As she explained to the HSCA, she denied knowledge of several
things in the beginning because she was afraid.
QUOTE:
Mr. PREYER - Another area of some apparently contradictory statements is
in the area of ammunition. You told us today that Lee practiced with a
rifle and that you saw ammunition lying around and you told that to the
Warren Commission, also. Why did you tell the FBI on December 17, 1963,
again shortly after the assassination, that you had never seen
ammunition around the house?
Mrs. PORTER - For one simple reason, I was frightened of my well-being
in this country.
Mr. PREYER - Would you like to make any general statement at this time
about the earlier inconsistencies in your testimony? You have told us
that they were, as I understand it, were due at first to your desire to
protect Lee, perhaps to your fear of the FBI, perhaps to your fear of
being a foreigner in a strange country. Is that basically correct? Is
there any further general explanation you would like to give of why
there are these inconsistencies in your earlier testimony?
Mrs. PORTER - There was quite mixed emotions. I was very grateful to
Mrs. Ruth Paine who gave us shelter when I needed it. I was very
embarrassed about the fact that if she finds out that I knew about all
this, the trips to Mexico and the rifle and things like that, it was
very embarrassing for me to admit to myself that she has been used, you
know, in a way. It would be against her religion and her beliefs and it
was insulting for me to do such a thing to a friend. That was one part
of it. The fear for not being able, I mean for being prosecuted by law
for knowing about those things, that was there, too.
Mr. PREYER - It has been alleged by some critics that the reason your
story changed was not so much because of the reasons you have given or
because of your own beliefs, but rather because the FBI and the Secret
Service put pressure on you to incriminate Lee immediately after the
assassination. While the FBI and the Secret Service did question you,
was there ever any pressure from them for you to give evidence that
would incriminate Lee, evidence that you believed to be false?
Mrs. PORTER - No; that is not correct. I maybe like Secret Service and
dislike FBI, but both of those people were working for one cause, to
find the truth. The Secret Service did question in a more gentle way and
I responded to that much better. The FBI sometimes were a little bit too
brutal and my response was not as cooperative. Maybe in some little way
I want to punish them for it, not to give them information or correct
information but it was not for the reasons I have been accused of doing
it. It was human mistakes, human error, in my own character.
I do apologize for it, but it is not because they tried to twist my arm
and told me what should I tell and what not to tell. That is not true.
UNQUOTE
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=81&relPageId=282&search=porter_AND
"human error" AND character
OR:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/m_j_russ/hscamar2.htm
Jean