Mr. BELIN. He had to fill it in himself?
Mr. HOLMES. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. You mentioned another post office box, and a new number
there. When was that?
Mr. HOLMES. Just now?
Mr. BELIN. Yes, No. 2915?
Mr. HOLMES. That is the box he had rented at the main post office
before he went to New Orleans?
Mr. BELIN. When you say the main post office, what city and State?
Mr. HOLMES. Dallas, Tex.
Mr. BELIN. When did you learn about this, if you remember?
Mr. HOLMES. I don't know that I can tell. Some clerk was passing
information to me and also it could have been that McGee, this
inspector said it was sent to box 2915, in Dallas. I couldn't tell you
when I first realized he had this box.
Mr. BELIN. I hand you what has been marked "Holmes Deposition Exhibit
3," and ask you to state what that is?
Mr. HOLMES. That is a photostatic copy of the original box rental
application covering the rental of box 2915, at the main post office
in Dallas, Tex., which shows that it was completed on October the
9th, 1962. The applicants name was Lee H. Oswald, home address, 3519
Fairmore Avenue, Dallas, Tex. Signed Lee H. Oswald. It shows that the
box was closed on May 14, 1963.
Mr. BELIN. Now, it is stamped date box opened, October 9, 1962. And
that is the same date that it appears to be written in handwriting at
the bottom of it.
Mr. HOLMES. That's correct.
Mr. BELIN. All right. Now, you found this postal money order and then
what did you do?
Mr. HOLMES. Off the record, let me ask you something. I questioned him
about this box and all the angles with it during this interview.
Mr. BELIN. I am going to get to that.
Mr. HOLMES. I didn't know whether you wanted to put it in there.
Mr. BELIN. I am going to get to that. Then what did you do?
Mr. HOLMES. I gave that information to my boss by telephone. He called
Washington immediately. Of course this information included the money
order number. This number was transmitted by phone to the chief
inspector in Washington, who immediately got the money order center at
Washington to begin a search, which they use IBM equipment to kick out
this money order, and about 7 o'clock Saturday night they did kick out
the original money order and sent it over by, so they said, by special
conveyance to the Secret Service, chief of Secret Service at Washington
now, and it turned out, so they said, to be the correct money order. I
asked them by phone as to what it said on it, and it said it had been
issued to A. J. Hidell, which to me then was the tip that I had the
correct money order. Up to then I didn't know whether I had the correct
money order or not.
Mr. BELIN. How did you know about the use of the name A. J. Hidell?
Mr. HOLMES. When the box was opened in the name of Lee H. Oswald.
Because for two reasons. I--one is, when he rented the post office box
in New Orleans, he used the name of A. J. Hidell as one of the persons
entitled to receive mail in that box.
Mr. BELIN. At that time did you know about that?
Mr. HOLMES. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. All right, what else?
Mr. HOLMES. In his billfold the police had found a draft registration
card in the name of A. J. Hidell on his person at the time of his
arrest, and I had seen it.
Mr. BELIN. Anything else now about this money order? Do you have a
record of the number of the money order?
Mr. HOLMES. No; I don't.
Mr. BELIN. All right, what was the next thing you did in connection
with the investigation of the assassination?
Mr. HOLMES. Well, throughout the entire period I was feeding change of
addresses as bits of information to the FBI and the Secret Service, and
sort of a coordinating deal on it, but then about Sunday morning about
9:20----
Mr. BELIN. Pardon me a second. (Discussion off the record.) Anything
else now, Mr Holmes?
Mr. HOLMES. I might cover the record of his rental of the post office
box in New Orleans. Do you want me to go into that?
Mr. BELIN. All right, go ahead.
Mr. HOLMES. The box rental records at New Orleans show that on June the
3d, 1963, post office box 30061 was rented to L. H. Oswald. Let me see
there. Some of my information comes at times I see 30061 and at times I
see 30016. I had it two places. One is a written memorandum on that new
setup, and the other is what I took over the phone, and both of them
show 61.
Mr. BELIN. All right, go ahead.
Mr. HOLMES. I think I got a copy.
Mr. BELIN. That is all right, you can go ahead.
Mr. HOLMES. This is at the Lafayette Square Station in New Orleans. At
that time he showed his home address as 657 French Street, New Orleans.
On this box rental application card, he showed as being entitled to
also receive mail in the box, Marina Oswald, and A. J. Hidell. This box
was closed on September 26, 1963, with instructions to forward mail
addressed to 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving, Tex.
At the time this information was checked out in New Orleans by Postal
Inspector Joe Zarza, two copies of the newspaper called "The Militant,"
were found in the box, which had not yet been forwarded. But there was
a slipup. I hate to admit that.
Mr. BELIN. Anything else?
Mr. HOLMES. I presume my next part in connection with this was when I
joined the interrogation period of Oswald on Sunday morning of November
24 at about 9:30 a.m.
Mr. BELIN. All right, now. Let me ask you this. Just what was the
occasion of your joining this interrogation? How did you happen to be
there?
Mr. HOLMES. I had been in and out of Captain Fritz' office on numerous
occasions during this 2-1/2-day period.
On this morning I had no appointment. I actually started to church with
my wife. I got to church and I said, "You get out, I am going down and
see if I can do something for Captain Fritz. I imagine he is as sleepy
as I am."
So I drove directly on down to the police station and walked in, and as
I did, Captain Fritz motioned to me and said, "We are getting ready
to have a last interrogation with Oswald before we transfer him to the
county jail. Would you like to join us?"