for example, dinner being five minutes late, and I do mean five minutes—it is not that I am exaggerating—he would be very angry. Or if there were no butter on the table, because he hadn't brought it from the icebox, he would with great indignation ask, "Why is there no butter?" And at the same time if I had put the butter on the table he wouldn't have touched it.

This is foolishness, of course. A normal person doesn't get irritated by things like that.

Mr. Rankin. Mrs. Oswald, I do not ask these questions to pry into your personal affairs, but it gives us some insight into what he did and why he might have done the things he did.

I hope you understand that.

Mrs. Oswald. I understand.

Mr. Rankin. Could you tell us a little about when he did beat you because we have reports that at times neighbors saw signs of his having beat you, so that we might know the occasions and why he did such things.

Mrs. Oswald. The neighbors simply saw that because I have a very sensitive skin, and even a very light blow would show marks. Sometimes it was my own fault. Sometimes it was really necessary to just leave him alone. But I wanted more attention. He was jealous. He had no reason to be. But he was jealous of even some of my old friends, old in the sense of age.

Mr. Rankin. When he became jealous, did he discuss that with you?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, of course.

Mr. Rankin. What did he say?

Mrs. Oswald. I don't remember.

Basically, that I prefer others to him. That I want many things which he cannot give me. But that was not so. Once we had a quarrel because I had a young man who was a boyfriend—this was before we were married, a boy who was in love with me, and I liked him, too. And I had written him a letter from here. I had—I wrote him that I was very lonely here, that Lee had changed a great deal, and that I was sorry that I had not married him instead, that it would have been much easier for me. I had mailed that letter showing the post office box as a return address. But this was just the time when the postage rates went up by one cent, and the letter was returned. Lee brought that letter and asked me what it was and forced me to read it. But I refused. Then he sat down across from me and started to read it to me. I was very much ashamed of my foolishness. And, of course, he hit me, but he did not believe that this letter was sincere. He asked me if it was true or not, and I told him that it was true. But he thought that I did it only in order to tease him. And that was the end of it. It was a very ill-considered thing.

Mr. Rankin. Do you recall anything more that he said at that time about that matter?

Mrs. Oswald. Of course after he hit me, he said that I should be ashamed of myself for saying such things because he was very much in love with me. But this was after he hit me.

Generally, I think that was right, for such things, that is the right thing to do. There was some grounds for it.

Please excuse me. Perhaps I talk too much.

Mr. Rankin. When you had your child baptized, did you discuss that with your husband?

Mrs. Oswald. I knew that Lee was not religious, and, therefore, I did not tell him about it. I lived in Fort Worth at that time, while he lived in Dallas.

But when June was baptized, I told him about it, and he didn't say anything about it. He said it was my business. And he said, "Okay, if you wish." He had nothing against it. He only took offense at the fact that I hadn't told him about it ahead of time.

Mr. Rankin. Are you a member of any church?

Mrs. Oswald. I believe in God, of course, but I do not go to church—first because I do not have a car. And, secondly, because there is only one Russian Church. Simply that I believe in God in my own heart, and I don't think it is necessary to visit the church.

Mr. Rankin. While your husband—or while you were visiting the Halls, did your husband tell you about getting his job in Dallas?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes. I knew about it before he left for Dallas, that he already had work there.

Mr. Rankin. Do you recall whether your husband rented the apartment in Dallas about November 3, 1962?

Mrs. Oswald. For him?

Mr. Rankin. Yes.

Mrs. Oswald. He had told me that he rented a room, not an apartment. But that was in October.

What date I don't know.

Mr. Rankin. And had he obtained an apartment before you went to Dallas to live with him?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes. Cleaned everything up.

Mr. Rankin. So that you would have gone to Dallas to live with him some time on or about the date that he rented that apartment?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. After you went to live with him in the apartment at Dallas, did you separate from him again and go to live with somebody else?

Mrs. Oswald. Only after this quarrel. Then I stayed with my friends for one week. I had already told you about that.

Mr. Rankin. That is the Meller matter?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Do you recall that you called Mrs. Meller and told her about your husband beating you and she told you to get a cab and come to stay with her?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, but he didn't beat me.

Mr. Rankin. And you didn't tell her that he had beat you, either?

Mrs. Oswald. I don't think so. Perhaps she understood it that he had beaten me, because it had happened.

Mr. Rankin. Can you give us any more exact account of where your husband stayed in the period between October 10 and November 18, 1962?

Mrs. Oswald. I don't remember his exact address. This was a period when I did not live with him.

I am asking about which period is it. I don't remember the dates.

Mr. Rankin. The period that he rented the apartment was November 3, so that shortly after that, as I understood your testimony, you were with him, from November 3, or about November 3 on to the 18th. Is that right?

Mrs. Oswald. From November 3 to November 18, 1962? On Elsbeth Street? No, I was there longer.

Mr. Rankin. And do you recall the date that you went to Mrs. Hall's, then?

Mrs. Oswald. No, I don't remember. The day when he rented the apartment was a Sunday. But where he lived before that, I don't know.

Mr. Rankin. After you went to live with him in the apartment, around November 3, how long did you stay before you went to live with your friend?

Mrs. Oswald. Approximately a month and a half. Perhaps a month. I am not sure.

Mr. Rankin. And when you were at Fort Worth, and he was living in Dallas, did he call you from time to time on the telephone?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, he called me and he wrote letters and sometimes he came for a visit.

Mr. Rankin. And during that time, did he tell you where he was staying?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, he said that he had rented a room, but he did not tell me his address.

I want to help you, but I don't know.

Mr. Rankin. Did you think there was something in your husband's life in America, his friends and so forth, that caused him to be different here?

Mrs. Oswald. No, he had no friends who had any influence over him. He himself had changed by comparison to the way he was in Russia. But what the reason for that was, I don't know.