The President's Commission met at 10 a.m. on February 4, 1964, at 200
Maryland Avenue NE., Washington, D.C.
Present were Chief Justice Earl Warren, Chairman; Senator John Sherman
Cooper, Representative Hale Boggs, Representative Gerald R. Ford, John
J. McCloy, and Allen W. Dulles, members.
Also present were J. Lee Rankin, general counsel; Norman Redlich,
assistant counsel; Leon I. Gopadze and William D. Krimer, interpreters;
and John M. Thorne, attorney for Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald.
The CHAIRMAN. The Commission will be in order.
Mr. Rankin, will you proceed with the questioning of Mrs. Oswald.
Mr. RANKIN. Mrs. Oswald, there are a number of things about some of the
material we have been over, the period we have been over, that I would
like to ask you about, sort of to fill in different parts of it. I
hope you will bear with us in regard to that.
Were you aware of the diary that your husband had written and the book
that he had typed?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he hire a public stenographer to help him with his book?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, he wrote his in longhand. He started it in Russia. But
he had it retyped here because it had been in longhand.
Mr. RANKIN. And do you know about when he started to have it retyped
here?
Mrs. OSWALD. We arrived in June. I think it was at the end of June.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know what happened to that book, or a copy of it?
Mrs. OSWALD. At the present time it is--I don't know where--the police
department or the FBI.
Mr. RANKIN. And what was done with the diary? Do you know that?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't know where it is now. I know that it was taken.
But where it is now, I don't know.
Mr. RANKIN. It was taken by either the FBI or the Secret Service or the
police department?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't know that, because I was not at home when all
these things were taken.
Mr. RANKIN. Would you tell us about what you know about their being
taken. Were you away from home and someone else was there when various
things belonging to you and your husband were taken from the house?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't know where this book was, whether it was at Mrs.
Paine's or in Lee's apartment, because I did not see it there. I was
not at Mrs. Paine's because I lived in a hotel at that time in Dallas.
Mr. RANKIN. What hotel was that?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't know.
Mr. RANKIN. Was this diary kept by your husband daily, so far as you
know?
Mrs. OSWALD. In Russia?
Mr. RANKIN. Well, Russia first.
Mrs. OSWALD. It seems to me that he did not continue it here, that he
had completed it in Russia. Not everything, but most of the time.
Mr. RANKIN. And was it in his own handwriting?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. You have told us about an interview with the FBI, when your
husband went out into the car and spent a couple of hours, in August
of 1962. Do you recall whether there was an FBI interview earlier than
that?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, there wasn't. At least I don't know about it. Perhaps
there was such a meeting, perhaps at the time we were in Fort Worth
somebody had come, when we lived with Robert. One reporter wanted to
interview Lee but Lee would not give the interview, and perhaps the FBI
came, too.
Mr. RANKIN. The particular interview that I am asking you about was
June 26, according to information from the FBI.
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't know about it. The first time I knew about the FBI
coming was when we lived in Fort Worth.
Mr. RANKIN. What rental did you pay on Mercedes Street?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't remember.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you have any difficulties while you were on Mercedes
Street with your husband--that is, any quarreling there?
Mrs. OSWALD. Only in connection with his mother, because of his mother.
Mr. RANKIN. Were you having any problems about finances there, on
Mercedes Street?
Mrs. OSWALD. Of course we did not live in luxury. We did not buy
anything that was not absolutely needed, because Lee had to pay his
debt to Robert and to the government. But it was not particularly
difficult. At least on that basis we had not had any quarrels.
Mr. RANKIN. Could you tell us about De Mohrenschildt? Was he a close
friend of your husband?
Mrs. OSWALD. Lee did not have any close friends, but at least
he had--here in America--he had a great deal of respect for De
Mohrenschildt.
Mr. RANKIN. Could you describe that relationship. Did they see each
other often?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, not very frequently. From time to time.
Mr. RANKIN. Did your husband tell you why he had so much respect for De
Mohrenschildt?
Mrs. OSWALD. Because he considered him to be smart, to be full of joy
of living, a very energetic and very sympathetic person.