DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
On September 6, 1964, just eighteen days before the Warren Commission submitted its final report to President Johnson, Marina Oswald provided the Commission with some additional testimony.
During that September Warren Commission session, which was held at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Dallas, Texas, the following very interesting and revealing testimony can be found (on Page 608 of Warren Commission Volume 5):
HALE BOGGS -- "Let’s straighten this out, because this is very
important."
MARINA OSWALD -- "Okay."
MR. BOGGS -- "I’ll read it to you [Boggs reads from the transcript of
Marina Oswald's previous WC testimony] -- “I gather that you have
reached the conclusion in your own mind that your husband killed
President Kennedy?” You replied, “Regretfully, yes.” Now, do you have
any reason to change that?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "That’s correct. I have no doubt that he did kill the
President." ....
MR. BOGGS -- "Again we get back to the question of motive. You said
again today that you are convinced that Lee Oswald killed President
Kennedy. You said something additionally today, though, and that is
that you feel that it was his intention not to kill President Kennedy,
but to kill Governor Connally. Now, am I correct in saying that she
had not said this previously?"
J. LEE RANKIN -- "Ask her that."
MR. BOGGS -- "Let’s get an answer. I think this answer is quite
important."
MRS. OSWALD -- "On the basis of all the available facts, I have no
doubt in my mind that Lee Oswald killed President Kennedy. At the same
time, I feel in my own mind as far as I am concerned, I feel that Lee--
that my husband perhaps intended to kill Governor Connally instead of
President Kennedy."
MR. BOGGS -- "Now, let me ask you one other question: Assuming that
this is correct, would you feel that there would be any less guilt in
killing Governor Connally than in killing the President?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "I am not trying to vindicate or justify or excuse Lee
as my husband. Even if he killed one of his neighbors, still it
wouldn’t make much difference--it wouldn’t make any difference--a
killing is a killing. I am sorry."
[End WC Testimony.]
--------------
Conspiracy theorists sometimes like to talk about how Marina Oswald is now convinced that her husband was just a patsy, who was set up to take the fall for both Kennedy's murder (and Officer Tippit's murder as well).
But I think it would be wise for conspiracists to take a good look at Page 608 of Warren Commission Volume 5, in order to see what Marina was saying about her husband in the year 1964, very shortly after the assassination of the President.
And it's quite clear what Marina's opinion was at that time back in 1964 (regardless of the fact that she seemed to have some doubt about who the intended target was for her husband's bullets--Kennedy or Connally)---
"I have no doubt that he did kill the President. .... On the basis of all the available facts, I have no doubt in my mind that Lee Oswald killed President Kennedy." -- MARINA N. OSWALD; SEPTEMBER 6, 1964
--------------
There is also the following testimony of Marina Oswald (also from her 9/6/64 WC session) which is rather interesting, with Senator Richard Russell following up on Marina's new belief that her husband was really shooting at Governor Connally instead of JFK.
And via these written words spoken by Senator Russell, it seems pretty clear that Russell's tone toward Marina was a tad bit on the harsh side (which is something I had noticed about Russell when reading the transcript of one of Marina's earlier Warren Commission appearances as well).
This portion of Marina's 9/6/64 testimony begins at the bottom of 5 H 609:
SENATOR RICHARD B. RUSSELL -- "I am concerned about this testimony,
Mrs. Oswald, about your believing now that Lee was shooting at
Connally and not at the President, because you did not tell us that
before."
MARINA OSWALD -- "At that time I didn’t think so, but the more I mull
over it in my own mind trying to get it in my own mind what made him
do what he did, the more I think that he was shooting at Connally
rather than President Kennedy."
MR. RUSSELL -- "Now, did you not testify before that Lee wrote a
letter to Connally when he was Secretary of the Navy about the nature
of his Marine discharge?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "Yes."
MR. RUSSELL -- "And that when he got a letter back, that you asked him
what it was?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "Yes."
MR. RUSSELL -- "And he said, “Well, it’s just some Bureaucrat’s
statement”?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "Yes. Yes."
MR. RUSSELL -- "Did you not further testify that Lee said in
discussing the gubernatorial election in Texas that if he were here
and voting, that he would vote for Mr. Connally?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "Yes."
MR. RUSSELL -- "Now, do you think he would shoot and kill a man that
he would vote for, for the Governor of his state?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "The only reason is--I am trying to analyze, myself,
there was a reason--more reason to dislike Connally as a man than he
had for Kennedy."
MR. RUSSELL -- "Well, she testifed before that he had spoken, as far
as Lee spoke favorably of anyone, that he had spoken favorably of both
Kennedy and of Governor Connally." ....
MRS. OSWALD [clearly some of these words are the interpreter's and not
all Marina's] -- "He also told me that he was also favorable toward
Connally, while they were in Russia. There is a possibility that he
changed his mind, but he never told her that."
MR. RUSSELL -- "Well, I think that’s about as speculative as the
answers I’ve read here. He might have changed his mind, but he didn’t
tell her anything about it, as she testified--that discussing politics
in Texas, that he said that if he were here when they had the
election, that he would vote for John Connally for Governor, and that
was after he got the letter about the Marine corps."
MRS. OSWALD -- "That happened in Russia when he received some kind of
pamphlet with a picture of Connally, a separate time, at which time he
remarked that when he returned, if and when he returned to Texas he
would vote for Connally."
MR. RUSSELL -- "That’s right--that’s exactly right, but yet now you
say that he was his prime target. I want to know what Connally had
done to Lee since he got back from Russia that would cause him to
change his mind, to shoot him?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "I do not know, but there is a possibility that Lee
became hateful of Connally because the matter of this dishonorable
discharge was dragging so long."
MR. RUSSELL -- "Yes, but Connally had left the Navy, where he had
anything to do with the discharge, before he got the pamphlet about
his being a candidate for Governor?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "I am not sure when that particular thing happened,
whether Mr. Connally was the Secretary of the Navy or what he was
doing."
MR. RUSSELL -- "Well, it’s a matter of common knowledge that he ran
for Governor after he resigned as Secretary of the Navy."
MRS. OSWALD -- "I don’t know."
MR. RUSSELL -- "Did you not know that when Mr. Connally was running
for Governor of Texas, he was no longer Secretary of the Navy and had
nothing to do with the Marine Corps?"
MRS. OSWALD -- "Yes, I knew--I knew that he was not the Secretary of
the Navy any more because Lee told me that Connally stated in the
letter to Lee that he was no longer Secretary of Navy and hence he
couldn’t do anything for him, and that Connally referred the petition
to the proper authorities."
[End WC Testimony.]
--------------
Also see the interview with Marina Oswald below (from early 1964):
David Von Pein
February 28, 2010
