Speculation. On his way back from Mexico City in October 1963, Oswald stopped in Alice, Tex., to apply for a job at the local radio station. Commission finding.-This rumor apparently originated with the manager of radio station KOPY, Alice, who stated that Oswald visited his office on the afternoon of October 4 for about 25 minutes. According to the manager, Oswald was driving a battered 1953 model car and had his wife and a small child in the car with him. Oswald traveled from Mexico City to Dallas by bus, arriving in Dallas on the afternoon of October 3. The bus did not pass through Alice. On October 4, Oswald applied for two jobs in Dallas and then spent the afternoon and night with his wife and child at the Paine residence in Irving. Investigation has revealed that Oswald did not own a car and there is no convincing evidence that he could drive a car. Accordingly, Oswald could not have been in Alice on October 4. There is no evidence that he stopped in Alice to look for a job on any occasion.121 Speculation. Oswald or accomplices had made arrangements for his getaway by airplane from an airfield in the Dallas area. Commission finding.—Investigation of such claims revealed that they had not the slightest substance. The Commission found no evidence that Oswald had any prearranged plan for escape after the assassination.122 Speculation.-One hundred and fifty dollars was found in the dresser of Oswald's room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue after the assassination. Commission finding.-No money was found in Oswald's room after the assassination. Oswald left $170 in the room occupied by his wife at the Paine residence in Irving. At the time of his arrest Oswald had $13.87 on his person.123 Speculation. After Oswald's arrest, the police found in his room seven metal file boxes filled with the names of Castro sympathizers. Commission finding.-The Dallas police inventories of Oswald's property taken from his room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue do not include any file boxes. A number of small file boxes listed in the inventory as having been taken from the Paine residence in Irving contained letters, pictures, books and literature, most of which belonged to Ruth Paine, not to Oswald. No lists of names of Castro sympathizers were found among these effects.124 Speculation. Oswald's letters vary so greatly in quality (spelling, grammar, sentence structure) that he must have had help in preparing the better constructed letters or someone else wrote them for him. Commission finding.-There is no evidence that anyone in the United States helped Oswald with his better written letters or that anyone else wrote his letters for him. His wife stated that he would write many drafts of his more important letters. His mother indicated that he would work hard over the drafts of some of his letters. It is clear that he did take greater pains with some of his letters than with others and that the contrasts in quality were accordingly substantial. It is also clear that even his better written letters contained some distinctive elements of spelling, grammar, and punctuation that were common to his poorer efforts. Oswald wrote in his diary that he received help from his Intourist Guide, Rima Shirokova, in the preparation of his letter of October 16, 1959, to the Supreme Soviet.125 Speculation.-A Negro janitor who was a witness to the shooting and was supposed to be able to identify Oswald as the killer was held in protective custody by the Dallas police until he could appear before the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Commission finding.-Investigation revealed that this story had no foundation in fact. No such witness was kept in protective custody by the Dallas police for appearance before the Commission. The story had its origin in a newspaper account based on hearsay.126 Speculation. The Secret Service incarcerated Marina Oswald immediately after the assassination. Commission finding.-Marina Oswald was given protection by the Secret Service for a period of time after the assassination. She had freedom to communicate with others at anytime she desired, to go where she pleased, or to terminate the protection at any time.127 Speculation. Mrs. Marguerite Oswald was shown a photograph of Jack Ruby by an FBI agent the night before Ruby killed her son. Commission finding. On the night of November 23, 1963, Special Agent Bardwell D. Odum of the FBI showed Mrs. Marguerite Oswald a picture of a man to determine whether the man was known to her. Mrs. Oswald stated subsequently that the picture was of Jack Ruby. The Commission has examined a copy of the photograph and determined that it was not a picture of Jack Ruby.128 Speculation. The son of the only witness to the Tippit slaying was arrested after talking to some private investigators and soon plunged to his death from an unbarred jail window. Commission finding.-According to Mrs. Helen Markham, one of the witnesses to the Tippit slaying, Mrs. Marguerite Oswald and two men who claimed to be reporters from Philadelphia sought to interview her on June 27, 1964. Mrs. Markham did not wish to be interviewed and put them off. Afterward, Mrs. Markham's son, William Edward Markham, talked with Mrs. Oswald and the men about the Oswald matter and the shooting of Patrolman Tippit. William Edward Markham had been in Norfolk, Va., at the time of the assassination and had not returned to Dallas until May 7, 1964. He had no personal knowledge of the shooting of Patrolman Tippit. On June 30, 1964, another of Mrs. Markham's sons, James Alfred Markham, was arrested at Mrs. Markham's apartment by Dallas Police on a charge of burglary. While trying to escape, he fell from the bathroom of the apartment to a concrete driveway about 20 feet below. He was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, treated for injuries, and after 61⁄2 hours was taken to jail. As of July 31, 1964, he was in Dallas County Jail awaiting trial. There was also a warrant outstanding against him for parole violation.129 Speculation. The headquarters detachment of the U.S. Army, under orders from [Secretary of Defense Robert S.] McNamara's office, began to rehearse for the funeral more than a week before the assassination. Commission finding. This assertion is based on an interview with U.S. Army Capt. Richard C. Cloy that appeared in the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger of February 21, 1964. The newspaper quotes Captain Cloy, who was a member of the Army unit charged with conducting funeral ceremonials in honor of deceased Chiefs of State, as having said that, "we were in a state of readiness and had just finished a funeral rehearsal because there was grave concern for President Hoover's health. But we never expected that our practice was preparing us for President Kennedy." 