Oswald. Yes, sir.
Mr. Rankin. And then he published them?
Mrs. Oswald. No. Yes—he published the letters. It was published in the New York Times, the three letters.
Mr. Rankin. Then they were returned to you.
Mrs. Oswald. No, he never did take the letters. Mr. Langueth never did take the letters he bought from me out of my hand. As I told you gentlemen, we went to a photostatic place and the letters were copied, and I kept the originals. He paid me $50. That was printed in the story. But the three letters that the Secret Service men had, he printed in the story about Marina's uncle being a colonel in the Russian Army. And that is the letter that the Secret Service man had.
Mr. Rankin. And you did not get paid for those at all?
Mrs. Oswald. No—these are different letters. So they returned those letters to me, the Secret Service, and I gave them a receipt for them. But they did not ask my permission to take them, or let me have a receipt when they took them. So I am trying to point out the fact that I got the three letters back, I would think, because the story in the paper said that the Secret Service had these three letters and parts of what they contained. So the three letters were returned to me, and I had to sign a receipt for those three letters.
Am I making that clear now?
May I have some water, please?
Representative Ford. Are we going to get these letters in the record?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, sir. Let me get the letters in the record, then.
Mr. Doyle. Let me go off the record a minute.
(Discussion off the record.)
Mrs. Oswald. I am not able to go into the defection now, because I am not through with this part. The defection starts an entirely different story, if you want to know the true facts, and it will take quite a while.
What sticks in my mind is this one particular letter about Marina's uncle. The other two I am not quite sure.
Representative Boggs. What does it say about her uncle?
Mrs. Oswald. Well, I have to find the letter, sir.
I want to say this, gentleman. And maybe you are not in agreement with me. But all my life I have known and I have thought that a title does not make a man. It may be presumptuous of me that I am accusing the Secret Service—because they are the Secret Service. But there are men in our Government, and the Secret Service, who are undesirable, just like in any other organization—let's face it. We have such men as Bobby Baker, who was a citizen well thought of. Charles Van Doren who was well thought of. Mr. Fred Korth who was under investigation, he was a wonderful citizen. I can go on and on. Yet these men turned out not to be the right type.
I say this because my son was a self-styled Marxist, and a known defector, and that is why his guilt was proven by the Dallas Police. And my son—had he been a Senator or someone in the higher field, maybe they would not have picked him up so fast. Now, that is a fact of our way of life, of human nature. Having a title doesn't mean that you are the man back of the title.
Mr. Rankin. Could we take those letters now and have the reporter identify them? Here is the one about the uncle in the Army?
Mrs. Oswald. That is one I am sure of.
Now, I did not finish the story of the woman offering Marina a home. I have not finished that story, really. This affidavit that I showed you about the woman offering Marina the home the morning of the 28th—I picked up the newspaper and I read in the newspaper—I will be through with this story in 1 minute. I picked up the newspaper on the 28th of November and I read in the newspaper where this woman had offered Marina a home. So I said to the agent that was sitting up—everybody was sleeping, and as I told you I sat up all night——
Mr. Rankin. This was 1963, after the assassination?
Mrs. Oswald. 1963. November 28. It was on the 27th that I knew my daughter was offered a home. Nothing was said where. In fact, at the time I thought she was going to live in Mr. Gregory's home. I just thought that. I did not ask. I was so hurt, I did not ask.
But on the morning of the 28th I picked up the paper and read this story about the woman going to the Dallas Police offering Marina a home. So I said to this agent, "Evidently that is who Marina is going to live with." But I did not know. But on the 28th is when I saw the story of the woman offering Marina the home.
Mr. Rankin. Now, you have produced a number of letters that you described as being letters received from your son, Lee Oswald, while he was in the Soviet Union.
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, sir.
Mr. Rankin. And we have asked you if you could identify the three letters that the Secret Service brought back to you and asked you to give a receipt for. You said it is very difficult, if not impossible, for you to do that. Is that right?
Mrs. Oswald. No, sir, I did not say that. I said that one letter I was sure of, because it stated that her uncle was an officer in the Soviet Union. That letter I am sure of. The other two letters—I would have to go through the letters. I think I could spot them, because it would be of importance to our country and the Secret Service to know—in other words, it was important for them to know she had an uncle in the Soviet Union. And the other two letters would be on that order. And I believe maybe I could—I would not want to state a fact that these two letters—I think I would be pretty close to choosing the other two letters as the proper letters.
Mr. Rankin. Mrs. Oswald, I wonder if it would be agreeable to you if we would identify all of those letters that you received from your son while he was in the Soviet Union, and then possibly when we recess you could look them over and see——
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, sir, that's perfectly all right.
Mr. Rankin. See if you can pick out the ones you gave a receipt for.
Mrs. Oswald. That is perfectly all right. Any way you want to do it is all right with me.
Mr. Rankin. Mr. Reporter, I will ask you to mark them, and Mr. Liebeler, will you help in the marking, because the letters are covered with glassine, and it may be hard to mark them with ink. I think by putting those stickers on we can help you.
Mrs. Oswald. Not all of the letters have dates. I think by taking the date on the back of the envelope it would be all right. And we had them in order. I don't know if they are still in order. But we had them by the dates.
Mr. Rankin. Mr. Reporter, I offer in evidence Exhibits 170 to 179, both inclusive, being pictures of the funeral and the casket that Mrs. Oswald has produced here for the Commission, and ask leave to substitute copies.
The Chairman. They may be so introduced.
(The photographs referred to were marked Commission Exhibits Nos. 170 to 179 inclusive for identification, and received in evidence.)
Mr. Rankin. I then offer the various letters that Mrs. Oswald produced, that she said were sent to her by her son, Lee Harvey Oswald, from the Soviet Union. And I think it would be better for our record if I briefly state the date that the envelopes bear in each case, so it can be compared with the number.
The Chairman. Very well.
Mr.
