Representative BOGGS. Did he ever express any political opinions to you?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes, he called himself a Marxist. He said that on the
occasion after Stevenson had been in town in relation to the United
Nations Day.
Mr. JENNER. Adlai Stevenson?
Mrs. PAINE. Adlai Stevenson, and Lee had been to a meeting of the
National Indignation Committee held another night that week, and he was
at our home the following Friday night and commented that he didn't
like General Walker.
This is the only thing I heard from him on the subject.
Representative BOGGS. Did he ever express any violence toward General
Walker?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Representative BOGGS. Did he ever discuss President Kennedy with you?
Mrs. PAINE. He never mentioned Kennedy at all.
Representative BOGGS. Did you see the rifle that he had in the room in
your home?
Mrs. PAINE. In the garage, no.
Representative BOGGS. In the garage, you never saw one?
Mrs. PAINE. I never saw that rifle at all until the police showed it to
me in the station on the 22d of November.
Representative BOGGS. Were you at home when the FBI interviewed Marina
and Lee?
Mrs. PAINE. The FBI never interviewed Marina and me; I was waiting to
hear your question.
Representative BOGGS. At your home?
Mrs. PAINE. The FBI never interviewed Marina and Lee at my home. The
FBI was there one afternoon and talked to Marina through me; they never
saw Lee Oswald in my home. I told them he would be there on a weekend.
Representative BOGGS. Did you ever discuss politics with Marina?
Mrs. PAINE. As close as we would come, I would say, would be what I
have mentioned about Madam Nhu; she was interested in what the family
would do. She also said to me that she thought Khrushchev was a rather
coarse, country person. She said that she admired Mrs. Kennedy a great
deal, and liked, this is all before, liked President Kennedy very much.
Mr. JENNER. This was all before November 22?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Representative BOGGS. Were you aware of the fact that Lee returned to
your home the night before the assassination?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Representative BOGGS. Were you curious about that in view of the fact
that he seldom came except on weekends?
Mrs. PAINE. It was the first time he had come without asking permission
to come. He came after he and his wife had quarreled, and Marina and I
said to one another, we took this to be as close as he could come to an
apology, and an effort to make up.
Representative BOGGS. That was the reason you thought he had come?
Mrs. PAINE. But I didn't inquire of him.
Representative BOGGS. You did not know that the next morning when he
left he had a rifle?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Representative BOGGS. Did you see him when he left that morning?
Mrs. PAINE. No, I didn't.
Representative BOGGS. Have you been active in politics yourself?
Mrs. PAINE. No; I vote. And I am a member of the League of Women
Voters, that is the extent of my activity.
Representative BOGGS. Do you belong to any other political
organizations?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Mr. JENNER. Have you ever belonged?
Mrs. PAINE. No.
Representative BOGGS. Are you, I don't know quite how to state this
question, are you a practicing Quaker?
Mrs. PAINE. I am. I am also a pacifist.
Representative BOGGS. You are a pacifist?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.
Representative BOGGS. You are not a Marxist?
Mrs. PAINE. No; they don't go together, in fact. You can't believe
violent overthrow and be a pacifist.
Mr. DULLES. Did you know Norman Thomas quite well?
Mrs. PAINE. When I was 8 I went to a rally of Norman Thomas in New York
City. That was my only contact.
Representative BOGGS. Is your feeling towards Marina, shall I say in
the Quaker spirit of friendship and hospitality, was that the main
objective, plus the intellectual?
Mrs. PAINE. I was interested in the language.
Representative BOGGS. Intellectual stimulation of the language.
Mrs. PAINE. Yes. I found that while living with her, I could say that
this day, at least added something to what I knew, what I--I learned a
few more words.
Representative BOGGS. You never formed any opinion about Lee Oswald as
a person?
Mrs. PAINE. I formed many, and I would like to make that a special area.
Representative BOGGS. Would you just tell me just in a sentence or two,
I know you could go into it in greater detail, but was your opinion
favorable? Was it unfavorable, or what?
Mrs. PAINE. I disliked him actively in the spring when I thought he
just wanted to get rid of his wife and wasn't caring about her, wasn't
concerned whether she would go to the doctor. I then found him much
nicer, I thought, when I saw him next in New Orleans in late September,
and this would be a perfectly good time to admit the rest of the
pertinent part of this letter to my mother written October 14, because
it shows something that I think should be part of the public record,
and I am one of the few people who can give it, that presents Lee
Oswald as a human person, a person really rather ordinary, not an ogre
that was out to leave his wife, and be harsh and hostile to all that he
knew.
But in this brief period during the times that he came out on weekends,
I saw him as a person who cared for his wife and his child, tried to
make himself helpful in my home, tried to make himself welcome although
he really preferred to stay to himself.
He wasn't much to take up a conversation. This says, "Dear Mom," this
is from Commission Exhibit No. 425, "Lee Oswald is looking for work in
Dallas. Did my last letter say so? Probably not. He arrived a week and
a half ago and has been looking for work since. It is a very depressing
business for him, I am sure. He spent last weekend and the one before
with us here and was a happy addition to our expanded family. He played
with Chris"--my 3-year-old, then 2--"watched football on the TV, planed
down the doors that wouldn't close, they had shifted and generally
added a needed masculine flavor"----
Mr. JENNER. Wait a second.
Mrs. PAINE. "And generally added a needed masculine flavor. From a poor
first impression I have come to like him. We saw the doctor at Parkland
Hospital last Friday and all seems very healthy" and this refers to
Marina. "It appears that charges will be geared to their ability to
pay."