TESTIMONY OF GEORGE S. DE MOHRENSCHILDT (continued 2)

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Nothing for the oil field.

Mr. Jenner. But it takes a long time to get 165 miles.

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. 3 hours. But naturally I would go there on the weekend and come back. Probably they accuse me of spending all my time in Aspen. But, anyway, what finally happened is, good or bad, we decided to sever connections with the Rangely Engineering Committee. They decided to stop completely the Rangely Engineering Committee.

Mr. Jenner. You had some difficulties with them before they decided to break it up, didn't you?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. I don't remember too much of a difficulty.

Mr. Jenner. Was there something about your spending too much time over at Aspen, and not being——

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Well, they never told me that. But possibly.

Mr. Jenner. The severance of your relationship was mutual?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes, I think so. I don't think—you may call it I was fired, but I don't think so. As far as I remember, we just got together with the manager of Texaco in Denver and he told me, "George, we are just going to stop the operation at Rangely Field of the Engineering Committee."

I was the only one left, you see. So I said fine, stop it.

Mr. Jenner. And this was about when?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Well, I forgot to tell you. Since you are interested in my character—is that it?

Mr. Jenner. Yes, of course.

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. At Rangely. Colo., it stopped being an operating oil field, and it became a statistical job. When I moved there first it was the greatest boomtown and the greatest drilling place in the United States. We had 30 rigs going. It was very interesting.

Every day we had new problems. It was a very active life. Then at the end of my stay there was no work practically except to compile the statistical report. So naturally I started going to Aspen more often. I don't think I ever had any complaint against me.

Mr. Jenner. You were interested a great deal initially when the field was being developed.

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. That is right.

Mr. Jenner. When it degenerated, if I may use that term, into a statistical assembly, you lose interest, spent more time over at Aspen, and there were some disagreements about that, a difference of opinion, and your employers questioned it.

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. That is right.

Mr. Jenner. Was there any problem about your savoir-faire, for example, attitude with respect to keeping expenses?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Maybe so. But you know, our salary was very small there, and so we had to show certain expenses. They never questioned me. But possibly they considered my living expenses were too high. But I was the only one to do the job, instead of two. I kept the budget, more or less, at the same level, maybe lower.

Mr. Jenner. Now, you terminated your employment in January 1949, did you not?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. I think so. The date is not clear to me.

Mr. Jenner. Well, this may refresh your recollection.

Had you become an American citizen in the meantime?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes.

Mr. Jenner. And was that on the 11th of July 1949 at Denver?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes, in Denver, Colo.

Mr. Jenner. Now, your employment with the Rangely Oil Field Committee terminated after you became a citizen, did it not?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jenner. And does that refresh your recollection—it occurred about 6 months later?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. That is right.

Mr. Jenner. When your employment in the Rangely Oil Field Committee terminated, what did you do?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Then I realized that I could not remain married to Phyllis, because she was a girl of—who needed money, who needed a good way of life, needed luxury—she was used to luxury. And I asked her to go back to her parents, to New York, and that I will try to make a success out of—I decided to go on my own as a consultant—that I should try to make a success out of the consulting business.

But I just should do it by myself, without her being present. And so I moved to Denver, Colo., gave up that establishment in Aspen, and got some help from my friends, and with very little money I started my own consulting firm.

Mr. Jenner. In Denver?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes; in Denver.

Mr. Jenner. In the meantime, did the—was the marriage to Phyllis Washington terminated?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes; either in the meantime or just right at that time.

Mr. Jenner. Was that by her suit?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. No; by my suit.

Mr. Jenner. You filed the suit?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes.

Mr. Jenner. And where did you file that?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. In the court in Denver. She was gone. I returned in the meantime to see her, to see whether we can patch up things.

Mr. Jenner. You returned to New York City?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes; to see if we could patch up things. We became very good friends with the other side of her family, the Wassermans, very interesting people who are still good friends of mine. Bill Wasserman is a banker in New York, used to be ambassador to Australia during the Roosevelt administration, I think—or to New Zealand.

And, frankly, he also, and her aunt, who were taking care of her—because, in the meantime, her stepfather was in Europe, they had also their own difficulties.

Mr. Jenner. Their own marital difficulties?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes; they decided we better forget about this marriage. We remained very fond of each other. But we finally came to an agreement to have a divorce. And I filed a suit for divorce.

Mr. Jenner. When was that decree entered?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Well, that I do not remember.

Mr. Jenner. When did you get your divorce decree from Phyllis Washington?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. In a court in Denver, Colo., but I do not recall the date.

