Mr. JENNER. Six or seven, is that what you said?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No; he could have possibly gotten seven haircuts but I
think about six haircuts is what he got. It could have possibly been
five.
I know personally three times I cut his hair and I know that the front
guy cut his hair one time, Mr. Glover, and Mr. Law cut his hair one
time and Buddy--he might have cut it one other time and if he did that
would've made six.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall telling Agent Berry that in all this man had
obtained six or seven haircuts at your shop?
Mr. SHASTEEN. I told him it was possibly six or seven, you know, in
other words--he didn't pin me down to just exactly--he wanted to know
if I thought it was and I told him it could have been seven times.
Mr. JENNER. Seven or eight?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No; I believe--I don't believe he ever got eight haircuts
in there--I don't believe it could have been over seven.
Mr. JENNER. Well, what I'm getting at is that the agent reports as you
said that Oswald had obtained seven or eight haircuts at your shop.
Mr. SHASTEEN. You see, I told him about the times I remembered and he
said, "Could he possibly have been in here more than that?" And I said,
"Sure he could have possibly been in here more than that, but to have
an actual remembrance of him--I wouldn't."
Mr. JENNER. But in any event, your present recollection, after thinking
it through further, is that it was six, and it might even have been as
few as five?
Mr. SHASTEEN. It could have been five, but I personally know of five
times he was in there and like I told him, he could have been in there
two or three other times when I wasn't in there, because sometimes,
it's not very often I do, but occasionally Mr. Law will open up in the
morning and I won't be there right on time. Because, like I said, I
went to a football game and that--there could have been other times
that he came in that I wasn't there, but I asked Buddy did he ever
remember cutting his hair and he said he thought he did cut it another
time than the time--so if he did, there was six times, and of course,
Mr. Glover, he doesn't keep up with whose hair he cuts as much as some
of the others--he's not a friendly type guy, but Buddy said he might
have cut his hair more than once.
The things that made us know when he cut his hair is like when Mr.
Glover cut his hair, he went around and instead of using his back bar
to look in the mirror and comb his hair, he went down to the one at
the middle chair and just rudely pushed out of the way and he got up
there and combed his hair and turned his water on, you know, and got
some more oil and put on it, on his hair, and he didn't say thank you
or excuse me or nothing. He just pushed in there--those things make you
remember.
Mr. JENNER. Did he ever give you a tip?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No.
Mr. JENNER. Did he ever give any of the other barbers a tip?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No.
Mr. JENNER. Is it customary for your customers to give you a tip?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Or customers to give your barbers a tip?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Well, naturally, they get more tips than I do because
I own the shop. It would be a very small percentage, because in a
community like that they just expect to pay what the price is.
Mr. JENNER. And no tips?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No; you know, you might get 50 cents or a dollar a
day--something like if somebody might pitch something up there and say,
"Get you some coffee." It's not that type of a barber shop--it's not a
hotel type or anything like that or a bus station type.
Mr. JENNER. Did this man have any reaction to the haircuts you gave him?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Well, instead of saying--I get tickled thinking about
it--I don't mean it's funny, but it is irritating. I mean, it's funny
since it's over, but he never did say, "That looks nice," or "That's
all right." He would say, "Aw, that's pretty good, that will do until
I get another one or that will do for this time." He never did say,
"That's a good haircut." I do remember him saying, "Take a 32d off of
the temple." Well, you can't take a 32d off of a man's hair, you know.
Mr. JENNER. He did come back then?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes; we have talked about that--I don't care if we put it
on the record--it's the truth with us barbers--we have laughed about
it, but he's not the only one that said, "Take a third of it," you
know. We laughed about his saying, "Take a 32d," or he would say, "Take
a 16th off of the top," or something. I do remember him saying them
things.
