Mr. LIEBELER. And that is substantially what he had mentioned to you at
the range, that it was Italian?
Dr. WOOD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you know whether or not your son spoke to this man
before he told you it was an Italian carbine, or not?
Dr. WOOD. I feel sure he did not speak to the man before.
Mr. LIEBELER. Your son's statement was based only on his observation of
the rifle, is that correct?
Dr. WOOD. On his observation of the rifle and what he knows about guns,
which is quite a bit. He studies about guns a lot.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you think your son would be qualified to make a
statement in this regard?
Dr. WOOD. I feel sure more so than I am. I know very little about guns,
but he knows quite a bit.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you observe this fellow leave the rifle range before
you?
Dr. WOOD. I did not, but I didn't notice when the change was made, but
my son said he did. He noticed that the fellow came there after my boy
had sat down and this fellow had left before my boy had finished. The
reason for that was, that my boy was having some trouble sighting in
his scope, and he asked the keeper to help him. This fellow was there
less than most of the fellows that was out there.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember the name of the keeper?
Dr. WOOD. I do not. He was a tall fellow; all I know.
Mr. LIEBELER. Slender?
Dr. WOOD. Slender, yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you know Mr. Floyd Davis?
Dr. WOOD. No, sir; he might have been the fellow that was helping my
son, I don't know. But I recognized his picture later in the paper
when it came out, and--that this fellow was there practicing, and I
recognized the fellow as the fellow that helped my son.
Mr. LIEBELER. Helped your son sight in his scope?
Dr. WOOD. Helped my son sight in his scope, and I don't know who owned
the range. I have no idea.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did there come a time subsequent to that that you were
able to identify this man that you had seen there as Lee Harvey Oswald?
Dr. WOOD. Would you repeat that?
Mr. LIEBELER. After you saw this man, you left the rifle range. Then
later on the next Friday the President was assassinated, and at
sometime subsequent to that time, did you connect up Lee Harvey Oswald
with this man that you saw at the rifle range?
Dr. WOOD. I did.
Mr. LIEBELER. Tell me when and how you did that?
Dr. WOOD. I saw him flashed on the television screen at home several
times. They would interrogate him and bring him down the hall and bring
him back to his cell. This particular time I mentioned to my wife,
I said to her, "Honey, that looks exactly like the fellow that was
sitting next to Sterling at the rifle range. But I am not going to say
anything to Sterling because I want to see if he recognizes him and if
he thinks it was."
Well, I would say within 30 minutes or an hour he was flashed back
on the screen and he said to me, "Daddy, that is the fellow that was
sitting next to me out on the rifle range."
Mr. LIEBELER. So that you, independently of your son, first noticed the
resemblance between Oswald----
Dr. WOOD. And mentioned it to my wife.
Mr. LIEBELER. And Sterling was not in your presence at at time?
Dr. WOOD. No, sir; he was not in the room.
Mr. LIEBELER. Then later he came into the room, saw Oswald's picture on
the television, and said to you that that was the guy that was out at
the rifle range that previous Saturday, is that correct?
Dr. WOOD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. You did not mention to Sterling in any way the
resemblance between Oswald and the fellow at the rifle range prior to
the time he mentioned it himself?
Dr. WOOD. No. They mentioned on the newscast that he was an ex-Marine.
Well, I figured an ex-Marine would be a husky sort of fellow, and I
kept watching him, and he didn't look like a Marine to me. But he was a
Marine but he didn't seem to me to have the build.
He looked to me as a fairly frail man, not too strong, and that is the
reason I wasn't thinking too much about it until he was flashed on the
screen and then his profile just came to me that that was the man that
was out at the rifle range.
Mr. LIEBELER. What did you do then after you had had this conversation
and Sterling's observation?
Dr. WOOD. I said I think I should report that to either the Dallas
police or FBI.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you do so?
Dr. WOOD. I did not until the following Monday. On Sunday, the next
morning--this was Saturday night--on Sunday morning we went to church
and my wife said after church, let's go down and look at the place
where the President was assassinated. We haven't been down, so we went
down there and we looked over the area and we walked back to our car,
and I would say it was between 12 and 1 o'clock, and I turned on the
radio in the car and it said Oswald had been shot.
