PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION
ON THE ASSASSINATION OF
PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY
STATE OF LOUISIANA,
_Parish of Orleans, ss_:
Jesse J. Garner, being duly sworn says:
1. My name is Jesse James Garner. I was born July 17, 1908, in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I have resided in New Orleans for the last 52
years.
2. I am presently employed as a cab driver for Toye Brothers and have
been so employed for the last twenty years.
3. My wife and I reside at 4911 Magazine Street, New Orleans,
Louisiana, where we have resided continuously for the last four years.
4. Number 4911 Magazine Street consists of one-half of a house located
at 4905-11 Magazine Street. The other half of the house is divided into
two apartments which go by the number 4905 and 4907 Magazine Street.
5. Lee Harvey Oswald occupied the apartment known as 4905 Magazine
Street from May 9, 1963, to on or about September 23, 1963. He paid a
rental of $65.00 per month for the apartment, which was furnished, and
was directly responsible to the utility company for payment of gas and
electric bills.
6. I first talked to Oswald about a month after he moved into the
apartment. I spoke to him about payment of the rent, because he was a
few days late in paying his rent for the second month he lived in the
apartment. He told me he would have the rent in a few days. I later
learned that he did pay the rent to my wife shortly thereafter.
7. Oswald appeared to be a quiet sort of man and I did not talk to him
about anything other than the rent that first time that I met him.
8. Sometime after that, my wife called to my attention that Oswald
had attached to the screen of his porch two hand circulars which read
something to the effect that the United States should lay hands off
Cuba. These circulars were about 4" by 6".
9. I have examined a photograph which has been marked as Exhibit No. 1
to this affidavit and state that the photograph shows Oswald handing
out a circular which is of the same kind he had attached to the screen
of his porch.
10. I asked Oswald to remove the circulars and he asked me who
"rejects" to them. I told him that I objected to them and that I was
the only person who had to object to them. Oswald then took them down
without further comment and the subject was never mentioned between us
again.
11. The next and last time I talked to Oswald was on Sunday morning,
September 22, 1963, when I noticed he had almost finished packing a
station wagon with his family's personal belongings. I asked him if he
was moving, since I was concerned that he then owed about 15 days rent.
Oswald told me that he was not leaving but that his wife was going
to Texas to have her baby after which she was going to return to New
Orleans.
12. I did not see the station wagon leave, but I believe it left for
Texas sometime on Monday morning, September 23, 1963, but it could have
left sometime on Sunday morning.
13. I didn't pay too much attention to the station wagon or to what
Oswald was doing, because I thought he was going to remain in the
apartment, as he had said.
14. I never saw Oswald again after my conversation with him on Sunday
morning, but I thought I heard him in his apartment during the evening
(about 7:00 to 7:30 p.m.) of the day on which the station wagon had
left, i.e., either Sunday or Monday, September 22 or 23, 1963.
15. I did not see or hear any activity in the apartment on the day
after the station wagon left for Texas. The next day which I believe
would have been Wednesday, September 25, 1963, I entered Oswald's
apartment and found that he had left and taken all of his belongings
with him.
16. I never personally observed anyone visit Oswald or his family
during the time they lived at the above address.
17. Oswald never seemed to respond to greetings from me and seemed to
be an unfriendly type of person.
Signed on May 5, 1964, at New Orleans, La.
(S) Jesse J. Garner,
JESSE J. GARNER.