Oswald's Tale

by Norman Mailer

  McMillan: Marina was to be twenty-two on July 17, and Lee had promised her something special, a dress or a new pair of shoes. He . . . returned home as usual, oblivious of the date. Over supper Marina looked morose, and he asked her why. “Today was my birthday,” she said.

  A few minutes later, Lee said, “Come on. Let’s go out.”

  “The stores are closed now anyway,” she answered without enthusiasm.

  He took her to the drugstore across the street and bought her face powder and a Coca-Cola.

  The next day he gave her his news . . . 5

  After he lost his job at the coffee factory, Lee stopped shaving on weekends. Sometimes he would not even shave on a weekday. Sometimes he brushed his teeth only at night. He didn’t wash his face in the morning. He would sit in a chair for three days melting away. One night he began to talk in his sleep again.

  McMillan: . . . when he took a bath, he even stopped using soap. He just sat listlessly in the bathtub until he could stir himself to get out. “I’m not dirty,” he would say . . . He would burp at meals without excusing himself . . . His breath got bad and Marina used to beg him to brush his teeth, especially if he was going to kiss her. “You’re my wife. You’re supposed to love me any way I am,” and he would come at her, his mouth open, breathing as hard as he could.6

  It is possible that part of Lee’s anxiety was that he was going to give a lecture on July 27 at a Jesuit seminary in Mobile, Alabama, and this could prove to be a severe test. He would be speaking before college seminarians who were, at the least, not sympathetic to his ideas.

  On July 6, a letter had been sent to him by his cousin Gene Murret, who was studying to enter the priesthood.

  Dear Lee and Marina,

  Here at the House of Studies during the summer months we have a series of lectures [that] deal with art, literature, economics, religion, politics, etc. We usually have a speaker every one or two weeks on a Saturday or Sunday night. Since we are studying philosophy, most of us are interested in the various phases of Communism, as this is a very timely and practical subject.

  We were hoping you might come over to talk to us about contemporary Russia and the practice of Communism there. [Our best time] to have you speak, if you are willing, is on Saturday night, July 27. The talk usually begins at 7 and lasts for about an hour. Then there is a five minute intermission and the speaker returns for a question period which may last a half-hour or so . . . be assured we want you to feel at home talking to us . . . 7

  On July 27, Dutz and Lillian Murret drove Lee and Marina to the House of Studies at Spring Hill College, Mobile. Since the women were not allowed to be part of the seminarians’ audience, they were given instead a tour of the grounds.

  Before they separated, Aunt Lillian asked Lee if he had prepared any notes in order to leave himself less prone to be nervous, and he, whether ready to lie or feeling confident, said, “Oh, don’t worry about me. I give talks all the time.”8 In his daydreams, he had certainly given many public talks.

  The only record we have of Lee’s performance comes from FBI interviews in 1964 with two of the priests who were present:

  Father MULLEN said that OSWALD conducted himself very well [and] spoke very well and he at the time thought he was a college graduate.

  He further recalled that whenever the subject of religion came up, OSWALD passed it off and would not comment on it. He said he definitely received the impression OSWALD was an atheist.9

  Father JOHN F. MOORE, S.J., Professor of Logic and Epistemology, Jesuit House of Studies . . . advised that OSWALD was not an outstanding speaker but in his opinion was just fair. He said OSWALD used no notes whatsoever during his talk, but handled himself very well. He said he definitely received the impression OSWALD had at least a college education. He also said OSWALD did not appear to be prosperous, but was casually dressed in sports clothing. He further informed that to the best of his recollection OSWALD made no statements indicating he was in favor of a revolution and he did not receive the impression OSWALD was a violent individual.10

  The FBI report goes on to give a summary of the question-and-answer period that followed Oswald’s lecture:

  Q:

  What does atheism do to morality? How can you have morality without God?

  A:

  No matter whether people believe in God or not, they will do what they want to do. The Russian people don’t need a god for morality; they are naturally very moral, honest, faithful in marriage.

  Q:

  What is the sexual morality in comparison with the United States?

  A:

  It is better in Russia than in the United States. Its foundation there is the good of the state.

  Q:

  What impressed you most about Russia? What did you like most?

  A:

  The care that the state provides for everyone. If a man gets sick, no matter what his status is, how poor he is, the state will take care of him.

  Q:

  What impresses you most about the United States?

  A:

  The material prosperity. In Russia it is very hard to buy even a suit or a pair of shoes, and even when you can get them, they are very expensive.

  Q:

  What do the Russian people think of Khrushchev? Do they like him better than Stalin?

  A:

  They like Khrushchev much better. He is a working man, a peasant. An example of the kind of things he does: Once at a party broadcast over the radio he had had a little too much to drink and he began to swear over the radio. That’s the kind of thing he does.

  Q:

  What about religion among the young people in Russia?

  A:

  Religion is dead among the youth of Russia.

  Q:

  Why did you return to the United States? (The question was not asked in exactly this way, but this is its content.)

