Captain Talbert. I would do so immediately. There is no one more concerned with finding out how Ruby got in the basement to shoot Oswald than myself, so, I am with you. I would love to find out how he got there.
Mr. Hubert. I certainly thank you, and on behalf of the Commission, I want to thank you for your cooperation and time.
TESTIMONY OF CHARLES OLIVER ARNETT
The testimony of Charles Oliver Arnett was taken at 8 p.m., on March 25, 1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office Building, Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex., by Mr. Burt W. Griffin, assistant counsel of the President's Commission. Robert T. Davis, assistant attorney general of Texas, was present.
Mr. Griffin. I am Burt Griffin, and I am a member of the advisory staff of the general counsel's office for the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. The Commission itself was set up under an Executive order issued by President Johnson and congressional resolution passed by Congress.
Pursuant to these official acts, the Commission itself has promulgated a set of rules of procedure, and under these rules of procedure I have been authorized to come here and take your sworn deposition. Captain Arnett, I want to explain to you a little bit of the general nature of our inquiry here. We are concerned with the assassination of President Kennedy and the final death of Lee Harvey Oswald, and we have been empowered and requested by the President to investigate all the facts and evaluate and then report this back to the President.
We have asked you to come here because we believe that you may have some facts that might be pertinent, particularly to the death of Lee Oswald. However, we are also concerned with the entire picture in the examination, and if there is anything that you think would be helpful to us, why, of course, we want to take that. Mr. Hubert and myself are not working on an intensive basis on the other aspects of things, outside of Ruby. So what I will do is ask you a few general things which might have some bearing upon the death of the President that would enable other people to look at it and see if you were somebody that might have information, and then we will get into the other problems.
Now, the mechanics by which we asked you to come here by, the general counsel of the Commission sent a letter to Chief Curry indicating that we would like to talk to you and certain other police officers. Actually, under the rules of the Commission you are entitled to have a written letter from the Commission, 3 days in advance of your testimony here, but the rules also provide that you can waive this notice. Before I swear you in, I would like to ask you if you are willing to waive the notice provision?