Investigators
into the assassination of John
F. Kennedy have
looked very closely at the actions of Lee
Harvey Oswald during
1963. This includes evidence that someone
appears to have been impersonating Oswald during this period.
27th
January:
A. J. Hiddell orders a Smith & Weston .38 revolver.
12th
March:
A. J. Hiddell orders a Mannlicher-arcano rifle from Klein's sporting
goods in Chicago.
6th
April:
Oswald loses his job at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall in Dallas.
24th
April: Oswald
travels by bus to New Orleans.
9th
May:
Oswald finds work with the Reily Coffee Company in New Orleans.
4th
June:
Orders 1,000 Fair Play for Cuba leaflets from Jones Printing.
19th
July:
Oswald is fired from the Reily Coffee Company.
5th
August:
Oswald is seen talking to anti-Castro activist, Carlos
Bringuier.
9th
August:
Oswald is arrested for fighting with Carlos
Bringuier.
12th
August: Oswald
appears in court and is fined $10.
16th
August:
Oswald hires three other men to give out Fair
Play for Cuba leaflets outside the Trade Mart building owned
by Clay Shaw.
17th
August:
Oswald discusses the situation in Cuba on
the radio with Carlos
Bringuier.
26th
August:
Oswald is seen in Clinton, Louisiana, with Clay
Shaw and Carlos
Bringuier.
27th
August:
A man claiming to be Oswald visits the Cuban Consulate in Mexico City.
14th
October: Oswald
moves back to Dallas.
16th
October:
Oswald starts work at the Texas School Book Depository.
1st
November:
FBI agent James
Hosty visits the home of Ruth
Paine where Marina
Oswald is living and asks questions about Oswald.
6th
November:
Oswald delivers a letter to James
Hosty at the Dallas FBI office. Gordon
Shanklin later orders this letter to be destroye.
22nd November:
President John
F. Kennedy is
assassinated in Dallas.
23rd November:
Oswald is charged with the murder of John
F. Kennedy.
24th November.
Lee
Harvey Oswald is
murdered by Jack
Ruby.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(A1)
Life Magazine, (21st February 21,
1964)
Lieutenant
John E. Donovan was Lee's commanding officer at El Toro. He recalled
that Lee was of "higher intelligence" than the average enlisted
man and was seventh in his class of thirty radar operators. "Lee
Harvey Oswald was dependable and very calm under periods of pressure,"
Donovan recalled. "He read most of the time, histories, magazines,
books on government and a Russian newspaper he used to get. He spent
a lot of time studying the Russian
language. There were no pocketbooks or comics for him."
Donovan called
Lee "an officer-baiter" and a troublemaker. "He would
ask officers to explain some obscure situation in foreign affairs,
just to show off his superior knowledge. He seemed to be in revolt
against any kind of authority." Donovan explained that Lee played
end on the squadron football team until he was dismissed "because
he kept talking back in the huddle." The quarterback was a captain.
Was
Lee Harvey Oswald intelligent and well-informed?
(A2)
Marina Oswald,
interviewed by Warren Commission (1964)
In general, our family life began to deteriorate after we arrived
in America. Lee was always hot-tempered, and now this trait of character
more and more prevented us from living together in harmony. Lee became
very irritable, and sometimes some completely trivial thing would
drive him into a rage. I myself do not have a particularly quiet disposition,
but I had to change my character a great deal in order to maintain
a more or less peaceful family life.
Was
Lee Harvey Oswald happy in America?
(A3)
Robert J. Groden, The Search for Lee
Harvey Oswald (1995)
On Monday, August 12, 1963, Lee and Carlos Bringuier appeared
in Second Municipal Court at 1:00 p.m. The charges were dismissed
against Bringuier, and Lee was fined $10.00. Marina Oswald confirmed
that Lee actually wanted to be arrested. He wanted the exposure. He
wanted to get the publicity as a pro-Castroite. She referred to this
as "self-advertising." Marina was right, but the question
still remains: Why?
Lee was back
handing out his Fair Play for Cuba Committee flyers on the streets
of New Orleans on August 16. He had hired three men to help with distribution:
odd, since he was nearly without funds for himself and his family.
They stood in front of the International Trade Mart, whose director,
Clay Shaw, would be charged with conspiracy to assassinate President
Kennedy four years later by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison.
Somebody (probably Lee himself or, possibly, Carlos Bringuier) called
WDSU-TV and other members of the New Orleans news media to announce
that he was distributing the pro-Castro literature. More self-advertising.
That evening's television news broadcast his activity, and the resulting
bad publicity made it nearly impossible for him to obtain employment.
