Mr. DULLES. It is all '61?
Mr. RANKIN. You are correct--October 22, 1959, is the date on the
letter.
Mrs. OSWALD. That is incorrect.
Mr. RANKIN. And on the envelope it is October 30, 1961, Vernon, Tex.
Mrs. Oswald, can you explain that?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. Evidently Lee put the date incorrect--because I had
no contact with Lee from the time--I had one contact with Lee from the
time that he defected to Russia. And the only contact was when he was
at the Metropole Hotel in Moscow. Then the next contact was when the
State Department wrote me his address, which was July, or June 1961. So
where Lee put the 1959, I would say it was just an error, because the
postmark proves the date.
As I have been saying FBI instead of Secret Service--I mean it is
just----
Mr. RANKIN. A slip of some kind?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. DULLES. Is the 1959 letter available, the Metropole Hotel letter?
Mrs. OSWALD. When we go into the defection, I have letters from 1959
that I myself have sent to Lee and have been returned, and, gentlemen,
they are unopened, and I will give you the privilege of opening my
thoughts to my son. They were returned unopened, because he was not
located.
Mr. RANKIN. I might answer your question, Mr. Dulles. We have a copy of
the Metropole letter of 1959.
Mr. DOYLE. Mr. Rankin, could I check--your Exhibit 182, the one you
called just before this--I gathered that you gave a date of the letter
and also a date of the postmark. Am I correct--October 2, 1961, is the
date of the letter, and October 10, 1961, is the postmark.
Mr. RANKIN. That's correct.
Mr. DOYLE. Thank you, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, with regard to Exhibit 183, which bears the date
October 22, 1959, in error, with October 30, 1961, as the postmark
on the envelope, I wish to call the Commission's attention to this
reference.
"Marina's maiden name was Prusakova. Her aunt and uncle's address
in Minsk is"--and then the address is set out in Russian. And then
continuing the same sentence--"they don't speak any English. However,
her uncle is an Army colonel soon to retire."
Mrs. OSWALD. And that I would think would be the letter that the
Secret Service--was one of the letters that the Secret Service, as I
previously stated, had.
Now, may I say something here?
Marina uses two names--Prusakova and Nikolaevna. Whether she was
married before, or whether she uses two maiden names, I do not know.
But I have a record of both names.
Mr. RANKIN. I offer in evidence Exhibit 183.
Representative FORD. Mr. Rankin, don't we have a record of those two
names? Isn't one her maiden name and the other by her mother--and the
other by her stepfather?
Mr. RANKIN. That is the record we have. That is what Mrs. Marina Oswald
testified to. She testified in regard to Nikolaevna. And the other name
appears on her papers as the father.
Mrs. OSWALD. But now Lee has said in one of those letters that her
name is Nikolaevna. But then when he asked me in one of the letters
to get an affidavit of support that Marina could come to the United
States, that name appeared--Nikolaevna. Yet there are a couple of
letters where he refers to her name as Prusakova. And I have it in his
handwriting--when he gave me the slip of paper for the baptism he used
Prusakova--Marina Prusakova Oswald. He did not use the name in the
letters. That is what I find peculiar.
Mr. RANKIN. The explanation was that the Prusakova was the
identification of the father, which is often done. And she explained
that with regard to the child they did not want to name June Lee Oswald
with your son's name, if you recall--that is your son did not want
that. But the Russian Government insisted that the father's name had to
be shown.
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, I am familiar with that. I have done research on
that. In Russia the father's name is used even if it is a girl. Now,
Mr. Peter Gregory--his name is Peter Gregory, and his father's name is
Peter, so his name is Peter Peter Gregory. They always use the father's
name as a second name, regardless of sex. So June is named June Lee
Oswald, which is Lee's name. And if there were two Lees it would be Lee
Lee Oswald. That I know of.
Mr. RANKIN. Exhibit 184 is dated November 8, 1961, and bears a postmark
on the envelope November 18, 1961. I offer it in evidence.
Exhibit 185 is dated November 23d, without any year on the letter
itself, with the postmark December 4, 1961, as the American postmark on
the envelope. I offer Exhibit 185.
Exhibit 186 is Christmas greetings and bears the date December 12,
1961, stamped on the envelope. I offer Exhibit 186.
Exhibit 187 bears the date December 13, 1961, on the letter, and bears
the postmark date December 26, 1961, on the envelope. I offer Exhibit
187.
Exhibit 188 bears the date December 20th, without any year on the
letter, and the date January 2, 1962, stamped on the envelope. I offer
Exhibit 188.
Exhibit 189 bears the date January 2d, and the stamped postmark on the
envelope January 11, 1962. I offer Exhibit 189.
