Mr. MURRET. No, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. With Oswald at all?
Mr. MURRET. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you ever hear him mention President Kennedy?
Mr. MURRET. No, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Or Governor Connally?
Mr. MURRET. No, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you form an opinion about Oswald's general character
from your observations and experience with him in 1963?
Mr. MURRET. In the summer of 1963?
Mr. LIEBELER. Yes.
Mr. MURRET. Actually, he probably didn't have any other choice of doing
anything. It was kind of hard, I guess, for him to get along. Like I
say, his appearance in general--I mean, just by looking at him, he just
didn't have the clothes or anything to do anything right. In other
words, everything that he did was wrong if he did go look for a job and
get turned down and so forth. It was kind of hard for him after a bit.
Someone would have helped him, but he didn't actually need any help. He
wanted to do it on his own. You could have helped him, you know, but he
just didn't want any help. He wouldn't ask for anything, I know that,
he wouldn't ask for anything.
Mr. LIEBELER. He struck you as sort of an independent, proud sort of
fellow?
Mr. MURRET. He was proud, there is no doubt about it. He was proud.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you think he was a fairly bright fellow, or did you
form an opinion about his intelligence?
Mr. MURRET. He was bright and he impressed me--you know, bright
in a different sense of the word. Now whether he thought in the
right direction, I really don't know, but he was--but he improved
particularly, you know, from the younger years that I had known him.
He had improved tremendously as far as intelligence is concerned and
his vocabulary, and evidently he tried to impress people, you know,
with it, but he was impressive, he was impressive.
Mr. LIEBELER. He seemed to speak well and was articulate?
Mr. MURRET. Right, he was. He used words that an ordinary individual
wouldn't use in conversation.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you know that he was arrested by the New Orleans
Police Department some time during the summer of 1963 in connection
with some difficulties that he got into when he was distributing Fair
Play for Cuba Committee literature?
Mr. MURRET. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. When did you learn that?
Mr. MURRET. Well, when it was in the paper or when it was on television.
Mr. LIEBELER. At the time?
Mr. MURRET. At the time. Either that or my parents had told me. I don't
recall.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you have anything to do with getting him out of jail?
Mr. MURRET. Nothing at all.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you know that he was on a radio debate over at WDSU?
Mr. MURRET. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you hear him?
Mr. MURRET. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. I understand that Oswald actually called the house out
there and told you that he was going to be on the radio, did he not?
Mr. MURRET. Right. He sure did.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you have any discussions with him or see him after
the radio debate?
Mr. MURRET. If I did see him, I didn't discuss it, you know, with him.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you ever at any time discuss with him this Fair
Play for Cuba Committee episode or his radio debate or anything in
connection with those events?
Mr. MURRET. No, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do I understand that your sister was involved in the
events that led to Oswald's release from jail? Is that correct?
Mr. MURRET. To my understanding, she was.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did she tell you that?
Mr. MURRET. Did she tell me that? That is my oldest sister.
Mr. LIEBELER. What is her name?
Mr. MURRET. Joyce O'Brien.
Mr. LIEBELER. Where does she live?
Mr. MURRET. She lives in Beaumont, Tex.
Mr. LIEBELER. The question was: Did she tell you that she had been
involved in getting Oswald out of jail?
Mr. MURRET. I heard something to the effect that while he was in jail
he phoned the home. It just so happened my sister was there at the
time, because she very seldom comes in, and naturally you want to, you
know, see if we could get him out, and she is saying how did he get in
there in the first place, and she didn't want to get him out after she
heard what he did.
Mr. LIEBELER. She didn't want to get him out after she heard what he
did?
Mr. MURRET. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you know Oswald as a younger boy?
Mr. MURRET. No; not closely. I can recollect, you know, when he was a
small boy, but no particular dealings with him. He was too small to
hold any conversation with him.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you have any recollection of what kind of a fellow he
was when he was a kid?
Mr. MURRET. He was a nice kid. Just by his pictures and so forth, he
was real nice. To me he was harmful [sic].
Mr. LIEBELER. What?
Mr. MURRET. Harmful.
Mr. LIEBELER. Harmful?
Mr. MURRET. Harmless.
Mr. LIEBELER. How old are you, Mr. Murret?
Mr. MURRET. I am 29.
Mr. LIEBELER. Twenty-nine?
Mr. MURRET. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. You are the youngest member of the Murret family? Is that
right?
Mr. MURRET. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you ever know Lee Oswald's older brother, Robert?
Mr. MURRET. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Were you closer to Robert than you were to Lee, would you
say, or how much contact did you have with Robert?
Mr. MURRET. Well, I would say about the same. Actually they weren't
here in the city of New Orleans, you know, long enough to get close to
them.
Mr. LIEBELER. There was nothing that you knew about Lee Oswald's youth
that was particularly noteworthy or outstanding or would draw your
attention to him or would distinguish him from other boys of his age,
that you can remember, was there?
Mr. MURRET. No, sir; I couldn't say. I didn't have that much contact.
Mr. LIEBELER. Now looking back over the summer of 1963, thinking about
your contact with Lee Oswald, is there anything that you can think of
that you did with him or any conversations that you had or anything
of interest that occurred during that time that we haven't talked
about? If you can think of anything else in that nature that we haven't
mentioned, that you think would be helpful to the Commission, we would
like to have you tell us.
Mr. MURRET. Well, the only thing I can think of; like I say, it just so
happens that I was home all the time, but the telephone rang, you know,
for him getting a job or some employment agencies calling up asking,
you know, for him to contact the employment agencies because they had
located him a job and so forth, and the only thing I can recollect
is an employment agency calling me up one night, and couldn't get in
contact with him, and I had to call the particular coffee plant the
next day, you know, saying that the agency wants to see you, you know,
right away, he has a job located for you--in photography I think it
was. So I had called him, and that was about the end of that.
Mr. LIEBELER. You did call Lee?
Mr. MURRET. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you reach him at the coffee plant?
Mr. MURRET. Yes, sir.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did he say anything when you told him that this
employment agency was looking for him?
Mr. MURRET. No; I was just hoping that this was the job that he was
looking for. Other than that, that is all.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember the name of the employment agency?
Mr. MURRET. No, sir; I don't. They had maybe one or two that called up,
different ones, but it was amazing--not amazing, but evidently when he
was applying for these particular jobs he must have impressed them such
that they would let him know one way or the other, you know, whether
they had a job for him or not, rather than just pass it by.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did Lee own a suit of clothes?
Mr. MURRET. I think he did; yes, sir. It was during the summer, and it
was a woolen suit more so than a summer suit.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you know whether he wore that suit when he went
looking for a job?
Mr. MURRET. He might have wore it once; yes, sir. That was the only
suit he had that I know of.
Mr. LIEBELER. How much luggage did Lee have with him when he stayed out
at the place on French Street?
Mr. MURRET. I couldn't say. Just the bag that I saw, you know, just the
handbag which is similar to--you know, like a basketball equipment bag.
Mr. LIEBELER. Something like an airline bag?
Mr. MURRET. Yes; something like that.