  A:

  When he saw that Russia was lacking, he wanted to come back to the United States, which is so much better off materially. He still held the ideals of the Soviets, was still a Marxist, but did not like the widespread lack of material goods that the Russians had to endure. [He also] praised the Soviets for rebuilding so much and for concentrating on heavy industry. He said at one point that if the Negroes in the United States knew it was so good in Russia, they’d want to go there.

  Another question:

  Q:

  Why don’t the Russians see they are being indoctrinated and they are being denied the truth by these jamming stations?

  A:

  They are convinced that such contact would harm them and would be dangerous. They are convinced that the state is doing them a favor by denying them access to Western radio broadcasts.11

  While Marina does not recall his mood on their return from Mobile, odds are that Oswald had to be a bit impressed with himself, for when they began to talk about the new baby who would be born in October, he was not only convinced that it would be a boy but that he would know just how to bring him up.

  McMillan: “I’ll make a President out of my son.” He had spoken this way before the birth of his first child, and again . . . before he tried to shoot General Walker. But now, he went a step further. He said that in twenty years’ time, he would be President or prime minister. It did not seem to matter that America has no prime minister.12

  Perhaps he was thinking of an entirely new structure of government. The Atheian system was going to produce great changes in America.

  7

  Out of Omens Come Events

  Somewhere around the end of July, Oswald sent the following letter to FPCC headquarters in New York:

  Dear Mr. Lee,

  I was glad to receive your advice concerning my try at starting a New Orleans FPCC Chapter. I hope you won’t be too disapproving at my innovations, but I do think they are necessary for this area.

  As per your advice, I have taken a P.O. box (no. 30061).

  Against your advice, I have decided to take an office from
the very beginning.

  As you see from the circular, I had jumped the gun on the charter business but I don’t think it is too important; you may think the circular is too provocative, but I want it to attract attention, even if it’s the attention of the lunatic fringe. I had 2,000 of them run off . . . .

  In any event, I will keep you posted, and even if the office only stays open for one month, more people will find out about the FPCC than if there had never been any office at all . . . 1

  As he told the Warren Commission, V. T. Lee was sufficiently dismayed by this letter to cease corresponding with Oswald:

  MR. LEE . . . .he had gone ahead and acted on his own without any authorization . . . when somebody writes to you and says they would like to help you, your immediate response is, “Well, wonderful. Here is a new contact in a new part of the hinterlands and, gee, I hope things work out.” And then, when somebody goes off like this, violating all the rules that you send him, it comes as quite a disappointment because you had hopes. Obviously, this man was not operating in an official capacity for the organization.2

  Oswald, however, was as yet unaware that his last letter had ruptured relations:

  Dear Mr. Lee,

  In regards to my efforts to start a branch of FPCC in New Orleans.

  I rented an office as I planned and was promptly closed three days later for some obscure reasons by the renters, they said something about remodeling, etc; I’m sure you understand. After that I worked out of a post office box and by using street demonstrations and some circular work have sustained a great deal of interest but no new members.

  Through the efforts of some Cuban-exile “gusanos,” a street demonstration was attacked and we were officially cautioned by the police. The incident robbed me of what support I had, leaving me alone.

  Nevertheless, thousands of circulars were distributed and many, many pamphlets which your office supplied.

  We also managed to picket the fleet when it came in and I was surprised in the number of officers who were interested on our literature.

  I continue to receive through my post office box inquiries and questions which I shall endeavor to keep answering to the best of my ability.

  Thank you,

  Lee H. Oswald3

  McMillan: The letter was dated August 1 and postmarked August 4 and it contains not a single true fact apart from the reference to picketing the fleet, which had occurred a month and a half before.

  The uncanny thing . . . is that on Monday, August 5, the day after he mailed it, Lee started to bring [into being some of the] events he had just described.4

  The essence of magic is to exist in a state of consciousness where past and future seem interchangeable. Classical Hebrew, for example, has only two tenses: There is the present, and then there is another tense which barely distinguishes between past and future. To indicate a past action, it is enough to say, “I went”; yet, to speak of the future, one need only add the word “and” as in, “and I went,” and it becomes equal to “I will go.” A primitive sense of existence is suggested—one that would transgress our modern separation between the real and the imaginary. In such an ancient grammar, yesterday’s events are not seen as facts which have already occurred so much as intimations of the future, that is, omens received from a dream. In that primitive world, the events of yesterday mix in one’s memory with the portents of last night’s dream. To say, therefore, that you have done something which you have not yet done becomes the first and essential step in shaping the future. Out of omens come events. It is as if the future cannot exist without an a priori delineation of it. God conceives of the world, then makes it. The cabalistic sense is that in His act of conceiving the world, God has already made it. (The rest is details!)

  Let us repeat one sentence from Oswald’s letter to V. T. Lee. “Through the efforts of some Cuban-exile ‘gusanos,’ a street demonstration was attacked and we were officially cautioned by the police.” That was written on August 1.

