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Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. I - Page 491« Previous | Next »

(Testimony of James Herbert Martin)

Representative Boggs.
Did you ever have any reason to believe that she was anything other than what she appeared to be, namely an ordinary housewife who had come to this country as the wife of an American whom she married?
Mr. Martin.
Looking back on the whole picture, she doesn't seem quite right. I mean she doesn't fit.
Representative Boggs.
What do you mean by that?
Mr. Martin.
As a mother and a housewife. She is too cold for one thing.
Representative Boggs.
Cold in what way?
Mr. Martin.
Emotionally. This thing, I don't know whether it is the Russian woman or what, but this thing would have terrifically upset an American woman, and she was not very upset at all.
Representative Ford.
Not upset about the assassination?
Mr. Martin.
About her husband.
Representative Ford.
About her husband's subsequent death?
Representative Boggs.
Well now----
Mr. Martin.
She was to a degree. But it didn't ring true.
Representative Boggs.
So what do you mean by that. Do you mean that because of her coolness under very terrific--very difficult conditions and a very difficult situation, that maybe she was not just what she appeared to be, and if not, what do you think she was?
Mr. Martin.
I have no idea. It is the way she treated, the way she treated contributions for instance; someone would send a dollar, I don't know, maybe it was her last dollar, and she would look at it and throw it aside and say, "Oh, it is just a dollar." And John Thorne and I kind of built up an image for her or of her, for the American public, and she is not exactly as we picture her in the news articles.
Mr. Redlich.
Would you spell that out in more detail?
Mr. Martin.
Well, for one thing, I recall instances that she read the Bible every day, she didn't crack a Bible. She got up between 10 and 11 o'clock every morning. The only household chores she did was wash the evening dinner dishes, and occasionally she would vacuum.
Representative Boggs.
This may be attributed to lack of energy or laziness.
Mr. Martin.
Well, yes, that is true. But she is not a humble person at all.
Representative Ford.
Did you ever see her cry or show any comparable emotions?
Mr. Martin.
No. The closest I ever saw her to really showing any emotion at all was when, it was about a week after she had been there, she saw a picture, of Jackie Kennedy's picture--a picture of Jackie Kennedy, I don't know whether it was Life Magazine or what.
Representative Boggs.
Did she ever do anything or say anything that would give you any reason to believe that maybe she was part of an intelligence system?
Mr. Martin.
No. Although I have wondered about it since.
Mr. Redlich.
Since when, Mr. Martin?
Mr. Martin.
Well, this whole thing, since I got into it. This whole thing seems to me like I have been kind of made a patsy. Robert Oswald wouldn't take her in right after this incident because he was afraid of what might happen, might or might not happen.
The Fords also expressed the same opinion.
Mr. Dulles.
What do you mean by the same opinion?
Mr. Martin.
That they wouldn't have taken her in at first. Mr. Ford expressed the opinion that he was afraid of what the public reaction might be and he didn't know what to think.
We took her in with the full knowledge that anything could happen, and anything might happen, and it was done strictly on an altruistic basis at first, and then this manager thing came in which I wish it hadn't at all.
But be that as it may, it has happened, and things have been turned upside.
But then as soon as the Secret Service was pulled off then Robert insisted that she move from my home to his home, and start proceedings to cancel the contracts that are in existence. She was up there--she came back to the doctor on a Tuesday after she left our home, and stopped in at the house and said she wanted to come back to live with us.
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