Mr. Liebeler. Did you and your wife on the way home from this shopping trip discuss the apprehension of Lee Oswald and his implication in the affair?
Mr. Ford. Well, I told her the police had picked him up, and that he was apparently being held both for the assassination of the President and for shooting a police officer, and my wife was a little bit worried then, I think, about the people's reaction to the children, and she said, well, "Don't mention it in front of the children."
By the time we got home, I believe Linda, my stepdaughter, had already talked on the phone to Mrs. Anna Ray, who had also heard the radio broadcast and called up to ask if my wife had heard it, and, of course, by then it was too late, they knew who Lee Oswald was, they read who he was, that Marina stayed at our house.
Mr. Liebeler. Then if I understand it you and your wife voluntarily went down to police headquarters?
Mr. Ford. Well, the next Sunday.
Mr. Liebeler. Two days later?
Mr. Ford. Yes; the assassination was on a Friday afternoon. On Sunday morning, Mr. Frank Ray called me and said he heard on the radio that the FBI had requested anybody who knew Lee Oswald to please contact them, and he asked me what I was going to do, I said, "Well, I don't know, I will call an attorney and see what he suggests." I called Max Clark at Fort Worth and he was out, so I called my sister out in Los Angeles. She is an attorney and married to one, and I said, "Who are you supposed to contact if you know information about Lee Oswald," and she said she assumed it would be the FBI, so I then called the FBI office and made an appointment to talk to an agent and we made the appointment to talk in the FBI office in downtown Dallas. While we were driving downtown I stopped to get some gas and the attendant told me that somebody had just shot Lee Oswald and it was right about that time that I went down to talk with the FBI.
Mr. Liebeler. In this interval between your first reaction and your going to the interview with the FBI, did you and your wife discuss any further the Oswald implications?
Mr. Ford. I am sure we discussed it, but I can't remember exactly what we said to each other about it.
I think she was worried at first that her children would suffer some prejudice from other people.