Mr. SENATOR. Why would somebody want to impeach Earl Warren? For what
reason? I don’t know. I mean I don’t have the answer to it. But why
would a sign be put up there? Why did they want to impeach Earl Warren?
Impeach him about what? I have asked myself this many times, but I
don’t know the answer.
Mr. GRIFFIN. You see, it seems strange that you should have mentioned
your going to the Southland Hotel and having coffee and that occurred
immediately after you had gone out to see the Earl Warren sign and had
also gone to the post office—then I say I wonder how you could have
forgotten it, once you had your mind on having one to the Southland
Hotel. You know you didn’t go right from your apartment to the
Southland Hotel to have coffee.
Mr. SENATOR. I don’t know. I don’t know why. I know I explained that to
Elmer Moore one day, and I said, “Elmer,” or “Mr. Moore,” rather, when
he was questioning me, I said, “Elmer, of course, the first day I had
been shaken up,” and I had mentioned to Mr. Moore when he took my text
of the whole thing how going about the sign, the two signs, how these
had bypassed my mind.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Two signs?
Mr. SENATOR. Well, when I say the signs, the billboard and the
newspaper ad, when they took my statement.
Mr. GRIFFIN. When you talked to me on the telephone from New York, I
guess it was on Monday——
Mr. SENATOR. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. You asked me if I had a copy, or if I had seen the Bernard
Weissman ad.
Mr. SENATOR. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. And I take it that in your mind this is a justification,
this somehow is a justification or some assistance to Jack in his
defense, the fact that he was interested in finding out about that
advertisement and about the sign?
Mr. SENATOR. That’s right. He wanted to know the whys. He wanted to
know why somebody would want to impeach him.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Now is this a thought that has come to you after knowing,
or after having talked with the attorneys and knowing what the strategy
of the trial was going to be?
Mr. SENATOR. No.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Talking with people?
Mr. SENATOR. No.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Or is this something that you felt almost immediately,
that this would be a justification?
Mr. SENATOR. I thought definitely in my own thinking that this was a
justification, because when I was put on the witness stand for the bond
hearing in early, I think it was, December, I am not sure just when
it was, when I was questioned about that by Mr. Alexander, I told him
that if anything this would be helping Jack, in wanting to know why
something of this nature would want to be put out in Dallas. Why did
the Dallas Daily Morning News want to accept an ad like this when the
President was coming into town that day?
Mr. GRIFFIN. When you went out with Jack, did Jack tell you at all what
he was going to do with this information that he got?
Mr. SENATOR. No; none whatsoever.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did he indicate that he might have been working for a
newspaper?
Mr. SENATOR. No.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Trying to do some freelance work for a newspaper?
Mr. SENATOR. No; there wasn’t a thing mentioned. I say when Jack gets
his mind set on something, he wants to know why, the information, the
why.
Mr. GRIFFIN. When was it that you first learned that Jack had spent
sometime at the police station on Friday night? Did you ever learn it?
Mr. SENATOR. You mean the Friday when he was bringing the sandwiches
and things of that nature there?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes. When did you first learn about that?
Mr. SENATOR. I think it was after he woke me up that morning. I think
that is when he told me, and I think he mentioned it, yes, and then he
mentioned that he went to the synagogue there Friday and prayed for the
President, and that he saw his sister, and they were both crying, as it
was related to me, over the President.