TESTIMONY OF FRANKIE KAISER

The testimony of Frankie Kaiser was taken at 2:30 p.m., on April 8, 1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office Building, Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex., by Mr. Joseph A. Ball, assistant counsel of the President's Commission.

Mr. Ball. Will you hold up your right hand and be sworn, please?

Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give before the Commission shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. Kaiser. I do.

Mr. Ball. Will you give me your name, please?

Mr. Kaiser. Frankie Kaiser.

Mr. Ball. What is your address?

Mr. Kaiser. 5230 West Ledbetter in Duncanville.

Mr. Ball. What is your occupation?

Mr. Kaiser. Warehouse workman at the Texas School Book Depository.

Mr. Ball. How long have you worked for that company?

Mr. Kaiser. Oh, just about 2 years.

Mr. Ball. What time do you go to work down there?

Mr. Kaiser. Eight o'clock in the morning.

Mr. Ball. What date did you go to work for them?

Mr. Kaiser. It was August 24, 1962.

Mr. Ball. Where did you go to school?

Mr. Kaiser. Texas—Texarkana, Ark.

Mr. Ball. Were you born there?

Mr. Kaiser. No, sir; I was born in Omaha, Nebr.

Mr. Ball. And then you went to school in Texarkana, did you?

Mr. Kaiser. Right.

Mr. Ball. And what did you do after you got out of school?

Mr. Kaiser. I never finished.

Mr. Ball. How far did you go?

Mr. Kaiser. I went to the tenth grade and quit and went in the service and went in for 6 months in the National Guards and come out and then came to Dallas and started to work and I worked for Morrises.

Mr. Ball. You worked for whom?

Mr. Kaiser. Morris Warehouse.

Mr. Ball. Then what did you do after that?

Mr. Kaiser. I worked there for about 3 years and then I started to work over there.

Mr. Ball. You started to work over at the Texas School Book Depository?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes—then I got married.

Mr. Ball. You did—what kind of work do you do at the Texas School Book Depository?

Mr. Kaiser. Drive a truck—fill orders—just about anything that needs to be done.

Mr. Ball. Did you ever know a fellow by the name of Lee Oswald that worked there?

Mr. Kaiser. Not personally—I would know him when I would see him.

Mr. Ball. Did you work in the same building with him?

Mr. Kaiser. Same building.

Mr. Ball. Where were you when the President's parade went by?

Mr. Kaiser. At the Baylor Dental College.

Mr. Ball. Where?

Mr. Kaiser. At the Baylor Dental College.

Mr. Ball. Sir, you weren't anywhere near the School Book Depository?

Mr. Kaiser. No, sir; I was off Thursday and Friday with abscessed tooth. I was sitting in the chair and when I got off, we was out in the lobby watching it on TV down at the dental college there.

Mr. Ball. When did you go back to work?

Mr. Kaiser. It was the following Monday.

Mr. Ball. That would be the 25th, wouldn't it?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, sir; I believe so—the 25th.

Mr. Ball. Now, one day you found a clipboard, didn't you?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes; it was about a week later. I went upstairs, you see, the corner I found it in—we keep a certain teacher's edition of Catholic handbooks.

Mr. Ball. I didn't quite hear that—Catholic what?

Mr. Kaiser. We keep our teacher's edition of Catholic "Think and Do" books.

Mr. Ball. I didn't quite hear that—Catholic what?

Mr. Kaiser. We keep our teacher's edition of Catholic books—separated.

Mr. Ball. You do?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, sir; and I went up there to get a teacher's edition.

Mr. Ball. On what floor?

Mr. Kaiser. On the sixth floor.

Mr. Ball. Now, what part of the sixth floor is this Catholic edition located?

Mr. Kaiser. It was in that corner.

Mr. Ball. And in what corner is that?

Mr. Kaiser. Let's see——

Mr. Ball. Without saying north or south, was it near the elevator? Or the stairway?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, it was right in front of the elevator.

Mr. Ball. Where was it with reference to the stairway?

Mr. Kaiser. It was right next to the stairway—right in the corner.

Mr. Ball. Right in the corner next to the stairway, is that right?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, sir.

Mr. Ball. Now, what day did you find it, do you remember?

Mr. Kaiser. I couldn't tell you. It was about a week or a week and a half, somewhere in there.

