Mr. DELGADO. That I am sure of was that one particular incident, one
particular time, it struck me as being odd that he had gone out, you
know.
Mr. LIEBELER. So that Oswald only went into Los Angeles with you on one
occasion that you can remember; is that right?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes; that I can recall.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did the FBI agent ask you about this?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes; he asked me that, and I believe I gave him the same
answer I have given you now, because the other time they had two men,
that other fellow was asking me questions too, you know, this is back
and forth, trying to answer you, and he is asking me something else,
you know. I was sitting in the old man's office, the commanding
officer's office, you know, and I wasn't too at ease there either.
Mr. LIEBELER. Oswald did not go with you to Los Angeles on every other
week or anything like that?
Mr. DELGADO. No, no. I went every week to Los Angeles.
Mr. LIEBELER. Every week?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes; every weekend that I was off, you know, roughly three
weekends a month.
Mr. LIEBELER. But Oswald only accompanied you on one occasion?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. You don't know of your own knowledge of any other times
that he went into Los Angeles?
Mr. DELGADO. No. The only outstanding thing I can remember was that
Oswald was a casual dresser. By that I mean he would go with a sport
shirt, something like that, and this particular instance he was suited
up; white shirt, dark suit, dark tie.
Mr. LIEBELER. You told the FBI that Oswald enjoyed classical music; is
that right?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. And that he would often talk at length about the opera;
is that correct?
Mr. DELGADO. Right. I tried to be a listener, but I wasn't too
interested.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did Oswald seem to be interested in girls?
Mr. DELGADO. No; not to my knowledge. He didn't have a girl friend
write him, I know that for a fact; he didn't have no girl writing;
never went to a dance down at the service club; always by himself. And
when we had no duty, him and I used to go to the show, you know, 9
times out of 10 I ended up paying for it.
Mr. LIEBELER. How about sports, did he ever show any interest in sports?
Mr. DELGADO. No. That is something I would like to bring up.
Mr. LIEBELER. Go ahead.
Mr. DELGADO. May I go on the record, because there was a statement I
read in Life Magazine?
Mr. LIEBELER. Go ahead.
Mr. DELGADO. And it's erroneous.
Mr. LIEBELER. What did it say?
Mr. DELGADO. It is quoting a Lieutenant Cupenack, and he made a
statement there in Life, last month, I believe it was. He made a
statement saying he was Oswald's commanding officer, Oswald was on the
football team. He was on the football team, that is the only true fact
in the whole statement that he made. Also that he had a run-in with a
captain that was on the football team, and because of this argument he
went off the team.
To begin with, our company commander was a light colonel, lieutenant
colonel. Lieutenant Cupenack was a supply officer. He seldom came in
contact with Oswald, and when he did, it was only when Oswald was on
details or when Lieutenant Cupenack had duty that particular night in
the war room when Oswald was on. And as far as a captain being on the
football team, the only captain we had was in the S-3 section where we
worked, and he was too old to play football.
Lieutenant Cupenack played football. He was good. He was tackle. I
remember I played against him plenty of times myself. And why Oswald
left, I don't know. I don't think he went out, he just bugged out, it's
what he wanted, and he had it for a while, and he just quit.
Mr. LIEBELER. He did come out for football though?
Mr. DELGADO. Right.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you tell the FBI agents about this?
Mr. DELGADO. No.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did they ask about it?
Mr. DELGADO. No; I didn't tell them. I just couldn't see why a big
agency like Life would not check into the story and let something like
this, you know, get out. I mean it's all well, you know, to go along
and believe what the fellow did, but bring out the truth.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember which article in Life Magazine this was?
Was this the issue----
Mr. DELGADO. The big writeup on him, the latest one, where he had the
picture of him in the Philippines, and things like that.
Mr. LIEBELER. The one that they had Oswald's picture on the cover,
holding the rifle?
Mr. DELGADO. Right. And right now he is an instructor of philosophy or
psychology in Columbia University, I think it is, something like that.
Mr. LIEBELER. This lieutenant?
Mr. DELGADO. Right. I just thought it funny, him saying that he was
commanding officer over Oswald; that he had a lot of trouble with
Oswald. And you have been in the Army, a supply officer hardly ever
comes in contact with the troops, and to say that a lieutenant is going
to override a lieutenant colonel is ridiculous.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did you tell the FBI that Oswald did not show any
interest in sports?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes; I told them he didn't show any interest in sports.
Mr. LIEBELER. In spite of the fact that he had actually gone on the
football team?