Why
was Robert J. Groden surprised that Oswald paid three men to give
out Fair Play for Committee flyers? Can you explain this behaviour?
(A4)
House Select Committee on Assassinations
(13th September 1978)
James McDonald: Can you recall Oswald expressing at this time, soon
after your marriage but prior to the return, prior to your return
to the United States, do you recall him expressing any views about
the United States and its political system, either pro or con, for
or against.
Marina Oswald:
No.
James
McDonald: And specifically regarding John Kennedy?
Marina Oswald:
What I learned about John Kennedy it was only
through Lee practically, and he always spoke very complimentary about
the President. He was very happy when John Kennedy was elected.
James
McDonald: And you are saying while you were still in the Soviet Union
he was very complimentary about John Kennedy?
Marina Oswald:
Yes, it seemed like he was talking about how
young and attractive the President of the United States is.
James
McDonald: Can you recall during this time when he ever expressed any
contrary views about Kennedy?
Marina Oswald:
Never.
According
to Marina Oswald, what was Lee Harvey Oswald's opinion of John F.
Kennedy?
(A5)
House
Select Committee on Assassinations (13th
September 1978)
Richardson Preyer: Did you ever suspect that Lee might be a spy of
some sort for either the Soviet KGB or for the U.S. CIA?
Marina Oswald:
It did cross my mind sometime during our life
in Russia; yes, because he will be sitting with those papers and writing
something in English, and I don't know. Maybe he was making reports
to somebody and didn't want me to know.
Richardson
Preyer: When it crossed your mind, did you think he was a spy for
the United States or for the Soviet Union?
Marina Oswald:
For United States.
Richardson
Preyer: And you based that on the fact that he often was writing notes
in English which you did not understand.
Marina Oswald:
Yes.
Why
did Marina Oswald think her husband was an American spy?
(A6)
Ray and Mary La Fontaine, Oswald Talked (1996)
The Directorio
Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE) unquestionably
identified Oswald, as did Bannister, as just the kind of 'nut' who
could be a useful tool in the war against Castro and Fair Play for
Cuba subversives.
Why
would the DRE be looking for a 'nut' like Oswald?
(A7)
The Warren
Commission Report (September, 1964)
On August 5, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald visited a store managed by Carlos
Bringuier, a Cuban refugee and avid opponent of Castro, and the New
Orleans delegate of the Cuban student directorate. Oswald indicated
an interest in joining the struggle against Castro. He told Bringuier
that he had been a marine and was trained in guerrilla warfare, and
that he was willing not only to train Cubans to fight Castro but also
to join the fight himself. The next day Oswald returned to the store
and left his Guidebook for Marines for Bringuier.
A few days later,
a friend of Bringuier's saw Oswald passing out Fair Play for Cuba
Committee leaflets on Canal Street, not far from the store Bringuier
managed. He, Bringuier and another exile proceeded to the site of
Oswald's mini-demonstration, and Bringuier was enraged when he recognized
the pro-Castro demonstrator as the anti-Castro activist wannabe of
a few days before. Though no physical violence resulted, some heated
words were uttered, a crowd gathered, and Oswald was arrested along
with the three Cubans for disturbing the peace.
Were
Lee Harvey Oswald and Carlos Bringuier friends or enemies?
(A8)
Lee
Harvey Oswald, Carlos
Bringuier and Ed Butler, Vice-President of the Information Council
of the Americas, took part in a debate on Bill Slatter's radio show
Conversation Carte Blanche in 1963.
Lee Harvey Oswald:
The principals of thought of the Fair Play for Cuba consist of restoration
of diplomatic trade and tourist relations with Cuba. That is one of
our main points. We are for that. I disagree that this situation regarding
American-Cuban relations is very unpopular. We are in the minority
surely. We are not particularly interested in what Cuban exiles or
rightists members of rightist organizations have to say. We are primarily
interested in the attitude of the US government toward Cuba. And in
that way we are striving to get the United States to adopt measures
which would be more friendly toward the Cuban people and the new Cuban
regime in that country. We are not all communist controlled regardless
of the fact that I have the experience of living in Russia, regardless
of the fact that we have been investigated, regardless of those facts,
the Fair Play for Cuba Committee is an independent organization not
affiliated with any other organization. Our aims and our ideals are
very clear and in the best keeping with American traditions of democracy.
Carlos Bringuier:
Do you agree with Fidel Castro when in his last speech of July 26th
of this year he qualified President John F. Kennedy of the United
States as a ruffian and a thief? Do you agree with Mr. Castro?
