Mr. JENNER. I mean sentence construction.
Mrs. PAINE. An 8-to 10-year-old would do better than I do in actual
conversation, but would not be able to give you the names of parts of
speech as I can in Russian. I have a book knowledge of grammar in
Russian. But this doesn't prevent me from making more mistakes than an
8-or 10-year-old would make if he grew up native to the language--many
more mistakes.
Mr. JENNER. Would you say that is true of your writing--that is, when
you compose a letter?
Mrs. PAINE. My writing would be with fewer mistakes, because I can
think about it more in putting it down, but still very many mistakes
occur in it.
Mr. JENNER. Would you say your fluency in the command of the Russian
language as of the time you first met the Oswalds in February of 1963
was comparably about the same as your fluency with that language now?
Mrs. PAINE. I have improved, particularly over the period of 2 months
that Marina was at my home--I have improved my ability to converse, and
certainly increased my vocabulary very markedly.
Mr. JENNER. Your experience with Marina has served to improve your
command both of vocabulary and of the use of the language generally?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. How fluent was--I will put it this way. How would you
judge the command of Lee Oswald of the Russian language, both as to
vocabulary and as to sentence construction, and grammar generally?
Mrs. PAINE. He had a larger vocabulary than I do in Russian. He had
less understanding of the grammar, and considerably less regard for it.
Mr. JENNER. He was not sensitive to the delicacies of the language?
Mrs. PAINE. He didn't seem to care whether he was speaking it right or
not, whereas I care a great deal. He did read--he certainly subscribed
to the things that I have described. And my impression is that he did
read them some, and that he did not shy away from reading a Russian
newspaper as I do. I find newspaper reading still very hard, and
magazines, also. I have to do a great deal of dictionary work to get
the full meaning of a magazine or newspaper article.
Mr. JENNER. Do you think that is because you are a sensitive
perfectionist as far as the language is concerned? You wish to read it
and use it in its finest sense, and you avoid what I would call, for
example, pigeon English use of Russian?
Mrs. PAINE. I would rather communicate than avoid pigeon use, and I
have to use broken Russian to communicate. In reading, I would say what
I have described as my reading--it is just that I don't have a very
large vocabulary--not that I want to understand every nuance of the
words that I am reading. I just can't get the meaning reading it off.
Mr. JENNER. Yet you found that Lee was inclined to plunge ahead, as
near as you can tell?
Mrs. PAINE. I gathered so.
Mr. JENNER. Did Marina ever say anything about Lee Oswald's command of
the Russian language, or his use of it?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; she did. Let me preface my answer by saying she did
not correct him, or at least not very often. She commented at one time
in the fall, after Lee came to the house on a Friday, that his Russian
was getting worse, whereas mine was getting better, so that I spoke
better than he did now. It embarrassed me, is the only reason I recall
her saying it.
Mr. JENNER. Did she say it in his presence?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; she did. That is why I was embarrassed. I did not know
whether it was correct or not, and she had intended it as a compliment,
but it was at the same time unkind to him. So this is why I was
embarrassed.
Mr. JENNER. Tell us everything you learned about Oswald's sojourn in
Russia, first from direct statements you heard him make--and this will
be in addition to anything you have already told us.
Mrs. PAINE. I can't recall anything that hasn't appeared in my
testimony. And there is very little that has appeared in my testimony.
Mr. JENNER. Yes; I appreciate that. Did he ever say anything about--I
think you did testify a little bit about this yesterday--his efforts to
obtain a passport to return to the United Slates, and his difficulties
in that connection?
Mrs. PAINE. My recollection is that it was she who told me of this.
Mr. JENNER. And she rather than Lee?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Calling upon your recollection, is there anything you have
not testified to on that particular subject----
Mrs. PAINE. Of things he had told me himself?
Mr. JENNER. That is right. That emanated from him.
Mrs. PAINE. I don't think of anything.
Mr. JENNER. Now, I will then ask you the same question as to
Marina--that is, tell us everything else you can think of that you have
not already told us that you learned about Lee Oswald's sojourn in
Russia, that you might have learned through Marina.
Mrs. PAINE. Well, I did learn that they applied for a passport for
all of them, that it was a long time coming--no particular length of
time mentioned. That they went to Moscow first and then by train, I
gather, to Holland, and then by boat to New York City, stayed there
a day or less, and came directly to Fort Worth. She mentioned to me,
as I testified, that they had borrowed money for the payment of their
steamship passage.
