Lee Harvey Oswald - Police Interrogation

Police Interrogation

Oswald was interrogated several times during his two days at Dallas Police Headquarters. He denied killing Kennedy and Tippit, denied owning a rifle, said two photographs of him holding a rifle and a pistol were fakes, denied telling his co-worker he wanted a ride to Irving to get curtain rods for his apartment, and denied carrying a long heavy package to work the morning of the assassination. The Warren Commission also noted that Oswald denied knowing an A. J. Hidell, and when shown a forged Selective Service card bearing that name in his possession when arrested, refused to answer any questions concerning it, saying "...you have the card yourself and you know as much about it as I do." The Warren Commission noted that this "spurious" card bore the name of Alek James Hidell.

During his first interrogation on Friday, November 22, Oswald was asked to account for himself at the time the President was shot. According to FBI Special Agent James Hosty and Dallas Police Captain Will Fritz, Oswald said he ate lunch in the Depository's first-floor lunchroom, then went to the second-floor with a Coca-Cola, where he encountered a policeman. During his last interrogation on November 24, according to postal inspector Harry Holmes, Oswald was again asked where he was at the time of the shooting. Holmes (who attended the interrogation at the invitation of Captain Will Fritz) said that Oswald replied that he was working on an upper floor when the shooting occurred, then went downstairs where he encountered a policeman.

Oswald asked for legal representation several times while being interrogated, as well as in encounters with reporters. But when representatives of the Dallas Bar Association met with him in his cell on Saturday, he declined their services, saying he wanted to be represented by John Abt, chief counsel to the Communist Party USA, or by lawyers associated with the American Civil Liberties Union. Both Oswald and Ruth Paine tried to reach Abt by telephone several times Saturday and Sunday, but Abt was away for the weekend. Oswald also declined his brother Robert's offer on Saturday to obtain a local attorney.

During an interrogation with Captain Fritz, when asked are you a communist?, he replied: "No, I am not a Communist. I am a Marxist".