style="font-size:15px;"> Representative Boggs. I gather you found it rather difficult even when you were younger to get along with your mother?
Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; that is correct.
Mr. Jenner. Excuse me, sir, is that also true of your brother, Lee, and your brother, John?
Representative Boggs. Those were the questions I was about to ask.
Mr. Oswald. I would say this would also apply to my older brother John, and also to Lee. It appears as though Lee was able to put up with her more than I or my older brother John could.
Representative Boggs. Your father died when you were what, about 5?
Mr. Oswald. Five years old, sir.
Representative Boggs. You were living in New Orleans when he died?
Mr. Oswald. That is correct, sir.
Representative Boggs. What did he do?
Mr. Oswald. He worked for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New Orleans, in the office in New Orleans.
Representative Ford. Were your mother and father living a happy normal life at the time of his death?
Mr. Oswald. Well, sir, I was 5 years old and I would say that they were. Certainly I do not recall any instance that would indicate that they were not, and I think we had a very fine family atmosphere.
Mr. Jenner. Would you state for us, please, on the same subject, the life and relationship between your mother and Mr. Ekdahl, give us the same thing with respect to that period, did they get along well normally?
Mr. Oswald. Well, I was, of course, older and perhaps remember more, to this extent that on perhaps two or three occasions, I recall some very loud arguments where they were in one room with the door closed, and perhaps I by myself or perhaps in the presence of John was in another room. Nothing that I can recall that was said during this arguing other than it was just loud.
Mr. Jenner. During this period, Representative Boggs, the two boys John and Robert were at the military school. They were home during the summer vacation period but otherwise they were in military school.
Mr. Dulles. I think maybe we ought to give the witness a little rest. He has been on for 2 hours.
Hale, have you got anything more you want to ask now?
Representative Boggs. No, I would just like to thank the witness for his cooperation.
Mr. Oswald. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Dulles. Do you have anything? Do you have to go back?
Representative Ford. I am going to stay until we get some notice from the House if we have any call or a vote.
Mr. Dulles. Shall we take just 5 minutes off then and it might be agreeable.
(Short recess.)
Mr. Dulles. Proceed, Mr. Jenner.
Representative Ford. It would be helpful because we are likely to get a call almost any time to go back to the House, if I could ask a few questions.
Mr. Jenner. Go right ahead.
Mr. Dulles. Okay.
Representative Ford. Mr. Oswald, what was your reaction to Lee's discharge from the Marine Corps?
Mr. Oswald. He had an honorable discharge he told me. I had no adverse reaction to it.
Mr. Jenner. Did you have in mind, Representative Ford, the change in the status of that discharge?
Representative Ford. No, I was referring to the circumstances under which he was discharged prematurely. He did get an honorable discharge at the outset but he was released prematurely on a hardship basis.
Mr. Oswald. Yes.
Representative Ford. Were you familiar with that?
Mr. Oswald. I was not familiar with that at the time it was going on. Of course, I was familiar after he was released on that basis. I remember Lee telling me, he said, "Well, I only lack a month," or a few days anyway before his regular release was up and I believe that was all that was said between Lee and I about it.
Representative Ford. When did you learn about the change in his discharge?
Mr. Oswald. Sometime during the year of 1960, through my mother. She had advised me at that time she had received mail for Lee from the Marine Corps or from the Navy Department, stating that generally the reasons he had not notified them of changes of address, and perhaps even to the extent that he had left the country in the manner that he did, that it was going to go before a review board, and that he was to appear before this board to state his case, otherwise it would proceed without him. Then I became aware that the board's decision was an undesirable or a dishonorable discharge, I don't recollect which.
Representative Ford. Did you take any action when you learned of these circumstances to help your mother or to contact Lee about this situation?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; because at this time in reference to Lee there he had already stopped writing to both I and mother and there was no way that we knew of to contact Lee, and mother said she was going to take care of it and try to have it postponed or something or other, and the board reached a final decision.
Representative Ford. When your mother went to Washington, did she tell you in advance or give you any indication she was going to do that?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; she did not. I was aware of it after she came back from Washington.
Representative Ford. Did she fill you in in some detail about her return from Washington?
Mr. Oswald. No, sir; she did not. She did not go into any particular detail other than she tried to impress on me she had seen some, as she put it, some very important and influential people in Washington. And that was about the text of the conversation in reference to that.
Representative Ford. Did she volunteer this or did you ask her about it?
Mr. Oswald. She volunteered this because I did not know of the trip to Washington until after she returned from the trip to Washington. She volunteered information to me that she had been in Washington and saw numbers of people, different people.
Representative Ford. The principal information you have about Lee's return from the Soviet Union is included in the letters that you have from Lee?
Mr. Oswald. Yes, sir; that is correct.
Representative Ford. Those will be submitted subsequently.
Mr. McKenzie. They have been submitted already, Mr. Ford.
Mr. Jenner. Excuse me, did you address me?
Mr. McKenzie. The Commission has copies of the letters.
Representative Ford. The Commission has copies and they will be submitted for the record.
Would you care to comment in addition on what you found out from Lee subsequently of his experiences
