bears the date of July 18, 1961, on the envelope.
Mr. Dulles. Mr. Rankin—is that the American or the Russian postmark?
Mr. Rankin. That is the American postmark.
Mr. Dulles. Time of receipt in this country?
Mr. Rankin. That's right.
Now, Mrs. Oswald, I understand from you there was one letter before the letter bearing the date July 18, 1961, on the American postmark on the envelope, and you do not have that here?
Mrs. Oswald. I may have it. I have many more papers and documents. I have a suitcase almost full that I have not yet opened. The suitcase was lost. We did not receive it until about 9 o'clock last night.
Mr. Rankin. You have not produced it today, though.
Mrs. Oswald. No. But there is one more letter. It is the very first letter I received from Lee.
Mr. Rankin. I call the attention of the Commission to the statement in Exhibit 180, "She was living at her aunt's place when I met her. They are real nice people. Her uncle is a major in the Soviet Army."
Exhibit 181, dated August 3, 1961, was the envelope postmarked United States, August 10, 1961. I also offer that.
Exhibit 182, dated October 2, 1961, with the American postmark October 10, 1961. I also offer that.
In each case, Mr. Chairman, I ask leave to substitute copies in accordance with our understanding.
The Chairman. Yes. We will make a blanket ruling on all of them when you finish.
Mr. Rankin. Yes, sir.
Exhibit 183, dated October 22, 1959, with the American postmark on the envelope October 30, 1961. I offer it.
Mr. Dulles. Did you say 1959 and then 1961?
Mr. Rankin. '61——
Mr. Dulles. It is all '61?
Mr. Rankin. You are correct—October 22, 1959, is the date on the letter.
Mrs. Oswald. That is incorrect.
Mr. Rankin. And on the envelope it is October 30, 1961, Vernon, Tex. Mrs. Oswald, can you explain that?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes. Evidently Lee put the date incorrect—because I had no contact with Lee from the time—I had one contact with Lee from the time that he defected to Russia. And the only contact was when he was at the Metropole Hotel in Moscow. Then the next contact was when the State Department wrote me his address, which was July, or June 1961. So where Lee put the 1959, I would say it was just an error, because the postmark proves the date.
As I have been saying FBI instead of Secret Service—I mean it is just——
Mr. Rankin. A slip of some kind?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Dulles. Is the 1959 letter available, the Metropole Hotel letter?
Mrs. Oswald. When we go into the defection, I have letters from 1959 that I myself have sent to Lee and have been returned, and, gentlemen, they are unopened, and I will give you the privilege of opening my thoughts to my son. They were returned unopened, because he was not located.
Mr. Rankin. I might answer your question, Mr. Dulles. We have a copy of the Metropole letter of 1959.
Mr. Doyle. Mr. Rankin, could I check—your Exhibit 182, the one you called just before this—I gathered that you gave a date of the letter and also a date of the postmark. Am I correct—October 2, 1961, is the date of the letter, and October 10, 1961, is the postmark.
Mr. Rankin. That's correct.
Mr. Doyle. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Rankin. Now, with regard to Exhibit 183, which bears the date October 22, 1959, in error, with October 30, 1961, as the postmark on the envelope, I wish to call the Commission's attention to this reference.
"Marina's maiden name was Prusakova. Her aunt and uncle's address in Minsk is"—and then the address is set out in Russian. And then continuing the same sentence—"they don't speak any English. However, her uncle is an Army colonel soon to retire."
Mrs. Oswald. And that I would think would be the letter that the Secret Service—was one of the letters that the Secret Service, as I previously stated, had.
Now, may I say something here?
Marina uses two names—Prusakova and Nikolaevna. Whether she was married before, or whether she uses two maiden names, I do not know. But I have a record of both names.
Mr. Rankin. I offer in evidence Exhibit 183.
Representative Ford. Mr. Rankin, don't we have a record of those two names? Isn't one her maiden name and the other by her mother—and the other by her stepfather?
Mr. Rankin. That is the record we have. That is what Mrs. Marina Oswald testified to. She testified in regard to Nikolaevna. And the other name appears on her papers as the father.
Mrs. Oswald. But now Lee has said in one of those letters that her name is Nikolaevna. But then when he asked me in one of the letters to get an affidavit of support that Marina could come to the United States, that name appeared—Nikolaevna. Yet there are a couple of letters where he refers to her name as Prusakova. And I have it in his handwriting—when he gave me the slip of paper for the baptism he used Prusakova—Marina Prusakova Oswald. He did not use the name in the letters. That is what I find peculiar.
Mr. Rankin. The explanation was that the Prusakova was the identification of the father, which is often done. And she explained that with regard to the child they did not want to name June Lee Oswald with your son's name, if you recall—that is your son did not want that. But the Russian Government insisted that the father's name had to be shown.
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, I am familiar with that. I have done research on that. In Russia the father's name is used even if it is a girl. Now, Mr. Peter Gregory—his name is Peter Gregory, and his father's name is Peter, so his name is Peter Peter Gregory. They always use the father's name as a second name, regardless of sex. So June is named June Lee Oswald, which is Lee's name. And if there were two Lees it would be Lee Lee Oswald. That I know of.
Mr. Rankin. Exhibit 184 is dated November 8, 1961, and bears a postmark on the envelope November 18, 1961. I offer it in evidence.
Exhibit 185 is dated November 23d, without any year on the letter itself, with the postmark December 4, 1961, as the American postmark on the envelope. I offer Exhibit 185.
Exhibit 186 is Christmas greetings and bears the date December 12, 1961, stamped on the envelope. I offer Exhibit 186.
Exhibit 187 bears the date December 13, 1961, on the letter, and bears the postmark date December 26, 1961, on the envelope. I offer Exhibit 187.
Exhibit 188 bears the date December 20th, without any year on the letter, and the date January 2, 1962, stamped on the envelope. I offer Exhibit 188.
Exhibit 189 bears the date January 2d, and the stamped postmark on the envelope January 11, 1962. I offer Exhibit 189.
