Mr. PIC. Downtown where she worked.
Mr. JENNER. She was still working in Lerner's in the spring and summer
of 1953 or had she changed jobs?
Mr. PIC. To my best recollection it was still Lerner's.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall her working at a hosiery shop during this
period of time rather than Lerner's?
Mr. PIC. I wouldn't remember, sir.
Mr. JENNER. She might have been but you just don't have a recollection?
Mr. PIC. Wherever she was working at the time, I mean she shifted jobs
quite often and it is kind of hard keeping track of them.
Mr. JENNER. Did she have difficulty with her employers, get along with
fellow workers at these various shops?
Mr. PIC. Whenever she changed jobs she always gave me a rationalized
answer.
Mr. JENNER. Well, that is a conclusion. Tell me what it was.
Mr. PIC. I remember once, it may have been the Lerner shop or it may
have been this hosiery shop which you are referring to, that she told
me that they let her go because she didn't use an underarm deoderant.
That was the reason she gave me, sir. She said she couldn't do nothing
about it. She uses it but if it don't work what can she do about it.
Other times whenever she changed jobs it was always because the next
job was better.
Mr. JENNER. During the time, on the occasions when you saw her, which
was relatively infrequent from January of 1953 to, what is the next
date you gave, September of 1953?
Mr. PIC. August-September 1953.
Mr. JENNER. August of 1953, September of 1953, was there any discussion
with her about Lee?
Mr. PIC. When I asked about him it was the same old stuff, he is
getting along better. She would tell me that he still doesn't have
anybody to confide in, things like this.
Mr. JENNER. Was there any further discussion about truancy, any
possibility of care for him by a psychiatrist?
Mr. PIC. No, sir; when I asked about this she said everything was
working out fine.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
Mr. PIC. Whenever I would meet her it would be the same old song and
dance, like hinting around I should help support her which I couldn't
afford to do, sir.
Mr. JENNER. You had a wife and child by that time?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. What was your compensation?
Mr. PIC. For what, sir?
Mr. JENNER. In the service at this time.
Mr. PIC. I was petty officer, second class, I guess my base pay was
maybe $190, plus extras, quarters allowances, maybe total $300 a month.
Mr. JENNER. Was your wife still residing with your mother-in-law?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. And were you contributing to the support of that whole
family unit?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Mother-in-law, wife and child?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; I was paying the rent and buying the groceries. In
fact, that year I claimed my mother-in-law as a dependent on my income
tax, sir.
Mr. JENNER. By the way, you had claimed, did you, at some point in your
service your mother as a dependent?
Mr. PIC. In one of her letters she refers to that. I don't recollect
that, sir. I think it was prior to my joining the service that she
referred to. When I was working full time, maybe the year right after,
I don't remember, sir, that incident at all.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
Mr. PIC. Well, on these visits that I would spend with her downtown,
we would eat lunch or something on Saturday. It got old after a while
listening to her so I knew I was getting transferred to Virginia in
September, 1953, so my wife left in August of 1953 to live with her
sister until I was stationed there in September, 1953.
Mr. JENNER. Where did her sister live?
Mr. PIC. Norfolk, Va. And I was to be stationed at Portsmouth, Va., at
the Naval hospital there for school purposes.
When I did finally get transferred from the ship to Portsmouth, Va., I
did not make known to my mother our whereabouts or our address.
Mr. JENNER. Why not?
Mr. PIC. Like I said, sir; it was getting kind of old. The only time I
had seen her would be downtown and she didn't have much to say to me
and I didn't have too much to say to her.
Mr. JENNER. During this period of time there came about a substantially
complete rupture then between yourself and your mother?
Mr. PIC. To a certain degree.
Mr. JENNER. Did you see your brother at any time thereafter?
Mr. PIC. No, sir; I did not.
Mr. JENNER. Was there an occasion in Thanksgiving 1962 when you saw him?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; I can get to that. There are things happened prior
to that.