(Testimony of Vincent T. Lee)
Mr. Lee.
I would have said, but I always made it a policy to try and reply to these communications.
Mr. Rankin.
Mr. Lee, I hand you Exhibit No. 3, which purports to be a photocopy of a purported reply that you have made to Lee Harvey Oswald's letter of May 26, Exhibit No. 3, purporting to be a letter of May 29. Do you recall having sent that?
Mr. Lee.
Yes. It's dated May 29.
Mr. Rankin.
Yes.
Mr. Lee.
This is a copy--this must be a copy of a letter--this looks like my signature here, and I don't actually recall this--- did I miss something?--Oh, I see. I don't actually recall writing the letter, but it looks like something which I might have written at the time in response to the previous inquiry.
Mr. Rankin.
Yes.
Mr. Lee.
But I can't say that I remember sitting down and writing it.
Mr. Rankin.
We will try to secure the original and submit it to you for your approval in substitution for this copy.
Mr. Lee.
Well, I am not actually questioning it. I am saying I can't really remember. Actually, I have thought about this. I haven't a real recollection of sitting down and writing, you know, letters to that particular person. Like I said, I was answering as many communications myself as possible to many, many inquiries which came into the office, so it is hard for me to pick out such make the name prominent, to go back then. The name wouldn't mean too much to me at that time that I had written.
Mr. Rankin.
And when you referred to his getting a post office box as a must, what did you mean by that?
Mr. Lee.
Well, this is a recommendation which was made, an organizational recommendation which had been made a long time before I myself had gone into a position with the organization. Because of the nature of the organization, people would come and go. They would support it and then drop out, and sometimes they would move, and if somebody--naturally most of the thing was just a mall, little local activity. People didn't maintain business offices for such an organization, and if a person would move or drop out of the organization and the activities, the communications between the national office and the local area would get all tangled up because we didn't know where the mail would be returned, where we would write, whereas if there was a post office box, if one person in the organization dropped out who was receiving mall, then the mail would still be delivered to a post office box, where the other officials of the chapter, if it still existed, would still have access to the mail and be able to reply to communications from the national organization concerning the activities of the organization. The purpose of the post office box was purely to facilitate communications between areas and maintain them on a permanent basis.
Mr. Rankin.
I hand you Exhibit 3-A and see if you recall seeing the original of which that appears to be a photocopy. It is dated May 22, 1963.
Mr. Lee.
It looks very much like a formal notice that I may have sent. I mean, I was accustomed to sending many such communications, and that looks very much like something I would have sent. Did I sign the other one?
Mr. Rankin.
No. I hand you Exhibit No. 4, which I don't find to be dated, either, but it does show an address in New Orleans which helps to make it possible for us to fix the general period. Do you recall having seen that before?
Mr. Lee.
Yes. This was another one of the communications which were sent to me. Obviously, not through recollection of having seen the letters but piecing these things together, I conclude that this was one of the letters which were sent after I had entered into direct communications with this person, because he no longer addresses it "Dear Sirs." Evidently he has received communications from us, so he addresses us by name. I would say that evidently that was a communication sent to me which I received.
Mr. Rankin.
You will note it has four pages as a part of the letter and has a membership blank for----
Mr. Lee.
Yes. My recollection on this is that in previous letters--for a moment I would like to go over this and make sure I don't get the letters confused
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