Mr. Martin. No.
Mr. Dulles. Could you give us other examples where——
Mr. Martin. There is the first one.
Mr. Dulles. If you are planning to comment on that I would like to introduce it in evidence.
Mr. Martin. Yes. This will go with it.
Mr. Redlich. The witness has submitted to the Commission an article appearing in the Dallas Times Herald on Sunday, December 15, 1963, the headline reading, "Marina Oswald, all the pity in the world won't help", written by Bill Burrus. This has now been marked as Commission Exhibit No. 327, and I ask that it be admitted in evidence.
Mr. Dulles. This will be admitted, if there is no objection.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 327 for identification and received in evidence.)
Mr. Redlich. Mr. Martin, I hand you Commission Exhibit No. 327 and ask you to tell the Commission in what respects if any there is material in this article which you regard as untrue or exaggerated or slanted?
Mr. Martin. Here is a sentence in here, "She pores over the letters reaching her more than a thousand so far and is choked with emotion by the compassion and support they express", the only thing she did actually was to open the letters and did not open all of them. The only letters she read or attempted to read were ones written in Russian.
Mr. Redlich. What was her reaction to those letters?
Mr. Martin. Acceptance of it but no real thankfulness. The further it went, the longer it went, it seemed the less she cared whether——
Mr. Dulles. Did Burrus get this slanted material from you?
Mr. Martin. Yes.
Mr. Redlich. Do you recall anything she specifically said in response to these letters that is leading you to the conclusion that you have reached?
Mr. Martin. That she specifically said?
Mr. Redlich. Yes.
Mr. Martin. Well, for instance, one day she opened a letter and there was a dollar in it and she said, "Oh, a dollar", and threw it on the table, and there are little things that living as closely as we did, you can't really recall the specific incidents but there is a general feeling, and there is a complete lack of compassion as to what all these people are doing for her or trying to do for her.
Mr. Redlich. But you can't recall anything specific that she said which would indicate this lack of compassion?
Mr. Martin. No, other than "the American people are crazy for sending me that money".
Mr. Redlich. Is that a quotation from Mrs. Oswald? She said the American people are crazy for sending this money?
Mr. Martin. Yes.
Mr. Redlich. Did she elaborate on it?
Mr. Martin. No.
Mr. Redlich. Did you reply to that?
Mr. Martin. I told her that they felt sorry for her and she didn't say anything.
Mr. Redlich. Did she make any other comments of that nature?
Mr. Martin. Other than that dollar bill. Those are the only ones I can remember specifically.
Mr. Redlich. Would you continue your examination of Commission Exhibit No. 327?
Mr. Martin. Well, let's see, "unlike her husband, Marina is devout. She is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church", that is not true. She was not a devout Greek orthodox. She was not devout anything so far as religion is concerned.
Mr. Dulles. Did she ever say anything about the baptism of her child in that church to you?
Mr. Martin. Well, now let's see, she was supposed to have gotten June baptized without her husband's knowledge.
Mr. Redlich. You say she was supposed to have, where did you get that information?
Mr. Martin. Well, I read it somewhere prior to this article. This article has it in there. I didn't give him this information. He got it from some other article, and I recall reading it. And when she read this, she commented on it. She said he did know that June was being baptized.
Mr. Redlich. Did she read that?
Mr. Martin. Yes.
Mr. Redlich. In English?
Mr. Martin. Yes.
Mr. Redlich. She knew English well enough to read this?
Mr. Martin. Yes. It took her a while to read it.
Mr. Redlich. I would like to call the attention——
Mr. Martin. This is December 15.
Mr. Redlich. I would like to call the attention of the Commission to the date which is Sunday, December 15. You say as of Sunday, December 15, which is a little over 3 weeks after she came to live with you, Mrs. Oswald knew English well enough to be able to read this and understand it?
Mr. Martin. Not to read it legibly, I mean not to understand every word of it but she understood the biggest part of the article. I was quite amazed at how much she could read. She can't read writing or says she can't, but she can read printing or typing.
Here is another one now, "she is poring over children's primary readers and studying the Russian-English dictionary attempting to understand all the words and talk about her."
She had one child's book that one of the Secret Service men brought her, and she looked at it and that was the end of that.
Mr. Redlich. Where did this information appearing in this story come from? Did you tell that to Mr. Burrus?
Mr. Martin. Yes.
Mr. Redlich. When Mrs. Oswald read this story and saw things that were not quite true, did she discuss that fact with you?
Mr. Martin. On one occasion, let's see, what was it—it may have been in this article. Oh, yes, about the baptism. She said that Lee did know about the baptism. This was gleaned from some place else.
Mr. Dulles. Before or afterward?
Mr. Martin. Well, she said before. Before the baptism.
"She washes clothes for herself and June Lee, she cooks her own meals favoring macaroni and other casserole dishes." She did not cook her own meals. She cooked twice while she was at the house in two and a half months.
Mr. Redlich. Is this fact one which you related to Mr. Burrus, the fact she cooked her own meals?
Mr. Martin. I didn't say she cooked her own meals but she cooked.
Mr. Redlich. Do you recall what reaction if any Mrs. Oswald had in reading this comment?
Mr. Martin. The only one she commented on was she doesn't like macaroni, it is noodles.
Mr. Redlich. But Mrs. Oswald voiced no objection to your giving this information to the newspapers which to use your expression was not quite true?
Mr. Martin. No. "Marina now has the first dish washer she has ever used and she thinks it is wonderful". Actually, she didn't like it but now in most of this stuff Bill Burrus would ask me a question like, "Does she have a dish washer", and I would say "yes", and he would elaborate on it.
This is quite a sympathetic article. "Marina gets up at about 9 a.m. every day." She always got up between 10 and 11. "She asked Secret Service men to read some of the letters to her". I don't recall any incident where she did.
Mr. Redlich. Was that also a fact which you gave to Mr. Burrus?
Mr. Martin. No.
"As the hours and days tick by Marina watches television and struggles with newspapers. These things bring tears to her eyes, pictures of President Kennedy, Jackie, Lee Oswald, Mrs. Tippit, the wife of the slain police officer. Sometimes she turns off the set." That is not true.
Mr. Redlich. Could you