Mr. JENNER. And this was about when?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, I forgot to tell you. Since you are
interested in my character--is that it?
Mr. JENNER. Yes, of course.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. At Rangely. Colo., it stopped being an operating
oil field, and it became a statistical job. When I moved there first it
was the greatest boomtown and the greatest drilling place in the United
States. We had 30 rigs going. It was very interesting.
Every day we had new problems. It was a very active life. Then at the
end of my stay there was no work practically except to compile the
statistical report. So naturally I started going to Aspen more often. I
don't think I ever had any complaint against me.
Mr. JENNER. You were interested a great deal initially when the field
was being developed.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. When it degenerated, if I may use that term, into a
statistical assembly, you lose interest, spent more time over at Aspen,
and there were some disagreements about that, a difference of opinion,
and your employers questioned it.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. Was there any problem about your savoir-faire, for example,
attitude with respect to keeping expenses?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Maybe so. But you know, our salary was very small
there, and so we had to show certain expenses. They never questioned
me. But possibly they considered my living expenses were too high. But
I was the only one to do the job, instead of two. I kept the budget,
more or less, at the same level, maybe lower.
Mr. JENNER. Now, you terminated your employment in January 1949, did
you not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I think so. The date is not clear to me.
Mr. JENNER. Well, this may refresh your recollection.
Had you become an American citizen in the meantime?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And was that on the 11th of July 1949 at Denver?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes, in Denver, Colo.
Mr. JENNER. Now, your employment with the Rangely Oil Field Committee
terminated after you became a citizen, did it not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. And does that refresh your recollection--it occurred about
6 months later?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. When your employment in the Rangely Oil Field Committee
terminated, what did you do?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Then I realized that I could not remain married
to Phyllis, because she was a girl of--who needed money, who needed a
good way of life, needed luxury--she was used to luxury. And I asked
her to go back to her parents, to New York, and that I will try to make
a success out of--I decided to go on my own as a consultant--that I
should try to make a success out of the consulting business.
But I just should do it by myself, without her being present. And so I
moved to Denver, Colo., gave up that establishment in Aspen, and got
some help from my friends, and with very little money I started my own
consulting firm.
Mr. JENNER. In Denver?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; in Denver.
Mr. JENNER. In the meantime, did the--was the marriage to Phyllis
Washington terminated?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; either in the meantime or just right at that
time.
Mr. JENNER. Was that by her suit?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; by my suit.
Mr. JENNER. You filed the suit?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And where did you file that?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. In the court in Denver. She was gone. I returned
in the meantime to see her, to see whether we can patch up things.
Mr. JENNER. You returned to New York City?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; to see if we could patch up things. We
became very good friends with the other side of her family, the
Wassermans, very interesting people who are still good friends of
mine. Bill Wasserman is a banker in New York, used to be ambassador
to Australia during the Roosevelt administration, I think--or to New
Zealand.
And, frankly, he also, and her aunt, who were taking care of
her--because, in the meantime, her stepfather was in Europe, they had
also their own difficulties.
Mr. JENNER. Their own marital difficulties?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; they decided we better forget about this
marriage. We remained very fond of each other. But we finally came to
an agreement to have a divorce. And I filed a suit for divorce.
Mr. JENNER. When was that decree entered?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, that I do not remember.
Mr. JENNER. When did you get your divorce decree from Phyllis
Washington?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. In a court in Denver, Colo., but I do not recall
the date.
Mr. JENNER. 1949 or 1950?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Something around that.
Mr. JENNER. Were any children born of that marriage?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No children. We were married in Grand Junction,
Colo. And the divorce was entered--the reason was desertion, which was
actually true, because she did not come back to me. She stayed in New
York, or eventually--she drank, also, an awful lot. Today she is an
alcoholic--poor girl.
Mr. JENNER. You entered the oil consulting business in Denver?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. First of all, as just an ordinary
consultant. I got helped by a friend of mine who has a small oil
company in Denver.
Mr. JENNER. What was his name?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Jimmy Donahue. And he facilitated by giving his
office, the secretary and so on. Because it is rather expensive to
start on your own.
But very soon afterwards I started getting consulting jobs--doing
evaluations on the wells and things like that. And one night--this
will be interesting for you, how to start an oil business--one night
I was driving through Oklahoma, tired as hell, and I said to myself,
by God, everybody is making money in the oil business except me, I am
just a flunky here for all these big operators--I should go in the oil
business on my own, really in the oil business, drilling and producing,
which was interesting to me. And then I recalled that my ex-nephew,
Eddie Hooker, in New York, asked me to go in business with him. He had
visited me in Colorado and was very much interested in the work I had
done. I gave him a telephone call from some place in Oklahoma.