Exhibit 190 bears the date January 23d, on the envelope, January 22,
1961, written on the back of the envelope. I offer in evidence Exhibit
190.
Exhibit 191 bears the date January 20th, and stamped on the envelope is
January 29, 1962. I offer Exhibit 191.
Mr. DULLES. These are all airmail letters?
Mrs. OSWALD. They are all registered return receipt mailed. Everything
I had to sign for.
Mr. DULLES. Nine or 10 days apparently, it took.
Representative BOGGS. That is right--about 10 days, each one of them.
Mr. RANKIN. Apparently--it states "Par Avion". But this one bears
a mark February 1, 1962, on Exhibit 192, and the letter itself is
February 1, 1962. That is pretty fast.
Mr. DULLES. It must be 11. Isn't there a 1 left out on the other side?
Mr. RANKIN. Well, it is in handwriting. So that would be pretty fast
mail. I offer Exhibit 192.
Exhibit 193, dated February 9, 1962, on the letter, and it is stamped
on the envelope as February 23, 1962. I offer Exhibit 193.
Exhibit 194 is dated February 15, 1962, on the letter, and stamped on
the envelope March 1, 1962. I offer Exhibit 194.
Exhibit 195 is dated February 24th, without a year date, and the
envelope is stamped March 7, 1962. I offer Exhibit 195.
Exhibit 196 is dated March 28th, stamped on the envelope is April 9,
1962. I offer Exhibit 196.
Exhibit 197 is dated April 22d, without a year date on the letter, and
stamped on the envelope is April 28, 1962. I offer Exhibit 197.
Exhibit 198 is dated May 30, 1962, on the letter, and is stamped on
the envelope June 6, 19--it doesn't show clearly what the year is, but
there is a 196, and I take it is 1962. I offer Exhibit 198.
The CHAIRMAN. All of the documents that have just been offered in
evidence may be admitted and take the numbers assigned to them.
(The documents heretofore marked Commission Exhibits Nos. 180 through
198 for identification, were received in evidence.)
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't believe this letter belongs with the letters. May
I see it, please? Is that a letter from Russia? I don't think so, from
what I can see from here.
Mr. RANKIN. It purports to be, Mrs. Oswald. I hand it to you. It is
Exhibit 198 you are speaking of?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. I'm sorry. There was another very important letter
of this size that I thought maybe became confused with the Russian
letters. You will have to forgive me, Chief Justice Warren, but this is
quite a big undertaking.
The CHAIRMAN. Yes. I just wanted to keep the record straight. It is all
right.
Mr. RANKIN. I ask leave, Mr. Chairman, to substitute copies in each
instance.
The CHAIRMAN. That may be done.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, Mrs. Oswald, will you proceed with telling us how you
determined or concluded that there was a conspiracy between the Secret
Service people that you described and Marina Oswald?
Mrs. OSWALD. Well, when I stopped--I have to remember where I stopped.
Now, am I still at the Six Flags?
Mr. RANKIN. The last I recall you were still there. You had also
described, if you remember, the offer of Mrs. Pultz to take your
daughter-in-law and provide her a home. You have said that you had not
seen your daughter for quite some time, and you tried to communicate
with her.
Mrs. OSWALD. Oh, yes--I was trying to communicate with her.
Mr. RANKIN. And you talked to Mr. Thorne?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes--that was where my mail had been opened. And Mr. Mark
Lane has my mail and the photostatic copies of the mail.
Mr. RANKIN. I think the Commission would be very much interested in how
you conclude that there was a conspiracy--if you can help on that.
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, I can help you. But I have many, many stories. I have
to start from the defection. I have a story of Lee's life at age 16
that maybe you know about, maybe you don't. And I have many stories,
gentlemen. I cannot do all these stories in these 6 hours I have been
here today. I have covered quite a bit. I have many stories.
Representative BOGGS. Why did your son defect to Russia?
Mrs. OSWALD. I cannot answer that yes or no, sir. I am going to go
through the whole story, or it is no good. And that is what I have been
doing for this Commission all day long--giving a story.
Representative BOGGS. Suppose you just make it very brief.
Mrs. OSWALD. I cannot make it brief. I will say I am unable to make it
brief. This is my life and my son's life going down in history. And I
want the opportunity to tell the story with documents, as I have been
doing. I am not going to answer yes or no, because it is no good.
Representative BOGGS. Well, you use the expression "defector." I did
not use that expression.
Mrs. OSWALD. I said "so-called defector." The papers have "defector"
and blown it up.
The CHAIRMAN. Well, Mrs. Oswald, you have told us, though, that you
believed that Mrs. Marina Oswald and Mrs. Paine and two Secret Service
agents were in a conspiracy that resulted in the assassination of the
President.