Lee Harvey Oswald:
I would not agree with that particular wording. However, I and the
Fair Play for Cuba Committee do think that the United States Government
through certain agencies, mainly the State Department and the C.I.A.,
has made monumental mistakes in its relations with Cuba. Mistakes
which are pushing Cuba into the sphere of activity of let's say a
very dogmatic communist country such as China.
Bill Slatter:
Mr. Oswald would you agree that when Castro first took power - would
you agree that the United States was very friendly with Castro, that
the people of this country had nothing but admiration for him, that
they were very glad to see Batista thrown out?
Lee Harvey Oswald:
I would say that the activities of the United States government in
regards to Batista were a manifestation of not so much support for
Fidel Castro but rather a withdrawal of support from Batista. In other
words we stopped armaments to Batista. What we should have been done
was to take those armaments and drop them into the Sierra Maestra
where Fidel Castro could have used them. As for public sentiment at
that time, I think even before the revolution, there were rumblings
of official comment and so forth from government officials er, against
Fidel Castro.
Ed Butler: You've
never been to Cuba, of course, but why are the people of Cuba starving
today?
Lee Harvey Oswald:
Well any country emerging from a semi-colonial state and embarking
upon reforms which require a diversification of agriculture you are
going to have shortages. After all 80% of imports into the United
States from Cuba were two products, tobacco and sugar. Nowadays, while
Cuba is reducing its production as far as sugar cane goes it is striving
to grow unlimited, and unheard of for Cuba, quantities of certain
vegetables such as sweet potatoes, lima beans, cotton, and so forth,
so that they can become agriculturally independent ...
Ed Butler: Gentlemen
I'm going to have to interrupt you. Our time is almost up. We've had
three guests tonight on Conversation Carte Blanche, Bill Stuckey and
I have been talking to Lee Harvey Oswald, Secretary of the New Orleans
Chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, Ed Butler, Executive
Vice-president of the Information Council of the Americas (INCA) and
Carlos Bringuier, Cuban refugee. Thank you very much.
What
was Lee Harvey Oswald view on Fidel Castro's Cuba? What did Oswald
want the American government to do concerning its relations with Cuba?
(A9)
Federal Bureau of Investigation, memo to
the Secret Service (23rd November, 1963)
The Central Intelligence
Agency advised that on October 1, 1963, an extremely sensitive source
had reported that an individual identified himself as Lee Oswald,
who contacted the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City inquiring as to any
messages. Special Agents of this Bureau, who have conversed with Oswald
in Dallas, Texas, have observed photographs of the individual referred
to above and have listened to a recording of his voice. These Special
Agents are of the opinion that the above-referred-to individual was
not Lee Harvey Oswald.
Did
Lee Harvey Oswald visit the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City on 1st October,
1963?
(A10)
James
Hosty,
Assignment: Oswald (1996)
About a week after
the assassination, Aynesworth, along with Bill Alexander, an assistant
district attorney in Dallas, decided to find out if Lee Oswald had
been an informant of the Dallas FBI, and of mine in particular. To
this end, they concocted a totally false story about how Lee Oswald
was a regularly paid informant of the Dallas FBI. At the time, I had
no idea what information the Houston Post was relying on; it
wasn't until February 1976, in Esquire magazine, that Aynesworth
finally admitted he and Alexander had lied and made up the entire
story in an effort to draw the FBI out on this issue. They said Oswald
was paid $200 a month and even made up an imaginary informant number
for Oswald, S172 - which was not in any way how the FBI classified
their informants. Aynesworth then fed this story to Lonnie Hudkins
of the Post, who ran it on January 1, 1964. Hudkins cited confidential
but reliable sources for his story's allegations. The FBI issued a
flat denial of the Post story. I was once again prohibited by Bureau
procedure from commenting. It was clear that they were pointing a
finger at me, since I was known to be the agent in charge of the Oswald
file.
According
to James Hosty, was Oswald an FBI informant?
(A11)
Robert J. Groden, The Search for Lee
Harvey Oswald (1995)
How to pin the president's death on Castro? Simple.
Have a pro-Castroite accused as the assassin. The perfect candidate
for "designated patsy" was Lee Harvey Oswald.
In all likelihood,
the CIA kept Oswald on as an inactive agent, as perhaps they had been
since his defection to the USSR. In September 1962, he went to work
for the FBI as a $200-per-month informant (Warren Commission executive
session, January 27, 1964). But on what or whom could he inform? One
possibility is that he was supposed to observe the White Russian community
in and around Dallas, which included the late George DeMohrenschildt.
