Mrs. PAINE. I would also drink a cocktail on occasion.
Mr. JENNER. But very limited and just an occasional drink?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Is that likewise true of your husband, Michael?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Representative FORD. Did Marina ever drink to excess?
Mrs. PAINE. Certainly not that I ever heard about or saw.
Mr. JENNER. Not that you ever heard about or that you saw?
Mrs. PAINE. Or saw.
Mr. JENNER. From your testimony that is certainly true with Lee Harvey
Oswald?
Mrs. PAINE. It is certainly true of him also.
Mr. JENNER. As far as you are concerned?
Mrs. PAINE. As far as I am concerned.
Mr. JENNER. Now, I think you testified yesterday that Marina would
assist you in your becoming more proficient in the Russian language by
returning letters that you had written her, upon which she would place
her comments of instruction or criticism or suggestion?
Mrs. PAINE. Before she left for New Orleans in May, she offered to
correct and send back any letters I wrote to her. In the correspondence
which included some four letters with her altogether, there was only
one of mine that was actually corrected and sent back and you have that.
Mr. JENNER. I have marked a three-page document as Commission Exhibit
409, and the envelope as Commission Exhibit 409A, the envelope being
postmarked at New Orleans on June 6, 1963, and being addressed to Mrs.
Ruth Paine.
Mrs. PAINE. Do you want to make a separate designation for my return
letter? You are looking at the letter which accompanied her letter.
Mr. JENNER. That document I will mark as Commission Exhibit----may I
have permission, Mr. Chairman, to mark this document in my own hand
because the sticker, I am afraid, will obliterate some of the letter.
Mr. McCLOY. You may.
Mr. JENNER. I will mark this as 409B.
Now, Mrs. Paine, would you be good enough to identify 409, 409A, and
409B, the sequence in which they passed back and forth between you and
Mrs. Oswald?
Mrs. PAINE. It includes, No. 409 is my letter to her dated the 1st of
June, which she----
Mr. JENNER. 1963?
Mrs. PAINE. 1963.
Mr. JENNER. Is that document, or do you recognize the handwriting on
that document?
Mrs. PAINE. That is my hand.
Mr. JENNER. Would you turn to the reverse side of the second page,
third page. I see there is something on that in red crayon.
Mrs. PAINE. All the red marks and the little bit in ballpoint pen are
made by her.
Mr. JENNER. That is what I was seeking to bring out.
Mrs. PAINE. At the end it includes a note of comments.
Mr. JENNER. Now, Mrs. Paine, the portion of the letter in blue ink in
longhand is in whose handwriting?
Mrs. PAINE. In my handwriting.
Mr. JENNER. And the portion of the letter in red crayon on the reverse
side of the third page is in whose handwriting?
Mrs. PAINE. Is in her handwriting.
Mr. JENNER. On the first page is there any of her handwriting?
Mrs. PAINE. On the first page in blue ink, ballpoint pen there is some
handwriting which is hers at the top.
Mr. JENNER. Those are notations in between the lines or in the margin?
Mrs. PAINE. Above my writing. Yes; sir.
Mr. JENNER. They are comments of hers on your letter?
Mrs. PAINE. And my spelling.
Mr. JENNER. Of your spelling?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Do any of those markings appear other than on the face of
the first sheet?
Mrs. PAINE. In blue ink you are asking?
Mr. JENNER. Yes, I am.
Mrs. PAINE. No. The rest is all in red.
Mr. JENNER. That then was a letter that you had sent to her?
Mrs. PAINE. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. Was it returned to you?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did some document which you now have before you accompany
the letter on its return?
Mrs. PAINE. Her letter dated June 5th.
Mr. JENNER. Which has been marked Commission Exhibit 409B?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And you do recognize that handwriting as having been hers?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; I do.
Mr. JENNER. Of the two documents you have now identified, 409 and 409B,
were they enclosed in an envelope?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; they were.
Mr. JENNER. Is that envelope before you?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. It is marked Commission Exhibit 409A?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Are all those conditions of documents in the condition
which they were in when you received them?
Mrs. PAINE. I have again added in my hand on her letter.
Mr. JENNER. That is 409B?
Mrs. PAINE. Translations of certain of the words.
Mr. JENNER. Would you please, for the purpose of the record, identify
what your handwriting is, on the letter 409B.
Mrs. PAINE. It is above her words. Most of it is in English.
Mr. JENNER. That is in your hand?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Other than that, are the documents in the condition they
were when you received them?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. There is one interesting thing to me, Mrs. Paine, to which
I would like to draw the attention of the Commission. And I direct
your attention in this respect to Exhibits 404, 404A, 408, 408A, 409,
and 409A. Each has an envelope addressed to you, and each is addressed
written in English.
Is the handwriting on each of those envelopes Marina Oswald's?
Mrs. PAINE. It is.
Mr. JENNER. She was then able to write some English, is that so?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.