Mr. JENNER. Borrowed it from the State Department?
Mrs. PAINE. I don't recall that she mentioned from whom. Just that they
had borrowed it and paid it back. She said that Lee had an apartment by
himself in Minsk, which was unusual.
Mr. JENNER. Did she say it was unusual?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; she said it was unusual. That, in fact, it caused a
little bit of resentment from those who didn't have so much privacy.
And I gather that she moved into it after they were married.
Mr. JENNER. That is a fact, at least according to her testimony.
Mrs. PAINE. I have spoken to some extent of her aunt and uncle--that
she lived there. Is this relevant to your question?
Mr. JENNER. Yes; it is relevant to Representative Ford's question,
which I ghosted to you.
Mrs. PAINE. She liked her aunt very much, and commented to me several
times that it was interesting that this particular aunt was no blood
relation at all--it was the uncle that was the blood relation. But that
this aunt was her favorite aunt. And they had many good conversations.
Marina would go out on a date, and then come back and tell the aunt all
about it. Marina commented that the aunt did not work, which she also
said was unusual.
Mr. JENNER. Unusual in what sense?
Mrs. PAINE. That most women in Russia both did work and had to
financially.
Mr. JENNER. Was that--did you infer from that that her uncle had a
position in Russia that enabled him to supply funds so that his wife
did not have to work?
Mrs. PAINE. That was the impression it left me with, yes.
She also said of her aunt that her aunt kept her floors spotless, and
her whole house beautiful all the time. You want all the recollections
I have of their time in Minsk?
Mr. JENNER. Anywhere in Russia.
Mrs. PAINE. Including her family background?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mrs. PAINE. Well, I knew because I had filled out forms for her at
Parkland Hospital that she was born at Archangel. From conversation
with her, I know she was born 2 months early.
Mr. JENNER. She was a 7-month baby, somewhat premature?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; and her mother had bundled her up in great swaths
of clothing to bring her from Archangel to Leningrad, when she was a
tiny baby. I learned that the grandmother had been with her, I judge
later in Archangel, when they lived there again, and was part of her
upbringing. Her mother had some medical job--I never did understand.
Mr. JENNER. You mean job in the sense of position?
Mrs. PAINE. Position. I never did understand how responsible this
was--whether she was a medical doctor or what her position was. Marina
described the time when her mother died of cancer, and that also her
grandmother died before the year was out of cancer, also.
Mr. JENNER. Did she ever speak of her father?
Mrs. PAINE. She said that her father had died when she was very tiny,
that she did not know her father, that she was raised by her mother and
stepfather, and she did not know until it came out from something a
neighbor let drop, when she was already in her early teens, that this
man she thought to be her father was not in fact her father but her
stepfather. This came as a shock to her. I knew that she had a younger
brother and sister, Tatyana, I think, Tanya would be the diminutive.
I don't recall her brother's name. It is my impression that she liked
Leningrad, was proud of it.
Mr. JENNER. Did she ever say why she went from Leningrad to Minsk,
or the circumstances under which--which surrounded her going from
Leningrad to Minsk?
Mrs. PAINE. No; she never did. She did say that some people commented
to her that it was strange to be leaving Leningrad, because there were
many people who wanted to work in Leningrad who evidently didn't have
the necessary priority or permission to get into the city to work
there. She having been brought up there had the right to live there and
work there. But this was the first I knew that you could not just move
from one city to another in Russia if you wanted to look for work.
Mr. JENNER. Did you have a discussion with her from time to time about
the fact that you could move about in Russia only by permission.
Mrs. PAINE. Well, she mentioned--and I think I have said so--that you
don't go to a different city in Russia without its being known. You
have to register immediately upon coming to the city, show all your
papers, and then the government assigns you your quarters--hotel or
apartment or any room. You cannot get a place to spend the night if you
don't sign in. Which is certainly a far cry from our situation in this
country.
Mr. JENNER. Did she indicate any reaction on her part to the
difference--that difference in America as compared with Russia?
Mrs. PAINE. It was not overtly stated. She did make clear to me that
she thought the consumer goods here were superior to those in Russia.
