Mrs. VOSHININ. Before he went.
Mr. JENNER. At the time he went to Yugoslavia?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Yes; uh-huh.
Mr. JENNER. And you had these conversations with him about going to
Yugoslavia before he left?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Yes; right.
Mr. JENNER. And you know he went?
Mrs. VOSHININ. And I know he went; right.
Mr. JENNER. You know, by reputation, that he went to Yugoslavia?
Mrs. VOSHININ. What reputation?
Mr. JENNER. Well, by what was said. It was said that he went to
Yugoslavia. You do know----
Mrs. VOSHININ. Yes; but then he sent us postcards from Yugoslavia.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
Mrs. VOSHININ. So, we knew for sure that he was there. And then he
brought back--that I know for sure that he went to Yugoslavia--and he
brought the photo pictures unmistakably Yugoslavian that he brought
back--photographs, you know, that were Yugoslavian.
Some of them I knew--some of the places.
Mr. JENNER. You knew some of the places in Yugoslavia?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. He was over there about how long?
Mrs. VOSHININ. I thought he was there about a year--something like that.
Mr. JENNER. And this was when?
Mrs. VOSHININ. I think it was in--now, that I cannot place exactly. I
think in 1957--in 1956 and 1957; or 1957 and beginning of 1958. I'm
not too sure. But anyway, what I remember that in 1959--it was before
1959, because in 1959 we went to Fifth Petroleum Congress in New York
City and there we met George and his old friends from Yugoslavia. So,
that would have been the year before that that he went. There was a
delegation of Yugoslavian geologists who knew him--and he introduced us.
Mr. JENNER. And you gathered, from those introductions and talking,
that they were people in the Yugoslavian delegation to the Fifth
Petroleum Congress who knew George?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Knew George very well; yes.
Mr. JENNER. And did they speak of his having been there, or what was
said that led you to affirm that he had been in Yugoslavia?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Well, for some reason, somehow we could not get together
with those people. We just--you know, it's not very easy sometimes to
talk to the people from behind the Iron Curtain. And I had definite
feeling that they were little bit afraid to talk to us--for some reason.
Mr. JENNER. Because of your long stay in Yugoslavia, both you and your
husband could have spoken with them? You are familiar with----
Mrs. VOSHININ. Oh, they talked our own language. Certainly.
And we just--I just met the whole group once, and then one fellow
was there who was brought up also in Banat region--[spelling]
B-a-n-a-t--which is near the town of Panchevo, where I grew up. And he
was very eager to talk. And I had the impression that he was definitely
afraid.
Mr. JENNER. Afraid to talk to you?
Mrs. VOSHININ. You know what he did? For some reason he would
say--"Would you like to get out into the corridor and meet me there and
let's talk?" And we would say a few words and they would come and he
would immediately cease talking, you know.
And then again, he would say it--and it was always in a crowd
that he would like so to talk. I don't know. That was just funny
behavior--really.
Mr. JENNER. And this Fifth Petroleum Conference was when?
Mrs. VOSHININ. In 1959--end of May and beginning of June, I believe.
Mr. JENNER. Were you going to tell us about the so-called second period
of George De Mohrenschildt's career?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Well, I would call it the second period because, first
of all, I must tell you that in between, somewhere in the middle of the
second period, we were not on speaking terms with George and Jeanne for
over a year. So, I cannot tell anything about that period.
Mr. JENNER. Why?
Mrs. VOSHININ. That was--well, from some cracks they made. I
mean--no--well, okay. It was a silly joke, I believe.
But Jeanne wanted to send a greetings telegram to Mr. Khrushchev, you
know.
Now, I don't know whether I made it clear to the gentlemen from the
FBI. So, I would rather say this now.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
Mrs. VOSHININ. But she never sent this telegram. George told me she
never did send it. But, anyway, we were awfully angry at that--really
angry. And it was just--all that constantly, you know, and their
talking in left direction----
Mr. JENNER. Their talking what?
Mrs. VOSHININ. In left direction, I mean. They were liberals, you know,
and once in a while they were just unpleasant.
Mr. JENNER. Was George De Mohrenschildt a liberal also, or was his wife
the liberal?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Wife was a liberal, definite; but George would
talk--could talk either way. George--well, if he would, for example,
think that he could knock you off your feet by saying something
pro-Fascistic, he would do that.
Mr. JENNER. Saying something what?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Pro-Fascistic, you know--pro-Nazi.
Mr. JENNER. Pro-Nazi?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Yes; he would do that by all means. If he knew that
you are a middle-of-the-roader, he would praise Communists, you
know. Communists--not communism. In fact, I never heard George--not
necessarily communism itself. In fact, I never heard George praising
the Communists' doctrine even, you know, talking about it in several
ways.
Mr. JENNER. He was a provocative personality, was he?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Definitely.
Mr. JENNER. He sought to provoke argument?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Exactly. And to say exactly the opposite. Something that
you will disagree, and start arguing. Exactly.
Mr. JENNER. He would take either side?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Either side.
Mr. JENNER. Always opposite to the other person?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Right.
Mr. JENNER. I see.
Mrs. VOSHININ. And yet, somehow, you know, he had that definite
sympathy for the--I would say, for the leftist regime; somehow--not in
particular.
Mr. DAVIS. I wonder if I might ask a question?
Mr. JENNER. Sure.
Mr. DAVIS. Did you all ever meet people named the Kelvin Fords?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Kelvin or Declan Ford? I met Declan Ford.
Mr. DAVIS. I mean Declan. Excuse me.
Mrs. VOSHININ. Declan. Yes.
Mr. DAVIS. Do you know them?
Mrs. VOSHININ. I don't know them very well. I knew her very well when
she was married to her first husband--but not too close with her after
she married Declan. I just met them several times.
Mr. DAVIS. Did you attend the Christmas party that they had?
Mrs. VOSHININ. No, sir; I did not--oh, wait a minute. That was not
Christmas party. That was New Year's party.
Mr. DAVIS. New Year's party?
Mrs. VOSHININ. This year's New Year's party; yes. We attended that.
Yes; uh-huh.
Mr. DAVIS. Did you meet Lee Oswald there?
Mrs. VOSHININ. No, sir. That was after the assassination of the
President that we attended the New Year's party.
Mr. DAVIS. Well, the one the year before?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Oh, no. We went elsewhere.
Mr. JENNER. Tell me about George De Mohrenschildt's personality--other
than in this area of argumentation and provocation.
Mrs. VOSHININ. Well, I thought that he was a neurotic person. He
had some sort of headaches and sometimes he would flare into a rage
absolutely for no reason at all practically. And I knew that he
complained to me several times that he could not concentrate very
well. And once he mentioned something about seeing a psychiatrist or
something. He had some difficulty on the nervous background.
Mr. JENNER. Was he unconventional?
Mrs. VOSHININ. Uh--what does that mean exactly?