The proceeding was reconvened at 1:50 p.m.
Mr. LIEBELER. You previously told the Commission that Lee Oswald
prepared a notebook in which he kept plans and notes about his attack
on General Walker; is that right?
Mrs. OSWALD. I saw this book only after the attempt on Walker's life.
He burned it or disposed of it.
Mr. LIEBELER. Tell me when you first saw the notebook?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Three days after this happened.
Mr. LIEBELER. You saw the notebook 3 days after it had happened?
*Mrs. OSWALD. I think so.
Mr. LIEBELER. How did you come to see it then?
Mrs. OSWALD. When he was destroying it.
Mr. LIEBELER. Is that the only time you ever saw it?
Mrs. OSWALD. I saw on several occasions that he was writing something
in the book, but he was hiding it from me and he was locking it in his
room.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did he actually lock the door to his room when he left
the apartment?
Mrs. OSWALD. The door to his room could be locked only from the inside
and he was locking the door when he was writing in the book, otherwise,
he was hiding it in some secret place and he warned me not to mess
around and look around his things. He asked me not to go into his room
and look around.
Mr. LIEBELER. You saw him writing in this book before the night that he
shot at General Walker?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Not before the night.
Mr. McKENZIE. After?
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; not before--1 month before, but not every day, you
know, sometimes. I saw him writing on several occasions in that book
prior to the attempt on Walker's life, only I did not know what he was
writing.
Mr. LIEBELER. Even though you could have gone into this room to look at
the book, you did not do so, because Lee had told you not to; is that
correct?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; he forbade me looking around in his room, and so I
did not see the book or look at it.
Mr. LIEBELER. But 3 days after he shot at General Walker, you saw him
destroy the book; is that correct?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. How did he destroy it?
Mrs. OSWALD. He burned it.
Mr. LIEBELER. Where?
Mrs. OSWALD. In the apartment house on Neeley.
Mr. LIEBELER. Where in the apartment?
Mrs. OSWALD. He burned it with matches over a wash bowl in the bathroom.
Mr. LIEBELER. And you first became aware of this when you smelled it
burning; is that correct?
Mrs. OSWALD. I did not see the book, but I saw him writing in this book
several times, but after he burns the book he told me what was in that
book and he showed me several photographs. Before he burned the book,
he showed me several photographs that were in the book. I asked him
what the pictures were and he said, "Well, this one is the picture of
the house of General Walker's--his residence."
Mr. LIEBELER. And that picture was pasted in the notebook; is that
right?
Mrs. OSWALD. No; it was loose in the book--I really don't remember.
Mr. McKENZIE. Establish what kind of book it was and the size of it.
*Mrs. OSWALD. The size--it looked like this size of paper.
Mr. LIEBELER. It was a book something like the reporter is using?
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; a legal size paper--it was a legal size
notebook--this size.
Mr. LIEBELER. So, the notebook was about the same size as a legal size
pad; is that right?
*Mrs. OSWALD [nodding head for an affirmative reply].
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you say anything to Lee when you saw him destroying
this book about why he prepared it and why he left it there in the
apartment when he went to shoot General Walker?
Mrs. OSWALD. No; I did not. No; I never asked him why he left it in the
apartment, why he left his book in the apartment while he went to shoot
General Walker. I did not ask him why he left it in the apartment. I
asked him what for was he making all these entries in the book and he
answered that he wanted to leave a complete record so that all the
details would be in it. He told me that these entries consisted of
the description of the house of General Walker, the distances, the
location, and the distribution of windows in it.
Mr. LIEBELER. What did he want to leave this record for?
Mrs. OSWALD. All these details--all these records, that he was writing
it either for his own use so that he would know what to do when the
time came to shoot General Walker. I am guessing that perhaps he did it
to appear to be a brave man in case he were arrested, but that is my
supposition. I was so afraid after this attempt on Walker's life that
the police might come to the house. I was afraid that there would be
evidence in the house such as this book.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you talk to Lee about that?
Mrs. OSWALD. Oh, yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. What did you say and what did he say?
