Mr. LEE. This one dated--Exhibit No. 2, dated May 26, yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Came to you after Exhibit No. 1?
Mr. LEE. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you do anything about the information that was in
Exhibit No. 2?
Mr. LEE. Well, I cannot be sure what I did, because I have no--I never
bothered to keep records on these details.
Mr. RANKIN. I see.
Mr. LEE. But I had a general policy which I pursued, when somebody
addressed a communication which I received, I would write to them,
trying to present them with the information they requested or the
material which they requested in whatever way I thought best at the
time for the particular case, whatever it was. Like I said, not having
saved--not having made any copies of any of these things, I can't be
sure of what I did. I really don't know what I would have said, but I
always made it a policy to try and reply to these communications.
Mr. RANKIN. Mr. Lee, I hand you Exhibit No. 3, which purports to be
a photocopy of a purported reply that you have made to Lee Harvey
Oswald's letter of May 26, Exhibit No. 3, purporting to be a letter of
May 29. Do you recall having sent that?
Mr. LEE. Yes. It's dated May 29.
Mr. RANKIN. Yes.
Mr. LEE. This is a copy--this must be a copy of a letter--this looks
like my signature here, and I don't actually recall this--did I miss
something?--Oh, I see. I don't actually recall writing the letter,
but it looks like something which I might have written at the time in
response to the previous inquiry.
Mr. RANKIN. Yes.
Mr. LEE. But I can't say that I remember sitting down and writing it.
Mr. RANKIN. We will try to secure the original and submit it to you for
your approval in substitution for this copy.
Mr. LEE. Well, I am not actually questioning it. I am saying I can't
really remember. Actually, I have thought about this. I haven't a real
recollection of sitting down and writing, you know, letters to that
particular person. Like I said, I was answering as many communications
myself as possible to many, many inquiries which came into the office,
so it is hard for me to pick out such and such a person a year later,
even if something had happened in between to make the name prominent,
to go back then. The name wouldn't mean too much to me at that time
that I had written.
Mr. RANKIN. And when you referred to his getting a post office box as a
must, what did you mean by that?
Mr. LEE. Well, this is a recommendation which was made, an
organizational recommendation which had been made a long time before
I myself had gone into a position with the organization. Because
of the nature of the organization, people would come and go. They
would support it and then drop out, and sometimes they would move,
and if somebody--naturally most of the thing was just a small,
little local activity. People didn't maintain business offices for
such an organization, and if a person would move or drop out of the
organization and the activities, the communications between the
national office and the local area would get all tangled up because
we didn't know where the mail would be returned, where we would
write, whereas if there was a post office box, if one person in the
organization dropped out who was receiving mail, then the mail would
still be delivered to a post office box, where the other officials of
the chapter, if it still existed, would still have access to the mail
and be able to reply to communications from the national organization
concerning the activities of the organization. The purpose of the post
office box was purely to facilitate communications between areas and
maintain them on a permanent basis.
Mr. RANKIN. I hand you Exhibit 3-A and see if you recall seeing the
original of which that appears to be a photocopy. It is dated May 22,
1963.
Mr. LEE. It looks very much like a formal notice that I may have sent.
I mean, I was accustomed to sending many such communications, and that
looks very much like something I would have sent. Did I sign the other
one?
Mr. RANKIN. No. I hand you Exhibit No. 4, which I don't find to be
dated, either, but it does show an address in New Orleans which helps
to make it possible for us to fix the general period. Do you recall
having seen that before?
Mr. LEE. Yes. This was another one of the communications which were
sent to me. Obviously, not through recollection of having seen the
letters but piecing these things together, I conclude that this was
one of the letters which were sent after I had entered into direct
communications with this person, because he no longer addresses
it "Dear Sirs." Evidently he has received communications from us,
so he addresses us by name. I would say that evidently that was a
communication sent to me which I received.
Mr. RANKIN. You will note it has four pages as a part of the letter and
has a membership blank for----
Mr. LEE. Yes. My recollection on this is that in previous letters--for
a moment I would like to go over this and make sure I don't get the
letters confused one with the other. This--yes, yes. This evidently
is a letter which was sent in reply, after I had--he had in one letter
asked for information about the possibilities of doing--setting up a
chapter, for which I had sent him the rules and regulations regarding
the functioning of our organization and copies of our constitution and
bylaws and things like that. This evidently is a letter which he wrote
in which he replies that he had gone ahead and acted on his own without
any authorization from the organization, and if I recall correctly this
was also a letter which was received by myself in my capacity, not
having any great happiness at somebody going off on their own and doing
something against the rules of the organization, under the name of the
organization, which is obviously what was done, because this set up
himself--this thing reads, "New Orleans Chapter, Member Branch." There
was no such thing, because he had just received--just previous to this
he had received the regulations, and my letter would give an indication
of what would be necessary to set up a chapter, which would certainly
consist of more than one person operating on his own, and this, if I
recall correctly, was such a letter which I received.
Naturally, anybody in an organization position such as I was in any
other organization, you would always be interested in expanding and
getting your ideas across and reaching more people, and when somebody
writes to you and says they would like to help you, your immediate
response is, "Well, wonderful. Here is a new contact in a new part
of the hinterlands and, gee, I hope this works out." And then, when
somebody goes off like this, violating all the rules that you send
him, it comes as quite a disappointment, because you have had hopes.
Obviously this man was not operating in an official capacity for the
organization. As he states, he went off with his own innovations and
everything else.
Mr. RANKIN. You will note that he refers in the letter to this throw
sheet.
Mr. LEE. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. And the fact that he has established a charter in violation
of your instructions.
Mr. LEE. Yes. I certainly do.
Mr. RANKIN. And then he also refers to his membership blank.