Mr. MARTIN. There is the first one.
Mr. DULLES. If you are planning to comment on that I would like to
introduce it in evidence.
Mr. MARTIN. Yes. This will go with it.
Mr. REDLICH. The witness has submitted to the Commission an article
appearing in the Dallas Times Herald on Sunday, December 15, 1963,
the headline reading, "Marina Oswald, all the pity in the world won't
help", written by Bill Burrus. This has now been marked as Commission
Exhibit No. 327, and I ask that it be admitted in evidence.
Mr. DULLES. This will be admitted, if there is no objection.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 327 for
identification and received in evidence.)
Mr. REDLICH. Mr. Martin, I hand you Commission Exhibit No. 327 and ask
you to tell the Commission in what respects if any there is material in
this article which you regard as untrue or exaggerated or slanted?
Mr. MARTIN. Here is a sentence in here, "She pores over the letters
reaching her more than a thousand so far and is choked with emotion
by the compassion and support they express", the only thing she did
actually was to open the letters and did not open all of them. The only
letters she read or attempted to read were ones written in Russian.
Mr. REDLICH. What was her reaction to those letters?
Mr. MARTIN. Acceptance of it but no real thankfulness. The further it
went, the longer it went, it seemed the less she cared whether----
Mr. DULLES. Did Burrus get this slanted material from you?
Mr. MARTIN. Yes.
Mr. REDLICH. Do you recall anything she specifically said in response
to these letters that is leading you to the conclusion that you have
reached?
Mr. MARTIN. That she specifically said?
Mr. REDLICH. Yes.
Mr. MARTIN. Well, for instance, one day she opened a letter and there
was a dollar in it and she said, "Oh, a dollar", and threw it on the
table, and there are little things that living as closely as we did,
you can't really recall the specific incidents but there is a general
feeling, and there is a complete lack of compassion as to what all
these people are doing for her or trying to do for her.
Mr. REDLICH. But you can't recall anything specific that she said which
would indicate this lack of compassion?
Mr. MARTIN. No, other than "the American people are crazy for sending
me that money".
Mr. REDLICH. Is that a quotation from Mrs. Oswald? She said the
American people are crazy for sending this money?
Mr. MARTIN. Yes.
Mr. REDLICH. Did she elaborate on it?
Mr. MARTIN. No.
Mr. REDLICH. Did you reply to that?
Mr. MARTIN. I told her that they felt sorry for her and she didn't say
anything.
Mr. REDLICH. Did she make any other comments of that nature?
Mr. MARTIN. Other than that dollar bill. Those are the only ones I can
remember specifically.
Mr. REDLICH. Would you continue your examination of Commission Exhibit
No. 327?
Mr. MARTIN. Well, let's see, "unlike her husband, Marina is devout.
She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church", that is not true. She
was not a devout Greek orthodox. She was not devout anything so far as
religion is concerned.
Mr. DULLES. Did she ever say anything about the baptism of her child in
that church to you?
Mr. MARTIN. Well, now let's see, she was supposed to have gotten June
baptized without her husband's knowledge.
Mr. REDLICH. You say she was supposed to have, where did you get that
information?
Mr. MARTIN. Well, I read it somewhere prior to this article. This
article has it in there. I didn't give him this information. He got it
from some other article, and I recall reading it. And when she read
this, she commented on it. She said he did know that June was being
baptized.
Mr. REDLICH. Did she read that?
Mr. MARTIN. Yes.
Mr. REDLICH. In English?
Mr. MARTIN. Yes.
Mr. REDLICH. She knew English well enough to read this?
Mr. MARTIN. Yes. It took her a while to read it.