Mr. RAY. He might have been smarter than we thought or smarter than the
people that knew him thought; I don't know.
Mr. LIEBELER. That is just your own thought on it?
Mr. RAY. That is my own thoughts on it, see.
Mr. DAVIS. Have you all--I might inject here--have you all gone over
the point--did you ever discuss with your wife or the Mellers or any of
these other people that it was strange about them being able to come
out of Russia so easily? It was strange about him being able to move
about in Russia so easily? Was it with all of them the consensus that
it was unusual; were they somewhat amazed?
Mr. RAY. I don't know whether they were or not but I was amazed and
my wife was, too, that he went over there and left this country
and denounced his citizenship and then a couple of years later or
longer--how long was he over there? Anyway, they let him----
Mr. DAVIS. Going on 3 years.
Mr. RAY. Come back and bring his wife with him. That looked kind of
ridiculous to me.
Mr. LIEBELER. And that question was discussed in your meeting in the
Meller's house and subsequently discussed between you and your wife,
wasn't it?
Mr. RAY. Yes.
Mr. DAVIS. Let me ask you this: This group at the Ford's place where
the Russian-born would tend to get together occasionally, has there
been very frequent--I mean, have you and your wife gone--I believe this
was the first time?
Mr. RAY. This was the first time we ever.
Mr. DAVIS. Did they mention about this having happened fairly
frequently before? Do you know how often they had been meeting in
Dallas?
Mr. RAY. It seems like now they kind of get together, you know,
somewhere around New Year's--Christmas or New Year's; something like an
annual affair for them to get together.
Mr. DAVIS. Did you know--were there any others in this group or did
you have any occasion to hear from any others that had a similar story
like the Oswalds where they had found it that easy to go and come or go
out of Russia?
Mr. RAY. No, no; see, most of these people are, the way I get it, were
Russian descent or else they were like--they had married a Russian over
there or something of that nature, you see. I mean it wasn't everybody
there wasn't Russian but there was some Russian connection with most of
them.
Mr. LIEBELER. But you heard of no other examples where people had come
out of Russia as easily as Oswald had; is that correct?
Mr. RAY. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. You know or did you hear of it?
Mr. RAY. I did not hear.
Mr. DAVIS. Has your wife or you or have you all heard of anyone since
the time he came out where it has been easier for people to come and
go? I believe your wife mentioned she thought it would be easier to
contact her niece if conditions were easing up to that degree. Has this
proved to be?
Mr. RAY. I don't know; 2 or 3 years ago she tried to call her niece on
the telephone and tried 2 or 3 days and finally made the connection and
the niece said, "Hello," and the line was out like that and she finally
gave up.
Mr. DAVIS. In other words, to your knowledge you have seen no evidence
it has been made easier to communicate back and forth?
Mr. RAY. No; fact of the business, my wife's mother had been dead a
couple years before we even knew it.
Mr. DAVIS. How long has this been you received that information?
Mr. RAY. I think she died in 1953; I know it was a couple years gone by
when my wife found out about it.
Mr. LIEBELER. Was your wife's mother living in Stalingrad when she
died, do you know?
Mr. RAY. I don't know. She was, I believe, in Arzamas; I am not sure
that's where she died but that's near Stalingrad, some place near
Stalingrad and that's where at least part of my wife's upbringing, you
know, took place, in Arzamas.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you think now that you have told us about all you know
or all you remember about your contact with Oswald and the discussion
that you had about him? If there is anything you want to add at this
point, go right ahead.
Mr. RAY. I think we pretty well covered it. I hope you have.
Mr. LIEBELER. We want to thank you very much, Mr. Ray, for coming down
here and I think you have been helpful and I appreciate it very much.
Mr. RAY. Well, like I said before, I went to the FBI voluntarily with
what information that I had. Frankly, I didn't know anything about the
guy except what I have told you but I did have the names and addresses
of some of these people that knew him and that's why I went to the FBI,
because of that. They might contact these people and find out more
about it.
Mr. LIEBELER. I think they have talked to most of them.
Mr. RAY. I am sure they have.
Mr. LIEBELER. Thank you very much.