TESTIMONY OF JOHN P. ADAMCIK
The testimony of John P. Adamcik was taken at 10 a.m. on April 3, 1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office Building, Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex., by Mr. David W. Belin, assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Mr. BELIN. Would you want to stand and raise your right hand, sir?
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. ADAMCIK I do.
Mr. BELIN. Would you please state your name?
Mr. ADAMCIK. John P. Adamcik.
Mr. BELIN. Where do you live?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I live right now at 4621 Samuell Boulevard, apartment 166.
Mr. BELIN. Where is that?
Mr. ADAMCIK. That is over in the eastern part of Dallas.
Mr. BELIN. In Dallas, Tex.?
Mr. ADAMCIK. It is in Dallas, Tex.
Mr. BELIN. How old are you, sir?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I am 26.
Mr. BELIN. What is your occupation?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I am a detective with the Dallas Police Department.
Mr. BELIN. Did you go to school in Dallas?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No, sir; I didn't.
Mr. BELIN. Where did you go to high school?
Mr. ADAMCIK. LaGrange, Tex.
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Mr. BELIN. LaGrange High School?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Right.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I worked there in LaGrange for a short period of time, and came to Dallas and worked for Temco Aircraft Co.
Mr. BELIN. What did you do for them?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I was an assembler.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Then I went in the Marine Corps for a short period of time.
Mr. BELIN. How long were you in the Marine Corps?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I was in there approximately 2 months, got out on a hardship discharge.
Mr. BELIN. You mean family?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Was it an honorable discharge?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes; I got an honorable discharge--hardship discharge.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I went home and assisted the family, because my father was injured. That was the reason I got the discharge. And I don't know, I got everybody going in shape which would be, I think it was probably around a year, and I came back to Dallas and got on the police department.
Mr. BELIN. And you have been in the police department ever since?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Every since, except I took another 6-month leave of absence and I spent 6 months on active duty with the U.S. Army Reserves. After the hardship ended, I went back in the Army for 6 months.
Mr. BELIN. Your position with the Dallas Police Department is now what?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Detective in the homicide and robbery bureau.
Mr. BELIN. Are you married?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Family?
Mr. ADAMCIK. One-month-old baby.
Mr. BELIN. A month old baby. Boy or girl?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Boy.
Mr. BELIN. You must be pretty proud?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. What is his name?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Mark Allen.
Mr. BELIN. Your wife taking good care of that baby?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Oh, yes.
Mr. BELIN. Officer, first I want to talk about November 22, 1963. Were you on duty on that date?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No, sir; I wasn't, not at the time pertaining to this.
Mr. BELIN. Not at the time of the assassination?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; I wasn't.
Mr. BELIN. You were off duty?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I was at home, off duty.
Mr. BELIN. When did you get on duty that day?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I was supposed to go on at 3. However, when I heard of the assassination--I was supposed to go to court at 2 o'clock, and I reported down to the courts and the courts were closed, so I immediately reported to my office, which was about 2 or so.
Mr. BELIN. You were at the office the rest of the afternoon?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No, sir. I stayed at the office a short period of time. I wasn't there over an hour when Oswald was brought in by the arresting officers and we were asked--Detectives Stovall and Rose and myself were asked by Captain Fritz and the supervisor to go to his residence in Irving, to the Paine residence.
Mr. BELIN. Did Oswald give them that address?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I don't know. I don't recall whether he gave them the address or they found it on his person in evidence as identification.
Mr. BELIN. What was the address?
Mr. ADAMCIK. 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving. I don't have any idea how
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that came about at all. All I remember is that we were told to go to this address. I don't even remember whether we had a name, a definite name. We were told to go to this address, that this was the address he had on his person, or something similar to that, and we did what we were told.
Mr. BELIN. About what time was this?
Mr. ADAMCIK. This was approximately 2:30. Could I use my report?
Mr. BELIN. Sure. You take your report out and refresh your recollection.
Mr. ADAMCIK. I have it on here, the times mainly. This would be approximately 2:30.
Mr. BELIN. All right, did you have a search warrant when you went out there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No, sir; we did not.
Mr. BELIN. Any particular reason why you didn't?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, at the time, we didn't know what we would find. We didn't have any idea what this address meant to us, and we were mainly going over to see who was there. We decided if we were not allowed in the house, invited in, that we could get a search warrant later to go in, whereas at the time we didn't have any idea that that address actually had any connection with these people or with Oswald.
