Warren Commission (09 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (09 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. BALLEN. Not in addition to what I have already alluded to,
parenthetically.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did Oswald tell you anything about his educational
background? About where he had gone to grade school or high school and
that sort of thing?
Mr. BALLEN. I am sure I questioned him on that, and the ultimate
conclusion I came to was that he left--that he lacked educational
training.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did he tell you that he had been employed by a newspaper
in New Orleans?
Mr. BALLEN. I think he told me that his knowledge of reproduction
facilities had been refreshened by recent employment in New Orleans,
and the--in the photographic field, but this employment, I thought in
New Orleans, would have been in a printing shop rather than a newspaper.
Mr. LIEBELER. Can you remember any of the details of what he told you
about his activities in New Orleans?
Mr. BALLEN. That would have been the only reference to New Orleans,
and he said nothing whatsoever about any involvement with any Cuban
committees or anything like that. I would have the feeling that this
was a man who was at that stage a political, had no involvement with
any Communist group, that he washed his hands pretty much of anyone or
any part of the political spectrum.
Mr. LIEBELER. You did not know that he was a professed Marxist?
Mr. BALLEN. He may have--I think I had the feeling that he, to the
extent that he could define it, that he was a student of Marxism and
was a critic of societies along Marxist lines.
Mr. LIEBELER. Were you led to that belief partly by his remarks about
religion?
Mr. BALLEN. No; I learned that from George De Mohrenschildt, and I
think Oswald would have, somewhere along the line during my interview
with him, made statements to reenforce that.
Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember what De Mohrenschildt told you about
Oswald before you actually met Oswald?
Mr. BALLEN. Yes; he said that this was a very unusual situation, sir.
Here is a chap who suddenly appears in the Dallas area, and that he had
been to Russia, went to Russia, came back, and has no hatred either
for Russia or for the United States, and is just a man with no hatred,
and by gosh here he appears in the United States, having gotten out of
Russia with a wife, and that this was an independent and truth seeking
young man and very interesting, and George was talking to him at length
in Russian, and someone just totally unlike anyone else who came back
who was either very much pro and very much anti, and this is a fellow
with no hatred.
Mr. LIEBELER. Did De Mohrenschildt indicate to you that Oswald had no
hatred of anything?
Mr. BALLEN. That is what--De Mohrenschildt had emphasized it to me that
his view of this man was that the chap wasn't getting involved with
hatred and was outside the cold war on either side and his emotions
connected with it.
Mr. LIEBELER. Was De Mohrenschildt's opinion borne out in your mind
when you met and talked to Oswald?
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