Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; that is all I can recall.
Mr. STERN. To be translated for Marina Oswald?
Mr. HOSTY. No.
Mr. STERN. Anything else about your interview with Mrs. Paine?
Mr. HOSTY. Yes; after Mrs. Paine told me that she would try to find
out where Lee Oswald was living, I then gave her my name and telephone
number. I wrote it down on a piece of paper for her. I am fairly
certain I printed it so she would be able to read it all right. I
printed my name and wrote down my office telephone number, and handed
it to Mrs. Paine.
Mr. STERN. Did you put anything else on this piece of paper?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; that was all.
Mr. STERN. Are you quite sure about your recollection of that, or are
you telling us on the basis of your ordinary experience? Is this what
you remember of the incident?
Mr. HOSTY. This is what I remember of it; yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. You don't remember putting anything on this paper other than
your name?
Mr. HOSTY. My name and telephone number.
Mr. STERN. Office telephone?
Mr. HOSTY. Office telephone; right.
Mr. STERN. And no other telephone number?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. No address?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. License number?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. You are quite certain that you can recall now only those two
things?
Mr. HOSTY. Yes; I do this as a standard procedure. I do this all the
time. I will write my name out if a person says they want to contact
me. I will give them my name and telephone number, write it on a piece
of paper and give it to them.
Representative FORD. Did you write on notepaper you had or paper
provided by Mrs. Paine, or what?
Mr. HOSTY. It was my recollection it was on my paper. I took a piece of
paper off, tore it in half, printed my name and telephone number on it
that I gave to her.
Mr. STERN. Do you have cards?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; we don't have cards. We are not allowed to carry
cards.
Mr. STERN. When Mrs. Paine told you that Lee Harvey Oswald was working
at the School Book Depository, did that mean anything to you? Did you
remember the building?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; I knew of the building in the outskirts of the
downtown area. That is about all. I looked up the address, and I
recognized the address, but it meant nothing to me.
Mr. STERN. Is there anything else at all that you can recall being said
on November 1?
Mr. HOSTY. As I said earlier, I think I should bring this in, that Mrs.
Paine was a little bit reluctant to give me his place of employment at
first. She said that Lee Oswald had alleged that the FBI had had him
fired from every job he ever had. I told her this was not true, that I
had never had anyone fired from any job nor did I know of any other FBI
agents that had ever done this.
I reassured her that I wanted to know his place of employment for the
purpose of determining whether or not he was employed in a sensitive
industry, and when I found out that he was working in a warehouse as a
laborer, I realized this was not a sensitive industry.
Mr. STERN. You were acting for the New Orleans office at this time?
Mr. HOSTY. At this time; yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. In trying to locate him?
Mr. HOSTY. Right.
Mr. STERN. Had they asked you to try to determine what kind of work he
was doing and whether he might be in a sensitive position?
Mr. HOSTY. Well, this is automatically considered; yes. They didn't
have to ask me. I knew I was to do that.
Mr. DULLES. Did you clear this with the Dallas or Fort Worth office?
How do you work out that liaison?
Mr. HOSTY. How do you mean, sir?
Mr. DULLES. I mean with the FBI. At this time this was the territory, I
assume, of Dallas or Fort Worth.
Mr. HOSTY. Right. Irving, Tex., is in the Dallas territory; yes, sir.
Mr. DULLES. The Dallas territory?
Mr. HOSTY. Right.
Mr. DULLES. Did you clear or notify the Dallas office either before or
after?
Mr. HOSTY. You mean after I determined this?
Mr. DULLES. Yes.
Mr. HOSTY. Oh, yes, sir. This occurred on the 1st. This was a Friday. I
returned to the Dallas office. I covered a couple of other leads on the
way back. I got in shortly after 5 o'clock and all our stenos had gone
home. This information has to go registered mail, and it could not go
then until Monday morning.
Monday morning--shall I continue?
Mr. STERN. Yes.
Mr. HOSTY. On Monday morning, I made a pretext telephone call to the
Texas School Book Depository. I called up and asked for the personnel
department, asked if a Lee Oswald was employed there. They said yes,
he was. I said what address does he show? They said 2515 West Fifth
Street, Irving, Tex., which I knew not to be his correct address.
I then sent a communication, airmail communication to the New Orleans
office advising them--and to the headquarters of the FBI advising
them--and then instructing the New Orleans office to make the Dallas
office the office of origin. We were now assuming control, because he
had now been verified in our division.
Representative FORD. When you say you made several other checks on the
way to the office, did this involve----
Mr. HOSTY. Not in this case; other cases. I run anywhere from 25 to 40
cases any one time. I have to work them all, fit them in as I go.
Representative FORD. These other checks did not involve this case?
Mr. HOSTY. No; other cases I was working on.
Mr. STERN. Mr. Hosty, at your interview on November 1 with Mrs. Paine,
do you recall whether you asked her whether there was any telephone
number that she knew of where Lee Harvey Oswald could be reached?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; I didn't ask her about a telephone number; no, sir.
Mr. STERN. And she didn't tell you?
Mr. HOSTY. She didn't volunteer. She told me she did not know where he
lived.
Mr. STERN. Why don't you continue with the chronological report.
Mr. HOSTY. As I say, then I forwarded this airmail communication.
Mr. McCLOY. May I ask at this point, did she indicate whether there
were any belongings of Lee Oswald in the house?
Mr. HOSTY. She did not indicate, but, of course, she did tell me his
wife and children were there, and I assumed that their personal
effects would be there. We didn't go into that.
Mr. McCLOY. You made no search of the house?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; that would have been illegal. I couldn't have done
it without his consent. There was no attempt to do that.
Mr. STERN. Did you have any thought of interviewing Marina Oswald at
the time she came into Mrs. Paine's living room in connection with the
investigation of Marina Oswald that you had started out thinking about
in March?
Mr. HOSTY. Yes; I could have interviewed her here, but I thought at the
time she was under a little emotional stress, this was maybe not a good
time. Also, as I said before, we have a requirement to have two agents
present when a subject is interviewed. I was alone. And, also, I wanted
to get the New Orleans office to check their files to see if there was
anything that I didn't have. For all I knew, they could have already
interviewed her. I didn't know this. So before I would proceed with
that, I wanted to make sure I had all the records, another agent, and
at a better time where I could talk in more detail with Mrs. Oswald.