She said that very likely this was in part due to the fact that people
are not sure of their jobs. In Russia you can do a bad job and still
remain employed; whereas here she said a person had to produce good
work or they didn't stay on the job.
Mr. JENNER. This was a comment on her part on the difference in the
system? Russia from that in the United States?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did she indicate any reaction to that?
Mrs. PAINE. She thought the system here produced much better goods,
and she was pleased with that. She also commented that things were
much more available in this country than they were in Russia. She was
impressed, for instance, with the fact that my neighbor offered to
loan things for the baby, and my friend Mrs. Craig offered to loan
things for the baby. She said that in Russia people were not so sure
that they could replace things that they had loaned or given away. You
could not go to the store when you needed to have baby clothing and
necessarily find it there. So there was much less--for that reason,
and others--there was much less loaning and sharing of things than she
found here.
Mr. JENNER. Did she say anything about the period when Lee was
hospitalized in Russia?
Mrs. PAINE. No; I don't recall it.
Mr. JENNER. And her visiting him every day?
Mrs. PAINE. I have no clear recollection. I do, of course, recall her
description of her own pregnancy, and the birth of June in the Minsk
hospital. That Lee was in the hospital rings very faintly. I cannot
think of anything he was in there for. I have completely forgotten any
reference to it--I am not sure I remember now.
Mr. JENNER. Have we exhausted you on that subject?
Mrs. PAINE. I am exhausted.
Mr. JENNER. What is your reaction on the subject of Marina's reaction
in turn to her husband? Did she love him? What was her opinion of him?
Mrs. PAINE. Well, I think it has already appeared pretty thoroughly in
my testimony that she both asked herself did she love him and did he
love her, and proceeded with the feeling that she had committed herself
to this, and would try to do her best for the marriage--not without
occasionally wondering whether this marriage would last, or should.
Mr. JENNER. Do you have any opinion or reaction on this subject--as to
whether she had perhaps at times contributed to some degree or had been
at fault to some degree in provoking what outbursts there were on Lee's
part and his sometimes crudeness and abruptness with respect to her?
Mrs. PAINE. Well, as I think I have testified, she didn't try, or
certainly did not try all the time, to avoid a confrontation or an
argument or disagreement. But she did argue with him and uphold her own
views, rather more forcefully, at least in her skill in the language,
than Lee, on some occasions. I would say that if he had been a more
relaxed and easy-going person, somebody that was not so touchy, that
her behavior would not have been any difficulty to the marriage. Rather
it was a healthy thing.
Mr. JENNER. There is an opinion at large, at least among some of us
here in the United States who have pursued Russian literature and
published works on the Russian people and the Russian character,
that there is a tendency or an element on the part of the Russian to
exaggerate and to present the bizzare. Do you have any feeling or
opinion on that subject with respect to Marina Oswald?
Mrs. PAINE. No; I do think that there is such a thing as a personality
formed by the Russian background, and it is a different influence, but
also operating, the Soviet system. But it is hard for me to describe
what that is. And I would not have included the statement you just made
of attempting to exaggerate or bizzare--is that the way you put it?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mrs. PAINE. Rather I would say it is a moodiness and a quality of
enigma. Not the open-faced, glad-handed Texan or frontier American,
but much more subtle. And I also do think that there is much more
tendencies to--among Russian emigrés to suspect underlying motives, and
things going on beneath the surface that are not evident on the face of
the situation, a tendency among them more than among Americans.
Mr. JENNER. Do you find in Marina any of these tendencies you now
relate?
Mrs. PAINE. I find her moody. I would say she was contrary to this that
I have described, of some Russian people, of a quality of suspecting
things going on under the surface.
I found this quality rather in the head of the Russian school at
Middlebury, who picked up my tape recorder and took it to his office
one time when I had left it in the hall. He evidently thought I had bad
use intended for it.
Mr. JENNER. Would you say that--give us your opinion as to Marina's
sense of the truth, of telling the truth, having a feeling of the truth?
Mrs. PAINE. That is difficult to say, because what questions I have
about her telling of the truth have all arisen since I was with her
personally.
Mr. JENNER. Yes; I wish your opinion now, as of this time.
Mrs. PAINE. You wish my opinion now?
