[104-10423-10337.pdf — page 33]
We wanted to know whether he had been recruited by the Soviet governmentas an intelligence agent, which is a frequent and constant practice. There isnot a year goes by but that individuals and groups of individuals, sometimes onthese cultural exchanges, go through Russia and recruits are enlisted by theRussian intelligence, usually through blackmail. The individual is threatenedthat if he doesn't come back to this country and work for them they will exposethe fact that he is a homosexual or a degenerate or has been indiscrete.Pictures are usually taken of individuals who become implicated in that sortof thing, so the individual is really desperate. Such blackmail has occurredyear after year for some time.In Oswald's case we had no suspicion that any pressure like that had beenbrought to bear on him because he had gone voluntarily and had obviouslywanted to live in Russia and had married a Russian woman.After those interviews had been completed, the next incident was the difficultyhe had at New Orleans. We were concerned there as to whether he wasfunctioning officially for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee which was financedand supported by Castro and Castro's government, and if he was, where heobtained money and with whom he had dealt.He apparently had the leaflets printed himself on plain ordinary paper. Therewas no reason for us, then, to have any suspicion that he had any element ofdanger in him.However, we did not ignore or forget the fact that he was still in the country.We kept track of him when he went from New Orleans to Dallas, and thatwas one of the reasons why Hosty went to the home of Mrs. Paine. She toldus where Oswald was working, at the Texas book house. Hosty gave her histelephone number and his name so that if there was any information or anycontact she wanted to make she could phone him at the Dallas office.Mrs. Oswald, the wife, took down the license number of Hosty's car whichwas incorrect only in one digit. The name, the telephone number, and theautomobile license were later found in Oswald's memorandum book.However, that in itself was not significant because many times we will goto see a person and tell him now, "If you think of anything you want to tellus or you have any information you want to give us, here are my name andaddress, telephone number, and call me," and that is what was done with Mrs.Paine because Hosty wasn't there at the time. He was at work.Incidentally, those items in Oswald's notebook requiring investigative at-tention were first set out in an investigative report of our Dallas Office datedDecember 23, 1963. This report was not prepared for this Commission butrather for investigative purposes of the FBI and, therefore, the informationconcerning Hosty's name, telephone number and license number was not in-cluded in the report as the circumstances under which Hosty's name, et cetera,appeared in Oswald's notebook were fully known to the FBI.After our investigative report of December 23, 1963, was furnished to theCommission, we noted that Agent Hosty's name did not appear in the report.In order that there would be a complete reporting of all items in Oswald's note-book, this information was incorporated in another investigative report of ourDallas Office, dated February 11, 1964. Both of the above-mentioned reportswere furnished to the Commission prior to any inquiry concerning this matterby the President's Commission.There was nothing up to the time of the assassination that gave any indica-tion that this man was a dangerous character who might do harm to the Presi-dent or to the Vice President. Up to that time, as has been indicated.Mr. RANKIN. Mr. Hoover, may I interrupt, you said Hosty was not there atthe time, he was at work—did you mean Mr. Oswald?Mr. HOOVER. That was my mistake. I meant Mr. Oswald. Hosty talked withMrs. Paine and Mrs. Oswald. Mrs. Paine speaks Russian and she could inter-pret for her.Oswald was at the Texas Book Co., and then, as I say, Hosty left his tele-phone number and name, and Mrs. Oswald for some reason took down thelicense number. I don't know whether she was convinced this was an agentof the FBI, or why she did it.