  MR. BRINGUIER. Well, the first day that I saw Lee Harvey Oswald was on August 5, 1963, but before we go any deeper in this matter about Oswald, I think that I would like to explain to you . . . my feeling at the moment.

  MR. LIEBELER. That is perfectly all right. Go ahead.

  MR. BRINGUIER . . . . you see, in August 24, 1962, my organization, the Cuban Student Directorate, carry on a shelling of Havana, and a few days later a person from the FBI contacted me here in New Orleans—his name was Warren C. deBrueys. Mr. deBrueys was talking to me in the Thompson Cafeteria. At that moment I was the only one from the Cuban Student Directorate here in the city and he was asking me about my activities . . . and when I told him that I was the only one, he didn’t believe it, and he advised me—and I quote, “We could infiltrate your organization and find out what you are doing here.” My answer to him was, “Well, you will have to infiltrate myself, because I am the only one.” . . .

  After that, after my conversation with deBrueys, I was always waiting that maybe someone will come to infiltrate my organization from the FBI [so] when Oswald came to me on August 5[1963], I had inside myself the feeling, well, maybe this is from the FBI, or maybe this is a Communist, [but] I only had that [as a] feeling on August 5 because 4 days later I was convinced that Oswald was not an FBI agent but that he was a pro-Castro agent.

  . . . Now that day, on August 5, I was talking in the store with one young American—the name of him is Philip Geraci—and 5 minutes later Mr. Oswald came inside the store [while] I was explaining to Geraci that . . . he was too young, that if he want to distribute literature against Castro, I would give him the literature but not admit him to the fight.

  At that moment also . . . Oswald start to agree with my point of view and he show real interest in the fight against Castro. He told me that he was against Castro and that he was against communism [and] he asked me first for some English literature against Castro . . .

  After that, Oswald told me that he had been in the Marine Corps and that he had been training in guerrilla warfare and that he was willing to train Cubans to fight against Castro. Even more, he told me that he was willing to go himself . . . . That was on August 5.

  I turned down his offer. I told him that . . . my only duties here in New Orleans are propaganda and information and not military activities. That was my answer to him [but] before he left the store, he put his hand in the pocket and he offered me money.

  MR. LIEBELER. Oswald did?

  MR. BRINGUIER. Yes.

  MR. LIEBELER. How much did he offer you?

  MR. BRINGUIER. Well, I don’t know. As soon as he put the hand in the pocket and he told me, “Well, at least let me contribute to your group with some money,” at that moment I didn’t have the permit from the city hall here in New Orleans to collect money in the city, and I told him that I could not accept . . . he could send the money directly to the headquarters . . . and I gave him the number of the post office box . . . in Miami.5

  The youth, Philip Geraci, who Bringuier had decided was too young to join the active fight, offers in his testimony a closer account of the conversation with Oswald:

  MR. GERACI . . . .he came in and said, “Excuse me,” and you know, he acted a little nervous and things like that. He asked, “Is this the Cuban headquarters, Cuban exile headquarters?” . . . And Carlos said yes; . . . and then Oswald said something like, “It is kind of exciting meeting . . . somebody who is a real Cuban exile, you know, someone who is really trying to do something to help free Cuba and all that.” . . . Carlos just answered real simply [and] didn’t go into any big speeches, [then Carlos had to go] and that left Oswald, me, and Vance [my friend] by ourselves.

  Then, well, we asked—you know, we were a little interested in guerrilla warfare . . . and he said, well, he was an ex-Marine . . . He said he learned a little bit about that stuff . . . I remember, like he said the way to derail a train was to wrap chain around the ties of the track and then lock it with a padlock and the train would derail. He said the thing he liked
best of all was learning how to blow up the Huey P. Long Bridge. He said you put explosive at each end on the banks and blow it up, and that leaves the one column standing. And he said how to make a homemade gun and how to make gunpowder, homemade gunpowder . . . He didn’t really go into detail or anything. We didn’t ask him. And by this time, Carlos came back . . . and he was listening, and, well, that is about all.

  Oh, there was one important thing. Oswald said something like that he had a military manual from when he was in the Marines, and he said he would give it to me, and I said, “That is all right. You don’t have to. You can give it to Carlos.” He said, “Well, OK, he will give it to Carlos next time he comes.”6

  Four days later, this scene would take on considerable significance for Carlos Bringuier:

  MR. BRINGUIER . . . . Next day, on August 6, Oswald came back to the store . . . and he left with my brother-in-law a Guidebook for Marines for me with the name “L. H. Oswald” in the top of the first page. When I came back to the store . . . . I found interest in it and I keep it, and later . . . on August 9 I was coming back to the store at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and one friend of mine with the name of Celso Hernandez came in to me and told me that in Canal Street there was a young man carrying a sign telling “Viva Fidel” in Spanish . . . At that moment was in the store another Cuban with the name of Miguel Cruz, and we went all three . . . to Canal Street to find the guy . . . but we could not [so] I went back to the store [and then] Miguel Cruz came running and told me that the guy was another time in Canal Street and that Celso was watching him over there.