The testimony of John Edward Pic was taken at 10:25 a.m., on May 15, 1964, at 200 Maryland Avenue NE., Washington, D.C., by Messrs. John Hart Ely and Albert E. Jenner, Jr., assistant counsel of the President's Commission.

Mr. JENNER - Sergeant Pic, do you swear in your testimony you are about to give that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I do.
Mr. JENNER - State your full name, please.
Mr. PIC - Staff Sergeant John Edward Pic, sir, U.S. Air Force.
Mr. JENNER - And that Pic is spelled P-i-c-?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Give me your home address.
Mr. PIC - 7306 Westville, San Antonio, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - You are a married man?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Give the full name of your wife including her married name, children, if any, ages and names and where born.
Mr. PIC - My wife's maiden name is Margaret Dorothy Fuhrman. My eldest is John Edward Pic, Jr., 14 May, 1952. My daughter, Janet Ann Pic, 18 October 1954; James Michael Pic, 22 February 1960.
Mr. JENNER - Your wife Margaret is--she was born where?
Mr. PIC - New York City, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Her parents are native Americans as well as she?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; they are not.
Mr. JENNER - What do you know of them?
Mr. PIC - Her father died; I never met the man while we were going together. Her mother and father were separated. Her mother was born in Hungary, I think. Her father was also, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What do you understand as to when they came to, this country?
Mr. PIC - I have never inquired. It has probably been mentioned but I have forgotten.
Mr. JENNER - Was it your impression they had been here a good many years?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; they have seven children. The eldest being in her forties, I am pretty sure.
Mr. JENNER - I see. When you met your wife she was living with her mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Where?
Mr. PIC - 325 East 92d Street, New York City.
Mr. JENNER - And you were at that time in the service?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; U.S. Coast Guard, assigned to U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Rockaway.
Mr. JENNER - How old is Mrs. Pic?
Mr. PIC - Thirty, sir. She turned 30 the 21st of December.
Mr. JENNER - Of 1963?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - She was born December 21, 1933?
Mr. PIC - It may be 22, sir; I never remember. I am giving sworn testimony, I don't want to lie about my wife's birthday; it is either the 21st or 22d, I am pretty sure it is the 21st.
Mr. JENNER - You are stationed where at present?
Mr. PIC - I am attached to Wilford Hall, USAF Hospital, Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - Do you--what is your particular assignment?
Mr. PIC - I am NCOIC, Special Procedures Branch, Department of Pathology, Wilford Hall Hospital. I have had this job since the 10th of February this year, and my other ones, I had another job when I talked to the Secret Service if you would be interested in that.
Mr. JENNER - How long have you been at Lackland?
Mr. PIC - I have been there since August 1962, sir.
Mr. JENNER - My information is you were born in New Orleans on January 17, 1932?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You entered the Coast Guard.
Mr. PIC - It was either 25 or 26 January 1950, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you were then 18 years of age?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And that was where?
Mr. PIC - I processed my enlistment in Fort Worth. I was sworn into the Coast Guard in Dallas, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - I think it might be well if we had your service history all in one spot so you go ahead and for my benefit speak a little .more slowly so I can absorb it.
Mr. PIC - All right, sir. Approximately 26 January 1950, enlisted in Coast Guard in Dallas, Tex.; from January 1950 until May 1950, I was in boot camp at U.S. Coast Guard Training Station, Cape May, N.J. In May 1950 until January 1951, I was attached to U.S. Coast Guard cutter Rockaway. January 1951 until approximately June 1951 was stationed at U.S. Coast Guard Training Station, Groton, Conn. From June 1951 until January 1952, I was stationed at U.S. Coast Guard Base, St. George, Staten Island, N.Y. From January 1952 until April 1952, I was stationed at U.S. Naval Training Station, Bainbridge, Md. April 1952 until February 1953, I was stationed at U.S. Coast Guard PSU, which is Port Security Unit, Ellis Island, N.Y. February 1953 until September 1953, I was stationed aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Firebush.
Mr. JENNER - Were you at sea?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; this was classified as sea duty. It was really a buoy tender.
Mr. JENNER - In what area?
Mr. PIC - New York area, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Were you on ship all the time during that period?
Mr. PIC - We would go out a day, come back the next; back and forth.
Mr. JENNER - What I am really getting at is when you were ashore were you home?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I went home the minute I got off the ship.
Mr. JENNER - OK.
Mr. PIC - September 1953 until April 1954 these months I am pretty sure, I am certain are OK.
Mr. JENNER - That is all right.
Mr. PIC - I was stationed at U.S. Naval Hospital, Portsmouth, Va. My address when I lived there was, for 3 months we lived with my sister-in-law in Norfolk.
Mr. JENNER - Name her, please.
Mr. PIC - Mrs. Emma Parrish, I believe.
Mr. JENNER - That was your wife's sister?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir. Then in January of 1954 we moved over to Portsmouth, Va., 1234 Holliday Street. April 1954 for about 2, 3 weeks, I was then stationed again at St. George, Staten Island, and I received orders through the Coast Guard cutter Halfmoon, and I was on the Coast Guard cutter Halfmoon until January 1956.
Mr. JENNER - And at sea or--
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; this was weather patrol duty.
Mr. JENNER - You did come ashore when you got home?
Mr. PIC - We pulled weather patrol, sir. We would be out 5 or 6 weeks and we would be in 5 or 6 weeks; and this I tolerated for 21 months. On 1 February 1956, I joined the Air Force. I joined the Air Force on Staten Island, N.Y. My address at this time was 80 St. Marks Place, Staten Island, N.Y.
Mr. JENNER - In a few words, what was that transition. Had you appeared---
Mr. PIC - My enlistment from the Coast Guard was complete, sir, and I decided that staying in the Coast Guard for 20 or some odd years I wouldn't see much of my family and I understood the Air Force was a family man's outfit and I figured that was for me. So the day after I got out of the Coast Guard I joined the Air Force no broken service. I was stationed at Mitchel Air Force Base, Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., until October, end of September, October 1958, and received orders to Japan, APO 323, Tachikawa, Japan.
Mr. JENNER - What year were you in?
Mr. PIC - 1958 when I received my orders.
Mr. JENNER - At this time when you were assigned to Japan, that was the period of time also when your brother Lee Oswald, then in the Marines, was also stationed in Japan?
Mr. PIC - To the best of my knowledge; yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Were you aware of that fact when you were stationed in Japan?
Mr. PIC - When I received my orders, I was under the impression he was in Korea, sir. I knew he was overseas in the Japanese-Korean area.
Mr. JENNER - Had you had any communication from him prior to your going to Japan?
Mr. PIC - To the best of my knowledge, sir, sometime after he entered the service and went overseas I received a letter from him, very short note. He wrote a very short note. I no longer have this.
Mr. JENNER - He entered the service in October of 1956?
Mr. PIC - I was in the Air Force at Mitchel Air Force Base at the time. Do you want me to finish with my military dates, and then I can go back?
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - November 1958, 10 November 1958 until 17 July, 1962, I was stationed in Japan. In August 1962 until the present date assigned to Lackland, Wilford Hall Air Force Hospital, Lackland Air Force Base.
Now, in the time period from--my mother paid us a Christmas visit, sir, during the Christmas holidays of 1957, I believe, after Lee had joined the Marine Corps.
Mr. JENNER - Yes; that would be a little over a year, that would be a year and 2 months after he had joined the Marine Corps.
Mr. PIC - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - Where were you at that time?
Mr. PIC - I was stationed at Mitchel Air Force Base, sir, and I believe my address was 105 Avenue C, East Meadow, Long Island. I was living right next to the Air Force base.
Mr. JENNER - Had you known prior to that time, which presumably you did, that Lee had entered the service?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I knew this.
Mr. JENNER - Had enlisted in the Marines?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And how had you learned that, through your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; through my mother.
Mr. JENNER - Had you learned that at or about the time he actually enlisted? What were the circumstances?
Mr. PIC - Concerning what, sir?
Mr. JENNER - His, enlistment, when you learned about it, and how. He enlisted in October 1956. He was then 17 years old.
Mr. PIC - My mother told me some way or another, I don't remember, sir. This is how I learned about it, either by phone call or by letter or some way. Of course, I knew he would do it as soon as he reached the age.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Why did you know he would do it and tell us the circumstances upon which you, the facts upon which you base that observation?
Mr. PIC - He did it for the same reasons that I did it and Robert did it, I assume, to get from out and under.
Mr. JENNER - Out and under what?
Mr. PIC - The yoke of oppression from my mother.
Mr. JENNER - Had that been a matter of discussion between you and for example, between you and your brother Robert?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; it was just something we understood about and never discussed.
Mr. JENNER - And that would include Lee as well as your brother Robert; that is, you were all aware of it?
Mr. PIC - I know this includes my brother Robert. Of course, when I was 18 years old I didn't discuss things like this with Lee, who was much younger.
Mr. JENNER - Please elaborate on that. You made a general statement---
Mr. PIC - OK.
Mr. JENNER - Which lawyers would call a mixed matter of conclusion and of fact and we would like to know the circumstances in general.
Mr. PIC - OK.
Mr. JENNER - They would probably go back for a good many years and it involves a personality.
Mr. PIC - Well, why don't I start with the death of Lee's father, and I think really starting there I can tell you more of my own feelings and so forth. I can make one statement but to bring out the circumstances I think I should go back a little further.
Mr. JENNER - All right. I will come back to this eventually. I will start you off this way. You are the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you are also the brother of Robert?
Mr. PIC - Robert Lee Edward Oswald, Jr.
Mr. JENNER - Robert Lee Edward Oswald?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I notice in your statements that you refer to him as Robert Lee Edward Oswald. There are some reference by others to Robert E. Lee Oswald.
Mr. PIC - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - Your stepfather is generally referred to in the record and by witnesses as Lee Oswald. What was his full name?
Mr. PIC - To the best of my knowledge, sir, it was Robert Lee Edward Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - In any event your brother Robert was a junior.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Your brother Robert was born April 7, 1934; is that to the best of your recollection?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; to the best of my recollection.
Mr. JENNER - And your brother Lee Harvey Oswald, October 18, 1939?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Your father's name?
Mr. PIC - Edward John Pic, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You are named after him except--
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The two surnames were reversed?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I think it appears on here. Yes, sir; I think it appears on here. Yes, sir. John Pic, Jr., in fact his name is--
Mr. JENNER - Edward John Pic, Jr.
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - And your mother was Marguerite Claverie Oswald?
Mr. PIC - Claverie, Marguerite Frances.
Mr. JENNER - And your mother and father were married what date?
Mr. PIC - Eighth day of August 1929, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you are now reading from what?
Mr. PIC - The marriage certificate of Edward John Pic, Jr., and Mrs. Marguerite Frances Claverie.
Mr. JENNER - That is a marriage certificate that you, that is among your personal papers?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I am going to put an exhibit number on it. We will take a photograph of it and return the original to you.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Mr. Reporter, would you mark that as John Pic Exhibit No. 1.
(John Pic Exhibit No. 1 was marked for identification.)
Mr. JENNER - I offer in evidence as John Pic Exhibit No. 1, a marriage certificate certified and dated August 8, 1929, reflecting the marriage of Edward John Pic, Jr. and Miss Marguerite Frances Claverie on the 1st day of August 1929, in Harrison County, Miss. The marriage certificate does not show the town. Sergeant, do you have any recollection of your father?
Mr. PIC - My own father?
Mr. JENNER - Yes, sir.
Mr. PIC - No, sir, I don't.
Mr. JENNER - Do you have any recollection of ever having seen your father?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I don't.
Mr. JENNER - You were too young at the .time but you eventually became aware of the fact that your mother, Marguerite, and your father, Edward, were divorced not long after your birth?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you become aware also of the fact that at the time of your birth that your father and mother were separated?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - This is the first information, I take it, then, in the utterance I have just made?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That you have become aware that your mother and your father were separated at the time of your birth?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You did learn about that?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - From your mother?
Mr. PIC - From Life magazine, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I see. Well, that is what I was really getting at.
Mr. PIC - O.K.
Mr. JENNER - It was only in the last 6 or 8 months that you learned that at the time of your birth your mother and your father were separated?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir. I had always been told that they were divorced because he didn't want children. I didn't know anything else but that. I didn't know the time periods or anything else, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Your stepfather, when your mother and your stepfather- I will call him Lee Oswald because all the witnesses have referred to him as Lee Oswald, is that what he was called, do you have any recollection of it?
Mr. PIC - I remember him being referred to as Mr. Oswald, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Mr. Oswald?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you have a recollection at the time, at least--that is an inelegant question. Do you recall your mother then marrying Lee Oswald or Mr. Oswald?
Mr. PIC - I knew they were married, I don't recall the marriage ceremony.
Mr. JENNER - What do you recall about him, sergeant?
Mr. PIC - I recall he was an insurance salesman, sir, for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. He used to take me on his rounds for collections sometimes. He was very strict with us. We got whippings when we were bad.
Mr. JENNER - You don't mean to claim that any of them was undeserved?
Mr. PIC - No, sir. Not in the least.
Mr. JENNER - I should say this to you, I think. The witnesses all, everybody spoke well of your stepfather.
Mr. PIC - That is how I remember him,. sir.
Mr. JENNER - You were born in New Orleans?
Mr. PIC - I was?
Mr. JENNER - I am really putting a question mark at the end.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I was born at New Orleans.
Mr. JENNER - And the family lived in New Orleans?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Were you ever informed by anybody as to the business of your father, not your stepfather but your-
Mr. PIC - My real father?
Mr. JENNER - Yes; or occupation?
Mr. PIC - From what I was told he was a stevedore and had once been a professional basketball player. This is all I remember ever hearing about him.
Mr. JENNER - And this was information that came from primarily your mother?
Mr. PIC - From my mother; yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - As a boy as you grew up in New Orleans were you advised whether your father was alive, whether he was in New Orleans or where he was or anything about him in that connection?
Mr. PIC - Being the nosy child I was, every once in a while I would look him up in the phone book so I knew he existed.
Mr. JENNER - Did you make any inquiries to find out what his business was or occupation?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you ever make any attempt to go to Where he might be working or living to see what, he looked like?
Mr. PIC - I thought of it several times but I never made an attempt.
Mr. JENNER - Were you influenced in this in any respect by your mother?
Mr. PIC - No, sir. I do remember on several occasions when we would visit the Lillian Murrets the name would come up that he had visited them, they would see him now and then and, of course, every time this cropped up it made me more inquisitive.
Mr. JENNER - You mentioned Lillian Murret, that is your aunt, your mother's sister?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And her husband is Charles "Dutz" Murret?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - In those early years, did your family reside somewhere near the Murrets? I am going to get into all those addresses if I can, but I am thinking of the overall relationship geographically.
Mr. PIC - As I recollect, the house was where Mr. Oswald died, all I know is that it was on the corner of Alvez and Galvez.
Mr. JENNER - 2109 Alvar?
Mr. PIC - There you go. I think the street that ran next to it was Galvez.
Mr. JENNER - You are correct.
Mr. PIC - This is the first real--I remember a first real house prior to this, where it was, sir, I don't know. I was about 5 at the time.
Mr. JENNER - But the first one you remember is the house on the corner that you have mentioned?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do any of these addresses refresh your recollection? 2205 Alvar?
Mr. PIC - It may be the address of the house on Alvez and Galvez, I don't know.
Mr. JENNER - No?
Mr. PIC - I don't know, sir. No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - 2123 Alvar?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - 1661 Paul Morphy?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - 2132 Gallier?
Mr. PIC - The name, the streets sound--I may have heard it before.
Mr. JENNER - 1917 Gallier?
Mr. PIC - Only the street sounds familiar.
Mr. JENNER - 805 Greenwood?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - 220 North--my pronunciation will be bad--Telemachus.
Mr. PIC - No.
Mr. JENNER - 123 South Cortez?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You had to get away yesterday before a letter arrived which is at your base now, from Mr. Rankin; general counsel for the Commission, confirming arrangements for you to appear and have your deposition taken before the Commission, and enclosing with that letter copies of the legislation being Senate Joint Resolution No. 137 authorizing the creation of the Commission, and a copy of President Johnson.'s Executive Orders bringing the Commission into existence No. 11130, and a copy of the rules and regulations of the Commission itself for the taking of depositions.
When you return to Lackland base you will find that letter probably in the possession of your Commanding Officer, and he will deliver it to you.
The Commission was authorized by the resolution I have mentioned and brought into existence by the President to investigate the facts and circumstances involved in and surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, and we have understood from witnesses and other information we have, that you had and still have information bearing upon the facts and circumstances relative to that assassination, and it is this line of questioning that is directed toward that.
We appreciate your appearing voluntarily from Lackland base to appear here today.
That letter, and the enclosures state that you are entitled to counsel if you want counsel present, and if you desire to have counsel present I can suspend this now.
Mr. PIC - I have nothing to hide, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Go ahead, John.
Mr. ELY - I just wanted to check on a couple of addresses with you, sir. 914 Hennesey, do you remember that?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. Ely. - What about Taft Place?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You attended William Frantz Elementary School in Dallas, did you not?
Mr. PIC - New Orleans.
Mr. JENNER - With your brother, Robert?
Mr. PIC - What grade was I in, sir. He was two grades behind me. If I was in the third, he was there. If I wasn't, he wasn't.
Mr. JENNER - Well, the record shows you enrolled in William Frantz School at 3811 North Galvez on the 16th of September 1936 at which .time you were 4 1/2 years old.
Mr. PIC - Well, he wouldn't be there.
Mr. JENNER - Not at that time. He was then 2 1/2.
Do you recall transferring from William Frantz Elementary School to George Washington Elementary School?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I do.
Mr. JENNER - Was that some time in late September or in November, perhaps of 1940.
Mr. PIC - Well, prior to that we went to another place, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Your first elementary school was William Frantz?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you attended William Frantz until when, to the best of your recollection?
Mr. PIC - I don't think I attended William Frantz after---
Mr. JENNER - The death of your stepfather?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; somewhere around there. We went to a boarding school over in Gretna, La. Infant Jesus College was the name of it, I believe, both Robert and I, and we hated the place.
Mr. JENNER - That was a very short period of time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; because we hated the place.
Mr. JENNER - I will get to that in a moment.
Mr. PIC - I don't know whether it was before Washington or after. I think it was before Washington.
Mr. JENNER - Perhaps I can refresh your recollection this way. Your stepfather died in August of 1939. You were then living in the house at the corner of Alvar and Galvez which you recall as Alvez and Galvez.
Do you recall that some months after the death of your father and in the following year, the late winter or early spring, that you moved from that house?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall a physician by the name of Mancuso?
Mr. PIC - It may or may not be familiar, sir. I don't know.
Mr. JENNER - He was the doctor who delivered Lee, and also the man who rented the house in which you had been living. Do you recall that?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You do recall leaving that house in which you had been living at the time of the death of your stepfather?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; sometime afterward.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall that it was a matter of months and not a matter of years?
Mr. PIC - It had to be months, sir, because I have got something else for 1940 here.
Mr. JENNER - When you moved from the house in which you had been living at the time of the death of your stepfather, do you recall moving to 1242 Congress Street?
Mr. PIC - No, sir. I remember moving to a Bartholomew Street.
Mr. JENNER - That Bartholomew Street, I will get to that in a moment, perhaps to refresh your recollection was a little house that your mother purchased on contract.
Mr. PIC - What, Bartholomew?
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - I remember that house.
Mr. JENNER - 1010 Bartholomew.
Mr. PIC - That could be it, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Before you moved to 1010 Bartholomew you lived, did you not, at 1242 Congress?
Mr. PIC - I don't remember, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Your mother didn't sell the Alvar Street 'house until January of 1944.
Mr. PIC - I thought it was sold the day we moved out.
Mr. JENNER - It was rented by Dr. Mancuso the day you moved out, and ultimately your mother regained possession in January 1944, and he then purchased that house substantially contemporaneously, in January of 1944.
Mr. PIC - Can I ask you a question?
Mr. JENNER - Yes, sir.
Mr. PIC - Being Mr. Oswald was in the insurance business, and being i was rather young, how did he leave her, I have no idea.
Mr. JENNER - Well, I will answer that question. You tell me what you thought at the time and what your impression now is.
Mr. PIC - Well, he didn't leave her much is what I was told.
Mr. JENNER - Was that the feeling you had at the time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Well, he did leave a small insurance policy, and the house on Alvar, on the corner of Alvar and Galvez, which was being purchased under contract, and that is about all.
I take it, it is your recollection, Sergeant, that when you and your mother and Robert and Lee, who was then an infant child, just a few months old, left the house on 2109 Alvar you entered some institution.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And what is your recollection of that institution?
Mr. PIC - I believe it was in Gretna, La.
Mr. JENNER - Spell that for the reporter.
Mr. PIC - G-r-e-t-n-a, a whole bunch of little towns right across the river from New Orleans, West Wego, and a couple of others, that was one of these, I think it was Gretna, it might be in one of that group.
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - And the name of the school was Infant Jesus College and it was a Catholic school, sir. And us not being Catholics they lowered the boom on us.
Mr. JENNER - That would be you and your brother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you were at that time just about 8 years old. Was it before your 8th birthday or what?
Mr. PIC - I wouldn't remember that, sir.
Mr. JENNER - It was in 1940, however?
Mr. PIC - I thought it was in the end of 1939. It is either the end of 1939 or early 1940.
Mr. JENNER - Is it your recollection that--
Mr. PIC - We were still living on Alvez and Galvez when we went to that school.
Mr. JENNER - All right. That is what I wanted to straighten out.
Your mother put you and Robert in the Catholic boarding school before the family actually moved out of the 2109 Alvar home?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. How long were you boys at that Catholic institution?
Mr. PIC - My best recollection is that it was to the end of the school year, 1940.
Mr. JENNER - That would be the summer of 1940?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Your mother was not working at that time, was she?
Mr. PIC - As far as I know; no, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What is your recollection as to why you were placed in that institution inasmuch as your mother was not working, and at that time you were still living or she was, with Lee at 2109 Alvar?
Mr. PIC - My impression then, sir; I don't know, I can give you my impressions now---
Mr. JENNER - Are these impressions that you are about to give me and I do want you to give them to me, gathered from recollection of the course of events over a period of years?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Based on discussions in the family over a period of years?
Mr. PIC - Based mainly on experiences in contact with my mother over a period of years, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right; tell us about them.
Mr. PIC - I think it was probably because it was cheaper to maintain Robert and I over at this school than it was to maintain us at home. I mean we boarded there, they fed us, went to school. I don't know what the fee was but this was the impression I have now.
Mr. JENNER - While you boys were at the Catholic school, did your mother and Lee leave, if you have a recollection of this, the 2109 Alvar home? This would be sometime between the first of January 1940, and the time you finished the second semester, let-us say.
Mr. PIC - If this house between Alvez and Bartholomew is a green house.
Mr. JENNER - Green?
Mr. PIC - Green, I can remember it. You can tell me if it was green, I don't know, sir. I remember a green house somewhere in this time period.
Mr. JENNER - Let me get at that this way. You and Robert were lodged eventually in the Bethlehem----
Mr. PIC - Bethlehem Orphans Home, somewhere on St. Peters Street, New Orleans. I think this was in 1942, though, this happened.
Mr. JENNER - Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Orphan Asylum.
Mr. PIC - Right. That is the name.
Mr. JENNER - Known as the Bethlehem Children's Home?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And--all right, now, you entered there on the 3d of January 1942. Is that your recollection?
Mr. PIC - That is my recollection.
Mr. JENNER - The winter of 1942?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I know it was a little bit after the war was declared.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Now, taking that date, January 1942, and going back---
Mr. PIC - OK.
Mr. JENNER - To the end of the school year in 1940--
Mr. PIC - Well, the school in September 1940--I think I put in about a year and a half in this Washington Elementary School after we were taken out of Infant Jesus College.
Mr. JENNER - At that time didn't you live at 1242 Congress Street in New Orleans?
Mr. PIC - Sir, if you have a map of New Orleans and show me where this is maybe I can remember, but I don't remember anything but Bartholomew.
Mr. JENNER - For the purposes of refreshing your recollection the records of the public school system of New Orleans reflect the following: that you were enrolled at William Frantz School located at 3811 North Galvez when you were 4 1/2 years old on September 16, 1936. You continued there thereafter until September 5, 1940.
Mr. PIC - September 1940.
Mr. JENNER - These records would show that you were discharged from the William Frantz Elementary School on January 2, 1940.
Mr. PIC - That is better.
Mr. JENNER - And that you reentered William Frantz on September 5, 1940, and you transferred to George Washington Elementary School on November 12, 1940.
At the time of the transfer you lived at 1242 Congress Street. Your mother purchased the house at 1010 Bartholomew on the 5th of March 1941. And she sold it on the 16th of January 1942.
With that information, does that serve to refresh your recollection that the course of circumstances might have been these. I will state them and then you correct me. I don't want you to take my word for it but this is solely for the purpose of refreshing your recollection, if it does refresh your recollection.
Your stepfather died in August of 1939. In the winter of 1940, early, sometime in January 1940, your mother took you and your brother, Robert, out of school, you were in the William Frantz Elementary School at that time, and placed you in the Catholic school.
Mr. PIC - I think prior or right after this Catholic school there was another school which was in downtown New Orleans. It was a day school. She would bring us there in the morning and take us home at night. I don't remember too much. We didn't stay there very long.
Mr. JENNER - It is your definite recollection, however, that you were at the Catholic orphanage school in the winter of 1940, which would be approximately 5 months after the death of your stepfather.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I don't make that statement. I make the statement that it is my definite recollection I was in the Infant Jesus College School while we lived in this house on Alvez. What months these were, sir, I don't know.
Mr. JENNER - And it is the best of your recollection at the present time that that was the school period ending in the summer of 1940?
Mr. PIC - I think so, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What is your recollection as to the school you attended commencing the school year September 1940? Did you return to William Frantz?
Mr. PIC - I went to George Washington--if I was there at William Frantz, I don't remember. Well, the dates you give me it would be--
Mr. JENNER - A short time?
Mr. PIC - Right. I remember George Washington.
Mr. JENNER - Were you living at home at that time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was that 1242 Congress?
Mr. PIC - I don't know, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Would a map of New Orleans help you any?
Mr. PIC - Possible; I don't remember this Congress, I remember a green house, this was a green house I remember. What street it was on, I don't know. But I do remember something about a green house.
Mr. JENNER - Was it in the French quarter, in the old city?
Mr. PIC - The way I remember the French quarter is down in here somewhere, and this is certainly not the French quarter. Here is this Gretna. It may be in Algiers that Infant Jesus, one of these two, either Gretna or Algiers. I think it was Gretna.
Mr. JENNER - Your mother said it was Algiers, and there is evidence that it was located in Algiers.
Mr. PIC - OK. sir; Algiers. I know it was across the river.
Mr. JENNER - You do have a recollection, however, of living in a house on Bartholomew?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you happen to remember, you don't remember now the exact address?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - It was at 1010 Bartholomew. Did you live in the 1010 Bartholomew house?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was it before or during, or when was it with respect to when you and Robert entered the Bethlehem Orphanage?
Mr. PIC - We was living there when I went to Washington.
Mr. JENNER - George Washington Elementary School at 3810 St. Cloud?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Our records show your mother purchased the 1010 Bartholomew property in March of 1941, March 9 to be exact.
Mr. PIC - When I was at Infant Jesus College, I couldn't very well remember that Congress Street because I probably--we wasn't living there.
Mr. JENNER - You weren't living--
Mr. PIC - At home.
Mr. JENNER - No.
Mr. PIC - So, I am afraid I can't remember that Congress Street address. I remember a green house.
Mr. JENNER - A green house.
Mr. PIC - Yes; that is about the best I can do.
Mr. JENNER - In any event it was a house different from or other than the 2109 Alvar?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - In which you were living at the time of-the death of your stepfather?
