Navigation
Volumes
|
(Testimony of Joseph Rossi)
Mr. Rossi.
just one of those things that gets started, you might say, as a joke and becomes an actuality, and then it's all busted up.
I believe Oswald himself possibly had no intention in the beginning of killing the President or assassinating him, and if I go along with the Morning News I may as well classify it as being suspected of the assassination, and I believe possibly he was more interested in Governor Connally than in the President, but the number of incidents that had taken place prior to Mr. Kennedy's coming to Dallas showed the somewhat emotional feeling of the people here.
Now, Mr. Johnson was pretty well liked but also pretty well disliked, and he also had a reputation of missing ballot boxes or what have you. The incident that took place while he was here was not a reflection of all the Dallas people here. It was just a group of sort of people that were there and somebody impulsively did something, because I think basically you don't go there with the idea of spitting at the President or anything like that, or the Senator, at the time.
The same way, when Mr. Stevenson visited Dallas. I believe the woman that was there was just worked up into a pitch along with many in the crowd and why anybody would go to any place and meet any of these people or form a group, I guess it's all right, but I have seen too much of it, and waving flags and carrying banners, and then you stand there in the front of the line and the next thing you know--she got the urge to pop him on the head, maybe, and she did, but this just built up talk around the Dallas area.
Now, I'll give you some of the coffeeshop talk that goes on when you are sitting down having a cup of coffee and people are discussing the events and politics of the day and prior to Mr. Kennedy's arriving here, the general talk then was, "You know what happened to Johnson. You saw what happened to Stevenson, boy, when Jack comes, it's going to be murder. They are just liable to kill him."
Now, this was said in a number of times--I would say--without a doubt I heard the remark a hundred times, but just publicly in general--somebody popping off and of course I know that it was all said but nothing meant by it, but still in all we have a certain amount of people who, I won't say they are not literate enough, but their minds are a little bit warped or they are a little bit more impulsive and we have different institutions that took care of a lot of sick-minded people, but this caused them to think and do a lot of things. I say that subconsciously they are hypnotized with something.
I'm trying to bring out a point here that Ruby and Oswald themselves were in the middle of all this talk, and I would say that Oswald on his job heard quite a bit of this type of talk going on and everything. Ruby knew that in his business dealings during the day and all that, discussed it with friends, either sitting over a cup of coffee, heard the same type of comment---they were just general.
Mr. Griffin.
Let me ask you: You were not in Dallas on November 22, 23, or 24?
Mr. Rossi.
No, I was not.
Mr. Griffin.
So, you don't know what kind of talk there was around here after Oswald was shot or after Oswald was alleged to have shot the President?
Mr. Rossi.
Yes, I do, because it may have been a day or two afterwards---a day or so afterwards that I spoke to my wife and she told me what the general conditions of the Dallas area was, or at least things--but now I know for a fact that down in the valley, even they were talking about this disliking Dallas people, and if you crossed over to the Mexican side, even the Mexicans over there didn't like Dallas tags and they seemed to know who was out of the country, too.
Mr. Griffin.
So, it is your suggestion that this kind of talk had something to do with it?
Mr. Rossi.
People had a fixed idea in their mind about this--that this all planned, premeditated, and communistic inspired.
After the border was opened between Mexico and the United States, when I crossed over to the Mexican side at Matamoris, I know one or two of the chants there and in discussing the fact or the incident with this particular
|
Found a Typo?
Click here
|