It is my opinion that this sense of privacy that I have described
interferes with her being absolutely frank about the situation, and
that she may, because of this lack of frankness, describe a situation
in a way that is misleading, not directly false--but misleads the
hearer. And this, I would say, not always in conscious design, but some
of it happening quite without preplanned intent. I conclude that from
the fact that I think she must have known that Lee had been to Mexico,
judging from the materials I have already described were picked up by
Mr. Odum and myself from the dresser drawer.
Mr. JENNER. From that, you conclude what?
Mrs. PAINE. Well, that she was willing to mislead by implication. And
I would judge that she knew about the application for a passport, and
this was never mentioned. All the times that she mentioned that she
might have to go back to Russia, the implication was that she alone was
going back. And this doesn't appear to have been fully the case.
Mr. JENNER. What leads you to say that--it wasn't fully the case in
what sense?
Mrs. PAINE. Well, in the sense that Lee had at least applied for a
passport to get him to Russia.
Mr. JENNER. You are rationalizing from the fact that you know now that
he applied for a passport?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. You conclude from that that she must have known of that
application and the fact that he received it?
Mrs. PAINE. And, of course, that is rationalization.
Mr. JENNER. That is the only basis on which you make that statement?
That is what I am getting at.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I think that is all.
Mr. JENNER. What is your opinion as to whether Marina Oswald would tell
the truth and the whole truth under oath in response to questions put
to her?
Mrs. PAINE. I would expect that she would make a dedicated attempt to
tell the truth. Just looking at the amount of time I have testified,
as opposed to the amount of time she testified, relative to the amount
of things she knows and the amount of material that I have that is of
any use to the Commission, she could not have yet told the whole truth,
just in terms of time.
Mr. JENNER. Well, that may be affected--of course, you must
understand--by the questions put to her and the subjects that were
opened on her examination.
Mrs. PAINE. Right.
Mr. JENNER. But subject to that, it is your feeling that she--there is
a----
Mrs. PAINE. Subject to that, I really cannot answer. I don't know what
her attitude is towards her situation, which is a rather remarkable
one in this case. I would guess that it is helpful to her telling
the whole truth that Lee is now dead. I might say I am affected in
that judgment by having been present when she could not positively
identify her husband's--what was thought to be his rifle at the police
station, whereas I read--and perhaps it is not so--but I read that she
positively identified it here at the Commission.
Mr. JENNER. But you were present when she, in your presence, was unable
to identify with reasonable certainty that the weapon exhibited to her
was her husband's rifle?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. And you attribute that largely to the fact that his now
being deceased has in her mind released her, so that she may without
fear of implicating him, were he alive, to speak fully her opinions on
subjects such as that?
Mrs. PAINE. That would be my opinion.
Mr. JENNER. I see. Did she ever express any fear of Lee Oswald?
Mrs. PAINE. No; she never did.
Mr. JENNER. Did she ever express to you any fear that he might do
something, and I use the vernacular again, crazy?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. I think we have covered this, but to be sure, did she ever
mention to you that Lee had anything to do with the Walker incident?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. That she suspected it?
Mrs. PAINE. Absolutely nothing.
Mr. JENNER. Now, since you are now aware of what has come out with
respect to that, does that also affect your opinion as to her sense of
truth or sense of frankness?
Mrs. PAINE. Well, it affects my opinion on how close we were as
friends. I never asked her to be frank or discuss such a subject, of
course, because I would not have known to bring it up. Not telling me
about something is quite different from telling me something that is
misleading to the whole truth of the situation.
Mr. JENNER. In other words, are you seeking to imply that her failure
to mention the General Walker incident and Lee Harvey Oswald part in
it, if he had any part, that that was understandable to you--that would
be understandable as of that time, having in mind your relations with
her?
Mrs. PAINE. No; it is not understandable to me. I feel it is only
explained--the only explanation I can find, when I look for one, is
that she did not feel terribly close to me, or did not know just what
I would do with such information. She may well have suspected that I
would feel it necessary to take immediate action, and I would have
felt that necessary if I had known this. She may have felt that Lee
would not make such an attempt again, and that there was therefore no
need to bring it up. I don't know whether your accounts of what the FBI
has put down of their conversations with me include one meeting with
Bardwell Odum, right after the newspapers had indicated something of a
shot at Walker, before there was any corroborative details, such as the
content of a note.
