I said, "No, sir; it is not true."
Now, where does he get the idea I have been under surveillance for 2 weeks? I don't understand these things.
Mr. Doyle. Tell them about the defection.
Mrs. Oswald. Would you please consider that I can't go any more today? It is 4 o'clock. The defection is a very long and important story that leads into a story where a recruiting officer at age 16 tried to get Lee to enlist into the Marines. And it is a very important story, gentlemen. And I think you would be quite interested in it for the record.
The Chairman. We will recess now until tomorrow. Mr. Doyle, I understand in the morning you have a court appearance that you must make. But you will be available at 2 o'clock.
Mr. Doyle. Two o'clock. Your Honor.
The Chairman. Very well, we will recess now until 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon.
Mrs. Oswald. I appreciate it, because I was up until late last night trying to get the papers for you. It wouldn't do you any good if I break down.
The Chairman. Well, we don't want to overdo the situation in any way. So we will adjourn until 2 o'clock tomorrow.
(Whereupon, at 4 p.m., the President's Commission recessed.)
Tuesday, February 11, 1964
TESTIMONY OF MRS. MARGUERITE OSWALD RESUMED
The President's Commission met at 2 p.m. on February 11, 1964, at 200 Maryland Avenue NE., Washington, D.C.
Present were Chief Justice Earl Warren, Chairman; Representative Hale Boggs, Representative Gerald R. Ford, and Allen W. Dulles, members.
Also present were J. Lee Rankin, general counsel; Wesley J. Liebeler, assistant counsel; John Doyle, attorney for Mrs. Marguerite Oswald; and Leon Jaworski, special counsel to the attorney general of Texas.
The Chairman. The Commission will come to order. Are we ready to proceed?
Mr. Doyle. If it please Your Honor——
The Chairman. Mr. Doyle.
Mr. Doyle. Mr. Mark Lane is present as counsel, as I understand, for Mrs. Oswald. Although I have not talked to Mrs. Oswald about the matter, as I understand it Mr. Lane represented her from time to time, in one capacity or another in the past.
I do not know the particulars. Mrs. Oswald or Mr. Lane could better advise the Commission about the point.
Of course my designation was at the request of Mrs. Oswald to act in her behalf, since there was no counsel of her choice present at the time.
The Chairman. True.
Mr. Doyle. In view of the appearance—I wonder if it might be straightened out—if Mr. Lane wishes to enter his appearance in the matter.
Of course I would immediately respectfully move for leave to withdraw.
The Chairman. Mrs. Oswald, what is your wish?
Mrs. Oswald. Well, Mr. Lane is just here for a few hours, Chief Justice Warren. He flew in just for a few hours. He is catching a 4 o'clock plane out. And I thought—he had asked permission just to sit in for these few hours.
The Chairman. Either he represents you or he does not.
Mrs. Oswald. No, sir, he does not represent me.
The Chairman. Then we will excuse Mr. Lane.
Mr. Lane. Mr. Chief Justice——
The Chairman. Mr. Lane, now really—either you are here as the attorney for Mrs. Oswald or you are not entitled to be in this room—one of the two.
Mr. Lane. May I ask, Mr. Chief Justice, if it is permissible for me to function at Mrs. Oswald's request as her counsel together with Mr. Doyle, just for an hour or two, and then be excused.
The Chairman. Mr. Doyle has said that if you are her attorney he is not. And Mr. Doyle is doing this as a public service. We must respect his views in the matter.
Mr. Lane. I see. I did explain to Mr. Doyle before I came into the room exactly what the situation was. It was not until now that I understood his response.
Under those circumstances, I wonder if I might confer with Mrs. Oswald for just a minute or two.
The Chairman. If Mrs. Oswald wants to, she may.
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, thank you.
The Chairman. All right.
You may take another room, if you wish.
(Brief recess.)
The Chairman. All right.
Mr. Lane. Under the circumstances, since I do have to leave and I will not be able to be here for the rest of the afternoon's session and for subsequent sessions—under those circumstances, since Mr. Doyle will not remain on jointly with me, I will at this time withdraw.
The Chairman. Very well. Now, we will continue. Mr. Rankin, you may continue with the hearing.
Mr. Rankin. Mrs. Oswald, could you tell us first now, while you are fresh, about this conspiracy that you said that you knew about?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes—If you would like me to do it now. I was going to lead up to all the fundamentals, to my way of thinking. I have no proof, because naturally if I did I don't think we would be here.
But I feel like there is a lot of speculation about everything.
My way of thinking is because the involvement of myself at Six Flags and the way I was treated, as I have already put into the testimony, and as I stated yesterday, also, that I was supposed to be under protective custody, and I was not.
I wonder why I didn't have protective custody, why I am not important enough, with papers out of the vault, and appearing before the hearing, that Mr. Sorrels, head of the Secret Service, didn't give me protective custody, even though you, yourself, Mr. Rankin, required it.
These are the things I have to face that to me are very unusual.
Mr. Rankin. Well, it is such a serious charge to say that these two Secret Service men and your son and—I didn't understand for sure whether you included anyone else in your charge—were involved in a conspiracy to assassinate the President.
Mrs. Oswald. No, no——
Mr. Rankin. And your daughter-in-law.
Mrs. Oswald. That is not my statement. I said I thought that we have a plot in our own government, and that there is a high official involved. And I am thinking that probably these Secret Service men are part of it.
Now, I didn't say in a conspiracy—make it as strong as you did. I have made it strong. But I am under the impression that possibly there is a leak in our own government. And when I come to these papers—and I specifically yesterday morning asked about Senator Tower.
Now, I am not throwing any reflection on Senator Tower. But he made the statement in the paper that he had a letter from the State Department saying that Lee had renounced his citizenship.
Now, you see, I don't have that paper with me. I had it yesterday morning. But his whole quotes—the dates and everything of the letter that he was supposed to have had is not in correspondence with the dates that I have from the State Department papers which you gentlemen know that I have all these papers from the State Department. Nothing corresponds with what I have.
So I wanted to know and see this letter that Senator Tower claims he has. It could have been that it was an error in newspaper reporting, and I will say in slang he could have shot his mouth off, because he said he would not help the boy when the boy wrote him the letter.
Representative