Mr. Rankin. Your husband goes on in Exhibit 15 to say, "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is not now interested in my activities in the progressive organization 'Fair Play for Cuba Committee' of which I was secretary in New Orleans (State of Louisiana) since I no longer reside in that state."
Do you know why he would say anything like that to the Embassy?
Mrs. Oswald. Because he was crazy.
He wrote this in order to emphasize his importance. He was no secretary of any—he was not a secretary of any organization.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know that he had received any inquiry from the Embassy or anyone of the Soviet Union about the matters that he is telling about here?
Mrs. Oswald. No. I don't know.
Mr. Rankin. Then he goes on to say, "However, the FBI has visited us here in Dallas, Texas, on November 1. Agent James P. Hosty"—do you know whether there was such a visit by that man?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. And was he referring to the man that you know as James P. Hosty?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know his last name. He gave us his telephone number, but it seems to me that his name was different.
Mr. Rankin. After you received the telephone number, what did you do with it?
Mrs. Oswald. He gave the telephone number to Ruth, and she, in turn, passed it on to Lee.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know whether he put it in a book or did anything with it?
Mrs. Oswald. He took the note with him to Dallas. I don't know what he did with it.
Mr. Rankin. Did the agent also give his license number for his car to Mrs. Paine or to you or to your husband?
Mrs. Oswald. No. But Lee had asked me that if an FBI agent were to call, that I note down his automobile license number, and I did that.
Mr. Rankin. Did you give the license number to him when you noted it down?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. Now, he goes on to say that this agent, James P. Hosty "warned me that if I engaged in FPCC activities in Texas the FBI will again take an 'interest' in me."
Do you remember anything about anything like that?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know why he said that in there, because if he has in mind the man who visited us, that man had never seen Lee. He was talking to me and to Mrs. Paine. But he had never met Lee. Perhaps this is another agent, not the one who visited us.
But I don't know whether Lee had talked to him or not.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know whether any FBI agent had ever warned your husband that if he engaged in any Fair Play for Cuba activities in Texas, the FBI would be again interested in him?
Mrs. Oswald. No, I didn't know that.
Mr. Rankin. Then in the exhibit he goes on to say, "This agent also 'suggested' to Marina Nichilyeva that she could remain in the United States under FBI protection."
Did you ever hear of anything like that before?
Mrs. Oswald. I had not been proposed anything of the sort at any time.
The only thing the agent did say is that if I had ever any kind of difficulties or troubles in the sense that someone would try to force me to do something, to become an agent, then I should get in touch with him, and that if I don't want to do this, that they would help me. But they never said that I live here and that I must remain here under their protection.
Mr. Rankin. Then in this Exhibit 15 he goes on to explain what he means by the word "protection", saying "That is, she could defect from the Soviet Union, of course." Do you remember anybody saying anything like that to you?
Mrs. Oswald. No, no one said anything like that.
Mr. Rankin. Did anyone at any time, while you were in the United States, suggest that you become an agent of any agency of the United States?
Mrs. Oswald. No, never.
Mr. Rankin. Did anyone from the Soviet Union suggest that you be an agent for that government, or any of its agencies?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. Now, in this Exhibit 15, your husband goes on to say, "I and my wife strongly protested tactics by the notorious FBI."
Do you know of any protest of that kind, or any action of that kind?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know of any protests, but simply that I said that I would prefer not to get these visits, because they have a very exciting and disturbing effect upon my husband. But it was not a protest. This was simply a request.
Mr. Rankin. And you never made any protests against anyone asking you to act as an agent or to defect to the United States because no one asked you that, is that right?
Mrs. Oswald. No one ever asked me.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know of anything that you could tell the Commission in regard to these matters in this letter, Exhibit 15, that would shed more light on what your husband meant or what he was trying to do, that you have not already told us?
Mrs. Oswald. Everything that I could tell you with reference to this letter I have told you.
The Chairman. I think we will take a short recess now, about 10 minutes.
Mrs. Oswald. I would like to help you, but I simply don't know, I cannot.
(Brief recess)
The Chairman. The Commission will be in order.
Mr. Rankin, you may proceed.
Mr. Rankin. Mrs. Oswald, I will hand you again Exhibit 14 and the translation from the Russian and call your attention to the urgency of your request there. I ask you, was that your idea to press for help from the Embassy in regard to the visa, or your husband's?
Mrs. Oswald. Of course my husband.
Mr. Rankin. At the time of Exhibit 14, then, you were not anxious to return to Russia?
Mrs. Oswald. I never wanted to return but Lee insisted and there is nothing else I could do. But sometimes when I wrote these letters, I felt very lonely—since my husband didn't want me, I felt perhaps this would be the best way.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know the Spanish language?
Mrs. Oswald. Perhaps five words.
Mr. Rankin. Have you given it any study?
Mrs. Oswald. No. I have a Spanish textbook of the Spanish language and I had intended to study even while I was still in Russia, but I never did.
Mr. Rankin. Did your husband ever study Spanish that you know of?
Mrs. Oswald. He didn't study it, but before his trip to Mexico he would sit down with the textbook and look at it.
Mr. Rankin. I hand you Exhibit 17 and ask you if you recall having seen that before.
Mrs. Oswald. May I take it out?
Mr. Rankin. Yes.
Mrs. Oswald. June seems to have played with it. This was Lee's study of Spanish perhaps because this was all photographed, it is soiled. Here I helped Lee. I wrote some Spanish words.
Mr. Rankin. Does that Exhibit 17 have any of your husband's handwriting on it?
Mrs. Oswald. Some of it is my handwriting and some of it is Lee's handwriting.
Mr. Rankin. Can you tell us when he was trying to study Spanish? Was it at any time with regard to the time when he planned to go to Cuba?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. About when did he start?
Mrs. Oswald. In August, in New Orleans, 1963.
Mr. Rankin. And whatever he did in this notebook,