I was very depressed by the feeling that here--not to me, but to
someone, this man had shown that he was violent and dangerous, and the
information had been so close to me and not available to me--and I
deeply regretted that I had had no warning of this quality in him.
And I further went on to say that I felt that it was a moral failing
on her part not to speak to someone about this, because I thought
she would surely realize that this was an irrational and extremely
dangerous act on his part--that he needed help and/or confinement.
Mr. JENNER. What is your personal attitude towards the Castro regime?
Mrs. PAINE. I have very few opinions about it. I suspect that the press
is correct, that it is used as a jumping off ground for people, for
Communist deputies going to Central American countries, trying to stir
up trouble. That I object to strenuously. That the people of Cuba had
Castro as a leader is not of any particular offense to me. I do think
that he has rather more popular support than his predecessor.
Mr. JENNER. Batista?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes--which is not saying a great deal.
Mr. JENNER. Well, I think Representative Ford might have had more in
mind as to whether you share or do not share or have an aversion to
what you understand to be the Castro regime.
Mrs. PAINE. I think the regime is clearly dictatorial, that it seeks
to perpetuate itself, and to do so at all costs; and that I certainly
object to.
Mr. JENNER. Now, do you consider the Castro regime as you understand
it, that it is liberal or reactionary?
Mrs. PAINE. I don't know as I can put a term on it.
Mr. JENNER. Do you have any thoughts and assumptions on your part as
to what Lee Oswald was doing after Marina returned with you from New
Orleans? You have already testified that you thought from what he
said about seeking employment in Houston and Philadelphia that he was
engaged in that immediately following period in attempting to secure
employment in Houston.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Is that the extent of your impression as to that
period--that is the period from the time you left on the 23d of
September and the time he showed up without advance notice on the 4th
of October?
Mrs. PAINE. It was my impression that he had been looking for work.
Mr. JENNER. And you had no other impression?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. During the period that Marina lived with you, did you
ordinarily arise at an early or a late hour? When did you ordinarily
arise?
Mrs. PAINE. Are you asking did I arise earlier than she?
Mr. JENNER. No. I am asking when you did. Then I will ask you when she
did.
Mrs. PAINE. I usually got up around 7:30 or 8.
Mr. JENNER. When did she arise?
Mrs. PAINE. A similar time. When the babies permitted, she would sleep
a little later. She changed her schedule to fit ours rather more than
her schedule would have been if it had been just the way she had done
in her own apartment.
Mr. JENNER. In her own apartment you think she would have arisen later
or earlier?
Mrs. PAINE. She would have arisen later and let the baby, June, stay up
later, and therefore be able to sleep later in the morning.
Mr. JENNER. I see.
Mrs. PAINE. But while she was at my home, she endeavored to fit herself
into the sleeping schedule of myself and my children.
Mr. JENNER. Have you told us about your knowledge of any and all
correspondence that she received at your home?
Mrs. PAINE. I think I have. The only thing that I recall is that she
got a letter from a girl friend, Galya.
Mr. JENNER. Did she ever show you any correspondence she received?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. This has been covered. I don't know if it has been covered
in the thrust that Representative Ford has in mind.
Do you believe that Marina had any Communist sympathies when she
reached this country, and if so, what is your belief as to whether she
retained them after living in this country?
Mrs. PAINE. I do not believe she had Communist leanings when she
arrived.
Mr. JENNER. And is it your belief that she is of the same viewpoint now?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Have you now told us all of the activities about which you
know anything in which Lee Oswald and you or you and your husband or
Lee and Marina and you and your husband took part?
Mrs. PAINE. Let's see if I understand you. All the activities in which
my husband and/or I were with any of the Oswalds?
Mr. JENNER. Either of the Oswalds, together or separately.
Mrs. PAINE. To the best of my recollection, you have a full account.
Mr. JENNER. Did you ever attend any meetings together--that is either
you and Lee on the one hand, or you and Marina on the other, or you and
Marina and Lee together?
Mrs. PAINE. There is just the one of my husband and Lee at the Civil
Liberties Union meeting.
Mr. JENNER. Have you named all of the friends and associates or even
acquaintances that you had in common with the Oswalds or either of them?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did you really have any common interest?
Mrs. PAINE. With Marina?
Mr. JENNER. Well, any common interest with Lee--did you have any?
Mrs. PAINE. No; not really.
