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Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. X - Page 188« Previous | Next »

(Testimony of John G. Graef)

Mr. Graef.
I have had them myself--something-will happen' that "will just be the straw that broke the camel's back, and you will spout off, you know but this began happening I began to hear rumors I began, and of course,-sometimes the boss is the last to know, and I began hearing that or began noticing that very few people liked him. He was. very difficult to get along with. Other people that worked with him, with whom I had conversations and Lee's name came up. or something came up about Lee, they wouldn't speak-kindly toward him, to say the very least, ,and something might have happened between them and Lee that they hadn't mentioned it to anyone--- some word that had been said in an unfriendly way, that they just overlooked or passed off, but it didn't leave a good impression with them from then on. Lee was not one to make friends. I never had any words with him at all. He never countered any order that I gave him, he always did what I told him to do the way I told him to do it. It might have been wrong sometimes, but-he never was antagonistic.
Mr. Jenner.
In other words, he might not have been able to carry out your directions, but he tried to do?
Mr. Graef.
That's so.
Mr. Jenner.
You didn't mean your directions to him might have been wrong?
Mr. Graef.
No; he was not belligerent to me. Anything that I told him to do, he did, or tried to do to the best of his ability.
Mr. Jenner.
But you began having the impression, with the increased intensity, that he was not getting along with employees at his level?
Mr. Graef.
Right. I was a witness to one of these flareups which I had, up to this time, taken not lightly, but passed it off as one of those things that happen in our department quite frequently, but I was quite close to one of Lee's flareups. I don't know who was responsible whether it was Lee or one of the other workers, so at the time I couldn't actually reprimand anyone, so I didn't, but tried to pacify and laugh the whole thing off and make some remark that "Well, we are all under. pressure. Let's get down and let's get on with the job." Something to that effect.
Then, the two people went their separate ways but it was quite a flareup, a sudden flareup of temper--a quick chip on the shoulder thing that I don't know--I have a hard time understanding people that lose their temper so quickly.
Mr. Jenner.
Is that the impression you had of him?
Mr. Graef.
Yes; at that time from that time on I did have that impression.
Mr. Jenner.
Now, was this more an impression you gained from several incidents rather than one isolated incident?
Mr. Graef.
No; of course, I have to take into account the evidence of all the other people some of the things that they said and the way they didn't get along with him and then I saw the way he acted at this particular time, and I had never been particularly close enough to the boy so that I knew his personality. He was strictly a worker who was training and he did the job, or tried to do the Job, and so I wasn't very close to his personality at all until this • particular incident.- It was only when he began--after, we'll say, he got out from under my wing as a trainer and began up to that time he was following me around and was doing what I told him and there was very little chance for him to be alone with anyone and we didn't have any friction for about the first 2 or 3 months that he was employed, but he then began to be given the responsibility of doing these jobs himself.
Mr. Jenner.
Himself and with others?
Mr. Graef.
And with others.
Mr. Jenner.
But not under your very immediate supervision?
Mr. Graef.
Not under my immediate supervision; no.
Mr. Jenner.
Did this call for him, then, to work and cooperate with others?
Mr. Graef.
Right
Mr. Jenner.
And his was really the first time----
Mr. Graef.
Then, we'll say his personality began to come out. In the moving around the darkroom, the way you have to be congenial, cooperative in turning the light on and off as the various stages of the work progress, you my be developing film and someone may be coming out of one of our room and need the light on and •there has to be a certain amount of give and take in these
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