Mr. BELIN. Who did you go with?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I went with Detectives Rose and Stovall, and we were met by three county officers there at the scene before we went up, because being out of the city limits of Dallas, we had three county officers go along with us, because it was in their jurisdiction.
Mr. BELIN. What time did you get there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I would say that it didn't take us over, it probably took us half an hour to get there. I would say it would be approximately 3 o'clock.
Mr. BELIN. What did you do when you got there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. We waited a few minutes for the county officers to get there, and when they got there we came outside, and I went with one of the county officers or two of the county officers to the back door, and one of the county officers and Detectives Rose and Stovall went to the front door.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. We waited until Detectives Rose and Stovall and the county officers got inside the house, which was a period of time of maybe 3 or 4 minutes when they were invited in, and they came to the back door and opened it up and asked us to come in.
Mr. BELIN. Who asked you to come in?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Detectives Rose and Stovall, plus--because Mrs. Paine was in the house at the time standing next to them.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, we started looking around the house, I think Detectives Rose and Stovall handled most of the interrogation. They asked the questions of Mrs. Paine, and Mrs. Oswald, after we found out who they were and I didn't do any interrogating at the time at all, I just sort of stood and listened, and we started looking around. We asked them where Mr. Oswald was, and various things, and we looked around.
Mr. BELIN. What did Mrs. Oswald say about whether or not you could see her room?
Mr. ADAMCIK. She never did say anything at all. In fact, she showed us where the room was and showed us several things in the room.
Mr. BELIN. What did Mrs. Paine do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. She didn't object at all. They were really very cooperative.
Mr. BELIN. Do you remember what the interrogation was? Who said what?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; I don't recall. I assume it was, you know, they asked her who she was.
Mr. BELIN. Did anyone ask when was the last time they saw Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Oh, yes; I heard it asked.
Mr. BELIN. What was the answer given, if you remember?
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Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, she was questioned through an interpreter, and an affidavit was gotten from her also. I know she was showed the rifle in my presence. I was there with Captain Fritz and myself and Detective Senkel, and the rifle was showed to her then, and she looked at it, and I remember her saying through an interpreter that it did look like the rifle, but she didn't say, but it did look like the rifle that Lee Oswald, that was in the garage previous to finding the blanket eventually.
Mr. BELIN. When you say finding the blanket eventually, did she say the blanket was there? Was it simply that when you showed the blanket to the officers, apparently she made some remark that about a week or so previous to that her husband's rifle had been wrapped in a blanket?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I can't remember exactly how long. I don't remember when she said the last time was she saw it.
Mr. BELIN. Did Mrs. Paine indicate she ever saw the rifle there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I can't remember. I took an affidavit, and I know I questioned her about the rifle, and I can't remember whether she ever said. I would have to see the affidavit. I don't have a copy. I don't believe she said she seen the rifle. I believe that she said she saw the blanket there, but I am sure that that would be in the affidavit. That would be in the affidavit, though.
Mr. BELIN. Now anything else happen there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; after Mrs. Oswald was questioned, I took an affidavit from Mrs. Paine.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I think this other detective, I think Senkel, probably took one from Mrs. Oswald.
Mr. BELIN. You mean Marina, Lee Oswald's wife?
Mr. ADAMCIK. That's right, the wife.
Mr. BELIN. Then what?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Shortly after we got through with him, with this, I believe Lee Oswald's mother came in. I don't remember whether she had been in previous and was in some other office, but I know they brought her in the same office we were in at that time, and after we got through, they were all sitting in the same room together, Mrs. Oswald, Lee's mother, and the wife, and the children, and Mrs. Paine, and Michael Paine.
Mr. BELIN. Did Lee Oswald's mother say anything?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; she kind of didn't say anything definite. She kind of had the feeling--I don't know how to explain it-- just like this, well, she didn't realize what really happened and just couldn't quite understand it, or something. She didn't say.
Mr. BELIN. What about Lee Oswald's brother?
Mr. ADAMCIK. To me, he was in there, too. I didn't break that up. He seemed rather calm to me. He was real calm and real collected.
Mr. BELIN. Did he say anything at all?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Not to me, not in my presence.