Mr. PIC - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - That is good enough. You remember being with your brother Robert in the Bethlehem Orphanage?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And your initial utterance voluntarily was that you entered there in 1942.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; it was right after the war.
Mr. JENNER - The records show that it was in the month of January 1942. You were then 10 years old so you might have some reasonable recollection of it. Tell us the circumstances and what you understand about it.
Mr. PIC - Well, while we lived on this Bartholomew Street my mother opened in the front room a little store called Oswald's Notion Shop. I think she sold spools of thread and needles and things like this.
Mr. JENNER - Did she sell any sweets or candy for children?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I remember we used to go in there and swipe it.
Mr. JENNER - Was your mother working at that time other than managing or operating this little notions and sweet shop?
Mr. PIC - Not that I remember, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And it was in a segment of the home at 1010 Bartholomew?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; it was the very front room.
Mr. JENNER - And you boys were then attending school where?
Mr. PIC - Washington.
Mr. JENNER - When I say you boys, it is your brother Robert and yourself.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I am sure Robert was attending school then. It was Washington.
Mr. JENNER - Yes. Your brother Robert entered grammar school on September 8, 1938. That was William Frantz so he was of school age at the time we are talking about.
Describe that little house to us on Bartholomew. Was it a new house?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; it wasn't new. I guess it had about a minimum of two bedrooms, rather large back yard. We had a dog, and the dog's name was Sunshine. There was a fence ran down it. I remember the house.
Mr. JENNER - Was it a nice neighborhood?
Mr. PIC - It wasn't as nice as Alvez and Galvez.
Mr. JENNER - At that time. I see. Now, you lead me to ask something I should have asked heretofore, tell me about the neighborhood at 2109 Alvar. What do you recall about that?
Mr. PIC - They were all brand new houses. In fact, I think we were the first ones to move in on the street, and most of the other ones were under construction there. William Frantz was building a new school. It was a rather nice neighborhood. Middle income, I guess, at that time.
Mr. JENNER - And the 1010 Bartholomew home was not as new and the neighborhood was not quite the same as at 2109 Alvar, but what kind of a neighborhood was it? Was it a reasonably nice place, area? You describe it. Don't ever let me put words in your mouth.
Mr. PIC - Well, digging back in my sociology courses, I would say it was upper-lower class, if there is such a classification.
Mr. JENNER - Do you remember any neighbors at 1010 Bartholomew?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; there was a milkman, his name was Bud. Right on the other corner from Bartholomew, on St. Cloud was a theater, I think was called the Nola, and he lived behind this theater, he was our milkman, and my mother and his wife and him were rather friendly, and we used to go on trips on the weekends to the parks and things like this.
Mr. JENNER - Now, I ask you again what you recall to have been the circumstances under which you entered the Bethlehem Orphanage, you and your brother Robert?
Mr. PIC - I can only give you impressions, I have now, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Are these impressions that you gained now, gained from an attempt to refresh your recollection?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - As to the circumstances at that time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - I think properly the notion store wasn't a booming business, and she had to go to work and since we were reminded we were orphans all the time, the right place to be would be in an orphan home.
Mr. JENNER - Your mother did remind you repeatedly that you were orphans?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That sort of thing. Would you elaborate on that, please?
Mr. PIC - Well, sir; she constantly reminded us we were orphans, that she didn't have the money to support us in everything, and she opened a notion store to make money, and she wasn't making money, and I remember she closed it and went to work at about the same time that we entered Bethlehem.
Mr. JENNER - In January 1942, Lee was a little over 2 years old, is that correct; he was born October 1939.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You were then 10 and your brother Robert was 8, I am talking about approximate ages now.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I think you entered Bethlehem before your tenth birthday.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And a few months before his eighth birthday. Did Lee eventually join you at Bethlehem?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; he did. The exact date I don't remember. I know he was there for only a matter of months. He wasn't there as long as Robert and I was.
Mr. JENNER - I show you a document I will have marked as John Pic Exhibit No. 2, please, for purposes of identification which appears to be a Xerox reproduction of an application blank executed by Mrs. Marguerite Oswald and related minutes for admission of Lee Oswald to the Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Orphan Asylum Association, dated at New Orleans, December 26, 1942, and showing entry of Lee Oswald into the orphanage asylum on the 26th day of December 1942.
(John Pic Exhibit No. 2 was marked for identification.)
Mr. JENNER - Sergeant, I direct your attention to the line on which appears what purports to be the signature of "Mrs. Marguerite Oswald." You are familiar with the handwriting, are you not?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Of your mother Marguerite?
Mr. PIC - Yes, Sir.
Mr. JENNER - And with her signature?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Drawing on that familiarity, is that, signature the situation of your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I offer in evidence the document now identified as John Pic Exhibit No. 2.
Having done that, Sergeant, does that refresh your recollection as to the time when your brother Lee Oswald was admitted to the orphanage asylum?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall it to have been sometime in late 1942 or thereabout?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What is your recollection as to when he was- he joined you at the orphan asylum.
Mr. PIC - I remember we were there a while, sir. He came, and to the best of my recollection he didn't stay but 6 months at the longer, and left again. I don't think- he wasn't there as long as we were.
Mr. JENNER - I direct your attention, Sergeant, to the fact your mother has listed on this application her address as 111 Sherwood Forest Drive.
Mr. PIC - That address is familiar to me. Sherwood Forest Drive part of it, the numbers are not.
Mr. JENNER - I wouldn't expect you to remember the exact number but the street you do recall?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir I do. In fact, the Murrets lived on the same street.
Mr. JENNER - Is it your impression then that the address of 111 Sherwood Forest Drive was probably the address of the Murrets?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I wouldn't say that.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall your mother moving out of 1010 Bartholomew?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And so that it is your recollection that sometime between your entry into the Bethlehem Orphanage at which time the family lived at 1010 Bartholomew, that your mother and Lee or at least your mother left, it must have been your mother and Lee, left the 1010 Bartholomew residence and moved to another home on Sherwood Drive?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Tell us about that. You put it in sequence as best you can.
Mr. PIC - If there was anything between Bartholomew and Sherwood Forest Drive, I don't remember, sir. I do remember the Sherwood Forest Drive house, and if I remember right it was three or four doors down from the Murrets.
Mr. JENNER - Where would that be in your recollection with respect to Bartholomew?
Mr. PIC - Oh, that is way across town, sir. That is in the city park area. In fact, it was only a block from city park.
Mr. JENNER - And Lee was then--your mother had him with her because at this time, December 1942, he was just a little over 3 years old.
Mr. PIC - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - The records show that the 1010 Bartholomew home was sold on the 16th of January 1942. Does that refresh your recollection as to sequence that prior to her sale of the house she moved out of the house and over to Sherwood Drive and the placing of you boys in the Bethlehem orphanage school was all part of the picture? She sold the Bartholomew house, entered you boys in the orphanage in January 1942.
Mr. PIC - You want to know if I think she sold the house before we were placed in the home?
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - I don't know, sir.
Mr. JENNER - But after you were in the home, that is the Bethlehem Orphanage Home that house was disposed of in some fashion at least?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And she moved into another house on Sherwood Drive?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - By the way, do you remember anybody, an uncle of yours by the name of John Oswald?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Or--?
Mr. PIC - I remember an uncle on my stepfather's side. I don't recall his name, sir.
Mr. JENNER - W. S. Oswald, is that familiar to you?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - But other than an uncle on your stepfather's side, that is you don't recall his name, his first name?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - His name was Oswald, though?
Mr. PIC - I know it was on his side, sir. It may have been his sister, I don't know. Maybe his brother-in-law.
Mr. JENNER - But you don't know.
I will identify as John Pic Exhibit No. 3 another application blank, this one dated January 3, 1942, for admission of Robert Edward Oswald, Jr., to the Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Orphan Asylum, which is dated January 3, 1942, and direct you, Sergeant to the signature appearing on that exhibit reading "Mrs. Lee Oswald." Are you familiar with that signature?
Mr. PIC - That is the first time I have ever seen her use the word "Lee."
Mr. JENNER - But the handwriting; that is her handwriting?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I offer in evidence a document now identified as John Pic Exhibit No. 3.
(John Pic Exhibit No. 3 was marked for identification.)
Mr. JENNER - Now, directing your attention to that exhibit which shows the entry of your brother Robert in the orphanage asylum on January 3, 1942, is it a fact that you and your brother Robert entered the asylum at the same time?
Mr. PIC - To the best of my recollection, yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I direct your attention to this. There appears in the line designated "mother" written in longhand Marguerite Claverie Oswald, address, 1010 Bartholomew, and then right above it there is written 831 Pauline Street--January 28.
Do you recall your mother moving with Lee to a place on Pauline Street in January of 1942?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All you recall is that she and Lee did move to a place, another place from the 1010 Bartholomew address?
Mr. PIC - Well, it shows it there. I thought it was Sherwood Forest, I don't know.
Mr. JENNER - It might have been shortly after that?
Mr. PIC - This is not familiar at all, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is the 831 Pauline Street address is not at all familiar?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Is any of this application blank, that is any of the longhand on it, in the hand of your mother other than her signature?
Mr. PIC - I wouldn't know, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Your religion is Lutheran, is it not?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you were baptized in the Lutheran church, were you not?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Your recollection is that your brother Lee was taken from the orphanage home before you and Robert were?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You were released in June of 1944?
Mr. PIC - I have-- I may have. If you say it was June, sir, OK. It was May or June.
Mr. JENNER - May or June of 1944. And does it refresh your recollection that your brother Lee was released from that home the previous January, as a matter of fact on--
Mr. PIC - He didn't go when we went and he didn't leave, all I know is he didn't enter when we entered and he didn't leave when we left. It was between those periods the best I can state.
Mr. JENNER - The record (Pic Exhibit) shows he was released from the home on the 19th of January, 1944 (Pic Exhibit No. 2A), and that he entered the home on the 26th of December, 1942 (Pic Exhibit No. 2). So he was there 2 years.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; that is not right.
Mr. JENNER - That doesn't square with your recollection, you mean?
Mr. PIC - No, sir. He may have been in .and out of there off and on but he didn't spend full time there that long. You see she may have pulled him out there for a couple of weeks to stay with the Murrets, and things or even longer and still have him charged against Bethlehem.
Mr. JENNER - I misspoke when I said 2 years. It would be the period from December 26, 1942, to January 29, 1944, which is 1 year and 1 month.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; that would only be a year and 1 month.
Mr. JENNER - For the record then that span of time for your brother between January 29, 1944, when he was released, and December 26, 1942, when he entered is approximately 13 months.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is about what you remember, isn't it?
Mr. PIC - Well, I remember it about 6 months. But I guess that is right. I know he wasn't in there a full 13 months at a clip. He was in and out of there in 13 months. At that school if your parents wanted to take you home for a couple or 3 weeks they took you home for a couple or 3 weeks.
Mr. JENNER - And you do remember your mother did that?
Mr. PIC - Sure, I am sure he stayed at the Murrets also.
Mr. JENNER - Well, the Murrets recall that. Now, I show you an exhibit which we will identify as John Pic Exhibit No. 4 which for purposes of identification is a Xerox duplication of a letter from Mrs. Marguerite Oswald to the Reverend Harold of the Evangelical Lutheran Orphanage Asylum dated February 1, 1945, addressed 4801 Victor, Dallas, Tex.
It is in longhand. Would you please examine it for the purpose of answering a question I will put to you as to whether it is in the handwriting of your mother?
Mr. PIC - It appears to me, sir; to be her handwriting.
Mr. JENNER - I offer in evidence John Pic Exhibit No. 4.
(John Pic Exhibit No. 4 was marked for identification.)
Mr. JENNER - I have marked as John Pic Exhibit No. 5 another application for admission to Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Orphan Asylum Association dated December 23, 1942, for the admission of John Edward Pic and Robert Oswald to that orphanage, but the information on the application is confined to John Edward Pic.
Unfortunately, Mr. Pic, this application, for some reason by oversight was not signed by your mother. Do you remember a pastor by the name of Rev. J. H. Nau?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - At the Redeemer Lutheran Church?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - By the way, Mr. Reporter, for purposes of the record, there appears on this application the fact that the marriage of Sergeant Pic's mother Marguerite and his father Edward John Pic, Jr. was at Gulfport, La.
Mr. PIC - Mississippi.
Mr. JENNER - No, it says Gulfport, La. here and should have been Gulfport, Miss.?
Mr. PIC - Yes; Mississippi.
Mr. JENNER - Do you remember a pastor by the name of Reverend Scherer?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The Trinity Evangelical Church.
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you remember a Rev. M. R. Lecron?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Of the Redeemer Church?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - By the way, all you boys were christened in the Lutheran church, faith, were you not?
Mr. PIC - I don't know or remember if Lee was. I don't know about Lee.
Mr. JENNER - The record of the Bethlehem Children's Home show that he was baptised by the Rev. M. R. Lecron of the Redeemer Lutheran Church. The exact date, however, is not given.
Mr. PIC - They even have his birthday wrong there.
Mr. JENNER - 1 day. They have it as the 19th whereas it was 18th. As a matter of fact, your mother on one of her papers fixes it on the 19th.
Mr. PIC - So does one of the letters.
Mr. JENNER - I offer John Pic Exhibit No. 5 in evidence.
(John Pic Exhibit No. 5 was marked for identification.)
Mr. JENNER - We will adjourn now and reconvene at 3 o'clock. (Whereupon, at 12:25 p.m., the proceeding was recessed.)

The proceeding was reconvened at 3:25 p.m.

Mr. JENNER - All right, Sergeant.
Do you recall along about this time that you were in the Bethlehem Orphanage your mother became acquainted with a man by the name of E. A. Ekdahl and subsequently married?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And it was about this time, around 1944, that you boys were withdrawn from the Bethlehem Orphanage and taken to Texas?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Now, I will go back a little bit because I want you to put it in sequence. Before we adjourned for noon recess, I covered the matter of the period of the birth of Lee, the death of your stepfather Lee Oswald, and then brought you up to the Bethlehem School and stopped there.
To the extent you have impressions commencing with, let us say, your entry into grammar school, at that time your stepfather Lee Oswald was alive.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You were, when you entered grammar school that was kindergarten you were only four and half years old.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall moving from place to place before you finally settled in--
Mr. PIC - I just remember one residence prior to Alvez and Galvez.
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. PIC - Where that would have been, I don't remember.
Mr. JENNER - O.K. But you sort of settled down in 2109 Alvar?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That your stepfather had purchased that home in 1938?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And then you went along, he died about a year and a half later after he purchased it.
Take us from the time that your stepfather died and tell us your impressions of how the home life changed; if it did change, what effect, if any, you observed that you now can recall that circumstances had on your mother; and what kind of life you and the boys began to lead as distinguished from the life you led while your stepfather was alive if there is any change now. I don't want to put any words in your mouth.
Mr. PIC - Well, we were from the time of his death, placed in two boarding schools prior to Bethlehem, this Infant Jesus, and the other one I don't recall the name of, the other one being a day school.
Mr. JENNER - Sort of a day school, your mother took you in the morning and brought you back. That is two of the boys, not Lee?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He was almost a suckling child?
Mr. PIC - I don't remember. I don't see how he could have been there.
Now this day school was prior to Infant Jesus, it had to be. We went to Infant Jesus and out of there back home for a year or so where we attended Washington and then into Bethlehem.
Like I said before, we were constantly reminded we were orphans and had financial difficulty.
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me, sir; when you just talked about Washington and Bethlehem you put Washington before Bethlehem, and this morning you put Washington into Bethlehem.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; we went to Washington before Bethlehem.
Mr. JENNER - I think you will find that the record of this morning, I am pretty sure, will show a different sequence. That is your impression, that you went into Bethlehem a few months after your stepfather died?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; Infant Jesus.
Mr. JENNER - Infant Jesus. I see. Go ahead. You are right.
Mr. PIC - We were constantly reminded we were orphans and there were financial difficulties, and I was rather young, I don't remember too much about this, but it was always something to do about money problems. We kind of liked Infant Jesus, it wasn't bad at all. We had a pretty good childhood while we lived on Bartholomew Street, there were no major problems there. And even at Bethlehem we beth, Robert and I enjoyed Bethlehem. I mean we were all there with the kids with the same problems, same age groups, and everything. Things for myself became worse when Lee came there, that is why I know he wasn't there too long.
Mr. JENNER - Tell us about it?
Mr. PIC - At Bethlehem they had a ruling that if you had a younger brother or sister there and they had bowel movements in their pants the older brothers would clean them up, and they would yank me out of classes in school to go do this and, of course, this peered me very much, and I wasn't but 10 or 9 or 11.
Mr. JENNER - He was only 3 years old?
Mr. PIC - Yes; but I was 10. And they did quite a few things like this. If there was an older brother or sister there they had to take care of the younger child. The people there didn't all the time.
Mr. JENNER - Was this 7-year spread as the years went on between you and Lee, did that affect your relationship with him as distinguished from your relationship with your brother Robert who was only 2 years younger?
Mr. PIC - Well, anything I was involved in Robert always was. Lee was left out because of the age difference. Robert and I went to all these homes together and all the schools together. Lee didn't, of course.
Mr. JENNER - During the course of the years your companions and friends, I assume were different, that is you and Robert on the one hand?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And Lee on the other?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - His life differed a little from yours too, didn't it, that is at the outset of this early period your mother, except for this period at Bethlehem, when he was there, except for his being withdrawn for a few weeks at a time, he was largely with her?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Living with her?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And did she express problems on her part with him?
Mr. PIC - Well, she referred how would she work and take care of a child and things like this, both. It would seem that the problem with Robert and I was easier to solve than the problem with Lee.
Mr. JENNER - I interrupted you. Go ahead with your account.
Mr. PIC - Well, up until we left Bethlehem, I can only recall three places of employment for Mrs. Oswald, one being Oswald's notion store which was 1941-42, thereabouts.
Mr. JENNER - While you had the Bethlehem house?
Mr. PIC - No; that was before Bethlehem.
Mr. JENNER - I don't mean Bethlehem, Bartholomew Street?
Mr. PIC - Yes; after we were placed in Bethlehem she was a manager of Princess Hosiery on Canal Street and Pittsburgh Plate and Glass Co., I don't remember which one came first.
Mr. JENNER - Myrtle Evans referred to Pittsburgh Plate and Lillian Murret referred to Pittsburgh Plate. You do recall that?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; in fact, I think at the time she worked at Pittsburgh Plate she was going with Mr. Ekdahl. In fact, I think I remember him driving us over there or something once.
Mr. JENNER - When you were at Bethlehem, did your Aunt Lillian ever have occasion to visit?
Mr. PIC - She never visited us that I recall. We visited her many times.
Mr. JENNER - While you were at Bethlehem?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall Myrtle Evans visiting on any occasion?
Mr. PIC - I don't remember. Wait a minute. Myrtle Evans, is she kind of heavy?
Mr. JENNER - She is now.
Mr. PIC - She was then too, that is the same one.
Mr. JENNER - Energetic?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I remember a Myrtle.
Mr. JENNER - She had taken some accounting and--
Mr. PIC - The name is familiar, sir. I can't place the lady.
Mr. JENNER - She had been a girl friend of your mother's?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I wouldn't speculate whether she visited us or not at Bethlehem, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you remember the Evanses coming over to see you when you were at Covington, one time?
Mr. PIC - I don't recollect, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recollect Myrtle Evans coming and visiting when you first went to Texas?
Mr. PIC - Sir; I don't remember Myrtle Evans that much. The name Myrtle is familiar to me. Just like this woman that worked at Holmes for 30 years is familiar to me. Where I had seen her and different places?
Mr. JENNER - H-o-l-m-e-s?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; this is a department store in New Orleans.
Mr. JENNER - Of course you would recall the Murret family.
Mr. PIC - Yes; I recall them very good.
Mr. JENNER - There were a couple of those children about your age and Robert's, is that right?
Mr. PIC - I can only--let's see, Charles, there is Marilyn and Charles.
Mr. JENNER - Marilyn is the youngest?
Mr. PIC - Marilyn is the youngest, no. sir; Boogie is the youngest.
Mr. JENNER - B-o-o-g-i-e?
Mr. PIC - What is he doing now. I heard he was playing semipro ball.
Mr. JENNER - No. He is not doing that any more. Is Boogie John?
Mr. PIC - No. sir; I think--
Mr. JENNER - One is a dentist, one is with Squibb, Gene is a seminarian.
Mr. PIC - Gene is the priest. Gene is the one who is my age or thereabouts. Boogie was closer to Robert's age.
Mr. JENNER - She had five children?
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - Marilyn.
Mr. PIC - Joyce.
Mr. JENNER - Marilyn, Joyce, John, Gene--
Mr. PIC - Charles.
Mr. JENNER - And Charles. They are all alive?
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - That was a fairly lively family, apparently all nice people.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; we enjoyed going there very much.
Mr. JENNER - How did Lee get along with them?
Mr. PIC - Well, I don't know how he got along with them. I know he was placed there several times to stay for a while. I don't know if the people resented this or was glad to have him or not.
Mr. JENNER - Well, they were glad to have him. They appeared to me to be generous people.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. We always could count on our uncle for a dollar or two.
Mr. JENNER - Yes. I take it from the questions I asked you this morning that you had little or no contact with your stepfather's family, with the Oswald family?
Mr. PIC - There was no contact that I remember at all, sir, after his death. Prior to his death, there was quite a bit of contact from what I remember. I remember maybe it was his mother, grandmother we would visit. He had this other Oswald who was either a brother or sister or something, we visited these people. I remember the older woman we visited always gave us kids, including me, it was just Robert and I, a whole bunch of toys for Christmas every Christmas. But after his death, there was no contact at all, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What is your impression as to why that took place?
Mr. PIC - I will speculate and say that--
Mr. JENNER - Give me the impression you have rather than speculate.
Mr. PIC - They couldn't get along with Mrs. Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - -With your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall an incident, sergeant, when your mother went to work in 1942, and she had a couple, a Mr. and Mrs. Roach taking care of Lee who was then--
Mr. PIC - What was Roach's first name, sir?
Mr. JENNER - Thomas.
Mr. PIC - What street did he live on?
Mr. JENNER - 831 Pauline.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I don't. The only one I could think of that may have taken care of Lee was this milkman Bud and his wife.
Mr. JENNER - To help refresh your recollection, it is a fact that your mother lived with Lee at 831 Pauline Street in 1942, and a couple present there by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Roach, Thomas and Dora Roach. They had been living on de Lessups Street in New Orleans, in the 800 block.
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And moved into 831 Pauline, or your mother moved into 831 Pauline Street with them. There was a whole question as to who was the tenter, whether it was the Roaches or your mother?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; this I don't recall at all.
Mr. JENNER - And it wasn't long after they were there that some difficulty arose with respect to Lee and that ended that. It was about 6 weeks or a month, 2 months. But you have no recollection of that?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. The question I asked you and which I keep interrupting in was to give me your impressions of change, if any, with the coming of the death of your stepfather, and you were in the course of recounting that.
Mr. PIC - Well, it struck me or it strikes me that we became lower and lower in the class structure.
Mr. JENNER - As your financial status---
Mr. PIC - And our class structure, both.
Mr. JENNER - Would you elaborate on that? Your financial status went down?
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - And then you say lower in the class structure?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Tell me about that?
Mr. PIC - I would say we were in the middle classes while we lived on Alvez.
Mr. JENNER - While your father was alive?
Mr. PIC - And being we moved to Bartholomew, and being in orphan homes, I think we went to the upper lower class, one class structure dropped, two class structures dropped, something like that.
Mr. JENNER - Were you conscious of that even as a 10-year-old?
Mr. PIC - Well, I realized that we weren't living as good as we used to, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Go ahead.
Mr. PIC - Well, once we were placed in an orphan home, and we were with our own kind, so to speak. I had no feelings whatsoever. I mean, we enjoyed that place. They were rather Strict but we enjoyed it. We had quite a bit of freedom even though they were strict. We would sneak out of the place at night and do all kinds of childish things. But Robert and I enjoyed it.
Mr. JENNER - I am thinking more of your relations with your mother. Was her personality affected by the death of your stepfather?
Mr. PIC - Probably she confided and put to me most of her problems since she didn't have a husband to do this with, always referring to me as the oldest and things like this. When we were in Bethlehem we didn't see that much of her.
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. PIC - Maybe once every 2 weeks, that would be the most often. Maybe once in a while she would drop around.
Mr. JENNER - While you were at Bethlehem did you visit the Murrets?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; several times, lots of times. You see the home once or twice a year, would take us to the city park there in New Orleans. We would get on the rides and naturally the Murrets were right there, and so we would rent bikes for free. It was on the home and I would ride over to their house and visit with them a while, so did Robert. Whenever we had a chance we were more than glad 'to go there.
Mr. JENNER - While at least through the Bethlehem Orphanage period your present recollection is you accommodated to circumstances and within the limits of the circumstances your impression is that you lived a reasonably happy life?
Mr. PIC - We enjoyed it.
Mr. JENNER - Like all children you accommodated yourself to the circumstances?
Mr. PIC - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - Well, I think probably a good new start off point is Mr. Ekdahl. Tell us your recollection of him, what led up, your present recollection of the circumstances which brought him into your lives and when you first were aware of his existence and what your circumstance was at that time, what your mother's was?
Mr. PIC - Okay.
Mr. JENNER - Give times as best you can.
Mr. PIC - If you can date for me when I had my appendix out I can practically date for you Mr. Ekdahl's.
Mr. JENNER - I am afraid I can't. Were you at Bethlehem Orphanage?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I was at Bethlehem so it would be either 1943 or 1944, and I am sure she was at Pittsburgh at that time.
Mr. JENNER - Pittsburgh Plate?
Mr. PIC - Right. And it was right after I had my appendix out that he appeared on the scene. And she visited us more often when she was going with him.
Mr. JENNER - And she brought him with her, did she?
Mr. PIC - Yes; he had the car.
Mr. JENNER - By the way, did your mother have an automobile during this period following your stepfather's death?
Mr. PIC - I don't think so, sir.
Mr. JENNER - But Mr. Ekdahl did have an automobile?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; he had a 1938 Buick.
Mr. JENNER - And your mother visited you more often?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - And they on weekends took us to Covington. I remember once, it may have been more.
Mr. JENNER - All right I wanted to ask you about that. While your stepfather was still alive, did you occasionally visit Covington?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; we did.
Mr. JENNER - Covington, as I understand it, Covington, La. is sort of a summer resort area, is it not?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; it is on the it is north of New Orleans on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and the Murrets used to go to Mandeville, which is about 30 miles closer to New Orleans than Covington was, and we used to visit them back and forth during the summer.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall the names of any of those people that you--whose homes you, the sumer resort homes that you rented during the summer period?
Mr. PIC - To the best of my recollection, sir, we were in cabins at these tourist places. We were never at anybody's home. The Murrets were, I believe, at somebody's home in Mandeville. They had a large house there.
Mr. JENNER - Does Mrs. Benny C-o-m-m-a-n-c-e, is that name familiar to you?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - At 600 West 24th Street, Covington, familiar to you?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Does the address 311 Vermont stimulate your recollection over in Covington?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; if it was this time period it doesn't. That may have been the street we lived on when we went there in 1946, I don't know.
Mr. JENNER - All right. I ask you to relate the circumstances respecting Mr. Ekdahl.
Mr. PIC - Well, in June 1944, we were removed from Bethlehem, and--
Mr. JENNER - Did you know about that in advance? Were you aware you were going to be removed and why?
Mr. PIC - I don't remember how much in advance we knew this. We knew maybe a couple of weeks ahead of time.
Mr. JENNER - Or maybe the more important thing is why were you being removed from Bethlehem? What were the circumstances of bringing that about?
Mr. PIC - Well, she was marrying Mr. Ekdahl, and if you had two parents they wouldn't allow you to stay at Bethlehem.