A very probable
scenario is that in mid-1963 Lee Oswald was reactivated by the CIA
and sent to New Orleans to create a pro-Castro cover by starting the
New Orleans chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. It appears
at this point that CIA agent payroll number 110669 had been ordered
by his superiors to furnish himself with a pro-Castro cover in order
to enable him to enter Cuba by way of Mexico City possibly in order
to infiltrate Cuban intelligence, or perhaps to try to assassinate
Castro. Possibly, those members of the CIA involved in the Kennedy
assassination plot were setting Oswald up as "the missing link,"
the connection between Fidel Castro and the assassination.
How
does Robert J. Groden explain Lee Harvey Oswald's behaviour in New
Orleans?
(A12)
Michael
Kurtz,
Crime of the Century: The Kennedy Assassination From a Historians
Perspective (1982)
On 1 November,
"Oswald" entered Morgan's Gunshop in Fort Worth and acted
"rude and impertinent." A few days later, the night manager
of the Dallas Western Union office saw "Oswald" pick up
several money orders. On 9 November, "Oswald" test drove
a car. The salesman, Albert Bogard, remembered "Oswald's"
telling him that he would return in a couple of weeks when he would
have "a lot of money" On 10 November "Oswald"
applied for a job as a parking attendant at Allright Parking Systems
in Dallas. As he talked with Hubert Morrow, the manager, "Oswald"
inquired about the Southland Hotel, where the parking lot was located,
and whether the building provided a good view of downtown Dallas.
On the afternoon
of 22 November, Dr. Homer Wood saw Oswald's picture on television
and recognized him as the man he saw at the Sports Drome Rifle Range
in Dallas on 16 November. Dr. Wood, his account corroborated by his
son, remembered "Oswald's" firing a 6.5 mm. Italian rifle
with a four-power scope. Considering "Oswald's" purchase
of ammunition a few days before, the repair work done on his rifle
by Dial Ryder, we see a pattern clearly emerging. "Oswald"
bought ammunition, had his rifle repaired, inquired about the view
from a Dallas building, remarked about coming into possession of a
lot of money very soon, and called attention to himself at the firing
range.
All these incidents clearly
cast suspicion on Oswald. Yet, the real Lee Harvey Oswald did not
participate in any of them. The evidence demonstrates that he was
elsewhere when each of these events took place. Yet the evidence also
demonstrates that they did take place and that numerous reliable eyewitnesses
saw a man who they believed was Lee Harvey Oswald participate in them.
While no absolute evidence exists to explain this curiosity, it is
not unreasonable to hypothesize that someone impersonating Oswald
went to great lengths to focus attention on himself during the three
weeks prior to the assassination.
It seems
that someone was impersonating Lee Harvey Oswald in November 1963.
Why would he do that?
(A13)
Harold
Norman,
The Warren Report:
Part 1, CBS Television (25th June, 1967)
That particular morning three or four of us were standing by the window,
and Oswald came over, and he said, "What's
everybody looking at, and what's everybody excited about?" So
I told him we was waiting on the President. So he just snudged up
and walked away.
Does
this evidence suggest that Lee Harvey Oswald was just about to kill
John F. Kennedy?
(A14)
Dan
Rather, The
Warren Report: Part 1, CBS
Television (25th June, 1967)
The basic story pieced together by that Warren Commission
Report on the assassination is this: A man named Lee Harvey Oswald
crouched here in this dingy window of the Texas School Book Depository
as the President passed below. Oswald, the Commission tells us, fired
three shots. One missed. One struck both the President and Texas Governor
John Connally, riding with him. The third killed the President. Oswald,
the Report had it, hid his rifle over there, then ran down the stairs,
left the building on foot, and hurried down Elm Street. He made his
way to his rented room, picked up a revolver, and about twelve
minutes later shot Police Officer J. D. Tippit.
Is
Dan Rather convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald killed John F. Kennedy
and J. D. Tippit?
(A15)
Dorothy
Kilgallen, New York Journal American
(October, 1964)
At any rate the whole thing smells a bit fishy. It's a
mite too simple that a chap kills the President of the United States,
escapes from that bother, kills a policeman, eventually is apprehended
in a movie theater under circumstances that defy every law of police
procedure, and subsequently is murdered under extraordinary circumstances.
Is
Dorothy Kilgallen convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald killed John F.
Kennedy and J. D. Tippit?
(A16)
Marina
Oswald was interviewed by the San
Jose Mercury News (28th September, 1988)
Twenty-five years after the assassination of President Kennedy, Lee
Harvey Oswald's widow says she now believes Oswald did not act alone
in the killing.
