(Testimony of J. Edgar Hoover)
Representative Boggs.
Congressman Ford ask you as I came into the room, because I think this is the crux of our investigation.
I read the FBI report very carefully and the whole implication of the report is that, number one, Oswald shot the President; number two, that he was not connected with any conspiracy of any kind, nature or description.
Mr. Hoover.
Correct.
Representative Boggs.
Do you still subscribe to that?
Mr. Hoover.
I subscribe to it even more strongly today than I did at the time that the report was written. You see, the original idea was that there would be an investigation by the FBI and a report would be prepared in such form that it could be released to the public.
Representative Boggs.
Surely.
Mr. Hoover.
Then a few days later, after further consideration, the President decided to form a commission, which I think was very wise, because I feel that the report of any agency of Government investigating what might be some shortcomings on the part of other agencies of Government ought to be reviewed by an impartial group such as this Commission. And the more I have read these reports, the more I am convinced that Oswald was the man who fired the gun; and he fired three times, killed the President, and wounded Governor Connally.
And I also am further convinced that there is absolutely no association between Oswald or Ruby. There was no such evidence ever established.
Mr. Dulles.
Or Oswald and anybody else? Would you go that far?
Mr. Hoover.
Anybody else who might be----
Mr. Dulles.
In connection with the assassination?
Mr. Hoover.
Yes; I would certainly go that far. There was suspicion at first this might be a Castro act.
Representative Boggs.
Right.
Mr. Hoover.
We had information that had been obtained in Mexico City by another intelligence agency indicating there was a man who had seen a certain amount of money passed to Oswald at the Cuban Consulate. I think it was $6,000 that was passed. We went into that very thoroughly. The man later retracted his statement and stated it was not true. He was asked whether he would take a lie detector test, and he did. The lie detector test showed that he was telling a lie.
As to the lie detector, I do want to make this comment on it. I have always held to the opinion that it is not a perfect piece of machinery. It is an interpretation made by human beings of what the machine, the polygraph, shows. I would never want to convict or to send to the penitentiary any person solely on the evidence of the lie detector. It is a contribution in an investigation, a more or less psychological contribution.
But I have seen individuals who have failed the lie detector test and who were just as innocent as they could be. That particular lead in Mexico City was completely disproved; there was no foundation for it.
We found no associations between Oswald and Ruby. There has been a story printed that Ruby and Oswald worked together and were close friends.
There was no evidence, there was never any indication that we could find that Oswald had ever been in Ruby's nightclub or had had any association with him.
Ruby comes from Chicago, he was on the fringe of what you might call the elements of the underworld there. He came to Dallas, opened up the nightclub and it was a place where, certainly not the better class of people went, but it wasn't any so-called "joint," to use the vernacular. It was just another nightclub. So far as we have been able to establish there was no relationship or contact between Oswald and Ruby or anyone else allegedly involved in this assassination.
Representative Boggs.
The FBI interviewed practically everybody who ever associated with Oswald?
Mr. Hoover.
It did.
Representative Boggs.
You didn't find any indication of why anyone should even suspect that Oswald would do this, did you?
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