So I said to my wife, well, I don't know whether it will do any
good now to turn it in or not, and I didn't turn it in. But later
on, on Monday I had a fellow in my office who works for the State
comptroller's office and told him about this incident and he said, "Dr.
Wood, I certainly would turn it in. Anything that you could do will
help."
So after he left the office, I called the FBI and told them I thought I
had some information that might be of importance to them concerning the
Oswald case, and they talked to me, and this was on Monday. And I told
them I was leaving town. I think I told them, I am not positive, but we
went out, me and my wife and son went out to Uvalde deer hunting, and
while we were out there--this was on, we went out Tuesday, and we were
there Wednesday night, and Will Fritz of the Dallas police force called
me and questioned me about my son and me and were we sure, and I said
we were fairly sure that it was, and he wanted to know when we were
coming back, and I said that me and my wife were thinking about going
to Mexico so it will be Sunday before we return. And he said, when you
return would you please call me.
Well, that was on the following Monday, and I called Will Fritz and
he had two men from homicide come out and talk to me. And on my lunch
hour, two FBI agents came out and talked with me.
Mr. LIEBELER. Was this on Monday, too?
Dr. WOOD. It was on Monday. I believe. I am fairly sure it was on
Monday because I called as soon as I came back, and I recall that when
I called, there was the homicide, two officers from Will Fritz' office
came, and as well as I remember, they called my office girl, the FBI
called my office girl and asked could they come out to see me, and they
came out around my lunch hour, and I talked to the FBI at that time.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember the names of the agents that spoke to you?
Dr. WOOD. I don't remember the agents, sure don't.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you observe the rifle that this fellow was firing
closely enough so that you could be able to identify it?
Dr. WOOD. I don't think I could identify it.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did the FBI or the Dallas police show you any pictures of
Oswald when they interviewed you?
Dr. WOOD. Both the Dallas police and the FBI, I think, showed me the
same photograph that each showed me as they came out.
Mr. LIEBELER. And you identified that man in that photograph as the
fellow you had seen at the rifle range?
Dr. WOOD. I put it in this category that I couldn't be absolutely
positive, but in my mind I was positive that it was Oswald that I saw
out at the rifle range.
Mr. LIEBELER. They showed pictures also to your son, did they not?
Dr. WOOD. He said they did; yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. You weren't there when they did?
Dr. WOOD. They interviewed my son at school. The Secret Service came
out to his school, I think, a couple of times to see him, and an
officer from Will Fritz' office came out once or twice to school to see
him, and the FBI came out, I think, at the house on two occasions just
before I got off from the office, and I never was there when my son saw
either of them.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you know that the FBI subsequently showed your son a
picture of the rifle used to assassinate the President?
Dr. WOOD. I knew this.
Mr. LIEBELER. Were you aware of the fact that your son indicated that
the picture that the FBI showed them was not the same rifle that was in
possession of this man at the rifle range?
Dr. WOOD. I am not aware of that. I am aware of the fact that he--he
thinks he said that the rifle they first showed him was the rifle, but
the scope was not the same scope that he showed them. I think that is
what my boy said. I don't know for sure whether they showed him two
different pictures or not, but one time they came out, the FBI come and
stayed a very short while and said is this the scope. That is the way I
understood my wife to say, and my boy said no, that is not the scope.
Mr. LIEBELER. I want to show you some pictures that have previously
been marked as Commission Exhibits 451 and 453 through 456, and ask you
if any of the pictures I show you resemble the men who you saw at the
rifle range?
Dr. WOOD. I pick out someone nearest resembling--is that what you are
asking me? Or is the likeness of either of these to him?
Mr. LIEBELER. Yes, is this the fellow you saw at the rifle range, do
you think? Are any of these pictures of the man you saw at the rifle
range?
Dr. WOOD. May I ask this, that the profile that I got of the man, as
I told the FBI, was not a profile like this. It was a lateral side
profile, because I was facing in this angle, and I said I could only
describe him from a lateral view and from the shoulder up, even though
I walked down to the rifle range to the target with him. I did not pay
a bit of attention to him.
Mr. LIEBELER. So would the picture here, Commission Exhibit 454, be a
lateral view of the type you describe.