''I think he was
caught between two powers - the government and organized crime,''
said Marina Oswald Porter in the November issue of Ladies' Home
Journal, published Tuesday.
Testimony by Oswald's
widow, who married Dallas carpenter Kenneth Porter in 1965, helped
the Warren Commission conclude that a deranged Oswald acted alone
in the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination.
''When I was questioned
by the Warren Commission, I was a blind kitten,'' she said. The commission,
appointed to investigate the assassination, concluded it was the work
of a single gunman, Oswald. But in 1979, the House Select Committee
on Assassinations, relying in part on acoustical evidence, concluded
that a conspiracy was likely and that it may have involved organized
crime.
Since then, Porter,
47, has drawn new conclusions. ''I don't know if Lee shot him,'' she
said. ''I'm not saying that Lee is innocent, that he didn't know about
the conspiracy or was not a part of it, but I am saying he's not necessarily
guilty of murder.''
''At first, I
thought that Jack Ruby (who killed Oswald two days after the assassination)
was swayed by passion; all of America was grieving,'' she said. ''But
later, we found that he had connections with the underworld. Now,
I think Lee was killed to keep his mouth shut.''
Porter said that
in retrospect, Oswald seemed professionally schooled in secretiveness,
''and I believe he worked for the American government.''
''He was taught
the Russian language when he was in the military. Do you think that
is usual, that an ordinary soldier is taught Russian? Also, he got
in and out of Russia quite easily, and he got me out quite easily,''
said the Russian-born Porter. She had emigrated from the Soviet Union
in 1961 after marrying Oswald, who had defected to the Soviets and
then changed his mind and returned to the United States.
In the months
preceding the assassination, a man posing as Oswald reportedly appeared
in several public places in the Dallas area.
''I learned afterward
that someone who said he was Lee had been going around looking to
buy a car, having a drink in a bar. I'm telling you, Lee did not drink,
and he didn't know how to drive.
''And afterward,
the FBI took me to a store in Fort Worth where Lee was supposed to
have gone to buy a gun. Someone even described me and said I was with
him. This woman was wearing a maternity outfit like one I had. But
I had never been there,'' she said.
Porter said she
hopes the truth will emerge when the Warren Commission materials are
declassified.
''Look, I'm walking
through the woods, trying to find a path, just like all of us,'' she
said. ''The only difference is, I have a little bit of insight. Only
half the truth has been told.''
What
evidence does Marina Oswald Porter provide to support her claim that
Lee Harvey Oswald was working for the American government?
(A17)
The Warren
Commission Report (September,
1964)
The
Commission has found no evidence to show that Oswald was employed,
persuaded, or encouraged by any foreign government to assassinate
President Kennedy or that he was an agent of any foreign government,
although the Commission has reviewed the circumstances surrounding
Oswald's defection to the Soviet Union, his life there from October
of 1959 to June of 1962 so far as it can be reconstructed, his known
contacts with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and his visits to the
Cuban and Soviet Embassies in Mexico City during his trip to Mexico
from September 26 to October 3, 1963, and his known contacts with
the Soviet Embassy in the United States.
On
the basis of the evidence before the Commission it concludes that,
Oswald acted alone. Therefore, to determine the motives for the assassination
of President Kennedy, one must look to the assassin himself. Clues
to Oswald's motives can be found in his family history, his education
or lack of it, his acts, his writings, and the recollections of those
who had close contacts with him throughout his life. The Commission
has presented with this report all of the background information bearing
on motivation which it could discover. Thus, others may study Lee
Oswald's life and arrive at their own conclusions as to his possible
motives. The Commission could not make any definitive determination
of Oswald's motives. It has endeavored to isolate factors which contributed
to his character and which might have influenced his decision to assassinate
President Kennedy. These factors were:
His
deep-rooted resentment of all authority which was expressed in a hostility
toward every society in which he lived;
His
inability to enter into meaningful relationships with people, and
a continuous pattern of rejecting his environment in favor of new
surroundings;
His
urge to try to find a place in history and despair at times over failures
in his various undertakings;
His
capacity for violence as evidenced by his attempt to kill General
Walker;
His
avowed commitment to Marxism and communism, as he understood the terms
and developed his own interpretation of them; this was expressed by
his antagonism toward the United States, by his defection to the Soviet
Union, by his failure to be reconciled with life in the United States
even after his disenchantment with the Soviet Union, and by his efforts,
though frustrated, to go to Cuba. Each of these contributed to his
capacity to risk all in cruel and irresponsible actions.
According
to the Warren Commission, why did Lee Harvey Oswald kill John F. Kennedy?
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