For example, he had gone to Russia and he didn't like it there, he had gone back to Fort Worth and he didn't like it there. He didn't seem to like any place that he was, he didn't seem to make lasting friendships with anybody. And he would hop from one job to another, and move from one town to another. He never seemed to be satisfied and I considered his whole behavior rather erratic, and I suppose the main reason was, I felt that he had no desire to support, and I felt this prior to the assassination, he had no desire to support his wife and child, and he wanted and would be quite willing to sponge off anybody to get their support, and this was my primary reason for not wanting to associate with him rather than any political feelings he had.
Mr. Liebeler. How did these things lead you to think that he was not capable of doing the assassination or that he just went there to get involved?
Mr. Ford. Prior to the assassination I never even considered the possibility of his killing a man but if somebody had asked me prior to the assassination, I would have answered no, I don't think he would kill anybody. But I don't think I really even considered it.
Mr. Liebeler. You would have——
Mr. Ford. When the President was assassinated.
Mr. Liebeler. And you would have based that response on the things you mentioned already.
Is there anything else you would have based that reason on?
Mr. Ford. Well, it is difficult to say. My general opinion of the man was that he was strange and he did a lot of things I couldn't understand but I had no reason to think he would attack a person with the intent to kill him.
As far as I knew there was nothing he had ever done before that that would indicate he would ever kill anybody. I don't know how you tell ahead of time whether a man can commit murder. I was never worried about him going out and killing somebody: say I would have never said prior to the assassination that you have got to watch out for this guy, he is dangerous. He didn't impress me that way.
Mr. Liebeler. You had information prior to the assassination that he had beaten his wife, did you not?