Mr. JENNER - She was not yet married to him?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Didn't marry him until the 5th of March 1945?
Mr. PIC - That is about right, sir.
Mr. JENNER - So you were removed in June or May 1944, and the record shows in June. Describe Mr. Ekdahl, please, to the extent you now have a recollection?
Mr. PIC - He was--
Mr. JENNER - Who was he? Who did you understand he was?
Mr. PIC - He was an electrical engineer. His home was in Boston, Mass., somewhere around there. He was described to us as a Yankee, of course. Rather tall, I think he was over 6 feet. He had white hair, wore glasses, very nice man.
Mr. JENNER - Very nice man. I take it he was older than your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; he appeared to be somewhat older, quite a bit.
Mr. JENNER - A man of at least, apparently of considerably better means than your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Than you boys had been accustomed to?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What about his health, what did you understand as to that?
Mr. PIC - I have no recollection of knowing anything about his health at that time, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I see. When you were taken from Bethlehem Orphanage in June of 1944, where did you go?
Mr. PIC - Dallas, Tex., sir.
Mr. JENNER - And do you recall where you lived in Dallas, Tex.?
Mr. PIC - I remember what the house looks like, sir. I don't remember the address. You can probably refresh me on that.
Mr. JENNER - I will do so and I want to make it accurate. 4801 Victor was the address.
Mr. PIC - That sounds familiar.
Mr. JENNER - In Dallas. Would you please describe that 4801 Victor Street home?
Mr. PIC - It was white, two story.
Mr. JENNER - Frame, brick?
Mr. PIC - Frame. I think it contained four apartments, maybe only two. I am pretty sure it was four though, two up and two down. We lived on the lower right, in boxcar-type rooms.
Mr. JENNER - What do you mean by that?
Mr. PIC - Well, railroad style, living room, bedroom, bathroom, bedroom, kitchen.
Mr. JENNER - One lined the other, you mean?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I see. With a long hallway to connect it; is that it?
Mr. PIC - The hall ran into each room as you walked by it.
Mr. JENNER - Yes; you lived there with your mother, with Lee, and with Robert?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - At the outset?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Mr. Ekdahl did not live with you when you first went to Dallas, Tex.?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you have any recollection where he lived? First, was he in Dallas?
Mr. PIC - I think he was in Fort Worth, sir. And he used to come over to Dallas to see us. Is that right?
Mr. JENNER - I think that is right. I can't answer.
Mr. PIC - Okay.
Mr. JENNER - That was one of the reasons why I asked my .first question.
Mr. PIC - I think that is the way the setup was, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I think that is so but I don't know. He would come over from Fort Worth and visit you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You boys, when you reached Dallas in 1944, you entered school, grammar school at that time, did you?
Mr. PIC - Robert--just a moment, sir; I remember I attended a summer school session of the 6th grade. Robert may have. I don't really remember. I think he did.
Mr. JENNER - We are in the summer of 1944?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; we went to summer school. I did, I know. I think he may have.
Mr. JENNER - Do you remember that it was the Davy Crockett--
Mr. PIC - No, sir; it was not the Davy Crockett. It was another school. Davy Crockett is where we entered in September. We meanwhile went to summer school.
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. PIC - If you can give me a map of Dallas?
Mr. JENNER - You never heard of it?
Mr. PIC - Give me a map of Texas and I can show you where approximately the school was and I will show you where it was.
Mr. JENNER - You did, after that summer school period in the summer of 1944, enter grammar school in Dallas?
Mr. PIC - That is right. Davy Crockett Elementary School. I entered the 7th grade and Robert entered the 5th.
Mr. JENNER - Let's see, Lee is now almost 5 years old. Did he enter Davy Crocket at that time?
Mr. PIC - To the best of my recollection, no, sir.
Mr. JENNER - At that age he would be going to kindergarten anyhow. All right, you and Robert then entered Davy Crockett?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You continued on at Davy Crockett in the fall semester?
Mr. PIC - Just a moment.
Mr. JENNER - Yes?
Mr. PIC - This house we went to in Dallas.
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - My mother owned it and rented the rest of it or she owned one side of it.
Mr. JENNER - It was a duplex?
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - Myrtle Evans testified that she recalled visiting you, the family, on a trip she made to Dallas on one occasion, on a buying trip or something or accompanied a friend of hers, it was on a ladies' apparel buying trip and she remembered it as what she called them, two-place houses. To me they are duplexes.
Mr. PIC - Right; duplex.
Mr. JENNER - So her recollection is fairly good then. Does that affect your recollection that it was a four- apartment building rather than it was a two-apartment building?
Mr. PIC - I am pretty sure it was four apartments.
Mr. JENNER - Okay; go ahead.
Mr. PIC - Well, I was under the impression and always have been that she owned the house, and there was some arrangement with Mr. Ekdahl as to how she got it or something. She was renting to one couple upstairs, I know; is this right?
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - We are in Davy Crockett Elementary School, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Carry on.
Mr. PIC - Well, that would be September 1944. In the summer of 1945 she married Mr. Ekdahl. I think you dated that as March or April.
Mr. JENNER - She married. trim, in fact, on May 7, 1945. I said March before; I misspoke. It was May 7, 1945.
Mr. PIC - I have got summer. It is pretty good.
Mr. JENNER - Did he then move into the 4801 Victor Place?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; she took a short honeymoon for a day or two and came back and moved in.
Mr. JENNER - In the summer of 1945 did you and Robert continue on at--through that summer in Dallas?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That following September, however, you transferred to some other school; did you not?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; and we were aware of this school before the school session ended in 1945. I knew before we left Davy Crockett we were going.
Mr. JENNER - What was the name of that?
Mr. PIC - In September 1945, sir, Robert and I entered Chamberlain-Hunt Academy, military school for boys, Port Gibson, Miss.
Mr. JENNER - And you were aware of that--that that was forthcoming?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; as early as May 19451 think.
Mr. JENNER - And what were the circumstances?
Mr. PIC - Mr. Ekdahl had to travel and so we were going to boarding school.
Mr. JENNER - I exhibited to you earlier, and you identified a letter of your mother's dated February 1, 1945, to the Bethlehem Orphanage, John Pic Exhibit No. 4 in which your mother is petitioning the Bethlehem Orphanage for the return of you two boys to the orphanage.
Mr. PIC - I don't think I was aware of this letter.
Mr. JENNER - You were not aware?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - No circumstances that you can recall now of the possible relationship between your mother and Ekdahl that might have led to her seeking to do this?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - She says in her letter she is thinking in terms of returning you to Bethlehem because she is going to be traveling with her husband when she does marry him--that is Mr. Ekdahl. There was no discussion in your presence that you can recall on that subject?
Mr. PIC - Not returning to Bethlehem, no, sir; not that I remember. I have to find Victor Street and from there I can just about guess where the school was. I am lost on this map. I can't find Victor Street and where I lived.
Mr. JENNER - Was Davy Crockett Grammar School near your home at 4801 Victor Street?
Mr. PIC - About three blocks, sir. Three long blocks.
Mr. JENNER - Describe that neighborhood to us.
Mr. PIC - I think it would be middle class.
Mr. JENNER - A level up from what you had been accustomed back in New Orleans?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. There were fine brick homes; in fact, I had a paper route out there that I delivered, and easily middle class. Maybe some upper middle class.
Mr. JENNER - Was your life there pleasant?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And when Mr. Ekdahl moved in were the relationships generally among all, now five of you, pleasant?
Mr. PIC - Between Mr. Ekdahl and the three boys they were pleasant, sir. I think there were some arguments between Mr. Ekdahl and my mother from time to time.
Mr. JENNER - You were aware of those?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. I am going to need a map with a listing of the schools. This one doesn't seem to have one. This summer school was about a good 2 miles away. We walked it in the morning.
Mr. JENNER - You and Robert?
Mr. PIC - I think me and Robert. We had other friends that we went to school with.
Mr. JENNER - Of course.
Mr. PIC - And there were always a group of us. I don't remember if Robert went or not, sir, to tell you the truth.
Mr. JENNER - I see. When you came around to the fall of 1945, however, you entered the Chamberlain-Hunt Military Academy?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; in fact, the trip to Chamberlain-Hunt was a side trip because Mr. Ekdahl, my mother, and Lee were on their way to Boston to visit his folks.
And so they dropped us off at the school and then proceeded to Boston.
Mr. JENNER - Was that a motor trip?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; it was in a 1938 Buick.
Mr. JENNER - You remained at Chamberlain-Hunt Military Academy except for summer vacation, or something of that nature, for how long?
Mr. PIC - Well, sir, you Just want a blanket statement. I have got a whole bunch of goodies while I was at Chamberlain-Hunt.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Go ahead.
Mr. PIC - During Christmas vacation of 1945 Robert and I received money to go home for the Christmas holidays. We were to take the train from Vicksburg, Miss., to Shreveport, La. These were instructions and when we arrived at Shreveport, we were to wait for Mr. Ekdahl to pick us up. We arrived and he wasn't there. So I think we waited around, I have an estimate of between 1 and 2 hours, and then he showed up. He then drove us to Fort Worth, Benbrook, Tex., and we had a house about 15 miles below Fort Worth in Benbrook, it was way out. It wasn't the same Benbrook house, it was further. This was a brick house.
Mr. JENNER - The first house in Benbrook?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Had you known the family had moved to Benbrook, Tex.?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; because we was writing.
Mr. JENNER - Because of correspondence?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - This was your first view of that house?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Tell us what it was; describe it to us?
Mr. PIC - It was rather isolated on one of the main highways. In fact, I just drove that way recently and I couldn't find the place. When I went up to Fort Worth in 1962 I was looking for the house, I couldn't find it.
Mr. JENNER - Was it Granbury Road, Box 567, Benbrook, Tex.?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; that sounds familiar. This was a brick house, with quite a bit of ground. I think way back they told us that one of the Roosevelt sons had a house out there, that is how I remember. We arrived there sometime the next day or two; my mother quizzed us on why we were so late. One reason we were late besides the wait was the heavy fog, and I informed her we had to wait a while for Mr. Ekdahl, and she kind of hinted to me, I think I was 15 at the time, did I see another woman-or was there anything shady about it or something. That is all I have to say about that. She was under the impression years later, she told me that he had met some woman in Shreveport and they were having some fun.
Mr. JENNER - You were in Benbrook, Tex., then for the Christmas holiday?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You and Robert?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Lee was living with Mr. Ekdahl and your mother at the Benbrook, Tex., home out on the outskirts of Fort Worth; I guess this is--
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; that is correct.
Mr. JENNER - And you returned after the Christmas holiday to--
Mr. PIC - It would be January 1946 we returned to, back to Chamberlain-Hunt.
Mr. JENNER - Did you return home at all from then on until the summer of 1946?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Where were you during the summer of 1946?
Mr. PIC - In the summer of 1946, Robert and I were informed that we would stay at the academy to attend summer session there. Well, school let out in May and I think summer session starts in June, so there was a waiting period of about 2 to 3 weeks, so we just stayed there. This suited us fine. We really liked the school.

Sometime during that waiting period my mother showed up and informed us that her and Mr. Ekdahl had separated, and she showed up with Lee, of course, and she was going to take us to Covington where we would stay the summer. We had--the commandant of the school was an attorney, and I think she got some legal assistance from him about divorce proceeding or something. She talked to him about it, I know. His name was Farrell, Herbert D. Farrell. He was commandant of the school. Did you ever talk to him?
Mr. JENNER - Not that I know of.
Mr. PIC - A real nice man, too. She had the car.
Mr. JENNER - The 1938 Buick?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. She had it.
Mr. JENNER - Had she taken a home or a house in Covington?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. When we arrived there she looked for a house, and there always is one neighborhood two or three blocks from the downtown area that we stayed in during the summers and she took a house in this area. That address I don't remember.
Mr. JENNER - Does the address, the street Vermont Street refresh your recollection, 311 Vermont?
Mr. PIC - The only thing I remember about the house is a lady next door was plagued by squirrels throwing nuts on her roof because she was out every morning chasing them with a broom.
Mr. JENNER - The squirrels?
Mr. PIC - The squirrels. This was a one-story brick house, and we lived on the right side.
Mr. JENNER - You stayed there throughout the summer?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you return to Chamberlain-Hunt that fall?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; we returned to Chamberlain-Hunt in September 1946. Then for the Christmas holidays, 1946, 1947, we returned to Covington where she and Lee still were, and spent those holidays there. During those holidays we made one trip to New Orleans with this other boy who lived in Covington also that we went to school with, and they were driving to New Orleans so we all bummed a fide and went to New Orleans and visited the Murrets a day or so. I think it was 1 day.
Mr. JENNER - Did your mother accompany you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Had Lee entered grammar school at this time?
Mr. PIC - I wouldn't know, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Our records show that he entered--
Mr. PIC - He probably did.
Mr. JENNER - He entered in September 19, 1946, and continued to January 23, 1947, old Covington Grammar School.
Mr. PIC - Probably.
Mr. JENNER - Is that your impression at the time that he was in school, he is now 7 years old?
Mr. PIC - I think he had to be in school or they came and got him. My next note says that sometime between January 1947 until May 1947 Mr. Ekdahl and my mother were reunited. Robert and I--
Mr. JENNER - Had she returned to--
Mr. PIC - To Fort Worth. She didn't return to Fort Worth. They moved to Fort Worth. We had never been to Fort Worth before that except in Benbrook.
Mr. JENNER - I see. This was from Benbrook, Tex., to Fort Worth?
Mr. PIC - Right. This address I don't remember, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Does the address 1505 Eighth Avenue, Fort Worth, refresh your recollection?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; that is it.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Go ahead.
Mr. PIC - OK. During that summer her and Mr. Ekdahl had their ins and outs.
Mr. JENNER - You were home?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I was assistant manager of an ice cream parlor. Now let's go back further than that. When we first got there I got a job for the summer at Walgreen's, and I worked there for a couple of weeks before they fired me.
Mr. JENNER - You are now 15 years old?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. And while I was working there I met this other boy, his name was Sammy, his last name I don't remember, he was from California. He was working in Walgreen's in Fort Worth, also. So, after I lost my job at Walgreen's I got this other job, assistant manager of Tex-Gold Ice Cream Parlor which was on Eighth Avenue, about 6 blocks from the house.
Mr. JENNER - Describe that house, please.
Mr. PIC - It was the second house from the corner. On the corner lived the McLeans who was an attorney and I think he was her attorney or his brother was her attorney in her divorce proceedings. They had a couple of boys we became friendly with. The house itself was a brick, I remember brick with a garage in the back. I think there was an upstairs or side.
Mr. JENNER - Describe the neighborhood, please.
Mr. PIC - I would say it would be middle class.
Mr. JENNER - It was comparable to the neighborhood you lived in at 4801 Victor in Dallas?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. I was assistant manager of this Tex-Gold Ice Cream Parlor.
Mr. JENNER - What was Robert doing?
Mr. PIC - Nothing.
Mr. JENNER - He didn't work?
Mr. PIC - I don't think so.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - That is right, he was playing around with girls at that time.
Like I said, my mother and Mr. Ekdahl were having problems. It would seem they would have a fight about every other day and he would leave and come back. Well, it seems one night, as I was returning from work, I think we closed the store about 10 o'clock, Mr. Ekdahl and she drove up and told me that they wouldn't be home that night, that they were going downtown to the Worth Hotel. This was one of their reunions, and this was one of their longer separation periods.
So, I went back and I told Lee and Robert, and this seemed to really elate Lee, this made him really happy that they were getting back together. Mr. Ekdahl, while Robert and I were at the academy would write us, he was a great one for writing poetry. He would send us a poem about ourselves or something, treated us real swell. Well--
Mr. JENNER - I--what is your impression of Mr. Ekdahl, did Lee like him?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is your definite impression that he liked him.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I think Lee found in him the father he never had. He had treated him real good and I am sure that Lee felt the same way, I know he did. He felt the same way about it, because Mr. Ekdahl treated all of us like his own children.
Mr. JENNER - There appears to be in the file at Chamberlain-Hunt Military Academy a letter from Mr. Ekdahl to your--to you boys dated August 1946, carrying a return address of the Fayette Hotel on Third Street of Fort Worth.
Mr. PIC - I don't know, sir.
Mr. JENNER - This would be at the time when your mother was living in Coving-ton. During that period.
Mr. PIC - I didn't know about it.
Mr. JENNER - You have no recollection of it?
Mr. PIC - I don't know where Mr. Ekdahl was when she was in Covington. know he was in the Fort Worth- Dallas area is all I knew.
Mr. JENNER - Your mother and Ekdahl, this incident you mentioned, you mentioned that because it impressed you that they were getting back together again, more friendly?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I mentioned it because it impressed Lee.
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. PIC - I think it impressed him more than it did either of the older boys.
Mr. JENNER - Did anything else occur during that summer?
Mr. PIC - A whole bunch of stuff.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Go ahead.
Mr. PIC - I think this is the same summer when we made the raid. I don't know if you know about the raid or not.
Mr. JENNER - I don't think so.
Mr. PIC - Well, this guy Sammy that I knew had another--knew a couple, a young married couple named Marvin and Goldie, I don't remember their last names, sir, and Sammy and I were friends, Sammy lived in a downtown hotel, and Marvin and Goldie had a house somewhere in the Fort Worth area. So we became friendly the four of us, and then they would come over to my house, and they got to know my mother and everything. Well, after they broke up again, after this last incident.
Mr. JENNER - This was still during the summer of 1947?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; this is still during the summer, my mother had strong suspicions that Mr. Ekdahl was seeing another woman and she was following him, I don't know how. I know she had the lead, she knew where the woman lived and everything.
So, one night Marvin, Goldie, Sammy, my mother and I all piled into this young couple's car, went over to these apartments, and Sammy acted as a messenger, and knocked on the door and said, "Telegram" for this woman, whoever she was, I don't remember the name. When she opened the door, my mother pushed her way in, this woman was dressed in a nightgown negligee, Mr. Ekdahl was seated in the living room in his shirt sleeves and she made a big fuss about this. She's got him now had all this stuff. That is about it. Well, that is all to that incident.
In September, Robert--well, in August--Robert and I in September returned to Camberlain-Hunt, this is September 1947. During the school year 1947--48 I was informed about divorce proceedings. Christmas holidays, 1947, Robert and I returned 'to the house on Eighth Avenue in Fort Worth and those are the pictures of Lee sitting on the bike, it is in that time period.
Mr. JENNER - Let's identify those. I hand you Pic Exhibit Nos. 52 and 53.
Mr. PIC - Yes. sir; this was taken during that time period. This is the front lawn of the house on Eighth Avenue and the white house in the background would be that of the attorney Mr. McLean.
Mr. JENNER - Did you take those pictures?
Mr. PIC - Sir?
Mr. JENNER - Did you take the pictures?
Mr. PIC - My brother Robert and I each had a 'box camera we received--no, we had the box camera before that. We took it with our box camera.
Mr. JENNER - All right. I offer those exhibits in evidence.
(John Pic Exhibits Nos. 52 and 53 were marked for identification.)
Mr. JENNER - Was Mr. Ekdahl living in the home at that time?
Mr. PIC - We did not see him during those holidays.
Mr. JENNER - You returned to the academy following the Christmas vacation?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you continued on through the end of that school year, did you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; to May 1948.
Mr. JENNER - Give me your impressions of Lee, he is now getting to be 8 or 9 years old, his attitudes and course of conduct, and his relationships with other children, either in the neighborhood or at school.
Mr. PIC - Well, sir; When we were home, Robert and I, of course, that was the only time we seen Lee, he would tag along with us to the movies and everything. He did what we did, got in the same trouble we did and so forth. I don't remember observing him with the other children. I had my own problems at the age of 14. We did know that during 'the school year of 1947-48, divorce proceedings were going to take place shortly.
We returned from Chamberlain-Hunt in May 1948, to a house I don't remember the address of, sir, but we were back down in the lower class again.
Mr. JENNER - The house at--
Mr. PIC - It was fight slap next to the railroad tracks.
Mr. JENNER - 3300 Willing Street, Fort Worth.
Mr. PIC - If that is next to the railroad tracks, that is it. I remember we had to listen to the trains going back and forth. She had moved in this house a couple or 3 months prior to us returning from school.
Mr. JENNER - The divorce had taken place in the meantime?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; it had not.
Mr. JENNER - Was Mr. Ekdahl in this lower class house?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you see him during that summer?
Mr. PIC - No, sir--yes, sir. But not prior to May 1948. I seen him later during the summer.
Mr. JENNER - Yes. You and Robert were home daring that summer of 1948, were you?
Mr. PIC - May I continue?
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - When we returned home I seen this house and my first impressions were that we are back to where we were. Lee had a dog that a woman had given him, I think it is the same dog we have pictures of, and I kind of had the feeling that our days at Chamberlain-Hunt were ended even though it didn't come officially. Then sometime in the summer of 1948, the divorce took place in Tarrant County, city of Fort Worth. I had to testify. I think they attempted to put Lee on the stand but he said that he wouldn't know right from wrong and the 'truth from a falsehood so they excused him as a witness being he was trader age.

I don't remember my testimony completely. I dc remember that my mother had made the statement that if Mr. Ekdahl ever hit her again that she would send me in there to beat him up or, something which I doubt that I could have done.
I was told by her that she was contesting the divorce so that he would still support her. She lost, he won. The divorce was granted. I was also told that there was a settlement of about $1,200 and she stated that just about all of this went to the lawyer. Right after this is when she purchased the house in Ben-brook, Tex., the little house.
Mr. JENNER - Describe that house.
Mr. PIC - It was an L--shaped house, sir, being the top of the L was her bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room with a screened-in porch. She and Lee slept together. My brother and I slept in the living room in the screened-in porch on studio couches. When we moved into this house and after the divorce and everything became final, I was--
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me, was that 101 San Saba?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I don't know nothing about 101 San Saba.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall the street you were on in Benbrook; this first house?
Mr. PIC - There were no streets. We used a post office box number up at the post office there. Because I was sending away for stamps at the time from different companies, and I was collecting stamps and I would go pick up the mail at the post office.
Mr. JENNER - The first house in Benbrook was on Granbury Road, that is your recollection? That is the one you have already mentioned heretofore?
Mr. PIC - Granbury Road is familiar, sir, if that is the one that is way far south of town on Granbury Road, then that is it.
Mr. JENNER - Well, there is a letter in the file at the Hunt Military Academy in October of 1945 informing them that a new address would be Granbury Road, Route 5, Box 567 in Benbrook.
Mr. PIC - That is the one further south of Fort Worth.
Mr. JENNER - That is the first one?
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - The house you are now mentioning in Benbrook was the summer of 1948 is different from the first one?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; it is.
Mr. JENNER - You can't remember the street address?
Mr. PIC - There was no street address. This was the first and only house built there.
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. PIC - They just built up this area and she got the very first house. Two pictures there, Lee and Lee's dog and this is taken at the house in Benbrook, that house.
Mr. JENNER - Would you select those, please?
Mr. PIC - These were taken in Covington.
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me, the witness has referred to two pictures marked John Pic Exhibits Nos. 50 and 51. Those were taken when?
Mr. PIC - It would be the summer of 1946 at Covington, La.
Mr. JENNER - And those pictures are pictures of whom?
Mr. PIC - Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - Holding a fish.
Mr. JENNER - I offer in evidence John Pic Exhibits Nos. 50 and 51.
(John Pic Exhibits Nos. 50 and 51 were marked for identification.)
Mr. JENNER - The witness has now handed me two pictures, Pic Exhibits Nos. 54 and 55 one of which shows a young boy with a black-and-white dog, and the other shows--with a house in the background. The Other shows a house in the background and a black-and-white dog in front and an automobile. Could you decipher, referring to the exhibit numbers, the handwriting appearing at the top of each of those? You are looking at Exhibit what now?
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 55, sir, shows Lee's dog and the family car- This car belonged to us, that is why I brought it. The house in the background was the one and only grocery store, groceteria, whatever you want to call it, and laundromat in the area. This is where we did all of our food buying.
Mr. JENNER - Shopping?
Mr. PIC - As far as the neighborhood was concerned.
Mr. JENNER - There is some writing at the top of the picture, what does it say?
Mr. PIC - This says "Blackie, 1949."
Mr. JENNER - Blackie was the name of the dog?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Take that other exhibit and tell us what it was.
Mr. PIC - This was the same dog Lee had in 1948 when we returned from the school. Exhibit No. 54 shows the same store in the background and Lee Harvey Oswald, and a dog named Blackie. And to the right of the picture is the roof and corner of the house.
Mr. JENNER - The house in which you lived?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I offer in evidence John Pic Exhibits Nos. 54 and 55.
(John Pic Exhibits Nos. 54 and 55 were marked for identification.)
Mr. PIC - After the divorce she bought the house in Benbrook, Tex., and then she was either working at or just got the job at Leonard Bros., Fort Worth, department store, Fort Worth, Tex.
At this time Robert and I were informed that we would not return to Chamberlain-Hunt in the fall. This, I think, was the first time that I actually recall any hostility towards my mother.
Mr. JENNER - On your part?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; this was quite a blow to me because we did want to go back. I had 2 more years in high school and I was going to be in the 11th grade and I did want to finish there.
Mr. JENNER - How did Robert react to that?
Mr. PIC - He felt the same way, sir. He wanted to go back. But we were informed because of the monetary situation it would be impossible for us to go back. In fact, my mother informed me that the best thing for me to do was not return to school but to get a job and help the family supplement its income.
Mr. JENNER - That is withdraw from school entirely?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I was 16 at this time. In September, Lee and Robert returned to school, and I went to work. I obtained a job at Everybody's Department Store which belonged to Leonard Bros. I was a shoe stock boy at the salary of $25 a week.
Mr. JENNER - Did you pay some of that money to your mother?
Mr. PIC - I think at least $15 out of every pay check I did.
Mr. JENNER - $15 a week?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I think my take-home pay was $22.50 after taxes. Which left me $7.50 to ride back and forth on the bus with.
Mr. JENNER - Did you continue to live in this home in Benbrook?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; about the same time that I went to work and Lee and Robert returned to school is when my mother bought the house at 7408 Ewing.
Mr. JENNER - In Fort Worth?
Mr. PIC - That is right, sir. It was just impossible for her and I to go to work and leave them out in the sticks, but being we moved an Ewing they could walk to school. In fact, I left for work earlier than she did, a couple of hours, in fact.
Mr. JENNER - Had Lee attended school in Benbrook, Tex.?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; not in the little house because we moved in the summer and moved out in the early fall.
Mr. JENNER - Had he attended a day school or a nursery school in Benbrook, Tex., at anytime to your knowledge over this period of years?
Mr. PIC - During the summer, sir, my mother worked at Leonard Bros., the three boys were left alone at home.
Mr. JENNER - What about the previous years?
Mr. PIC - She didn't work the previous years. She was still married to Mr. Ekdahl.
Mr. JENNER - I appreciate that I wonder if he went to nursery school--when you first went to Benbrook, Tex., when you were on Granbury Road?
Mr. PIC - I wouldn't know that, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You have no impression?
Mr. PIC - That I don't remember.
Mr. JENNER - All right. You now started to work in the fall of 1948.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The family moves into Fort Worth at 7408 Ewing Street.
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And Lee and Robert enter school in Fort Worth.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Is that correct? Do you remember the school, one would be a grammar school and one a Junior high school.
Mr. PIC - I think Robert went to Sterling Junior High School. In fact, she would drive him there in the morning, and Lee was going to Ridglea, West Ridglea Elementary School, something like that.
Mr. JENNER - What happened to Lee? You were working.
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - Robert was in school.
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - And Lee was in school.
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - Did Robert come home from school to take care of Lee when he finished?
Mr. PIC - Lee returned home before Robert did, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What did he do?
