help poor Marina, who could not speak any English, was mistreated by her husband. She and the baby were malnourished and sickly."
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is correct.

Mr. Jenner.

That is all correct?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.

Mr. Jenner.

And you told me all about that in some detail.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.

Mr. Jenner.

You also said, if you will recall--"some time last fall we heard that Oswald had beaten his wife cruelly, so we drove to their miserable place and forcibly took Marina and the child away from the character."
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.

Mr. Jenner.

And you have told me about that?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.

Mr. Jenner.

"Then he threatened me and my wife, but I did not take him seriously."
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is exactly right.

Mr. Jenner.

"Marina stayed with a family of some childless Russian refugees for awhile, keeping her baby, but finally decided to return to her husband." You have told me about that course of events.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.

Mr. Jenner.

And that is what you had in mind?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is exactly right.

Mr. Jenner.

Then you comment, "It is really a shame that such crimes occur in our times and in our country, but there is so much jealousy for success, and the late President was successful in so many domains, and there is so much desire for publicity on the part of all shady characters, that assassinations are bound to occur. Better precautions should have been taken." Now, let me ask you about the first two sentences.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. In my opinion, if Lee Oswald did kill the President, this might be the reason for it, that he was insanely jealous of an extraordinarily successful man, who was young, attractive, had a beautiful wife, had all the money in the world, and was a world figure. And poor Oswald was just the opposite. He had nothing. He had a bitchy wife, had no money, was a miserable failure in everything he did.

Mr. Jenner.

Well, do you have a view, perhaps, that this might be a way of this man--of what he thought of raising himself up by his own bootstraps?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Exactly. It made him a hero in his own mind--it made him a hero in his own mind. He did not realize possibly that he was doing it at the expense to the whole Nation. He might have had a mental blackout.

Mr. Jenner.

Then you make the comment "better precautions should have been taken."
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is my very strong opinion, that better precautions should be taken by whatever authorities were in Dallas at the time to protect the President.
Now, I do not consider myself an exceedingly--a genius. But the very first thought after we heard that some character was mixed up in the assassination of the President, when we were listening to the radio in the house of an employee of the American Embassy in Port au Prince, and he mentioned that the name of the presumable assassin is something Lee, Lee, Lee---and I said, "Could it be Lee Oswald?"
And he said, "I guess that is the name."

Mr. Jenner.

That occurred to you?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That occurred to me.

Mr. Jenner.

As soon as you heard the name Lee?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. As soon as I heard the name Lee. Now, why it occurred to me--because he was a crazy lunatic.

Mr. Jenner.

Did you think about the rifle you had seen?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Immediately something occurred in my mind--the rifle. Actually, my wife and I were driving from a reception at the Syrian Embassy, where we heard the, story of the assassination. We were driving to the house of this friend of ours who works at the Embassy and wondering who

« Previous | Next »

Found a Typo?

Click here

Last Update: Wed, 3 Aug 2016 21:56:34 CET