Mr. Rankin. He never told you anything of that kind?
Mrs. Oswald. No. After Lee returned from Mexico, I lived in Dallas, and Lee gave me his phone number and then when he changed his apartment—Lee lived in Dallas, and he gave me his phone number. And then when he moved, he left me another phone number.
And once when he did not come to visit during the weekend, I telephoned him and asked for him by name—rather, Ruth telephoned him and it turned out there was no one there by that name. When he telephoned me again on Monday, I told him that we had telephoned him but he was unknown at that number.
Then he said that he had lived there under an assumed name. He asked me to remove the notation of the telephone number in Ruth's phone book, but I didn't want to do that. I asked him then, "Why did you give us a phone number, when we do call we cannot get you by name?"
He was very angry, and he repeated that I should remove the notation of the phone number from the phone book. And, of course, we had a quarrel. I told him that this was another of his foolishness, some more of his foolishness. I told Ruth Paine about this. It was incomprehensible to me why he was so secretive all the time.
Mr. Rankin. Did he give you any explanation of why he was using an assumed name at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. He said that he did not want his landlady to know his real name because she might read in the paper of the fact that he had been in Russia and that he had been questioned.
Mr. Rankin. What did you say about that?
Mrs. Oswald. Nothing. And also he did not want the FBI to know where he lived.
Mr. Rankin. Did he tell you why he did not want the FBI to know where he lived?
Mrs. Oswald. Because their visits were not very pleasant for him and he thought that he loses jobs because the FBI visits the place of his employment.
Mr. Rankin. Now, if he was using an assumed name during the trip in Mexico, you didn't know about it, is that correct?
Mrs. Oswald. I didn't know, that is correct.
Mr. Rankin. Before the trip to Mexico, did your husband tell you that he did not expect to contact the Soviet Embassy there about the visa?
Mrs. Oswald. He said that he was going to visit the Soviet Embassy, but more for the purpose of getting to Cuba, to try to get to Cuba. I think that was more than anything a masking of his purpose. He thought that this would help.
Mr. Rankin. You mean it was a masking of his purpose to visit the Soviet Embassy in Mexico, or to write it in this letter?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't understand the question.
Mr. Rankin. You noticed where he said in this letter "I had not planned to contact the Soviet Embassy in Mexico," did you not?
Mrs. Oswald. Why hadn't he planned that?
Mr. Rankin. That is what I am trying to find out from you.
Did he ever tell you that he didn't plan to visit the Soviet Embassy?
Mrs. Oswald. This is not the truth. He did want to contact the embassy.
Mr. Rankin. And he told you before he went to Mexico that he planned to visit the Soviet Embassy, did he?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. Did he ever say to you before he went to Mexico that he planned to communicate with the Soviet Embassy in Havana?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, he said that if he would be able to get to Cuba, with the intention of living there, he would get in touch with the Soviet Embassy for the purpose of bringing me there. Or for him to go to Russia. Because sometimes he really sincerely wanted to go to Russia and live and sometimes not. He did not know, himself. He was very changeable.
Mr. Rankin. But in Exhibit 15, Mrs. Oswald, he refers to the fact that he hadn't been able to reach the Soviet Embassy in Havana as planned, and then he says, "The Embassy there would have had time to complete our business."
Now, did he discuss that at all with you before he went to Mexico?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes. If he said in Mexico City that he wanted to visit the Soviet Embassy in Havana, the reason for it was only that he thereby would be able to get to Cuba.
Is this understandable? Does this clarify the matter or not?
Mr. Rankin. The difficulty, Mrs. Oswald, with my understanding of Exhibit 15 is that he purports to say, as I read the letter, that if he had been able to reach the Soviet Embassy in Havana, he would have been able to complete his business about the visa, and he wouldn't have had to get in touch with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City at all.
Mrs. Oswald. The thing is that one cannot go to Cuba—that the only legal way is via Mexico City. And, therefore, he went to the Soviet Embassy there in Mexico City and told them that he wanted to visit the Soviet Embassy in Havana, but only for the purpose of getting into Cuba.
I don't think he would have concluded his business there. I don't think that you understand that Lee has written that letter in a quite involved manner. It is not very logical. I don't know whether it is clear to you or not.
Mr. Rankin. I appreciate, Mrs. Oswald, your interpretation of it.
I was trying to find out also whether your husband had told you anything about what he meant or what he did or whether he had tried to contact the Embassy in Havana, as he says in this letter.
Mrs. Oswald. Yes. I don't know of this letter. I only know that Lee wanted to get to Cuba by any means.
Mr. Rankin. Then he next proceeds to say, "Of course the Soviet Embassy was not at fault. They were, as I say, unprepared". As I read that, I understand that he was trying to let the Embassy in Washington know that the Mexico City Embassy had not been notified by him, and, therefore, was unprepared.
Now, did he say anything like that to you after his return to Mexico?
Mrs. Oswald. Why did the Embassy in Washington have to notify the Embassy in Mexico City that Lee Oswald was arriving?
It is not that I am asking. It seems to me that this is not a normal thing.
Mr. Rankin. The question is did he say anything to you about it when he got back?
Mrs. Oswald. He said that when he went to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City they had promised him that they would write a letter to the Embassy in Washington.
Please excuse me, but it is very difficult for me to read the involved thoughts of Lee.
I think that he was confused himself, and I certainly am.
Mr. Rankin. Is that all that you can recall that was said about that matter?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. Then he goes on to say——
Mrs. Oswald. Excuse me. I only know that his basic desire was to get to Cuba by any means, and that all the rest of it was window dressing for that purpose.
Mr. Rankin. Then in this Exhibit 15 he proceeds to say, "The Cuban Consulate was guilty of a gross breach of regulations." Do you know what he meant by that?
Mrs. Oswald. What regulations—what are the regulations?
Mr. Rankin. I am trying to find out from you.
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know about that. I don't know what happened.
Mr. Rankin. Did he ever say what regulations he thought were breached, or that the Cuban Embassy didn't carry out regulations when he returned from his trip and told you about what happened there?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know.
Mr. Rankin. Then he goes on to say in the Exhibit, "I am glad he has since been replaced."
Do you know whom he was referring to?
Mrs. Oswald. I have no knowledge of it. I think that if the person to whom this letter was addressed would read the