Mr. PIC - I have no idea, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Your mother was at work?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He would just come home and wait until somebody came home?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; there was no TV at that time
Mr. JENNER - Was he what about his habits in that respect? Did--your mother taught him to return home immediately and to stay in the house until she arrived?
Mr. PIC - I am sure he always did, sir, knowing his personality. He was not the type to goof off in things like this.
Mr. JENNER - Did you notice any tendencies on his part to do heavy reading at this stage of his life?
Mr. PIC - He always read a lot, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He did?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What about his--was he gregarious or not? Did he exhibit tendencies to be with other people and children in the neighborhood or the contrary?
Mr. PIC - Not to much, sir. There weren't that many children his age in the neighborhood. In fact, most of them were my age and my brother Robert's.
Mr. JENNER - Did this age gap between you and Lee and between Lee and your brother Robert affect your relationships with him now that you had reached the age you were now 16, Robert was 14, and Lee was 9.
Mr. PIC - We played with Lee. Lee had his dog. On the weekends, Sunday, we would all go to the movies, the whole family. I usually went to work at sunup and returned at dark myself.
In the fall of 1948 it was the fad among high school students and young teenagers to join either the National Guard or Naval Reserve or some reserve outfit like this, so I was only 16 at the time, and I wanted to do this, and my mother thought it would be a real good way to supplement the income. So--
Mr. JENNER - Did you get paid for this service?
Mr. PIC - Yes. sir we would meet once a month and draw a day's salary, something like this. It wasn't much money, a couple or $3 a meeting; something like that. So we went to the notary, I think, this was McLean's office and she swore to a notary that I was 17.
Mr. JENNER - But you were not in fact 17?
Mr. PIC - No. sir: I was 16. She gave my birthday as 17 January 1931. Can we go off the record?
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. PIC - OK so I joined the Marine Corps Reserve sometime in October 1948. I was attached to the 2d l55th Military Howitzer Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Fort Worth, Tex. About that time I started thinking and decided regardless of how my mother felt what happened, I was going to go back to school So in January 1949 I went back to school and finished my high, school education.
Mr. JENNER - To what school did you return?
Mr. PIC - I attended Arlington Heights High School, sir.
Mr. JENNER - In Fort Worth?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you work after school ? Did you do anything to supplement your income?
Mr. PIC - I was able to retain my job at Everybody's as a stock boy for about 1 month on this part-time basis but at the end of February they informed me there was no. way I could be kept on a part-time basis so I left the job and I then got a job at Burt's shoestore. At Burt's shoestore I was working part time but really making more than full time because I was a stock boy at $15 and all the commissions I could make in their stockroom plus all day Saturday.
Mr. JENNER - Selling shoes?
Mr. PIC - Yes sir.
Mr. JENNER - What was your mother doing at this time?
Mr. PIC - I believe at this time. sir, she was working at Sterling's Department Store in Fort Worth after leaving Leonard Bros., before I left Everybody's, I think.
Mr. JENNER - Was Robert working after school?
Mr. PIC - Yes: he was working at the A & P.
Mr. JENNER - Had he been working at the A & P after school from the previous fall?
Mr. PIC - This would be 1949. February 1949, and I am sure he was working at A & P and going to school at that time, some time during that period. He and I were both working and going to school, both.
So, in January 1949. I returned to high school, Arlington Heights High School, Fort Worth Tex and was a junior, 11th grade there.
The school session ended and then I attended summer school to make up for what I had lost at Paschal High School, Fort Worth, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - P-a-s-k-a-l?
Mr. PIC - P-a-s-c-h-a-l. sir; is the way they spell it, sir. I still had the job at Burt's. So I attended summer school at Paschal, the summer of 1949. September of 1949--
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me, what did Lee do now? Had he been in school in the fall and winter of 1948 and the winter and spring of 1949?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right Now, vacation is here. What did he do during the summer? You went to school, ad you worked at Burt's, what was he doing?
Mr. PIC - Playing around home. And going to this Camp Carter that we ran across in the letter, I guess, I don't remember.
Mr. JENNER - What was Robert doing during the summer?
Mr. PIC - He was working at the A & P, sir; I believe.
Mr. JENNER - Were both of you boys contributing to the support of your mother during this period?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Both of you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Were you continuing to give your mother the $15 a week you had started to give her in the fall of 1948?
Mr. PIC - Well, as far as I am concerned, being that I had no set income, worked on a guaranteed salary of $15 plus commissions my pay might fluctuate between $20, $35 a week depending on how good a week I had. And I prorated this accordingly with her.
Mr. JENNER - And was Robert contributing something as well?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; he was.
Mr. JENNER - Lee didn't work at any time?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you ever recall Lee up through this time through the summer of 1949 doing any work?
Mr. PIC - No.
Mr. JENNER - He is now 10 years old?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He didn't have any paper routes or do the things that a 10-year-old sometimes does?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - We have now reached the fall of 1949.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; September 1949, I decided--well, let's go back to when I went back to high school.
Mr. JENNER - All right. It Is January of 1949.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Lee was at Ridglea.
Mr. PIC - OK. I figured since I was smart enough to decide to go back to high school and my mother tried to talk me out of it I felt it was my own doing and therefore it was my own responsibility, so I decided since that is the way she felt and that was the way I felt I would sign my own report cards and take care of my own notes and everything.
My hostility towards her increased at this time because she pushed me to work and make money, and I knew an education, as much as I could get would be the best thing for me.
Since I took on the responsibility of going back to school I figured I could take care of the rest of it and I wanted nothing from her in this regard. This I did. I signed my own report card, wrote my own notes when I played hooky and missed school.
Mr. JENNER - Signing her name?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; so in.
Mr. JENNER - By the way what kind of a student were you?
Mr. PIC - I was a pretty good student at Chamberlain-Hunt. I had an A-B average at Chamberlain-Hunt, I believe, I did not do too good in the public schools, it was a little bit different, in Chamberlain-Hunt. The classes being a little larger, no individualized concern, just mass teaching. This was a little hard for me to adjust to. I did, I think I had a B or C average at Arlington Heights.
My summer school session, I think I maintained a B-C average. Maybe an A in one subject. So that in the 1949, the summer of 1949, I went to Paschal High School for the summer session, and I decided at this time that I liked Paschal better than Arlington Heights, so I fixed up my own transfer papers and I transferred to Paschal High School in the fall of 1949, which I did enjoy the school better.
Arlington Heights was rather a snobbish school, the rich kids went there and everything, and being I was enrolled in what was called distributive education which means you go to school and work part time you are kind of looked down upon in these type schools. But in Paschal it wasn't that way. The kids weren't snobbish and they weren't so high class, the majority of them.
I didn't do too good that particular year. I was working pretty hard, and I think I flunked one subject. So right after the Christmas holidays 1949, I was coming towards my 18th birthday and I decided I had just about finished school and I would be graduated, if I passed everything I would, and I decided to join the service, the Coast Guard, and then I processed my paper work, and 3 days prior to graduation I quit school and joined the Coast Guard.
At this time to get in the Coast Guard was rather hard to do. You had to get on a waiting list and when they called you and you didn't show up for it you didn't get in maybe for 6 months or so. I joined the Coast Guard because it was the hardest service to get into. I wasn't interested in the Army or the Marine Corps or the Navy. I took the one that was hardest, the hardest requirement and I got into it.
So, in January, approximately 25 January 1950 I joined the Coast Guard, and left for Cape May, N.J. I did not see Robert, Lee, or my mother until October 1950, 9 months later.
Mr. JENNER - October of 1959?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; 1950. 1950.
Mr. JENNER - Before we get to that or probe that any further, Lee returned to school in the fall of 1949?
Mr. PIC - That is right.
Mr. JENNER - He was still at Ridglea Elementary, then?
Mr. PIC - As far as I know, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What was his general attitude and his activities during this period 1948, 1949, through the summer of 1949.
Mr. PIC - Sir; I was 17 years old, I wasn't interested in what an 8- 9-year old kids activities were in school. I mean I had girls on my mind and other things like that, you know.
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - To be honest with you.
Mr. JENNER - Yes, of course. What was your impression of him at that time?
Mr. PIC - He would get into his trouble, and maybe he would have trouble with a neighbor now and then about walking across their lawn or something. I remember once there was a fight on the bus because of Lee that my brother Robert got beat up because. Robert probably would remember that better than I did.
Mr. JENNER - I don't know whether he mentioned that.
Mr. PIC - I know he got his rear end whipped because of Lee.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
You entered the Coast Guard, and then you didn't see either of your brothers or your mother from the time of your enlistment in January of 1950.
Mr. PIC - That is right.
Mr. JENNER - Until when?
Mr. PIC - October 1950, sir. Early October 1950.
Mr. JENNER - What was that occasion?
Mr. PIC - I went back home on leave, back to Fort Worth on leave, sir.
Mr. JENNER - How long were you home on leave?
Mr. PIC - I think I took 20 days' leave. I think I stayed there 15, 16, something like that, about 2 weeks.
Mr. JENNER - What was the general atmosphere around the house at that time?
Mr. PIC - Well, everybody was glad to see me. I was--well, I come home with a couple of hundred dollars, you know a sailor off the high seas always saves his money and the mother right away wanted to hold it for me and so she conned me into that, and she let me have a few dollars of my own.
Then I spent most of my time looking up old girl friends and things, and visiting Mr. Conway. He and I were always playing chess together.
Mr. JENNER - Mr. Conway, I took his deposition.
Mr. PIC - Yes, very nice man.
Mr. JENNER - He spoke of playing chess with you a great deal.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I had forgotten that. Lived across the street.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; about five doors, four doors to the right of us.
Mr. JENNER - On the same side of the street?
Mr. PIC - Same side.
Mr. JENNER - Hiram Conway.
Mr. PIC - Hiram P. Conway.
Mr. JENNER - You then returned to the service?
Mr. PIC - Yes. I reported back to my ship.
Mr. JENNER - When next did you see your mother or Lee or Robert?
Mr. PIC - August 1952, sir.
Mr. JENNER - When you were back in the fall of 1950, was Lee in school?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; as far as I know.
Mr. JENNER - At Ridglea Elementary?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; as far as I know.
Mr. JENNER - Robert was still in school. He is now 16 1/2 years of age?
Mr. PIC - I don't know if he was. Going through those letters there was a time period he was in school, out of school. I don't really remember. I don't think really remember. I don't think he was in school when I returned on leave.
Mr. JENNER - What was he doing?
Mr. PIC - A & P, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Working. Are you now and were you then aware of the fact that your father contributed to your support during all the years actually until you reached your 18th birthday?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; that is when I decided to make it all on my own since she reminded me of the fact that she wouldn't get no money after I was 18 so that was one thing that contributed to me deciding to leave.
Mr. JENNER - Were you aware during all these years of what the amount of that contribution was?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I wasn't.
Mr. JENNER - But you were aware of the fact that your father was making contributions?
Mr. PIC - I was always told it wasn't enough, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Apart from that you were aware of the fact your father was making contributions?
Mr. PIC - Right. She reminded me the day I became 18 that the payments stopped right then and there.
Mr. JENNER - The fact is that they did.
Mr. PIC - I know. I have no reason to doubt that. What was the amount?
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. JENNER - When you were in the service did you make any allotment to your mother?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you send her any money at any time while you were in the service?
Mr. PIC - Quite frequently, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Tell us about that. Tell us as best you can the amount.
Mr. PIC - When I was in boot camp from January 1950 to May 1950, the only amount they paid us was $15 every 2 weeks and they held back the rest of our pay until we would graduate and then we would have money to go to our next station with. They do this to recruits. I don't remember if I sent any of this 15 or not, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you send any of the excess when you got it?
Mr. PIC - In those letters I presented you could add them up and see how much I sent in the year 1950. I think I sent $10, $20 at a time when I had it. I was making $80 a month. How much could I send and still be a sailor?
Mr. JENNER - This is not in any sense a criticism, sergeant. All I am doing is seeking some facts.
Mr. PIC - Well, sir, in the letters she refers to 10, 20, 40, sometimes.
Mr. JENNER - I show you John Pic Exhibits Nos. 48 and 59, and referring to No. 48, at the bottom of which is written Lee, age 2 1/2. Would you identify that, please?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; this is Lee Harvey Oswald age 2 1/2 as the picture states written in the handwriting of Mrs. Marguerite Oswald. This picture was taken at Lillian Murret's at Sherwood Forest Drive.
Mr. JENNER - That was your aunt's home in Sherwood Forest, New Orleans.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I am sure of that.
Mr. JENNER - I show you John Pic Exhibit No. 49 which--would you identify that?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; this is a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald, I guess at the same time, with a dog, and I am sure this was taken at Lillian Murret's in Sherwood Forest Drive.
Mr. JENNER - At the same time that John Pic Exhibit No. 48 was taken?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I think so.
Mr. JENNER - All right. I hand you now John Pic Exhibit No. 56, a photograph of a young man. Would you identify that as to time and place if you can, and age, his age, the subject's age?
Mr. PIC - Sir, this is a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald which I believe to have been taken when he was in about the second or third grade.
Mr. JENNER - That would be when you were living in Dallas?
Mr. PIC - Fort Worth, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Fort Worth, yes; 7408 Ewing.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I hand you John Pic Exhibits Nos. 57 and 58. I don't know which depicts this young man at the younger age. Take the younger one.
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 57, sir, I believe was taken either in late 1951 or early 1952, and it shows a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald approximately how he looked when he came to New York to stay with my wife and I in August of 1952.
Exhibit No. 58, to my best recollection, I think, is a picture sent to me by my mother in approximately 1954, 1955, maybe in 1956, from New Orleans, La. It is a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - It is after they returned to New Orleans?
Mr. PIC - I am pretty sure that picture was taken in New Orleans.
Mr. JENNER - All right. I offer in evidence John Pic Exhibits Nos. 48, 49, 56, 57, and 58.
(John Pic Exhibits Nos. 48, 49, 56, 57, and 58 were marked for identification.)
Mr. JENNER - What were the circumstances surrounding and leading up to your mother and Lee coming to New York City in the summer of 1952?
Mr. PIC - I think this was brought on because Robert joined the service sometime previous to that. That would be about right, April 1952, did he join the service. I don't know when. He wasn't there at the time. He was in the service when they came.
Mr. JENNER - Yes. He entered the service as soon as he reached his majority.
Mr. PIC - So that would be April 1952.
Mr. JENNER - Was there an incident respecting, between Robert and your mother and some young lady in which, in whom he was interested just before he entered the service?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You came to know about that?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - By what means?
Mr. PIC - By way of my mother, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right, what was it?
Mr. PIC - Robert had been seeing this girl and she had a club foot. My mother didn't feel that they should be married. He wanted to marry her, and she conned him out of it.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Had you received any letters from Robert on that subject at anytime?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Between the time you were home in October of 1950 and the summer of 1952, had you seen your mother or either of your brothers?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Now, my question to you was what led up to and what were the circumstances involving or surrounding the visit of your mother and Lee to New York in the summer of 1952.
Mr. PIC - Well, Robert had joined the service in April 1952. It was the summer months, so Lee was not in school, and the trip to New York was feasible, being Lee would have no schooltime lost, it was my impression and also my wife's--meanwhile, I was married, you know, if you are interested in this.
Mr. JENNER - Yes; I am.
Mr. PIC - August 18, 1951, I married my wife Margaret Dorothy Fuhrman.
Mr. JENNER - You had met her after you had entered the service and while you were stationed in the New York area?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - At this time, that is the summer of 1952 you were living where?
Mr. PIC - 325 East 92d Street, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you have any children at that time?
Mr. PIC - In August 1952; yes, sir. I did.
Mr. JENNER - Your first child was born?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; John Edward Pic, Jr.
Mr. JENNER - Was the child born before or after your mother and Lee arrived.
Mr. PIC - Before, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - He was born 14 May 1952, approximately 3 months before they arrived.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Did you invite your mother and Lee to come to New York?
Mr. PIC - The impression that my wife and myself had was they were coming to visit, sir, and we had nothing against this. My mother-in-law, we lived with her at the time, she was visiting her other daughter, Mrs. Emma Parrish, in Norfolk, Va., she was staying with them, so we had the room for them.
Mr. JENNER - But that was your mother's apartment or home?
Mr. PIC - Mother-in-law's.
Mr. JENNER - Was it an apartment or a home?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; it was a box, freight-car type railroad apartment.
Mr. JENNER - One room in back of the other?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - So you were then guests of your mother-in-law at that particular time, that is, living in her home or apartment? And your impression was that your mother and Lee they were just visiting for the summer months or for a period, to visit for the summer months or a period during the summer that was your definite impression.
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right, what happened?
Mr. PIC - At this time I was stationed at U.S. Coast Guard, Port Security Unit, Ellis Island, New York. My status there, I was, I worked once every fourth night, also every fourth weekend so I wasn't home all the time. When they came I took leave so I could spend more time with them.
Mr. JENNER - "I took Lee," would you elaborate on that? What do you mean you took Lee.
Mr. PIC - I am allowed 30 days leave a year and I took off, I took a week or so, I think.
Mr. JENNER - I misunderstood you, I thought you said you took Lee but you said you took leave.
Mr. PIC - Leave.
Mr. JENNER - You took 30 days leave.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; maybe a week or two.
Mr. JENNER - What was your impression, you were with them or tried to be with them during that 2-week period.
Mr. PIC - Just a minute, sir. That is where I began my notes. August 1952, my mother and Lee came to New York. They brought with them quite a bit of luggage, and their own TV set. On my way home I had to walk about 8 to 10 blocks to the subway, and Lee walked up to meet me as I was walking home, I told my wife and Lee decided to go up and meet me. We met in the street and I was real glad to see him and he was real glad to see me. 'We were real good friends. I think a matter of a few days or so I took my leave. Lee and I visited some of the landmarks of New York, the Museum of Natural History, Polk's Hobby Shop on 5th Avenue. I took him on the Staten Island ferry, and several other excursions we made.
Mr. JENNER - Go ahead.
Mr. PIC - Well, sir; it wasn't but a matter of days before I could sense they moved in to stay for good, and this not being my apartment, but my mother-in-law's apartment, my wife kind of frowned upon this a little bit. We didn't really mind as long as my mother-in-law wasn't there, but she was due back in a matter of a month or so.
During my leave I was under the impression that I may get out of the service in January of 1953, when my enlistment was up, so I went around to several colleges. My mother drove me to these colleges, Fordham University, for one, and Brooklyn, some college in Brooklyn, a couple of other ones I inquired about. I remember one conversation in the car that she reminded me that even though Margy was my wife, she wasn't quite as good as I was, and things like this. She didn't say too many good things about my wife. Well, naturally, I resented this, because I put my wife before my mother any day.
Things were pretty good during the time I was on leave. When I went back to work I would come home my wife would tell me about some little problem they would have. The first problem that I recollect was that there was no support for the grocery bill whatsoever. I don't think I was making more than $150 a month, and they were eating up quite a bit, and I just casually mentioned that and my mother got very much upset about it. So every night I got home and especially the nights I was away and I would come home the next day my wife would have more to tell me about the little arguments. It seems it is my wife's impression that whenever there was an argument that my mother antagonized Lee towards hostility against my wife.
My wife liked Lee. My wife and I had talked several times that it would be nice if Lee would stay with us alone, and we wouldn't mind having him But we never bothered mentioning this because we knew it was an impossibility.
It got toward schooltime and they had their foothold in the house and he was going to enroll in the neighborhood school, and they planned to stay with us, and I didn't much like this. We couldn't afford to have them, and took him up to enroll in this school.
Mr. JENNER - You did?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; my mother did. I think this is a public school in New York City located on about 89th, 90th Street between Third Avenue and Second Avenue. Lee didn't like this school. I didn't much blame him.
Mr. ELY - When you visited these colleges, had you received credit for finishing high school somehow?
Mr. PIC - No.
Mr. JENNER - Did you hear anything to the effect that the reason why your mother and Lee had come to New York had anything to do with Lee's being given some sort of mental tests?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was there a period of time just before the enrollment of Lee in the New York Public School, that he attended for about a month a Lutheran denominational school?
Mr. PIC - I don't know, sir. I am not up to that yet.
Mr. JENNER - I see. All right.
Mr. PIC - At about the same time that Lee was enrolled in school that we had the big trouble. It seems that there was an argument about the TV set one day, and--between my wife and my mother. It seems that according to my wife's statement that my mother antagonized Lee, being very hostile toward my wife and he pulled out a pocketknife and said that if she made any attempt to do anything about it that he would use it on her, at the same time Lee struck his mother. This perturbed my wife to no end. So, I came home that night, and the facts were related to me.
Mr. JENNER - When the facts were related to you was your mother present, Lee present, your wife present? If not, who was present?
Mr. PIC - I think my wife told me this in private, sir. I went and asked my mother about it.
Mr. JENNER - Your mother was home?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; she was home.
Mr. JENNER - You went and spoke with your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was Lee present when you spoke to your mother?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What did you say to your mother and what did she say to you?
Mr. PIC - I asked her about the incident and she attempted to brush it off as not being as serious as my wife put it. That Lee did not pull a pocketknife on her. That they just had a little argument about what TV channel they were going to watch. Being as prejudiced as I am I rather believed my wife rather than my mother.
Mr. JENNER - Did you speak to Lee about the incident?
Mr. PIC - I am getting to that, sir. So I approached Lee on this subject, and about the first couple of words out of my wife he became real hostile toward me, and let me get my notes on it. When this happened it perturbed my wife so much that she told them they are going to leave whether they liked it or not, and I think Lee had the hostility toward my wife right then and there, when they were getting thrown out of the house as they put it.
When I attempted to talk to Lee about this, he ignored me, and I was never able to get to the kid again after that. lie didn't care to hear anything I had to say to him. So in a matter of a few days they packed up and left, sir. They moved to the Bronx somewhere.
Mr. JENNER - Did you see them from time to time thereafter?
Mr. PIC - Yes, I can continue if you wish. Unless you want to stop there and ask me something about it.
Mr. JENNER - Well, at this point, yes, I would like to ask you this: You hadn't seen them from October of 1950 until the summer of 1952. Did you notice any change in him, his overall attitude, his relations with his mother, his demeanor, his feelings towards others, his actions toward others?
Mr. PIC - He was definitely the boss.
Mr. JENNER - Now, tell us on what you base that?
Mr. PIC - I mean if he decided to do something, regardless of what my mother said, he did it. She had no authority whatsoever with him. lie had no respect for her at all. He and my wife got along very well together when they were alone, when she wasn't present, she and Lee got along very well. She always reminded me of this.
Mr. JENNER - Your wife reminded you of that?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. Without my mother present she could make it with Lee.
Mr. JENNER - But as soon as your mother came within contact with Lee in your home, then the attitude changed?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Up to this incident when this knife pulling incident occurred, how had your relations with Lee been?
Mr. PIC - Been very good, sir. He and I had gone on all these excursions throughout New York City, and I tried to show him what I could, and spend as much time as I could with him.
Mr. JENNER - You found him to have he was interested in that sort of thing?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; he loved to go to the Museum of Natural History, anything like that he liked.
Mr. JENNER - Did you speak to him about this relationship he appeared to have with his mother in which he minded her or not as he saw fit and did as he wished?
Mr. PIC - Not until the knife pulling incident.
Mr. JENNER - And you did discuss that subject with him on that occasion?
Mr. PIC - I attempted to, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you attempt to do it thereafter when you saw him from time to time?
Mr. PIC - Sir, he would have nothing to do with me thereafter.
Mr. JENNER - He would not.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; he wouldn't even speak to me.
Mr. JENNER - There was an absolute, complete change then in his relations with you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; that is correct.
Mr. JENNER - It was a marked one?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, I have a couple of more incidents in which I can relate that even more so.
Mr. JENNER - Would you do that?
Mr. PIC - Well, the day they moved out they had done this before I came home from work.
Mr. JENNER - They had moved out before you came home from work?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir. To elaborate, in my notes I have "after I approached Lee about this incident his feelings toward me became hostile and thereafter remained indifferent to me and never again was I able to communicate with him in any way."
Mr. JENNER - Sergeant, if you can, instead of just reading from your notes, read your notes, and if they refresh your recollection and then give in your own words the facts.
Mr. PIC - Well, prior to this particular incident, I would consider us the best of friends as far as older brother- younger brother relationship. My wife always says that he idolized me and thought quite a bit of me.
Mr. JENNER - Up to this time, the relationship between you and your brother Lee, and your brother Robert, all three of you, had been a cordial normal friendly relationship that you expect to exist among brothers?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What was your nickname?
Mr. PIC - Pic.
Mr. JENNER - What was your brother Robert's nickname?
Mr. PIC - In Chamberlain-Hunt we referred to him as "Mouse". I think that hung on a while after that.
Mr. JENNER - What nickname did he have before that?
Mr. PIC - None that I recall.
Mr. JENNER - Why did he get that? Was he a quiet boy?
Mr. PIC - He was the littlest one in Chamberlain-Hunt and that was why they called him that.
Mr. JENNER - I see, size.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did Lee ever have a nickname?
Mr. PIC - Not that I know of, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You had the feeling, did you, up until this incident at least that Lee is a young boy, 7 years younger than you, and his brother Robert 5 years older than he, and he looked up to both of you as older brothers?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you had, both you and your brother Robert had love in your heart for your brother Lee?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you felt he reciprocated that?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And the relationship between yourself and your brother Robert was cordial?
Mr. PIC - They always have, and still are, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I may say to you that he so testified. All right.
Mr. PIC - So they moved out in about September 1952, maybe it was late September, early October, somewhere around there, so from about somewhere between September of 1952 and January 1953, my brother Robert came to New York on leave, and we were all invited up to the Bronx.
Mr. JENNER - To visit whom?
Mr. PIC - Sir?
Mr. JENNER - To visit whom?
Mr. PIC - To visit my mother and my brother.
Mr. JENNER - Your brother?
Mr. PIC - That is correct.
Mr. JENNER - Did your brother's wife accompany him?
Mr. PIC - He wasn't married at that time, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He wasn't married?
Mr. PIC - I think this was, his leave was probably in October or November 1952, a matter of a month or two after they had moved out. We visited their apartment in the Bronx.
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me, where did your brother stay?
Mr. PIC - I think he stayed at the Soldier-Sailor-Airmen Club in New York.
Mr. JENNER - In any event he did not stay with you.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; he may have stayed with my mother also. I don't think so. Maybe for a night or two. We went out, my wife fixed him up with a date with one of her girl friends and we went out together a couple of times. So, we were invited up there for this Sunday dinner. So it was my mother, Lee, Robert, my wife, myself, and my son.
Robert was already there when we arrived. When Lee seen me or my wife he left the room. For dinner he sat in the front room watching TV and didn't join us whatsoever.
Mr. JENNER - He did not join you for dinner?
Mr. PIC - No, sir. Didn't speak to me or my wife.
Mr. JENNER - That put a kind of pall on the visit, did it not?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you--he didn't speak to you. Did you attempt to speak with him?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I did.
Mr. JENNER - Did he answer you?
Mr. PIC - He shrugged his shoulders a couple of times maybe. He wasn't interested in anything I had to say.
Mr. JENNER - He was definitely hostile to you and to Mrs. Pic?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And that continued throughout the entire visit that evening or was it an evening?
Mr. PIC - It was early afternoon until dusk. We did have an infant son we had to get home.
Mr. JENNER - Was it a Sunday or Saturday?
Mr. PIC - I am sure it was a Sunday. In January 1950--
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me, what did you observe with respect to the attitude of Lee toward his mother on that occasion?
Mr. PIC - When he was eating he came and got what he wanted, picked up his plate, went to the living room and watched TV. He decided what he wanted to eat and maybe she helped him. I don't really remember too much about it. I know he did not eat with us.
Mr. JENNER - Did you notice his relation, if any, with Robert?
Mr. PIC - From what I was told later and so forth when I wasn't present him and Robert got along real good.
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me. My question was did you observe on this occasion.
