The proceeding reconvened at 2 p.m.
Mr. JENNER. As I understand it now, Mrs. Murret, Marguerite maintained
the house for approximately 2 or 3 years and reared the boy there and
did not work, and at the end of that period of time, she went to work,
and she lodged Lee with you and your husband and your children; is that
right?
Mrs. MURRET. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And that extended over a period of how long? How long did
you have him?
Mrs. MURRET. Oh, I think it was pretty near the time that she married
Mr. Ekdahl. I think she married him about that time.
Mr. JENNER. That was 1948; is that right?
Mrs. MURRET. It might have been. Now, it might have been a little
before she married Ekdahl. I really can't remember that. I really
didn't know Mr. Ekdahl. I met him one time. Now, I am trying to orient
myself.
Mr. JENNER. That's all right; take your time. Do you recall about when
that was?
Mrs. MURRET. When she married Mr. Ekdahl?
Mr. JENNER. No; that you had the care of Lee in your home.
Mrs. MURRET. That I had what?
Mr. JENNER. When Lee came to live with you temporarily; when was that?
Mrs. MURRET. Oh, when he was about 3 years old.
Mr. JENNER. That would have been about 1942; is that right?
Mrs. MURRET. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And he stayed with you until about the time that Marguerite
married Mr. Ekdahl; is that right?
Mrs. MURRET. Around that time, or a little before. She might have taken
him a little bit before, a few months before she married Ekdahl. I
don't recall exactly how that was now.
Mr. JENNER. She married Ekdahl in 1948; so at that time Lee would have
been 9 years old; isn't that right?
Mrs. MURRET. Yes; that's right. Well, then I didn't have Lee that long;
not from 3 years old. He wasn't with me all that time.
Mr. JENNER. How long do you think it was that you had Lee in your home
on that occasion?
Mrs. MURRET. Well, I might have had Lee about 2 years.
Mr. JENNER. Would that have been from 1942 to 1943, or 1944; somewhere
in there?
Mrs. MURRET. Yes sir.
Mr. JENNER. He was 3 years old when he came with you; is that right?
Mrs. MURRET. What's that?
Mr. JENNER. He was 3 years old?
Mrs. MURRET. About 3; yes.
Mr. JENNER. When he came with you?
Mrs. MURRET. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. How old was he when he left?
Mrs. MURRET. Well, he was about 5 or pretty near that age, when he left
me.
Mr. JENNER. Well, that keys in with this information I have. When he
was about 5 years old, did he join his brothers out at the Bethlehem
orphanage?
Mrs. MURRET. He did. He was out there for a while.
Mr. JENNER. Did he come from your home to the orphanage?
Mrs. MURRET. I really don't know that.
Mr. JENNER. I thought there might have been some incident as to why he
was placed in the orphanage with his two brothers.
Mrs. MURRET. Well, the incident could have been--I don't know if it was
that or not, but maybe it was just that I couldn't take care of him any
more, or something like that; I don't know.
Mr. JENNER. You don't have any clear recollection on that score?
Mrs. MURRET. No; I don't.
Mr. JENNER. But you do have a sufficient recollection that he was about
5 years old?
Mrs. MURRET. About; yes.
Mr. JENNER. When he left your home?
Mrs. MURRET. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And you do remember Lee being lodged at the Bethlehem
orphanage home with his two brothers, do you?
Mrs. MURRET. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did you visit the boys out there at any time?
Mrs. MURRET. I visited out there with Marguerite.
Mr. JENNER. And that was on what; a weekend?
Mrs. MURRET. I think it was. They had a party for the home out there,
and the children themselves seemed to be very happy out there. It's an
old place, but a very nice place, and it was run by a man and his wife.
The children were included in everything, and the doors were kept open.
In other words, the children were allowed to go out and play marbles
on the outside, and they went to school, you know, to school in that
neighborhood. I mean they weren't confined or shut in, and they seemed
to have a good program of discipline. Even though they could go out
and play in the immediate area, they would come in when the bell rang
for supper, but I mean they were not closed in or kept locked up or
anything. She also contributed to that home, I think. I don't think
they would keep those boys there free.
Mr. JENNER. You're right. In the meantime she was working; is that
right?
Mrs. MURRET. What was that?
Mr. JENNER. She was working?
Mrs. MURRET. She was working; yes.
Mr. JENNER. In some department store or something like that here in New
Orleans?
Mrs. MURRET. She at one time, but I don't know whether this was the
time, but she worked at a hosiery shop on Canal Street. It might have
been one of these Jean's--what they call Jean's Hosiery Shop over
there on Canal Street. In fact, she was manager of that store at the
time, as I recall, this hosiery store where she worked. I don't know
what happened after she left that place. That was the time she married
Ekdahl, in between there, and she left New Orleans and went to Texas.
Mr. JENNER. Do you know how long she had known Lee Oswald--that is, the
father of Lee Harvey Oswald--before they were married?
Mrs. MURRET. Well, John Edward was 2 years old when she married him, so
I figured she must have known him about a year or more. Myself, I knew
him, because he collected at my house, but I don't know whether she
knew him at that time or not.
Mr. JENNER. Do you know whether she knew him before she and her
husband, Edward John Pic, separated?
Mrs. MURRET. I doubt it.
Mr. JENNER. Do you know whether she knew him during the period of the
separation and before the divorce?
Mrs. MURRET. That must have been it. She must have known him during
that time.
Mr. JENNER. Give me your reaction to Mr. Oswald a little more, if you
will. What kind of man was he?
Mrs. MURRET. Well, he was a very outward man, a man that smiled a lot,
I might say. He smiled a lot, and he seemed aggressive.
Mr. JENNER. Would you say he was energetic?
Mrs. MURRET. Oh, yes; very much. He was a good worker for Metropolitan,
one of their top salesmen.
Mr. JENNER. And he was an outgoing person, you say?
Mrs. MURRET. He seemed to be.
Mr. JENNER. Would you call him an extrovert?
Mrs. MURRET. Yes; of course, I don't know what happened at home. I
can only tell you from what I noticed when I saw him, you know, but
he seemed to be very aggressive and energetic, and they seemed to be
getting along all right, so far as I could tell.
Mr. JENNER. During that period of time of her marriage to Lee Oswald,
did you have much contact with your sister Marguerite?
Mrs. MURRET. No; not very much. Like I said, I had five children
myself, and we didn't have a car; so we stayed at home a lot. Mr.
Murret is a man who don't care to visit relatives too much, and we
didn't visit them. They came over when they would be out riding around;
in other words, they might stop by or something like that, but we
didn't do much visiting.
Mr. JENNER. Your husband's given name is Charles F.; is that right?