(Testimony of Daniel Patrick Powers)
Mr. Powers.
some duties assigned naturally, and with him as an individual, I can remember that he taught me how to play chess going over, and he was quite a proficient chess player, and, well, let's not say he was not real proficient; he used to beat me, and it wouldn't take too much proficiency to beat me. And he would sit and play, and we would maybe play--usually we played I game a day, and sometimes we would play 4 to 8 hours, playing chess.
Mr. Jenner.
Four?
Mr. Powers.
Four to eight hours playing chess. And I got to a point where I beat him once in a while, and it would irritate him a little bit that someone beat him, but not to a point where he would get violent or anything of this nature, but he was real happy and pleased when he would win.
And again looking back at this, it gives me some impressions about him. He was real happy to win, like he was accomplishing something in his life.
And he used to read quite a bit. I remember we got these paperbacks, and there was some good literature in these, and he would swap books back and forth, and he would never be reading any of the shoot-em-up westerns or anything like that. Normally, it would be a good type of literature; and the one that I recall was "Leaves of Grass," by Walt Whitman. And he had it for a period of time, and I would want to read it for myself, and as it came about, he did let me have It. I think I still have the book.
Mr. Jenner.
Do you recall the titles of any other books that he read?
Mr. Powers.
Oh, I'm not saying that he read them, but the reason that I recall these titles is because I still have most of these paperbacks that I kept quite a few of these, and they were the "Age of Reason," and "Age of Enlightenment," and whether he read these or not, I'm not sure. But I think there is something on the "Greatest President of the United States," and democracy, and books of that nature.
Mr. Jenner.
Where did you obtain these books?
Mr. Powers.
They were given to the troops---I'll use that for a lack of a better term--periodically throughout the voyage going over, where they got them, I don't know. I think they probably just picked them up and it was standard procedure, I assume.
Mr. Jenner.
They were books that were distributed through the Marines?
Mr. Powers.
That's correct.
Mr. Jenner.
And you could read them or not as you saw fit?
Mr. Powers.
Right.
Mr. Jenner.
And your recollection is that you do recall Oswald did read "Leaves of Grass"?
Mr. Powers.
Right. Whether he read the other books, I'm not sure, but this leads me to the impression that he was trying to read something that was deeper than the average paperback that you see in the drug store or something of that nature.
Mr. Jenner.
These were books which you were interested in?
Mr. Powers.
Yes; these were books which I was interested in mainly because the image that I held at that time that I was more educated than the other individuals and in order to maintain this image, and for my own personal satisfaction as well, I read these books, and I think this is--whether he read these books for his own personal satisfaction or to create an image similar to the ones that we had--I say "we," the people that had more education than the average marine there.
Mr. Jenner.
Was he a voracious reader?
Mr. Powers.
What do you mean by the word "voracious"?
Mr. Jenner.
Did he read a great deal?
Mr. Powers.
I can't truthfully say. I think everyone at that particular time read more than they possibly did at any other period that they had in the Marine Corps. Mainly, you are in a limited space and this was the thing to do; it was easy to do, and you could entertain yourself this way.
Mr. Jenner.
Yes. I take it it was not your impression, then, at least at this stage of the game, he devoted a great deal of his time to reading as distinguished from what other Marines were doing in that regard?
Mr. Powers.
Well, I don't know. It seems to me when we were in Mississippi that he did read some he was doing further reading than other--what the
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