**Mrs. OSWALD. Actually, I am not a member as you know in the United
States. However, I belong to the church, the Russian church here in
Dallas, and I don't pay dues.
Senator RUSSELL. You are more of a communicant now than you are a
member of the church?
Mrs. OSWALD. I think the understanding of church membership is
different in the Soviet Union or in the understanding of a person that
was brought up in the Soviet Union.
Senator RUSSELL. I am concerned about this testimony, Mrs. Oswald,
about your believing now that Lee was shooting at Connally and not at
the President, because you did not tell us that before.*
*Mrs. OSWALD. At that time I didn't think so, but the more I mull over
it in my own mind trying to get it in my own mind what made him do what
he did, the more I think that he was shooting at Connally rather than
President Kennedy.
Senator RUSSELL. Now, did you not testify before that Lee wrote a
letter to Connally when he was Secretary of the Navy about the nature
of his Marine discharge?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Senator RUSSELL. And that when he got a letter back, that you asked him
what it was?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Senator RUSSELL. And he said, "Well, it's just some Bureaucrat's
statement"?*
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
*Yes.
Senator RUSSELL. Did you not further testify that Lee said in
discussing the gubernatorial election in Texas that if he were here and
voting, that he would vote for Mr. Connally?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Senator RUSSELL. Now, do you think he would shoot and kill a man that
he would vote for, for the Governor of his state?* **
**Mrs. OSWALD. The only reason is--I am trying to analyze, myself,
there was a reason--more reason to dislike Connally as a man than he
had for Kennedy.
Senator RUSSELL. Well, she testified before that he had spoken, as far
as Lee spoke favorably of anyone, that he had spoken favorably of both
Kennedy and of Governor Connally.**
**Mrs. OSWALD. He also told me that he was also favorable toward
Connally, while they were in Russia. There is a possibility that he
changed his mind, but he never told her that.
Senator RUSSELL. Well, I think that's about as speculative as the
answers I've read here. He might have changed his mind, but he didn't
tell her anything about it, as she testified--that discussing politics
in Texas, that he said that if he were here when they had the election,
that he would vote for John Connally for Governor, and that was after
he got the letter about the Marine corps.* **
**Mrs. OSWALD. That happened in Russia when he received some kind of
pamphlet with a picture of Connally, a separate time, at which time he
remarked that when he returned, if and when he returned to Texas he
would vote for Connally.
Senator RUSSELL. That's right--that's exactly right, but yet now you
say that he was his prime target.
I want to know what Connally had done to Lee since he got back from
Russia that would cause him to change his mind, to shoot him?* **
*Mrs. OSWALD. I do not know, but there is a possibility that Lee became
hateful of Connally because the matter of this dishonorable discharge
was dragging so long.
Senator RUSSELL. Yes; but Connally had left the Navy, where he had
anything to do with the discharge, before he got the pamphlet about his
being a candidate for Governor?** *
**Mrs. OSWALD. I am not sure when that particular thing happened,
whether Mr. Connally was the Secretary of the Navy or what he was doing.
Senator RUSSELL. Well, it's a matter of common knowledge that he ran
for Governor after he resigned as Secretary of the Navy.
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't know.
Senator RUSSELL. Did you not know that when Mr. Connally was running
for Governor of Texas, he was no longer Secretary of the Navy and had
nothing to do with the Marine Corps?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, I knew--I knew that he was not the Secretary of the
Navy any more because Lee told me that Connally stated in the letter to
Lee that he was no longer Secretary of Navy and hence he couldn't do
anything for him, and that Connally referred the petition to the proper
authorities.
Senator RUSSELL. Mrs. Oswald, didn't Lee read about government a great
deal? Didn't Lee read about civic affairs and about government a great
deal?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. He read books about Kennedy, about Hitler, about others.
Senator RUSSELL. Haven't you been in this country long enough to know
that the President is Commander and Chief of the Army and Navy and he's
even head of the Secretary of the Navy. He can order him to do anything
he wants to?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. I didn't pay any attention to it or I didn't know it or
wasn't told.
