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{{Infobox person
|name           = Lee Harvey Oswald
|image          = CE2892.jpg
|image_size     = 180px
|caption        = Lee Harvey Oswald during his time living in Minsk
|birth_date     = {{birth date|mf=yes|1939|10|18}}
|birth_place    = {{city-state|New Orleans|Louisiana}}
|death_date     = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1963|11|24|1939|10|18}}
|death_place    = {{city-state|Dallas|Texas}}
|death_cause    = [[Murder]]ed by firearm
|nationality    = American
|spouse         =  [[Marina Oswald Porter|Marina Prusakova]] (1961-1963)
|other_names = '''Alek J. Hidell''' used for ordering his Carcano rifle<br/>
'''O. H. Lee''' used for his place of residence
|signature   = Lee Harvey Oswald Signature.svg
}}
{{JFK_Garrison}}
'''Lee Harvey Oswald''' (October 18, 1939 &ndash; November 24, 1963) was, according to three government investigations, the [[John F. Kennedy assassination|assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy]], who was fatally shot in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.<ref>[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (1963), [[Warren Commission]] (1964), [[House Select Committee on Assassinations]] (1979).</ref>

A [[United States Marine Corps|United States Marine]] who had briefly defected to the Soviet Union, Oswald was initially arrested on suspicion of killing Dallas police officer [[J. D. Tippit]], who had been shot on a Dallas street less than one hour after Kennedy was shot.  Soon suspected in the death of Kennedy as well, Oswald denied involvement in either killing. Two days later, on November 24, as Oswald was being transferred from the city jail to the county jail, he was shot and mortally wounded by nightclub owner [[Jack Ruby]] in full view of television cameras broadcasting live.

In 1964, the [[Warren Commission]] concluded that Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy, a conclusion also reached by prior investigations carried out by the FBI and Dallas Police.

==Biography==
===Childhood===
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 23, p. 799, CE 1963, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh23/html/WH_Vol23_0415b.htm Schedule showing known addresses of Lee Harvey Oswald from the time of his birth].</ref> and was of English, German, French, Dutch, and Irish ancestry.<ref>http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~celebrities/oswald.html Ancestry of Lee Harvey Oswald</ref> His father, Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Sr. (New Orleans, March 4, 1896 &ndash; New Orleans, August 19, 1939), who had previously been married before marrying Oswald's mother on July 20, 1933, died two months before Lee was born. Mostly on her own, his mother, Marguerite Frances Claverie (New Orleans, July 19, 1907 – Fort Worth, Texas, January 17, 1981), daughter of streetcar conductor John Claverie raised Lee and his two older siblings, brother Robert, Jr. and half-brother (from Marguerite's previous marriage) John Pic (b. 1932). From 1945 to 1948 Oswald had a stepfather, Edwin Adolph Ekdahl (1888–1965).

By age 18, Lee had lived in 22 different homes and attended 12 different schools, mostly around New Orleans, [[Covington, Louisiana]]<ref>[[Peggy Caserta]] "Going Down With Janis", pages 85-86 She was in LHO's 7th grade class in Covington, La.</ref> and Dallas, but New York City as well. His mother placed him in a foster home for 13 months in 1942–1943, when she was too poor to support all her children.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wargs.com/other/oswald.html |title=Ancestry of Lee Harvey Oswald |publisher=Wargs.com |date= |accessdate=2009-02-27}}</ref>
As a child, Oswald was withdrawn and temperamental.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-7.html |title=Warren Commission Report, Chapter 7, page 378 |publisher=Archives.gov |date= |accessdate=2009-02-27}}</ref> While living with Pic, at the time a U.S. Coast Guardsman stationed in New York City, Lee and Marguerite were asked to leave after Lee allegedly threatened Pic's wife with a knife and struck Marguerite.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://www.jfk-assassination.de/warren/wch/vol11/page38.php Testimony of John Edward Pic].</ref><ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 22, p. 687, CE 1382, [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/html/WH_Vol22_0359a.htm Interview with Mrs. John Edward Pic].</ref> Following charges of truancy, he was sent for three weeks of court-ordered psychiatric assessment at a juvenile reformatory, called Youth House, where Dr. Renatus Hartogs described Oswald as having a "vivid fantasy life, turning around the topics of omnipotence and power, through which he tries to compensate for his present shortcomings and frustrations". Hartogs diagnosed the 14-year-old Oswald as having a "personality pattern disturbance with [[schizoid]] features and [[passive-aggressive]] tendencies" and recommended continued psychiatric intervention.<ref>[http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/03/JA/DR/.dr16.html Report of Renatus Hartogs, May 1, 1953] at ''Acorn.net''.</ref>

