(The document referred to was marked Thornley Exhibit No. 3 for
identification.)
Mr. THORNLEY. Now, this Exhibit No. 3 is a much greater fictionalized
approach toward, well, as far as reference goes to Oswald, the
character upon--the character which is based upon Oswald in Exhibit No.
2, Johnny Shellburn, Exhibit No. 3 is much farther from life.
Mr. JENNER. Is Johnny Shellburn assimilated to Oswald?
Mr. THORNLEY. Yes; much more so in Exhibit No. 2, though, than in this
one.
Mr. JENNER. That is Exhibit No. 3.
Mr. THORNLEY. Yes; since I wrote Exhibit No. 2, I have learned to write
fiction rather than a thinly disguised biography.
Mr. JENNER. In other words, Exhibit No. 2 was primarily a biography?
Mr. THORNLEY. Not in the strict sense that it portrayed a man's life in
detail, but in the sense that any reference, most of the references, as
is explained in this preface toward the end of the book----
Mr. JENNER. When you say this preface, you mean the preface to Exhibit
No. 2?
Mr. THORNLEY. That is, Johnny Shellburn toward the end of the book,
well, from before the middle of the book on, extends more and more to
reflect Oswald's character, and I definitely was thinking about Lee
Harvey Oswald when I wrote this book, Exhibit No. 2, whereas----
Mr. JENNER. In your discussion refer to them by exhibit number.
Mr. THORNLEY. I will keep my hands below the table.
Mr. JENNER. You don't have to do that. Just use the exhibit numbers.
Mr. THORNLEY. Whereas in Exhibit No. 3, I have universalized it
more, tried to get away from giving any impression that I am making
a chronology of the life and times of Lee Harvey Oswald, which is
something I thought would be relevant as far as the Commission would be
concerned in reading the material.
Mr. JENNER. Would you mark Exhibit No. 3 accordingly, Mr. Reporter?
I offer in evidence Thornley Exhibit No. 3. I take it, Mr. Thornley,
that you commenced the preparation of Exhibit No. 3 subsequently to the
assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Mr. THORNLEY. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. And that Exhibit No. 3 reflects a course of events and
their imprint upon you that occurred on and after November 22, 1963.
Mr. THORNLEY. No, no; Exhibit No. 3 reflects the same course of events
reflected in Exhibit No. 2. As far as the telling of the story goes and
the characters therein it takes place back in 1959. It makes a definite
attempt, however, to get away from Oswald as a specific character and
to discuss the problem of disillusionment in the peacetime military or
disillusionment with values on a much more universalized range than
Exhibit No. 2.
Mr. JENNER. All right. May I make a copy of Exhibit No. 3?
Mr. THORNLEY. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Under the same circumstances and upon the same conditions
as you granted your consent to make a copy of Exhibit No. 2?
Mr. THORNLEY. Yes, sir; Exhibit No. 3 also does include some things
on--that I have acquired through the news on Oswald since the
assassination because Oswald tends to reflect the type of person I was
talking about. So to put it, to make it as clear as possible, right now
I realize I am saying Exhibit No. 3 is more like Oswald and less like
Oswald, to put it as clearly as possible.
Mr. JENNER. You are going in two directions at once.
Mr. THORNLEY. Exhibit No. 2 is more like the Oswald I knew in MACS 9,
the Oswald of my experience, whereas Exhibit No. 3 is a universalized
Oswaldian-type character based upon not only my own experience but
the news that has come to me about Oswald, about other people like
Oswald, other defectors, other assassins, and so on and so forth, since
November 22.
Mr. JENNER. All right. Now, Mr. Thornley, tell me something about Kerry
Thornley. You obviously, to me, are not a doorman.
Mr. THORNLEY. Oh, yes; I am a doorman.
Mr. JENNER. You are at the moment performing that service. But that
isn't your objective in life.
Mr. THORNLEY. My objective is to write books, novels primarily, as
many as I can in the years that are given to me, and possibly upon
publication of one of them to go back to school to further my ability
to write.
Mr. JENNER. Are you taking any training in that respect or have you in
recent years?
Mr. THORNLEY. Well, not formally. I have devoted myself to a lot of
exercises in writing, and I have availed myself of the help of any
experts I could grab onto, including successful novelists and former
newspaper reporters and so on and so forth, to help me solve problems
in my writing and improve it, but there is really, to my mind, my
outlook on writing a novel; for example, there is not much you can
learn from a formal course in writing. I think you can learn much more
from, say, the study of linguistics or semantics; if you are going to
learn anything from a university, for example, on writing, and this I
intend to do in due time.
Mr. JENNER. We occasionally have been off the record, not often, and
I have talked with you on the telephone. Is there anything that was
said between us in the course of our telephone conversations or in
any off-the-record discussions that you think is pertinent to the
Commission's assignment of investigating the assassination of President
Kennedy that I have failed to bring onto the record?
Mr. THORNLEY. No, sir; I think we have very thoroughly covered it.
Mr. JENNER. Is there anything that occurs to you that you would like to
add that you think might be pertinent to our inquiry and of help to the
Commission?
Mr. THORNLEY. No; there is certainly nothing else I can think of.
Mr. JENNER. Your deposition will be written up rather promptly. We
probably will have it tomorrow, and would you be good enough to call
me, say--when do you go on duty?
Mr. THORNLEY. At 5 o'clock.
Mr. JENNER. Call me in the forenoon--I mean right after lunch--and if
it is convenient will you come in and read over your deposition and
sign it?
Mr. THORNLEY. All right. May I just, to make absolutely sure, may I
take down your phone number once more?