Mrs. OSWALD. Just to doctor, you know.
Representative FORD. Did you ever go anytime with your husband in a car
with the rifle?
Mrs. OSWALD. I was never at anytime in a car with my husband and with
a rifle. Not only with the rifle, not even with a pistol. Even without
anything I was never with my husband in a car under circumstances where
he was driving a car.
Representative FORD. Did you go in a car with somebody else driving
where your husband had the pistol or the rifle?
Mrs. OSWALD. Never. I don't know what to think about this.
Mr. RANKIN. Mrs. Oswald, I will hand you Commission's Exhibit No. 819
and ask you particularly about the signature at the bottom.
Mrs. OSWALD. That is Lee's handwriting, and this is mine.
Mr. RANKIN. Were the words "A. J. Hidell, Chapter President" on
Commission Exhibit No. 819 are in your handwriting?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Would you tell the Commission how you happened to sign that?
Mrs. OSWALD. Lee wrote this down on a piece of paper and told me to
sign it on this card, and said that he would beat me if I didn't sign
that name on the card.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you have any other discussion about your signing that
name?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. What discussion did you have?
Mrs. OSWALD. I said that this sounded like Fidel. I said, "You have
selected this name because it sounds like Fidel" and he blushed and
said, "Shut up, it is none of your business."
Mr. RANKIN. Was there any discussion about who Hidell, as signed on the
bottom of that card, was?
Mrs. OSWALD. He said that it was his own name and a there is no Hidell
in existence, and I asked him, "You just have two names," and he said,
"Yes."
Mr. RANKIN. Was anything else said about that matter at any time?
Mrs. OSWALD. I taunted him about this and teased about this and said
how shameful it is that a person who has his own perfectly good name
should take another name and he said, "It is none of your business,
I would have to do it this way, people will think I have a big
organization" and so forth.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you ask him why he needed to have the other name in
your handwriting rather than his own?
Mrs. OSWALD. I did ask him that and he would answer that in order that
people will think it is two people involved and not just one.
Mr. DULLES. Did you ever sign any more such cards with the name
"Hidell"?
Mrs. OSWALD. Only this one.
Mr. DULLES. And you never signed the name "Hidell" on any other paper
at any time?
Mrs. OSWALD. Only once.
Representative FORD. Where did this actual signing take place, Mrs.
Oswald?
Mrs. OSWALD. In New Orleans.
Representative FORD. Where in New Orleans?
Mrs. OSWALD. In what is the name of the street where we lived, in an
apartment house.
Representative FORD. In your apartment house?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; in our apartment house.
Representative FORD. What time of day, do you recall?
Mrs. OSWALD. It might have been 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening.
Mr. DULLES. Had you ever heard the name "Hidell" before?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't remember whether this was before or after Lee
spoke on the radio. I think it was after.
Mr. DULLES. Did he use the name Hidell on the radio?
Mrs. OSWALD. I think that he might have when he was talking on the
radio said that Hidell is the President of his organization but, of
course, I don't understand English well and I don't know. He spoke on
the radio using his own name but might have mentioned the name Hidell.
This is what he told me. When I tried to find out what he said on the
radio.
Mr. DULLES. This might have been on television also?
Mrs. OSWALD. It was on the radio, not on television. He told me that
someone had taken movies of him for to be shown later on television but
I don't know if they ever were.
Mr. DULLES. Did you ever sign the name Hidell at any subsequent time to
any document?
Mr. McKENZIE. If you recall signing it. Do you recall signing his name
to any other document?
Mrs. OSWALD. I only remember this one occasion.
Mr. RANKIN. Was the way you signed on this Commission's Exhibit No. 819
your usual way of writing English?
Mrs. OSWALD. My English handwriting changes every day, and my Russian
handwriting, too. But that is more or less my usual style.
Mr. RANKIN. You weren't trying to conceal the way you sign anything?
Mrs. OSWALD. I tried to do it, I just tried to write it as nicely as
possible.
Mr. DULLES. Did you make some practice runs of writing this name before
you actually put it on the card?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; because it was difficult for me to write English
properly.
Mr. DULLES. So you mean you wrote it several times on another sheet of
paper and then put it on this card?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Representative FORD. Was there anybody else present at the time of this
incident?
Mrs. OSWALD. No; only Lee.
Representative FORD. Did he have you sign only one card?
Mrs. OSWALD. This was the only time when I--when Lee asked me to do
this and I did it. I might have signed two or--cards and not just one
but there weren't a great many.
Representative FORD. Did the other cards have someone else's name
besides Lee Harvey Oswald on it?
Mrs. OSWALD. No; only Lee Oswald.
Representative FORD. But you think you might have signed more than one
such card?
