Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. Did you ever know that your husband was an agent of any government?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. Do you have any idea of the motive which induced your husband to kill the President?
Mrs. Oswald. From everything that I know about my husband, and of the events that transpired, I can conclude that he wanted in any way, whether good or bad, to do something that would make him outstanding, that he would be known in history.
Mr. Rankin. And is it then your belief that he assassinated the President, for this purpose?
Mrs. Oswald. That is my opinion. I don't know how true that is.
Mr. Rankin. And what about his shooting at General Walker? Do you think he had the same motive or purpose in doing that?
Mrs. Oswald. I think that, yes.
Mr. Rankin. After the assassination, were you coerced or abused in any way by the police or anyone else in connection with the inquiry about the assassination?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. Did you see or speak to your husband on November 22d, following his arrest?
Mrs. Oswald. On the 22d I did not see him.
On the 23d I met with him.
Mr. Rankin. And when you met with him on the 23d, was it at your request or his?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know whether he requested it, but I know that I wanted to see him.
Mr. Rankin. Did you request the right to see your husband on the 22d, after his arrest?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. And what answer were you given at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. I was not permitted to.
Mr. Rankin. Who gave you that answer?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't know. The police.
Mr. Rankin. You don't know what officer of the police?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. Where did you spend the evening on the night of the assassination?
Mrs. Oswald. On the day of the assassination, on the 22d, after returning from questioning by the police, I spent the night with Mrs. Paine, together with Lee's mother.
Mr. Rankin. Did you receive any threats from anyone at this time?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. Did any law enforcement agency offer you protection at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. No.
Mr. Rankin. When you saw your husband on November 23d, the day after the assassination, did you have a conversation with him?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. And where did this occur?
Mrs. Oswald. In the police department.
Mr. Rankin. Were just the two of you together at that time?
Mrs. Oswald. No, the mother was there together with me.
Mr. Rankin. At that time what did you say to him and what did he say to you?
Mrs. Oswald. You probably know better than I do what I told him.
Mr. Rankin. Well, I need your best recollection, if you can give it to us, Mrs. Oswald.
Mrs. Oswald. Of course he tried to console me that I should not worry, that everything would turn out well. He asked about how the children were. He spoke of some friends who supposedly would help him. I don't know who he had in mind. That he had written to someone in New York before that. I was so upset that of course I didn't understand anything of that. It was simply talk.
Mr. Rankin. Did you say anything to him then?
Mrs. Oswald. I told him that the police had been there and that a search had been conducted, that they had asked me whether we had a rifle, and I had answered yes.
And he said that if there would be a trial, and that if I am questioned it would be my right to answer or to refuse to answer.
Mr. Gopadze. She asked me if she talked about that thing, the first evening when I talked to her with the FBI agents, she asked me if she didn't have to tell me if she didn't want to. And warning her of her constitutional rights, telling her she didn't have to tell me anything she didn't want to—at that time, she told me she knew about that, that she didn't have to tell me if she didn't want to.
Mrs. Oswald. And he then asked me, "Who told you you had that right?" And then I understood that he knew about it.
Mr. Gopadze. At that time I did not know.
Mrs. Oswald. I thought you had been told about it because the conversation had certainly been written down. I am sure that while I was talking to Lee—after all, this was not some sort of a trial of a theft, but a rather important matter, and I am sure that everything was recorded.
Mr. Rankin. Let me see if I can clarify what you were saying.
As I understand it, Mr. Gopadze had talked to you with the FBI agents after the assassination, and they had cautioned you that you didn't have to talk, in accordance with your constitutional rights, is that correct?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes, that is right.
Mr. Rankin. And you told Mr. Gopadze you already knew that?
Mrs. Oswald. I don't remember what I told him.
Mr. Gopadze. Mrs. Oswald, on her own accord, asked me, or told me that she didn't have to tell us anything she didn't want to.
I said, "That is right."
Mrs. Oswald. I disliked him immediately, because he introduced himself as being from the FBI. I was at that time very angry at the FBI because I thought perhaps Lee is not guilty, and they have merely tricked him.
Mr. Gopadze. Mr. Rankin, may I, for the benefit of the Commission—I would like to mention that I didn't represent myself as being an FBI agent. I just said that I was a government agent, with the FBI. And I introduced both agents to Mrs. Oswald.
Mr. Rankin. And, Mrs. Oswald, you thought he was connected with the FBI in some way, did you?
Mrs. Oswald. He had come with them, and I decided he must have been.
Mr. Rankin. And your ill feeling towards the FBI was——
Mrs. Oswald. He did not tell me that he was with the FBI, but he was with them.
Mr. Rankin. Your ill feeling towards the FBI was due to the fact that you thought they were trying to obtain evidence to show your husband was guilty in regard to the assassination?
Mrs.