Mr. JENNER. Do you think he was just kidding about it?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Well, I don't know but to barbers that's silly, you
know. It's just ridiculous for a man to say "Take a 32d," or raise his
temples a 32d or take a 16th or something off of the top. You cut hair
like the shingles on a house. You cut it to where it will feather in
and not leave gaps. If you pulled it all up and cut it all the same
length and turned it back down on your head, you would have a mess.
Mr. JENNER. It would look pretty bad?
Mr. SHASTEEN. It sure would.
Mr. JENNER. It might look like some of the haircuts I get, occasionally.
Mr. SHASTEEN. But those things--I believe that news reporter--I have
forgotten which she was, but she asked me a while ago a few things
about him and I said, "He's just the type of guy you couldn't forget
but you just hoped he never come back."
But she wasn't--she wanted to know what kind of nature he was or
something like that. That's what makes barbering interesting--you meet
all kinds.
Mr. JENNER. Yes, sir; I'm sure you do.
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes. And like you were talking about there he came
back--one time one of the barbers--now this time I don't know, more
know which time it was than anything, but there was somebody sitting
out in the chair, and they made a remark about him saying take a
certain amount off and after he left, I said, "Well, we get that amount
off." And this fellow said, "How in the world do you do that?" And
I said, "Well, we satisfy him--and if he is real satisfied, when he
leaves, he comes back." I always make dry cracks and things like that,
that breaks the monotony in the shop and I have practiced it, and it's
hard for me to be serious sometimes, you know, about things, and you
just have to break the monotony in the barber shop or people would get
in there and get soured on the world.
Mr. JENNER. Now, Mr. Robert Davis has come in and he is a special
assistant attorney general of Texas, and this is Mr. Shasteen, Mr.
Davis. He owns and operates a barber shop in Irving, Tex.
Mr. DAVIS. Yes--Mr. Shasteen.
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did these coveralls have any pockets in them?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Would you give me--what do they look like, looking at them
just the full front?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Well, the full front?
Mr. DAVIS. Yes; as I'm looking at you now across the desk here.
Mr. SHASTEEN. Well, the ones that were cut off at the sleeves, I can
remember the most. They just had some old pockets up here--[indicating].
Mr. JENNER. On each breast area?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Was that a large pocket, large patch pocket?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No; they were just outside patch pockets and pockets on
the front were patch pockets, I believe.
Mr. JENNER. Do you mean at the hip on either side?
Mr. SHASTEEN. They had some front pockets on either side.
Mr. JENNER. Just one pocket or two?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Now, you pin me down until--to say that, I don't know.
I noticed the top, but I did notice the hip pockets they had two hip
pockets on them. When he got his billfold out, I just wondered how in
the world, if he ever sat down he didn't lose the thing. You know, they
were big enough--that's why I said they were big enough for two. They
sagged and the pockets just leaned back and you could have just walked
up and reached in there and got his billfold and never touched him.
Mr. JENNER. None of these pockets had flaps or buttons on them?
Mr. SHASTEEN. I think the two of them up here maybe had a flap.
Mr. JENNER. The two top ones had a flap?
Mr. SHASTEEN. The hip pockets didn't--they didn't have no flap or
button.
Mr. JENNER. They were patch pockets, too?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And these coveralls were so loose fitting that it made the
pockets hang down?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes; they were just real loose. Even if you had a belt
on them that pulled them around or something--I just couldn't stand to
wear something shuffling through it like that.
Mr. JENNER. And the best of your recollection is that there were two
breast pockets and at least one hip or side pocket.
Mr. SHASTEEN. Well, I'm sure they had side pockets in front.
Mr. JENNER. Were those also patch?
Mr. SHASTEEN. I believe they were.
Mr. JENNER. And they had two hip rear patch pockets?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Was there anything unusual about the pockets that drew your
attention, I'm talking about the front ones, now?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No; not anything unusual about the front ones, but the
hip pockets were gapped open and sagged down.
Mr. JENNER. Because these coveralls were so ill fitting?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Because they were just too big--they could have had about
6 inches cut out of them.
