(Testimony of Martin Isaacs)
Mr. Liebeler.
To Mrs. Ruscoll?
Mr. Isaacs.
Yes.
Mr. Liebeler.
That memorandum came from the files of the New York State Department of Welfare in connection with the Oswald case? You recognize that, do you not?
Mr. Isaacs.
I do, sir.
Mr. Liebeler.
Do you have any recollection of any other event that you yourself personally experienced with Oswald during this short contact that you had with him that you haven't told us about?
Mr. Isaacs.
There was nothing else that I could remember that was different from what I had told you. It was just this flare-up with him, which was somewhat dramatic, and because it was I thought it merited bringing it to the attention of the administrator. We don't always request that an administrator get in on a situation with us, because she's not always available, and she as a rule does not want to get involved. But in this particular case because it was a repatriate, and we do deal with repatriates in a somewhat different manner--the Federal Government is involved, because they reimburse us 100 percent for all expenses-- we did deem it necessary in this particular instance to bring it to the attention of the administrator.
But to answer your original question, there was nothing else that I can recall. I remember, just as they were leaving the office, walking in that direction to just see that they were going down the elevator--we assigned a worker--it wasn't Mr. Lehrman, as I remember; it was some other worker--to just go with them to the hotel and help them along with their luggage, et cetera.
The only other thing that I can remember was the administrator taking his wife into the office the clients very rarely go into the interior of the office and bringing her back toward her office. It's an office that's over a block long---or a block long--and later I learned that she brought her there because Mrs. Oswald wanted to breastfeed the child and-----
Mr. Liebeler.
So the administrator took her back into the office? To feed the child?
Mr. Isaacs.
Yes; to feed the child.
Mr. Liebeler.
What prompted you to call this case to the attention of the administrator? Was it, as you have indicated, simply that it was a repatriation case, or was it because of some peculiarity in the behavior of this individual, or was it a combination of those?
Mr. Isaacs.
Well, I would say it was a combination. He was rather severe in his manner for want of a better description at this time. He was insistent. He stomped around and simply would not accept the decision that this money would be forthcoming. And as a rule we don't get this kind of reaction from the clients that we deal with. They accept this kind of service that they get from us, and in fact they are very happy to receive it, and they are very grateful. In this case we had a different kind of attitude. It was one of resentment, and we couldn't, at least on my level I felt I couldn't insist that he take it until--rather accept the decision until I cleared with the administrator.
Now, even Mrs. Ruscoll found it necessary because of his--I assume because of the discussion that she had with him, she found it necessary to call Miss Elliott, and Miss Elliott did, of course, supervise our section, and her decision was to be final, and this is the decision we used.
Mr. Liebeler.
Do you have any other information in respect of this incident or in respect of Oswald generally that you can think of at this time that you think might be helpful in connection with this report?
Mr. Isaacs.
Well, I don't have any other information. All I can say is that when this incident occurred, it did not cross our mind that the the name Oswald meant nothing to us. It did not cross our minds that this was the person, and when we were looking at this on TV and just hearing the story without actually getting a visual picture of Lee Oswald it still didn't register with us. It was after I had seen the picture on the screen and was horrified--well, we were horrified without having seen that, but the additional horror because it was somebody that you had actually met and helped to return to Texas.
At that point I called Mrs. Ruscoll and asked her if she knew who this Lee
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