Mr. BELIN. All right, then, what did you do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I was asked by Captain Fritz to take these people home, and he wanted me to take someone with me, and I took Lieutenant McKinney, who was one of the lieutenants in the forgery bureau. I used his car, and he went along with me to take these people home.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do? First of all, did they say anything more on the way home about the incident or not?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; I believe the only thing I definitely remember is that Marina Oswald kept saying, telling Mrs. Oswald that this was her home, and she still decided she would like to stay here. She didn't want to go back to Russia. I remember her saying that.
Mr. BELIN. Do you remember someone saying that through an interpreter?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Right. Mrs. Paine was there, and she could interpret.
Mr. BELIN. All right.
Mr. ADAMCIK. She wasn't real good, but she could speak enough Russian to interpret a little bit.
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Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. We took them to Irving, to the Paine house. At this time I believe Mrs. Oswald was the only other person that we took back there to the Paine house that didn't come down to the station with us originally.
Mr. BELIN. You mean the mother?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes; the mother, she went back with us.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, this was fairly late. I guess it was around 10 o'clock when we got back, so apparently it was around 9 when we started taking them to Irving, and got back about 10. We just dropped them off at the house and went on back to the office.
Mr. BELIN. What did you do when you got back to the office?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Went to the office and I stayed there a while, and I guess it was around 11 o'clock, I mean the interrogation room in the captain's office, and spent about 15 minutes.
Mr. BELIN. Why did you go in the interrogation room?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, at that time I think somebody else just finished talking to him, and I think the captain had to go see somebody or something, and nobody was in the room at the time, and he told us to go on in there for a little while and see whether we could talk to Oswald. I think Detective Montgomery went in there with me, I am not sure.
Mr. BELIN. Were you the only two in there at that time?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes; I think so. The ID Bureau came in there and either fingerprinted him or done something. When they came in there, I left. It was just a short period of time.
Mr. BELIN. Do you remember any conversation that took place there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; except I asked him whether he drove a car. I did ask him that. And I remember him saying something that he didn't.
Mr. BELIN. That he did or did not?
Mr. ADAMCIK. That he did not. And I asked him how long he was in Russia and whether he liked it there, and I remember him telling me how long he was there. I think it was two years, or something like that.
Mr. BELIN. Well----
Mr. ADAMCIK. I don't remember exactly what he said, and he liked it okay, and that is just about it.
Mr. BELIN. Did you talk about the assassination at all?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; it wasn't anything at all concerned with the assassination.
Mr. BELIN. Did you ask him any questions?
Mr. ADAMCIK. We did.
Mr. BELIN. Like what kind of questions?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Like where were you at the time this assassination occurred; and he just wouldn't say anything.
Mr. BELIN. Did he just keep quiet?
Mr. ADAMCIK. He just sat there and stared straight ahead.
Mr. BELIN. Didn't talk at all?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No.
Mr. BELIN. Did he ask for an attorney while you were there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Not in my presence.
Mr. BELIN. Did you ask him any questions about Officer Tippit's murder?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; I don't believe that I did.
Mr. BELIN. Anyone else there that did?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I didn't hear anybody.
Mr. BELIN. All right, then what happened?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, I just stayed at the office until about 2 o'clock in the morning.
Mr. BELIN. Ever see Oswald again?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I seen him being led out of the office from the interview, I believe. I didn't go down there.
Mr. BELIN. What interview?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I think they had--I don't know whether it was an interview or some kind of press conference down in the assembly room.
Mr. BELIN. When would that have been?
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Mr. ADAMCIK. It would have been about midnight.
Mr. BELIN. Do you know if Oswald requested it or if someone else did?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I don't recall.
Mr. BELIN. Then what happened?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I stayed in the office after Captain Fritz and the other men came back. He told us to go on home and come back the next morning about 10 o'clock.
Mr. BELIN. Then what happened?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, I went home, and about 10 or shortly before 10, I came in, and Captain Fritz asked Detectives Rose and Stovall; and Detective Moore----at this time he was a regular partner of Rose and Stovall----asked me, since I was there the previous day, to go along back to Mrs. Paine's house for a little more complete search.
Mr. BELIN. Did you have a search warrant at this time?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes; we stopped by and got a search warrant from Judge Joe B. Brown, Jr., over in Oak Cliff, and came by his house and picked up the search warrant.
