Mr. JENNER. Or sought to have delivered to her--should I put it that
way?
Mrs. PAINE. That's right.
Mr. JENNER. And do you note throughout this material the means or
method by which you sought to draw these letters to her attention?
Mrs. PAINE. Each one says how it was sent--yes.
Mr. JENNER. And when did you make the transcripts that now appear as
Ruth Paine Exhibit 277, by transcript I mean translations.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes--the first three letters here, I have a note at the top
indicating when the translation was made.
Mr. JENNER. When were they made with relation to when the originals
were dispatched?
Mrs. PAINE. The first three translations were made later.
Mr. JENNER. How much later?
Mrs. PAINE. Well, depending--the translations were all made on January
26. The first three letters were written respectively, December 27,
December 28 and January 3.
Mr. JENNER. And from what did you make the translation?
Mrs. PAINE. From my notes in Russian of the original letter which I
cannot now find.
Mr. JENNER. You prepared a first draft and then after you had prepared
the first draft and gone over it to make sure it recited what you
wished, you then wrote the final answer?
Mrs. PAINE. That's right--in Russian.
Mr. JENNER. In Russian and dispatched it?
Mrs. PAINE. That's right.
Mr. JENNER. And they are pages 4 through 7, correct?
Mrs. PAINE. That's right--the other translations were all made at the
time indicated on the page, which was also the time the letter was
written and sent.
Mr. JENNER. Now, have you in the last day or two at my request reviewed
carefully the translations which now compose this Ruth Paine Exhibit
277?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes I have.
Mr. JENNER. And to the best of your knowledge, information and belief,
after that check are you now able to say whether those transcriptions
are accurate and whether also the statements you make of descriptive
character in connection therewith are also accurate and truthful?
Mrs. PAINE. I believe them to be fully accurate.
Mr. JENNER. Now, you had another sheaf of papers when you produced
Exhibit 277--what are those papers?
Mrs. PAINE. I have a few scratch notes which tell what correspondence
there was between November 22 and the first date of this exhibit, which
was December 27.
Mr. JENNER. Refreshing your recollection from those notes, tell me if
you can what correspondence there was prior to the first letter, which
appears as December 27, in Ruth Paine Exhibit 277?
Mrs. PAINE. There were two or three short notes written by myself to
Marina Oswald and sent to her along with a small stack of letters and
checks which had come addressed to me, but really for her. I sent these
via the Irving Police to Secret Service. I have no copies of these, but
I have seen one in translation, I believe it to have been the second
one that I wrote, among the Commission papers that were shown to me in
Washington.
There was a note and Christmas card sent to me by Marina and postmarked
December 21. Then, there was also a note and Christmas card sent by me
to Marina on the same date, December 21.
Mr. JENNER. Did you send that before or after you received her card?
Mrs. PAINE. They crossed.
Mr. JENNER. Are you able to translate now for the record the wording
of the Christmas card or message received from Marina by you?
Mrs. PAINE. I would rather have a few minutes with it before doing
it for the record. I have not done it in advance because time didn't
serve. I do want here to try to describe what I recall as the content
of my note, which I have no copy of that.
Mr. JENNER. Notes that are in your hand, are they in Russian?
Mrs. PAINE. These, no; this is descriptive of what I sent and the
situation surrounding the note I sent to her on December 21, and as I
say, I have no copy of that note. I included a Christmas greeting from
myself and my children and expressed my concern for her and said I
didn't want to bother her, but I did want to see her.
Mr. JENNER. To the extent you can recite it literally, do so, please.
Mrs. PAINE. I can't--I handed this note to Mr. Martin in his home.
Mr. JENNER. Is this the note you had in mind when you testified last
week before the Commission that you had gone to his home and delivered
something to him?
Mrs. PAINE. That's right.
Mr. JENNER. Along with some other letters that had come containing
contributions from kindhearted Americans which had been sent to Marina
and arrived at your home?
