Mr. OLDS. This was right at midnight, I think, when Oswald was brought
in.
Mr. STERN. Brought in where?
Mr. OLDS. This was a squadroom and I am not sure what the term is.
It is in the basement of the police station. That was being used as
a pressroom. I believe it is some sort of a classroom or something
of that sort. He was brought in there. I suppose a hundred reporters
standing around on tables, and I understand Ruby was there at the time,
too, up near the front.
Mr. STERN. You don't know that, though?
Mr. OLDS. I don't remember seeing him.
Mr. STERN. Do you know Ruby?
Mr. OLDS. No; I don't. No; I remember someone saying what he was
supposed to have said when--and helped somebody answer a question.
I forget what it was, and Oswald came in, and he was there about 5
minutes----
Mr. STERN. Were you permitted to enter this room without displaying any
identification?
Mr. OLDS. Yes; I wasn't stopped at all. Nobody seemed to pay--it was
pretty well confused around there, and nobody questioned me at all.
Mr. STERN. Would you have been known to the police as a newspaperman?
Mr. OLDS. I had never been in the police building. No one had any way
of knowing who I was, or what my business was.
Mr. STERN. Did you have to identify yourself to get into this building
to begin with?
Mr. OLDS. No; no problem getting into the building. No one in the
lobby, and I don't believe there was anyone at all until you get up to
the third or fourth floor where the police department section of the
building begins.
Mr. STERN. What were the conditions of this room and the scene?
Mr. OLDS. Well, you mean the room where the press conference was
held, where Oswald came in? It was very noisy, and when Oswald came
in it was very confusing. The reporters were yelling at each other to
get out of the way, and they were, the photographers were having a
very bad time with it, and people kept crowding toward the front and
standing on tables so that they could see and hear and Oswald was there
such a brief time, and was not able to be heard beyond the first row
of reporters who were circled around him. Thereafter reporters were
interviewing reporters who were on the front row to see what had been
said, and some sort of confusion existed, and enough of--oh, probably
50 reporters standing around there, and it was a very confusing
situation it seemed. And Oswald had to be brought through the hall on
his way from the interrogation room to his cell, so, he couldn't avoid
being seen, and it was at this time that he was making the statements
that were being quoted.
Mr. STERN. Did you observe this?
Mr. OLDS. No; I didn't. I saw this on television, but I could imagine
it from that.
Mr. STERN. How did he look to you when he was at this press conference?
Mr. OLDS. He looked remarkably composed and determined. He had a--I
remarked afterwards that I would have been very much distraught, and
he seemed very well self-contained and determined and maintained his
innocence. I heard that, and beyond that scratch above--on his forehead
and the eye that was swollen and the little--he looked all right.
He looked a little tired, of course, and I think his clothes were
dirty, but he looked remarkably in good shape, I thought.
Mr. STERN. Did this give you any further assurance that--about the
right to counsel question?