Mr. JENNER. How much hair did he have? A full head of hair?
Mr. SHASTEEN. To me, he didn't have a full head of hair. It was rather
short and thin around here by the temples and the way his hair lies
back, he would have been bald if he had been 40 years old.
Mr. JENNER. He had hair around the center, but he was losing his hair
around the sides of the forehead?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes; there was just a little crease that started back
here. Naturally, a barber would notice that because the hair is much
finer back here, you see, than it was down here [indicating]. In other
words, I have as much hair as I ever had but it's just so fine you
can't see it and that's what happens to a guy when he gets bald-headed.
The hair is still there but it just doesn't grow. It's just little
fuzz, and that hair of his, in another 5 or 6 years he would have been
bald-headed. You can believe it.
I can tell you another thing--I don't know whether I told this fellow
or not, may have. There are little things you can't remember, but he
just had a hard look, just sitting in the chair. I'll tell you this
much--if a guy comes in the barbershop and he's got a pretty good
disposition and he smiles and speaks to people, every barber will want
to cut his hair, but if a guy comes in there and he kind of looks
grouchy, in barber language we call it soldiering on one another. We
might work on a guy just a little bit longer if this guy's next so
somebody else will have to get him. He's just the type guy you don't
care about working on. I mean, he was just that type. I believe I can
speak for all three of the barbers because I have heard their opinion
about him. They didn't care if he never came back.
And, he never helped the shop. Well, you will say, how can a customer
help the shop? When you ask a man to come back, when he starts out the
door and if he says, "Thank you," or "I'll be back," or "I'll see you
in 2 weeks,"--that's the language that is used around the barbershop,
that helps the feeling at the barbershop, but if ask a guy going out
the door to come back and he didn't even grunt, you know, that just
lowers its morale in a barbershop right quick.
I know that customers don't think about that, but we as barbers--that's
our business and we watch that and you would be surprised, if a guy
comes in and you give a haircut and you thank him, when he pays you,
and the barber ordinarily when he leaves for that door, when he starts
out, he asks him to come back and if he says, "I'll see you in 2
weeks," or "Thank you for asking me to come back," it just builds up
the morale in a shop, but he wasn't that type.
Mr. JENNER. I might have misled you a little bit ago--I mentioned your
being interviewed on the 3d of December. The fact is that interview was
on the 2d, was it not, the 2d of December?
Mr. SHASTEEN. The fact is--why I say that, he came one day--I didn't
put the dates down and I didn't try to remember them, but he came one
day and I was real busy--the kids were trying to get a haircut for some
program.
Mr. JENNER. The 2d of December was on a Monday?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes; I believe he came Monday and then he came back
Tuesday. In other words, he came one day and he got there a little late
and the kids were having their pictures made up at the school there
nearby and they were sitting in there and he said, "Suppose I come back
tomorrow?" He said, "I have some other places I need to go." And I told
him it would be fine or I would take him in a few minutes.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall Mr. Odum interviewing at a later time, the
16th of December?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes; but he didn't make any notes to my knowledge, but I
cut his hair.
Mr. JENNER. He made notes all right, I can tell you that.
Mr. SHASTEEN. He did--I josh and go on with Mr. Odum a lot.
Mr. JENNER. Do you know him?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Likewise a Monday?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes; I believe it was. I cut Mr. Odum's hair about a week
and a half ago. Do you know him? (Addressing Mr. Davis.)
Mr. DAVIS. No.
Mr. SHASTEEN. He's the type guy you like to have come in any time.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall telling him on that occasion that you had
never been able to identify the 14-year old boy, that this boy had been
in your shop on one occasion about 2 months prior to that day, that is
prior to December 16, and that would make it around the 16th of October?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Well, now, we--in other words, there were no customers in
there, but the barbers and I think he was in there, as I told you, I
think we were nearly positive about that, but if I told you I knew he
was, I couldn't be sure about that.
Mr. JENNER. It was on a Wednesday or Thursday and Oswald's hair was cut
on that occasion by your fellow barber, Burt Glover?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes; and Burt is the one that says that was on a Thursday.
Mr. JENNER. You see, this is what you told Mr. Odum, and that Glover
says on the next Monday or Tuesday he cut the hair of the 14-year old
boy?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And that would be sometime in October?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Evidently that's the time that I don't--that wasn't the
time that he made the statement at all. If he got a haircut--but, if
you know Burt like I know Burt, I don't know that Burt knows that that
was the boy, but he still says it is. I think it was--I wouldn't be
sure about it.
