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

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, he had some left. But I never counted how much money he had in his wallet. That is why I don't know.

Mr. Rankin. Was it a small or a large amount or do you know that?

Mrs. Oswald. What would be a large amount for me would not be a large amount for you.

Mr. Rankin. Well, can you give us any estimate of what you think he had?

Mrs. Oswald. He might have had $50 or $70, thereabouts. It is necessary sometimes to make a joke. Otherwise, it gets boring.

Mr. Rankin. After the first weekend, after your husband returned, which he spent at the Paines, as you have described, where did he live in Dallas?

Mrs. Oswald. He said that he rented a room in Oak Cliff, but I don't know the address. I didn't ask, because I didn't need it.

Mr. Rankin. Do you know that he lived with a Mrs. Bledsoe at any time in Dallas?

Mrs. Oswald. In what sense do you mean "lived with"?

Mr. Rankin. I mean roomed in her home.

Mrs. Oswald. No.

Mr. Rankin. That was a place on Marsallis Street?

Mrs. Oswald. I don't know about it.

Mr. Rankin. How did he return from Irving to Dallas at that time?

Mrs. Oswald. Ruth met him at the bus station at that time and drove him home. By bus.

Mr. Rankin. You said before that you learned about the depository job at some neighbor's home, is that right?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. In whose home was that?

Mrs. Oswald. I don't know her last name. When you walk out of the Paine house, it is the first house to the right. I am trying to remember. Perhaps later I will.

Mr. Rankin. Was it the lady of that house who told you, or someone that was a guest there?

Mrs. Oswald. Perhaps you know the name.

Mr. Rankin. We don't know the name of the lady next door. We know a number of names, but not by the location.

Mrs. Oswald. Her first name is Dorothy. And there was another woman there, another neighbor, who said that her brother worked at the depository, and that as far as she knew, there was a vacancy there.

Mr. Rankin. And what was the name of that neighbor whose brother worked at the depository?

Mrs. Oswald. I don't know.

Mr. Rankin. Was that Mrs. Randle?

Mrs. Oswald. I don't know. I might know her first name if you mention it.

Mr. Rankin. Is there a Linnie Mae Randle that you remember?

Mrs. Oswald. No.

Mr. Rankin. Was she a sister of Mr. Frazier?

Mrs. Oswald. I don't know such people.

Mr. Rankin. Do you know a Mr. Frazier that had a job at the depository?

Mrs. Oswald. I didn't know his name. I knew that it was a young man. I don't think he was 18 yet.

Mr. Rankin. And was he the brother of this friend who was at the neighbor's house?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. And he was the one that your husband rode from Irving into Dallas from time to time to go to work, did he?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, after Lee was already working this boy would bring Lee and take him back with him to Dallas.

Mr. Rankin. And when did he take him, ordinarily?

Mrs. Oswald. 8 o'clock in the morning.

Mr. Rankin. And did he take him on Monday morning?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Usually each week he would take him on Monday morning?

Mrs. Oswald. When Lee came for a weekend, yes.

Mr. Rankin. And then when did he bring him back from Dallas?

Mrs. Oswald. At 5:30 on Friday.

Mr. Rankin. Did your husband ever come in the middle of the week?

Mrs. Oswald. No, only during the last week when all of this happened with reference to the assassination of the President—he came on a Thursday.

Mr. Rankin. Did Mrs. Paine have anything to do with your husband getting this job at the depository?

Mrs. Oswald. She had no direct connection with it, but an indirect connection, of course. I lived with her and she talked to a neighbor and mentioned that Lee was out of work.

Mr. Rankin. Was it Mrs. Paine that found out about the job, then?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes. And she telephoned there and asked whether they had a job available. They didn't say anything specific but they asked that Lee come there on the following day.

Mr. Rankin. Did you find out whether your husband did go there the following day?

Mrs. Oswald. On the following day he went there, had a talk with them, and he telephoned that he had already received the job.

Mr. Rankin. Did he telephone to you or to Mrs. Paine about getting the job?

Mrs. Oswald. He telephoned me. But, of course, he thanked Ruth.

Mr. Rankin. And when did he start on the job? Was there two or three days before he got the job and started, or more than that?

Mrs. Oswald. I think that he started on the day following being accepted for the job. I think it was either on the 14th, 15th, or 16th of October.

Mr. Rankin. When he was staying at Mrs. Bledsoe's rooming house, did he call you and give you the number there?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Do you recall where he was when he gave this fictitious name?

Mrs. Oswald. What do you mean where he was? From where he telephoned?

Mr. Rankin. Yes, or the number that he gave you—that is the rooming house that he was at when he used this fictitious name, and you told us you called there.

Mrs. Oswald. He lived at first in one place, and then he changed. It was the last place where he had given a fictitious name. I don't know what name he lived under in the first place, because I never telephoned him.

Mr. Rankin. Do you know the name that he lived under in the second place, when you did call him?

Mrs. Oswald. No.

Mr. Rankin. You don't remember the fictitious name that he gave you?

Mrs. Oswald. I read in the paper after everything happened, but at that time I didn't know. He said that his last name was Lee. He didn't say that. I read that in the paper.

Mr. Rankin. Did that remind you, then, that that was the name they gave you when you called and he answered the telephone?

Mrs. Oswald. No, no one told me anything. I didn't know under what name he lived there.

Mr. Rankin. But you found out that he was not living under his own name, is that what you meant before?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. After he got his job, did he return the next weekend to see you?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Do you remember whether that time he returned was on Friday or Saturday?

Mrs. Oswald. It was on Friday, October 18. It was his birthday.

He stopped with Ruth. On Sunday I went to the hospital, and he stayed overnight from Monday until Tuesday.

Mr. Rankin. After your husband returned from Mexico, did you examine the rifle in the garage at any time?

Mrs. Oswald. I had never examined the rifle in the garage. It was wrapped in a blanket and was lying on the floor.

Mr. Rankin. Did you ever check to see whether the rifle was in the blanket?

Mrs. Oswald. I never checked to see that. There was only once that I was interested in finding out what was in that blanket, and I saw that it was a rifle.

Mr. Rankin. When was that?

Mrs. Oswald. About a week after I came from New Orleans.

Mr. Rankin. And then you found that the rifle was in the blanket, did you?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, I saw the wooden part of it, the wooden stock.

Mr. Rankin. On the weekend before your husband got his job at the depository, did he spend that with you at the Paines?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Did he come home Friday or Saturday?

Mrs. Oswald. On a Friday.

Mr. Rankin. When he returned to Dallas on Monday, the 14th of October, did he tell you he was going to change his room?

Mrs. Oswald. No.

Mr. Rankin. Do you remember what your husband's pay was at the depository?

Mrs. Oswald. It seems to me that it was also $1.25.

Mr. Rankin. About how much a month did it run?

Mrs. Oswald. It seems to me it was $210 to $230.