*Mrs. OSWALD. What did I say?
Mr. LIEBELER. And what did he say?
*Mrs. OSWALD. And what did he say?
Mr. LIEBELER. Both.
Mrs. OSWALD. I told him that it is best not to have this kind of stuff
in the house--this book.
Mr. LIEBELER. When did you tell him that?
Mrs. OSWALD. At the time he was destroying it--he showed me this book
after this attempt on Walker's life, and I suggested to him that it
would be awfully bad to keep a thing like that in the house.
Mr. LIEBELER. When did he first show it to you?
Mrs. OSWALD. Three days after the attempt--3 days after this attempt,
he took the rifle from the house, took it somewhere and buried it.
Mr. LIEBELER. Three days after the attempt?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. So that he actually took the rifle out of the house and
took it away and hid it somewhere?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mrs. OSWALD. No; the day Lee shot at Walker, he buried the rifle
because when he came home and told me that he shot at General Walker
and I asked him where the rifle was and he said he buried it.
Mr. LIEBELER. He shot at General Walker on April 10, which was on
Wednesday.
*Mrs. OSWALD. Wednesday?
Mr. LIEBELER. Yes; it was on Wednesday.
Mrs. OSWALD. As I remember, it was the weekend--Saturday or Sunday when
Lee brought the rifle back home.
Mr. LIEBELER. What weekend following the time he shot at General Walker?
*Mrs. OSWALD. The same weekend of the same week.
Mr. LIEBELER. Had he destroyed the notebook before he brought the rifle
back?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. How long after he brought the rifle back did he destroy
he book?
Mrs. OSWALD. He destroyed the book approximately an hour after he
brought the rifle home.
Mr. LIEBELER. After he brought the rifle home, then, he showed you the
book?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. And you said it was not a good idea to keep this book?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. And then he burned the book?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you ask him why he had not destroyed the book before
he actually went to shoot General Walker?
Mrs. OSWALD. It never came to me, myself, to ask him that question.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you see him take the pictures, the photographs, out
of the book when he destroyed it?
Mrs. OSWALD. When I saw him burning the book--I'm not positive that he
burned the photographs or not with the book. He retained the negatives
and he preserved either the photographs themselves or the negatives. I
know that they have the photographs and I don't know whether they got
the originals or whether they made them from the negatives.
Mr. McKENZIE. Now, when you say "they," Marina, who do you mean by
"they?"
Mrs. OSWALD. FBI, Secret Service, and the President's Commission.
Mr. LIEBELER. I show you Commission Exhibit No. 5, which is a copy of
one of the photographs that was found among these effects after the
assassination.
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Does that appear to be one of the photographs about which
you were speaking?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; that's one.
Mr. LIEBELER. Are you absolutely sure about that?
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; I don't remember when Lee showed me the picture that
it was this.
Mrs. OSWALD. When I was first shown this picture, I remember that there
was a license plate number on this car.
Mr. LIEBELER. When Lee showed you the picture, there was a license
plate number on the car?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. As shown in Commission Exhibit No. 5; is that right?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. When you look at this picture you see that there is a
black mark on the back of this, do you know what makes that black mark?
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; but I think when the Commission showed me this
picture the number was there.
Mr. McKENZIE. License plate?
Mrs. OSWALD. I would have remembered this black spot if it were there
at the time the Commission showed me this, or the FBI. When the FBI
first showed me this photograph I remember that the license plate, the
number of the license plate was on this car, was on the photograph.
*Mrs. OSWALD. It had the white and black numbers. There was no black
spot that I see on it now. When Lee showed me this photograph there
was the number on the license plate on this picture. I would have
remembered it if there were a black spot on the back of the car where
the license plate would be.
Mr. LIEBELER. The original of this picture, the actual photograph, has
a hole through it. That's what makes this black spot.
*Mrs. OSWALD. This is from the negative?
Mr. GREGORY. This picture was made from the original photograph, rather
than from a negative?
Mr. LIEBELER. Yes; it's simply a picture of a picture.