Mr. McCLOY. Coming from the Texas School Book Depository?
Mrs. PAINE. Schoolbook depository, and I believe I also said I didn't
know there was a building on Elm.
Senator COOPER. Why did you go out to tell her, this fact?
Mrs. PAINE. I felt this was terribly close, somebody working in that
building had been there. I thought Lee might be able to say somewhat
about what happened, had been close to the event. This was my thought,
that we would know somebody who would be able to give or possibly give
a first-hand----
Senator COOPER. Did you have any thought at all that Lee Oswald might
have been the man who fired the shot?
Mrs. PAINE. Absolutely none; no.
Mr. JENNER. Why was that, Mrs. Paine?
Mrs. PAINE. I had never thought of him as a violent man. He had never
said anything against President Kennedy, nor anything about President
Kennedy. I had no idea that he had a gun. There was nothing that I
had seen about him that indicated a man with that kind of grudge or
hostility.
Mr. McCLOY. But you told this to Marina because of the association of
Lee Oswald with the schoolbook depository?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes. I then proceeded to hang some clothes.
Mr. JENNER. She did not comment?
Mrs. PAINE. She did not comment.
Mr. JENNER. Made no comment?
Mrs. PAINE. That is my recollection, that she made no comment. I then
helped hang the clothes. My recollection skips then to being again in
front of the television listening, and it was then that we heard that
the President was dead. We were both sitting on the sofa.
Mr. JENNER. Marina had come in from the yard?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. From the hanging of the clothes?
Mrs. PAINE. I don't recall whether we came in together or whether she
preceded me into the house while I finished hanging up the clothes. But
I do recall then next sitting on the sofa when the announcement was
definitely made that the President was dead. And she said to me "What
a terrible thing this was for Mrs. Kennedy and for the two children."
I remember her words were, "Now the two children will have to grow
up without the father." It was very shortly after this we were still
sitting on the sofa.
Mr. McCLOY. Just take a little time and compose yourself.
Mrs. PAINE. My neighbor, Mrs. Roberts, came in, really I think to see
if we had heard, and----
Senator COOPER. Why don't you rest a few minutes?
Mrs. PAINE. I can proceed. I recall my feeling of anger with her for
not being more upset, or she didn't appear to me to be, any more than
reporting a remarkable news item. Then it was shortly after that that
the bell rang and I went to the door and met some six officers from the
sheriff's office and police station.
Mr. JENNER. Was this approximately 3:30 p.m.?
Mrs. PAINE. Oh, I think it was earlier, but I wouldn't be certain. I
know that we had put our children to bed. They were all taking a nap,
though I am not certain. Yes, my little girl was asleep also. I cried
after I had heard that the President was dead, and my little girl was
upset, too, always taking it from me more than from any understanding
of the situation. And she cried herself to sleep on the sofa, and I
moved her to her bed, and Christopher was already asleep in his crib.
June was in bed asleep.
Mr. JENNER. Was Marina emotional at all? Did she cry?
Mrs. PAINE. No. She said to me, "I feel very badly also, but we seem to
show that we are upset in different ways." She did not actually cry.
Mr. McCLOY. May I go back a moment there, if I may. You said you
were sitting on the sofa--that she and you were sitting on the sofa.
While you were listening or looking at the television, was there any
announcement over the television of a suspicion being cast at Lee?
Mrs. PAINE. It had just been announced that they had caught someone in
a theatre, but there was no name given.
Mr. McCLOY. So up to this point there was no suggestion that Lee was
involved?
Mrs. PAINE. No; not until the time the officers came to the door.
Mr. McCLOY. Not until the officers came?
Mrs. PAINE. Do you want to ask me about that?