Mr. MARTIN. This is December 15.
Mr. REDLICH. I would like to call the attention of the Commission to
the date which is Sunday, December 15. You say as of Sunday, December
15, which is a little over 3 weeks after she came to live with you,
Mrs. Oswald knew English well enough to be able to read this and
understand it?
Mr. MARTIN. Not to read it legibly, I mean not to understand every word
of it but she understood the biggest part of the article. I was quite
amazed at how much she could read. She can't read writing or says she
can't, but she can read printing or typing.
Here is another one now, "she is poring over children's primary readers
and studying the Russian-English dictionary attempting to understand
all the words and talk about her."
She had one child's book that one of the Secret Service men brought
her, and she looked at it and that was the end of that.
Mr. REDLICH. Where did this information appearing in this story come
from? Did you tell that to Mr. Burrus?
Mr. MARTIN. Yes.
Mr. REDLICH. When Mrs. Oswald read this story and saw things that were
not quite true, did she discuss that fact with you?
Mr. MARTIN. On one occasion, let's see, what was it--it may have been
in this article. Oh, yes, about the baptism. She said that Lee did know
about the baptism. This was gleaned from some place else.
Mr. DULLES. Before or afterward?
Mr. MARTIN. Well, she said before. Before the baptism.
"She washes clothes for herself and June Lee, she cooks her own meals
favoring macaroni and other casserole dishes." She did not cook her own
meals. She cooked twice while she was at the house in two and a half
months.
Mr. REDLICH. Is this fact one which you related to Mr. Burrus, the fact
she cooked her own meals?
Mr. MARTIN. I didn't say she cooked her own meals but she cooked.
Mr. REDLICH. Do you recall what reaction if any Mrs. Oswald had in
reading this comment?
Mr. MARTIN. The only one she commented on was she doesn't like
macaroni, it is noodles.
Mr. REDLICH. But Mrs. Oswald voiced no objection to your giving this
information to the newspapers which to use your expression was not
quite true?
Mr. MARTIN. No. "Marina now has the first dish washer she has ever used
and she thinks it is wonderful". Actually, she didn't like it but now
in most of this stuff Bill Burrus would ask me a question like, "Does
she have a dish washer", and I would say "yes", and he would elaborate
on it.
This is quite a sympathetic article. "Marina gets up at about 9 a.m.
every day." She always got up between 10 and 11. "She asked Secret
Service men to read some of the letters to her". I don't recall any
incident where she did.
Mr. REDLICH. Was that also a fact which you gave to Mr. Burrus?
Mr. MARTIN. No.
"As the hours and days tick by Marina watches television and struggles
with newspapers. These things bring tears to her eyes, pictures of
President Kennedy, Jackie, Lee Oswald, Mrs. Tippit, the wife of the
slain police officer. Sometimes she turns off the set." That is not
true.
Mr. REDLICH. Could you be a little bit more specific about that? Were
there instances in which she saw these people mentioned and what was
her reaction?
Mr. MARTIN. No real reaction at all. Just there on television.
Mr. DULLES. You started to describe earlier I think when she saw a
picture of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy and she made certain remarks. I
don't know that we finished that.
Mr. MARTIN. Well, yes; she did. She remarked, "Oh, Jackie, Jackie",
and that was it. There wasn't--kind of shook her head. That is in this
article, too, and that is true.
Of course, this last paragraph, "The agents speak through curtains and
she feels hunted sometimes despite friendly letters and packages". I
don't think she has ever felt hunted or in danger. She has expressed
that opinion. She didn't feel that anyone was--anyone intended to harm
her.
Mr. DULLES. Did she ever express any ideas about going back to the
Soviet Union?
Mr. MARTIN. She said it once and I questioned her about it. She said
she was just--what was it--just joking. She used a funny sounding word
for joking. I don't remember what it was.
Mr. REDLICH. Do you have any further comments with regard to this
particular exhibit?
Mr. MARTIN. No.
Mr. REDLICH. I suggest this would be a good time for recess, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. DULLES. All right. The Commission will be adjourned until 3 p.m.,
this afternoon.
Would you report with your counsel at that time?
(Whereupon, at 12:35 p.m., the President's Commission recessed.)
Transcriber's Notes:
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Misspellings in quoted evidence not changed; misspellings that could be
due to mispronunciations were not changed.
Some simple typographical errors were corrected.
Inconsistent hyphenation of compound words retained.
Ambiguous end-of-line hyphens retained.
Occasional uses of "Mr." for "Mrs." and of "Mrs." for "Mr." corrected.
Dubious repeated words, (e.g., "What took place by way of of
conversation?") retained.
Several unbalanced quotation marks not remedied.
Occasional periods that should be question marks not changed.
Occasional periods that should be commas, and commas that should be
periods, were changed only when they clearly had been misprinted (at
the end of a paragraph or following a speaker's name in small-caps at
the beginning of a line). Some commas and semi-colons were printed so
faintly that they appear to be periods or colons: some were found and
corrected, but some almost certainly remain.
The Index and illustrated Exhibits volumes of this series may not be
available at Project Gutenberg.
Pages ix-xi: A three-page list of Exhibit numbers has been omitted from
this eBook.
Page 20: "Mrs. Oswald. No, I don't remember that Lee had just" probably
should have a period after "that".
Page 20: "Mr. Rankin. Did our husband" probably should be "your".
Page 139: "No, she will probably be home in time to fix my supper?"
probably should end with a period instead of a question mark.
Page 176: Spurious quotation mark removed before "The money that came
into my home that"
Page 245: Missing closing quotation mark for: 'I said "No, Reverend
Saunders,'
Page 297: "And you worked at the A. & P. during this period?" changed
to "A&P" for consistency with other occurrences of that abbreviation.
Page 344: "copy for the original. I will undertake" The period probably
should be a comma.