MEMORANDUM

June 1, 1967 (Dictated and transcribed)

TO: JIM GARRISON, District Attorney

FROM: ANDREW J. SCIAMBRA, Assistant District Attorney

RE: INTERVIEW WITH MR. REEVES MORGAN OF

CLINTON, LOUISIANA -- May 29, 1967

Accompanied by Lt. Francis Fruge of the Louisiana State Police, I traveled to Clinton, Louisiana to talk with former State Representative Reeves Morgan. Mr. Morgan was a member of the House of Representatives from 1952 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1964 from East Feliciana Parish.

Mr. Morgan told me that during the latter part of [note: "September crossed out] August or first part of Sept. 1963 at around dark, LEE HARVEY OSWALD drove up to his home which is outside of Clinton, in an automobile which he did not particularly pay any attention to. He said that he heard the automobile drive up to his house but didn't go to the door to look at the automobile as he was in the back of the house when he first heard a knock on the door. Mr. Morgan told the person at the door to come on in and this person introduced himself as OSWALD. OSWALD told Mr. Morgan that he could do anything in the way of electrical work and that he could handle any job in the hospital in the electrical department. OSWALD did not mention any names and did not tell Mr. Morgan whether or not anyone had referred him to Mr. Morgan, nor did he make any mention of knowing any people in Clinton, Louisiana. OSWALD told Mr. Morgan that he was living in New Orleans at the time; that he had no relatives in Clinton. Mr. Morgan said that most of the conversation with OSWALD pertained to the job. Mr. Morgan said he told OSWALD what procedure to follow in order to get a job at the hospital and informed him that he should meet the Civil Service requirements such as filling out an application for a Civil Service test. Morgan told him that he would look into the job at the hospital but that if there was an opening[,] he felt obliged to try to get it for one of his constituents before he would try and get it for OSWALD. OSWALD asked Mr. Morgan what a "constituent" was and Mr. Morgan told him it was a person who was registered in his parish and was on the voting rolls. OSWALD then told Morgan that "it was a sorry state of affairs when a person has to run after a politician in order to get a job." Morgan said that OSWALD at the time appeared to get the feeling that he was being given the runaround. Mr. Morgan said that his daughter, who is presently attending Southeastern Louisiana College in Hammond, was also in the house at the time and later on, after the President was shot, she remarked to her daddy that if she remembers correctly, that when OSWALD was in the house talking to her father, there was a woman sitting in the automobile waiting for him. (Mary Morgan will be home from school this week and I will talk to her to see if she remembers any of the details.)

Mr. Morgan said that OSWALD had on dark pants, a weather-worn shirt-jacket type combination and was normally clean and shaven.

Mr. Morgan said that he and OSWALD talked for about 20 to 30 minutes. Mr. Morgan said that he remembers OSWALD bragging very much about his ability as an electrician. Mr. Morgan said that in the next few days he inquired at the hospital to find out whether or not there were any jobs open and if there was any need for an electrician. Mr. Morgan said that he found out that officially there were no job openings at the hospital but that he learned from some of the people around the hospital that there was a need for an electrician and that they needed somebody to climb poles and to do electrical work around the hospital. Mr. Morgan said that they eventually hired a man from Gulf States Utilities to do this type of work. Morgan said that several months ago when he was working at the hospital a conversation came up about OSWALD talking about going to work at the hospital. At that time ALINE WOODSIDE, who works in the Personnel Department at the hospital, told Mr. Morgan she saw OSWALD's application in the Personnel files at the hospital but that she does not know what ever became of it. Mr. Morgan said that after the President was shot he talked to some of the people at the hospital about what had happened and that people frequently asked him questions about OSWALD. Mr. Morgan said that he recognized OSWALD's picture in the paper after the President was shot and he said he remembers the name OSWALD because he remembers OSWALD introducing himself as "OSWALD" when he first entered his house and Mr. Morgan asked him if he was related to a man living in Clinton by the name of OSWALD CHANCE. Mr. Morgan said OSWALD didn't give his full name until he was walking out of the house[,] when he said his name was LEE OSWALD.

Mr. Morgan said that Kentwood is around 45 miles from Clinton and many people from around the Kentwood area come to Jackson to work in the hospital. The hospital is well-known around the Kentwood area.

Mr. Morgan said, [sic] that for what it is worth, he heard several days after the President was killed that there was a patient in the hospital who said on the morning or the day that the President was shot that the President was going to get killed today.* Mr. Morgan doesn't remember who the person was but that it was supposed to be a patient in the hospital.

[signed] Reeves Morgan

[handwritten] Jackson, La.

[*Note: Though the difference is extremely slight, Morgan's story fits that of Glady Fletcher Palmer (see Impeaching Clinton, Part One) more closely than the more famous story of Rose Cheramie. Mrs. Palmer was alleged to have checked into the hospital for the treatment of her alcoholism, and reportedly said on November 22, 1963, "This is the day of the president's assassination." These clearly are variations on the same story, and serve to cast further doubt upon the already tenuous Cheramie story. -- DR]