The testimony of Joe R. Molina was taken at 4:50 p.m., on April 7,
1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office Building,
Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex., by Messrs. Joseph A. Ball and
Samuel A. Stern, assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Mr. BALL. Would you rise and raise your right hand, Mr. Molina?
(Witness complying.)
Mr. BALL. Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give
will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help
you God?
Mr. MOLINA. I do.
Mr. BALL. Will you state your name, please?
Mr. MOLINA. Joe R. Molina.
Mr. BALL. What is your address?
Mr. MOLINA. 4306 Brown.
Mr. BALL. Tell me something about yourself; where were you born?
Mr. MOLINA. I was born here in Dallas.
Mr. BALL. What was your education?
Mr. MOLINA. Well, I went to Crozier Tech High School and I finished
after I came back from the service and at that time my intention was to
go to college but I got married and instead went to business college.
Then later on after attending about 5 months business college, I had
to find a job because my wife was expecting a baby, consequently, I
started working on-the-job training at the Texas School Book Depository.
Mr. BALL. About what date?
Mr. MOLINA. I started working in February of 1947.
Mr. BALL. How long have you been working there?
Mr. MOLINA. 16 years.
Mr. BALL. 16 years?
Mr. MOLINA. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Now, you wrote the Commission a letter asking to testify,
didn't you?
Mr. MOLINA. Yes.
Mr. BALL. How did you happen to do that?
Mr. MOLINA. Well, I called in. I didn't know whether I was going to be
called or not and they told me, you know, that I should write a letter
and ask the Commission, you know. (Letter marked Molina Exhibit A.)
Mr. BALL. You wanted to be heard, is that right, before the Commission?
Mr. MOLINA. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Did you have something particularly you wanted to tell us?
Mr. MOLINA. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. What is that?
Mr. MOLINA. Well, on November 23d following the assassination, I was
paid a visit by the local police department at 1:30 in the morning and
they sort of wanted to tie me up with this case in some way or another
and they thought that I was implicated.
Mr. BALL. What makes you think they thought you were implicated?
Mr. MOLINA. Well, they were looking for something. I don't know what it
was they were looking for in the house.
Mr. BALL. They came to your house here in Dallas?
Mr. MOLINA. That's right, woke up my wife and children; scared my wife
half to death.
Mr. BALL. Did they search the house?
Mr. MOLINA. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Did they have a search warrant?
Mr. MOLINA. I don't know whether they did or not.
Mr. BALL. Did they tell you what they were looking for?
Mr. MOLINA. No.
Mr. BALL. Then what happened?
Mr. MOLINA. Well, they asked me questions whether I knew different
persons that belong to the G.I. Forum----
Mr. BALL. To what?
Mr. MOLINA. G.I. Forum, this club I belonged to here in Dallas.
Mr. BALL. How do you spell that?
Mr. MOLINA. G.I. F-o-r-u-m [spelling].
Mr. BALL. G.I. F-o-r-u-m [spelling] in Dallas?
Mr. MOLINA. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Who was it that asked you that?
Mr. MOLINA. Well, I think it was Mr. Garroway did most of the
questioning and police Lieutenant Revill, I believe--yeah, that was his
name.
Mr. BALL. What did they ask you?
Mr. MOLINA. They asked me if I knew certain persons that had come
into the forum when it was first initiated and if I was acquainted
with them and if I associated with them, so forth and so on. I said
my activities were limited to the club. I didn't have any social, you
know, I wasn't intimate with them but merely a club that was started. I
was asked by my pastor to go see about this particular club which I did
and consequently, the club met at the church auditorium after it was
founded and one of the parish priests was a chaplain.
Mr. BALL. Was it a Catholic, Roman Catholic organization?
Mr. MOLINA. The G.I. Forum?
Mr. BALL. Yes.
Mr. MOLINA. No; the forum is a veterans' club.
Mr. BALL. What else happened?
Mr. MOLINA. Well, after the police came, they didn't know whether--they
were undecided what to do, whether they would take me in for
questioning or not and so they decided evidently, since I told
them--they asked me if they could take a look around. I said "Sure, I
don't have anything to hide, look around". They looked around and did
a lot of searching and my wife started to get back in bed. She didn't
know that was going on. She thought they just want to question me and
they told her she had to get out of bed and go into the living room
and the kids were in the back room. I only have two bedrooms and the
kids were sleeping out there. They woke up the kids; they were looking
in their room, so they started questioning the kids, too. They started
to ask me questions and ask the kids about it. In other words, to
corroborate our statements. I didn't know at the time they were doing
it but later on found out. They couldn't find anything. I knew they
wouldn't find anything. I didn't know what they were looking for in
the first place. They decided to bring me down to the Dallas Police
Department for questioning.