Mr. JENNER. You barbers are generally pretty talkative. Did you seek to
engage this man in conversation when he came into your shop?
Mr. SHASTEEN. You couldn't do it.
Mr. JENNER. Did you seek to do it?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Oh, yes; naturally--she don't need to write this down
because this ain't going to help you a bit what I'm fixing to say,
but the theory I work on as a barber--if a man gets in a chair, and I
tell my other barbers that, if he gets in a chair and you strike up
a conversation with him and he doesn't want to talk, don't talk to
him--you say just as little as you can.
Mr. JENNER. That makes sense.
Mr. SHASTEEN. But if the guy wants to talk, then talk to him, if he--if
you can talk to him on his level or understand the thing he's talking
about, but if a man gets in your chair and he doesn't want to talk, you
can find it out without him turning around and saying, "Cut my hair, I
didn't come in here to have a bull session." I mean, that's barber shop
language, and I try to practice that, and nearly any time he come in I
would mention the weather or a football game--I mean, a barber has to
get up and read the paper every morning and turn the radio on because
everybody that comes in, if you're not up on the latest things that's
happening, you're going to be sitting back there and you can't talk to
them.
I usually run through the paper real hurriedly and see the headlines
at least and I turn the radio on and you just couldn't strike up a
conversation with him and I guess if I had ever mentioned politics to
him, but we try to avoid that as much as possible in the shop. Had I
ever talked politics with him, I might have gotten him on that but
since he was the type guy he was, I never cared to talk politics with
him.
Mr. JENNER. Well, in any event, he evidenced no interest in the bull
session, as you described it?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No.
Mr. JENNER. Is that true of your helpers?
Mr. SHASTEEN. The front chair barber--he is the type barber that
doesn't talk a lot anyway and he would talk about fishing or wrestling
a little bit, but I don't think he ever said half a dozen words to him
altogether. He told him how he wanted his hair cut.
You might attempt to ask me what kind of haircut he wore.
Mr. JENNER. All right, go ahead.
Mr. SHASTEEN. You could just name it, because he didn't wear it long
and he didn't wear it short. It was almost short enough to stand up but
it was too long to stand up. He just wore a rough shod haircut because
many times I thought, "Boy, you sure ought to let this grow out up here
where it will lay down and comb nice or either cut it off where it
would stand up." But like I say, he wanted that little bit taken off.
I tell you what he did do--He did try to make the barber work all he
could. He seemed like he wanted you to do all the work and naturally,
that's another thing, I have a bad attitude towards some people. If a
guy doesn't ask me to do much, I'll do a right smart, but if he thinks
I owe him something, he won't get any extras.
Mr. JENNER. What color hair did this man have?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Oh, he was dark headed--I wouldn't say he was real black,
you know, what I mean, he wasn't jet black, but most people would call
him black-headed.
Mr. JENNER. What color would you say your hair was?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Mine is dark brown, and what is not grey up it's covered
up with oil.
Mr. JENNER. What color would you say mine is?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Oh, now I think your hair is--it's a shade of black. It's
not a dark black. I would say his hair was about the color of yours--it
might have been a little bit darker. It might have been a little
smuttier. You see, hair is a funny thing--a guy can be dark headed and
if he puts oil on it, he looks real black and if he washes the oil out
it's got a smutty look and he never did wear much oil because about the
only time he ever come in the shop, he never had his hair combed and he
never had any oil on it or nothing and naturally after we cut his hair
and put a little oil on it, it made it look darker.
Mr. JENNER. It darkened it up?
Mr. SHASTEEN. My hair is a whole lot darker with a little oil on it.
Now, this fellow here, referring to Mr. Davis----
Mr. JENNER. Mr. Davis, you're talking about?
Mr. SHASTEEN. His hair, if you took the oil off of his hair and washed
it out with some kind of heavy shampoo, it would almost be what you
call a blonde or light red, is that right?