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Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. V - Page 240« Previous | Next »

(Testimony of Henry Wade)

Mr. Wade.
to get some criminal lawyer to go down there with him, and I said, "Go down there yourself and talk to him because they are raising just so much cain about it and see what they want and tell him you will get him a lawyer."
Senator COOPER. You are speaking now about a lawyer for Oswald?
Mr. Wade.
Yes; for Oswald.
This was around noon or some time on Saturday, noon, early afternoon. This went on all day. He called me back and said, "I have talked to him and told him I would get him a lawyer, that I would represent him or get him a lawyer." Louis Nichols is a civil lawyer, not actually a criminal lawyer.
He says, "He doesn't want but one lawyer, John Abt, in New York."
Mr. Rankin.
Who is he?
Mr. Wade.
He is an attorney in New York.
Mr. Rankin.
You said he didn't want any attorney?
Mr. Wade.
Lee Harvey Oswald told Nichols and Nichols told me this. He said that. Nichols then said he told him, along with the police they would try to get ahold of Mr. Abt, which they did. I think, I think maybe the press found him before the lawyers found him. But he says something that he didn't have time or something, as I understand it. This was all reported in the press. He had said the second person he wanted, Lee Harvey Oswald told Nichols the second person he wanted, was some lawyer out in Chicago with the American Civil Liberties Union, his name I don't know what it was, but Nichols would know.
He said, "If I can't get either one of those I will help get a local lawyer," because that was all done Saturday, with reference to his obtaining a lawyer.
I wanted to get that because I think you probably knew it and get it in the record anyhow.
Mr. Rankin.
Now going back to this telephone conversation with Mr. Cart that you referred to, do you remember anything else that Mr. Cart said to you at that time?
Mr. Wade.
I don't actually even remember, you know, he said that he had had a call from Washington, I don't actually remember anything about that. I remember he said that about this charge that this is going. "This would be a bad situation, if you allege it as part of a Russian, the Russian conspiracy, and it may affect your international relations, a lot of things, of the country," and I said it was silly because I don't know where the rumor started but I will see even if it was so we could prove it, I wouldn't allege it. Isn't that about it, the way you recall it, Mr. Cart?
Senator COOPER. We will call him in a minute.
Mr. Wade.
O.K.
Mr. Rankin.
Was he during that conversation saying anything to you about not alleging it if it were true?
Mr. Wade.
No, sir; it was a question of, he had heard we were going to allege it and he asked me about it and I said it is silly. I had heard something, I think, about it, about the same time.
And to no one, if it was part of it, no one said they necessarily wanted to hush the thing up, but it was a situation where the minute they mentioned what their problem was, it sounded silly to me, I said whether he is a member of the Communist Party or not is not important in this charge.
Senator COOPER. Was there any official, anyone on your staff or any persons charged with law enforcement in Dallas, or any U.S. district attorney in Dallas or anyone connected with his office, to your knowledge ever suggest that there should be a charge of conspiracy?
Mr. Wade.
None to my knowledge.
Now, I will say in some of these conversations, like I said, I don't know whether it was with Waggoner Cart or Barefoot Sanders, they said, one said, "Well, David Johnston, the J. P. has said this," and the other one has said, "Bill Alexander, one of your assistants who was up at the police department said it." I asked them both about it and they both denied it.
Senator COOPER. Did anyone ever say to you in the event there was a charge of conspiracy who would be named other than Oswald?
Mr. Wade.
No; there is no other names, there is no other name that I know of that has ever been mentioned to me as being part of the conspiracy.
The question we are talking about here, if I understand it, being that Oswald,
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