Mr. PIC - There was nothing to observe while I was present, sir. He was completely withdrawn from the crowd.
Mr. JENNER - He withdrew from everybody?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - Personally, I didn't know if he was more hostile towards me or my wife. I still don't know this fact. Maybe it was her, maybe it was me, maybe it was both of us.

In January 1953, I did reenlist in the Coast Guard. I decided to stay in rather than quit, and so forth.
Mr. JENNER - From the time of that October visit of Robert to January 1953, did you see Lee at any time during that period?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I did not. I seen my mother on several occasions. She was working on 42d Street in a Lerner's Dress Shop. I guess I would see her maybe once every 3 weeks to once a month, we dropped downtown, my wife and I, to see her.
Mr. JENNER - What did she say about Lee during that time when you saw her on those occasions?
Mr. PIC - Whenever I seen her, whether I was alone or with my wife, I was usually alone, I went to see her myself, my wife didn't care to see my mother, she would complain about her financial status and when I would ask her about how Lee was doing she would say, "OK" but would not elaborate.
Said "He is OK, but he doesn't have a brother, an older brother to talk to or no one to do anything with."
Mr. JENNER - During this period of time and up to January 1953, in any of the contacts you had with your mother did you learn or were you advised or did you become aware that there was difficulty with Lee with respect to truancy in attendance at school?
Mr. PIC - I am not quite there, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. The answer is, I take it, that up to this point of January 1953 you were not aware.
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Despite the fact that you had seen your mother from time to time during that period?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right, we are at January 1953, when you reenlisted in the Coast Guard.
Mr. PIC - That is right. So in February 1953, my wife and I were again invited to their apartment. This may or may not have been the same apartment we originally visited. I don't remember, sir. I know it was up in the Bronx. I think it may have been a different apartment. Is that right?
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - As my wife and I walked in, Lee walked out and my mother informed us that he would probably go to the Bronx Zoo. We had Sunday dinner, and in the course of the conversation my mother informed me that Lee was having a truancy problem and that the school officials had suggested that he might need psychiatric aid to combat his truancy problem.
She informed me that Lee said that he would not see a head shrinker or nut doctor, and she wanted any suggestions or opinions from me as to how to get him to see him, and I told her just take him down there. That is all I could suggest.
Mr. JENNER - What was her response to that?
Mr. PIC - Well, Lee was still the boss. If he didn't want to go see the psychiatrist, he wasn't going.
Mr. JENNER - She had no control over him?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you were quite aware of that, were you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you discuss that with her?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; she discussed it with me. I mean she told me that she couldn't control him and so forth. This I knew.
Mr. JENNER - Did you get the impression from anything she said to you that this truancy or this lack of control problem had been something that had suddenly arisen or
Mr. PIC - I think it was gradual, and getting worse and worse as time went by.
Mr. JENNER - Sergeant, when you were still home and up to the time you enlisted which was in January 1950, had there been any control problems with respect to Lee? In other words, had you noticed this problem developing, any headstrong attitudes on his part? Cudgel your mind and take yourself back.
Mr. PIC - I would say, sir, that whenever there was a disciplinary problem to be taken care of that it wasn't enforced with Lee by his mother prior to 1950. She always reminded Robert and I that we were the older and we should see to these things that he don't do them and so forth.
Mr. JENNER - What did you and Robert do about it?
Mr. PIC - Not much, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you speak to him? You were his older brother. He had the love and affection for you?
Mr. PIC - Well, sir; what was serious to her probably wasn't serious to a 13- and 15-year old kid or 14-16. There was no big troubles he got into that any kid does.
Mr. JENNER - What did you notice up until the time you enlisted in January 1950, of Lee's relations with other children in the neighborhood or his schoolmates. What was your overall impression, first?
Mr. PIC - To my best recollection, sir; there were no other children in the neighborhood of his age group that he played consistently with. I think most of the time he went to play with other children it was a matter of a couple, couple of blocks away or so, with his own age group.
Mr. JENNER - Was he inclined to remain in the house rather than go out and play with other children?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; he was more inclined to stay in the house than go out and play.
Mr. JENNER - Was that noticeable to you?
Mr. PIC - I wasn't there that much, sir; I was working and going to school, both. I wasn't there to observe this.
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. PIC - Except maybe on a weekend occasionally.
Mr. JENNER - But you did notice that when they came to New York in 1952, particularly in the fall of 1952, that by that time he had become quite headstrong?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And that his mother and your ,mother Marguerite, had pretty well lost any influence or control over him?
Mr. PIC - That is absolutely true, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Now, we brought you up to enlistment in January 1953.
Mr. PIC - On the occasion when we visited them in February 1953.
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - At this same time in February 1953, I received orders to go aboard ship again, so from the time period February 1953, until September 1953, I was in and out of New York at sea.
Mr. JENNER - Did you see either your mother or Lee during that period of time?
Mr. PIC - I did not see Lee after the February visit, sir. I had seen her on several occasions.
Mr. JENNER - During this---
Mr. PIC - Downtown where she worked.
Mr. JENNER - She was still working in Lerner's in the spring and summer of 1953 or had she changed jobs?
Mr. PIC - To my best recollection it was still Lerner's.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recall her working at a hosiery shop during this period of time rather than Lerner's?
Mr. PIC - I wouldn't remember, sir.
Mr. JENNER - She might have been but you just don't have a recollection?
Mr. PIC - Wherever she was working at the time, I mean she shifted jobs quite often and it is kind of hard keeping track of them.
Mr. JENNER - Did she have difficulty with her employers, get along with fellow workers at these various shops?
Mr. PIC - Whenever she changed jobs she always gave me a rationalized answer.
Mr. JENNER - Well, that is a conclusion. Tell me what it was.
Mr. PIC - I remember once, it may have been the Lerner shop or it may have been this hosiery shop which you are referring to, that she told me that they let her go because she didn't use an underarm deoderant. That was the reason she gave me, sir. She said she couldn't do nothing about it. She uses it but if it don't work what can she do about it.
Other times whenever she changed jobs it was always because the next job was better.
Mr. JENNER - During the time, on the occasions when you saw her, which was relatively infrequent from January of 1953 to, what is the next date you gave, September of 1953?
Mr. PIC - August-September 1953.
Mr. JENNER - August of 1953, September of 1953, was there any discussion with her about Lee?
Mr. PIC - When I asked about him it was the same old stuff, he is getting along better. She would tell me that he still doesn't have anybody to confide in, things like this.
Mr. JENNER - Was there any further discussion about truancy, any possibility of care for him by a psychiatrist?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; when I asked about this she said everything was working out fine.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - Whenever I would meet her it would be the same old song and dance, like hinting around I should help support her which I couldn't afford to do, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You had a wife and child by that time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What was your compensation?
Mr. PIC - For what, sir?
Mr. JENNER - In the service at this time.
Mr. PIC - I was petty officer, second class, I guess my base pay was maybe $190, plus extras, quarters allowances, maybe total $300 a month.
Mr. JENNER - Was your wife still residing with your mother-in-law?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And were you contributing to the support of that whole family unit?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Mother-in-law, wife and child?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I was paying the rent and buying the groceries. In fact, that year I claimed my mother-in- law as a dependent on my income tax, sir.
Mr. JENNER - By the way, you had claimed, did you, at some point in your service your mother as a dependent?
Mr. PIC - In one of her letters she refers to that. I don't recollect that, sir. I think it was prior to my joining the service that she referred to. When I was working full time, maybe the year right after, I don't remember, sir, that incident at all.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - Well, on these visits that I would spend with her downtown, we would eat lunch or something on Saturday. It got old after a while listening to her so I knew I was getting transferred to Virginia in September, 1953, so my wife left in August of 1953 to live with her sister until I was stationed there in September, 1953.
Mr. JENNER - Where did her sister live?
Mr. PIC - Norfolk, Va. And I was to be stationed at Portsmouth, Va., at the Naval hospital there for school purposes.
When I did finally get transferred from the ship to Portsmouth, Va., I did not make known to my mother our whereabouts or our address.
Mr. JENNER - Why not?
Mr. PIC - Like I said, sir; it was getting kind of old. The only time I had seen her would be downtown and she didn't have much to say to me and I didn't have too much to say to her.
Mr. JENNER - During this period of time there came about a substantially complete rupture then between yourself and your mother?
Mr. PIC - To a certain degree.
Mr. JENNER - Did you see your brother at any time thereafter?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I did not.
Mr. JENNER - Was there an occasion in Thanksgiving 1962 when you saw him?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I can get to that. There are things happened prior to that.
Mr. JENNER - You did see him--
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I did not see him. I seen my mother.
Mr. JENNER - I see. All right; go ahead.
Mr. PIC - I returned from Portsmouth, Va., in April 1954, sir: and took up residency at 80 St. Marks Place, Staten Island, N.Y. We returned really to 325 East 92d Street, stayed there a matter of a couple of days until I found us a place to live in Staten Island and then my wife and I moved over to Staten Island leaving my mother-in-law in the apartment, being I felt because my wife had six brothers and sisters that they could worry about her. I didn't see that it was my responsibility much longer. My wife was the youngest child, and we lived there almost 2 years.
I was then assigned to the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Halfmoon, which is a weather vessel, and this is where I am in and out for 6-, 7-week periods at a time. It was during this time that she wrote me at the base, my mother, and informed me that they were back in New Orleans, and you have the letters referring to this, sir.
It was either sometime in the fall of 1955 or the winter of 1956 that my mother called me from New Orleans.
Mr. JENNER - By telephone?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; and said she wanted to visit again.
Mr. JENNER - You were then in New York?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; well, Lee was still with her, and my wife frowned upon this, and being that we did have a one-bedroom apartment, and we did have two children at this time there was no way at all we could accommodate two of them. She was very upset about this that I wouldn't have her up. There was nothing I could do about it, though. I knew if she came up they were coming up to stay, and I didn't want a repeat of what we had. So in February 1956, I joined the Air Force and was stationed at Mitchel Air Force Base in New York which is about 30, 40 miles east of New York City. In October 1956, Lee joined the Marine Corps.
Mr. JENNER - How did that come to your attention?
Mr. PIC - My mother informed me of this fact.
Mr. JENNER - By letter?
Mr. PIC - We were writing again. So, it was just a matter of corresponding by mail up until the Christmas holidays of 1957 when my mother--let me make sure that date is right--I am fairly certain, sir; that it was the Christmas holidays of 1957 rather than the Christmas holidays of 1958--that she visited us.
Mr. JENNER - She did come to New York?
Mr. PIC - Right. She come to--we had moved to 104 Avenue C East Meadow, on Long Island. I had two children but we had a 3-bedroom apartment which was part of base housing and we could accommodate her here.
She came from Fort Worth when she arrived. Somehow or another between New Orleans and this visit she and Lee had gone back to Fort Worth.
Mr. JENNER - You were aware of the fact she had returned to Fort Worth?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you learned that through correspondence?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - With her.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; her position at that time, so she told us, was that she was a greeter for the city of Fort Worth. She would welcome people to town and things like this.
Mr. JENNER - I think she was employed for a while in an organization called Welcome Wagon. That is a national organization.
Mr. PIC - When she was employed is when she visited us. I think this was Christmas of 1957, is that right?
Mr. ELY - I think that would be the same thing probably, Welcome Wagon greets people.
Mr. PIC - Is this 1957 when she had that job?
Mr. JENNER - I am not sure of the date but it is true that during that, when she returned to Fort Worth sometime along there she .did have a position of that character.
Mr. PIC - She stayed over the Christmas holidays, left approximately the 10th of January, sometime.
Mr. JENNER - Did you have conversations here about Lee during that time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What did she say?
Mr. PIC - Lee was in the Marine Corps, Lee was very happy to be in the Marine Corps, Lee was proud to be in the Marine Corps. Lee loved the Marine Corps. He just liked it.
Mr. JENNER - I see. What had occurred to Robert in the meantime? This is December of 1957. Was he still in the service?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; he was not, I don't believe. I think he had gotten discharged and gotten married, was residing in Fort Worth with his wife.
Mr. JENNER - He was discharged in the spring of 1956--1957, rather; and stayed at Exchange Alley for a short while.
Mr. PIC - I don't know that.
Mr. JENNER - Then went to Fort Worth and your mother and your brother Lee followed and your brother Lee attended high school for about 6 or 7 weeks in the fair of 1957 in Fort Worth, Arlington Heights High School, and enlisted in October 1957, in the Marines.
Mr. PIC - Lee enlisted in 1956, I believe.
Mr. ELY - 1956.
Mr. JENNER - 1956 was it. Then your brother Robert was discharged, mustered out in 1956?
Mr. PIC - That sounds about right. And stayed in Exchange Alley a short time, didn't like it, went on to Fort Worth.
After she left in January of 1958 we continued to communicate by mail and every now and then a phone call.
Then in August of 1958 I received my orders to Japan, and we left Mitchell and departed cross country.
Mr. JENNER - You and your wife and children?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - By what, automobile?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - By this time you owned an automobile?
Mr. PIC - My second one.
Mr. JENNER - Second one?
Mr. PIC - I purchased my first one when I was stationed in Virginia. We arrived in Fort Worth, approximately 28, 29 October 1958. I remember we were in her house on Halloween night because I pulled the car up behind and locked the gates so I would not have my hub caps stolen.
Mr. JENNER - Where did she reside then?
Mr. PIC - I think you ought to refresh my memory on that. It was a little circle. Did she have an address with a little circle, some kind of circle or something?
Mr. JENNER - Do you have that?
Mr. PIC - What she lived on described the street, it was a circle, something like that.
Mr. JENNER - Her first house and apartment in New York was 325, that was your apartment, 325 East 92. And then she moved over to 1455 Sheridan Avenue in the Bronx, and then 825 East 179th Street in the Bronx. 3124 West Fifth Street, Fort Worth.
Mr. PIC - That isn't familiar.
Mr. JENNER - It is not familiar?
Mr. PIC - It could be it, though, I can probably find it on the map of Fort Worth if we still have got it because I remember that place real well. I was thrown out of there. Some people hold a grudge a long time. Sir, that is probably it, West Fifth Street, because the location West Fifth Street is probably about the same place.
Mr. JENNER - You said you were thrown out of there. I assume an incident occurred?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I am getting to that.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - While we were staying there. I was traveling cross country. and really didn't know where I was going or what time I would have to be there. We were waiting for our port call to know when we would have to be in San Francisco to catch our flight out of there, and so I had no idea how long I would be in Fort Worth, and so I made a phone call from there to Mitchell to try to find out, and didn't find out anything.
Then the Sunday that we were there---well, prior to this, when we arrived there the same day my brother Robert came over to see us. He was then working for a milk company, Borden's Milk Co., I believe. He was giving my mother free milk, all the extras that he had and so forth.
Mr. JENNER - This is the first time you had seen your brother Robert, I take it, since his visit to New York City, is that correct?
Mr. PIC - That is correct.
Mr. JENNER - And that was a cordial reunion, was it?
Mr. PIC - Yes; it was.
Mr. JENNER - Was your mother working at that time?
Mr. PIC - She was working, sir, when we arrived there, at Cox, I believe, Department Store at the candy counter, I believe it was Cox, I know she was working at a candy counter.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - When we got there, my mother informed us she had no food in the house so my wife and I went and bought a whole bunch of groceries for our stay which we expected to do. I got in contact with some old friends, and they invited me over for Sunday dinner the following Sunday at their house, and being I was pressed for time I had another Sunday dinner invitation at my brother Robert's house. My mother was invited to this dinner.
Mr. JENNER - At your brother's?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - He then resided at 7313 Davenport Street, I believe. Well, it seems that my mother declined her part of the invitation, and was quite put out that my wife and I did not decline our part because she decided that we should spend Sunday dinner eating with her. So, my wife and I and two children drove off to my brother Robert's house to go eat. After we were there for about a half hour, she called us up and told me to come get our bags, that we would have to leave.
So, my wife and I, we left the kids at my brother Robert's because we knew there would be a big scene with all the trimmings, and we went back and we walked in, didn't say nothing, just packed up our bags and she was yelling and screaming reminding us about the time we threw her out of the apartment in New York and she was getting even with us for this when we threw her and Lee out.
I then informed her that I wanted nothing more to do with her and that everytime she and my wife got together, that she had nothing but bad things to say about her. And I let her know that our relationship ends right then and there, and since that time, sir, I have not written her, talked to her, anything.
Mr. JENNER - Or seen her.
Mr. PIC - Or have seen her, except in magazines and stuff. She has sent me a bunch of junk in the mail. During this conversation when we was getting thrown out, I reminded her that she made nothing but trouble for us and especially my wife, she was always on my wife. And so I owed her a few dollars for the phone call I had made, so I gave her $10 and this seemed to satisfy, well, probably accomplished what she set out to do, get some money off of me one way or the other. This is how I looked at it. This didn't upset her, after we left, after I gave her $10. So, we went to my brother Robert's, we ate, we stayed at their house until Tuesday morning, and we left and then went to Japan, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Let's suspend for dinner.
Mr. PIC - Could I just add one thing, sir?
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - While we were there, I was informed that Lee was in Japan.
Mr. JENNER - You were informed by your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. And that we should see him when we get there.
Mr. JENNER - Were you advised as to where in Japan he was?
Mr. PIC - I was given his address, sir. After arriving there it was just a matter of a week or so I received a letter from my mother which I never acknowledged or maybe it was my brother, it was one of the two, saying Lee was traveling across the United States at the same time I was. He had left Japan before I arrived in Japan. I arrived in Japan 10 November 1958 and I don't know what date he left, sir. I never got to see him in Japan. This would probably be a good time to suspend.
Mr. JENNER - Before we do that, did you have any conversation with your brother about, your brother Robert about your brother Lee while you were there in 1958?
Mr. PIC - I think I may have let him know how Lee acted toward me. He didn't want nothing to do with me. The only things I heard about Lee was that he was in the Marine Corps and he liked it.
Mr. JENNER - Did your brother Robert say anything about having been in New Orleans before he came to Fort Worth?
Mr. PIC - He told me about a trip that he made to pick them up or something down there. They called him up one time and he drove down and got them and drove back all in the same trip.
Mr. JENNER - That must have been the time when they left New Orleans and came to Fort Worth.
Mr. PIC - Sir, in the testimony of Marilyn Murret, I am going to make a statement.
Mr. JENNER - What testimony of Marilyn Murret?
Mr. PIC - This is what I am going to tell you that prior to his defection she knew he was in Europe and everywhere that I read in here, no one knew he was going to Europe. She informed me before anyone knew he defected that he was in Europe.
Mr. JENNER - Who informed you?
Mr. PIC - Marilyn Murret in Japan. She was in Japan. She visited with me.
Mr. JENNER - All right. I will go into that right after dinner.
Mr. PIC - All right, sir.
Mr. JENNER - We will suspend until 7:30. (Whereupon, at 6:30 p.m., the proceeding was recessed.)

The proceeding was reconvened at 7:55 p.m.
Mr. JENNER - When we adjourned for dinner you were telling us the incident in August, I believe it was 1958, when you visited your mother and your brother on your way to California on your assignment to Japan.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Would you read me the last answer of the witness, please?
(The answer, as recorded, was read by the reporter.)
Mr. JENNER - Marilyn Murret is your cousin?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - One of the children of Charles and Lillian Murret?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - By the way, did your wife and children accompany you to Japan?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you arrived in Japan about when?
Mr. PIC - 10 November 1958, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Were you aware before you left for Japan that Marilyn Murret, was in Japan?
Mr. PIC - She was not in Japan then, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. You arrived in Japan and went over there sometime while you were in Japan. By the way, first where were you stationed?
Mr. PIC - My military address was U.S.A.F. Hospital, Tachikawa, APO 323, San Francisco, Calif.
Mr. JENNER - You heard from or saw Marilyn Murret after you got there?
Mr. PIC - Right. In approximately October-November, early November, the end of October 1959 she called me up at the hospital. and it bad been years since I had seen her, and she told me she had come from Australia. She was traveling around the world, and I invited her out to the house the next weekend.
She couldn't come during the week. She was teaching school in Japan and as a freelance teacher working for no agency, just doing this to earn her own traveling money. So she visited us on a Sunday, I believe.
We talked about the family and everything. She talked about Lee, about how proud he was to be in the Marine Corps, and he really put on a big show about this.
Mr. JENNER - How did she know that, did she reveal?
Mr. PIC - She had seen him,'evidently, when he was first in the Marine Corps. She described him in uniform, and--
Mr. JENNER - You had the impression she had actually seen him in Japan?
Mr. PIC - No; she wasn't in Japan the same time he was. This is a year after I am in Japan, sir, before I had seen her.
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. PIC - And she had seen him when he first joined the Marine Corps, is my impression, sometime while he was in the Marine Corps and in the States.
Mr. JENNER - You had the impression that Lee had visited their home in New Orleans?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; that is the impression I got.
Mr. JENNER - Go on.
Mr. PIC - Well, at this time, my mother was still writing to me, I never answered any of her letters. Maybe I would receive a letter from her every once, every 2 or 3 months. I also was aware of the fact that Lee was going to be discharged from the Marine Corps.
Mr. JENNER - You became aware of that through what means?
Mr. PIC - The letters I would receive from my mother. She informed me that Marilyn Murret--that Lee upon his discharge had gone to Europe. I asked her how did he ever decide that, and where did he get the money and she said he saved it while he was in the Marine Corps.
Mr. JENNER - Did she say he had gone to Europe?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. Her quote, sir, to the best of my knowledge, "Do you know that Lee is in Europe?" I said, "No, I don't know that." I had no way of knowing that. So I started asking her about him, and this is what she told me that Lee had gone to Europe.
It was that night, sir, on the 9 o'clock news that I learned that Lee had defected.
Mr. JENNER - You say 9 o'clock news--was that--
Mr. PIC - Japan time, sir, that night.
Mr. JENNER - I mean, what source was the news?
Mr. PIC - American Armed Forces Network. My wife and I were in bed, and I was about half asleep, and the radio was closest to her and she nudged me and told me, and I said, "No, it couldn't be." So the next day it appeared in the paper.
Mr. JENNER - What paper?
Mr. PIC - The Stars and Stripes, sir. Then I heard it on the radio again the next day. There were a couple or three articles in the Stars and Stripes about his defection. And I reported to the OSI and told them who I was, and I told them who he was. Then I got in contact with the Embassy in Japan.
Mr. JENNER - That is the American Embassy?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; and attempted to contact Lee. The only thing I could get out was a telegram. I think my quote in the telegram was "Please reconsider your actions." This, I understand, was delivered to him at the Metropole Hotel in Moscow. After this defection I received several--
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - When you heard this what was your reaction?
Mr. PIC - I didn't believe it. I mean my wife told me it was him, and I think I stayed awake until the 10 o'clock news to hear it and they mentioned it, and that was it, and so the next day it was in the paper and that is when I reported to the OSI.
Mr. JENNER - What is OSI ?
Mr. PIC - Office of Special Investigator, I believe, for the Air Force.
Mr. JENNER - Well, after the rebroadcasts and you became convinced it was your brother what was your reaction?
Mr. PIC - It was hard to believe. It was just something you never expect.
Mr. JENNER - Had he done or said anything during all your life together which served to lead you to think, well maybe it is so that he has?
Mr. PIC - Well, sir, ever since he was born and I was old enough to remember, I always had a feeling that some great tragedy was going to strike Lee in some way or another, and when this happened I figured this was it. In fact, on the very day of the assassination I was thinking about it when I was getting ready to go to work, and just, I was thinking about him at that time and I figured when he defected and came back--that was his big tragedy. I found out it wasn't.
Mr. JENNER - Would you give me elaborate on that. Why did you have a feeling for some time that someday he would have, would suffer a great tragedy?
Mr. PIC - I don't know. It was just one of those things I can't explain. always had this feeling about him. Not as a kid, of course, but in my young adulthood I thought that about him, especially after the incident in New York. I thought this way. I had this feeling.
Mr. JENNER - You had a feeling at any time that he was groping for a position station in life, that he realized was beyond his attainment, or any resentment on his part of his station in life?
Mr. PIC - I think he resented the fact that he never really had a father, especially after he lost Mr. Ekdahl and his one and only chance to get what he was looking for. Maybe that is why he looked to Robert and I like he did.
Mr. JENNER - Did you see Marilyn Murret again?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; she and I never discussed this. Those were the orders of OSI not to discuss it with anyone. I made them aware of her, her presence in Japan. I don't know if they ever contacted her or not, sir. I told them about mentioning this to me that she knew he was in Europe. How she knew, know, sir. And everything I have read states that no one knew he was going.
Mr. JENNER - But she was in your home?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The very day that the announcement was made?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That Lee had defected to Russia?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; and the radio wasn't on or anything. I had the hi-fi, she liked classical music, and I was playing some of my records for her, and at time during the day did we have any radio broadcasts. She came about Maybe it was on prior to this, I don't think so, because at 9 o'clock-
Mr. JENNER - If it had been on, prior to that time, she didn't mention any defection? All she said to you was, "Did you know that Lee was in Europe?" Is that correct?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir. She didn't specify any country. In fact, I asked her what country, and she said she didn't know. She just knew he was in Europe. She had come from Australia to Japan. I think she may have been in Japan a month prior to contacting me, a month, a little less probably.
Mr. JENNER - You saw her again after that, did you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; she visited our house several times. I think the last we seen her was about April or May 1960 when she left Japan. We never her again. She said she would contact us and tell us when she was leaving but she never did.
Mr. JENNER - What was your assignment in Japan?
Mr. PIC - I was a medical laboratory technician at the hospital there, sir.
Mr. JENNER - When did you return to the United States?
Mr. PIC - July 1962, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And to where did you return?
Mr. PIC - To Lackland Air Force Base where I am presently stationed. In Japan there is more that happened, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - I received--I wrote Lee, I mean Robert, and asked him about this. Of course in Japan we didn't get much news and the OSI wouldn't tell me too The Embassy, all they confirmed is that he did defect. I guess in a period of 2, 3 months I got information from Robert through several letters. Every time I got some information I went to the OSI about this. It seems there a letter, I don't remember if Robert had copied it from Lee's letter or he had sent me the original letter. I showed this, I gave it to the OSI. If they it back, it is destroyed now, sir. In this letter he said that no one should try to contact him because the American capitalists would be listening over the phone. He mentioned that he had been contemplating this act for quite awhile. no one knew it. This is all in my OSI report.
And from what other information I had, I received the impression that him turning toward communism or Marxism, whichever you want to call it, took place while he was in Japan and in the Marine Corps, sir, from the insinuations that were involved in the letter or from his own statements.
Mr. JENNER - Up to this time, Sergeant, in all your association with your brother, had there been occasions when there were discussions with him in the family about any theories or reactions of his toward democracy, communism, Marxism, or any other form of government?
Mr. PIC - Sir, the last time he talked to me, I think he was only about 12, 13 years old.
Mr. JENNER - Well, the answer is no?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; that is the answer--no, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is that there hadn't been any such discussions?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You--I take it from that answer--you never heard him assert any views?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - On his part, with respect to that subject matter?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
While I was processing to return to the States, I had seen in the paper and everything that Lee was returning to the United States. When I got my assignment to Lackland, the OSI kind of put it to me that if I didn't want to be in' the same vicinity as Lee that they could change my orders, and I told them that the United States felt he was reliable enough for, confident enough in him to let him return, that I would see no reason to change my assignment. The OSI authorities said there was no objection to me visiting him, talking to him or anything else. So I didn't make any attempt to get my assignment changed because of these reasons. Being it was close enough, you know, to see him fairly easily.
Mr. JENNER - Did anything else occur that you think is pertinent to the time of your return to the United States?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; the only thing I knew about him was what I read in the newspaper about him returning with his wife and child.
Mr. JENNER - When you say newspapers this is the Stars and Stripes?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; Stars and Stripes.
