Mr. HOSTY. Correct.
Mr. STERN. This might be a good opportunity, Mr. Chairman, to have
him identify this affidavit. I show you from Commission Exhibit 825 a
one-page affidavit. Can you----
Mr. HOSTY. This is my affidavit. This is my signature.
Mr. STERN. And it was made when?
Mr. HOSTY. On the 5th day of February 1964.
Mr. STERN. Why don't you read that?
Mr. HOSTY. "I, James P. Hosty, Jr., Special Agent of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation since January 21, 1952, having been duly sworn, make
the following statement:
"At no time prior to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy did
I ever see or talk to Lee Harvey Oswald. I have never made payments of
any kind to him. In addition, I have never made any attempt to develop
him as an informant or source of information."
Signed, James P. Hosty, Jr., Special Agent, Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
Mr. STERN. Mr. Chairman, may we have admitted Exhibits 831 and 832,
which Mr. Hosty has identified, the letter from the Director of the FBI
enclosing Mr. Hosty's affidavit as 831, and 832, which is his two-page
memorandum on the interview?
The CHAIRMAN. That may be admitted with those numbers.
(The items marked Commission Exhibits Nos. 831 and 832 for
identification were received in evidence.)
The CHAIRMAN. Is that all, Mr. Stern?
Mr. STERN. There are a few other points.
The CHAIRMAN. Let's hurry them along.
Mr. STERN. To conclude that last point, Mr. Hosty, do you have any
knowledge of anyone else in the government service, either FBI or any
other branch----
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. That tried or was successful in recruiting Lee Harvey Oswald
as an informant or employee or agent?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. Did you see Oswald again after the interview that Captain
Fritz conducted?
Mr. HOSTY. No.
Mr. STERN. What did you do when this interview concluded?
Mr. HOSTY. As I stated here, he was removed from Captain Fritz' office
at 4:05 p.m. Here again I checked my wristwatch, so I am certain the
time is correct.
I then went to the outer office of Capt. Will Fritz and remained there
until approximately 8 p.m. that evening.
Mr. STERN. You did not attend any of the lineups?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. Did you talk to any member of the Secret Service at this
time?
Mr. HOSTY. Yes, sir; at approximately 6 p.m. on the 22d of November
1963, Special Agent in Charge Forrest V. Sorrels of the United States
Secret Service entered Captain Fritz' office with about five or six
Secret Service agents. He then proceeded to interview Lee Harvey
Oswald, I was not present during this interview.
I did see him take Lee Oswald to the rear of Captain Fritz' outer
office and interview Lee Oswald. It appeared to me that Forrest Sorrels
of the Secret Service had appeared for the purpose of representing the
United States Secret Service in this investigation. I was aware at this
time that the FBI did not have jurisdiction over this matter, that
is, the assassination of the President of the United States, and that
if any Federal agency did have jurisdiction, it would be the United
States Secret Service. As I later determined, no Federal agency had
jurisdiction over this assassination.
When Forrest Sorrels concluded his interview with Lee Oswald, I called
him aside and advised him that there was some additional information on
Lee Oswald which the FBI headquarters in Washington could furnish to
the headquarters of the Secret Service in Washington, and that there
were two items, and that I did not feel that I could give them to him
directly since they were secret in nature.
Mr. STERN. Was anyone else present during this conversation?
Mr. HOSTY. As I said, this took place in the outer office of Capt. Will
Fritz. There were about 30 or 40 people milling around out there. There
were three or four Texas Rangers. There were perhaps a dozen Dallas
police officers. There were, as I said, five or six Secret Service
agents.
There were three other FBI agents besides myself, various clerical
personnel from the police department who were assigned to the homicide
division. I recognized two postal inspectors. I directed this
conversation to Mr. Sorrels. I called him to one side and directed this
to him directly.
Mr. STERN. Did you repeat the same information to anyone else later on?