Mrs. OSWALD. Maybe two, three. This is just 1 day when I was signing
this. It just happened on one occasion.
Mr. RANKIN. Mrs. Oswald, turning to another subject, I would like to
ask you about some correspondence with the Dallas Civil Liberties
Union.
Do you recall that they inquired as to whether you were being kept from
seeing and speaking to people against your will?
Mrs. OSWALD. This letter was translated by Ruth Paine and I answered on
the basis of the translation.
Mr. McKENZIE. May I see those letters, Mr. Rankin?
Mr. RANKIN. Yes.
Mrs. OSWALD. I didn't want to answer this letter. It was simply a
matter of courtesy on my part.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, you received a letter from the local chapter of the
Civil Liberties union in Russian, did you not?
Mrs. OSWALD. There was a letter that was in English and there was a
translation which came with it, and it was stated that the translation
was done by Ruth Paine.
Mr. RANKIN. What did you do with the translation or the--I will ask you
the translation first. Did you keep that?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't remember what I did with it.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know what you did with the part that was in Russian?
Mrs. OSWALD. Perhaps it is somewhere among my papers but I didn't pay
any special attention to it.
Mr. RANKIN. I will hand you Commission Exhibit No. 331 and ask you if
that is the letter in English that you referred to?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; it is the letter.
Mr. RANKIN. I call the Commission's attention to the fact that that has
already been received in evidence.
Mr. McKENZIE. Mr. Rankin, did you write Mr. Olds about this? This
appears to be a letter in reply to a letter from you.
Mr. RANKIN. That is right. I asked for it.
Mrs. Oswald, will you examine Commission Exhibits Nos. 990 and 991 and
state whether you know the handwriting in these exhibits?
Mrs. OSWALD. This is all mine, my handwriting. This is the answer to
that letter.
Mr. RANKIN. And the letter, Exhibit No. 990, and the envelope, Exhibit
No. 991, in your handwriting were your response to the inquiry of the
Dallas Civil Liberties Union on the Exhibit No. 331?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; this was my answer to this letter, Exhibit No. 331.
Mr. RANKIN. I offer in evidence Commission Exhibits Nos. 990 and 991.
Mr. DULLES. You want them admitted at this time?
Mr. RANKIN. Yes; Mr. Chairman.
Mr. DULLES. They shall be admitted.
(Commission Exhibits Nos. 990 and 991 were marked for identification
and received in evidence.)
Mr. RANKIN. Mrs. Oswald, I will ask you to examine Exhibit No. 988 and
with the help of the interpreter, advise us whether or not it is a
reasonably correct translation of your letter, Exhibit No. 990.
Mrs. OSWALD. This is not an accurate translation.
Mr. RANKIN. Mrs. Oswald, can you tell us what errors were made, where
the corrections should be to make it a correct translation?
Mrs. OSWALD. There is one place here in which it refers to the third
sentence of the English text which states: "What you read in the papers
is correct."
Mr. RANKIN. How would you correct that?
Mrs. OSWALD. This is incorrect. A better, a proper translation,
although unofficial of this passage, and the Russian text of my letter
would read, "Your concern is quite unnecessary although it is quite
understandable if one is to judge from what is written in the papers."
Mr. RANKIN. Now, will you proceed with any other corrections?
Mrs. OSWALD. This, the letter, the spirit of the letter reflects my own
spirit in my own Russian text--although the translation is somewhat
inaccurate and tends to shorten my own text somewhat.
There is another inaccuracy which is more important than the others--it
is not more important, the first one is more important--there is
another which should be called to the Commission's attention.
The last sentence of the English text reads: "Please let Mrs. Ruth
Paine know I owe to her much and think of her as one of my best
friends."
Whereas the letter only states that: "Of course, consider her my
friend."
Mr. RANKIN. Mrs. Oswald, I call your attention to Commission Exhibit
No. 990 and ask you to note the date which appears to be December 7,
1964.
The Dallas Civil Liberties Union letter, you will note, was dated
January 6, 1964 which I will hand you so you can examine it. Could you
explain that discrepancy? You might wish to examine them.
Mrs. OSWALD. It can't possibly be the 7th of December 1964 because it
hasn't even come yet.
Mr. RANKIN. You might wish to examine the envelope, Exhibit No. 991,
that may help you as to the correct date.
Mrs. OSWALD. January 8. I wrote this January 7. It was just my mistake.
I wrote it on January 7 and mailed it on the 8th. I just out of habit
still writing December.
Mr. McKENZIE. Mr. Rankin, may I ask the Commission, on Commission
Exhibit No. 988, which purports to be a translation of Mrs. Oswald's
letter to the Dallas Civil Liberties Union, do you know who translated
this letter or could you tell us who translated the letter?