Mr. RANKIN. Was that paper the Walker incident note that you have
described in your testimony?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Representative FORD. When you put the pistol under the mattress, what
happened to the pistol from then on?
Mrs. OSWALD. That evening he asked for it and said that nothing was
going to happen, and that he said he wouldn't do anything and took the
pistol back. And put it into his room.
Mr. DULLES. Did you keep the, what you call, the Walker note with you
all the time or did you have it in a particular place where you could
go and get it and show it to him?
Mrs. OSWALD. I had it all the time. I kept it in a certain place
initially and then I put it in the pages of a book.
Senator COOPER. Mr. Rankin, would you ask the witness to state again
what Lee Oswald's promise was to her that he had made at the time of
the Walker incident?
Mr. RANKIN. Will you relate the promise that your husband made to you
right after the discovery of the Walker incident by you?
Mrs. OSWALD. This wasn't a written promise.
Mr. RANKIN. No.
Mrs. OSWALD. But in words it was more or less that I told him that
he was very lucky that he hadn't killed--it very good that he hadn't
killed General Walker. I said it was fate that--it was fated that
General Walker not be killed and therefore he shouldn't try such a
thing again.
Mr. RANKIN. What did he say in answer to that?
Mrs. OSWALD. He said perhaps I am right. I myself didn't believe what
I was saying because I didn't believe that he was fated. I was just
trying to find some way of dissuading my husband to do such a thing
again. Do you understand what I mean?
Mr. RANKIN. Yes. Did he say that he would or would not do that again,
that is what I want to know.
Mrs. OSWALD. At the time I did definitely convince him that I was
right, and at the time he said that he would not do such a thing again.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, when you talked to him about the Nixon incident and
persuaded him not to go out and do anything to Mr. Nixon, did you say
anything about your pregnancy in trying to persuade him?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. What did you say about that?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; I told him that I was pregnant.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you observe his action at the time of this Nixon
incident, how he acted?
Mrs. OSWALD. How he reacted to this?
Mr. RANKIN. How he reacted to your interfering with him.
Mrs. OSWALD. At first he was extremely angry, and he said, "You are
always getting in my way." But then rather quickly he gave in, which
was rather unusual for him. At the time I didn't give this any thought,
but now I think it was just rather a kind of nasty joke he was playing
with me. Sometimes Lee was--he had a sadistic--my husband had a
sadistic streak in him and he got pleasure out of harming people, and
out of harming me, not physically but emotionally and mentally.
Mr. RANKIN. Have you told us substantially all that happened about this
Nixon incident?
Mrs. OSWALD. That is all I can remember.
Representative FORD. Can you tell us why you didn't mention this
incident to the Commission when you appeared before?
Mrs. OSWALD. There were an awful lot of questions at that time, and
I was very tired and felt that I had told everything and I don't
remember, I can't understand why I didn't mention this. It would have
been better for me to mention it the first time than to make you all do
more work on it.
Mr. DULLES. At the time of this incident did you threaten to go to the
authorities in case your husband did not desist in his intention?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; I said that.
Senator COOPER. I may have to go--could I ask a few questions? Mrs.
Oswald, will you repeat what your husband said that morning when he
dressed and got the pistol?
Mrs. OSWALD. I asked him where he was going and why he was getting
dressed. He answered. "Today Nixon is coming and I want to go out and
have a look at him."
I answered, "I know how you look," and I had in mind the fact that he
was taking a pistol with him.
Senator COOPER. Did he say anything about what he intended to do with
the pistol?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Senator COOPER. Did you ask him if he intended to use the pistol
against Mr. Nixon?
Mrs. OSWALD. I told him that, "You have already promised me not to play
any more with that thing." Not really play, but, you know--I didn't
mean, of course, just playing but using the pistol. Then he said,
"I am going to go out and find out if there will be an appropriate
opportunity and if there is I will use the pistol." I just remembered
this and maybe I didn't say this in my first testimony and now it just
has occurred to me that he said this.
Senator COOPER. Did your husband say why he wanted to use the pistol
against Mr. Nixon?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Senator COOPER. Did he say where he intended to see Mr. Nixon?
Mrs. OSWALD. He didn't say. He just said in Dallas, and since Nixon was
coming to Dallas.
Senator COOPER. When he was talking to you about seeing Mr. Nixon and
using the pistol, what was his attitude? Was he angry or----
Mrs. OSWALD. He wasn't angry. He looked more preoccupied and had sort
of a concentrated look.
Senator COOPER. Now, from the beginning, from the time that he first
told you that he was going to use the pistol, until the time that you
say he became quieted, did he again make any statement about using the
pistol against Mr. Nixon?
Mrs. OSWALD. I told him that I didn't want him to use his gun any more.
He said, "I will go out and have a look and perhaps I won't use my
gun, but if there is a convenient opportunity perhaps I will." Strike
"perhaps" please from that last sentence. I didn't have a lot of time
to think of what we were actually saying. All I was trying to do was to
prevent him from going out.
Senator COOPER. How much time elapsed, if you can remember, from the
time he first told you that he was going out and when he finally became
pacified?
Mrs. OSWALD. This was maybe 30 minutes. The whole incident took maybe
20 minutes. It was about 10 minutes I took--15 minutes maybe. 15
minutes, it took maybe 10 minutes for him to be prepared to go out and
then the incident in the bathroom took maybe 5 minutes until he quieted
down. It doesn't mean I held him in the bathroom for 5 minutes because
I couldn't do that but the general discussion in the bathroom.
Senator COOPER. You said he stayed at the house the remainder of the
day. During the remainder of the day did you discuss again with him the
incident?
Mrs. OSWALD. No; no.