Mr, HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. What did you have in mind? What were the two pieces of
information?
Mr. HOSTY. The two pieces of information I had in mind were the
contacts that Lee Oswald had with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City,
and the contact that he had had with the Soviet Embassy in Washington,
D.C.
Mr. STERN. Were you in touch with your Dallas office from the police
headquarters regularly during the evening of the 22d?
Mr. HOSTY. Yes. I went out and made phone calls to them, advised them
of my interview and how things were going.
Mr. STERN. Did you make any calls directly to Bureau headquarters in
Washington?
Mr. HOSTY. I didn't; no, sir.
Mr. STERN. Were you advised at any time on the 22d after you left
your office of other information, any other information with regard
to Lee Harvey Oswald that had been supplied by Bureau headquarters in
Washington through your Dallas office?
Mr. HOSTY. No; that was all, just what I previously related.
Mr. STERN. Just what you mentioned, nothing else came through?
Mr. HOSTY. Nothing else.
Mr. STERN. Were you in the police headquarters on Saturday, the 23d, or
Sunday, the 24th, at all?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. Did you have any further discussions with Lieutenant Revill
that weekend?
Mr. HOSTY. No.
Mr. STERN. At any time until now?
Mr. HOSTY. I have had discussions with him on two occasions since
then. We did not discuss this matter of the 22d of November, this
conversation of the 22d.
Mr. STERN. Did you discuss the assassination with him on either of
these two occasions that you recall?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. The only conversation you had with him was going up
the stairway from the basement to the third floor of the police
headquarters on November 22?
Mr. HOSTY. That is correct.
Representative FORD. Do you recall the dates of these two subsequent
meetings with him?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; I don't. Just the first time was maybe in January,
January sometimes, possibly February, and that was at his office. Then
he came to our office maybe in March. I just don't recall the dates.
Representative FORD. But those visits were on matters not at all
related to the assassination or the events surrounding it?
Mr. HOSTY. Actually, when he came to our office he was coming to talk
to another agent, and I just said "Hello" to him, and we didn't discuss
anything official. I just nodded "hello" to him, "How are you doing?"
When I went to his office it was in connection with another matter.
Mr. STERN. But on neither occasion did you discuss the assassination or
the events surrounding it?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. Have you any further questions, Congressman Ford?
Representative FORD. What did you do on Saturday and Sunday following,
in rough outline, involving the assassination, if anything?
Mr. HOSTY. I worked practically round the clock Saturday night. I
didn't go to bed at all, as I recall, Friday night and Saturday. I was
covering various leads in connection with the assassination, talking to
people who knew Lee Oswald.
I talked to Mrs. Paine, to give you an example, the first thing
Saturday morning. I talked to various people that knew Oswald,
just covering general investigative leads in connection with the
assassination, like everyone else was. But I wasn't working at the
police department.
Representative FORD. You weren't at the police department at all on
Saturday or Sunday?
Mr. HOSTY. That is correct.
The CHAIRMAN. Mr. McCloy, have you anything?
Mr. McCLOY. I noticed you mentioned Lieutenant Revill and Jackie Brian.
There is another name mentioned here, Gordon Shanklin.
Mr. HOSTY. He is the agent in charge of the Dallas FBI Office.
Mr. McCLOY. It doesn't say so in this article, but it may be in this
by implication. You said nothing or anything that is comparable to
the alleged statement, "We have a suspect who is capable of the
assassination of the President, but I never dreamed of it," to your
colleague Gordon Shanklin?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir.
Mr. McCLOY. When you went to talk to Mrs. Paine, did you go over the
premises then with her? Did she, for example, show you where Oswald is
alleged to have kept the rifle in the garage?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; I didn't do that, no.
Mr. McCLOY. Did you, in the course of your followup leads, talk to Mr.
Truly?
Mr. HOSTY. Yes, sir.
Mr. McCLOY. Can you tell us what transpired between you and Mr. Truly?