Mr. JENNER. All I have in mind here is your report to Agent Odum. Then
you told him at that occasion, that is, when the boy got his haircut on
Monday or Tuesday, that Oswald was not in the shop but that somebody
else had brought the boy to the shop.
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes; somebody let him out.
Mr. JENNER. Is that something Glover told you?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No. When he got his haircut, when he made the statement?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mr. SHASTEEN. No; somebody brought him and somebody picked him up, but
they didn't pull right in front of the shop. They just let him out in
front in the street.
Mr. JENNER. Did you notice whether there was a woman or man or men that
brought him to the shop?
Mr. SHASTEEN. I know what you're fixing to ask and I could kick my own
self, but I didn't pay no attention to it.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall what type of automobile--did you notice it at
all?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes; I noticed the car. Now, I'll tell you the man's name
that I know--I know it is in my estimation--it was in the 1958 bracket
and as the old saying is, it didn't have the wings on it. This was the
thing that I noticed.
Mr. JENNER. But it wasn't the station wagon you have described?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No; I think it was a 1958 Ford--them there old
gun-colored, it was a dark color, but it wasn't black or nothing, and
that's what let him out--the kid out in front.
Mr. JENNER. But this was the occasion the boy made the remark, "There
wouldn't be no peace until all the people had the same amount of
possessions and that most of our trouble now is caused because the poor
people have so little and the rich so much?"
Mr. SHASTEEN. Right.
Mr. JENNER. And this boy indicated peace would come when all the people
had the amount of--the same amount of wealth?
Mr. SHASTEEN. And had one leader--he didn't say "ruler," he said
"leader." We talked about that and noticed it after he left.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall making this statement to Agent Odum?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes. I have made it in my mind a dozen times since
then--just thinking of a 14-year old boy having that kind of distilled
stuff in his mind. It's not funny to me, it hurts me to see a kid with
that kind of an attitude, because somebody is teaching him wrong and
the thing that hurts me the most was the fact that I did have a chance
to have took him and bought him a coke or took him and done something
and talked to him and found out who he was and where I could have at
least reasoned with him or turned him in where somebody--some of the
authorities could have gotten ahold of him or anything, but it made me
mad and I didn't do it. That's why we shouldn't let our tempers--you
fellows are lawyers and you know that you can't let your temper get too
far, but some of us people do let our tempers get away and that's one
time I let mine get away. I would much rather have took him and whipped
him with one of the belts or razor straps than took his money.
Mr. JENNER. Well, I think of nothing else.
Do you have anything in mind to ask him, Mr. Davis?
Mr. DAVIS. No, is this person still coming, have you seen him any
more--when is the last time you saw him at the shop?
Mr. SHASTEEN. This boy--I never saw that boy since that day. Of course,
I don't remember exactly, the exact words, you know, I was kind of
angry and aggravated and then you say things, but I let him know that
that was no way for anybody to feel and I told him he was just off--way
off base, and I said, "I don't know where you got your learning and
your thinking," but I said, "Boy, I disagree with you whole-heartedly."
And I said--I have a bad habit of telling people they had better take
inventory and see if they are right, and I told him, I said, "You had
better take inventory and find out where you stand because you are just
at the right age that you can get in a lot of trouble thinking like
that."
Mr. JENNER. Did I ask you what your age was?
Mr. SHASTEEN. No; 39.
Mr. JENNER. And you are a married man and have a family?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. How old is Mr. Glover?
Mr. SHASTEEN. 32.
Mr. JENNER. And your third barber?
Mr. SHASTEEN. 39.
Mr. JENNER. That's all, and we appreciate your coming in.
Mr. SHASTEEN. Well, I wish I could help you, but I know it doesn't help
you a lot.
Mr. JENNER. Well, you helped us by telling us everything you know.
Mr. DAVIS. We surely do appreciate your coming in.
Mr. JENNER. If you wish to read your deposition and make any
corrections if you think any are warranted, you may do so and sign it,
if you wish, or you can waive all that if you wish to?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Well, I couldn't read what she has been writing there.
Mr. JENNER. I take it by that that you had just as soon waive your
signature and reading it over?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And signing it?
Mr. SHASTEEN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. All right, Mr. Shasteen, thank you very much. I appreciate
it.
Mr. SHASTEEN. It's good to meet you fellows.
Mr. JENNER. Thank you.
Mr. DAVIS. Thank you.