Senator COOPER. Did he say anything more that day?
Mrs. OSWALD. No. He read a book.
Mr. DULLES. Do you know what book it was, by chance?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't remember. It was some kind of book from the public
library. He had a two-volume history of the United States. This is not
from the library, this was his own book.
Mr. DULLES. The incident occurred, you said just a few days after he
had told you he shot at General Walker?
Mrs. OSWALD. It was about 10 or 12 days after the incident with General
Walker, perhaps about 3 days before we left for the departure for New
Orleans. This didn't happen right after the incident with General
Walker. It happened rather closer to a time when we departed for New
Orleans.
Mr. DULLES. The General Walker incident made a very strong impression
on you, didn't it?
Mrs. OSWALD. Of course. I never thought that Lee had a gun in order to
use it to shoot at somebody with.
Mr. DULLES. Didn't this statement that he made about Vice President
Nixon make a strong impression on you also?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't know. I was pregnant at the time. I had a lot of
other things to worry about. I was getting pretty well tired of all of
these escapades of his.
Mr. DULLES. Was there any reason why you didn't tell the Commission
about this when you testified before?
Mrs. OSWALD. I had no--there is no particular reason. I just forgot.
Very likely this incident didn't make a very great impression on me at
that time.
Mr. DULLES. Now, before the death of President Kennedy, of course, you
knew that your husband had purchased a rifle?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. DULLES. You knew that he had purchased a pistol?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. DULLES. And a knife?
Mrs. OSWALD. No; what kind of knife?
Mr. DULLES. Did he have a knife?
Mrs. OSWALD. He had a little pocket knife; I think.
Mr. DULLES. You knew that he had told you that he had tried to kill
General Walker?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. DULLES. And, of course, as you said you heard him make a threat
against Nixon.
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. DULLES. Did you have some fear that he would use these weapons
against someone else?
Mrs. OSWALD. Of course; I was afraid.
Mr. DULLES. What?
Mrs. OSWALD. Of course; I was afraid.
Mr. DULLES. You thought that he might use his weapons against someone?
Mrs. OSWALD. After the incident with Nixon I stopped believing him.
Mr. DULLES. You what?
Mrs. OSWALD. I stopped believing him.
Mr. DULLES. Why?
Mrs. OSWALD. Because he wasn't obeying me any longer, because he
promised and then he broke his promise.
Mr. DULLES. Would you repeat that?
Mrs. OSWALD. Because he wasn't obeying me any more. He promised and, he
made a promise and then he broke it.
Mr. DULLES. That is my question. Having been told that--isn't it
correct he told you that he shot at General Walker? He made a promise
to you that he wouldn't do anything like that again, you heard him
threaten Vice President Nixon, didn't it occur to you then that there
was danger that he would use these weapons against someone else in the
future?
Mrs. OSWALD. After the incident with Walker, I believed him when he
told me that he wouldn't use the weapons any longer.
Mr. DULLES. I remember you testified before and I asked you if you had
heard him threaten any official or other person and your answer was no.
Mrs. OSWALD. Because I forgot at that time about the incident with
Nixon.
Mr. DULLES. I want to ask you again: In view of the fact that you
knew--in view of the fact that he had threatened Walker by shooting
at him, and he threatened Vice President Nixon can you not tell this
Commission whether after that he threatened to hurt, harm any other
person?
Mrs. OSWALD. Nobody else. Perhaps I should be punished for not having
said anything about all this, but I was just a wife and I was trying to
keep the family together, at that time. I mean to say. I am talking, of
course, of the time before President Kennedy's death. And if I forget
to say anything now, I am not doing it on purpose.
Mr. DULLES. I am just asking questions. Will you say here that he never
did make any statement against President Kennedy?
Mrs. OSWALD. Never.
Mr. DULLES. Did he ever make any statement about him of any kind?
Mrs. OSWALD. He used to read and translate articles from the newspaper
about Kennedy to me and from magazines, favorable articles about
Kennedy. He never commented on them and he never discussed them in any
way but because of his translations and his reading to me he always
had a favorable feeling about President Kennedy because he always read
these favorably inclined articles to me. He never said that these
articles never were true that he was a bad President or anything like
that.
Mr. DULLES. I didn't catch the last.
Mrs. OSWALD. He never said these articles were not true or that
President Kennedy was a bad President or anything like that.
Senator COOPER. I think you testified before that he made statements
showing his dislike of our system of government and its economic system.
Mrs. OSWALD. He used to complain about the educational difficulties and
about the unemployment in the United States and about the high cost of
medical care.
Mr. McKENZIE. Right there, please, may I, Mr. Dulles when did he
complain of those things, was this in Russia or was it in the United
States after you returned from Russia?
Mrs. OSWALD. After our return from Russia. When we were living in New
Orleans after returning from Russia.
Mr. McKENZIE. Did he likewise make such complaints about the American
system while you were living in Russia after you were married?
Mrs. OSWALD. He used to tell me that it was difficult to find a job and
to get work in the United States but nonetheless we would be better
there than we were in Russia. Excuse me. He was the kind of person who
was never able to get along anywhere he was and when he was in Russia
he used to say good things about the United States and when he was in
the United States he used to talk well about Russia.
Senator COOPER. You knew, of course, because of the incidents in New
Orleans that he did not like American policy respecting Cuba.
Mrs. OSWALD. He was definitely a supporter of Cuba. This was something
which remained with him from Russia.
Senator COOPER. Did he ever say to you who was responsible or who had
some responsibility for our policy toward Cuba?
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Senator COOPER. Had he ever mentioned President Kennedy in connection
with our Cuban policy?
Mrs. OSWALD. Never to me.