*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; he did. It was the morning before the tragedy.
Senator RUSSELL. Before the assassination of the President?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Senator RUSSELL. Did he ever talk to you about the result of his visit
to Mexico?
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Senator RUSSELL. Did he say his efforts were all a failure there, that
he got any assistance that he was seeking?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. He told me that he visited the Cuban Embassy and the
Soviet Embassy and that they have the same bureaucracy in the Cuban
Embassy that they have in the Soviet Embassy and that he obtained no
results.
Senator RUSSELL. Did you have less money in the United States than you
had in Russia when you were married over there?
*Mrs. OSWALD. We had more money in the United States than we did in
the Soviet Union, but here we have to pay $65 a month rent from $200
earned, and we didn't have to do that in the Soviet Union. Here the
house rent amounted to 30 percent of total wages earned, while in the
Soviet Union we paid 10 percent of the wages earned. Then, all the
medical expenses, medical assistance--expenses are paid there. However,
Lee didn't spend much money on medical expenses here because he found
ways to get the expenses free; the services free.
Senator RUSSELL. You have testified, I believe, that Lee didn't use his
rifle much, the one he had in the Soviet Union. Did he ever discuss
shooting anyone in the Soviet Union like he did in shooting Nixon and
Walker here in this country?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; not in the Soviet Union.
Senator RUSSELL. You haven't then heard from anyone except one letter
from your aunt, since you left Russia?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; I received letters from my girl friend.
Senator RUSSELL. Oh, how many letters from your girl friend?
Mrs. OSWALD. Just from one--a Christmas card--I don't remember how
many, probably not more than four or five.
*But only one letter from the aunt.
*Mrs. OSWALD. We received letters from Lee's friends written to both of
us--several letters.
Senator RUSSELL. Written to you?
Mrs. OSWALD. Written to Lee and to me.
Senator RUSSELL. I see, but it's strange about your family that you
didn't hear from them when you had written to them?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. It is strange and it's hurtful.
Senator RUSSELL. Mrs. Oswald, I believe you testified that Lee didn't
ever discuss political matters with you very much? *
*Mrs. OSWALD. He discussed politics with me very little.
Senator RUSSELL. And that when he was discussing political matters with
Mr. Paine and Mr. De Mohrenschildt and others, that you didn't pay
any attention, that they didn't address any of it to you, that they
discussed it between themselves?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; I did not participate in those conversations.
Senator RUSSELL. And that he didn't discuss a great many things about
his work and things of that kind with you?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. The only time he discussed his work with me was when he
worked for a printing company. He told me that he liked that job.
Senator RUSSELL. Why do you suppose he told you about the fact that he
was going to shoot Mr. Nixon and had shot at General Walker?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. As regards General Walker, he came home late. He left me
a note and so that is the reason why he discussed the Walker affair
with me.
*Now, in regard to Mr. Nixon, he got dressed up in his suit and he put
a gun in his belt.
Senator RUSSELL. You testified in his belt--I was going to ask about
that, because that was a very unusual place to carry a gun. Usually, he
would carry it in his coat. Did you ever see him have a gun in his belt
before?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; I would have noticed it if he did.
Senator RUSSELL. You wouldn't have noticed it?
*Mrs. OSWALD. I would have noticed it if he did.
Senator RUSSELL. I see--you would have noticed it.
*Mrs. OSWALD. And so--I have never seen him before with the pistol.
Senator RUSSELL. He didn't state to you that he talked to any person in
Mexico other than at the Russian Embassy and the Cuban Embassy?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. No. The only persons he mentioned were the Cuban Embassy
and the Soviet Embassy in Mexico.
Senator RUSSELL. Now, going back to your personal relations, Mrs.
Oswald, with Lee. Do you think he wanted to send you back to Russia
just to get rid of you?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. This is the question that I am puzzled about and I am
wondering about it myself, whether he wanted to get rid of me.
Senator RUSSELL. Do you think he was really devoted to the children or
was he just putting on a show about liking the children?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; he loved the children.