Mr. Ball. Now, this statement you gave to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the 2d of December 1963, says you talked to an agent named Pinkston; do you remember that?

Mr. Kaiser. Well, I got my boss and the FBI to go upstairs and I showed it to them.

Mr. Ball. When you saw the clipboard——

Mr. Kaiser. I went downstairs and got my boss.

Mr. Ball. What is his name?

Mr. Kaiser. William H. Shelley.

Mr. Ball. And then what happened?

Mr. Kaiser. This FBI was standing there with me—he was standing there then and I told him I had a clipboard laying up there with the orders.

Mr. Ball. Do you think it would have been around December 2?

Mr. Kaiser. I couldn't tell you, sir.

Mr. Ball. It was within a week after you went back to work, was it?

Mr. Kaiser. To my best knowledge—yes, sir—somewhere in there.

Mr. Ball. How did you happen to find the clipboard?

Mr. Kaiser. I was over there looking for the Catholic edition—teacher's edition.

Mr. Ball. Where did you see the clipboard?

Mr. Kaiser. It was just laying there in the plain open—and just the plain open boxes—you see, we've got a pretty good space back there and I just noticed it laying over there.

Mr. Ball. Laying on the floor?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, it was laying on the floor.

Mr. Ball. It was on the floor?

Mr. Kaiser. It was on the floor.

Mr. Ball. How close was it to the wall?

Mr. Kaiser. It was about—oh—I would say, just guessing, about 5 or 6 inches, something like that.

Mr. Ball. From the wall and on the floor?

Mr. Kaiser. Laying on the floor.

Mr. Ball. And were there any boxes between the wall and the clipboard?

Mr. Kaiser. No, not between the wall and the clipboard—there wasn't.

Mr. Ball. Were there boxes between the stairway and the clipboard?

Mr. Kaiser. No, you see, here's—let me see just a second—here's the stairs right here, and we went down this way and here's the stairs this way going up and here's the—and it was laying right in here by the cards—there are about four or five cards, I guess, running in front of it—just laying between the part you go down and the part you go up.

Mr. Ball. You mean laying between the stairway up and the stairway down?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, right there in the corner.

Mr. Ball. Did you examine that clipboard?

Mr. Kaiser. I didn't touch it.

Mr. Ball. Did you later touch it?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, sir; they got me to look at it later on.

Mr. Ball. Did you see it had some orders on it?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes.

Mr. Ball. And were the orders dated?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, sir.

Mr. Ball. What were they dated?

Mr. Kaiser. I couldn't tell you, sir.

Mr. Ball. Take a look at this statement which you gave to Mr. Pinkston that day and read it to yourself and see if it refreshes your memory in any way?

Mr. Kaiser. (Read statement referred to.)

Mr. Ball. Did you read that?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, sir.

Mr. Ball. Does that refresh your memory now as to the orders on the clipboard?

Mr. Kaiser. I didn't know the date on the orders—I knew that there was some orders on there—I seen the orders on the clipboard.

Mr. Ball. Did you examine them to determine the date on them?

Mr. Kaiser. Did I examine those orders? No, sir.

Mr. Ball. You didn't examine the orders?

Mr. Kaiser. No, sir; I just went down and got my boss and then they took it down.

Mr. Ball. Did you make any notes of the orders?

Mr. Kaiser. I didn't, sir.

Mr. Ball. Of either the names on the orders or the date of the orders?

Mr. Kaiser. No, sir; now, my boss may have.

Mr. Ball. I think that's all. Did you fill the orders, then, yourself?

Mr. Kaiser. No, sir; not them, I didn't.

Mr. Ball. You turned these over to your boss?

Mr. Kaiser. You see, I went down and got them and they went down and got them and they handled them.

Mr. Ball. That's all, Mr. Kaiser, and thanks very much for coming up.

This will be written up and you can come down and read it over and sign it if you wish, or you can waive your signature, if you want to, and we can send it on without a signature.

Now, we will mark these pictures we've been talking about here in your deposition as Kaiser Exhibits Nos. A, B, C.

(Marked by reporter as Kaiser Exhibits Nos. A, B, C, for identification.)

Mr. Kaiser. Anything else I can do, let me know.

Mr. Ball. Do you want to waive your signature to it?

Mr. Kaiser. Yes, I'll waive it.

Mr. Ball. Fine. That's okay.

Mr. Kaiser. All right.