"I am an American citizen and I will never take Soviet citizenship."
If you will read every letter--if you think he is an agent--every
letter is telling his mother--"If something happens to me, Mother,
these are facts."
I might be elaborating. But I think my son is an agent. And these
things piece by piece are going together, as far as I am concerned.
Representative FORD. When did you first think he was an agent?
Mrs. OSWALD. When Lee defected. And I have always said a so-called
defection, for this reason.
Now, we come to another letter. I am going to have to take some time
now, because we are not going in sequence. The letter Lee wrote to me
from New Orleans is what I need.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you have the letter in which he says he was going to
Washington?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, sir, I gave you that copy yesterday. I don't have the
letter with me. They are at the hotel.
Mr. RANKIN. You gave it to us yesterday?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, sir--that he would stop over in Washington.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you recall the date of that one?
Mrs. OSWALD. Well, now, he was supposed to arrive in New York on the
13th of June, 1962. And that is the letter. When he arrived, I do not
know. And I do not know if he went to Washington.
As I stated yesterday, he went to Robert's house, and I was on a case.
So I don't know when he arrived in New York.
Now, this is the letter. Lee is out of the Marines, and he stays home
with me 3 days. And I have publicly stated--and this came out of my
book this morning--Lee came home September 14, 1959. He stayed 3 days
with me. Said he would like to travel on a ship working his way.
Possibly export and import. He remarked he could make more money that
way.
The next page is the letter he sent me, and then came the news of his
being in Russia.
This is the letter.
"Dear Mother"-----
Mr. DULLES. Is that dated?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, sir. This is just dated September. He was released
from the Marine Corps on September 14th--I believe I am correct, Mr.
Rankin.
And he stayed with me 3 days.
And then this is--well, the date on the envelope is September 19th. He
stayed with me 3 days.
"Dear Mother, well, I have booked passage on a ship to Europe. I would
have had to sooner or later, and I think it is best to go now."
"I would have had to sooner or later, so I think it is best that I go
now. Just remember above all else that my values are very different
from Robert or us, and it is difficult to tell you how I feel. Just
remember this is what I must do. I did not tell you about my plans
because you could hardly be expected to understand. I did not see
Lillian while I was here. I will write you again as soon as I land.
Lee."
Mr. RANKIN. What do you think he meant by that?
Mrs. OSWALD. That is what I want to tell you. All of this speculation,
gentlemen. And that is why I say the Warren Commission--unless they
hear my story and the witnesses involved, cannot arrive at a true
conclusion.
Now, what would you think about this?
A few days later you get headlines. "Fort Worth Boy Has Defected to
Russia." And I made the letter public. This letter says to his mother
he is defecting to Russia--right? That is the way you would read the
letter.
It is easily read this way when you think a boy has defected to Russia.
So you would read the letter that way.
Mr. DULLES. Mr. Rankin, do we have correspondence while he was in the
Marines?
Mr. RANKIN. Mrs. Oswald, do you recall any letters you received from
your son during the time he was in the Marines?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, sir. I have a special delivery letter. You see,
gentlemen, that is why I have tried to explain to you before--if I
could have gone from the story we would not all be so mixed up. This
is a letter from the Marines saying he is going to contact the Red
Cross--when I told him about my illness.
Mr. RANKIN. Well, that is the correspondence in regard to his getting
out of the Marines because of your need of his help and support.
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, that is right.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, except for that correspondence, you don't have any
other correspondence from him while he was in the Marines?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, sir, I did have several letters.
What has happened, Mr. Rankin--when Lee stayed with me the 3 days, he
left his seabag with me. And that is why I have his discharge papers
and things. And then, as you know, when the defection broke, I had no
place to go. So the lady I was working for even threatened to call
the police, because of the defection. I was working for $5 a week,
gentlemen, taking care of her son. But I was happy to have a home and
food, because I had had this accident, and I could rest. But my salary
was $5 for the whole week. But when the news broke, she didn't want to
be involved with anyone who had a son as a defector, so she asked me to
leave. It was a very cold winter night. And I said I would.
But I didn't want to leave--didn't have any place to go.