Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. When she arrived at your home? Were you girls in the living
room?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did you sit down and talk?
Mrs. PAINE. No. She just came to the door to see if we had heard the
news.
Mr. JENNER. She was there just a bit of the time?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes. She did not come, actually, into the house.
Mr. JENNER. She did not. She stood in the doorway?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Is that correct?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And did she speak to you and to Marina?
Mrs. PAINE. Well, she spoke in English, and I doubt she said much more
than, "Have you heard?".
Mr. JENNER. Did Marina say anything to you for translation of Mrs.
Reynolds?
Mrs. PAINE. No. Roberts.
Mr. JENNER. Mrs. Roberts; while Mrs. Roberts was there?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. Learning that you girls were aware of the events up to that
moment, she left and, as far as you know, returned to her home?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Now, that morning--if I may, Mr. Chairman, because of the
entry of the police, that is a good cutoff point, I would like to go
back to the morning for the moment, or the evening before. Mrs. Paine,
did you then have what might be called some curtain rods in your garage?
Mrs. PAINE. I believe there were.
Mr. JENNER. Do you have a recollection?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; they were stored in the garage, wrapped in loose brown
paper.
Mr. JENNER. Is it the brown paper of the nature and character you
described yesterday that you get at the market and have in a roll?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Had you wrapped that package yourself?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Now, curtain rods can be of various types. One type of
curtain rod, as I remember, is a solid brass rod. Others are hollow.
Some are shaped. Would you describe these curtain rods, please?
Mrs. PAINE. They were a light weight.
Mr. JENNER. Excuse me; do you still have them?
Mrs. PAINE. I still have them.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
Mrs. PAINE. Metal rods that you slip the curtain over, not with a ring
but just with the cloth itself, and they are expansion rods.
Mr. JENNER. Are they flat on one side?
Mrs. PAINE. They are flat on one side; about an inch wide and about a
quarter of an inch thick.
Mr. JENNER. And assume we are holding the rod horizontally, do the
edges of the rod slip over?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Senator COOPER. Did you wrap these rods in the paper? Had you wrapped
them?
Mrs. PAINE. Sometime previously I had.
Senator COOPER. How long before?
Mrs. PAINE. Oh, possibly a year.
Senator COOPER. What?
Mrs. PAINE. Possibly a year.
Senator COOPER. As far as you know, they had never been changed?
Mrs. PAINE. Moved about, but not changed.
Senator COOPER. Can you just describe the length?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Senator COOPER. The length of the rods, at the time you wrapped them.
Mrs. PAINE. They would be 36 inches when pushed together.
Senator COOPER. What?
Mrs. PAINE. They would be about maybe 36 inches when pushed together.
Senator COOPER. You remember wrapping them. Do you remember what the
size, the length of the rods were at the time you wrapped them?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Senator COOPER. How long?
Mrs. PAINE. Didn't I answer about 36 inches?
Mr. JENNER. In other words, you pushed them together so that then, they
were then their minimum length, unexpanded?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. They were not extended, and in that condition they were 36
inches long?
Mrs. PAINE. Something like that.
Mr. JENNER. Now, how many of them were there?
Mrs. PAINE. Two.
Mr. JENNER. These were lightweight metal?
Mrs. PAINE. Very. Now, there was another item that was both heavier and
longer.
Mr. JENNER. In that same package?
Mrs. PAINE. No; I don't think so. In another similar package wrapped
up just to keep the dust off were two Venetian blinds. I guess they
were not longer, more like 36 inches also, that had come from the two
windows in my bedroom. I took them down to change, and put up pull
blinds in their place.
Mr. JENNER. And had you wrapped them?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. How many were there?
Mrs. PAINE. Two.
Mr. JENNER. And what was their length?
Mrs. PAINE. I think around 36 inches. The width of these windows in the
back bedroom.
Mr. JENNER. Let us return to the curtain rods first. Do you still have
those curtain rods?
Mrs. PAINE. I believe so.
Mr. JENNER. You believe so, or you know; which?
Mrs. PAINE. I think Michael went to look after the assassination,
whether these were still in the garage.
Mr. JENNER. Did you have a conversation with Michael as to whether he
did or didn't look?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Why was he looking to see if the curtain rod package was
there?
Mrs. PAINE. He was particularly interested in the wrapping, was the
wrapping still there, the brown paper.
Mr. JENNER. When did this take place?
Mrs. PAINE. After the assassination, perhaps a week or so later,
perhaps when one of the FBI people were out; I don't really recall.
Mr. JENNER. And was the package with the curtain rods found on that
occasion?
Mrs. PAINE. It is my recollection it was.
Mr. JENNER. What about the Venetian blind package?
Mrs. PAINE. Still there, still wrapped.
Mr. JENNER. You are fully conscious of the fact that that package is
still there?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief
the other package, likewise, is there?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Senator COOPER. Let me ask a question there. After the assassination,
at anytime did you go into the garage and look to see if both of these
packages were there?
Mrs. PAINE. A week and a half, or a week later.
Senator COOPER. At any time?
Mrs. PAINE. Did I, personally?
Senator COOPER. Have you seen these packages since the assassination?
Mrs. PAINE. It seems to me I recall seeing a package.
Senator COOPER. What?
Mrs. PAINE. I don't recall opening it up and looking in carefully. I
seem to recall seeing the package.
Senator COOPER. Both of them?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Senator COOPER. Or just one?
Mrs. PAINE. Both.
Senator COOPER. Did you feel them to see if the rods were in there?
Mrs. PAINE. No. I think Michael did, but I am not certain.
Senator COOPER. But you never did, yourself?