Mr. JENNER - That is before you returned to this country you had read in the Stars and Stripes that he had returned to the United States?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; he was on his way, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He was on his way back?
Mr. PIC - He was on his way back at the same time I was on my way back.
Mr. JENNER - You knew he was on his way back, according to the Stars and Stripes, with his wife and child?
Mr. PIC - Yes; sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you arrived at Lackland Air Force Base when?
Mr. PIC - I arrived in the San Antonio area approximately the 21st of July 1962, and got a house, got settled and then I signed in on my base in August. I was permitted 30 days leave, 13 days travel time, which I took advantage of. I think I took 27 days leave. So I started work in August, the latter part of August.
Mr. JENNER - During that period of time of your 30 days' leave, after arriving at Lackland Air Force Base and San Antonio, did you, make any attempt to find out anything about your brother, where he was?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I called Robert, and we wrote a couple of letters, and he told me Lee was back, and he was living in Dallas and working there. and everything seemed to be okay.
Mr. JENNER - Did your brother tell you that Lee, when he returned to this country, had lived with him for a while?
Mr. PIC - I don't know if it was in these conversations. I learned at the Thanksgiving reunion that he did.
Mr. JENNER - Which was Thanksgiving of 1962?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Up to the time you saw your brother, I take it, you saw him Thanksgiving 1962?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; we arrived at my brother Robert's Thanksgiving Day between about 11:30, 12:30.
Mr. JENNER - In the morning?
Mr. PIC - In the morning. We were to meet Lee and his wife at the Greyhound bus station approximately 2 o'clock. So Robert and I went down to pick him up. We picked them up outside the Greyhound bus station. Whether or not they--we had no way of seeing them getting off a bus. They were at the station when we got there. We did all the friendly sayings and I was--
Mr. JENNER - Tell us what happened now? What was the attitude, what were your impressions?
Mr. PIC - Well, I still was wondering if he was going to have this feeling of hostility toward me that he had shown the last time he had seen me, but it didn't manifest itself whatsoever. He introduced me to his wife, and I gave her a kiss, and his child. We got in the car, and he said I hadn't changed much, and we just talked like that. At no time did Marina speak any English. She would ask him questions in what I believe was Russian and he would talk back to her in--and talk through.
Mr. JENNER - Did you have any discussion with him on that subject--where he had learned Russian?
Mr. PIC - Well, sir, I knew he had been in Russia over 2 years, so evidently he had learned Russian while there.
Mr. JENNER - There was no occasion because of that, it never occurred to you to ask him about how and when he had learned?
Mr. PIC - I wasn't going to pry into his affairs, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You didn't?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I didn't.
Mr. JENNER - Did you inquire of him as to his life in Russia?
Mr. PIC - We let him do the talking, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did he speak of it?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; he did.
Mr. JENNER - What did he say?
Mr. PIC - He told us he worked in a factory there.
Mr. JENNER - Did he say what kind of work he did?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; he didn't.
Mr. JENNER - What kind of a factory it was?
Mr. PIC - Something to do with metalwork, aluminum, something like that, I believe. He told me he was making about $80 a month, I think, while he worked there.
Mr. JENNER - Did he say he had accommodations that supplemented that salary? Was there anything about whether he had to pay rent or not pay rent for his quarters?
Mr. PIC - He didn't talk about anything prior to him and Marina being married.
Mr. JENNER - He did not?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; all the conversation was after their marriage.
Mr. JENNER - No discussion of his as to why he went to Russia in the first place?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was there any discussion of his defection or attempted defection?
Mr. PIC - Per se, no, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You are qualifying that. You say per se.
Mr. PIC - Right. He did mention that because of his actions he had received a dishonorable discharge from the Marine Corps and that he was attempting to get this changed to an honorable status.
Mr. JENNER - Did he appear bitter about it?
Mr. PIC - He showed us his card which stated dishonorable or bad conduct, something like that. I think it was dishonorable. He showed it to me.
Mr. JENNER - What was his--what impression did you have as to his overall attitude? What impression did you have as to his state of mind?
Mr. PIC - He impressed me that he was glad to be back, that he didn't really enjoy his stay in Russia. He commented about the hard life they had there.
Mr. JENNER - What did he say about that?
Mr. PIC - What did he say, sir?
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - A shortage of food, rationing of certain items, about eating a lot of cabbage. He did say that the U.S. Government gave him the money to come back on. He was in the process of paying them back. In fact, he let it be known that regardless of anything else he was going to pay the Government back.
Mr. JENNER - Did he say "regardless of anything else, I am going to pay them back"? On what do you base that conclusory statement?
Mr. PIC - Well, he made the statement they paid and he is paying them back, and he has got this job and he was telling me his financial situation, and saying so much money is going to pay the Government back.
Mr. JENNER - What did he say about his financial situation ?
Mr. PIC - He didn't give me this is what he gave me for an address. He said he lived in an apartment, one room apartment. They had no television, no radio, no coffee pot. In fact, we brought him a coffee pot for a present. Gave them a coffee pot and bought the little girl a stuffed animal of some type.
Mr. JENNER - Thanksgiving Day you did this?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - How come you brought him a coffee pot?
Mr. PIC - I was going to give him a present.
Mr. JENNER - It is the coffee pot that interests me. Here you hadn't seen him for a long time, you were bringing him a gift--why were you--
Mr. PIC - Well, my wife being a Yankee---
Mr. JENNER - Why did you bring him a coffee pot?
Mr. PIC - My wife in her Yankee ways believed when you don't see people a long time you bring them a gift. It's just a token. We brought my brother Robert a present, a set of dishes I had in Japan, I bought them in Japan, and so naturally we couldn't give them anything without giving the other people something.
Mr. JENNER - It isn't the fact that you brought him a gift. I can understand that. That would be, I might be even a little surprised if you hadn't. It is the particular gift in which I am interested. Why did you select a coffee pot? Was there something that led to that particular selection on your part?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; we didn't know what really to bring them, and my wife says, it was one of these glass coffee pots that you put the candle under, you see, it wasn't a regular percolator. It was one of these that a hostess always likes to have available to pour coffee out of.
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. PIC - And my wife had one, and she liked it so she figured we would give them one.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Tell us everything that occurred on that day, what he said, what Robert said that is pertinent, what you said, things that occurred, just completely exhaust your recollection.
Mr. PIC - Well, Lee informed us that he was working at some type photography printing company.
Mr. JENNER - In Dallas?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; in Dallas.
Mr. JENNER - You were advised during the course of that day he was then at that time living in Dallas?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; that is what he said.
Mr. JENNER - And working in some kind of photographic work in Dallas?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - I said he referred to their living conditions.
Mr. JENNER - What did he say?
Mr. PIC - They had a one-room, I think it was one room. They ate and slept in the same room, I believe. They had no radio, no TV. That Marina, when they first arrived, was really astounded about supermarkets. Every time she went in one she lost control of herself.

Marina herself wore no lipstick, very plainly dressed. Lee appeared to be a good father in that he would relieve Marina the burden of holding the child and taking care of it.
Mr. JENNER - How was he attired when you met him at the bus station?
Mr. PIC - He had on a sport jacket and tie. Sports jacket and tie.
Mr. JENNER - He was clean and neat?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Flow did Marina and your brother Lee appear to be getting along?
Mr. PIC - Well, sir; being they only spoke Russian to each other, I don't know what they said, but they appeared to be just like any other married couple married a year or 2.
Mr. JENNER - Was there any conversation during the course of the day in which you participated or overheard as to Marina's undertaking to learn English?
Mr. PIC - Well, my sister-in-law, Vada--
Mr. JENNER - That is Robert's wife?
Mr. PIC - Wife. Of course, she had, she and my wife had a lot to say to each other, and through my wife, I found out what Vada had said to her, that Lee did not permit Marina to wear any lipstick. he did not permit her to learn English. My wife, she thought this was really absurd and said the best thing to do was to get them a TV set and let her sit home and learn English. My wife thought it was terrible the way her conditions were as far as this was concerned. The girls seemed to gather in the dinette and we sat around in the living room, talking.
Mr. JENNER - Was anything said by Vada or your wife on that occasion as to the reason why Lee was not permitting Marina to learn English and speak it and write it?
Mr. PIC - Well, my wife assumed that if she did ever learn English she would wise up, being we had seen the Japanese wise with their husbands. For example, while they were living over in Japan and the wife is usually meek and mild but when they get over here they change. you see, she gets her American .ways, and lowers the boom on the husband like all the other American wives do. And my wife was under the impression that this would happen if once she did learn English and everything.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Keep talking about what occurred on this particular day, what was said, what your impressions were until you exhaust all of your recollection.
Mr. PIC - Well, Marina and the two wives helped prepare the meal, set the table, and we ate, and there was family talk. At no time did we mention our mother. She wasn't present. In fact--I will take that statement back.
Some time during our stay there Vada mentioned that she had seen my mother driving around with a man and she thought she had remarried. This may have been that day, it may have been a day or so later. We stayed there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and we left Sunday.
Mr. JENNER - Was anything said during the course of that occasion or in your presence or reported to you by your wife, as to how Vada and Marina had gotten along while the Oswalds, your brother. and she lived with your brother Robert and your sister-in-law Vada?
Mr. PIC - I wouldn't remember that, sir. If it was any talk it was probably on caring, and so forth, about the child and so forth, which is small talk to the men, of course.
Mr. JENNER - Did you learn on that day that Lee had lived with your brother for a while?
Mr. PIC - I had learned during that time period that Lee and Marina had lived with Robert when they returned, and that an attempt was made by the press and TV to contact them, but Robert wouldn't let them. Fie wasn't going to go through it again. Robert only had a one two-bedroom apartment, I mean house, and I am sure when we stayed there we were crowded a little bit. My wife and I slept on the floor, and I am sure Marina and Robert, I don't know where they slept--I mean Lee.
Mr. JENNER - Your children slept in the bed and you and your wife slept on a mattress on the floor?
Mr. PIC - A couple of blankets on the floor, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you learn during that period of time that Lee had lived with your brother for a time?
Mr. PIC - Possibly, sir; I don't recall.
Mr. JENNER - Was anything said about the fact or any allusion to the fact that during this period, up to Thanksgiving Day, there had been a time when Marina had not lived with your brother Lee?
Mr. PIC - No, sir. I understood they arrived from New York, at New York together, and proceeded--there was a short stay, I think, mentioned in New York. Where they stayed, I don't know, sir, and then they proceeded to Texas and lived with Robert.
Mr. JENNER - I am referring particularly to September and October and part of November 1962. Was there any reference or any discussion of it or anything said in your presence of the fact that Marina had lived apart, separate and apart from Lee?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - During one or more periods of time in September or October and November 1962?
Mr. PIC - Possibly it could have been being Marina stayed there while Lee went to look for a job in Dallas, I think, that may have been mentioned.
Mr. JENNER - Was there at any time mentioned even while he was working in Fort Worth, fully employed that she had separated from him and gone to live elsewhere?
Mr. PIC - I am not aware that he did work in Fort Worth, sir, at any time.
Mr. JENNER - You didn't learn at that time, Thanksgiving, that he had worked in Fort Worth?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was the Leslie Welding Co. mentioned at all?
Mr. PIC - Something about welding was mentioned, that he tried it when he first came back, now that you mention it.
Mr. JENNER - Was it your impression or did you gain the impression then that he had had some employment in Fort Worth then as a welder ?
Mr. PIC - I don't remember if it was Fort Worth, sir, or where it was. I just know that welding was mentioned.
Mr. JENNER - In that connection, was it mentioned or in any fashion indicated to you that he had been employed as a welder whether in Fort Worth or otherwise, but he had been employed as a welder?
Mr. PIC - It was my impression because of his experience in the Soviet Union working with metals that this helped him in getting his job as a welder.
Mr. JENNER - When he first returned?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And that that was a position or work that he had had prior to the time that he obtained the position in Dallas about which he spoke?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is a position preceding his work in the photography field in some firm in Dallas?
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - Anything said about his financial status--that is, his and Marina's, and the child?
Mr. PIC - Well, he said he wasn't making very much money, but they were managing to get by. They couldn't afford a TV, couldn't afford a radio, couldn't afford these necessities of life.
Mr. JENNER - Did he say anything during the course of that day on the subject of any political philosophy of his?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; not at all.
Mr. JENNER - Politics wasn't discussed?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Whether party politics or politics in the broad sense?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; not at all.
Mr. JENNER - How did he look to you physically as compared with when you had seen him last?
Mr. PIC - I would have never recognized him, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Your brother Robert said something along these lines. You had last seen him in 19-- that was prior to this occasion, the last time you had seen him was when he was in New York City?
Mr. PIC - Which was a little over 10 years.
Mr. JENNER - Well, just about 10 years.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Of course you had seen him in February 1953, I think you said.
Mr. PIC - Right. But we walked in and he walked out.
Mr. JENNER - But you saw him?
Mr. PIC - Right, I had seen him for a moment.
Mr. JENNER - He was then at that particular time in the neighborhood of 13 years of age?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Now, when you saw him 10 years later he was 23.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You noticed, did you, a material change, physically first, let's take his physical appearance?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. Physically I noticed that.
Mr. JENNER - What did you notice?
Mr. PIC - He was much thinner than I had remembered him. He didn't have as much hair.
Mr. JENNER - Did that arrest your attention? Was that a material difference? Did that strike you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; it struck me quite profusely.
Mr. JENNER - What else did you notice about his physical appearance that arrested your attention?
Mr. PIC - His face features were somewhat different, being his eyes were set back maybe, you know like in these Army pictures, they looked different than I remembered him. His face was rounder. Marilyn had described him to me when he went in the Marine Corps as having a bull neck. This I didn't notice at all. I looked for this, I didn't notice this at all, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He seemed more slender?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He had materially less hair?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - His eyes seemed a little sunken?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did he give you the appearance of--was he taut, was he relaxed or taut, or just what appearance did he have in that connection?
Mr. PIC - Sir, he didn't strike me as being relaxed because I was not with him.
Mr. JENNER - You were not?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; because of these other feelings we had developed 10 years prior to this. I wondered about how he still felt about that.
Mr. JENNER - But nothing occurred to lead you to believe that he still remembered it vividly, or did or didn't?
Mr. PIC - When he was introduced to my wife again he did mention that he remembered her. But other than that, he completely ignored her.
Mr. JENNER - Was that pretty obvious?
Mr. PIC - To her it was, sir. She mentioned it to me several times. He arrived about 2.
Mr. JENNER - In the afternoon?
Mr. PIC - Right; and that is when we picked him up, so I guess we ate about 3, 4 o'clock or so. And then the girls cleared off the table and they sat and had coffee and I took them out, they wanted to see my car.
Mr. JENNER - Took who out?
Mr. PIC - Lee and Robert both. They looked at my car.
Mr. JENNER - Did you take Marina out with you?
Mr. PIC - No; she stayed in the house with the girls, and we talked about cars.
Mr. JENNER - What did he say about a car?
Mr. PIC - I was made aware sometime during the day that he wasn't driving. Other than this--
Mr. JENNER - How did you become aware of that?
Mr. PIC - He said he couldn't get a license, to me.
Mr. JENNER - Did he say why he couldn't get a license?
Mr. PIC - He said it and give me the impression because of his citizenship status being he had a dishonorable discharge.
Mr. JENNER - Did you ever see your brother Lee Harvey Oswald drive an automobile?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; never in my life.
Mr. JENNER - While you boys were still in Fort Worth and before you enlisted in the Coast Guard in January 1950 had you--you had an automobile, didn't you?
Mr. PIC - I drove the family car.
Mr. JENNER - Did your brother Robert drive?
Mr. PIC - He may have known how. He was not permitted to drive the family car.
Mr. JENNER - I remember when I was a boy I wasn't permitted to drive the family car, in the broad sense.
Mr. PIC - Right. He never swiped it.
Mr. JENNER - I was permitted to drive it up and down the driveway or when my father was with me, I could drive it around the block or something like that the way kids do. Was Robert permitted to do that on a limited scale?
Mr. PIC - I wouldn't remember that, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you own what we used to call in my day an old jalopy while you were still in Fort Worth?
Mr. PIC - That picture of that automobile there was quite an old jalopy, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That was before you enlisted?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did your brother Robert ever drive that?
Mr. PIC - To the best of my recollection, no, sir. In fact, I only drove it a few times myself. This is the picture with the dog.
Mr. JENNER - That is the picture of the car in John Pic's Exhibit No. 55?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Lee never drove it, to your knowledge?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was your brother Robert interested in automobiles?
Mr. PIC - All kids are interested in automobiles.
Mr. JENNER - No; please was he interested in automobiles?
Mr. PIC - Sure, he wanted to drive. He seen I was driving so he wanted to drive and he wasn't as old as I was, I was permitted to drive and he wasn't.
Mr. JENNER - What about your brother Lee Harvey Oswald in that respect?
Mr. PIC - I don't know if he ever was really interested at that age to drive a car or not, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was anything said on the day, Thanksgiving Day 1962, to lead you to believe that he knew how to drive or operate an automobile?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - By the way, are you right handed?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Is your brother Lee right or left handed?
Mr. PIC - I think he was right handed, sir. I think we were all right handed, Robert had tendencies toward the left hand and I think my mother made him change.
Mr. JENNER - Was anything said during the course of that occasion when you saw him about his experiences in the Marines?
Mr. PIC - There probably was, sir, but I don't remember what they referred to. I know he told me he was at Atsugo Naval Air Station. This I didn't know until he told me exactly where he was in Japan. I was familiar with the Atsugo area.
Mr. JENNER - Did he say anything about having been in the Philippines?
Mr. PIC - Reading the magazine I now know that--
Mr. JENNER - Did he say anything then?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; at that time I don't remember knowing that he had been in the Philippines.
Mr. JENNER - Did he say anything about ever having been in Formosa?
Mr. PIC - No, sir. Just Japan, I think possibly Korea, maybe, was mentioned.
Mr. JENNER - But there was no discussion of his marine career to speak of?
Mr. PIC - He was affiliated with radar, he told me, radio radar.
Mr. JENNER - Did the subject arise of why he went to Russia?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That was not discussed at all?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Nothing was said? Anything said about his experiences in Russia prior to the time he became married there?
Mr. PIC - No sir; he didn't mention that at all to me.
Mr. JENNER - And anything said about his problems with the--I will withdraw that.
Was anything said about his defection or attempted defection to Russia?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; he did not mention his defection at all. Why he did it or how he did it, he didn't mention anything, and I didn't ask him.
Mr. JENNER - During the several days you were in Fort Worth visiting your brother Robert, did you and he go hunting?
Mr. PIC - We went fishing, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Fishing? I take it you did not go hunting.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; not at that particular time. When I first went there in 1958, we did go hunting.
Mr. JENNER - I see. When you three boys were in Fort Worth, that is before you enlisted in January 1950, did you boys occasionally go hunting?
Mr. PIC - We had no firearms whatsoever, sir, in the house.
Mr. JENNER - So you did not go hunting?
Mr. PIC - I didn't. Robert possibly did with some friends of his. I don't think Lee ever did. We went fishing several times.
Mr. JENNER - After you returned to this country in 1962, thereafter there were occasions, where there, or some one occasion, at least, when you did go squirrel or rabbit hunting with your brother Robert?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; that was in 1958.
Mr. JENNER - Oh, yes. When you were traveling across country to California?
Mr. PIC - Yes; we went to his in-law's farm and we did a little hunting on his father-in-law's property.
Mr. JENNER - What kind of firearms?
Mr. PIC - .22, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Single shot?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You say the subject of your mother was not mentioned in the course of this Thanksgiving Day visit?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; Robert and I never brought her up in any conversations we had.
Mr. JENNER - Did Lee?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What did he say about her?
Mr. PIC - He mentioned her, that he had seen her or been in touch with her when he first came back, maybe even stayed with her for a week or two when he first came back, I don't remember. My wife later told me that Marina couldn't get along with my mother.
Mr. JENNER - Marina told your wife that she couldn't get along with your mother?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I think it was Vada told my wife that Marina couldn't.
I think she rather observed this rather than being told by Marina.
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. PIC - That the two of them, not that they didn't get along, but that Marina disliked her.
Mr. JENNER - Is that the last time you saw your brother Lee?
Mr. PIC - Well, sir, in the course of that Thanksgiving Day, my brother Robert offered to drive him back to the bus station. Lee made a phone call and it was my understanding that the people that he phoned were of Russian descent, and that Marina often visited with them or talked with them, so she could talk in her own native tongue, and that their boy, who was attending, I believe, the University of Oklahoma.
Mr. JENNER - Paul Gregory?
Mr. PIC - Sir, I don't remember his name at all, because I was mad at the time I was introduced to him.
Mr. JENNER - Introduced to whom?
Mr. PIC - This gentleman who picked him up.
Mr. JENNER - Was he a young man?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right, tell us the circumstances. tell us what led up to this incident, and tell us all about the incident.
Mr. PIC - Well, they made the phone call, and Lee said that they would be picked up by their friends, and I think sometime between 6 and 7 that night he came by. Now, my brother Robert, whenever he introduces me to anyone always refers to me as his brother Lee referred to me as his half brother when he introduced me.
Mr. JENNER - On this occasion?
Mr. PIC - It was very pronounced. He wanted to let the man know I was only his half brother. And this kind of peeved me a little bit. Because we never mentioned the fact that we were half brothers.
Mr. JENNER - You never had that feeling?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was this the first time that your brother had ever introduced you to anyone as his haft brother? I am talking about your brother Lee now.
Mr. PIC - I think possibly, sir, this is the first time he ever introduced me to anyone.
Mr. JENNER - Was this the first time he had ever referred to you as your half brother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - His half brother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Is that so?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And that irritated you on this occasion?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. Right then and there I had the feeling that the hostile feeling was still there. Up until this time it didn't show itself, but I felt then, well, he still felt the same way.
Mr. JENNER - This young man from the University of Oklahoma, whose name, by the way, was Gregory
Mr. PIC - He was at the University of Oklahoma.
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - I have said this three or four times, I wasn't certain, but I am sure he was and I was introduced to him as Lee's half brother, and the man was studying Russian at the school. His parents were from Russia.
Mr. JENNER - He came alone, did he?
Mr. PIC - The car was parked out front, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Well, he was alone when he came in?
Mr. PIC - He was in the house alone.
Mr. JENNER - Was it night?
Mr. PIC - Yes; it was dark between 6 and 7 in November.
Mr. JENNER - Did you go out to the car?
Mr. PIC - No; I didn't. We stayed in the house.
Mr. JENNER - Did Robert go out to the car?
Mr. PIC - I don't remember, sir. I don't think so.
Mr. JENNER - Did Marina appear to be acquainted with this young man?
Mr. PIC - Yes; as soon as he walked in she started talking Russian to him.
Mr. JENNER - Did he respond in Russian?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Lee spoke to him in Russian?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Except when he was introducing you to him he introduced you in English as his half brother?
Mr. PIC - Well, Lee would speak to him part Russian, part English. He was only there maybe a couple or 3 minutes. I had the impression that this gentleman could speak Russian better than Lee.
Mr. JENNER - What gave you that impression?
Mr. PIC - Because Lee wouldn't converse fully with him in Russian whereas him and Marina did converse fully in Russian.
Mr. JENNER - Any other impressions you got of this several hours visit with your brother Lee?
Mr. PIC - Well, right before they left, sir; I told him that if he needs any help 'or anything, to let me know. I told him I was unable to help him financially but he is welcome to pay us a visit any time he wished, stay with us, talk like that.
Mr. JENNER - What did he say?
Mr. PIC - He said OK. He told me to write to him, and in this book, sir, which I had there he wrote his post office box address in Dallas.
Mr. JENNER - We will give that little book, to which you make reference, John Pic Exhibit No. 60.
(The document referred to was marked John Pic Exhibit No. 60 for identification.)
Mr. JENNER - I have John Pic Exhibit No. 60 in my hand. What is this?
Mr. PIC - A black memo book, I guess.
Mr. JENNER - Of yours?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I had it in my car at the time. Whenever I travel I keep a little book with my mileage on it and so forth.
Mr. JENNER - I notice that the first ruled page of this book on which there appear some figures, the letter "B" and then there are some handwritings which appears to be Russian. I show that to you.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - In whose handwriting is that?
Mr. PIC - That is in the handwriting of Marina Oswald, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What was the occasion of her writing in this book?
Mr. PIC - Only part of this, sir, is in the handwriting of Marina Oswald. This right here [indicating].
Mr. JENNER - That is the word beginning with the letter, it looks like the letter "N" or "M" and the word right below that beginning with the letter "D," and a word right below that beginning, it looks like a capital "H"?
Mr. PIC - That is right, sir. The other ones are in my handwriting.
Mr. JENNER - The others are all figures?
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - What was the occasion of her writing that on the page?
Mr. PIC - She being a pharmacist, and me being in the medical field, we tried to communicate with each other just to make small talk with medical terminology, metric system and so forth, just some way to kill time with each other she and I seemed to be able to do this to some degree.
Mr. JENNER - That is to communicate?
Mr. PIC - Yes; as long as we stuck within the pharmacy and medical field.
Mr. JENNER - Did she know some English terms in the pharmacy, medical field?
Mr. PIC - She used Latin phrases, some of which were familiar to me.
Mr. JENNER - Just what was that writing, some medical terms?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I think these are names of drugs she was writing down. I wouldn't know.
Mr. JENNER - There is a large letter "B" on that page. How did that get on there?
Mr. PIC - I don't know, sir. I don't know, sir. I wouldn't venture a guess whose handwriting it is.
Mr. JENNER - There is a square to the left of the handwriting in Russian, what does that signify?
Mr. PIC - This was placed there by the Secret Service, in San Antonio, sir, to identify the handwritings in this book, the square being the handwriting of Marina Oswald, the parentheses being the handwriting of myself and the mark with the circle being the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - So that wherever throughout that book a zero appears that is the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Wherever the parentheses mark appears that is. your handwriting?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And wherever the square appears that is Marina's handwriting?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Turn the page over. On the reverse side of that page that is all your handwriting?
Mr. PIC - Except this up here, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The reverse side of the previous page.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; that is my handwriting.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Now, the front side of the next page which has the letter "A" printed on it, in the upper right-hand corner. Is that in your handwriting?
Mr. PIC - Everything except this top portion, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The top portion?
Mr. PIC - Starting with liquid measure would be my handwriting.
Mr. JENNER - And then there is something above that?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Whose handwriting is that?
Mr. PIC - I believe that to be Marina Oswald's, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Everything below that is yours?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. The reverse side of that page, that is the reverse side of the "A" page is in whose handwriting?
Mr. PIC - My handwriting, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Then the page opposite that?
Mr. PIC - That is in my handwriting, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The reverse side of that page is blank. Then the face of the next page is some figures and the words "Highway start, Fort Worth," and "highway" again, those are all in whose handwriting?
Mr. PIC - My handwriting, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Then the series of pages are blank, and the first writing we see thereafter is on the "C" page, some letters and a figure. Whose handwriting is that?
Mr. PIC - That is mine, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The next handwriting appears on the last ruled page. Whose handwriting is that?
Mr. PIC - That is the handwriting of my wife, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All of it?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; she loves to write her name.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Then on the next to the last page in the book which is a plain white page, appears P.O. Box 2195, Dallas, Tex.
Mr. PIC - That is the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And on the opposite page, which is the inside of the back cover
Mr. PIC - This is the identifying mark in the hand of Secret Service Agent Ben A. Vidles, in San Antonio, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - This book is in the same condition now as it was?
Mr. PIC - When I gave it to the Secret Service.
Mr. JENNER - When you gave it to the Secret Service.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Plus the identifying marks you have described?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I offer in evidence a document, memorandum book now marked as "John Pic Exhibit No. 60."
(The document heretofore marked for identification as John Pic Exhibit No. 60 was received in evidence.)
Mr. JENNER - Did you thereafter prior to November 22, up to but prior to November 22, 1963, hear anything about your brother?
