Martin. Vada Oswald, Robert Oswald's wife.
Mr. Redlich. Are you finished with what you were about to say?
Mr. Martin. It just seemed strange to me that a sudden move should be made like that and then within two days after that, it was Tuesday, and Wednesday, Thursday and I received a letter from her discharging me as her manager or attempting to discharge me.
Representative Boggs. I was asking you about intelligence and that sort of thing.
This would not indicate that sort of thing to you, would it?
Mr. Martin. No, but the whole thing seemed to be a kind of a preplanned thing.
Mr. Redlich. Will you spell that out in more detail because when Congressman Boggs asked you questions as to whether Mrs. Oswald might be part of Soviet intelligence you replied you are now beginning to wonder, and you also replied you wonder if you have been made a patsy.
Could you, in your own words, explain that answer in greater detail?
Mr. Martin. Of course, not knowing how a spy would work or anything, I have no knowledge of anything of this sort, this whole thing shows a lack of gratefulness or something, and actually she showed the same thing with Mrs. Paine. She lived with Mrs. Paine for quite some time. Then Mrs. Paine has been trying to contact her consistently for, well, ever since the assassination, and we have passed letters to her, letters from Mrs. Paine to Marina, wherein she has asked Marina to at least call her or do something, and Marina doesn't want to have anything to do with her.
Mr. Redlich. Has Marina given you a reason for that?
Mr. Martin. She said she doesn't like her.
Mr. Dulles. Do you know why it was that Robert Oswald advised her not to go back to the Paines or did you know that he did?
Mr. Martin. I knew that he did.
Mr. Dulles. Do you know the reason for that?
Mr. Martin. No. He said he just didn't like her.
Mr. Dulles. He gave no reasons?
Mr. Martin. No.
Mr. Redlich. And Mrs. Oswald, Marina Oswald, gave no reason to you as to why she didn't like the Paines?
Mr. Martin. No, I think it is because Robert didn't. That is a thought.
Mr. Redlich. You said that——
Mr. Martin. She has expressed that.
Mr. Redlich. You said that you were beginning to wonder whether this is a preplanned affair. What do you mean by that?
Mr. Martin. Well, I don't mean preplanned from the very beginning, but I think probably sometime in December from then on it might have been planned.
We have accumulated for her a considerable amount of money in story rights.
Representative Boggs. How much?
Mr. Martin. Well, on advances, this is not the ultimate or the end result, but just on advances, it is $132,000.
Mr. Redlich. Mr. Martin, you are reading from a document. Is that something——
Mr. Martin. This I brought for you. We don't have the money. But these are the contracts that have been negotiated.
Mr. Redlich. Is this something you are turning over to the Commission?
Mr. Martin. Yes, that is for your information.
Mr. Dulles. What is the nature of this document?
Mr. Martin. It is a handwritten——
Mr. Dulles. By whom?
Mr. Martin. By me, a handwritten list of the publishers, and the news media that I have contacted in Marina's behalf to sell her movie rights, the TV right, book rights and so forth.
Mr. Dulles. And the amount they have proposed to pay for them?
Mr. Martin. Well, these are just the advances.
Now, in the case of Texitalia Films, for instance——
Mr. Redlich. Could I interrupt and get this identified?
Mr. Martin. Certainly.
Mr. Redlich. With your permission, we would like to introduce this into evidence and take, a photostatic copy and leave you with the original.
Mr. Martin. Certainly.
Mr. Dulles. Would you describe this?
Mr. Redlich. This document lists various publications, media of communication, and indicating the amounts which have been the subject of negotiation, and the contracts, if any, which have been signed with these various media of publication concerning Marina Oswald's story.
Mr. Dulles. Mr. Martin has said this is written in his own hand, is that correct, Mr. Martin?
Mr. Martin. Yes, sir.
Representative Boggs. Mr. Chairman, I have to go to a meeting at the Speaker's office momentarily, I would just like to ask one further question of this witness.
Now, I understand about the business negotiations here and so forth, but I want you to be specific—anything that comes to your mind as to whether or not this woman, anything more than what I asked you about.
Mr. Leech. Can you give us about two minutes in that room?
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. Redlich. Back on the record.
Mr. Dulles. Just one minute. This should go in the record.
Representative Boggs. Who is this individual?
Mr. Martin. I have been trying to remember his name. I can find out his name. It began with an "H".
Mr. Dulles. Would you repeat the story, please, and then we will continue with the examination.
Mr. Martin. I met a gentleman who is an executive with the Dinkler Hotel chain, and he related the story to me that was told to him by one of their engineers, a maintenance man in the Atlanta, in their Atlanta hotel. The maintenance man's wife was an, or is a long distance telephone operator, and on the night preceding the assassination there was an individual that called, well, the way I heard the story, that she said he sounded like he had been drinking, and that he mentioned to her to remember this telephone call because it would go down in history. He made a credit card call to Lee Harvey Oswald, and simply said, "Proceed as planned."
Then he made another telephone call to Jack Ruby and told him that if anything went wrong he knew what to do.
Now, I questioned this, I guess there are numerous rumors of this type or whatever it is, and he said no, that it was definitely the truth, and the reason she hadn't come out before with it was that it is a violation of Federal law to listen to a long distance telephone call, and that they finally did report it to the FBI.
