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(Testimony of John G. Graef)
Mr. Jenner.
He did have a tie?
Mr. Graef.
Yes; I'm pretty certain he had a tie.
Mr. Jenner.
He gave you a reasonably fair impression?
Mr. Graef.
That's correct.
Mr. Jenner.
At first blush?
Mr. Graef.
That's correct--he came in and I met him in the outer office, and we sat down in the outer office.
Mr. Jenner.
I take it you had never seen this man before?
Mr. Graef.
No; that's correct.
Mr. Jenner.
Had you ever heard of him before?
Mr. Graef.
No.
Mr. Jenner.
Did anything occur during the course of that interview which triggered any thought in your mind that you might have, or could have heard about him before?
Mr. Graef.
No.
Mr. Jenner.
As an individual?
Mr. Graef.
No.
Mr. Jenner.
He remained throughout a complete stranger except to the extent of your questioning, which elicited some knowledge of him?
Mr. Graef.
That's right. He was at that time a complete stranger. I had never seen him before or heard of him before. He was just another applicant for a job, is what it amounted to.
Mr. JENNER, All right. Go ahead.
Mr. Graef.
So, we sat down and he gave me the card and he told me his name was Lee Harvey Oswald, and we went through the normal job interview that we give most young men. I know--I don't, of course, remember--because of the time it has been, the exact extent of our whole conversation, but I do remember various phases of it.
Mr. Jenner.
Reconstruct it to the extent that you can and avoid to the extent you can assumption--that something must have happened and finally give us, to the best of your ability, what you do recall, even though you don't recall it on the button, so to speak.
Mr. Graef.
Well, certain parts of it I remember almost word for word, and then, of course, other, I think .less important parts, I have forgotten completely. I do remember that--I believe that Mrs. Latham in the Texas Employment Agency--at the time that she called me, she said that he had recently been discharged from the Marines.
When he came in, I found this--that I was just slightly embarrassed that I had forgotten it, and among the other duties, of course these things will happen, and when he sat down and introduced himself as Lee Harvey Oswald, I asked him where his last position was, and he said, "The Marines," and I recovered slightly, remembering that I had already been told this and, to cover up my embarrassment slightly, I laughed and I said, "Oh, yes."
I said, "Honorably discharged, of course," as a joke, and he said, "Oh, yes," and we went on with other facts of the interview. I remember him--I don't believe he gave me an address. I think he said it was just temporary where he was staying, or something to that effect. I also believe at the time he told me he had a wife and a child or a child coming. I don't remember exactly about that, because I, of course any employer is looking for someone dependable and a family man offers perhaps a little more dependability, needing a position, than a single person.
So, that I think is about--I think I did ask him where when he 'mentioned the Marines, where he had served, and I believe he told me Korea, and I didn't go into it any further. I felt reasonably sure because he had come through the Texas Employment Commission--I didn't even think of checking on his honorable discharge honorable or dishonorable or questionable discharge. I somehow had just assumed being through a State agency, that they perhaps had a much larger file on him, that my going into various details would just be going over--plowing up ground again, So I just figured--I never even thought about checking into his discharge or when he had been discharged. I think he had been discharged sometime prior to this--I don't at the moment remember
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