Mr. LIEBELER. We wish to inquire of you today, Mrs. Garner, concerning
your knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald which you may have gained as
a result of your being the manager or one of the managers of the
apartment building in which Oswald lived while he was in New Orleans
from approximately May through September 1963. Before we get into the
details of that, however, would you state your full name for the record?
Mrs. GARNER. Mrs. Jesse Garner.
Mr. LIEBELER. Where do you live?
Mrs. GARNER. 4911 Magazine.
Mr. LIEBELER. Where were you born?
Mrs. GARNER. Vacherie, La.
Mr. LIEBELER. Have you lived all of your life in Louisiana?
Mrs. GARNER. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Can you tell us when you were born?
Mrs. GARNER. March 16, 1919.
Mr. LIEBELER. Am I correct in understanding that you and your husband
are the managers of the premises known as 4905-11 Magazine Street here
in New Orleans?
Mrs. GARNER. Yes; we are.
Mr. LIEBELER. How long have you been the managers of those premises?
Mrs. GARNER. Four years.
Mr. LIEBELER. Will you describe briefly for us the nature of the
premises?
Mrs. GARNER. The house, do you mean?
Mr. LIEBELER. Yes.
Mrs. GARNER. Well, it is a double house. I live in one side, and the
other side has two apartments, and I have two apartments in the back,
unattached to the house upstairs and downstairs.
Mr. LIEBELER. Am I correct in understanding that the half of the house
in which you and your husband live is known as 4911 Magazine Street?
Mrs. GARNER. Right.
Mr. LIEBELER. And the front apartment, which I understand is one-half
of the rest of the house----
Mrs. GARNER. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. That is 4907 Magazine Street?
Mrs. GARNER. Right.
Mr. LIEBELER. In the rear of the other side of the house is a separate
apartment numbered 4905 Magazine Street?
Mrs. GARNER. Right.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did there come a time in the spring of 1963 when you made
the acquaintance of Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mrs. GARNER. When I talked to them, or what?
Mr. LIEBELER. Yes.
Mrs. GARNER. Or when I rented him the place?
Mr. LIEBELER. How did you first come in contact with him, and what was
your conversation with him, and what was the result of the conversation
you had?
Mrs. GARNER. The only thing was when he come to rent the apartment,
there was another lady that brought him but they were in the car, but
I didn't notice the car. I didn't pay attention, and when she came to
the door to ring the bell, she told me he was looking for an apartment
and his mother and her was good friends, and she knew him from a
baby. Little Lee she called him, and that she had two places, I don't
remember exactly where she said--I think somewhere on Prythania, and
he went there first and they never had nothing empty, and she took him
riding and they saw my sign and stopped. I showed him the apartment,
and she took him through it, and she said it was very nice. She looked
at the screen porch and said it would be very nice for the baby. We
stood on the screen porch, and he asked me did I have any table lamps,
they didn't have any and his wife was going to come later, and we stood
on the porch talking and she was telling me how long she knew him,
since he was a little boy, and she was friends with his mother and he
had gotten married overseas, and she hadn't met his wife and hadn't
seen him for a long time, and that is when he took a picture out of his
wallet and showed a picture of his wife and baby. Not the baby, I don't
think he had a picture of the baby. Maybe he did, I don't remember.
Well, I told him, I said, well, that is nice, overseas girls make nice
wives at times, because I had one living upstairs not too long before
that, and I said they were real nice. He said, "Yes, one thing, they
don't give you no lip." I will never forget that. That is one thing he
said, and that's all I can really remember he said, and he paid me the
month's rent.
Mr. LIEBELER. How much was that?
Mrs. GARNER. $65.
Mr. LIEBELER. How did he pay that to you? Was it in cash?
Mrs. GARNER. Cash; and he said that his wife would be coming in that
Sunday, the weekend you know. I think it was, it must have been on the
ninth. I don't remember exactly when the ninth was. What day was it?
Mr. LIEBELER. The 9th of May, according to the calendar with which the
reporter has graciously supplied us, was a Thursday.
Mrs. GARNER. Thursday. That weekend, that is when she came in.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember the name of this woman that was with
Oswald?
Mrs. GARNER. No; she never said her name and I didn't ask her, but I
know she was a middle-aged woman in about her middle fifties or late
fifties, well kept, reddish looking hair with a ball in the back, and
she wore glasses; a well kept woman.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did they say specifically they had stopped at your place
because they had seen the sign advertising the apartment for rent?
Mrs. GARNER. Yes; the sign, yes. She took him riding and seen the sign
out.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember any other conversation with either Oswald
or this lady that first time you met Oswald?
Mrs. GARNER. No; that is about all, because then they left.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did Oswald move back to the apartment, or move into the
apartment, before his wife came or did they come together and move in
together?
Mrs. GARNER. No; he was in there a couple of days before she came.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember exactly when he moved in? Did he come
back later on the 9th, or did he come on the 10th?
Mrs. GARNER. The next day, the next evening.
Mr. LIEBELER. The next day. He moved in the next evening?
Mrs. GARNER. The next evening.
Mr. LIEBELER. That would have been Friday the 10th?
Mrs. GARNER. I don't know if he stayed there, but he was there.
Mr. LIEBELER. He did move some of his belongings in; is that correct?
Mrs. GARNER. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you notice anything about his belongings, what kind
of stuff he had?
Mrs. GARNER. I didn't see that. I didn't see anything of that.
Mr. LIEBELER. You didn't see any suitcases he might have had?
Mrs. GARNER. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember when his wife came?
Mrs. GARNER. That weekend; on that Sunday. That was a Sunday.
Mr. LIEBELER. How did she arrive?
Mrs. GARNER. In this station wagon, that lady from Texas, that it had a
Texas license, blue and tan station wagon or blue and white, something
like that, and she also stayed a few days then when she brought the
wife in, she stayed at least a week.
Mr. LIEBELER. This was a woman from Texas?
Mrs. GARNER. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Whom you later learned was named Mrs. Paine? Is that
correct?
Mrs. GARNER. Right.
Mr. LIEBELER. Now, did you notice how many people there were in the
station wagon when it arrived?
Mrs. GARNER. No; I really didn't.