Mr. DELGADO. That is just one example, the football. But he never went
out for basketball, baseball, or handball, like the rest of us did, you
know. And myself, I didn't go out for sports either, just football and
handball; and that was it.
Mr. LIEBELER. Was Oswald a good football player?
Mr. DELGADO. Mediocre, he was so-so.
Mr. LIEBELER. What position did he play?
Mr. DELGADO. He played tackle or end, you know, never fullback,
quarterback or anything like that, you know.
Mr. LIEBELER. What kind of football teams were these?
Mr. DELGADO. Flag. Flag football.
Mr. LIEBELER. That is, the different companies or batteries?
Mr. DELGADO. Well, when Oswald went out for the team, it was in the
battery, getting the lines set up, but he quit before we went for
competition.
Mr. LIEBELER. Was this regular football or just touch football.
Mr. DELGADO. Flag football.
Mr. LIEBELER. Touch football?
Mr. DELGADO. Touch football.
Mr. LIEBELER. Go back and tell us all that you can remember about this
trip to Tijuana?
Mr. DELGADO. Well, it happened on one of our weekends off.
Mr. LIEBELER. When was it, approximately?
Mr. DELGADO. Oh, you got me there. I would say about May, something
like that.
Mr. LIEBELER. In 1959.
Mr. DELGADO. 1959; right.
Mr. LIEBELER. Can you remember whether your trip to Tijuana was before
the rifle qualification or after?
Mr. DELGADO. After.
Mr. LIEBELER. How much after?
Mr. DELGADO. Oh, about 3 to 4 weeks. Within the same month period,
because we were about just gotten paid, you know.
Mr. LIEBELER. Go ahead.
Mr. DELGADO. And these two colored fellows we had in our outfit, I
can't remember their names, like I told the agents, I don't know why
because they worked in a different department than I did there, never
had no trouble with them, they wanted to go down to Tijuana; so I had
the car, and they asked me if I would take them down there. So I told
them yeah, they are going to pay for the gas, so why not, I will go for
a free trip. So in the process of getting ready I asked Oswald if he
wanted to go there, you know, and I have asked him to go to L.A. with
me plenty of times and he never bothered going--I said, "Oswald, let's
go to Tijuana."
He said, "Okay, fine." Like a casual dresser, he went like the rest of
us were, in casual clothes.
We went down to Tijuana, hit the local spots, drinking and so on, and
all of a sudden he says, "Let's go to the Flamingo." So it didn't
register, and I didn't bother to ask him, "Where is this Flamingo? How
did you know about this place?" I assumed he had been there before,
because when we got on the highway he told me which turns to take to
get to this place, you know.
Mr. LIEBELER. To the Flamingo?
Mr. DELGADO. Flamingo, right. And as far as I know it's still there.
Mr. LIEBELER. Is this outside of Tijuana?
Mr. DELGADO. It's outside of Tijuana. Have you been over there?
Mr. LIEBELER. No.
Mr. DELGADO. No. Well, it's the street before the bullring. You have
got to make a right-hand turn and you go out for about 1 mile, 2 miles
out into the boondocks, the country. It's out in the country, about 2
miles away from the center of the town.
When we arrived in there, the way the agents tried to ask me if he
had known anybody, I told them no; the way it looked, he just had
been there before, but nobody recognized him. The only things I
can remember, like I told these agents, were the two contrasting
bartenders, you know, a real good-looking woman, amazon; she must have
been at least 6-foot tall; and then there was this fragile-looking
fellow behind the bar, one of those funny men, you know, and outside of
being a very nice and exclusive club, you know--it wasn't one of these
clip joints they had downtown, it was far different from that; it was
really nice, a nice place.
Mr. LIEBELER. The bartender was a homosexual?
Mr. DELGADO. Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER. Was that apparent to you?
Mr. DELGADO. Oh, yes; it was apparent to us sitting on the bar stool,
he looked like a little kitten; and the other bartender was this big
girl. She was a good-looking doll. And that's about all.
Nothing eventful happened there. There is where the girls were telling
stories, you know. They got these girls, you pick them up there, you
know, and they started telling us stories, and he'd laugh just about
the same time I laughed, and he understood what they were saying.
Mr. LIEBELER. They spoke Spanish?
Mr. DELGADO. Right.
Mr. LIEBELER. Now, did anything else happen at the Flamingo that you
can remember?
Mr. DELGADO. No; during the night though I had lost my wallet. That was
when I went to the provost marshal--not the provost marshal--the M.P.
gate, and reported it, but that is neither here nor there. I had to put
in for a new I.D. card and what have you.
Mr. LIEBELER. This was in Tijuana?
Mr. DELGADO. In Tijuana.