Mrs. PAINE. That's right. I talked with Mr. Martin and after having
talked with him I added something to my note, saying that I had talked
with him and that it had relieved my mind somewhat about her. I also
brought that same day an opened package containing wrapped Christmas
gifts which had come to my home addressed to me from a lady who had
previously written to inquire what kind of gifts might be appropriate
for Marina's children. When I opened the package, though the outside
had been addressed to me, the inside was labeled, "Rachel" and "Junie",
and clearly Christmas gifts for Marina and the two children. I also
brought a small box of Christmas cookies for the Martin family.
Mr. JENNER. As gifts from you and your children to the Martin family?
Mrs. PAINE. That's right; that's correct.
Agent HOWLETT. I remeasured that window at the southeast corner of the
house--the first bedroom--the one which Marina was in, and that picture
window is correctly 3 feet 7 inches wide.
Mr. JENNER. Now, we will go off the record.
(Discussion between Counsel Jenner and the witness, Mrs. Paine, off the
record.)
Mr. JENNER. Back on the record.
Mrs. Paine, you recall that last week in testifying before the
Commission, you referred to an incident in which you drove into Dallas
with Lee Oswald accompanying you, for the purpose of having a key on
your typewriter repaired?
Mrs. PAINE. That's right.
Mr. JENNER. And what date was that that you drove into Dallas?
Mrs. PAINE. My recollection is that we drove in on October 14, Monday.
Mr. JENNER. Have you, since your return to Irving from Washington,
found something in your home that helps refresh your recollection about
that incident?
Mrs. PAINE. I looked up the check stubs to see what date I wrote the
Weaver Office Machines Co. a check to pay for that typewriter key
repair. The check was written when we went to pick up the machine.
Mr. JENNER. Now, you said "we." Did Lee Oswald accompany you on that
occasion as well?
Mrs. PAINE. No, he did not; just Marina and myself and our children
went in, and the check stub is dated October 18.
Mr. JENNER. And does that refresh your recollection as to the date when
you picked up the typewriter?
Mrs. PAINE. That is, of course, the date I picked up the typewriter,
and it is my best judgment that it was therefore the preceding Monday
that I took the typewriter in.
Mr. JENNER. And what was the occasion again to--why you had the
typewriter repaired as of that time?
Mrs. PAINE. The original key was incorrect--I had it replaced.
Mr. JENNER. Incorrect in what sense--it had an incorrect Russian
symbol--Russian language symbol?
Mrs. PAINE. That's right.
Mr. JENNER. And you wanted to replace it for what reason--did Lee
Oswald desire to use it or were you using it or what were the
circumstances?
Mrs. PAINE. I was using the typewriter in preparation for teaching
Russian to one student.
Mr. JENNER. Is there anything else about that incident that you would
like to add to the record.
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. Now, Mrs. Paine, I can think of no additional questions at
the moment.
Is there anything that has occurred to you in the meantime that is,
since you were in Washington, to which you would like to draw my
attention and the attention of the Commission as possibly having a
bearing on the Commission's investigation, the nature of which you have
been heretofore advised?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. There is nothing?
Mrs. PAINE. This is rather an aside, I would think.
Mr. JENNER. All right, let's go off the record a minute.
(Discussion between Counsel Jenner and the witness, Mrs. Paine, off the
record.)
Mr. JENNER. We go back on the record.
In gifts received by you since November 22, 1963, at your home, that
is, gifts to Marina, did some of those gifts come in the form of cash
as distinguished from check or money orders?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes, some of them did. I regret that most of those that
came as cash came early and I simply sent them on to Secret Service
as cash. After--about the end of 1963 I began to wonder, since I had
not heard directly from Marina, whether she was getting these, and I
therefore decided to send any such contributions that came to me as
cash on to her as checks drawn on my bank account.
Mr. JENNER. Had you talked with John Thorne, or Jim Martin in advance
of delivering those checks--"yes" or "no"?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. All right, tell us the circumstances?