Mrs. OSWALD. But I asked him that we not go to Russia, I told him that
I did not want to, and he said, "Okay."
Mr. RANKIN. That was in this same conversation, after he had told you
about the trip to Mexico?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. When he asked you not to tell anyone about the trip to
Mexico, did he tell you why he asked you to do that?
Mrs. OSWALD. No. I knew that he was secretive, and that he loved to
make secrets of things.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you know the Comrade Kostin that is referred to in this
letter of November 8, Exhibit 15?
Mrs. OSWALD. I never wrote to him. I don't know. I don't know where he
got that name from.
Mr. RANKIN. Did your husband say anything about Comrade Kostin and his
visit with him at the embassy in Mexico City, when he told you about
the trip?
Mrs. OSWALD. He did not name him. He didn't tell me his name. But he
told me he was a very pleasant, sympathetic person, who greeted him,
welcomed him there.
Mr. RANKIN. Did your husband say anything to you about what he meant
when he said he could not take a chance on requesting a new visa unless
he used a real name, so he returned to the United States?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, he didn't tell me about it.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you understand that he had used any assumed name about
going to Mexico?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Mr. RANKIN. He never told you anything of that kind?
Mrs. OSWALD. No. After Lee returned from Mexico, I lived in Dallas,
and Lee gave me his phone number and then when he changed his
apartment--Lee lived in Dallas, and he gave me his phone number. And
then when he moved, he left me another phone number.
And once when he did not come to visit during the weekend, I telephoned
him and asked for him by name--rather, Ruth telephoned him and it
turned out there was no one there by that name. When he telephoned
me again on Monday, I told him that we had telephoned him but he was
unknown at that number.
Then he said that he had lived there under an assumed name. He asked me
to remove the notation of the telephone number in Ruth's phone book,
but I didn't want to do that. I asked him then, "Why did you give us a
phone number, when we do call we cannot get you by name?"
He was very angry, and he repeated that I should remove the notation of
the phone number from the phone book. And, of course, we had a quarrel.
I told him that this was another of his foolishness, some more of his
foolishness. I told Ruth Paine about this. It was incomprehensible to
me why he was so secretive all the time.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he give you any explanation of why he was using an
assumed name at that time?
Mrs. OSWALD. He said that he did not want his landlady to know his real
name because she might read in the paper of the fact that he had been
in Russia and that he had been questioned.
Mr. RANKIN. What did you say about that?
Mrs. OSWALD. Nothing. And also he did not want the FBI to know where he
lived.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he tell you why he did not want the FBI to know where
he lived?
Mrs. OSWALD. Because their visits were not very pleasant for him and
he thought that he loses jobs because the FBI visits the place of his
employment.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, if he was using an assumed name during the trip in
Mexico, you didn't know about it, is that correct?
Mrs. OSWALD. I didn't know, that is correct.
Mr. RANKIN. Before the trip to Mexico, did your husband tell you that
he did not expect to contact the Soviet Embassy there about the visa?
Mrs. OSWALD. He said that he was going to visit the Soviet Embassy, but
more for the purpose of getting to Cuba, to try to get to Cuba. I think
that was more than anything a masking of his purpose. He thought that
this would help.
Mr. RANKIN. You mean it was a masking of his purpose to visit the
Soviet Embassy in Mexico, or to write it in this letter?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't understand the question.
Mr. RANKIN. You noticed where he said in this letter "I had not planned
to contact the Soviet Embassy in Mexico," did you not?
Mrs. OSWALD. Why hadn't he planned that?
Mr. RANKIN. That is what I am trying to find out from you.
Did he ever tell you that he didn't plan to visit the Soviet Embassy?
Mrs. OSWALD. This is not the truth. He did want to contact the embassy.
Mr. RANKIN. And he told you before he went to Mexico that he planned to
visit the Soviet Embassy, did he?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he ever say to you before he went to Mexico that he
planned to communicate with the Soviet Embassy in Havana?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, he said that if he would be able to get to Cuba, with
the intention of living there, he would get in touch with the Soviet
Embassy for the purpose of bringing me there. Or for him to go to
Russia. Because sometimes he really sincerely wanted to go to Russia
and live and sometimes not. He did not know, himself. He was very
changeable.
Mr. RANKIN. But in Exhibit 15, Mrs. Oswald, he refers to the fact that
he hadn't been able to reach the Soviet Embassy in Havana as planned,
and then he says, "The Embassy there would have had time to complete
our business."
Now, did he discuss that at all with you before he went to Mexico?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. If he said in Mexico City that he wanted to visit the
Soviet Embassy in Havana, the reason for it was only that he thereby
would be able to get to Cuba.
Is this understandable? Does this clarify the matter or not?
Mr. RANKIN. The difficulty, Mrs. Oswald, with my understanding of
Exhibit 15 is that he purports to say, as I read the letter, that if he
had been able to reach the Soviet Embassy in Havana, he would have been
able to complete his business about the visa, and he wouldn't have had
to get in touch with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City at all.
Mrs. OSWALD. The thing is that one cannot go to Cuba--that the only
legal way is via Mexico City. And, therefore, he went to the Soviet
Embassy there in Mexico City and told them that he wanted to visit the
Soviet Embassy in Havana, but only for the purpose of getting into Cuba.
I don't think he would have concluded his business there. I don't
think that you understand that Lee has written that letter in a quite
involved manner. It is not very logical. I don't know whether it is
clear to you or not.
Mr. RANKIN. I appreciate, Mrs. Oswald, your interpretation of it.
I was trying to find out also whether your husband had told you
anything about what he meant or what he did or whether he had tried to
contact the Embassy in Havana, as he says in this letter.
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. I don't know of this letter. I only know that Lee
wanted to get to Cuba by any means.
Mr. RANKIN. Then he next proceeds to say, "Of course the Soviet Embassy
was not at fault. They were, as I say, unprepared". As I read that,
I understand that he was trying to let the Embassy in Washington
know that the Mexico City Embassy had not been notified by him, and,
therefore, was unprepared.
Now, did he say anything like that to you after his return to Mexico?
Mrs. OSWALD. Why did the Embassy in Washington have to notify the
Embassy in Mexico City that Lee Oswald was arriving?
It is not that I am asking. It seems to me that this is not a normal
thing.
Mr. RANKIN. The question is did he say anything to you about it when he
got back?
Mrs. OSWALD. He said that when he went to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico
City they had promised him that they would write a letter to the
Embassy in Washington.
Please excuse me, but it is very difficult for me to read the involved
thoughts of Lee.