Senator COOPER. Excuse me one moment.
Mr. WADE. Yes, sir.
Senator COOPER. Can I make a statement? I will have to go to my office
for a few minutes. I hope to return in about 20 minutes, and I will ask
Mr. Dulles to preside in my place, and I will return.
Mr. WADE. Thank you, sir.
(At this point, Senator Cooper withdrew from the hearing room.)
Mr. DULLES. Proceed.
Mr. RANKIN. Will you proceed?
Mr. WADE. Yes, sir; so they said, "Have you filed on him?" At that
stage, started yelling has he been filed on, and I said yes, and
filed on for murder with malice, and they asked Judge Johnston, is
there--they asked him something.
Then they started asking me questions everywhere, from all angles.
Mr. RANKIN. Under your practice, what do you mean by file on him? Is
that something different than an arraignment?
Mr. WADE. Well, of course, it is according to the terminology and what
you mean by arraignment. In Texas the only arraignment is when you get
ready to try him. Like we arraigned Ruby just before we started putting
on evidence. That is the only arraignment we have, actually.
Mr. RANKIN. I see. You don't bring him before a magistrate?
Mr. WADE. Well, that is called--you can have an examining trial before
the magistrate to see whether it is a bailable matter. At that time, I
don't believe he had been brought before the magistrate, because I told
David Johnston as we left there, I said, "You ought to go up before the
jail and have him brought before you and advise him of his rights and
his right to counsel and this and that," which, so far as I know, he
did.
But at that meeting you had two attorneys from American Civil Liberties
Union.
Mr. RANKIN. Which meeting?
Mr. WADE. That Friday night meeting, or Friday night showup we had
better call it, midnight on Friday night. I believe it was Greer Ragio
and Professor Webster from SMU. I saw them there in the hall, and Chief
Curry told me that they had been given an opportunity or had talked
with Oswald. I am not sure. I was under the impression that they had
talked with them but, of course, I didn't see them talking with him.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you talk to them about it?
Mr. WADE. Yes; I told them that he is entitled to counsel, that is what
they are interested in on the counsel situation, and anybody, either
them or anybody else could see him that wanted to.
Mr. RANKIN. What did they say then?
Mr. WADE. Mr. Rankin, I will tell you what, there was so much going on
I don't remember exactly. The only thing was I got the impression they
had already talked with them somewhere, but I don't know whether they
told me or the chief told me or what. Like I say, it was a mob scene
there, practically, and they were standing in the door when I--they
were in the meeting there.
Let me get a little further and go back to--I don't know whether I
answered your question and if I don't it is because I can't, because I
don't know--I will tell you what happened the next day.
Mr. RANKIN. Let's finish with the showup now.
Mr. WADE. Yes. They asked a bunch of questions there. I think if
you get a record of my interview that you will find that any of the
evidence----
Mr. DULLES. Which interview is that?
Mr. WADE. With the press, midnight, radio, television, and everything
else. I think if you will get a copy of that you will find they asked
me lots of questions about fingerprints and evidence. I refused to
answer them because I said it was evidence in the case. The only thing
that I told them that you might get the impression was evidence but is
really not evidence, I told them that the man's wife said the man had
a gun or something to that effect. The reason, maybe good or bad, but
that isn't admissible in Texas. You see a wife can't testify. It is not
evidence, but it is evidence but it is inadmissible evidence actually
is what it was. So I think if you find anything in that interview that
deals with the evidence you are going to feel that it dealt only with
that piece of testimony of Marina Oswald, which someone had told me she
said about the gun was missing from the house, which I think later was
corroborated.
Mr. RANKIN. At that time, had you filed on the assassination?
Mr. WADE. Yes, sir; we had filed upstairs prior to this. He had been
filed on for murder with malice.
Mr. RANKIN. But he hadn't been brought before the justice of the peace
or magistrate yet on that complaint, had he?
Mr. WADE. The justice of the peace was there in the office and took it
in the homicide. Oswald was in homicide, also, but he is in a separate
office.
Like I told you, I never did see Oswald except in that lineup
downstairs. That was the first time I had seen him.
Mr. RANKIN. Was that when you told the justice of the peace that he
ought to have him before him to tell him his rights and so forth?
Mr. WADE. Yes; it was some time during that hour, this went on for
about an hour down there, everything.
Well, during that interview somebody said, and the thing--Oswald
belonged to, was he a Communist, something generally to that effect.
Mr. RANKIN. They asked you that?
Mr. WADE. I was asked that. And I said, well, now, I don't know about
that but they found some literature, I understand, some literature
dealing with Free Cuba Movement. Following this--and so I looked up and
Jack Ruby is in the audience and he said, no, it is the Fair Play for
Cuba Committee. Well, he corrected me, you see, to show you why I got
attracted to his attention, why someone in the audience would speak up
and answer a question.
Mr. DULLES. You hadn't known him before?
Mr. WADE. I had never known him, to my knowledge. He is a man about
town, and I had seen him before, because when I saw him in there, and I
actually thought he was a part of the press corps at the time.
Mr. RANKIN. Were any of your assistants or people working for you there
at that showup?
Mr. WADE. I don't believe there were any of them there now. If there is
any of them, it is Alexander, because he is the only one down there,
but I think he is still up in homicide.
I will go further on that, some of my assistants know him, but he was
in my office 2 days before this with a hot check or something where he
was trying to collect a hot check or pay someone. I think he was trying
to pay someone else's hot check off, I don't know what it was, I didn't
see him. He talked to my check section. I found this out later.