Mr. BALL. Did you go down to the police department?
Mr. MOLINA. Well, they asked me if I would go down the next morning
and I said yes, I would go down the next morning. I would rather go
down the next morning than now. It was already past 2, so the next
morning my wife drove me down. I got there about 11. My wife drove me
down and I got there about 10:30. The place was full of television
people and reporters swarming all over the place and they told me to
wait in the room there and then I went into Chief Gannaway's office
or whatever his name is. He said I was supposed to be questioned by
Mr. Fritz down there but that he wanted to talk to me after they
questioned me up there because they wanted to know more about the G.I.
Forum so I said "I will come back when they get through questioning
me." So I went up there and they told me to wait in an office and so I
waited there for about 30, 40 minutes and, oh, must have been longer
than that, they finally questioned me and they put me in a room and
there was a man from the FBI or Secret Service, I don't recall which
one it was. He was sitting on my right and there was a fellow from
the Dallas Police Department taking a statement and a fellow from the
FBI introduced himself, said I'm so and so, show me his badge and so
forth. The other fellow didn't say who he was or anything, just sat
there and so then they told me to wait there in that room and I did. I
was there for about 45 minutes and then the fellow came back from the
FBI, said "My God, are you still in here?" I said "Yes," he said "How
long you been here?" Here it was about 2 or 3 o'clock. I said "I have
been here since about 11; I haven't eaten lunch or haven't had a drink
of water". You know, I was just there and which he told this fellow,
said "Can't you let him go; he has been here. He has already given his
testimony statement, whatever he is going to give; you should let him
go." This fellow said "No, he got to wait in there" so I had to go
back in there; about 10 or 15 minutes later, they came back and I went
up to the office of Lieutenant Revill and he started asking a lot of
questions about the G.I. Forum, did I know such and such fellow--some
I knew, they had been in the club. Naturally, I knew them though we
weren't intimate friends, some were, some weren't. Then he gave me a
bunch of names, I imagine they were in their so-called subversive files
that they claim they have; of course, I didn't know a lot of them. In
fact, I didn't know most of them. I knew some of the names. I didn't
know some of the names they mentioned are kept in their files or not.
Anyhow, they asked me--I had to--they didn't ask me--I had to just ask
to sign a statement I belonged to the forum and certain members were
charter members of the forum and I said yes, I would sign it. I didn't
see anything wrong with it so I signed it and they told me I could go
home. It was 4:30 or 5 and they asked me if I had a ride home and I
said no. They said "Well, we'll give you a ride home, so one of the
officers there, plainclothes man, drove me home. When I got home, of
course, there were about three or four cars at the house. My wife was
all shook up and she said "My God" she said "Don't you know what they
been saying about you?" I said "No, I don't know what they are saying
about me." She said "Don't you know you been on TV and the news media
across the nation saying you are on the so-called list with the Dallas
Police Department claiming that you associate with persons of"--see
if I can quote it right--I was known to associate with persons of
subversive background.
Mr. BALL. That was on TV?
Mr. MOLINA. Oh, yes.
Mr. BALL. Who put that on TV?
Mr. MOLINA. It was a statement made by Chief Curry.
Mr. BALL. By whom?
Mr. MOLINA. Chief Curry and I says "No, I didn't know anything about
it. I was just being questioned." They said "Well, did you tell them
to release your name?" I said "I don't know who gave my name out, gave
out the information." So, they were very concerned because at first,
I didn't think it was--I figured they would make a retraction and
I would be cleared, so forth and so on and nothing came out on the
radio and nothing was said and I called the Police Department and told
them I wanted to talk to Chief Curry and they said he was busy. I was
talking to, I think someone, fellow named King. He answered the phone
and he said any retraction has to come from Chief Curry. I called the
Associated Press which released the statement to the news media and
they wouldn't give me any satisfaction. They told me I would have to
get in touch with some fellow in New York or something like that, so
that was--I couldn't get any satisfaction. I was accused of something I
didn't know anything about.
Mr. BALL. Did they ever give you a retraction?
Mr. MOLINA. No.