Oswald. That I do not know.
Mr. Rankin. You have no idea?
Mrs. Oswald. But I do know this, and I have stated this. I have approximately 900 and some odd dollars. And I lost my job. That can be proven. I was a nurse on the 3 to 11 shift, working in a rest home, for a very wealthy woman. And it would have been at least a year, a year and a half case. She is not that bad off. She is just an invalid. She is going to live quite a while.
When I returned home from the Six Flags on Thanksgiving Day, the Deputy Sheriff at Fort Worth, Tex. went to get my pay. And the nurse, the 7 to 3:30 o'clock nurse—I went 3 to 11—and my patient cried and said that they were awfully sorry, but they could not have me back on the case. That the woman at the rest home refused to have me.
Now, I was not working for the rest home. I was doing private duty. But I understand that this is her place of business, and my presence there might have been—hurt her money part. But this is our Christian way of life. The boy was accused of killing the President, with no proof. And then the mother loses her job.
Now, that is my position. You asked me the question. But Marina has $35,000 publicly. What she has, I do not know.
Now, gentlemen, $35,000 is a lot of money in donation dribs and drabs—is a very large sum of money. I question where does that money come from. Yes, some of it could be coming from Lee's back pay. And she might have more than that. That was the amount made public—$35,000. And here is a mother without a job. And everybody knows I have no money. And my contributions are 900 and some odd dollars.
Mr. Rankin. Now, when you say that money that Marina has might come from your son's back pay, what do you base that on? Just speculation?
Mrs. Oswald. I am basing all of this on speculation. Sir, if I had proof, I would not be taking my energy and my emotional capacity to bring all this out—if I had proof he was an agent.
Mr. Rankin. When they asked you to contribute some money to help bring him home from Russia, did it occur to you that if he is an agent the government could just pay his way?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes. But they don't want the public to know he is an agent. They want me to have all of this. They don't want the public to know. I am going around to people—you brought up a very good point. I am going around trying to get money for this boy to come home, so the public knows. Sure, they could have given him the money to come home.
Mr. Rankin. Are you trying to get money now? I don't understand what you mean by that?
Mrs. Oswald. I think, Mr. Rankin, you asked me the question that if he was an agent, that the Government would have given him the money to come home without any trouble. I say just the opposite. That it was a very good point. If he was an agent, it would make it hard for him to get the money to come home.
Remember, I am under the impression he is coming home with this Russian girl in order to continue his work. So he cannot be given the money immediately to come home, because his mother might tell the story to someone. Lee was almost a year coming home for lack of money. So then they have an excuse to loan him the money.
Mr. Rankin. Did you ever learn that he was getting money from the Red Cross in addition to his pay—that is the Russian or Soviet Red Cross, when he was over there?
Mrs. Oswald. No, sir.
Mr. Rankin. You don't know what he did with that?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know anything about that. The Red Cross from here?
Mr. Rankin. The Soviet Red Cross.
Mrs. Oswald. No, sir, I know nothing about that.
Mr. Rankin. You didn't know he was supposed to have gotten an amount equal to the pay he received from his job. He got that from the Red Cross.
Mrs. Oswald. I don't follow you. I do not know. I don't understand.
Mr. Rankin. He got so much a month from his job in the electronics factory. You understood that.
Mrs. Oswald. In Russia?
Mr. Rankin. Yes.
Mrs. Oswald. He was not in an electronics factory. I thought he was working in a radio factory. All right, fine.
Mr. Rankin. And then he got an equal amount, we understand, from the Red Cross of the Soviet Union. Did you know that?
Mrs. Oswald. No, sir. Now, explain to me—when you say the Red Cross of the Soviet Union. Is that our American Red Cross in the Soviet Union, or this is part of the Russian Red Cross?
Mr. Rankin. This is part of the Russian Red Cross.
Mrs. Oswald. I do not know that.
Mr. Rankin. It is not any part of the American Red Cross.
Mrs. Oswald. No, I do not know that.
Mr. Rankin. Their Red Cross is somewhat different than ours, I understand, because the Government has so much to do with activity there that the Red Cross is closely associated with the Government itself, while in this country, as you know, it is generally supported by the public.
Mrs. Oswald. No, I did not know that.
Now, one other thing pertaining to this. When Marina and Lee returned from Russia, and they were at my daughter-in-law's home, Robert's home, and I came in from the job in the country to see them, I said—up until this time, gentlemen, I thought Russians were peasant-looking people, like the public. And I said, "Lee, she doesn't look Russian at all. She looks American." He said, "Of course, mother, that is why I married her, is because she looks American." In front of my daughter-in-law and Robert. He bragged that she looked like an American girl. And there is all little things of that sort.
As I say, I cannot remember everything in my life, because I am going—this is way back—in a few hours time, Mr. Rankin. But there is many, many things that come up.
Mr. Rankin. How does that show that he was an agent at that time. I don't understand that.
Mrs. Oswald. I don't either. But I am telling you the expressions. He is making a point. And what I was going to make a point—Lee loved his work, and Lee loved the Marines. Lee loved the Marines, Mr. Rankin. Even coming back—he was a military man. And that has also been stated in the paper, that he had a military manner about him. I think District Attorney Wade remarked something of that order. People have noticed that.
Mr. Rankin. What made you think he loved the Marines? Was there something he did when he came back?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes. He loved the Marines because his brother was a Marine, for one thing. And John Edward—that is his career—14 years. My brother was in the Navy. His father was a veteran. We are a servicemen family. And I know Lee loved the Marines. I told you how he read the manual before he left. And on leaves, coming home, Lee would brag. He even said when he came home from Japan, "mother, my stay in Japan, just the trip alone would have cost about $2,000."
Now, Lee, I know also, was in the Air Force of the Marines, and he went to Biloxi, Miss., for schooling. Lee has had quite a bit of schooling. And Lee spoke Russian equivalent to 1 year when he defected to Russia. I have that on his application from the Albert Schweitzer College. And Lee spoke and wrote Russian fluently when he went to Russia. So Lee learns Russian in the Marines.
Mr.
