Mr. Jenner. That is a masterpiece of understatement, isn't it?
Mrs. Paine. Yes; it certainly is. It astounded me. I said that—I repeated that I had not seen it and did not know how I might possibly have sent this to Marina Oswald. I asked if he thought the note was current, and he did not say.
We went on for some time with Mr. Gopadze—this in Russian—saying that "Mrs. Paine, it would be well for you to be absolutely frank and tell us exactly what happened" and my saying in turn to Mr. Gopadze, "I am. What more can I do than what I have said." And finally we went over to English and included Mr. Patterson in the conversation, and he volunteered this note had been in a book. Then I realized what must have happened is that I did send Marina Oswald a book, and described my having sent this to the Irving police and the Secret Service. And that seemed to clear up the mystery for all of us. And they left.
Then I don't recall whether this first reference to General Walker having been shot at was before or after this incident, but I am certain I made no connection between the two. It was not until it was reported by the Houston Chronicle that there was a note written by Lee Oswald at the time of the attempt on Walker's life, and they also reported some of the content of that note and included a reference to a post office box, that I made a connection to the note that had been shown me by Mr. Gopadze.
I bring this up because I was irritated by Mr. John Thorne's statement to me that he thought that I was probably the one to have given the Houston Chronicle information about this note. I was sufficiently irritated that I called the Houston Chronicle and spoke to the executive editor, asked if he could tell me who had given them this information. He said no, he could not. I said that I was curious, because someone had thought that I had. He said, "We can certainly tell anyone that you did not." But I don't think Mr. Thorne was interested enough to have made such a call himself.
Mr. Jenner. Do you recall doing some shopping on the morning of the 9th after you had gone to the driver's license bureau and found it closed?
Mrs. Paine. Yes, we shopped at a dime store immediately adjacent, or in the same shopping center as the driver's license bureau.
Mr. Jenner. And some few small articles were purchased?
Mrs. Paine. That is right.
Mr. Jenner. And you arrived home when—about noon?