Mr. PIC - The day or two after they left Robert and I went fishing. While we were in the boat there was Robert, myself, and my oldest boy, and at this time I asked him about Lee, I asked him if he considered or thought that Lee was a little on the pink side and just how he was getting along. Robert informed me that he had had seen FBI agents once in awhile who said Lee was doing pretty good and that there was nothing to worry about. And all reports that he had had were favorable towards Lee.
Mr. JENNER - Robert did tell you that-the FBI had checked with him?
Mr. PIC - He had seen an agent now and then, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He didn't elaborate as to whether the FBI had come to visit him or whether he had merely run into some FBI agent?
Mr. PIC - I had the impression that they had visited him where he worked, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you hear anything else about your brother from that occasion up to but not including November 22, 1963?
Mr. PIC - Well, other information I gathered from my talks with Robert in those few days was that Lee and Marina made the trip to see them in Fort Worth fairly regular, to have dinner, things like this. It seems that Vada and Marina were at one time, I was told, talking---
Mr. JENNER - By whom?
Mr. PIC - By Vada, Marina was trying to make a point about her wedding ring being she couldn't speak English, Vada got the impression that Marina had been married before.
Mr. JENNER - That Marina had been married before?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir;this is the only thing she could gather from Marina flashing her wedding ring and talking about this. The four of us were present, Robert, myself, and the two wives. But this was done over coffee.
Mr. JENNER - This was after Lee and Marina had left?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; this was after they had left.
Mr. JENNER - What did Robert say on that subject, if anything?
Mr. PIC - Nothing. That he didn't think she had been married before.
Mr. JENNER - Did you visit your brother Robert, and did he visit you subsequent to that occasion on Thanksgiving up to but not including November 22, 1963?
Mr. PIC - A couple or 3 days prior to Christmas of 1962, Robert and his family returned the visit to our home in San Antonio, sir. I asked Robert this time if he had seen or heard from Lee since we had last seen him and he told me, no.
Mr. JENNER - Was there any comment on that subject that he had not heard from Lee up to that time?
Mr. PIC - It was really only a matter of 3 or 4 weeks at the most, sir.
Mr. JENNER - So it didn't occasion any surprise on your part?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Were you given any other information by Robert with respect to Lee?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; not that I recall.
Mr. JENNER - Did you see Robert again subsequent to this pre-Christmas Party 1962?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And up to but not including November 22, 1963?
Mr. PIC - I still haven't seen him since Christmas 1962.
Mr. JENNER - Have you corresponded?
Mr. PIC - We have written a few letters, and I was permitted to make a phone call to him right after the assassination.
Mr. JENNER - What did he say in the course of that conversation? What did you say?
Mr. PIC - This was--I was permitted to make the phone call after Lee's murder. The Secret Service said I could contact Robert. He had called where I worked and left a number. I contacted the Secret Service. They told me go ahead and call this number, call them back and tell them the gist of the conversation.
I called him up at this number. Someone answered the phone and I asked for Robert and they called him to the phone. He told me that he and his--told me his wife and children were at the farm with her folks, I believe that is what he told me. That he was--he couldn't tell me where he was but he was in Arlington, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - Robert was?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; under custody of the Secret Service.
Mr. JENNER - What day of the week was this ?
Mr. PIC - This was Sunday, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The day of the death of your brother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The 24th of November 1963?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - What else was said?
Mr. PIC - He told me that some local business people would make arrangements for the funeral and there would be no expense to him. I told him I was sorry it happened and everything.
Mr. JENNER - Did he say anything about having seen your brother at the Dallas City Police Station prior to this telephone conversation?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; he didn't.
Mr. JENNER - Was there any discussion in this telephone conversation about the assassination of President Kennedy?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; there wasn't.
Mr. JENNER - About the possible involvement of your brother in that connection?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; there wasn't.
Mr. JENNER - I take it, then, it was confined largely, if not exclusively, to the death of your brother?
Mr. PIC - The conversation was just about as I related it, sir. It was mostly confined to the death of Lee.
Mr. JENNER - And his burial?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you attend the funeral services?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I was not permitted. In fact, the Secret Service did not let me write Robert for, I think, 7 to 8 days after the assassination. At that time they granted me permission to freely correspond with him.
Mr. JENNER - And you did so?
Mr. PIC - I think we have written about two, three letters back and forth. I am the one who fails to write. He never fails to write.
Mr. JENNER - The subject matter of these letters involved Lee; any of them?
Mr. PIC - I think the very first one I got concerned the welfare of his family. They were out at the farm. That his company treated him very good about all the time lost. That Marina asked about us and how we were getting along. In my return letter to him I told him nobody had bothered us and we were getting along just fine. He informed me that he was--I suggested if they could, to come down and stay with us awhile. We had just purchased a new house, we had the room, and he wrote back and told me that because he had missed all the time because of the incidents he was unable to get any more time from his company without losing his job.
Mr. JENNER - Have you seen Marina in the meantime?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The last time you saw her, I take it, then, was Thanksgiving Day 1962?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Has there been any correspondence between you?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Has there been any correspondence that was indirect in any fashion?
Mr. PIC - My last letter I received from Robert was right after he appeared here. He mentioned that Marina often asked about my wife and I. Other than this, there has been no mention. He has mentioned about the grave being desecrated, and some information concerning the gravesite of Lee.
Mr. JENNER - Before I return to some specifics, is there anything else that has occurred to you in your reflection on this matter that you would like to mention?
Mr. PIC - The actual assassination, that time period or what, sir?
Mr. JENNER - Well, anything you think that might be relevant to the Commission's investigation as to the circumstances surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy, any persons involved therein, the subsequent death of your brother.
Mr. PIC - Most of the information that I have seen and heard has been all new to me, like his escapades in New Orleans, passing out the leaflets and his radio program.
Mr. JENNER - Those incidents, by the way, were unknown to you until after the assassination, I take it?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I assure you if I had known he was doing his escapades again I would have went to the proper authorities about it.
Mr. JENNER - I show you an exhibit, a series of exhibits, first Commission Exhibit No. 281 and Exhibit No. 282 being some spread pages of an issue of Life magazine of February 21, 1964. I direct your attention first to the lower lefthand spread at .the bottom of the page. Do you recognize the area shown there?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you see somebody in that picture that appears to be your brother?
Mr. PIC - This one here with the arrow.
Mr. JENNER - The one that has the printed arrow?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you recognize that as your brother?
Mr. PIC - Because they say so, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Please, I don't want you to say--
Mr. PIC - No; I couldn't recognize that.
Mr. JENNER - Because this magazine says that it is.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I couldn't recognize him from that picture.
Mr. JENNER - You don't recognize anybody else in the picture after studying it that appears to be your brother? When I say your brother now, I am talking about Lee.
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - In the upper portion there are a series of photographs spread from left-hand page across to the right-hand page. Take those on the left which appears to be a photograph of three young men. Do you recognize the persons shown in that photograph?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I recognize ,this photograph, the people from left to right being Robert Oswald, the center one being Lee Oswald, and the third one being myself. This picture was taken at the house in Dallas when we returned from New Orleans.
Mr. JENNER - You mean from--when you came from New Orleans after being at the Bethlehem Orphanage Home?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you went to Dallas?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - It was taken in Dallas at or about that time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The next one is prominent; in front is a picture of a young boy. There is a partially shown girl and apparently another boy with a striped shirt in the background. Do you recognize that picture?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I recognize that as Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - Do you have any impression as to when and where that was taken?
Mr. PIC - Just looking at the picture, I would guess first, second grade, maybe. I would have to guess at it.
Mr. JENNER - Then there is one immediately to the right of that, a young man in the foreground sitting on the floor, with his knees, legs crossed, and his arms also crossed. There are some other people apparently in the background.
Mr. PIC - I recognize that as Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - Does anything about the picture enable you to identify as to where that was taken?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Then to the right there is a picture of two young men, the upper portion of the one young man at the bottom and then apparently a young man standing up in back of that person. Do you recognize either of those young people?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I recognize Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - Is he the one to which the black arrow is pointing?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Then right below that is a picture of a young man standing in front of an iron fence, which appears to be probably at a zoo. Do you recognize that?
Mr. PIC - Sir, from that picture, I could not recognize that that is Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - That young fellow is shown there, he doesn't look like you recall Lee looked in 1952 and 1953 when you saw him in New York City?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Commission Exhibit No. 284 do you recognize anybody in that picture that appears to be Lee Oswald?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - There is a young fellow in the foreground-everybody else is facing the other way. He is in a pantomime, or grimace. Do you recognize that as Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; looking at that picture and I have looked at it several times--that looks more like Robert than it does Lee, to my recollection.
Mr. JENNER - All right. On Exhibit No. 286, the lower right-hand corner, there is another picture. Do you recognize that as your brother Lee in that picture?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; that is about how he looked when I seen him in 1962, his profile.
Mr. JENNER - Do you recognize the person, the lady to the right who is pointing her finger at him?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I don't.
Mr. JENNER - Exhibit No. 287 is two figures, taking them from top to bottom and in the lower right-hand corner, do you recognize those?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I don't.
Mr. JENNER - Neither one of them?
Mr. PIC - No, sir. The lower one appears to me to look like Robert rather than Lee. The upper one, unless they tell me that, I would never guess that that would be Lee, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Exhibit No. 288, there is ill the lower left-hand corner, there is a reproduction of a service card and a reproduction, also, of a photograph with the head of a man. Do you recognize that?
Mr. PIC - That looks to me approximately how Lee Oswald looked when I seen him Thanksgiving 1962.
Mr. JENNER - Directing your attention to Exhibit, Commission Exhibit No. 289, do you recognize any of the servicemen shown in that picture as your brother Lee?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I do not recognize them.
Mr. JENNER - Exhibit No. 290, the lower left-hand corner there is a photograph of a young lady and a young man. Do you recognize either of those persons?
Mr. PIC - He appears to me as Lee Harvey Oswald in 1962 when I seen him.
Mr. JENNER - And the lady?
Mr. PIC - She is his wife, Marina, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Commission Exhibit No. 291, at the bottom of the page, there is a picture of a young man handing out a leaflet, and another man to the left of him who is reaching out for it. Do you recognize the young man handing out the leaflet?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I would be unable to recognize him.
Mr. JENNER - As to whether he was your brother?
Mr. PIC - That is correct.
Mr. JENNER - Exhibit No. 292, in the upper right-hand corner, is a picture of a lady, a young lady with a child. Do you recognize either of those persons?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I recognize Marina Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - And the baby?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I couldn't recognize the baby.
Mr. JENNER - Below that is a picture purporting to be that of your brother with a pistol on his right hip, and with a firearm, a rifle in his left hand holding up what appear to be some leaflets. Do you recognize that as your brother Lee?
Mr. PIC - That is how he looked to me in 1962 when I seen him, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is a duplicate of the picture on the cover. You have produced for us a series of letters from your mother to yourself, from your brother Lee to yourself, and from your brother Robert to yourself which have been marked John Pic Exhibits Nos. 6 through 47, inclusive.
Did you assist Mr. Ely, in the preparation of this list of exhibits?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I arranged the stacks. He took it from the stacks I arranged previously.
Mr. JENNER - For the purpose of the record, then, John Pic Exhibit No. 6 is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic, postmarked May 8, 1950, and its accompanying envelope as John Pic Exhibit No. 6-A. John Pic Exhibit No. 7 is a letter from your mother to you, postmarked May 23, 1950, or the enevelope is so postmarked. Its accompanying envelope being marked John Pic Exhibit No. 7-A. John Pic Exhibit No. 8, a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in envelope, Exhibit No. 8-A, postmarked at Fort Worth, May 24, 1950.
By the way, Exhibit No. 6-A is postmarked Fort Worth. All of these exhibits until I indicate otherwise from here on are marked with a return address to M. Oswald, 9048 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex.
Mr. PIC - 7408.
Mr. JENNER - What did I say? 7408; that is correct. You are right.
Exhibit No. 9 is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic, accompanying envelope is Exhibit No. 9-A postmarked June 9, 1950.
Exhibit No. 10 and its reverse side, which is marked Exhibit No. 10-B, is a letter from Lee Harvey Oswald to John Pie enclosed in envelope marked John Pie Exhibit No. 10-A, postmarked at Fort Worth, Tex., on August 23, 1950. This enevelope has no return address on it.
Exhibit No. 11 is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic in an envelope postmarked August 15, 1950, marked Exhibit No. 11-A.
Exhibit No. 12 is a letter from Marguerite to John Pic enclosed in envelope postmarked November 6, 1950, and identified as John Pic Exhibit No. 12-A.
The next is John Pic Exhibit No. 13, a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in envelope postmarked December 13, 1950, the envelope being marked John Pic Exhibit No. 13-A. This does have the return address Lee Oswald, 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex.
The next is a short longhand note on a small sheet marked John Pic Exhibit No. 14 which is undated, Lee Harvey Oswald to John Pic, which was enclosed with Exhibit No. 13.
The next is a card, Christmas card, marked John Pic Exhibit No. 15, inside cover of which in longhand says, "Dear Pic," and then there is in longhand and pencil "I sure am sorry that you can't come home for Christmas so I am sending you this fruitcake. Merry Christmas"--spelled Mary--"from Lee."
The next is John Pic No. 16, a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in envelope marked Pic Exhibit No. 16-A and postmarked in Fort Worth, April 16, 1951, with the usual return address.
Exhibit No. 17 is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in envelope postmarked at Fort Worth on April 23, 1951. That envelope is marked John Pic Exhibit No. 17-A. The previous envelope in which Exhibit No. 16 was enclosed was marked Exhibit No. 16-A. I will say for the record in each instance where there is a letter accompanied by an envelope, the envelope is marked with a letter "A" but with the same number as the letter.
Exhibit No. 18 is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in an envelope marked Exhibit No. 18-A, postmarked at Fort Worth, May 22, 1951.
The next is Exhibit No. 19, a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in an envelope marked Exhibit No. 19-A. postmarked at Fort Worth on June 18, 1951.
Exhibit No. 20 is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic and Exhibit No. 20--B is a birthday card from Marguerite. Both are enclosed in an envelope marked John Pic Exhibit No. 20-A, postmarked at Fort Worth, Tex., June 14, 1952, bearing the usual return address.
Exhibit No. 21 is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in an envelope marked Pic Exhibit No. 21-A, postmarked Fort Worth, July 14, 1952, with the usual return address.
The next is a letter without an envelope which is marked John Pic Exhibit No. 22. The letter is dated May 10, 1954.
The Exhibit No. 23 is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed is an envelope, Exhibit No. 23- A, postmarked in New Orleans on June 14, 1954, containing the return address, M. Oswald, 1454 St. Mary, New Orleans, La.
The next is Exhibit No. 24; it is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in an envelope postmarked at New Orleans, October 14, 1954, which in turn is marked John Pic Exhibit No. 24-A. It contains the return address, M. Oswald, 126 Exchange, New Orleans, La. If I neglected to do so, Exhibit No. 22 is the letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic.
Exhibit No. 25 also is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in an envelope marked Exhibit No. 25-A, postmarked at New Orleans, La. on November 12, 1954, containing return address, M. Oswald, 126 Exchange, New Orleans, La.
Exhibit No. 26 is a letter from Marguerite Oswald to John Pic enclosed in an envelope marked Exhibit No. 26-A, postmarked at New Orleans, La. on November 11, 1954, return address, Mrs. M. Oswald, 126 Exchange, New Orleans, La. Mr. Pic., are Exhibits Nos. 6 and 6-A, 7 and 7-A, 8 and 8-A, 9 and 9-A, 10 and 10-A, 11 and 11-A excuse me, strike out that 10 and 10-A--11 and 11-A, 12 and 12-A, 16 and 16-A, 17 and 17-A, 18 and 18-A, 19 and 19-A, 20 and 20-A, 21 and 21--A, 22, 23 and 23-A, 24 and 24-A, 25 and 25-A, 26 and 26-A, all in the handwriting of your mother Marguerite Oswald?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And were those envelopes addressed to you at various places you were then, that is as of the time they were postmarked received by you at or about the postmarked dates or shortly thereafter which each envelope bears?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - There is one exhibit that doesn't have an envelope. Was that letter received by you shortly after the date it bears?
Mr. PIC - You refer to Exhibit No. 22, sir?
Mr. JENNER - Yes, sir.
Mr. PIC - To the best of my knowledge; yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - These are all, they all consist of correspondence from your mother to you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And they happen to be correspondence which you have retained over the years?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Except for the exhibit marks on those, they are in the same condition now as they were at the time you received them and opened them in the case of the envelopes?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And that the letters are in the condition they were at the time you read them?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Go back to Pic Exhibit No. 10, in whose handwriting is that exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 10, sir, is in the handwriting of--there is Exhibits Nos. 10, 10-A, and 10B.
Mr. JENNER - Exhibit No. 10, I am referring to.
Mr. PIC - They are both in the handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - Exhibits Nos. 10 and 10-A; correct?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; Exhibits Nos. 10, 10-A, and 10B. Exhibit No. 10 is the insert in envelope Exhibit No.10-A.
Mr. JENNER - Then look at Exhibits Nos. 13 and 13-A.
Mr. PIC - They are marked Exhibits Nos. 13 and 13-A, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. The contents are marked Exhibit No. 13.
Mr. PIC - Yes, Sir.
Mr. JENNER - In whose handwriting is the envelope?
Mr. PIC - Lee Harvey Oswald's.
Mr. JENNER - And whose handwriting is that which appears in the inside of that card?
Mr. PIC - My mother's, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Is there any handwriting of Lee Harvey Oswald on that card?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The card was enclosed, was it in the exhibit marked John Pic No. 13-A?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Turn to Exhibit No. 14. That is a note you received from your brother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Is that in his handwriting?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - It is undated.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you have the envelope in which that was enclosed?
Mr. PIC - Sir, it may be Exhibit No. 13-A, I don't know.
Mr. JENNER - It may have been enclosed in Exhibit No. 13-A?
Mr. PIC - It may have been enclosed in Exhibit No. 10 -A, I don't know, sir.
Mr. JENNER - In any event, it is in the handwriting of your brother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you received it in due course some time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - On or about the holiday period-
Mr. PIC - I would guess that Exhibit No. 15 goes in envelope Exhibit No. 13-A.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Would you put them in there?
Mr. PIC - And the date on envelope Exhibit No. 13-A is 13 December, and this is a Christmas card from Lee, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That Christmas card on the inside is the handwriting of your mother, however?
Mr. PIC - No, sir. Lee Harvey Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Now, the exhibit marked John Pic No. 14, do you have a recollection as to the envelope in which that was enclosed?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Do you have a recollection as to approximately when you received it, that is John Pic Exhibit No. 14?
Mr. PIC - I would speculate and say that Exhibit No. 10 goes in envelope Exhibit No. 10--A, and that Exhibit No. 14 either came some little period of time before or after the contents in envelope Exhibit No. 10-A.
Mr. JENNER - That is while you were away at military school?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; this is when I am in the Coast Guard.
Mr. JENNER - All right. All those exhibits I have now identified, that is after I identified your mother's letters, are in the handwriting of Lee Oswald?
Mr. PIC - All except Exhibit No. 13, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And Exhibit No. 13 is in the handwriting of your mother?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - It appears to be and is a Christmas card?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - From its contents are you able to tell us approximately when you received that?
Mr. PIC - It would be, I would say sometime after Christmas of 1950, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Would you put all those exhibits back in order?
Mr. PIC - What belongs with what I think.
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - Exhibits Nos. 13-A and 15 here, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You have already told us of Exhibits No. 13-A belonging with Exhibit No. 15. You have also produced for us correspondence that you happen still to have in your possession from your brother Robert Oswald, have you not?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I place that correspondence before you and ask you to follow me as I place the exhibit numbers in the record. Exhibit No. 27 is a letter from Robert to you.
Mr. PIC - They are marked all with "B's."
Mr. JENNER - Exhibit No. 27-B is a letter from your brother Robert to you enclosed in an envelope marked Exhibit No. 27-A, postmarked October 1, 1952?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - From where?
Mr. PIC - U.S. Navy 14016, sir. Unit 1.
Mr. JENNER - And to you at?
Mr. PIC - At 325 East 92d Street, New York City, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Exhibit No. 28-B is the contents of Exhibit No. 28-A, the contents consisting of a letter from your brother Robert to you, the envelope is postmarked June 9, 1954.
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And it is addressed to you where?
Mr. PIC - U.S. Coast Guard Station, Staten Island, N.Y.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Exhibit No. 29-B is the contents of the envelope marked Exhibit No. 29--A, the contents consisting of a letter from your brother Robert to you, and the envelope being postmarked June 19, 1954.
Mr. PIC - Plus a picture.
Mr. JENNER - There is also enclosed in that envelope a picture?
Mr. PIC - That is right, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Which is marked.
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 29-C.
Mr. JENNER - Exhibit No. 29-C. The picture is a picture of whom?
Mr. PIC - Two what appear to be Marines, sir; the one on the left being Robert Oswald.
Mr. JENNER - May I see it, please, sir? Do you know the other Marine?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I do not.
Mr. JENNER - Exhibit No. 30-A is an envelope postmarked December 13, 1954, its contents being a letter marked Exhibit No. 30 -B, being a letter from your brother Robert to you.
Mr. PIC - Being a Christmas card, sir; with a letter written on the Christmas card.
Mr. JENNER - On the inside?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And some inscription, also, under the Christmas greetings?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Now, are those exhibits all in the handwriting, except for the photograph, of course, in the handwriting of your brother Robert?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; to my best of my knowledge.
Mr. JENNER - Did you receive those exhibits, the envelopes, and the contents in due course after they were posted?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir..
Mr. JENNER - And you have retained them in your possession since that time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Have you also produced for us some additional correspondence between your mother and yourself?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Being exclusively letters from her to you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - They being in the following series: Exhibit No. 31-A, an envelope addressed to you postmarked June 3, 1950--
Mr. PIC - Fort Worth, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - Fort Worth, Tex. What is the return address?
Mr. PIC - M. Oswald, 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - And the contents consisting of a letter from your mother to you?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And that is marked Exhibit No. 31-B?
Mr. PIC - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - The next envelope and letter, the envelope is marked Exhibit No. 32-A. Is it postmarked?
Mr. PIC - Partial postmark, sir.
Mr. JENNER - How much of it can you read?
Mr. PIC - Texas 1950, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Its contents marked?
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 32-B, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is a letter from your mother to you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Enclosed with the envelope we have identified?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The next exhibit is what?
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 33-A, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Postmarked?
Mr. PIC - Fort Worth, August 23, 1950.
Mr. JENNER - What return address?
Mr. PIC - M. Oswald, 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - The contents have been marked?
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 33-B, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The letter from your mother to you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Enclosed in that envelope?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Is just a letter dated Exhibit No. 34.
Mr. PIC - Is just a letter marked Exhibit No. 34.
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Is it dated?
Mr. PIC - The only mention is the word Saturday, sir.
Mr. JENNER - It is undated?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - It is in the handwriting of your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You received it in due course?
Mr. PIC - Yes, Sir.
Mr. JENNER - Some time or other?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - But you did not retain the envelope?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Can you tell from its content approximately when you received it? Was it after you entered the Coast Guard?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; definitely after I entered the Coast Guard, in fact it mentions the Korean war, so it was after the onset of the Korean war.
Mr. JENNER - Was it received subsequently to the letter and envelope, the envelope being postmarked August 23, 1950, being the previous exhibit?
Mr. PIC - I wouldn't know, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. The next exhibit.
Mr. PIC - Envelope Exhibit No. 35-A, sir, postmarked Fort Worth, Tex.; return address, M. Oswald, 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - What is the postmark date?
Mr. PIC - September 22, 1950.
Mr. JENNER - Contents marked?
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 35-B, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Being a letter from your mother to you?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 36-A bearing the postmark 27 September 1950, return address, M. Oswald, 7408 Ewing Street, Fort Worth, Tex.
Mr. JENNER - And postmarked at Fort Worth?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; postmarked at Fort Worth.
Mr. JENNER - Its contents marked--what is the exhibit number on the contents?
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 36-B, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Then the next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - The next Exhibit No. 37-A, postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., December 28, 1950, no return address.
Mr. JENNER - The contents?
Mr. PIC - Christmas card marked Exhibit No. 37-B with a short note.
Mr. JENNER - In the handwriting of your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Envelope Exhibit No. 38-A, postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., January 19, 1951, return address, M. Oswald, 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex. Contents of envelope marked Exhibit No. 38-B containing a letter from my mother to myself.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Envelope Exhibit No. 39-A postmarked Fort Worth Tex., April 6, 1951. The only thing made out on the return address is "M.O. 7408 Fort Worth, Texas."
Mr. JENNER - Contents?
Mr. PIC - Contents Exhibit No. 39-B, a letter from my mother to myself, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Envelope marked Exhibit No. 40-A, postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., May 2, 1951, return address, M. Oswald, 7408 Ewing, contents Exhibit No. 40-B letter from my mother to myself, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Envelope marked Exhibit No. 41-A postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., 7 May 1951, return address 7408, Mrs. M. Oswald, 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex., contents letter marked Exhibit No. 41-B, a letter from my mother to myself, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - A letter, envelope marked Exhibit No. 42-A postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., June 4, 1951, return address M. Oswald 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex., contents marked Exhibit No. 42-B, letter from my mother to myself, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Envelope marked Exhibit No. 43-A, postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., June 13, 1951, return address M. Oswald 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex., contents marked Exhibit No. 43-B, a letter from my mother to myself, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Envelope marked Exhibit No. 44--A postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., July 13, 1951, return address M. Oswald. 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex., contents marked Exhibit No. 44--B, a letter from my mother to myself, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - An envelope marked Exhibit No. 45-A, postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., February 8, 1952, return address M. Oswald 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex. Contents Exhibit No. 45-B, a letter from my mother to myself. sir.
Mr. JENNER - Next exhibit?
Mr. PIC - Envelope marked Exhibit No. 46-A, postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., May 8, 1952, M. Oswald, 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth, Tex., contents marked Exhibit No. 46-B, letter from my mother to myself.
Mr. JENNER - The last of the series?
Mr. PIC - An envelope marked Exhibit No. 47-A, postmarked Fort Worth, Tex., dated 5th of March 1952, return address M. Oswald 7408 Ewing, Fort Worth. Tex. Contents marked Exhibit No. 47-A also. The letter from my mother to myself.
Mr. JENNER - OK, that is a mistake then. We will change that marking to Exhibit No. 47-B, which I am now doing.
The letters that have been identified with Exhibit No. 31-A and concluding with Exhibit No. 47-B, are all in the handwriting of your mother, are they not?
Mr. PIC - That is correct. sir.
Mr. JENNER - And it is correspondence which you received in due course an or about the dates or shortly after the dates that the various envelopes were postmarked?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you have retained them in your possession in the entire time?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - There is an exhibit still before you marked John Pic Exhibit No.
Mr. PIC - Exhibit No. 59.
Mr. JENNER - What is that?
Mr. PIC - This appears to be a "shot" record of Lee Harvey Oswald written in an unknown hand, which gives him a smallpox date of August 7, 1951.
Mr. JENNER - How did that come into your possession?
Mr. PIC - It was just laying in the box with all this other stuff, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I offer those exhibits now commencing with Exhibit No. 31-A to and including Exhibits Nos. 47-B, plus 59, in evidence.
(The documents referred to were marked John Pic Exhibits Nos. 31-A to 47-B, inclusive, and Exhibit No. 59 for identification and received in evidence.)
Mr. JENNER - Mr. Pic, we have made copies of all those exhibits and we appreciate your bringing the originals, and you may take the originals back with you to San Antonio. Those exhibits consisting of the photographs of your brother which you brought, we will have duplicated and returned .to you in due course.
Mr. PIC - All right.
