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

Mr. Rankin. Did you look to see if the gun had been taken when he did not return?

Mrs. Oswald. No, I didn't look to see.

Mr. Rankin. Mr. Chairman, we have gone our hour.

The Chairman. Yes. I think we will take a 10 minute recess now, so you might refresh yourself.

Mrs. Oswald. Thank you.

(Brief recess.)

The Chairman. The Commission will be in order. Mr. Rankin, you may continue.

Mr. Rankin. Mrs. Oswald, you told us about your knowledge about the trip to Mexico and said that you were under oath and were going to tell us all about what you knew.

Did your husband ever ask you not to disclose what you knew about the Mexican trip?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. And when was that?

Mrs. Oswald. Before he left. I had remained and he was supposed to leave on the next day, and he warned me not to tell anyone about it.

Mr. Rankin. After he returned to Dallas from his Mexico trip, did he say anything to you then about not telling he had been to Mexico?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, he asked me whether I had told Ruth about it or anyone else, and I told him no, and he said that I should keep quiet about it.

Mr. Rankin. I will hand you Exhibit 1 for identification, and ask you if you recall seeing that document before.

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, this is the note that I found in connection with the Walker incident.

Mr. Rankin. That you already testified about?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. And there is attached to it a purported English translation.

The Chairman. Do you want that marked and introduced at this time, Mr. Rankin?

Mr. Rankin. Yes, I would like to offer the document.

The Chairman. The document may be marked Exhibit 1 and offered in evidence.

(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 1, and received in evidence.)

Mr. Rankin. Can you tell us what your husband meant when he said on that note, "The Red Cross also will help you."

Mrs. Oswald. I understand that if he were arrested and my money would run out, I would be able to go to the Red Cross for help.

Mr. Rankin. Had you ever discussed that possibility before you found the note?

Mrs. Oswald. No.

Mr. Rankin. Do you know why he left you the address book?

Mrs. Oswald. Because it contained the addresses and telephone numbers of his and my friends in Russia and here.

Mr. Rankin. And you had seen that book before and knew its contents, did you?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. I will hand you Exhibit 2 for identification and ask you if you know what that is.

Mrs. Oswald. No.

Mr. Rankin. Do you know whether or not that is a photograph of the Walker house in Dallas?

Mrs. Oswald. I didn't see it—at least—taken from this view I can't recognize it. I know that the photograph of Walker's home which I saw showed a two-story house. But I don't recognize it from this view. I never saw the house itself at any time in my life.

Mr. Rankin. Does Exhibit 2 for identification appear to be the picture that you described yesterday of the Walker house that you thought your husband had taken and put in his book?

Mrs. Oswald. No. Perhaps this was in his notebook. But I don't remember this particular one.

The Chairman. Mr. Rankin, do you want this in the record?

Mr. Rankin. Mr. Chairman, she hasn't been able to identify that sufficiently.

Mrs. Oswald. Excuse me. Perhaps there are some other photographs there that I might be able to recognize.

Mr. Rankin. I will present some more to you, and possibly you can then pick out the Walker house.

Mrs. Oswald. I know these photographs.

Mr. Rankin. I now hand you a photograph which has been labeled Exhibit 4 for identification. I ask if you can identify the subject of that photograph, or those photographs.

Mrs. Oswald. All of them?

Mr. Rankin. Whichever ones you can.

Mrs. Oswald. I know one shows Walker's house. Another is a photograph from Leningrad. P-3—this is probably New Orleans. P-4—Leningrad. It is a photograph showing the castle square in Leningrad.

Mr. Rankin. Can you point out by number the photograph of the Walker house?

Mrs. Oswald. P-2.

Mr. Rankin. Do you know whether the photographs on Exhibit 4 for identification were part of your husband's photographs?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Mr. Chairman, I offer Exhibit 4 for identification in evidence.

The Chairman. It may be admitted.

(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit 2, and received in evidence.)

Mr. Dulles. What is being offered—the whole of it, or just P-2?

Mr. Rankin. No, all of it—because she identified the others, too, as a part of the photographs that belonged to her husband. And she pointed out P-2 as being the Walker residence.

When did you first see this photograph of the Walker residence, P-2, in this Exhibit 2?

Mrs. Oswald. After the Walker incident Lee showed it to me.

Mr. Rankin. And how did you know it was a photograph of the Walker residence?

Mrs. Oswald. He told me that.

Mr. Rankin. I hand you Exhibit 3 for identification. I ask you if you can identify the photographs there.

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, these are all our photographs. P-1 is Walker's house. P-4 and P-3 is a photograph showing me and a girlfriend of mine in Minsk, after a New Year's party, on the morning, on January 1. Before I was married. This was taken early in the morning, after we had stayed overnight in the suburbs. P-5 shows Paul—Pavel Golovachev. He is assembling a television set. He sent us this photograph. He is from Minsk. He worked in the same factory as Lee did.

Mr. Rankin. Can you tell us which one is the picture of the Walker house on that exhibit?

Mrs. Oswald. P-1.

Mr. Rankin. And when did you first see that exhibit, P-1, of Exhibit 3?

Mrs. Oswald. Together with the other one. P-2 and P-6, I know that they are Lee's photographs, but I don't know what they depict.

Mr. Rankin. Were you shown the P-1 photograph of that Exhibit 3 at the same time you were shown the other one that you have identified regarding the Walker house?

Mrs. Oswald. It seems to me that that is so. I don't remember exactly. It is hard to remember.

Mr. Rankin. And was that the evening after your husband returned from the Walker shooting?

Mrs. Oswald. No. This was on one of the succeeding days.

Mr. Rankin. By succeeding, you mean within two or three days after the shooting?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Mr. Chairman, I offer in evidence Exhibit 3.

The Chairman. It may be admitted.

(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 3, and was received in evidence.)

Mrs. Oswald. I don't remember the photograph, the first one that you showed me. I only assumed that was Walker's house.

Mr. Rankin. But the other ones, you do remember those photographs?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, the others I do.

Mr. Rankin. When you say you do not remember the picture of the Walker house, you are referring to the Exhibit 2 for identification that we did not offer in evidence, that I will show you now?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Do you recall that your husband showed you any other exhibits that were pictures of the Walker house at the time he discussed the Walker shooting with you, beyond those that I have shown you?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. I shall hand you Exhibit——

Mrs. Oswald. There was some railroad—not just a photograph of a house. Perhaps there were some others. There were several photographs.

Mr. Rankin. I shall hand you Exhibit 4 for identification——

Mrs. Oswald. One photograph with a car.

Mr. Rankin. ——if you can recall the photographs on that exhibit.

Mrs. Oswald. As for P-1 and P-2, I don't know what they are.

P-3, that is Lee in the Army.