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(Testimony of John W. Fain)
Mr. Fain.
I will have to go back just a little bit there. In 1932 ran for the office of representative in the State Legislature from Weatherford, Tex., my home city in Parker County, my home county, and served two terms, no opposition on the second term, and then I did not seek reelection at the end of the second term. I chose to go on and get my law degree at University of Texas. Then in 1937 I became employed. Robert B. Anderson, whom I suppose you know----
The Chairman.
Former Secretary of the Treasury.
Mr. Fain.
Former Secretary of the Treasury, yes; he and I were good friends, and it happened that he was in the adjoining county of Johnson which touched my county, Parker I had met him in Weatherford Junior College, and we were in the same debating society at Weatherford Junior College, and I served in Texas State Legislature with him, I sat in some of his law classes at the University of Texas, and then he was instrumental in giving me or getting me appointed to, a position as district supervisor of the Texas Unemployment Compensation Commission. It is now known as the Texas Employment Commission.
I was in charge of investigations of claims for unemployment insurance, and I served in that capacity at Waco, Tex., until on September 8 of 1942 I entered the FBI. Of course, I made my application prior to that. I served in the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a law-trained special agent until October 29 of 1962, upon which date I retired voluntarily.
Mr. Stern.
Can you describe briefly your experience in the FBI.
Mr. Fain.
Yes, sir. After finishing my training session here at the seat of government, I believe that lasted 12 weeks at that time, I took my Practical experience here for a couple of weeks, and then was assigned to the Chicago, Ill., field office, where I remained for a period of approximately 4 months. I received a transfer to Oklahoma City, where I was 3 weeks, and then they stationed me at Tulsa, Okla., as a resident agent, where I remained approximately a year. I then was transferred to San Francisco, Calif, where I remained for approximately 2 years; and in December of 1945 I was transferred to Dallas, Tex., where I remained for approximately 5 years, in the head office there, division office in Dallas, and then I was sent to Fort Worth in 1949 as a resident agent of the FBI, and remained there until I voluntarily retired on October 29, 1962.
Mr. Stern.
Now, would you describe the relationship between the Fort Worth office and the Dallas office.
Mr. Fain.
Well, the Dallas office is the headquarters city to which I was originally assigned and, of course, in that area distances are rather great between the cities, so we have what is known as resident agencies, there being at that time 10 agents in the Fort Worth office.
(At this point in the proceedings Mr. McCloy entered the hearing room.)
And we had agents, of course, at Lubbock and Amarillo and Wichita Falls, Sherman, Harris, and the other cities in order for economy reasons, to save travel. It would be a rather expensive operation to go from Dallas to those other areas.
Mr. Stern.
Mr. Fain, did you specialize in any particular area of FBI work or were your assignments general?
Mr. Fain.
My assignments were comparatively general up until, I would say, about 1951, at which time I specialized mostly in security matters. Most of my investigations after 1951 were security-type investigations.
Mr. Stern.
This is true----
Mr. Fain.
However, I did handle--excuse me, I did continue to handle--other types of investigations, too.
Mr. Stern.
This is true until your retirement?
Mr. Fain.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Stern.
Were you in charge of the investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald until the time of your retirement?
Mr. Fain.
Yes, sir; up until the time we closed the case---I don't recall the exact date, it can be verified from the report-- but, I think we closed the case, following his interview on August 26.
Mr. Stern.
Well to the extent----
Mr. Fain.
I want to correct that. It was August 14.
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