Mr. BELIN. What did you do when you got to the house?
Mr. ADAMCIK. We got out to the house. I didn't have a search warrant. One of the other detectives did. They told us to come on in, and they were there. I remember at the time we came in, that they were going grocery shopping, and they left and just told us to look at anything we wanted to.
Mr. BELIN. The previous day had you taken anything out of the house?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I didn't.
Mr. BELIN. Did any of the officers take anything out of the house?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes; some of the other officers did.
Mr. BELIN. What did they take?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I don't recall. I believe they took some camera equipment. It might have been a movie camera or projector. I didn't take anything. I know they took some items.
Mr. BELIN. Anything else that you remember?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; there weren't too many items the first day.
Mr. BELIN. What about the second day?
Mr. ADAMCIK. The second day we made a pretty complete search. We went mainly in the garage. We had also an Irving police officer. It was, I think, Detective McCabe from the Irving police department. And we went through the house and garage.
Mr. BELIN. What did you take with you?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, we picked up----I got a list of it, also, which we turned over to the FBI, but we picked up items such as letters and pictures and oh, just a whole bunch of items.
Mr. BELIN. Did you find the picture of Oswald with the rifle?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I didn't find it. It was found while I was back in the garage.
Mr. BELIN. That was found in the garage?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Right.
Mr. BELIN. Any comments about that at all?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Naturally, when somebody found it, we all looked at it, and everybody said, "That looks like the rifle that was used in the assassination."
Mr. BELIN. Was Mrs. Paine or Mrs. Oswald there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No. At that time they weren't there. They were grocery shopping.
Mr. BELIN. Did you show the picture to them later on?
Mr. ADAMCIK. The picture was shown to them, but it wasn't there at the scene, and it was shown at the office, I understand.
Mr. BELIN. You weren't there when it was done?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; I wasn't.
Mr. BELIN. Anything else?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, no other than----I didn't even begin to tell you what all we found. It was books and pictures and they found some of his stuff from the Marine Corps when he was in the Marine Corps, and a lot of Russian, I think
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they were books on the Russian language, and some vaccination certificates and stuff like that. A lot of stuff was written in Russian, and we didn't have any idea what it said. Even the letters, a lot of them were written in Russian.
Mr. BELIN. Anything else?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; I don't recall anything pertaining to the search at all. I know that everything we--at the time, that we felt it was important, as far as investigation of the murder of the President and Officer Tippit was concerned, we took with us. There might have been some things we didn't take, but at the time the search was conducted, it was conducted more or less for each person at the same time, for the murder.
Mr. BELIN. Was an inventory made of the items taken?
Mr. ADAMCIK. There was. Yes; there was, definitely.
Mr. BELIN. You put that on file with the Dallas Police Department?
Mr. ADAMCIK. There was an inventory made, and there was receipts for all the property, and it is itemized. Everything is itemized.
Mr. BELIN. Anything else that you can think of?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; I know the search took a pretty good while. We didn't get back to the office until about 4 p.m., so I assume we got there probably around 11 or 11:30, and we stayed there 3 or 4 hours.
Mr. BELIN. Anything else at all that you can think of that is important?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I don't know who found it. It was either Stovall or Rose.
Mr. BELIN. Officer Adamcik, I will hand you what appears to be a document from the Dallas Police Department entitled, "Property clerk's invoice or receipt." It is an inventory. It commences with page No. 11177G through 11193G, and ask you to state if this appears to be a copy of the inventory that you picked up out on your search there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Let me see if I can see all these. Yes; it is.
Mr. BELIN. All right, rather than offer it in this deposition, I believe you said that--who was the senior officer out there among you, or wasn't there any?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes; there was. I was not the senior officer conducting the search. Probably Detective Rose, although I believe Detective Moore might have been previous, but since Detective Rose was there the previous day, he was spokesman for the group.
Mr. BELIN. Did Stovall work more with you or with Rose?
Mr. ADAMCIK. With Rose.
Mr. BELIN. I believe Mr. Ball is about to take the deposition of R. S. Stovall, and I think what we will do is give this inventory to Mr. Ball and let him introduce it in that deposition.
Mr. ADAMCIK. That first day I couldn't tell you anything because I was out of the house trying to take care of the kids.