Mr. JENNER. And any activities with him?
Mrs. PAINE. Car driving teaching.
Mr. JENNER. That's about all?
Mrs. PAINE. That's it.
Mr. JENNER. And the same question as to Marina. Have you told us
everything--I will put it this way. Have you told us everything about
any common or concerted action or interest between yourself on the one
hand and Marina on the other?
Mrs. PAINE. Marina and I of course had a great deal of common interest
in children. I think she read to me from a book on child care in
Russian that she had--or perhaps I have not said that. Do you recall?
Mr. JENNER. Well, I am not too sure. I think you have intimated it.
Mrs. PAINE. And we discussed child raising, care, diet, all the things
that come up in connection with children.
Mr. JENNER. But you had no common--you had no community activities with
either of them, is that correct?
Mrs. PAINE. No--that's right. You mean which took us to a group with
other people?
Mr. JENNER. Other groups, civic activities generally.
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. Or women's clubs or meetings of that character. She
occasionally accompanied you on your visits to Mrs. Roberts, I assume.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. But there was no plan or direction to those activities.
Mrs. PAINE. None.
Mr. JENNER. Have you told us everything you know about Lee's income and
sources of funds?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I have.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall an occasion when you had a conversation with
Marina--it would have to be on the 23d of November--about the blanket
package and the gun in the package?
Mrs. PAINE. On the 23d?
Mr. JENNER. Did you have one--I will put it this way. Did you have any
conversation with her on that subject, other than the one you have
related that occurred in the presence of the police officers in your
home on the 22d of November, 1963?
Mrs. PAINE. None that I recall; nor the day following, either.
Mr. JENNER. Is that the only time that you ever had a conversation with
Marina dealing with the presence of a firearm in your home?
Mrs. PAINE. That is the only thing I recall.
Mr. JENNER. Or Lee Oswald's ownership of a firearm?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; the only time.
Mr. JENNER. Or use of it.
I take it from the answers you have given to my long line of
questioning that you never detected or saw Lee Oswald doing any dry
firing or dry sighting of a rifle in Irving, Tex. in or about your home
or premises.
Mrs. PAINE. No; I did not.
Mr. JENNER. That concludes the questions Representative Ford had in
mind.
I will look through the tag end of these notes and I think we have
reached the end.
You have no diary of events during the time of your contact with the
Oswalds other than the calendar diary which we have now introduced in
evidence.
Mrs. PAINE. None.
Mr. JENNER. And you never kept any?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. In connection with his seeking work in Houston, Tex., in
the course of that conversation with you girls in New Orleans, when
he made the statements you have related about seeking employment in
Houston, was there anything said by him as to having any acquaintances
or friends in Houston?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I believe I have already answered that--that he said
he had a friend in Houston, and that I was not sure whether that was so
or not.
Mr. JENNER. He did not identify the friend?
Mrs. PAINE. No; I was curious, though, about that.
Mr. JENNER. Did he say anything about having any connections or friends
in Philadelphia?
Mrs. PAINE. No; he did not.
Mr. JENNER. But he did mention the possibility of seeking employment in
Philadelphia.
Mrs. PAINE. He mentioned Philadelphia as a possibility that he might go
and look.
Mr. JENNER. Do you recall a long-distance call received by Marina while
she was at your home?
Mrs. PAINE. There was a call which I have related from Lee to her from
New Orleans on May 9th.
Mr. JENNER. But you know of no other?
Mrs. PAINE. I cannot think of any other.
Mr. JENNER. Did you ever hear anything by way of discussion or
otherwise by Marina or Lee of the possibility of his having been
tendered or at least suggested to him a job at Trans-Texas, as a cargo
handler at $310 per month?
Mrs. PAINE. No; in Dallas?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.
Mrs. PAINE. I do not recall that. $310 a month?
Mr. JENNER. Yes. This was right at the time that he obtained employment
at the Texas School Book Depository.
Mrs. PAINE. And he was definitely offered such a job?
Mr. JENNER. Well, I won't say it was offered--that he might have been
able to secure a job through the Texas Employment Commission as a cargo
handler at $310 per month.
Mrs. PAINE. I do recall some reference of that sort, which fell
through--that there was not that possibility.
Mr. JENNER. Tell us what you know about that. Did you hear of it at the
time?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Now, would you please relate that to me?