(Testimony of Bernard William , Accompanied By Weissman)
Mr. Weissman.
salesman's paradise. I invited Bill to Mount Vernon. He came up about the last week of August.
I am sorry--October of 1963. And we set up about looking for work and trying to find him work, that is--I was working for the Encyclopedia Britannica, Great Books Division, as a district manager in Westchester County. So I more or less supported Bill the best I could. I fed him and gave him a room to sleep in and so forth.
In the meantime, Larrie had up to a point--hadn't accomplished anything in the way that we could use gainfully or to our purposes in Dallas. So there was really no reason to go down there up until about, I guess, the 26th or 28th of October.
Mr. Jenner.
Excuse me. Why were you thinking of Dallas at this time?
Mr. Weissman.
Well, I kept getting these letters from Larrie. I tried to forget about it, and he constantly reminded me. Once or twice a week I would get a letter. And it was a question--I was almost obligated to go, because I had promised I would be there. And still having somewhat of a close relationship with Larrie, through my promises, I sort of felt morally obligated to go down there.
And, at the same time, it was new, different, exciting, it had a lot of promise for the future if it worked out.
So Adlai Stevenson was down there in the latter part of October.
(At this point, Representative Boggs entered the hearing room.)
Mr. Weissman.
And I didn't pay too much attention to this--until the evening of Stevenson's speech at the Dallas Auditorium. And I got a long distance telephone call from Larrie, and he explained what had happened--that Stevenson had been struck by several individuals down there.
Mr. Jenner.
Please call on your best recollection and tell us what he said to you. You recall that he made that telephone call?
Mr. Weissman.
Yes.
Mr. Jenner.
You recognized his voice?
Mr. Weissman.
Yes.
Mr. Jenner.
You are clear it was Larrie Schmidt?
Mr. Weissman.
That is right.
Mr. Jenner.
What did he say?
Mr. Weissman.
He said that big things are happening, and he went--this is before it hit the papers. He told me what had happened with Adlai Stevenson.
Mr. Jenner.
What did he say?
Mr. Weissman.
Something like, "I think we are" he always speaks I this and I that. "I have made it, I have done it for us," something to this effect. In other words, this is not exactly his words. I don't recall his exact words. But this is essentially it. And that----
Mr. Jenner.
Did you say to him, "What do you mean you have made it for us?"
Mr. Weissman.
When he said, "I have made it for us," meaning Larrie Schmidt---meaning me and Bill and whoever else was going to come down here----
Mr. Jenner.
That was----
Mr. Weissman.
Bill Burley.
Mr. Jenner.
What did you say when he made that remark?
Mr. Weissman.
I said "Great."
Mr. Jenner.
What did it mean to you, sir?
Mr. Weissman.
What did it mean to me?
Mr. Jenner.
It is a generalization.
Mr. Weissman.
That is it. In other words, I didn't really know what to think. I had to go along with him, because I didn't know anything about it, aside from what he told me.
And he said, "If we are going to take advantage of the situation, or if you are," meaning me, "you better hurry down here and take advantage of the publicity, and at least become known among these various rightwingers, because this is the chance we have been looking for to infiltrate some of these organizations and become known," in other words, go along with the philosophy we had developed in Munich.
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