Mr. BELIN. Is there anything else you can think of, officer, that we haven't discussed here?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No. The only thing is, after we finished conducting the search and got back to the office, I remember the previous day we didn't take an affidavit from Michael Paine, so Detective Moore and myself went back to Irving--should be around 5 o'clock, and picked up Mr. Paine and brought him back to the office for somebody to take an affidavit from him.
Mr. BELIN. Did he say anything, that you remember, when you were taking the affidavit, about the rifle or the blanket?
Mr. ADAMCIK. He did. I was present when he said it, and it is in the affidavit, about seeing the blanket in which the rifle was wrapped in, or he assumed it was the blanket in which the rifle was wrapped.
Mr. BELIN. Did he know that it contained a rifle?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I don't think so. But he said he had seen it several times previous to the assassination.
Mr. BELIN. Did he say anything about why he came to his wife's residence that day of the assassination?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes, sir; he did. I brought that out in the affidavit, and I remember something about him saying when he heard that the President got killed, well, knowing where it occurred and where Lee Oswald worked, and
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knowing his background, well, he said that Oswald's name came into his mind immediately.
Mr. BELIN. Did he say it came into his mind?
Mr. ADAMCIK. He said, knowing about his background and all--I remember just about what he said--that he knew that he would be asked to be considered a suspect, and--or that we would consider him a suspect, something. He didn't say who, but the way the situation was.
Mr. BELIN. Did he say what it was in his background that would make him considered to be a suspect?
Mr. ADAMCIK. It is in the affidavit, and I can't remember what he said. Whether he said it was because he was in Russia at one time, or something about him being a Russian citizen, or whether it was because for some other reason. Anyway, it is in the affidavit. I can't think exactly what he said. It is worded pretty well, because he signed the affidavit and it is in his words. I can look at it.
Mr. BELIN. Here is an affidavit that appears to be signed by Michael Paine. He says that he felt concern for his wife, is that correct?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Right; he did say that.
Mr. BELIN. He says that he saw a heavy pipelike object wrapped in a blanket, tied with a string. Is that what he said?
Mr. ADAMCIK. That is what he said.
Mr. BELIN. He said, "I picked it up to get it out of the way of the powersaw."
Mr. ADAMCIK. That is what he said.
Mr. BELIN. Did he say he had a lot of tools, and he mentioned he picked up this object and put it out of the way of his powersaw?
Mr. ADAMCIK. That's right.
Mr. BELIN. And it says in the affidavit he thought it was tenting equipment. Is that what he said?
Mr. ADAMCIK. That's right.
Mr. BELIN. He says later in the affidavit that he heard the President was shot while he was at work, is that correct?
Mr. ADAMCIK. That's correct.
Mr. BELIN. He said he heard the shots were from the Texas School Book Depository, and he said that he knew that Oswald worked there, and immediately thought of him, and wondered if he might have shot the President?
Mr. ADAMCIK. That is what he said.
Mr. BELIN. He says he wondered if he should call the FBI. Is that what he says in the affidavit?
Mr. ADAMCIK. That's right, exactly.
Mr. BELIN. He says he thought it unlikely that he shot the President. Did he say that he thought it was unlikely that Oswald shot the President?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes; he said that. And then he explained why he didn't call the FBI. He said he figured that--he did mention that the FBI knew about Oswald and that they would probably have contacted him and would consider him a suspect without him having to call them.
Mr. BELIN. Did he say why the FBI knew about Oswald?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; he didn't.
Mr. BELIN. Anything else you can think of, sir?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No; I believe that is it. After we picked him up and took this affidavit just shortly after, I went on home and that was the end of it, until Sunday. Sunday I was off, and everything happened down there, luckily.
Mr. BELIN. Luckily you were off?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Sir; we want to thank you for your cooperation for coming down here. You have an opportunity to either let the deposition go directly to Washington, or you can come back and read it and sign it. You can waive the signing, or come back and read it and sign it, whatever you want to do.
Mr. ADAMCIK. About how long would it be before it is ready?
Mr. BELIN. Several days. You want to sign, or just let her send it on to us?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I would kind of like to look at it.
Mr. BELIN. All right, this lady will get in touch with you and you can take a look at it.
Mr. ADAMCIK. Okay.
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