Mr. Oswald. All right.
I do recall a conversation at my home in Fort Worth, Tex., between myself and Lee Harvey Oswald——
Mr. Jenner. Fix the time, please.
Mr. Oswald. Approximately the middle part of June 1962, at which time the subject was brought up by him about his efforts to have the discharge corrected to an honorable discharge, and that again he advised me that he had written to the then Secretary of the Navy, John B. Connally, and that Mr. Connally, or his office had replied that he was no longer the Secretary of the Navy, and that he had turned over the correspondence to the then Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Korth, I believe.
Mr. McKenzie. Mr. Fred Korth.
Mr. Oswald. I do not recall any further discussion on that subject. And he did not indicate to me the pro or con of any antipathy toward Mr. Connally.
Mr. Dulles. He expressed no antipathy?
Mr. Jenner. As a person?
Mr. Oswald. As a person, he did not make any comment, sir.
Mr. Jenner. And did he at any time, apart from this particular event you are now relating, at any time prior to November 22, 1963, ever express any antipathy toward Governor Connally as a person?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; he did not.
Mr. Dulles. Did you ever hear Marina Oswald express any views about President Kennedy one way or the other?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I do not recall at any time that she has expressed any views on Mr. Kennedy.
Mr. Dulles. Do you recall at any time that Lee Harvey Oswald expressed antipathy to government in general, people in authority, leaders?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I do not recall.
Mr. Dulles. Did he express any—apart from the letters, what he said in his letters to you, which we have—but after he returned from the Soviet Union, and during the period you saw him, subsequent to his return, did he ever discuss with you the failures of government, that government itself was not good, or if the kind of government we had in the United States was not good, as was expressed to some extent in the letters?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I do not recall at any time other than in his letters during the period of the latter part of 1959, at any time that he made any derogatory remarks about any official or any particular leader or the government of the United States.
Mr. Dulles. And that statement would include General Walker, would it?
Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; it most certainly would.
Mr. Dulles. He never discussed General Walker with you?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I never heard him mention the gentleman's name.
Mr. Dulles. Did your brother have any sort of pet hatreds, institutions, people or otherwise, that he disliked, apart from what he said in his letters?
I am talking now of the period after his return from Russia.
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; to my knowledge he did not.
Mr. Dulles. I have nothing further at this time. I may have one last question at the end.
Do you wish to follow up on any of these points?
Mr. Jenner. No; not right at the moment.
Would you take your diary. There are one or two items that I would like to clear up.
Page 1—you speak of the old Denton plant and the new Denton plant. Would you please locate those plants?
Mr. Oswald. They are both located at Denton, Tex., and they are located approximately a mile apart, sir.
Mr. Jenner. And they are the plants of the Acme Brick Co. by whom you are employed?
Mr. Oswald. That is right.
Mr. Jenner. And the reason I asked you about these is that you talk about going from the old to the new plant, and I wanted to locate them.
Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir.
Mr. Jenner. The incident in New Orleans in which your brother was distributing literature of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee—did that come to your attention at that time?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; that did not.
Mr. Jenner. And when was the first time that you became—you ever heard of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, or anything about it?
Mr. Oswald. I believe this to be, sir, to the best of my remembrance, on Friday night, November 22, 1963, at the FBI office in Dallas, Tex.
Mr. Dulles. You are referring there, I assume, to Lee Harvey Oswald's connection with the committee, aren't you? Or are you referring to the fact whether he knew there was a committee.
Mr. Jenner. Both.
I will separate those. Did you know there was such a committee at any time up to that occasion—had you heard of its existence?
Mr. Oswald. Perhaps I had read about it in the paper and not recalling any significant value to myself I perhaps had forgotten about it.
Mr. Jenner. Then I will ask you the other part.
Had you heard of any connection on the part of your brother with or any activity on his part with respect to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, prior to November 22, 1963.
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I had not.
Mr. Dulles. You knew nothing of his short arrest in New Orleans?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; I did not.
Mr. Dulles. You didn't even know he was arrested?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir. I did not even know he had traveled from Dallas, Tex., to New Orleans, until that night of November 22, 1963.
Mr. Jenner. Page 2 of your memorandum—you recited there that an announcer—I assume a radio station announcer—called you. Did you find that?
Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; I do find the area that you are referring to. The announcer did not call me, sir. It was the radio announcer on the radio.
Mr. Jenner. I see.
And what did the announcer say?
Mr. Oswald. To the best of my remembrance, sir, the announcer stated that a man identified as Lee Oswald had been arrested in connection with a policeman's death and possibly the death of the President of the United States on or about that approximate time.
Mr. Jenner. And was that the first intimation of any kind or character, or the first notice or knowledge to you, of the possible involvement of your brother, Lee Harvey Oswald, either in the murder of Policeman Tippit or in the assassination of President Kennedy.
Mr. Oswald. That is right.
Mr. Jenner. And where were you when that announcement was made?
Mr. Oswald. I was in the office of the new Denton plant when this announcement was made, or at least I first became aware of the announcement on the radio at that time.
Mr. Jenner. Now, would you give us your immediate mental reaction when you heard that?
Mr. Oswald. I believe, sir, my reaction to that would be somewhat stunned.
Mr. Jenner. Stunned in the sense of disbelieving? You just could not absorb it?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; not to that extent. If I may say this. My own personal mental attitude, through my entire life, seems to react to trouble to the extent that I do not perhaps go to pieces, so to speak, that I react apparently calmly in the face of adversity.
Mr. Jenner. I take it with that disposition that you have that anything in life is possible—no matter how extraordinary it may seem at the moment—you retain a grip on yourself?
Mr.