Dr. WOOD. No, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. That is too much from the front?
Dr. WOOD. Well, now, that is a right lateral view. I assume his was a
left lateral view. But still I would say that wasn't.
Mr. LIEBELER. You would say what?
Dr. WOOD. That was not the man that I saw.
Mr. LIEBELER. That was not the man you saw?
Dr. WOOD. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. I show you a photograph that has been previously marked
as Pizzo Exhibit 453-A and ask you if you recognize any of the
individuals in that photograph as the man you saw in the rifle range?
Dr. WOOD. Yes. The man holding the paper facing me with a green mark
above his head.
Mr. LIEBELER. With the green mark, with two marks above him? There are
two different marks and you indicated the----
Dr. WOOD. The green marking above this fellow right here [pointing].
Mr. LIEBELER. That has an "X"-shaped mark.
Dr. WOOD. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. I show you another picture which has been marked Pizzo
Exhibit 453-B, and ask you if any of the individuals there appear to be
the same as the man you saw at the rifle range?
Dr. WOOD. Yes. The man with one green marking above the top of his head
is the--I would identify as the man.
Mr. LIEBELER. I show you another picture that has been marked as Pizzo
Exhibit 453-C, and ask you if you recognize that individual as the man
you saw at the rifle range?
Dr. WOOD. I do.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you have any doubt about it?
Dr. WOOD. In my mind there is no doubt. If I just had to swear on a
Bible, I couldn't, but in my mind, it is him.
Mr. LIEBELER. Well, of course, you realize that you are testifying
under oath.
Dr. WOOD. I know he is a dead man and all that, but I must say in my
own mind it is him, I am positive.
Mr. LIEBELER. Now I show you two pictures which have been marked
Exhibits 3 and 4, on the deposition of Mr. Greener, and ask you if you
recognize either of those pictures as the rifle in the possession of
the man at the range?
Dr. WOOD. I didn't observe the rifle close enough to say either one of
these was or wasn't. I only observed the way the rifle was fired, so I
couldn't identify either one as being the rifle that assassinated, or
the man that was shooting out at the rifle range.
Mr. LIEBELER. You are unable to identify that as being the rifle either
one way or the other?
Dr. WOOD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you know of anybody else that was at the range when
you observed this fellow who also observed him?
Dr. WOOD. Yes. I told the FBI of Kenney Longley. Dr. Longley's son, a
dental surgeon, a friend of mine, was talking to me at the time they
were shooting. He was getting ready to take over one of the booths, and
I understand that later the FBI went out to interview him.
And he had two friends with him. They interviewed them too, but I have
forgotten their names.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did they observe this individual also?
Dr. WOOD. Other than what I have said, the conversation that I was
concerned about, and I handed them each cotton to put in their ears
when he fired this rifle, and I don't know how much observation they
made of the man.
Mr. LIEBELER. Have you discussed with them the question of whether or
not this man was Lee Harvey Oswald?
Dr. WOOD. I haven't seen--I will retract that statement. I had seen Dr.
Longley's son. He had a front tooth knocked out and Dr. Longley brought
him over to my office, but nothing was mentioned about Oswald or this
man at the rifle range.
Mr. LIEBELER. Longley and those two friends are the only two men that
you know of that were also at the range at that time?
Dr. WOOD. The only people I know. I couldn't identify another soul that
was out there.
Mr. LIEBELER. You haven't discussed this either with Longley or his two
friends?
Dr. WOOD. No, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. I don't think I have any more questions at this point. If
you can think of anything else that you think ought to be on the record
about this matter, I want you to feel free to go right ahead and say
it. We want to get everything that you know about this.
Dr. WOOD. You mean help you out in the case or any feelings in the case?
Mr. LIEBELER. No; on the question of whether this was Oswald out there
at the rifle range, or anything else, if you know any other facts about
the case, we want to know those, too.
Dr. WOOD. I have elaborated pretty much to you about what I saw. I was
a great admirer of the President and I felt that if there was anything
I could do to help clarify or clear up the case, I was willing to do
it, and that is why I reported.
Mr. LIEBELER. On behalf of the Commission I want to thank you very much
for the cooperation you have shown us, Dr. Wood.
Thank you, sir.