Jan. 14, 1964 - The mother of Lee Harvey Oswald said today she had retained a New York lawyer to represent her son before the Federal commission investigating the assassination of President Kennedy. Mrs. Marguerite Oswald (pictured right at her son’s funeral last November) told a news conference at her home in Fort Worth, Texas that Mark Lane, a former New York Assemblyman, had agreed to present a defense for Oswald before the commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren. She said she had taken a post office box, No. 9578 in Fort Worth, and invited anyone with information indicating her son’s innocence to write to her. She said she would “fight with my last breath” to prove her son not guilty. Oswald was accused of killing President Kennedy on Nov. 22. He himself was shot to death two days later in the basement of the Dallas City Jail.
Mrs. Oswald said Mr. Lane had agreed to take the case without a fee. “I explained to him that I would not be able to pay him now, as I was living on the $863 insurance money along with contributions from people who are interested in justice,” she said. Mr. Lane confirmed today that he would work for no fee. Mrs. Oswald said she needed Mr. Lane’s help now because her son “was murdered before he was able to defend the charge against himself.”
At her press conference, Oswald’s mother said she had tried to get in touch with his widow, Marina, who has been in seclusion with her two children since Nov. 24. Mrs. Oswald said she had sent this message to her daughter-in-law through the Secret Service: “Marina, mama grieves. Marina, mama needs to see you and the grandchildren.”
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