Mr. PIC. This is prior to my going in the service, sir.
Mr. JENNER. There were times that the atmosphere around your home was
depressing?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. And was that due largely to your mother?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. The things she said and the attitudes she assumed?
Mr. PIC. That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER. And while you and your brother got along well you boys were
not getting along well with your mother in that sense?
Mr. PIC. Robert and I and Lee, we had our fights among us, like all
brothers do. But we could handle ourselves and our own problems, but
the atmosphere just changed when she was around.
Mr. JENNER. Did your mother ever say anything about whether people
liked her or disliked her?
Mr. PIC. She didn't have to. She didn't have many friends and usually
the new friends she made she didn't keep very long.
Mr. JENNER. That was her history?
Mr. PIC. I remember every time we moved she always had fights with the
neighbors or something or another.
Mr. JENNER. Was she a person who was resentful of the status of others?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. And you boys were aware of that, were you?
Mr. PIC. I was aware of it. She always--I remember once when we lived
on Eighth Avenue, I believe was the place, the people named McLean
living next to us, of course he was an attorney and everything, and
they had some money, and my mother----
Mr. JENNER. What town was this?
Mr. PIC. This was Fort Worth, sir. My mother remarked to me once that
Mrs. McLean had said she went and played the slot machines and lost
$100 in it, and she raved and ranted about this for half an hour or an
hour about how this woman could go and waste $100 and what she could do
with it and everything. She resented the fact this woman lost her own
money.
Mr. JENNER. I haven't found a single letter yet, Sergeant, in which
your mother fails to mention the subject of money.
Mr. PIC. You may find a Christmas card, "Love, Mother," sir.
Mr. JENNER. A letter?
Mr. PIC. No, sir; I don't think you will. These are only part of
them. I threw out a whole bunch a couple of years ago. They were all
basically the same.
Mr. JENNER. Was your mother loving and affectionate toward you boys?
Mr. PIC. I would say for myself, sir, I wasn't to her.
Mr. JENNER. What is that?
Mr. PIC. I was not toward her.
Mr. JENNER. Why?
Mr. PIC. I had no motherly love feeling toward her. Like I say, I think
I first became resentful to her when she informed me I would not return
to the military school and from then my hostilities toward her grew.
Mr. JENNER. Well, up to that point, what had been your feeling toward
your mother?
Mr. PIC. We had never been in a very affectionate family, sir.
Mr. JENNER. That is affectionate with respect to the boys toward your
mother?
Mr. PIC. That is right, sir; kissing her, and things like this. It
is my own opinion that she is out right now to make as much money as
she can on her relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald. That is the only
thing--I don't really believe she really believes he is innocent. I
think she is out to make money than if she has to say he is guilty. I
think she is a phony in the whole deal.
Also, I think you will find with myself, Robert and Lee, also, that we
didn't have these or don't have these feelings towards money that she
does. I mean I live on my base pay and I have for years, and Robert
makes the best what he can, and whenever we get together, we never
discuss money. The only time I seen Lee as an adult he didn't discuss
it, not to the extent that we were used to, we never felt this way.
Mr. JENNER. It is your information, is it, that your mother's first
marriage was to your father?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Her second, then, to Robert Lee Edward Oswald?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. And her third to E. A. Ekdahl?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. So far as you know she has not been married otherwise than
those three occasions?
Mr. PIC. No, sir; Has she?
Mr. JENNER. We don't know, if she has we don't know anything about it.
Did your brother Lee on the occasion on Thanksgiving Day 1962 say
anything about whether he had had a hard time in Russia?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. That is a hard time in the sense of earning a living?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Or some other sense?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; earning a living.
Mr. JENNER. What do you recall he said in that connection?
Mr. PIC. That he made about $80 a month, and it wasn't the money so
much. It was the products were not available to him and also his wife
to get even with the money, and they consistently ate cabbage and he
was tired of cabbage, and he struck me he was not complaining about
the money but the availability of food.
Mr. JENNER. Is it your impression that he had become disenchanted with
Russia?
Mr. PIC. Yes; I got this impression.
Mr. JENNER. Did you ever hear him say anything while you were boys
in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the United States or its
Government?
Mr. PIC. No, sir.
Mr. JENNER. He made no comment on that subject when you saw him on
Thanksgiving Day 1962?
Mr. PIC. I think his only bitter feelings that I recollect was his
dishonorable discharge from the Marine Corps. This was the only bitter
feelings he reported to me in anyway.
Mr. JENNER. I would like to have you tell us what he said as--did he
return to that subject repeatedly? What leads you now to conclude or
state by way of conclusion that he was bitter about that?
Mr. PIC. I think the idea of driving came up, the talk about
automobiles. I also think that he made the statement----
Mr. JENNER. When you say that is your present recollection?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. All right.