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

Mr. Rankin. Do you recall the hours that he worked?

Mrs. Oswald. It seems that—it seems to me that it was from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Mr. Rankin. And did he work the weekend or any overtime?

Mrs. Oswald. No. It does happen in that depository that they work overtime. But he did not have to work any.

Mr. Rankin. During the week when he was in Dallas and you were at Irving, did he call you from time to time?

Mrs. Oswald. Daily, twice.

Mr. Rankin. Did he leave his telephone number in Dallas with you?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

I don't have it, it was in Paine's notebook.

Mr. Rankin. Did he speak to you in Russian when he called you on the telephone?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes. Sometimes he would try to speak in English when someone was listening, and he didn't want them to know he spoke Russian—then he would try to speak in English.

Mr. Rankin. Did he ever speak in Spanish when he was talking to you from Dallas?

Mrs. Oswald. No. He doesn't speak Spanish. I don't either. His landlady heard him say "Adios" and she decided that he spoke Spanish, because she didn't understand that he had spoken Russian all that time.

Mr. Rankin. Did you have a special celebration for your husband's birthday?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. When was that?

Mrs. Oswald. On October 18th.

Mr. Rankin. Who was there?

Mrs. Oswald. Ruth and her children, I, Lee, and Paine's husband, Michael.

Mr. Rankin. Did Wesley Frazier bring your husband home at that time?

Mrs. Oswald. Frazier is the last name? Wesley was that boy's name. I now remember.

Mr. Rankin. Did he bring him home that weekend?

Mrs. Oswald. I don't remember.

It seems to me, yes. It is hard to remember now which weekend was which.

Mr. Rankin. On these weekends, did you ever observe your husband going to the garage, practicing with the rifle in any way?

Mrs. Oswald. No.

Mr. Rankin. Did you see him leave the house when he could have been going to the garage and practicing with his rifle?

Mrs. Oswald. No, he couldn't have practiced while we were at the Paine's, because Ruth was there. But whenever she was not at home, he tried to spend as much time as he could with me—he would watch television in the house. But he did go to the garage to look at our things that were there.

Mr. Rankin. And you don't know when he went there what he might have done with the rifle? Is that what you mean?

Mrs. Oswald. At least I didn't notice anything.

Mr. Rankin. Now, you have described your husband's——

Mrs. Oswald. Excuse me. I think that it takes considerable time to practice with a rifle. He never spent any great deal of time in the garage.

Mr. Rankin. You have described your husband's practicing on the back porch at New Orleans with the telescopic scope and the rifle, saying he did that very regularly there.

Did you ever see him working the bolt, that action that opens the rifle, where you can put a shell in and push it back—during those times?

Mrs. Oswald. I did not see it, because it was dark, and I would be in the room at that time.

But I did hear the noise from it from time to time—not often.

Mr. Rankin. Do you recall the weekend that you went to the hospital for your baby?

Mrs. Oswald. Very well.

Mr. Rankin. Did your husband go with you at that time?

Mrs. Oswald. No. Ruth drove me at that time. He remained with June because June was crying and we could not leave her with strangers. He wanted to go with me, but we couldn't arrange it any other way.

Mr. Rankin. After the baby was born, did he come and see you?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Did he say anything to you about the baby?

Mrs. Oswald. Every father talks a lot.

Mr. Rankin. Did he talk about the baby?

Mrs. Oswald. About me and the child—he was very happy. He even had tears in his eyes.

Mr. Rankin. Did he call you from Irving when you were in the hospital?

Mrs. Oswald. No, he was working at that time, and he called me from work. But I didn't talk to him. He merely asked the nurse how I was doing.

Mr. Rankin. And those conversations would be reported to you by the nurse, then?

Mrs. Oswald. No, she didn't tell me about them. Because he telephoned to find out when I should be brought home, and he telephoned Ruth and asked her to let him know. But the nurse did tell me that my husband had called.

Mr. Rankin. Now, the weekend of October 25th to the 27th, did your husband return to Irving that weekend?

Mrs. Oswald. There were some weekends when he did not come. But this was at my request. It happened twice, I think. One such weekend was the occasion of the birthday of Mrs. Paine's daughter. And I knew that Lee didn't like Michael, Mrs. Paine's husband, and I asked him not to come.

This was one occasion.

The other I don't recall. I don't recall the date of this. But I remember that the weekend before he shot at the President, he did not come on Saturday and Sunday. Because we had a quarrel—that incident with the fictitious name.

No, I am confused.

It would be easier for me to remember if I knew the birthday of that girl. Perhaps you know. Perhaps you have it noted down somewhere.

Mr. Rankin. You are asking me the birthday of Mrs. Paine's daughter?

Mrs. Oswald. Because I know that the FBI questioned me about it, and they had made a note about it. Because they wanted to determine each time when he did come and when did not.

Mr. Rankin. Now, if it was the weekend of November 16th and 17th that he remained in Dallas, would that help you as to the time of the birthday?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes. This was the weekend before the 21st, and he had not come home that weekend.

Mr. Rankin. Now, the neighbor next door that you referred to, where you learned about the job with the depository, could that have been Dorothy Roberts?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

Mr. Rankin. Do you recall that your husband went to some meeting with Michael Paine in October of 1963?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes.

It seems to me—I know for sure that this was one of the Fridays. It seems to me that this was the birthday—it was after dinner. They talked in English. I don't know about what. I know that they got together and went to some kind of a meeting.

Mr. Rankin. Was that a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union?

Mrs. Oswald. Ruth said something about that, but I didn't understand anything. This was right after the incident with Stevenson, who was hit.

Mr. Rankin. Was that in the weekend of October 25th?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes, probably. This was not Lee's birthday. It was the week after that, the following Friday.

Mr. Rankin. Now, on October 26th, Saturday, was your husband with you all day?

Mrs. Oswald. Yes. All day. Whenever he came, he never went anywhere else.

Mr. Rankin. We had some information that a telescopic sight was fitted to a gun for your husband on that date, and that is why I am asking you if there was any time that he could have left to have that done.

Mrs. Oswald. How is it about the telescope? He always had the telescope. Were there two?

Mr. Rankin. We are trying to find out.

Someone says that they mounted a sight.

Mrs. Oswald. This is not the truth, if they say that. Simply people talking. Perhaps someone who looked like Lee.

Mr. Rankin. Someone may be mistaken and thought that he had mounted a telescopic sight when he did it for someone else. And that is why we want to check with you.

When your husband went back to work on Monday, October 28th, did he drive with Wesley Frazier at that time?

Mrs. Oswald. It seems—it seems that he had overslept and that someone else had picked him up. But, no—no, I remember that he did not come to get him, but Lee met him near his house. Lee told me that. Or his sister. I don't remember. Lee told me about it. But I have forgotten.