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Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. IX - Page 237« Previous | Next »

(Testimony of George S. De Mohrenschildt Resumed)

Mr. Jenner.
Quite, as a matter of fact--he never finished high school.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; I did not even know that.
Mr. Jenner.
Did you have the feeling that his views on politics were shallow and surface?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Very much so.
Mr. Jenner.
That he had not had the opportunity for a study under scholars who would criticize, so that he himself could form some views on the subject?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Exactly. His mind was of a man with exceedingly poor background, who read rather advanced books, and did not understand even the words in them. He read complicated economical treatises and just picked up difficult words out of what he has read, and loved to display them. He loved to use the difficult words, because it was to impress one.
Mr. Jenner.
Did you think he understood it?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. He did not understand the words--he just used them. So how can you take seriously a person like that? You just laugh at him. But there was always an element of pity I had, and my wife had, for him. We realized that he was sort of a forlorn individual, groping for something.
Mr. Jenner.
Did you form any impression in the area, let us say, of reliability---that is, whether our Government would entrust him with something that required a high degree of intelligence, a high degree of imagination, a high degree of ability to retain his equilibrium under pressure, a management of a situation, to be flexible enough?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I never would believe that any government would be stupid enough to trust Lee with anything important.
Mr. Jenner.
Give me the basis of your opinion.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, again, as I said, an unstable individual, mixed-up individual, uneducated individual, without background. What government would give him any confidential work? No government would. Even the government of Ghana would not give him any job of any type.
Mr. Jenner.
You used the expression "unstable." Would you elaborate on that?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, instability--his life is an example of his instability. He switched allegiance from one country to another, and then back again, disappointed in this, disappointed in that, tried various jobs. But he did it, you see, without the enjoyment of adventure like some other people would do in the United States, a new job is a new adventure, new opportunities. For him it was a gruesome deal. He hated his jobs. He switched all the time.
Mr. Jenner.
Now, let's assume he switched jobs because he was discharged from those jobs. Does that affect your opinion? That is, assume now for the purpose of discussion that he lost every one of his jobs.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, frankly, if I--you always base your opinion on your own experience. If I had my own country since my childbirth, and my government, I would remain faithful to it for the rest of my life. He had a chance to be a marine. Here was a perfect life for him--this was my point of view. He was a man without education, in the Marines--why didn't he stay in the Marines all his life? You don't need a high degree of intelligence to be a marine corporal or a soldier.
Mr. Jenner.
That is, it was your thought----
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That was my idea.
Mr. Jenner.
That if he had an objective that he could have had, it would be to stay in the Marines and become a marine officer, and have a career in the Marines.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right. Well, instead of that he disliked it and switched to something else. I do not know the details of all his jobs, you see, .but I certainly can evaluate people just by looking at them--because I have met so many people in my profession--you have to evaluate them by just looking at them and saying a few words.
Mr. Jenner.
Did you form an impression of him, Mr. De Mohrenschildt, as to his reliability in a different sense now--that is, whether he was reasonably mentally stable or given to violent surges of anger or lack of control of himself?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Of course, he was that. The fact that we took his
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