*I believe he loved the children, but at times--one side of his life
was such that I wondered whether he did or not. Some of the things that
he did certainly were not good for his children--some of the acts he
was engaged in.
Senator RUSSELL. He knew you would take the children back to Russia
with you, if you wanted, did he not?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. Of course I would have taken the children with me to the
Soviet Union.
Senator RUSSELL. It seems to me that I recall once or twice in this
testimony when you had had some little domestic trouble, as all married
couples have, that he had cried, which is most unusual for a man in
this country--men don't cry very often, and do you think that he cried
despite the fact that he wasn't very devoted to you and loved you a
great deal?* **
*Mrs. OSWALD. The fact that he cried, and on one occasion he begged
me to come back to him--he stood on his knees and begged me to come
back to him--whether that meant that he loved me--perhaps he did. On
the other hand, the acts that he committed showed to me that he didn't
particularly care for me.
Senator RUSSELL. You think then that his acts that he committed outside
your domestic life within the family, within the realm of the family,
was an indication that he did not love you?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. The fact that he made attempts on the lives of other
people showed to me that he did not treasure his family life and his
children, also the fact that he beat me and wanted to send me to the
Soviet Union.
Senator RUSSELL. And you think that the fact that he promised you after
the Walker incident that he would never do anything like that again but
did, is an indication that he didn't love you?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. Logically--yes. That shows to me that he did not love
me. At times he cried, and did all sorts of helpful things around the
house. At other times he was mean. Frankly, I am lost as to what to
think about him.
And I did not have any choice, because he was the only person that I
knew and I could count on--the only person in the United States.
Senator RUSSELL. Did he beat you very often, Mrs. Oswald, strike you
hard blows with his fists? Did he hit you with his fists?* **
*Mrs. OSWALD. When he beat me, sometimes he would beat me hard and
sometimes not too hard. Sometimes he would leave a black eye and
sometimes he wouldn't, depending on which part of me he would strike
me. When we lived in New Orleans he never beat me up.
Senator RUSSELL. Did he ever beat you in Russia before you came to this
country?*
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Senator RUSSELL. Had you ever heard of any husband striking his wife in
Russia?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. It seems that beating of wives by the Russian husbands is
a rather common thing in the Soviet Union and that is why I was afraid
to marry a Russian.
Senator RUSSELL. I see. Do they beat them with anything other than
their hands?
There was a law in my State at one time that a man could whip his wife
as long as he didn't use a switch that was larger than his thumb. That
law has been repealed.
But, did they ever whip their wives with anything other than their
hands in Russia?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. I do not know. I was not interested in what manner they
beat their wives.
Senator RUSSELL. That's difficult for me to believe--that a very
charming and attractive girl who was being courted by a number of men,
I would have thought you would have been greatly interested in all the
aspects of matrimony?* **
*Mrs. OSWALD. How would I know?
Senator RUSSELL. How would you know it--well, by general conversation.
Don't people talk about those things all over the world--in Russia and
everywhere else?
Mrs. OSWALD. That's different there.
Senator RUSSELL. People are very much the same, aren't they, all over
the world? If a man in the neighborhood gets drunk and beats and abuses
his wife and children, isn't that discussed by all the people in the
block--in that area?
Mrs. OSWALD. **Sometimes during a life of 20 years with a husband,
everything will be all right, and then some occasion will arise or
something will happen that the wife will learn about what kind of
person he is.
*I know of one family in the Soviet Union in Minsk, where a husband was
married to a woman 17 years, and he just went to another woman.
For 1 year.
*For 1 year--then he came back to the first one full of shame and
repentance and he cried and she took him back in. He lived with her for
3 days and then left her again. He was excluded from the party.
Senator RUSSELL. Excommunicated from the party?
Mrs. OSWALD. **Expelled from the party.
*But he took all the possessions of their common property when he left.
Senator RUSSELL. I'm taking too much time, and I will hurry along. Did
he ever beat you badly enough, Mrs. Oswald, for you to require the
services of a doctor, a physician?*
Mrs. OSWALD. No.
Senator RUSSELL. Did he ever strike you during your pregnancy, when you
were pregnant?*
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.