Oswald. Yes, he moved our things from Fort Worth to Dallas, to Elsbeth Street.
Mr. Rankin. Did he help you to move to Mrs. Hall's at any time, anyone else?
Mrs. Oswald. No, he did not move me to Mrs. Hall. But sometimes he came for a visit. Once or twice I think he came when we lived—to Mrs. Hall's, and once when we lived on Mercedes Street.
Mr. Rankin. What did he do when he came? Were those just visits?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, just visits. Just visits, with his wife and child.
Mr. Rankin. When the De Mohrenschildts came to the house and you showed them the rifle, did you say anything about it?
Mrs. Oswald. Perhaps I did say something to him, but I don't remember.
Mr. Rankin. Did you say anything like "Look what my crazy one has done? Bought a rifle" or something of that kind?
Mrs. Oswald. This sounds like something I might say. Perhaps I did.
Mr. Rankin. In the period of October 1962, you did spend some time with Mrs. Hall, did you not, in her home?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. Will you tell us about how that happened?
Mrs. Oswald. When Lee found work in Dallas, Elena Hall proposed that I stay with her for some time, because she was alone, and I would be company.
Mr. Rankin. Did that have anything to do with any quarrels with your husband?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. During that period of October of 1962, when your husband went to Dallas to get work, do you know where he lived?
Mrs. Oswald. I know that for—at first, for some time he stayed at the YMCA, but later he rented an apartment, but I don't know at what address. Because in the letters which he wrote me, the return address was a post office box.
Mr. Rankin. Do you know whether he stayed during that period part of the time with Gary Taylor?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. Where did you live while your husband was looking for work and staying at the YMCA and at this apartment that you referred to?
Mrs. Oswald. When he stayed at the YMCA he had already found work, and I was in Fort Worth.
Mr. Rankin. And where in Fort Worth were you staying then?
Mrs. Oswald. With Mrs. Hall.
Mr. Rankin. Did you notice a change, psychologically, in your husband during this period in the United States?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. When did you first notice that change?
Mrs. Oswald. At—at Elsbeth Street, in Dallas. After the visit of the FBI, in Fort Worth. He was for some time nervous and irritable.
Mr. Rankin. Did he seem to have two different personalities then?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. Would you describe to the Commission what he did to cause you to think that he was changing?
Mrs. Oswald. Generally he was—usually he was quite as he always was. He used to help me. And he was a good family man. Sometimes, apparently without reason, at least I did not know reasons, if any existed, he became quite a stranger. At such times it was impossible to ask him anything. He simply kept to himself. He was irritated by trifles.
Mr. Rankin. Do you recall any of the trifles that irritated him, so as to help us to know the picture?
Mrs. Oswald. It is hard to remember any such trifling occurrences, sometimes such a small thing as, for example, dinner being five minutes late, and I do mean five minutes—it is not that I am exaggerating—he would be very angry. Or if there were no butter on the table, because he hadn't brought it from the icebox, he would with great indignation ask, "Why is there no butter?" And at the same time if I had put the butter on the table he wouldn't have touched it.
This is foolishness, of course. A normal person doesn't get irritated by things like that.
Mr. Rankin. Mrs. Oswald, I do not ask these questions to pry into your personal affairs, but it gives us some insight into what he did and why he might have done the things he did.
I hope you understand that.
Mrs. Oswald. I understand.
Mr. Rankin. Could you tell us a little about when he did beat you because we have reports that at times neighbors saw signs of his having beat you, so that we might know the occasions and why he did such things.
Mrs. Oswald. The neighbors simply saw that because I have a very sensitive skin, and even a very light blow would show marks. Sometimes it was my own fault. Sometimes it was really necessary to just leave him alone. But I wanted more attention. He was jealous. He had no reason to be. But he was jealous of even some of my old friends, old in the sense of age.
Mr. Rankin. When he became jealous, did he discuss that with you?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, of course.
Mr. Rankin. What did he say?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't remember.
Basically, that I prefer others to him. That I want many things which he cannot give me. But that was not so. Once we had a quarrel because I had a young man who was a boyfriend—this was before we were married, a boy who was in love with me, and I liked him, too. And I had written him a letter from here. I had—I wrote him that I was very lonely here, that Lee had changed a great deal, and that I was sorry that I had not married him instead, that it would have been much easier for me. I had mailed that letter showing the post office box as a return address. But this was just the time when the postage rates went up by one cent, and the letter was returned. Lee brought that letter and asked me what it was and forced me to read it. But I refused. Then he sat down across from me and started to read it to me. I was very much ashamed of my foolishness. And, of course, he hit me, but he did not believe that this letter was sincere. He asked me if it was true or not, and I told him that it was true. But he thought that I did it only in order to tease him. And that was the end of it. It was a very ill-considered thing.
Mr. Rankin. Do you recall anything more that he said at that time about that matter?
Mrs. Oswald. Of course after he hit me, he said that I should be ashamed of myself for saying such things because he was very much in love with me. But this was after he hit me.
Generally, I think that was right, for such things, that is the right thing to do. There was some grounds for it.
Please excuse me. Perhaps I talk too much.
Mr. Rankin. When you had your child baptized, did you discuss that with your husband?
Mrs. Oswald. I knew that Lee was not religious, and, therefore, I did not tell him about it. I lived in Fort Worth at that time, while he lived in Dallas.
But when June was baptized, I told him about it, and he didn't say anything about