Mr. Jenner. 1949 or 1950?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Something around that.

Mr. Jenner. Were any children born of that marriage?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. No children. We were married in Grand Junction, Colo. And the divorce was entered—the reason was desertion, which was actually true, because she did not come back to me. She stayed in New York, or eventually—she drank, also, an awful lot. Today she is an alcoholic—poor girl.

Mr. Jenner. You entered the oil consulting business in Denver?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes. First of all, as just an ordinary consultant. I got helped by a friend of mine who has a small oil company in Denver.

Mr. Jenner. What was his name?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Jimmy Donahue. And he facilitated by giving his office, the secretary and so on. Because it is rather expensive to start on your own.

But very soon afterwards I started getting consulting jobs—doing evaluations on the wells and things like that. And one night—this will be interesting for you, how to start an oil business—one night I was driving through Oklahoma, tired as hell, and I said to myself, by God, everybody is making money in the oil business except me, I am just a flunky here for all these big operators—I should go in the oil business on my own, really in the oil business, drilling and producing, which was interesting to me. And then I recalled that my ex-nephew, Eddie Hooker, in New York, asked me to go in business with him. He had visited me in Colorado and was very much interested in the work I had done. I gave him a telephone call from some place in Oklahoma.

I said, "Eddie, how about it?"

He was working for Merrill Lynch at the time.

And he said, "George, I am ready. I am tired of Merrill Lynch."

Mr. Jenner. Merrill Lynch, Fenner and Beane at that time?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes. "I am tired of that Merrill Lynch, Fenner and Beane."

We formed a limited partnership together.

Mr. Jenner. And that is the partnership of Hooker and De Mohrenschildt?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes.

Mr. Jenner. And that was when—1950?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes; I think so—1950.

Mr. Jenner. And did it last very long?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. It lasted, I think, 3 years.

Mr. Jenner. About 2 years?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. 2 or 3 years.

Mr. Jenner. And——

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Now, we made money, we lost money, but it was a pleasant relationship. We are still very good friends.

Mr. Jenner. What did you do in connection with that partnership?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Well, I did buying of the leases, doing the drilling, and helped him in New York, also, to raise money.

Mr. Jenner. He handled the financial end, or raising of money end?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes.

Mr. Jenner. And you the field work?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes. Sometimes—we opened an office in New York, a small office. He was in New York most of the time. I was in Denver.

Our first well was a dry hole, a disastrous dry hole. But our second well was a producer. We made some production. But never anything big.

Mr. Jenner. Now——

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Eventually I returned to Texas from Denver, because I had always retained some good friends in Texas, and they suggested, one of them who participated in our well, first venture—suggested that, "George, you will do better in Texas, because Wyoming is too expensive"—a well costs $200,000 or $300,000 in Wyoming, you know—in Wyoming or Colorado.

Mr. Jenner. Now, when you were in partnership with Mr. Hooker, your field work and discovery work was in Wyoming and Colorado, is that correct?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. No. We started by drilling our first well in Wyoming, operating from Denver. And we had—we were snowbound there, we paid the rig time for a hell of a long time. To make the story short, our first venture was quite a failure. One of the reasons we finally split partnership with Eddie Hooker is that he is a very wealthy boy. He comes from a very wealthy family. And he wanted the oil business to make millions.

My reason to be in the oil business is to make a reasonable living, and eventually build up some production.

On our first venture in Wyoming, on the very first one, after we bought the leases, and before starting drilling, we got an offer from another company to sell out for a very substantial profit, without drilling a well—they would do it. Naturally, I told Ed we should do that instead of running a tremendous risk of drilling our own well. Well, he said if they want to buy it it means that we have something there, the usual story.

I was a little more conservative—I said better sell out and try to find something less risky.

He said if we hit it, we are millionaires right away—which was true—we had a huge block, of 12,000 acres, something like that.

Well, from then on, the next venture was in Texas, and we drilled quite a few successful wells, quite a few dry holes, too.

Mr. Jenner. You returned to Texas?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes.

Mr. Jenner. What year?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Abilene, Tex., we had the headquarters—that was the center of the small size independent operators at the time.

Mr. Jenner. What was the name of the hotel at which you stayed?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Wooten Hotel.

Mr. Jenner. And the partnership was still in existence?

Mr. De Mohrenschildt. Yes. Our partnership was broken up after I married Miss Sharples. It was, frankly, a personal thing.

Mr. Jenner. I think this is a good time to stop, because that is the next phase I want to get into. We can go to lunch.

(Whereupon, at 12:35 p.m., the proceeding was recessed.)