I called him and told him who I was and that Life Magazine asked me to
try to locate some pictures for them of Oswald, and I asked him did
he know of any existing that I might be able to make arrangements for
Life to get ahold of, and I think he just volunteered that he didn't
remember much about Oswald, and I didn't press it.
But apparently Jackson talked to him and he was a little more free to
speak with Jackson than he was with me.
Mr. LIEBELER. Has the FBI ever talked to you?
Mr. VINSON. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. Secret Service?
Mr. VINSON. The only time the Secret Service talked to me was last
night when he called and asked me to come over here.
Mr. LIEBELER. Can you think of anything else that we haven't covered
that you think would be helpful to the Commission's work as far as your
knowledge of Oswald is concerned, or your discussions with others about
Oswald?
Mr. VINSON. The only thing that I can think of offhand, this has
probably been brought to your attention, I don't know--I feel sure
it has--of the allegation by another magazine that this picture on
the cover of Life is a composite picture and is not really the actual
thing, that they somehow acquired the picture of somebody else holding
the rifle and somehow got ahold of the picture of his head and glued it
on. I didn't read this. This was in Newsweek. I didn't read it. I was
told about it.
Mr. LIEBELER. Yes; that matter has already come to the attention of the
Commission.
Mr. VINSON. There was one other thing that I noticed also. Maybe I
am wrong and I should possibly go back and reread this before I make
any statements but I notice in the picture there is a scope on the
rifle, and it was my understanding that the rifle came to him without
a scope, and he didn't buy a scope until the fall of 1963, and it says
in the magazine this picture was made in the spring of 1963, apparently
shortly after he bought the rifle. I think it says he bought it in
March.
Mr. LIEBELER. Where did you learn that the rifle did not have a scope
on it when he bought it?
Mr. VINSON. I think this just was something that came out in my
discussion with some other reporters, or just in casual conversation
just--somebody just made the observation.
Mr. LIEBELER. Have you seen a newspaper report to the effect that a
telescopic sight was mounted on the rifle for somebody by the name of
Oswald by the Irving Sports Shop?
Mr. VINSON. No. The only one I know about was the place in Grand
Prairie, unless I got my facts all crossed up. I was thinking the only
scope I knew about was mounted, I thought was mounted at the range out
in Grand Prairie. Is that correct? Was there one mounted there?
Mr. LIEBELER. Not as far as anybody else knows.
Mr. VINSON. Maybe I am confused. I guess I am confused about it, but I
think there was something in this article that mentioned him having the
scope mounted on his rifle at a specific time, which I thought was in
the fall of '63.
Mr. LIEBELER. There may well be something to that effect, but that
doesn't necessarily make it so.
Mr. VINSON. I know.
Mr. LIEBELER. But you have no direct knowledge, you haven't talked to
anybody that ever mounted a scope or claimed to have mounted a scope
for Oswald?
Mr. VINSON. No. My connection with the whole thing has not amounted
to anything. I came to Dallas the day of the assassination because my
newspaper sent practically everybody over here. I was at the police
station. I am not a photographer. However, I carry a camera, and I
was sent to the Dallas Police Station to take pictures, because I was
the only one in the vicinity with a camera at that time. And I stayed
there until the photographer arrived, with my camera, and just sort of
generally ran errands. I didn't do any actual reporting, but that was
when it first came to my attention.
Well, let me rephrase that. When I heard the name Lee Oswald, when the
reporter said that the best suspect they had in custody was Lee Oswald,
immediately it rang a bell, and almost immediately I remembered when
I had heard it, and I associated it with my second grade class, and I
even mentioned it to some of the reporters over there that day, over
here that day.
Mr. LIEBELER. Unless there is anything else that you can remember about
your contacts with Oswald or your conversations with others about him
that you think would be helpful, I have no other questions at this
point, I would like to thank you for coming over from Fort Worth on
such short notice.
Mr. VINSON. I am happy to do it.
Mr. LIEBELER. The Commission appreciates your cooperation.