Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. He took a Ph. D. at Columbia. But I don't
know what year he received his Ph. D.
Mr. JENNER. Well, I would suggest to you it was 1927.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Ph. D. at Columbia? I don't know the year exactly.
Mr. JENNER. Your brother travels relatively frequently, does he not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; he travels whenever he had--whenever he can
get away from teaching.
Mr. JENNER. And he is a Ph. D. and a professor at Dartmouth College?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. He is a full professor at Dartmouth College.
Mr. JENNER. Hanover, N.H.?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right. He also is editor of the Russian
Review, a magazine.
Mr. JENNER. Didn't he found that?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; he founded that magazine.
Mr. JENNER. And what does he teach at Dartmouth?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I think he is a professor of Russian culture,
Russian civilization, history.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall--is this a description of him: He is a white
male, 5 foot 11 inches tall, gray hair, brown eyes?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; very strong brown eyes, very dark brown eyes.
Mr. JENNER. Unlike yours, that are blue?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. He is browneyed.
Mr. JENNER. Did you see your brother when he visited Europe in 1957?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; an amazing thing happened. You know, he
didn't know that we were in Europe.
Mr. JENNER. Neither knew that the other was?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Neither knew. And we bumped into each other in
the most crowded street in Paris. It is an amazing coincidence.
Mr. JENNER. Does your brother have a mustache?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. He used to. I don't think he has now. He may have
grown it lately.
Mr. JENNER. Your daughter Alexandra has another given name, hasn't
she--Romeyn?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. That is a family name of the Piersons.
Mr. JENNER. She was born April 17--December 25, 1943. We brought that
out yesterday.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Christmas Day.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did you ever know your wife Phyllis' parents, Simone
Fleischer--Simone Fleischer Washington and Jack Stecker?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; I didn't know her real father. But I met her
stepfather--Walter Washington Stecker.
Mr. JENNER. She was the daughter of Simone Fleischer, and was adopted
by Walter Washington?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did you have any contact with the Dominican Embassy in 1958?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. In 1958, Dominican Embassy?
Mr. JENNER. The month of April.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. I think I was invited to--Dominican Embassy.
Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Here in Washington?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. I was trying to work up some kind of
concession, I think. I was working on some kind of oil deal, and tried
to contact the Dominican Ambassador--purely for business reasons--some
kind of an oil project which had to do with the Dominican Republic.
Mr. JENNER. All right. Have you been in the Dominican Republic in the
last--let's say the last 6 months?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; I was there several times. No. 1, in
March 1963, on my way to Haiti, to sign a contract with the Haitian
Government, but spent only one night at the hotel there, between
planes. It was necessary to stop there, because there was no right
connection. Pan American arranged so that the passengers to Haiti would
stop in the Dominican Republic for the night, and then leave the next
morning.
Mr. JENNER. Is that the first time you were ever in the Dominican
Republic?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is the first time I have ever been there.
Mr. JENNER. When next were you there?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. The next time we were with--let's see--yes;
we were--my wife and I when we were coming to Haiti, exactly on the
same--in the same--the same occasion, to spend the night.
Mr. JENNER. Just spent overnight?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Overnight, and take the plane the next morning,
on our way to Haiti in June--I think the first or second of June in
1963. And then just recently, about a week ago, when I went to check
on some mining possibilities, and get some information from the Bureau
of Mines in the Dominican Republic. And again I went to San Juan, and
then picked up my wife, and then brought her back into the Dominican
Republic, finished getting the information, and returned to Haiti. And
then again on the way to the United States now, just stopping there.
Mr. JENNER. On this present trip?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; just stopping for 20 minutes.
Mr. JENNER. Those have been your sole contacts in the Dominican
Republic?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; to the best of my memory--yes; I remember
now why I tried to contact the Dominican Embassy in 1957. Somebody
told me--I don't remember who--that they needed a consulting geologist
in the Dominican Republic, and I tried to contact the ambassador, and
never was able to see him.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall commenting, along with Mrs. De Mohrenschildt,
that you know of no connection that did or could have existed between
Lee Oswald and any organization or government because you thought
nobody could stand him, and that you questioned his mental stability?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right. I remember making that statement.
I think it was in Port au Prince that I made that statement.
Naturally anybody--who would--in our opinion, if he killed the
President of the United States, he must have been mentally unstable. I
could not find any other explanation. Or somebody might have paid him
for it. But this is another speculation that came to me later on. But,
again, it is purely speculation on our part.
Mr. JENNER. Well, you had no--now that you have made that statement, I
have to pursue it.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. By reading the papers, you know--we had no
other information. By reading the papers and putting two and two
together we started wondering, maybe there is something behind it, you
see--especially I remember reading in one of the papers that----
Mr. JENNER. Which papers are these--foreign language papers?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; American papers. We haven't read any foreign
language papers. We get the Miami Herald, New York Times, we get
Haitian papers, French language papers, of course. And I think in one
of those papers it was said that Lee Oswald mentioned to his wife
before the assassination that he was going to get some money.