Mr. Rankin. Did he seem to have two different personalities then?
Mrs. Oswald. Yes.
Mr. Rankin. Would you describe to the Commission what he did to cause you to think that he was changing?
Mrs. Oswald. Generally he was—usually he was quite as he always was. He used to help me. And he was a good family man. Sometimes, apparently without reason, at least I did not know reasons, if any existed, he became quite a stranger. At such times it was impossible to ask him anything. He simply kept to himself. He was irritated by trifles.
Mr. Rankin. Do you recall any of the trifles that irritated him, so as to help us to know the picture?
Mrs. Oswald. It is hard to remember any such trifling occurrences, sometimes such a small thing as, for example, dinner being five minutes late, and I do mean five minutes—it is not that I am exaggerating—he would be very angry. Or if there were no butter on the table, because he hadn't brought it from the icebox, he would with great indignation ask, "Why is there no butter?" And at the same time if I had put the butter on the table he wouldn't have touched it.
This is foolishness, of course. A normal person doesn't get irritated by things like that.
Mr. Rankin. Mrs. Oswald, I do not ask these questions to pry into your personal affairs, but it gives us some insight into what he did and why he might have done the things he did.
I hope you understand that.
Mrs. Oswald. I understand.