The testimony of William J. Newman was taken at 11 p.m., on March 25,
1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office Building,
Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex., by Mr. Burt W. Griffin,
assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Mr. Newman, my name is Burt Griffin. I am a member of
the advisory staff of the general counsel's office of the President's
Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. This Commission
was set up pursuant to an Executive order of President Johnson on
November 29th, 1963, and under a joint resolution of Congress, No. 137.
The Commission has prescribed a set of rules of procedure. Pursuant to
those rules I have been authorized to take your sworn deposition.
I want to tell you a little bit about what the general nature of the
inquiry is. Of course, this was set up, as you know, after President
Kennedy was assassinated and Lee Oswald died. Our instructions are to
investigate, evaluate and report back to President Johnson on all the
facts surrounding the assassination of the President and the murder of
Lee Oswald.
Now, that includes going into the background of Oswald and Ruby, their
associations and their motives anything that you can think of about
them. We have no authority to send anybody to jail, except for perjury.
We are not like the grand jury, in the sense if we find a crime, and we
are not conducting this examination with the thought that anybody else
is going to use this information to prosecute for crimes of anybody
except for perjury.
The most important motivating force, I think, in this investigation
is one of national security, not only from the standpoint of finding
out as much as we can so that we can learn how to prevent all of
the occurrences that have taken place in the last four months from
ever happening again, but also, so we can determine if there is any
possibility that there was more than one person involved with either
one of these two men.
Now, we have asked you to appear here primarily to develop facts
in connection with the murder of Oswald, but if you have any sort
of information that would be relevant to the entire scope of our
investigation, we would like to have it.
Now, in particular you have been asked to appear here by virtue
of a general request which was made by the General Counsel of the
Commission, Mr. J. Lee Rankin, to Chief Curry, a letter was sent to
Chief Curry and a whole list of names was on that letter, and we
indicated that we were going to examine these people. Under the rules
of the Commission, you are entitled to receive 3-day written notice
personally from the Commission, and that hasn't been sent to you.
However, you may waive that notice, and some people insist on it and
others don't. It doesn't make any difference to us, but I would ask you
now whether you would like us to give you the written notice or whether
you are willing to waive the written notice?
Mr. NEWMAN. No; I will be willing to waive it.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Now, I notice that you don't have an attorney here, and
that you are also permitted to have an attorney in any appearance
before us, and if you have any thought that this would be something
that you think would be desirable, don't hesitate to say so, because,
again, many people have had attorneys here, even down here in Dallas,
and we would be happy to go home and go to bed tonight and take up at a
more convenient time.
Do you want an attorney?
Mr. NEWMAN. No.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Now, I am going to ask you to raise your right hand and be
sworn.
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. NEWMAN. I do.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Will you state your full name, please?
Mr. NEWMAN. William J. Newman.
Mr. GRIFFIN. And when were you born, Mr. Newman?
Mr. NEWMAN. January 31, 1937.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Where do you live?
Mr. NEWMAN. My street address?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. NEWMAN. 10923 Cotillion.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Cotillion?