Mr. JENNER - Direct your attention, if you will, to Exhibit No. 9-A, an envelope and its contents, Exhibit No. 9, this being a letter from Fort Worth, June 9, 1950, to you at Brooklyn, N.Y.
There is an inside page reading, "Mother called in on and told some of my problems." Do you find that?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Uncle Dutz wired $75. That is your uncle Charles Murret?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And then it reads, "And Lee was invited to spend a couple of weeks, so I sent him on the train by himself. To what is your mother referring in connection with her problems and the wiring of the $75 by your uncle?
Mr. PIC - It appears to me, sir, that at this time period she was between jobs. Further down she states she is starting on a new job Monday.
Mr. JENNER - Does she refer to that job on the page that is numbered 3, I believe, as McDonald Kitchens is the name?
Mr. PIC - She first refers to it on the one where it begins, "Mother called in on".
Mr. JENNER - Now, the mother there mentioned is your mother, isn't it?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Then there is a page numbered 3?
Mr. PIC - That is right, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Which referred to McDonald's Kitchens as the name and what they do is cook food for commercial use?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - "I will drive a station wagon and deliver the food, also."
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Is that a job she was about to obtain?
Mr. PIC - I can only assume from the letter, sir; I have no other knowledge of that.
Mr. JENNER - She makes a reference on that page "Haven't sold the house as yet but have a good prospect." Calling your attention to the date, June 9, 1950, what house was that?
Mr. PIC - I am sure this refers to the little house in Benbrook, sir.
Mr. JENNER - It refers to people called DeLogans. Who are they?
Mr. PIC - I assume these people were renting the house from her, I don't remember them.
Mr. JENNER - That was a duplex of some kind?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; that was this little t.-shaped house.
Mr. JENNER - In all this correspondence, Sergeant, by and large your mother very frequently, if not all the time, refers to her straitened circumstances, need for funds, and references to you having sent money. In your testimony you have referred to conversations with her on the subject and she raised the subject to you. Was that something .that was pretty constantly in her mind all the time?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; it was.
Mr. JENNER - Did she talk about that subject at times when you were of the opinion that she was not as straitened as she appears to report in these letters?
Mr. PIC - Will you repeat that, please, sir?
Mr. JENNER - Would you read it, please, .Mr. Reporter.
(The question, as recorded, was read by the reporter.)
Mr. PIC - I am sorry, sir; I don't understand your question.
Mr. JENNER - Were you of the opinion from time to time that on these occasions when she talked about what appears to be that she was in extremis with respect to finances when in fact she was not, she was overstating this condition or status?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I believe she overstated it most of the time.
Mr. JENNER - Because there were purchases of houses, at least on the installment plan, and she seemed to have capital to do that, did she not?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; she could always buy and sell a house some way or other.
Mr. JENNER - What was your impression as to why she was doing this; to impress you boys or was that just her fixation or personality trait?
Mr. PIC - It is .my impression that she did it in order to make a profit on every deal she got involved with.
Mr. JENNER - I am not thinking of a house sale as such. But that question was more directed to her talking about her financial circumstances.
Was she attempting to impress you boys that she was working herself to the bone to support you and you should be more grateful than you appeared to be, and that sort of thing?
Mr. PIC - That is practically verbatim. sir.
Mr. JENNER - Please; you say that is practically verbatim, you mean you have uttered what was in her mind?
Mr. PIC - No; just about what she says. She said at those times.
Mr. JENNER - Were you under the impression that she was overstating in that respect?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was that likewise the feeling of your brother Robert?
Mr. PIC - Yes, I am sure it was.
Mr. JENNER - What was your impression as to whether your mother was always sincere and straightforward with respect to that subject matter?
Mr. PIC - My opinion, sir; at the time was all she cared about was getting hold of and making some money in some form or another. This is her god, so to speak, was to get money. And to get as much out of me as she could and as much out of Robert as she could.
Mr. JENNER - And as much out of anybody else as she could?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was there any--you talk about the difficulties with Mr. Ekdahl. Do you recall any discussions between them with respect to any dissatisfaction on your mother's part with funds that were given her by Mr. Ekdahl?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; she always wanted more money out of him. That was the basis of all the arguments.
Mr. JENNER - And was she complaining to him that he didn't give her enough money?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was your mother an extravagant person money-wise?
Mr. PIC - I don't know what she did with the money, sir. She bought very little as far as clothes and things. We didn't eat steak every day. We didn't eat that good. In fact, when I joined the service in 1950, I was 118 pounds, and my weight prior to that was usually about 130, 140. I think within a month or two after I joined the service I was up to 145 and none of my uniforms fit me. I was--there is a picture of me in the Pasqual High School thing, and I am very thin. People couldn't recognize me from that picture. I lost a lot of weight working, and not eating too good. I would come home and have to fix my own meals.
Mr. JENNER - Was your mother attentive in that respect? Did she go out of her way to have meals ready for you boys when you returned to home either after work or after school or otherwise?
Mr. PIC - If there was a majority eating there was usually something set aside for the lesser, which was kept warm in the oven.
Mr. JENNER - You mean the member of the family who was absent at mealtime she would save something for him?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you get the feeling, you and your brother, in due course, that your mother's references to these financial needs at times, at least when, to use the vernacular, she was crying wolf?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - These continued references by her to her financial needs, did you think that had an effect on Lee as well as on yourself and your brother?
Mr. PIC - It didn't affect me that much. I ignored most of them. If I had money I sent it. If I didn't, that was it. Lee was brought up in this atmosphere of constant money problems, and I am sure it had quite an effect on him, and Also Robert.
Mr. JENNER - In her letter enclosed in the envelope postmarked June 18, 1951--
Mr. PIC - What number is that. sir?
Mr. JENNER - That is Exhibits Nos. 19 and 19-A--she makes reference that Robert has been saving his money since January to buy a car and "gives me $15 a week and never spends a cent unless absolutely necessary (is he tight) but he has saved $210 since the first of the year and is hiding"-
Mr. PIC - Hitting.
Mr. JENNER - "For $400" and so on.
Mr. PIC - Before buying a car.
Mr. JENNER - "Won't loan me a penny, pays his room and board regularly. He gets 2 weeks vacation with pay, I believe, will start in July." Do you remember your mother attempting to borrow money from you?
Mr. PIC - When I went home on leave in 1950 with a hundred or so dollars, like I mentioned before, she wanted to hold it, just about the whole amount except for about $10 from me, so nothing would happen to it, and I might get robbed or something, she felt. Whenever she could she attempted to get a buck out of any of us.
Mr. JENNER - Did you get any of that money back?
Mr. PIC - I got it all back and subsequently when I left I gave her, I think $50 or so.
Mr. JENNER - In that same letter she refers to. she said, "I only made $92 last month and am just starting to get leads. I am back with the same company." To what company is she referring in that letter which is postmarked June 18, 1951?
Mr. PIC - I don't know, sir. It sounds to me like it would be an insurance company.
Mr. JENNER - Do yon recall your mother selling insurance?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I knew approximately at this time period she sold insurance.
Mr. JENNER - There is a reference to Lee taking tap dancing lessons, also, in that letter, that he is a good dancer, "with his voice it would be a good thing to start dancing lessons and when he is a little older take voice."
Mr. PIC - I think this statement here about this practically like several other statements which are either direct or indirect were an attempt to get me to donate some money to this cause or something else. Of course this, to me, is a come-on for maybe next time I write I will say, "Hurrah, hurrah, Lee is going to take tap dancing lessons" and then she will write and say she can't afford it and to send a little money to help him. She did these things. In fact, in some of her letters she refers to it is my fault they are in trouble because I stated I would help pay for the car and since I was in the service I wasn't holding up my end of the bargain.
Mr. JENNER - What about that incident?
Mr. PIC - Sir, that is in the second group of letters.
Mr. JENNER - What about this particular incident you mentioned? What are the facts about that?
Mr. PIC - Just what it states here. This is all I know, sir. What it states in this letter.
Mr. JENNER - About the dancing and voice?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you ever hear of Lee, other than this letter of Lee taking dancing lessons?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you ever hear otherwise of his taking dancing lessons than in this letter?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did either you or Robert ever take dancing lessons or voice lessons?
Mr. PIC - I think when we were very small and Mr. Oswald was still alive we did, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Now, the other thing to which I referred, as you made reference to something about making payments on a car. What was that about?
Mr. PIC - That would be in that second group, sir. In the second group is really the financial statements. Every one of them contained something pertaining to her finances.
Mr. JENNER - The early enlistments of yourself and Robert and Lee--do you think that had anything to do with your mother's persistent references, allusions to finances?
Mr. PIC - I did not enlist as fast as the other boys. I waited a year after I was of age. I am sure that prior to my enlistment, as a matter of fact, I knew she mentioned when I do get in I should make out an allotment to her and so forth.
Mr. JENNER - Do you think there was an incentive on the part of Lee and Robert to enlist as soon as possible to get away from your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I do.
Mr. JENNER - Did you and your brother Robert have discussions on this subject?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; we never discussed these things. It was just a feeling it was always around. We knew these things without discussing them.
Mr. JENNER - Did you live in an atmosphere in which your mother directly or indirectly indicated to you that she thought she had been unfairly dealt with in her life?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You had that very definite impression?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You had--
Mr. PIC - I did not have this impression. She related this to me, sir. I didn't feel she had it any tougher than a lot of people walking around.
Mr. JENNER - That is what I am getting at, this was an impression she was seeking to create.
Mr. PIC - That is right, sir.
Mr. JENNER - You felt she did not have it any tougher. She was creating an impression that did not square with the facts?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir. Every time she met anyone she would remind them she was a widow with three children.
Mr. JENNER - Do you have an opinion also as to whether this atmosphere in which Lee lived had an effect upon him and his personality?
Mr. PIC - I am sure it did, sir. Also, Lee slept with my mother until I joined the service in 1950. This would make him approximately 10, well, almost 11 years old.
Mr. JENNER - When you say slept with, you mean in the same bed?
Mr. PIC - In the same bed, sir.
Mr. JENNER - As far as you know or say when Lee came and stayed with you a short while in 1952 did he likewise sleep with your mother?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; he did not.
Mr. JENNER - He had reached a measure of independence by that time?
Mr. PIC - Well, sir; when I left and went into the service there was a vacant bed in the house.
Mr. JENNER - And at that time was that literally the first time that Lee had separate quarters for himself other than the period of time that Mr. Ekdahl lived with you and the period of time when your stepfather Lee Oswald was alive?
Mr. PIC - Lee wasn't born when Lee Oswald was alive, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is right. Well, then, except for the time Mr. Ekdahl lived with you?
Mr. PIC - That is true, sir. That would make him about 10 1/2 years old.
Mr. JENNER - Up to the time he was 10bd years old, why he roomed and slept with his mother in the same bed?
Mr. PIC - I would like to interject here.
Mr. JENNER - Yes, I am seeking something of the personality of your mother and the effect on you, had an effect on Robert, and probably a more material effect on Lee, is that correct?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I am sure it did. When I reached 17, I was eligible for the service, but I was really in no hurry, I wanted to finish my high school education, and when I decided to join the Coast Guard--at that time to join the Coast Guard you needed your parent's consent up until the age of 21. I asked her for it and she hesitated and I told her if she didn't give it to me I would join another branch where I didn't need it and then I got it. I am sure that neither Robert nor Lee needed their mother's consent to join the Marine' Corps at the age of 17. I know for the Coast Guard we did, sir, the Coast Guard was not a part of the Department of Defense at that time.
Mr. JENNER - Directing your attention to Exhibits Nos. 21 and 21-A, the second page of that letter, Exhibit No. 21, reads, "Robert left Friday morning for San Diego. He joined the Marines and signed for 4 years. I am glad he decided to enlist. He realized his mistake about getting married, and"--would you read the rest of it?
Mr. PIC - "And probably having to go just the same."
Mr. JENNER - "And then probably having to go just the same." Is that the incident in which your mother opposed your brother Robert's marriage to the little crippled girl?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Turn to Exhibit No. 24. There is a reference there to a lady, Ethel somebody at Holmes. Would you read that?
Mr. PIC - "Ethel Nunncy at Holmes asks about you."
Mr. JENNER - And that is--Holmes is a department store?
Mr. PIC - In New Orleans.
Mr. JENNER - Who was Ethel Nunncy?
Mr. PIC - She was a friend of my mother's, sir, that I had known of since I was a small--I was a baby.
Mr. JENNER - Sir, this Exchange Alley--did they have to live under these conditions?
Mr. PIC - All I know is that they lived there. She thought they did.
Mr. JENNER - Exhibit No. 31-B which is a letter from your mother to you postmarked at Fort Worth, June 3, 1950, reading "Dear John, your sense of responsibility seems nil" or null.
Mr. PIC - Nil, null.
Mr. JENNER - N-u-l-l. "Remember it was you insisted I buy the car as you planned to work at Consolidated. Well I have been in a jam financially ever since you left." What is the next word?
Mr. PIC - "Kept waiting and robbing Peter to pay Paul."
Mr. JENNER - "Until you were"
Mr. PIC - Kept waiting and robbing Peter to pay Paul until you were finished with your boot training as your letters indicated you would send a hundred fifty dollars and about fifty dollars a month."
Mr. JENNER - Had you so indicated?
Mr. PIC - I don't believe so, sir. I don't see how, I wasn't making but $80 per month.
Mr. JENNER - What truth was there in her statement that it was you who insisted that she buy the car?
Mr. PIC - Well, that old jalopy I have a picture of was falling apart and before I went in the service she had a ride home from work and the generator wouldn't generate, and the battery wouldn't battery and it just kept cutting out, so we needed a new car.
Mr. JENNER - Was that particular car about which you have just described-- about which you were having trouble was that the family car or a car owned by you?
Mr. PIC - A family car, I never owned a car, sir, when I lived at home.
Mr. JENNER - I take it you had urged her to buy a new car to replace that one?
Mr. PIC - We all wanted a new car, sir, because the other one wouldn't run. She had to get it pushed every morning to get to work. She would have us out in the street waving down people to help her get the ear pushed.
Further on, sir, "I wrote you and told you about a girl loaning me $50 on my ring, I lost the ring and wasn't able to pay it." Sir, I wouldn't believe that. I am sure at that time I didn't. And the way she goes on the next page, "Cox found out about me borrowing" and let her go. I don't believe this.
Mr. JENNER - The next letter, Exhibit No. 32-B, and' in an envelope marked in 1950, it says "Dear John, Well, I have the house in Benbrook up for sale." Could you read the name?
Mr. PIC - It appears to me to be J. Piner Powell Real Estate is handling it. Do you want me to read on?
Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mr. PIC - "The problem is to find someone with enough cash as a loan company won't make a new loan and I have about $2,600 in it. Nothing but bad news. Up to date I am still not working." Read on, sir?
Mr. JENNER - That is about enough. Did your mother write you a letter that had good news in
Mr. PIC - I never recall one, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Around your home was the atmosphere that, "We are poor but we will get along?" as your mother sought to lead you boys to accommodate yourselves to the circumstances that everything would turn out all right eventually?
Mr. PIC - None of us really paid much attention to this, sir.- I didn't, and I am sure Robert didn't. I don't think Lee did because Robert and I would probably talk and we didn't pay much attention to it.
Mr. JENNER - You heard it so often you just became inured to it, hardened to it; is that it?
Mr. PIC - Well, we didn't believe it after the problems she put on. Just like when my wife and I got married she sent a package containing Revere Ware which I haven't received yet and she swears up and down she sent it, and she has never gotten it in the return mail either. And I know she never sent anything. When we would be home alone, before she would return from work, we have a rather friendly atmosphere, but as soon as she came home we all got into that depression rut again.
Mr. JENNER - Was your--
Mr. PIC - This is prior to my going in the service, sir.
Mr. JENNER - There were times that the atmosphere around your home was depressing?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And was that due largely to your mother?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - The things she said and the attitudes she assumed?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And while you and your brother got along well you boys were not getting along well with your mother in that sense?
Mr. PIC - Robert and I and Lee, we had our fights among us, like all brothers do. But we could handle ourselves and our own problems, but the atmosphere just changed when she was around.
Mr. JENNER - Did your mother ever say anything about whether people liked her or disliked her?
Mr. PIC - She didn't have to. She didn't have many friends and usually the new friends she made she didn't keep very long.
Mr. JENNER - That was her history?
Mr. PIC - I remember every time we moved she always had fights with the neighbors or something or another.
Mr. JENNER - Was she a person who was resentful of the status of others?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And you boys were aware of that, were you?
Mr. PIC - I was aware of it. She always--I remember once when we lived on Eighth Avenue, 1 believe was the place, the people named McLean living next to us, of course he was an attorney and everything, and they had some money, and my mother--
Mr. JENNER - What town was this?
Mr. PIC - This was Fort Worth, sir. My mother remarked to me once that Mrs. McLean had said she went and played the slot machines and lost $100 in it, and she raved and ranted about this for half an hour or an hour about how this woman could go and waste 8100 and what she could do with it and everything. She resented the fact this woman lost her own money.
Mr. JENNER - I haven't found a single letter yet, Sergeant, in which your mother fails to mention the subject of money.
Mr. PIC - You may find a Christmas card, "Love, Mother," sir.
Mr. JENNER - A letter?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; I don't think you will. These are only part of them. I threw out a whole bunch a couple of years ago. They were all basically the same.
Mr. JENNER - Was your mother loving and affectionate toward you boys?
Mr. PIC - I would say for myself, sir, I wasn't to her.
Mr. JENNER - What is that?
Mr. PIC - I was not toward her.
Mr. JENNER - Why?
Mr. PIC - I had no motherly love feeling toward her. Like I say, I think I first became resentful to her when she informed me I would not return to the military school and from then my hostilities toward her grew.
Mr. JENNER - Well, up to that point, what had been your feeling toward your mother?
Mr. PIC - We had never been in a very affectionate family, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is affectionate with respect to the boys toward your mother?
Mr. PIC - That is right, sir; kissing her, and things like this. It is my own opinion that she is out right now to make as much money as she can on her relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald. That. is the only thing--I don't really believe she really believes he is innocent. I think she is out to make money than if she has to say he is guilty. I think she is a phony in the whole deal. Also, I think you will find with myself, Robert and Lee, also, that we didn't have these or don't have these feelings towards money that she does. I mean I live on my base pay and I have for years, and Robert makes the best what he can, and whenever we get together, we never discuss money. The only time I seen Lee as an adult he didn't discuss it, not to the extent that we were used to, we never felt this way.
Mr. JENNER - It is your information, is it, that your mother's first marriage was to your father?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Her second, then, to Robert Lee Edward Oswald?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And her third to E. A. Ekdahl?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - So far as you know she has not been married otherwise than those three occasions?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; Has she?
Mr. JENNER - We don't know, if she has we don't know anything about it.
Did your brother Lee on the occasion on Thanksgiving Day 1962 say anything about whether he had had a hard time in Russia?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is a hard time in the sense of earning a living?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Or some other sense?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; earning a living.
Mr. JENNER - What do you recall he said in that connection?
Mr. PIC - That he made about $80 a month, and it wasn't the money so much.
It was the products were not available to him and also his wife to get even with the money, and they consistently ate cabbage and he was tired of cabbage, and he struck me he was not complaining about the money but the availability of food.
Mr. JENNER - Is it your impression that he had become disenchanted with Russia?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I got this impression.
Mr. JENNER - Did you ever hear him say anything while you were boys in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the United States or its Government?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - He made no comment on that subject when you saw him on Thanksgiving Day 1962?
Mr. PIC - I think his only bitter feelings that I recollect was his dishonorable discharge from the Marine Corps. This was the only bitter feelings he reported to me in anyway.
Mr. JENNER - I would like to have you tell us what he said as--did he return to that subject repeatedly ? What leads you now to conclude or state by way of conclusion that he was bitter about that?
Mr. PIC - I think the idea of driving came up, the talk about automobiles. I also think that he made the statement--
Mr. JENNER - When you say that is your present recollection?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mr. PIC - I also think that he made the statement that he---
Mr. JENNER - Here, again, you mean to the best of your recollection?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; to the best of my knowledge, that he made the statement he wasn't driving because of this dishonorable discharge he received. He was unable to obtain a driver's license. Then he told me he was attempting to get this changed, and he had written several letters to the Secretary of the Navy about getting it changed.
Mr. JENNER - Did he mention the then Governor Connally in that connection?
Mr. PIC - I believe he did, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Governor Connally was not then Secretary of the Navy. Did he express any resentment toward Governor Connally?
Mr. PIC - I think when he explained it to me--
Mr. JENNER - Please, you have said again "I think."
Mr. PIC - To the best of my recollection, sir, when he mentioned to me that he had written to get it changed, Governor Connally was the Secretary of the Navy. He did mention the name Connally.
Mr. JENNER - Did you have any feeling or get the impression that he was bitter toward Governor Connally as a person? He was not, then, of course--
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Secretary of the Navy.
Mr. PIC - No, sir; just the fact that the man had the job and he was the man he had written it to.
Mr. JENNER - Was anything said about Fair Play for Cuba Committee on this occasion?
Mr. PIC - There was no discussion about Cuba. I think this was right after the Cuban crisis, and I think we may have talked about the mobilization a little bit.
Mr. JENNER - Did he express any views on that subject?
Mr. PIC - No, sir; he didn't.
Mr. JENNER - Was President Kennedy discussed at anytime?
Mr. PIC - I don't recollect, sir.
He struck me on that meeting as really only having two purposes: One, to straighten out the dishonorable discharge and the other one to pay back the Government the money it had lent him to come back to the United States.
Mr. JENNER - You were interested--Charlie Murret was a dentist and a graduate of Louisiana State University. Joyce Murret married an athletic coach and lives in Beaumont, Tex.?
Mr. PIC - Right.
Mr. JENNER - Gene Murret you have mentioned. He is a seminarian at Mobile, Ala. Boogie Murret works for Squibb & Co. He is a graduate of Loyola of New Orleans.
Mr. PIC - Someone mentioned, I don't know if it was Vada or my brother, Robert--
Mr. JENNER - On this Thanksgiving Day occasion?
Mr. PIC - Yes; after they had left, that Marina's uncle, brother, some relation, was an officer in the Russian Army. She had stated she had a relative in the Soviet armed forces.
Mr. JENNER - It was your impression that either Vada had or Robert had?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Some of the witnesses have testified that Lee was quick to anger as a boy. Do you remember anything about that? What is your impression about that?
Mr. PIC - I don't remember, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Was he a considerate young man?
Mr. PIC - I think towards Robert and myself he was, sir. Towards other people, no.
Mr. JENNER - Was his attitude towards other people different from that which he had toward you and Robert?
Mr. PIC - Yes; I believe so.
Mr. JENNER - In what respect--what did you notice about him in that regard?
Mr. PIC - He would rather play with us than play with other children, and he always wanted to go with us wherever we went. Whenever we had a birthday or Christmas he would never forget us. I think he was very considerate towards Robert and myself.
Mr. JENNER - From time to time we have been off the record and had some discussions in discussing documents and other things. Do you recall anything we discussed off the record that you think is pertinent here that I have failed to place on the record?
Mr. PIC - I don't remember what has been off the record, sir.
Mr. JENNER - I will put it this way then: Is there anything you would like to add at the moment now that I am about to finish questioning you that you think you would like to have on the record?
Mr. PIC - If you are interested in my opinions--
Mr. JENNER - Yes, sir; anything that you want to add.
Mr. PIC - I think, I believe that Lee Oswald did the crime that he is accused of. I think that anything he may have done was aided with a little extra push from his mother in the living conditions that she presented to him. I also think that his reason for leaving the Marine Corps is not true and accurate. I mean I don't think he cared to get out of the Marine Corps to help his mother. He probably used this as an excuse to get out and go to his defection.
I know myself I wouldn't have gotten out of the service because of her, and I am sure Robert wouldn't either, and this makes me believe that Lee wouldn't have.
Mr. JENNER - What kind of a student was your brother. do you know, do you recall, rather?
Mr. PIC - I think in elementary school he was fairly good, sir.
Mr. JENNER - But then in the later grades, 7th 8th. 9th. 10th. and 11th?
Mr. PIC - I have no idea, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Well, that is about all. I sure appreciate your coming, and the Commission likewise, at some inconvenience to yourself. You will be able to catch that 9:50 plane in the morning and get yourself back to your son's birthday party.
Mr. PIC - I hope what I have told you has been something new and not repetitious.
Mr. JENNER - Much of what you have told us has been new. Much of what you have told us has been very helpful to us in the way of corroborating matters about which we were not fully informed or in doubt, and opinions have been expressed particularly with respect to your brother have been helpful.
That leads me to ask you this further question: Give me your overall impression of your brother Lee Oswald as a personality, as he developed.
Mr. PIC - Sir; I remember Lee Oswald as a child, up until about the age of 11 or 12. To me, he appeared a normal healthy robust boy who would get in fights and still have his serious moments.
Mr. JENNER - You got in fights, too, didn't you?
Mr. PIC - Sure.
Mr. JENNER - And your brother Robert?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - These are not fights that you would regard as other than boys getting into?
Mr. PIC - That is correct, sir.
Mr. JENNER - That is, it wasn't because he was unduly belligerent?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - All right. Go ahead.
Mr. PIC - He got in his usual trouble around the neighborhood as far as getting in people's yards, probably, and letting the dog go astray, normal healthy boy.
I think as he became older, prior to me entering the service, he became slightly cocky and belligerent toward his mother. He never showed any of this toward Robert or myself. I am afraid it probably rubbed off of Robert and myself and it affected Lee, because we didn't really take much stock into what she was saying. I don't think we were as cocky, as belligerent as he was. There was--
Mr. JENNER - Do you think that was a defensive mechanism, on his part?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I think so.
Mr. JENNER - Did your mother ever say anything around your home about that employers were overreaching her, and employers overreached poor working people or anything along those lines?
Mr. PIC - No; she always reminded us she worked like a slave to provide for us three boys. She couldn't wait for a day we would grow up and support her.
When Lee visited us in New York he came there a friendly, nice easy-to-like kid.
Mr. JENNER - This is 1952 in the summer?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; he had the interest of boys at that age, the Museum of Natural History, sightseeing excursions and so forth. Until the incident where I talked to him we never had a bad word between us other than maybe joking or playing around. I tried to interest him in a hobby of building boats or collecting stamps again while he was--
Mr. JENNER - Had he been interested in those two hobbies?
Mr. PIC - Yes; he and I, all three of us collected stamps. I played chess with Lee quite a bit and Robert, too. We all did this. Played monopoly together, the three of us.

When I approached him on this knife-pulling incident he became very hostile towards me. And he was never the same again with me.
Mr. JENNER - That was the first time he had ever been hostile in that sense towards you?
Mr. PIC - Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER - And that rupture was never repaired thereafter?
Mr. PIC - No, sir.
Mr. JENNER - Did you have the impression when you saw him on Thanksgiving of 1962 that in the meantime he had become embittered, resentful of his station?
Mr. PIC - Well, sir; the Lee Harvey Oswald I met in November of 1962 was not the Lee Harvey Oswald I had known 10 years previous. This person struck me as someone with a chip on his shoulder, who had these purposes I mentioned, to do something about.
Mr. JENNER - What purposes?
Mr. PIC - To repay the Government and get his discharge changed.
It appeared to me that he was a good father towards his child, and not knowing the conversation between he and his wife I couldn't form much of an opinion there.
Mr. JENNER - All right, sir; that is about it.
Mr. PIC - OK, sir; thank you very much.
Mr. JENNER - This transcript will be prepared by the reporters and it will be sent to your commanding officer, and would you please get it immediately and read it and sign it. If you make any corrections in it, put your initials beside the correction, or over, above, your initial somewhere around the correction so we know it is you who did it, and return it to us as promptly as possible.
It may be that the Secret Service will bring it out, but it will be delivered to you next week.
All right