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