The testimony of Arnold Samuel Johnson was taken at 9:30 a.m., on
April 17, 1964, at the U.S. Courthouse, Foley Square, New York, N.Y.,
by Messrs. J. Lee Rankin, general counsel, and Wesley J. Liebeler,
assistant counsel of the President's Commission. Mr. Arnold Samuel
Johnson was accompanied by his attorney, John J. Abt.
Arnold Samuel Johnson, having been first duly sworn, was examined and
testified as follows:
Mr. RANKIN. Will you give the reporter your name and address.
Mr. JOHNSON. Arnold Samuel Johnson. My home address is 56 Seventh
Avenue, New York City.
Mr. RANKIN. Mr. Johnson, my name is J. Lee Rankin. I am general counsel
for the President's Commission on the Assassination of President
Kennedy.
We are here to take your testimony with regard to that matter, and we
have certain rules and procedures that the Commission has set up to be
followed in connection with the hearings and testimony that is taken
for the consideration of the Commission. Mr. Liebeler is here as my
assistant, and he is one of the several counsel of the Commission.
The Commission acts in accordance with an Executive order of President
Johnson, No. 11130, and a Joint Resolution of the Congress No. 137.
Under the rules you have a right to a 3-day notice of this examination.
I understand you are appearing voluntarily and do not require that?
Mr. JOHNSON. That is right.
Mr. RANKIN. You are also entitled to have counsel, and I understand Mr.
Abt is acting as your counsel in connection with this proceeding.
Mr. JOHNSON. Correct.
Mr. RANKIN. You also have a right to have a copy of the testimony made
available to you. However, it is at your own expense. We just tell the
reporter that you can get it if you pay for it.
Your counsel has a right to make objections during the proceedings and
also at the close of the examination on behalf of the Commission to ask
you such questions as he may care to, that may clarify anything that
you say that he thinks either you desire to have clarified or he thinks
in his good judgment should be either clarified or elaborated upon or
require further questions from him to make clear what he thinks your
testimony is.
Are there any questions which you have in regard to it?
Mr. JOHNSON. Perfectly all right.
Mr. RANKIN. Mr. Johnson, can you identify for us the position you
occupied at the time you received some communications from Lee Harvey
Oswald?
Mr. JOHNSON. Yes; I was the director of the information and lecture
bureau of the Communist Party.
Mr. RANKIN. I may ask you some questions trying to cover things which I
ordinarily would, and you wait for your counsel. Is it possible for you
to tell us whether you continue to occupy that position now? Is that
any problem?
Mr. ABT. I think not. I think there is no problem.
Mr. JOHNSON. No problem.
Mr. RANKIN. And you do?
Mr. JOHNSON. I do.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you have anything to do with the subscription list of
the Worker?
Mr. JOHNSON. Immediately, I do not.
Mr. RANKIN. Would you know, then, whether Lee Harvey Oswald was a
subscriber to the Worker, of your own knowledge?
Mr. ABT. Just say of your own knowledge, whether you actually know it
or don't.
Mr. JOHNSON. I mean, not of my own knowledge; no. That's the point, I
would say.
Mr. RANKIN. Did the fact that he was a subscriber come to your
attention at some time, through hearsay or otherwise?
Mr. JOHNSON. Through hearsay only.
Mr. RANKIN. Was that from him or someone else?
Mr. JOHNSON. From him in one of the letters.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you supply some correspondence that you had with Lee
Harvey Oswald to someone in connection with the consideration of the
assassination of President Kennedy?
Mr. JOHNSON. Yes; I supplied all of it.
Mr. RANKIN. About when was that that you did supply that information?
Mr. JOHNSON. In the first week of December.
Mr. RANKIN. What year?
Mr. JOHNSON. 1963.
Mr. RANKIN. How did you happen to supply that information?
Mr. JOHNSON. Well, I supplied it in the office of John Abt to the
representative of the FBI at the time, in the presence of my attorney,
John Abt, and it was supplied to the FBI agent who came, and I assume
was conducting the investigation on behalf of the Commission at the
time.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, before you supplied that material to this FBI agent,
did you make any search of files to determine what information,
correspondence or records you had in regard to Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. JOHNSON. Oh, yes. Very extensive. We went through every bit of the
office.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you do that yourself or have it done under your
supervision and direction?
Mr. JOHNSON. I did it myself.
Mr. RANKIN. How large a search was that? I would like to establish how
complete, if I can.
Mr. JOHNSON. I will admit the files are not exactly in an organized
fashion. It's--it was material in which there were a lot of other
letters and things like that. So I went through these files several
times.
Mr. RANKIN. Yourself?
Mr. JOHNSON. All the files, back and forth.
Mr. RANKIN. You did that yourself?
Mr. JOHNSON. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. And those were all the files that you could find that might
show any correspondence between----
Mr. JOHNSON. Oh, yes.
Mr. RANKIN. The Communist Party and Mr. Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. JOHNSON. Yes; that would be the complete file, everything, all the
correspondence.
Mr. RANKIN. About when did you make this search?
Mr. JOHNSON. Frankly, I started right after the assassination was
announced. As soon as that name appeared, I started to make a search.
Mr. RANKIN. Why did you do this?
Mr. JOHNSON. Somehow the name struck my memory.
Mr. RANKIN. Why did you supply the information to the FBI agent that
was investigating?
Mr. JOHNSON. Oh, because I felt dutybound to cooperate in the full with
the Government in any investigation of this assassination.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know whether or not Lee Harvey Oswald was ever a
member of the Communist Party of the United States of America?
Mr. JOHNSON. To my knowledge, he was never such, and I would know.
Mr. RANKIN. You think you would know?
Mr. JOHNSON. Oh, yes; I would, I am sure.