The visit began well. John testified of his meeting with Lee: "We met in the street and I was real glad to see him and he was real glad to see me. We were real good friends." 184 He took about a week of leave and showed Lee the city; he remembered trips to the Museum of Natural History and Polk's Hobby Shop, and a ride on the Staten Island ferry.185 But when it became obvious that his mother intended to stay, the atmosphere changed. Mrs. Oswald did not get along with John's wife, with whom she quarreled frequently.186 There was difficulty about her failure to contribute anything towards her own and Lee's support.187 According to John, his wife liked Lee and would have been glad to have him alone stay with them but felt that his mother set Lee against her; they never suggested that Lee remain with them since they knew that it would not work out.188 The visit ended when Lee threatened Mrs. Pic with a pocket knife during a quarrel,189 and she asked Mrs. Oswald to leave.190 John testified that during this same quarrel Lee hit his mother, who appeared to have lost all control over him.191 The incident permanently destroyed the good relationship between Lee and his brother.192

Mrs. Oswald and Lee moved uptown to a one-room basement apartment 193 in the Bronx, at 1455 Sheridan Avenue.194 While they were still at the Pica, he had been enrolled at the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran School on Watson Avenue.195 He was withdrawn on September 26, after several weeks of irregular attendance, and 4 days later enrolled in the seventh grade of Public School 117, a junior high school.196 Mrs. Oswald found a job at one of the Lerner Shops, a chain of dress shops for which she had worked briefly in Fort Worth several years before.197 In January, they moved again, to 825 East 179th Street,198 and a few weeks later, she left the employ of Lerner Shops.199 In April, she was working at Martin's Department Store in Brooklyn, where she earned $45 per week;200 in May, she went to work for a chain of hosiery shops, with which she remained until December.201 Lee was registered at Public School 117 until January 16, 1953,202 although the move to 179th Street, which took him out of that school district, probably took place before that date.203 He had been at Public School 117 for 64 schooldays, out of which he had been present on 15 full and 2 half days;204 he had received failing grades in most of his courses.205

Lee's truancy increased after he moved; he was now located in the school district of Public School 44 but refused to go to school there.206 On one occasion that spring, an attendance officer located Lee at the Bronx Zoo; the officer testified that Lee was clean and well dressed, but was surly and referred to the officer as a "damned Yankee." 207 Several truancy hearings were held in January, at the first of which at least, both Mrs. Oswald and Lee evidently failed to appear.208 At a hearing on January 27, by which time it was known that Lee was living in the Public School 44 district, it was decided to commence judicial proceedings if his truancy continued.209 Meanwhile, on January 16, his mother called the Community Service Society, to which she had