130 Speculation. The ship in which Oswald went to Europe in 1959 stopped in Havana on the way. Commission finding.-Oswald boarded the SS Marion Lykes in New Orleans and it sailed on September 20, 1959. It docked in Le Havre, France, on October 8 with only one previous stop-at another French port, La Pallice.131 APPENDIX XIII Biography of Lee Harvey Oswald EARLY YEARS Marguerite Claverie, the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald, was born in New Orleans in 1907,1 into a family of French and German extraction. Her mother died a few years after Marguerite was born, leaving her and five other young children in the care of their father, a streetcar conductor. Although Marguerite describes herself as "a child of one parent," she recalls being "one of the most popular young ladies in the [grammar] school," and thinks of her childhood as a "very full happy" one. Her older sister, Mrs. Lillian Murret, remembers Marguerite as "a very pretty child, a very beautiful girl," as does a former acquaintance, Clem H. Sehrt, who knew the Claveries. The family was poor but, according to Mrs. Murret, was a "happy family *** singing all the time." Marguerite had 1 year of high school. Shortly before she was 17, she went to work as a receptionist for a law firm in New Orleans.9 In August 1929, while she was still working at the law firm, Marguerite married Edward John Pic, Jr.,10 a quiet man of her own age, who worked as a clerk for T. Smith & Son, a New Orleans stevedoring company. The marriage was not a success, and by the summer of 1931 she and Pic were separated.12 Marguerite was then 3 months pregnant; she told her family that Pic did not want any children and refused to support her.13 Pic ascribed the separation simply to their inability to get along together.1 A boy was born on January 17, 1932, whom Marguerite named John Edward Pic.15 Pic saw his son occasionally until he was about 1 year old; after that, he did not see the boy again 16 but contributed to his support until he was 18 years old.17 During her separation from her first husband, Marguerite saw a great deal of Robert Edward Lee Oswald, an insurance premium collector,18 who also was married but was separated from his wife.19 In 1933, Marguerite was divorced from Pic 20 and, Oswald's wife also having obtained a divorce,12 they were married in a Lutheran church on July 20.22 Marguerite has described the period of her marriage to Oswald as "the only happy part" of her life.23 A son was born on April 7, 1934, who was named for his father; 24 Oswald wanted to adopt John Pic, but his mother objected on the ground that John's father might cut off the support payments.25 In 1938, the Oswalds purchased a new house on Alvar Street for $3,900,26 in what John remembered as "a rather nice neighborhood." 27 The house was across the street from the William Frantz School,28 which first John and later both he and Robert, Jr., attended.29 On August 19, 1939, little more than a year after the Oswalds bought the Alvar Street house, Robert Oswald died suddenly of a heart attack.30 31 Two months later, on October 18, 1939, a second son was born."1 He was named Lee after his father; Harvey was his paternal grandmother's maiden name.32 For a while after her husband's death, Mrs. Oswald remained in the Alvar Street house without working; she probably lived on life insurance proceeds.33 Sometime in 1940, she rented the house to Dr. Bruno F. Mancuso, the doctor who had delivered Lee.34 (Dr. Mancuso continued to rent the house until 1944,35 when Marguerite obtained a judgment of possession against him.36 She sold the house for $6,500 to the First Homestead and Savings Association, which resold it to Dr. Mancuso.) 37 She herself moved to a rented house at 1242 Congress Street, where she lived for about half a year.38 For part of this period after Oswald's death, the two older boys were placed in the Infant Jesus College, a Catholic boarding school in Algiers, La., a suburb of New Orleans.39 Neither they nor their mother liked this arrangement, which John thought was intended to save money; 41 it lasted for less than a year, after which the boys returned to the school Frantz and then transferred to the George Washington Elementary School.2 40 On March 5, 1941, Mrs. Oswald purchased a frame 43 house at 1010 Bartholomew Street, for $1,300. According to John's recollection, the neighborhood was not as pleasant as Alvar Street; the house had a backyard, and the family kept a dog named "Sunshine." 45 A neighbor, Mrs. Viola Peterman, recalls that Mrs. Oswald kept to herself but appeared to be "a good mother to her children." 46 She opened a shop in the front room, where she sold things like sewing supplies and small groceries. Oswald's Notion Shop, as it was called,48 failed to make money,49 and on January 16, 1942, Mrs. Oswald sold the house back to the Third District Home Association, from which she had purchased it, for a profit of $800.50 47 Probably in contemplation of the sale of the house, Mrs. Oswald applied in December 1941 to the Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Orphan Asylum Association for the admission of her two older sons to the orphan asylum, known as the Bethlehem Children's Home; she stated on the application that she could contribute $20 per month to their maintenance and would supply shoes and clothing.51 She had inquired also about Lee, who was too young to be admitted.52 John and Robert were accepted and entered the home on January 3, 1942.5 56 Mrs. Oswald moved to an apartment at 831 Pauline Street, and returned to work. In December 1942, she listed her occupation as "telephone operator"; 55 this may be the job she held at the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., a company for which she worked at some point during this period. She left Lee for much of this time with his aunt, Mrs. Murret, who thought him a good looking, friendly child, but could not devote a great deal of attention to him because she had five children of her own.57 In the late spring of 1942, Lee was watched for several weeks by Mrs. Thomas Roach, who lived with her husband in the |