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(Testimony of Mrs. Helen Leslie)
Mr. Jenner.
And who was present on that occasion?
Mrs. Leslie.
There was a few people which I didn't know actually, I tell you--when I was introduced to Oswald--I didn't catch his name, his last name. They called them Lee and Marina, you know, and he didn't impress me very much.
Mr. Jenner.
Tell us about that.
Mrs. Leslie.
Yes--he didn't impress me, you know, but the only thing--the only one thing impressed me--he was talking quite fluently Russian language. He was making some mistakes, grammar mistakes, in very good Russian language, because I was born there and raised there, but he was talking fluently. Everything he was talking in Russian language, but sometimes he was--he didn't use grammar things or something, he wasn't quite good in grammar. I think he was doing some mistakes, not in pronunciation but in grammar.
Mr. Jenner.
What about Marina?
Mrs. Leslie.
Marina impressed me as not so like people was saying--they have an education or something, she was quite wise and she was a pharmacist. I think as I understood after, she was a pharmacist, I think I understood after from some Russian; she took course of pharmacy and was working in Leningrad as a pharmacist, you know, so I will tell you--this Mr. Bouhe, he is a very kind man. He always liked to help everybody he can. So, he was born also in--Petrograd, before the Russian revolution it was, and she was born there, and when he heard she's from his hometown, that's why he took such an interest in this couple. He wanted to help them.
Now, she impressed me as a wise person, for her age, you know, and she was talking very good Russian language, which I rarely ever heard even on television, you know, sometimes when there was some talk of Ambassadors. It was a different language they use now--so many new words which I do not recall in our language. She was talking nice Russian language and that's all I remember.
Mr. Jenner.
Did she speak good grammatically?
Mrs. Leslie.
Yes, she probably finished school, you know, there is a different systems of school and a special course of pharmacy because she knew all terms, the Latin terms--something that not many people know, because she was educated in this field.
Then, we went to dinner and she had the trouble there with her baby, you know, changing diapers and so on like always, but this first baby it was. It wasn't the. second baby then.
Then, I never met them--sometimes I was getting calls--how was this Russian couple getting along, and they tried to find for them new work for him--he was not satisfied with what he was doing. I think too little and always not enough money and Bouhe was trying to help them financially.
Mr. Jenner.
Bouhe solicited money from you and others?
Mrs. Leslie.
No, I didn't give. He was just helping because he is a quite wealthy man. He is alone and he doesn't have any limitation or anything. He always takes interest in some poor people. He sends money and he is supporting some old people. I do not know exactly which they are and so on.
Mr. Jenner.
This interest of Mr. Bouhe, and this course of conduct that you have related was, as far as you are concerned, there was nothing extraordinary about it, it was something you normally would expect of a man like George Bouhe?
Mrs. Leslie.
Yes, and I will tell you now, even now I do not meet with Mr. Bouhe and there is a completely different reason why. He is a temperate man, a little bit--he can tell you--insult you sometimes without thinking, and I am a little bit older than he is, a few years, so it was a case which probably will interest you because it was one of the finest things which happens.
When I was a child and close with my mother, I saw a photograph of my mother which was taken by some artist that was collecting Russian costumes of art, you know, peasant's costumes and her brother was in an academy, he was a painter, and this painter came from London and he wanted to help to make a book about Russia as an artist. So, he wanted to take photographs of the girls in these costumes and my mother was pretty, very pretty when she was young. She was 17 then--she was very pretty then, but that was long ago, that was 70 years ago, so they took her photograph in the costume and when
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