Mr. JENNER. Yes, sir; anything that you want to add.
Mr. PIC. I think, I believe that Lee Oswald did the crime that he is
accused of. I think that anything he may have done was aided with a
little extra push from his mother in the living conditions that she
presented to him. I also think that his reason for leaving the Marine
Corps is not true and accurate. I mean I don't think he cared to get
out of the Marine Corps to help his mother. He probably used this as an
excuse to get out and go to his defection.
I know myself I wouldn't have gotten out of the service because of her,
and I am sure Robert wouldn't either, and this makes me believe that
Lee wouldn't have.
Mr. JENNER. What kind of a student was your brother, do you know, do
you recall, rather?
Mr. PIC. I think in elementary school he was fairly good, sir.
Mr. JENNER. But then in the later grades, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th?
Mr. PIC. I have no idea, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Well, that is about all. I sure appreciate your coming, and
the Commission likewise, at some inconvenience to yourself. You will be
able to catch that 9:50 plane in the morning and get yourself back to
your son's birthday party.
Mr. PIC. I hope what I have told you has been something new and not
repetitious.
Mr. JENNER. Much of what you have told us has been new. Much of
what you have told us has been very helpful to us in the way of
corroborating matters about which we were not fully informed or in
doubt, and opinions have been expressed particularly with respect to
your brother have been helpful.
That leads me to ask you this further question: Give me your overall
impression of your brother Lee Oswald as a personality, as he developed.
Mr. PIC. Sir; I remember Lee Oswald as a child, up until about the age
of 11 or 12. To me, he appeared a normal healthy robust boy who would
get in fights and still have his serious moments.
Mr. JENNER. You got in fights, too, didn't you?
Mr. PIC. Sure.
Mr. JENNER. And your brother Robert?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. These are not fights that you would regard as other than
boys getting into?
Mr. PIC. That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER. That is, it wasn't because he was unduly belligerent?
Mr. PIC. No, sir.
Mr. JENNER. All right. Go ahead.
Mr. PIC. He got in his usual trouble around the neighborhood as far as
getting in people's yards, probably, and letting the dog go astray,
normal healthy boy.
I think as he became older, prior to me entering the service, he became
slightly cocky and belligerent toward his mother. He never showed any
of this toward Robert or myself. I am afraid it probably rubbed off of
Robert and myself and it affected Lee, because we didn't really take
much stock into what she was saying. I don't think we were as cocky, as
belligerent as he was. There was----
Mr. JENNER. Do you think that was a defensive mechanism, on his part?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; I think so.
Mr. JENNER. Did your mother ever say anything around your home about
that employers were overreaching her, and employers overreached poor
working people or anything along those lines?
Mr. PIC. No; she always reminded us she worked like a slave to provide
for us three boys. She couldn't wait for a day we would grow up and
support her.
When Lee visited us in New York he came there a friendly, nice
easy-to-like kid.
Mr. JENNER. This is 1952 in the summer?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir; he had the interest of boys at that age, the Museum
of Natural History, sightseeing excursions and so forth. Until the
incident where I talked to him we never had a bad word between us other
than maybe joking or playing around. I tried to interest him in a hobby
of building boats or collecting stamps again while he was----
Mr. JENNER. Had he been interested in those two hobbies?
Mr. PIC. Yes; he and I, all three of us collected stamps. I played
chess with Lee quite a bit and Robert, too. We all did this. Played
monopoly together, the three of us.
When I approached him on this knife-pulling incident he became very
hostile towards me. And he was never the same again with me.
Mr. JENNER. That was the first time he had ever been hostile in that
sense towards you?
Mr. PIC. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. And that rupture was never repaired thereafter?
Mr. PIC. No, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Did you have the impression when you saw him on
Thanksgiving of 1962 that in the meantime he had become embittered,
resentful of his station?
Mr. PIC. Well, sir; the Lee Harvey Oswald I met in November of 1962
was not the Lee Harvey Oswald I had known 10 years previous. This
person struck me as someone with a chip on his shoulder, who had these
purposes I mentioned, to do something about.
Mr. JENNER. What purposes?
Mr. PIC. To repay the Government and get his discharge changed.
It appeared to me that he was a good father towards his child, and not
knowing the conversation between he and his wife I couldn't form much
of an opinion there.
Mr. JENNER. All right, sir; that is about it.
Mr. PIC. OK, sir; thank you very much.
Mr. JENNER. This transcript will be prepared by the reporters and it
will be sent to your commanding officer, and would you please get it
immediately and read it and sign it.
If you make any corrections in it, put your initials beside the
correction, or over, above, your initial somewhere around the
correction so we know it is you who did it, and return it to us as
promptly as possible.
It may be that the Secret Service will bring it out, but it will be
delivered to you next week.
All right.