Hearings Before the President's Commission
on the
Assassination of President Kennedy

_________________________________________________________

Testimony of Hyman Rubenstein

The testimony of Hyman Rubenstein was taken at 9:20 a.m., on June 5, 1964, at 200 Maryland Avenue NE. Washington, D.C., by Mr. Burt Griffin, assistant counsel of the President's Commission.

Mr. Griffin.

My name is Burt Griffin, and I am a member of the staff of the General Counsel's Office of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.
I have been authorized under the rules of procedure of the Commission to take your deposition here today, Mr. Rubenstein.
I might tell you a little bit about the Commission before we go into the testimony.
The Commission was established under an Executive order of President Johnson and under a joint resolution of Congress on November 29, 1963, to investigate and evaluate the facts and report back to President Johnson on the assassination of President Kennedy and the facts surrounding the murder of Lee Oswald.
In asking you to come here today, we are particularly concerned with the information you may be able to bring to bear upon the murder of Lee Oswald.
Now, under the authorization setting up this Commission by the President and by Congress, the Commission is authorized to promulgate certain rules of procedure, and pursuant to those rules of procedure, the Commission has authority to issue subpenas and to require witnesses to attend here.
In pursuance of of those rules we have sent you a letter. I want to ask you now if you did receive the letter. You are pointing to your inside coat pocket.
Can you tell us when you received the letter from the Commission?

Mr. Rubenstein.

I, that I, can't tell you because I was gone out of town all last week, and I came in Monday night, and I didn't open my mail until Tuesday morning.

Mr. Griffin.

But you did see the letter on Tuesday.

Mr. Rubenstein.

Definitely. It was too late for me to get here.

Mr. Griffin.

The reason I ask is that you are privileged to have 3 days' notice before you come here and I wanted to make sure we had given you the 3-day notice.

Mr. Rubenstein.

It probably was there.

Mr. Griffin.

Now, you are also entitled under the rules of the Commission to have an attorney with you if you desire, and I see you don't have one here so I take it it is not your desire to have one.
Incidentally, in the letter that We sent you did you get a copy of some rules of procedure?

Mr. Rubenstein.

I wasn't worried about it because I felt I have nothing to hide to tell you.

Mr. Griffin.

All right. Do you have any questions that you want to ask about the general nature of what the proceeding will be before I administer the oath?

Mr. Rubenstein.

No; but I think it is going to be very interesting.