Mrs. PAINE. May I put in another point here?
Mr. JENNER. In connection with this subject matter?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
Mrs. PAINE. I called and the man to whom I talked, I don't know if it
was Lee, or I think it was someone else who answered first, I am not
certain at all.
Mr. JENNER. Odum?
Mrs. PAINE. Odum? It certainly was not Odum. I know him. But someone
answered the phone and I told this to him, and perhaps it was Lee. He
said to me in response to my inquiring "What shall I do, here is this
man coming," he said "well you don't know anything of this nature do
you?" I said, "No".
"Then anything you might have to say is sheer conjecture on the
subject?"
"Yes."
"Then you should certainly make that plain in talking with him."
Mr. JENNER. Did you do so?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I certainly did. And I felt as though I really
shouldn't have bothered them. This was not of interest to them. But
then I was called back later by the FBI on the same subject.
Mr. JENNER. And you reported that conversation, the subsequent call
back by the FBI?
Mrs. PAINE. No. You have content of the first conversation I think
there, isn't that so, or it might have been?
Mr. JENNER. There are a series, Mrs. Paine, that run in this order. The
first was on December 28, 1963. The conversation occurred between you
and an Agent Lee, and it was a telephone interview?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. I have asked you about that, and I have read from the
report and you have affirmed that you so reported to the agent. And
on the next day, December 29, 1963, you had a telephone conversation,
whether you called or whether the agent called, with Kenneth C. Howe.
Mrs. PAINE. What is his name?
Mr. JENNER. Kenneth C. Howe, on this same subject. I have questioned
you about that, and I have read from the report, and you have affirmed
as to that. Then on January 3, 1964, this apparently was an interview
at your home by Agent Odum? Do you recall that?
Mrs. PAINE. Agent Odum has been out a great deal.
Mr. JENNER. In which you say, did you not, that this reporter Hudkins
of the Houston Post newspaper in his contact with you on the previous
Saturday, December 28 had stated that the FBI was foolish to deny that
Agent Joseph Hosty, being a reference to the FBI agent we have been
talking about today, had tried to develop Lee Harvey Oswald as an
informant. You stated you had made no comment one way or the other to
Hudkins regarding this remark, and furthermore that you knew that----
Mrs. PAINE. Would you please repeat that, that I stated?
Mr. JENNER. I will read it all to you then. You advised that Lonny
Hudkins, the reporter of the Houston Post in his contact that he had
with you on the previous Saturday, December 28, 1963, had stated to you
that the FBI was foolish to deny that Agent Hosty had tried to develop
Lee Harvey Oswald as an informant. Did you make that statement?
Mrs. PAINE. Not in just those terms.
Mr. JENNER. Did you make the further statement that you made no comment
one way or the other to Hudkins regarding this remark of his to you? In
order to get this in the proper posture, Mrs. Paine----
Senator COOPER. Do you understand the question?
Mrs. PAINE. I understand what is said, but it doesn't check strictly
with my recollection, that is the confusion.
Mr. JENNER. What the agent is reporting is your report of what Lonny
Hudkins had said to you, and your report to the agent of your response
to what Lonny Hudkins had said to you. Do we have it now in the proper
posture?
Mrs. PAINE. This is by no means an accurate description of the
conversation or my response.
Mr. JENNER. You don't have to accept this report, of course, Mrs.
Paine. Tell us what occurred in that interview?
Mrs. PAINE. All right.
Mr. JENNER. What you said and what Agent Odum said to you.
Mrs. PAINE. Oh, I don't recall that so well. I was going to tell you
what I said to Hudkins. I do recall this, and it may be the foundation
for what appears in your report there. I made no comment on Mr. Hudkins
saying that there was a Joe Hosty, and that this agent had been in
contact with Oswald. I observed that Hudkins had inaccurate information.
Mr. JENNER. Didn't you tell the agent what this reporter had said to
you that was inaccurate, to wit, that the reporter had stated to you
that the FBI was foolish to deny that Agent Hosty had tried to develop
Lee Harvey Oswald as an informant?
Mrs. PAINE. What is totally inaccurate is the following, that implies
that I made no comment to Hudkins regarding such a remark.
Mr. JENNER. No please, that has not been suggested. I am trying to take
this chronologically. Did you first report to the agent that Hudkins
had said to you that the FBI was foolish to deny that Agent Joseph
Hosty had tried to develop Lee Harvey Oswald as an informant.
Mrs. PAINE. Certainly what Hudkins said was of this nature.
Mr. JENNER. And you so reported to the agent?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Then did you make the further remark, which is what I think
you are trying to say, that you made no comment one way or the other to
Hudkins when he made that remark, his remark to you?
Mrs. PAINE. I made a great deal of comment and I will say what those
comments were.
Mr. JENNER. You did to the reporter.
Mrs. PAINE. To the reporter, yes.
Mr. JENNER. Please say what you said, and did you report this to the
FBI, Mr. Odum?