Senator RUSSELL. Do you have any facts on which you base your opinion
now that Lee Oswald was shooting and was intending to kill Connally
rather than President Kennedy?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. I have no facts whatsoever. I simply express an opinion
which perhaps is not logical at all, but I am sorry if I mixed
everybody up.
Senator RUSSELL. You haven't mixed anybody up, except I think that you
have your evidence terribly confused.*
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; I have no facts whatsover. I'm sorry I told them that.
Senator RUSSELL. Do you know whether or not Lee knew Connally
personally or did he know that he was going to be in this motorcade at
all?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; I did not know whether Lee knew or ever contacted
the Governor personally, and I don't know whether Lee knew that the
Governor would be in the motorcade.
Senator RUSSELL. But Lee did take his gun into town that day, and so
far as you know, I believe you said that was the first day he had
carried it into town?
*Mrs. OSWALD. I do not personally know that Lee took the rifle that
morning or the night before. Apparently the Commission has witnesses or
information to that effect, but of my own knowledge, I don't know.
Senator RUSSELL. Did you not testify that you thought this was Lee's
rifle that was shown you as the one that shot Connally and the
President?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. Yes; I testified that that was the rifle.
Mr. GOPADZE. No--I'm sorry. As far as she knows about the arms, the
rifle which was shown to her looked like the one he had.
Mr. GREGORY. Yes; that's right.
Senator RUSSELL. That's all I asked her. That's just exactly what I
asked her.
Mr. GREGORY. Yes; that's correct.
Senator RUSSELL. In discussing the motorcade, did he say anything about
Connally would be riding with the President?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. No; he did not.
Senator RUSSELL. I believe you testified, did you not, Mrs. Oswald,
that the day before Lee told you that he fired at General Walker, that
he seemed to be under great emotional stress, strain, very tense?* **
*Mrs. OSWALD. He was angry and excited. He was angry and excited.
Senator RUSSELL. Did he show any of that on the morning that he left
home when the President was assassinated?* **
*Mrs. OSWALD. Well, I did not notice any difference in Lee's attitude
during that morning from any other day. But sometimes, quite often, he
was impulsive and nervous and excited. I got tired from watching him in
those particular moods, in his moods, and I didn't pay any attention.
Senator RUSSELL. Why did you happen to watch him then on the morning
that he shot at General Walker?*
*Mrs. OSWALD. I simply--his mood left no impression on me that
particular morning. There was nothing extraordinary about it.
Senator RUSSELL. On the Walker morning?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, no--on the morning of the President's assassination.
Senator RUSSELL. Yes, but you said you noticed it on the morning before
he shot Walker?
Mrs. OSWALD. Are you talking about Walker?
Senator RUSSELL. If you didn't notice his moods, how did you happen to
notice it on the day before he shot at General Walker?* **
Mrs. OSWALD. The reason I didn't notice that particular morning about
his mood was because the night before we had a little quarrel and I
didn't pay any attention to that, particularly, and I was thinking that
it was due to that quarrel we had the night before.
Senator RUSSELL. Well, of course, that was the quarrel you had about
him registering under an assumed name or giving an assumed name at his
room.**
Was that not the time, did you not try to telephone him and they told
you that no such person stayed there at all?
*Mrs. OSWALD. That was the cause of the quarrel. You see, at this
particular morning of the assassination, I was very tired because the
baby woke up several times during the night and I was very tired, and
in the morning I did not register or I did not even attempt to register
his moods.
Senator RUSSELL. I think you testified before that you only saw him
when he got up, that you stayed in bed and that he got up and fixed his
own coffee and got out.* **
*Mrs. OSWALD. The only extraordinary thing that I noticed about him the
morning of the assassination was that when Lee was leaving the house,
he asked me if I purchased a pair of shoes.
Senator RUSSELL. For June?
Mrs. OSWALD. For me.