The CHAIRMAN. Before you leave that, Mrs. Oswald, may I say to you,
first, that the Commission is not here to prosecute your dead son. It
is not here and it was not established to prosecute anyone.
It is the purpose and the province of the Commission to obtain all the
facts that it can obtain, and then make an impartial report--not as a
prosecutor, but as an impartial Commission--on the manner in which the
President came to his death.
We are trying to recognize the individual rights of all persons who
are called before the Commission, to let them have their lawyers, and
let their lawyers have an opportunity to examine them, as well as the
Commission.
You may be sure that if Mr. Lane has any evidence of his own knowledge,
or has any accumulation of affidavits from others, to the effect--to
any effect, concerning this trial, that he will have an opportunity
to come here, just as you are here, in order to present those to the
Commission.
But so far as his being here at all times before the Commission to
cross-examine or to be present when all witnesses are testifying--that
is not in accordance with the procedures of the Commission.
But I assure you that if Mr. Lane has any evidence of any kind bearing
upon the assassination of the President, he will be accorded the same
opportunity that you have to come here and present them, and we will
give him an opportunity in his own way to tell his story, and present
his own evidence. And should he want counsel, he may have counsel, also.
Now, you may go to your second point.
Mrs. OSWALD. No, I am not finished with my first, please.
I appreciate and I understand exactly what you have told me, Chief
Justice Warren.
But there is one thing--and, of course, I will have to accept your
decision, and will be most happy to have Mr. Lane present his testimony
the way you have suggested.
However, I am not in agreement with you. One point I want to make clear.
We do not know the questions that you are asking of myself or Marina
or the other witnesses. And I contend that you cannot ask them the
pertinent questions because you don't know what I know, and what Mr.
Lane knows. And so you will still have an analysis in the long run, a
conclusion.
I am going to go back to Marina. As I say, Marina made her
statements----
The CHAIRMAN. On that particular thing, may I say this: It is true that
we don't know how to examine you at the present time because we don't
know what you have to present to this Commission. But we are affording
you the opportunity before we ask you any questions to tell your story,
in your own way.
Then we should know what questions we want to ask of you.
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, sir; I understand that thoroughly.
But I am a human being, going through a life story from childhood, and
I may forget something that my counsel would know. And that applies
to witnesses. They may forget to testify something that my counsel
has facts on. I will have to accept your verdict, but I don't do it
graciously.