(Testimony of Nancy Monnell Powell)
Mrs. Powell.
to do everything, he is going to do it before somebody else does it to stop him
He has always had this in his mind that somebody was going to do something to him, and he was going to beat them to the punch.
Does that make sense to you? Do you understand what I am saying?
Mr. Griffin.
He wanted to get in there first?
Mrs. Powell.
I don't care how much money Jack had. If he had been a millionaire, he wouldn't have been one bit different. He didn't have any class, and he really wanted to. And no tact.
Mr. Griffin.
What had he ever said to you about his desire for class?
Mrs. Powell.
Well, now, you could tell the way he acted, and if you were around him a great deal. Jack really wanted to be somebody, and have class. He used the word class quite often, so I know it was an important thing with him. This gift that worked up there, he said, "She's got class," and he would go on about class. Everything had to have class. And I think that is what he wanted, but he could never have it, because Jack was just Jack. He has no tact. I mean the club could be packed, and if he is standing over on this side and there is something doing, he would holler, "Hey, you hit the door." He is just weird.
Mr. Griffin.
Maybe we will get back to this in a little bit. I want to ask you some questions 'about your own activities on November 22 and from then on, and we will maybe work back into this again.
Mrs. Powell.
All right.
Mr. Griffin.
Where were you when you first learned that President Kennedy had been shot?
Mrs. Powell.
I was at this guy's house over here in Dallas.
Mr. Griffin.
Who is that?
Mrs. Powell.
I don't know. You probably got his name down. I don't know which name you got.
Mr. Griffin.
I don't know whether I do. Mike Ryan? Mickey Ryan?
Mrs. Powell.
That is the. one, the guy that Jack picked up, the one I was telling you about.
Mr. Griffin.
How did you happen to go over to his house?
Mrs. Powell.
I had some friends come in from Old Mexico that morning. There were five of them.
Mr. Griffin.
Who were they?
Mrs. Powell.
Well, I didn't know all of them. There was this one guy I knew was a bartender in Tulsa, and when I worked in Oklahoma I---the last time, he rode this far with me. He had a friend in Old Mexico, and he was going to go over there for about a month or so. And I brought him over to the apartment. As a matter of fact, he went down there, and he had been gone about 2 or 3 months, and that morning someone knocked on the back door, and this was him, and he had these other people with him that I didn't know. Like I say, my grandmother lives with me. And he said, "I have some friends in the car and we have driven 1,500 miles and haven't eaten and didn't have any money. They had been down bumming around and could they come in?" And I said, "Sure." And he gets out and brings in a girl, a beatnik, which doesn't bother me. My grandmother is 76, and she is a beatnik
Mr. Griffin.
Not your grandmother?
Mrs. Powell.
No; the girl is a beatnik type. She is from England or something like that, I think. And his other boy comes in from New York and all three people are from New York, and he brings this colored guy. And like I live in the South, but I just figured that this is my property. He was a very nice guy. He was studying to be a doctor, and they had gone there for the summer. They came and I fixed breakfast and coffee. And this friend of mine from Tulsa has a friend over here and he wanted me to bring him over to see if he could borrow some money, because he was going to ride as far as Tulsa, and give them some money to get to New York. So, I brought him over here and went out to his friend's house and his friend wasn't at home. His friend's house is very close to the apartment that Mickey was living in.
Mr. Griffin.
Where was he living at that time?
|
