Mr. LEE. As far as I know I went through every--to the best of my
knowledge I went through everything I could find and everything that I
found I turned over to the agents afterwards, after having copies made.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you or anybody on behalf of your committee have any
oral communications with Lee Harvey Oswald that you know of?
Mr. LEE. To my knowledge there was never any such communication. I
can't ever remember ever having such communication myself. I don't know
that anybody else did. Nobody that I have known has ever mentioned such
a thing to me.
(Document marked Lee Exhibit No. 1.)
Mr. RANKIN. I hand you Exhibit No. 1 and ask you if that is a letter
that you or your committee received from Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. LEE. This looks very much like such a letter, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you receive it near the date that it bears?
Mr. LEE. There is not a date--it is not dated. This particular letter
is not dated. Evidently here on the bottom is a notation which is made.
This letter requests that the organization send some literature which
the organization had published and there is a notation on the bottom
which says the material was sent. It says "Sent 4/19/63," which I
assume was quite some time ago. I can remember when people wrote in, we
had many, many communications from many parts of the country, and when
they asked for something we would send it to them and we would mark the
thing "Sent so and so," so we would know the communication had been
answered and what had been done about it.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know whether that notation "Sent 4/19/63" and also
the circling of the "50" was done by you?
Mr. LEE. This is doubtful because at that time, let's see, at that
time I was not in the New York office. I was out on a national tour,
I believe I was on the west coast at that time. We have had other
people coming in to volunteer to, you know, wrap packages and address
envelopes and things like that, come in for an hour or two, and go on
about their business, whatever it is, and evidently somebody else did
this because at that time I was on the west coast.
Mr. RANKIN. Would you be able to tell whether or not the letter,
Exhibit 1, was dated or sent to you, rather than dated, somewhere
around the time that this "Sent" recording was made?
Mr. LEE. I have absolutely no reason to believe otherwise. I believe
there might have been an envelope which--some of the letters had
envelopes. I don't know whether this particular one did or not. I think
this is one of the first communications we would have, and it goes
back to the end of April 1963, and to the best of my knowledge all my
experience has been that these things, just so much of this was done;
it was an automatic thing that was sent or replied, a certain date,
which meant within that period of time, a week or so, sometimes it was
slow, sometimes it was done the same day, sometimes it was done, you
know, several days later, but within a week, around that area I would
imagine is when that thing was replied.
(Lee Exhibits Nos. 2 to 5 marked.)
Mr. RANKIN. Mr. Lee, in accordance with the practice on these exhibits,
when these exhibits are examined, the counsel doing the examining
initials them, and also the witness. Would you be kind enough to do it
under my initials.
Mr. LEE. Well, I would like to know what my--I would like to understand
what my signature would imply.
Mr. RANKIN. It only implies that this exhibit was presented to you at
the time, so there won't be any question about it.
Mr. LEE. Yes. Where should I initial it?
Mr. RANKIN. Just under mine, so it doesn't show anything except that
fact.
(Witness complies.)
Mr. RANKIN. Do you have any independent recollection, Mr. Lee, of this
Exhibit 1 coming to your own attention at any time, other than when you
went to search the files and find out what you had?
Mr. LEE. No; I don't have.
Mr. RANKIN. I hand you Exhibit 2 and ask you to examine that and see if
you recall if your committee or you received it on or about or near the
date that it bears.
Mr. LEE. This looks precisely like such a communication received.
Mr. RANKIN. You will notice that it bears the date May 26 at the top.
Mr. LEE. Yes; and I have every reason to believe that it would be an
accurate----
Mr. RANKIN. And you are quite sure that you received Exhibit 1 before
you received Exhibit 2?
Mr. LEE. Well, like I say, you see, this one here was, I believe--I
believe this probably arrived--I have every reason to believe that this
arrived particularly during the weeks that I was away from the office,
before this one.