Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. For me it was really drastic.
Mr. JENNER. But you went to work--you did return to work before you
went to Haiti?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; but a short time. I just did it because we
needed to do it.
Mr. JENNER. What did you do?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Millinery. I was working in the millinery
department, Sanger and Harris, Preston Center, Dallas.
Mr. JENNER. Preston Center?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; Preston Center Store.
Mr. JENNER. And you worked in the millinery department until just
before----
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Before we left for the east, before we made a
trip east. And we left 19 April. We drove off from Dallas. Nineteenth
of April we left Dallas. Instead of staying a week or 10 days as we
planned, because George had so much trouble with his little girl, and
then he was also in Washington.
We returned almost at the last days of May. I had 2 days to pack the
whole house, and store the furniture, and separate the clothes, and
God knows--we almost went crazy, you know. We did it all in 2 days.
And then we drove back to Miami, because we had to ship a car. Grace
Line wasn't going to Haiti any more. So we drove to Miami, and we flew
over, and our car came over later on, on a boat, with our clothes, with
everything.
Mr. JENNER. From the time you left for Haiti from Miami, which, I
think, was on the second of June----
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. We arrived 2 June. Oh, yes; that is right.
Mr. JENNER. 2 June 1963, have you been back to the United States other
than this trip you have now made to testify?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; we have been a couple of days in San Juan
about 10 days ago. That is as close as we came to the United States. In
fact, we didn't leave the country at all.
Mr. JENNER. That applies to your husband?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; absolutely.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall the period of time when your present husband
was on a mission for the International Cooperation Administration in
Yugoslavia?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did you join him there?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I joined him there. I forgot exactly the
date. Right after my collection was opened, right after I finished
designing--I joined him--it was supposed to be only 6 weeks, it was
my vacation. But within this time these letters were sent out by my
husband. I had a telegram something happened, a very mild excuse, and
they have somebody else. Of course, when I returned, I went back with
this firm again. But at that particular time I lost the job.
Mr. JENNER. You joined him in Yugoslavia. What town was that?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Zagreb.
Mr. JENNER. And you were with him in Zagreb how long?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I don't remember exactly, but maybe a week or 10
days. It wasn't very long. He was switched from one area to another. He
worked for one company, then he was switched to another company. And
then we went to the seashore, which is exactly what we wanted. It was
Petrovaz, a little town.
Mr. JENNER. And he remained there, and you remained there how long?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. In Petrovaz?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I think it was a few weeks or so. Then he had
time for a vacation, and we moved a little north, to Milicher. That was
an old king's palace converted into a hotel. Did he tell you they had
been shooting at us in Yugoslavia?
Mr. JENNER. When you were at the shore? Yes; he said something about
that. But I would like to have you tell me about it.
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, we don't like public beaches. We like to
be by ourselves, and we like real wild nature--nothing that already
will be prepared for us. So we took--in the morning we took a walk in
the mountains. We climbed the mountains.
In the afternoon we took a canoe and just rowed along the coast. And it
was beautiful, an absolutely beautiful coast--the most beautiful spot
in the world. And the mountains--we saw something that looked like a
fortification. I noticed a ladder standing there. So we were rowing and
pointing to it. And all of a sudden we hear shots. We thought it was
old fortifications from Italian time, or whatever they were. But they
were actually their fortifications and they thought we were interested
in it. They were pointing a rifle at us and shooting, and just doing
this, go away further. And we had to really go very far out in the sea.
He didn't want to. He said, "At least if they shoot at us, I want to do
something to them--this way we are just lost at sea. Nobody would know
a single thing happened to us." He didn't want to row out.
Mr. JENNER. Who is obnoxious?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. My husband. I said that is silly, I don't want
to be shot like a chicken. Go out to the sea and we will go back to the
shore. I want to make a complaint. And we rowed out. He rowed out--his
bottom was raw beefsteak, on the slippery boards of the boat. The
current was very strong, against us, and all the way out in the sea it
was very difficult.
So when we came back he talked to some people over there. They said,
"They shoot at us, too. If accidentally you wander too close to Brioni,
the villa where Tito lives--they shoot at us, too." That wasn't enough.
We went another day again, and we started rowing around, and we saw a
little island. We left the canoe.
Mr. JENNER. Canoe or rowboat?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. This was a canoe. The first time was a rowboat.
So we were swimming and all of a sudden he took my photograph in front
of a beautiful cave, and I was taking his photograph standing in the
water in front of another cave. It was beautiful--just like a curtain
drape. And all of a sudden, boom, the cannon shot, about a yard from
me in the water. So, of course, we went right under the water in the
cave and we were sitting there--what are we going to do? We are quite
far, an hour or so from our hotel in a canoe. We thought, well, they
shot at us, they probably think something, they are going to come and
talk with us. So we are sitting there waiting for them to come to talk
to us, but nobody came.
So we sat for a couple of hours. Finally, we got disgusted. So we
dived in, swam a little, behind the rocks, we got out on the seashore.
Somebody gave us a ride back to the hotel. And this time he really got
angry. He made complaint to the government, and some of their officials
came over to discuss it, and said that was just unintentional, it was
another accident. The little island we thought was completely empty,
not a soul on it, they had fortification on that island. So that is
what happened to us in Yugoslavia.
When George told me the American people thought he was making sketches
of something, I said I can understand the Yugoslavs thinking such
things, but I said I couldn't understand about the United States
Government.
Mr. JENNER. Well, they don't know at the time. They just see somebody
doing some sketching.
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; just like in Haiti, every day--he went for
a walk in the mountains, sometimes with me, sometimes with Nero.
Mr. JENNER. Nero is one of your pups?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; he is the one that made the trip. So, of
course, Haitians--they almost called him Longaron--that is a werewolf,
Lougrow. So that could get him in trouble, too. But Haitians are very
mild people. They just enjoyed it.
Mr. JENNER. When did you leave Europe on that occasion?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. When--1957?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I cannot tell you exactly. But it was in the
fall.
Mr. JENNER. Did you both return to the United States together?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Oh, no; he stayed there for quite a while. He
stayed there much longer. He returned in November, because I remember
right after he returned Clark was in New York.
Mr. JENNER. That is I. Clark?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. And in fact he went with me to meet him at
the airport, and we talked and talked and talked, and they talked me
into going back to Texas, which I wanted anyway. So then we returned
together to Texas. We went to visit his brother first, in Dartmouth.
Mr. JENNER. At Hanover, N.H.?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; and then we drove slowly--we drove
through Florida, because I had never been in Florida, never saw
it--St. Augustine. We have a convertible car always, so we like to
drive close to the sea, so we can stop and bait. And then through
Pensacola, through New Orleans. We stopped in New Orleans, with his
old, old friends, the Crumps, but they are dead now, I believe. They
have tremendous gardenia gardens there. We arrived Thanksgiving Day at
Dallas.
Mr. JENNER. Of what year?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. It was 1957; still 1957.
Mr. JENNER. Now, do you recall your husband making a trip to Ghana?
Mrs. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; he did. I believe it was in 1958, in late
spring.