(Testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine Resumed)
Mr. Jenner.
And when did he come?
Mrs. Paine.
My recollection is that he asked to come--that he worked at Arlington State College on Tuesdays and Thursdays; that he called us on Tuesday and asked to come Thursday, and we said Thursday was not the best time, and he and we agreed upon the following Tuesday.
My best judgment is that he actually came then on the 19th of November.
Mr. Jenner.
All right. And how long did he stay?
Mrs. Paine.
Oh, perhaps an hour. And I cannot even recall exactly what time, except I think it was right in the middle of when we should have been making dinner.
Mr. Jenner.
Did he visit with both you and Marina?
Mrs. Paine.
Yes; he did.
Mr. Jenner.
And were arrangements made for his return on another occasion?
Mrs. Paine.
I cannot recall that we made a specific date, but we certainly planned to get together again.
Mr. Jenner.
And was this strictly a social call?
Mrs. Paine.
Yes; it was. An interest in the language motivated his coming. He is a teacher of Russian at Arlington State College.
Mr. Jenner.
Let's see. Lee Oswald was not home on that occasion.
Mrs. Paine.
No; he was not.
Mr. Jenner.
I mean he was not in Irving on that occasion.
Mrs. Paine.
No; he was not.
Mr. Jenner.
Mrs. Paine, I have only one more question.
Do you wish to add anything, or has anything occurred to you which you have not up to this moment testified to with respect to the Oswald incident and this great tragedy which my questions and the questions of the members of the Commission have not heretofore elicited, and which you think might be helpful to the Commission in its work?
Mrs. Paine.
Well, you have not yet asked me if I had seen anything of a note purported to be written by Lee at the time of the attempt on Walker. And I might just recount for you that, if it is of any importance.
Mr. Jenner.
Yes; I wish you would--how that occurred. Tell me all you know about it--all you knew about it up to and including November 22.
Mrs. Paine.
I knew absolutely nothing about it up to and including November 22.
Mr. Jenner.
Is there any explanation or anything that you feel you ought to say or wish to say about that incident?
Mrs. Paine.
Well, just that I was shown a portion of a note by two Secret Service men.
Mr. Jenner.
This was after November 22?
Mrs. Paine.
It certainly was. Perhaps a week later. I had sent Marina one of these small collections of letters, such as I have described, that includes notes to her and donations, and left such with the Irving police. And on one occasion left also a couple of books which were hers. I referred to the fact that she read to me from a child care book. One of these was a book from which she had been recently reading to me, and she used it much as I had used Benjamin Spock's "Baby and Child Care" when my babies were small--that is constant daily reference. And I thought she would want to have it with her.
I believe it was probably the next day I got a call from the Secret Service saying something important had come up in this case, could they come out and see me. I said yes, of course. They arrived. Mr. Gopadze, of the Secret Service, who was acting as translator, and I think the other man's name was Patterson, and he spoke English only--Mr. Gopadze showed me a piece of paper with writing on it, a small piece of paper such as might come from a telephone note pad. He asked me not to read it through carefully, but simply to look at it enough to tell whether I could identify the handwriting and whether I had ever seen it before. I said I could not identify the handwriting. I observed that it was written in Russian, that the second word was a transliteration from the English word--that it said "This key"--using the word "key" rather than the Russian word--and went on to say it was for a post office box. And
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