(Testimony of Stanley M. Kaufman)
Mr. Kaufman.
Bernard Weissman. He felt, I guess, as an attorney that I had some power of investigation or ability or know-how, and frankly, I told him the best I could recommend was that he go over to the city library and look at the city directory, that I had no knowledge of where he could be located.
Mr. Hubert.
Did he indicate to you what he wanted to do if he did locate Weissman?
Mr. Kaufman.
He didn't say what he wanted to do. I think the nature of his discussion was that he was trying to be helpful to either the FBI or the police in locating him. I mean, as far as his talking about he was going to go out and bodily harm him or beat him up or something like that, there was no indication in this conversation that that's what his intent or motives were.
Mr. Hubert.
You gathered rather that he was trying to be helpful to the police authorities?
Mr. Kaufman.
Yes; and I felt that he felt maybe they were overlooking this and that maybe this fellow--at that time, as I would feel, he was trying to see if Weissman had anything to do with the assassination of President Kennedy.
Mr. Hubert.
In other words in his own mind, as you gathered it, he did associate the Weissman ad with the assassination?
Mr. Kaufman.
There's no question about that. Now, this is correctly pointed out in the report. He made special emphasis about this black border. Frankly, I went back, after talking to him and looked at it and it didn't really mean that much to me when I first looked at it. I mean--I was upset about it--about the ad. Frankly, I talked to a number of people about the ad and a number of people talked to me. I happened to talk to the Jewish Welfare Federation that very day that the President was killed in the afternoon, and the secretary I talked to asked me if I had any idea who Bernard Weissman was. It so happens that I have been active in the community, in the Jewish community as well as the non-Jewish community and we were having some discussions back and forth at that time on a matter that had nothing to do with this, and in our conversations, and this was before the assassination of the President. It was that morning before the President even arrived, that we were queried by one of the secretaries over at the Federation as to who in the hock was Bernard Weissman. So, it was not unusual that we would talk about this subject because there were a lot of people that were concerned about it, but Jack was particularly impressed with the border as being a tipoff of some sort--that this man knew that the President was going to be assassinated and that probably in the advertising field, perhaps in Jack's knowledge of the entertainment world, and
knowing something about setting up advertising, this had impressed him.
Mr. Hubert.
That black border?
Mr. Kaufman.
That--when he saw that black border, this was a key. Now in the conversation Jack had gone through, and he rambled on maybe for, oh goodness, 10 or 15 minutes, talking about how he had closed up his clubs and how some of his competitors didn't do so and how this provoked him and how the Dallas •News--he gave them hell about running this ad. I mean---don't think that this brief statement of summary that is reported by the agents by any means covers the entire conversation, because Jack just--well he just was upset. It was just the most upsetting thing that I've ever heard with him and in all my conversation, this seems to have really stirred him up.
Mr. Hubert.
You mean the Weissman ad?
Mr. Kaufman.
This Weissman deal.
Mr. Hubert.
Did he make any comments about Oswald during this conversation?
Mr. Kaufman.
Jack ?
Mr. Hubert.
Yes?
Mr. Kaufman.
No. All that this conversation was directed to was at Bernard Weissman, and the closing up of his club and the refusal of his competitors to close up, and the attitude of the Dallas Morning News.
Mr. Hubert.
Did he associate Oswald in anyway with any kind of a group, be it leftist, rightist, middle, or any kind of "ism"?
Mr. Kaufman.
Jack had never mentioned the name Oswald at that time,
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