(7 of 9)
At Marina's suggestion, Oswald took a bus for New Orleans that month to look for a job. Marina and her baby went to live with Ruth Paine. Marina was two months pregnant. "She stayed then about two weeks," says Ruth. "During the day, we would do the normal things, washing diapers, folding clothes, talking. She was interested in how Americans cook. She was particularly interested in all the spices and condiments. I taught her how to use seasoning, salt and soy sauce and so forth. She taught me to use dill weed in making a good creamed chicken dish." On Thursday, May 9, Oswald called from New Orleans and said he had found a job. Mrs. Paine piled Marina and Junie and her own two children into her Chevrolet station wagon and drove to New Orleans. In September, Ruth drove again to New Orleans, took Marina and Junie home with her.
It was just as well, for Oswald was in more trouble. He had lost his job, had tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate a Cuban anti-Castro group, then started handing out pro-Castro propaganda, and was arrested for disturbing the peace. He had also decided to go to Cuba, and then perhaps again to Russia.
Last Job. With Marina on her way to Dallas, Oswald left New Orleans without paying his apartment rent. A few days later he turned up at the Cuban consulate in Mexico City. He demanded a visa, was told that it would take time, stormed out in anger. Next he went to the Soviet consulate and asked for a Russian visa. Again he was told that there would be a delay, and again he stomped out. On Oct. 4 he called Marina at the Paine house. He was in Dallas and hoped to find a job, and he asked if he could visit the Paine suburban home on weekends.
"Usually," recalls Ruth Paine, "he would hitchhike out. He would watch television. He liked the World War II movies, and he simply loved football. He'd watch the college football games on Saturday and the pro games on Sunday, lying there on the floor, usually dressed in a white T shirt and slacks. He went looking for a job, and I gave him a city map of the Dallas-Fort Worth area —that infamous map—so he could find the places." After Kennedy's death that map was found in Oswald's room.
Ruth Paine landed Oswald his last job. From a neighbor she heard of an opening at the Texas Book Depository on Elm Street in Dallas. She called the warehouse and recommended Lee. That day, Oct. 14, Lee took an $8-a-week room in a boardinghouse on North Beckley Avenue. He gave his name as O. H. Lee. Next day he was hired at the warehouse. On Oct. 20 his second daughter, Rachel, was born.
Curtain Rods. Lee continued to visit Marina only on weekends, but mostly to sleep and to watch television; she once confided to a friend that he had intercourse with her only about once every two months. Also during this time he hid his rifle, wrapped in a blanket, in the Paine garage. Marina knew it was there. But realizing that Ruth, a strong pacifist, would object, she said nothing about it.
On Thursday, Nov. 21, Oswald turned up at the house unexpectedly. He went to bed at 9 p.m., while Ruth and Marina stayed up and talked. Next morning Lee was up and gone before anyone else in the household was awake. He caught a ride to Dallas with a coworker, Wesley Frazier. He carried a long object wrapped in brown paper. "Curtain rods," he explained.