Oswald's behavior at school appeared to improve during his last months in New York.<ref>[http://jfkassassination.net/russ/jfkinfo3/exhibits/carro1.htm Carro Exhibit No. 1 Continued] at ''Kennedy Assassination Home Page''.</ref><ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/carro.htm Testimony of John Carro].</ref> In January 1954, his mother Marguerite decided to return to New Orleans with Lee, which prevented him from receiving the care the psychiatrist had recommended.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 25, p. 123, CE 2223, Big Brothers of New York, Inc., [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/html/WC_Vol25_0077a.htm Case file of Lee Harvey Oswald].</ref> There was still an open question pending before a New York judge whether or not he should be taken from the care of his mother to finish his schooling.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/2_12_64_AM.htm Testimony of Mrs. Marguerite Oswald].</ref>

In New Orleans,{{When|date=May 2010}} Oswald left the 10th grade after one month.<ref name="Saturday">{{cite journal |last=Bagdikian |first=Ben H. |authorlink=Ben Bagdikian |editor1-first=Clay |editor1-last=Blair Jr. |editor1-link=Clay Blair |date=December 14, 1963 |title=The Assassin |journal=The Saturday Evening Post |issue=44 |page=23 |publisher=The Curtis Publishing Company |location=Philadelphia, PA. 19105}}</ref> After the family returned to Fort Worth he enrolled in [[Arlington Heights High School]], again in the 10th grade,<ref name="Saturday"/> but quit after 23 days to join the Marines ''(see below)''.<ref name="Saturday"/>  He never received a high school diploma. [[Dyslexic]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oswald/forum/mailer.html |title=Mailer on Oswald}}</ref> he had trouble spelling and writing coherently.<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-7.html#return Warren Commission Report, Chapt. 7, p. 383].</ref> Nonetheless he read voraciously, and by age 15 claimed to be a Marxist from his reading on the topic, writing in his diary, "I was looking for a key to my environment, and then I discovered socialist literature. I had to dig for my books in the back dusty shelves of libraries." At 16 Oswald wrote to the [[Socialist Party of America]] stating that he had been studying socialist principles for "well over fifteen months", and asking for information about their [[Young People's Socialist League]].<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, CE 2240, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/html/WC_Vol25_0085b.htm FBI transcript of letter from Lee Oswald to the Socialist Party of America, October 3, 1956].</ref>

However, Edward Voebel, "whom the Warren Commission had established was Oswald's closest friend during his teenage years in New Orleans ... said that reports that Oswald was already 'studying Communism' were a 'lot of baloney.'" Voebel said that "Oswald commonly read 'paperback trash.'"<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol9/pdf/HSCA_Vol9_4_Oswald.pdf Oswald, David Ferrie and the Civil Air Patrol], [[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]], Volume 9, 4, p. 107.</ref><ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh8/html/WC_Vol8_0009b.htm Testimony of Edward Voebel], Warren Commission Hearings, Volume 8, pp. 10, 12.</ref>

[[File:Ciravolo.jpg|thumb|[[David Ferrie]] (second from left) with Lee Harvey Oswald (far right) in the New Orleans [[Civil Air Patrol]] in 1955.]]

===Military service===
Oswald enlisted in the US Marine Corps on October 24, 1956, one week after his seventeenth birthday. He idolized his older brother Robert, and wore Robert's Marines ring. The Marines may also have been an escape from Oswald's overbearing mother.<ref>Warren Commission Report, Chapter 7: Lee Harvey Oswald: Background and Possible Motives, [http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-7.html#return Return to New Orleans and Joining the Marine Corps].</ref>

While in the Marines, Oswald was trained in the use of the [[M1 Garand rifle]]. He was tested in December 1956 and obtained a score of 212 <ref name="Saturday"/> (two points above the minimum for qualification as a [[Weapons Qualification Badge|''sharpshooter'']]) but in May 1959, on another range, he scored only 191<ref name="Saturday"/> (barely qualifying for the lower designation of [[Weapons Qualification Badge|''marksman'']]).<ref>Warren Commission Report, Chapter 4: The Assassin, [http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html#marine Oswald's Marine Training].</ref>

Oswald's primary training was as a radar operator, a position requiring a security clearance. A May 1957 document states that he was "granted final clearance to handle classified matter up to and including CONFIDENTIAL after careful check of local records had disclosed no derogatory data."<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 19, Folsom Exhibit No. 1, p. 665, [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/html/WH_Vol19_0342a.htm Administrative Remarks].</ref> In the Aircraft Control and Warning Operator Course he finished seventh in a class of thirty. The course "...included instruction in aircraft surveillance and the use of radar."<ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0353b.htm Marines] Warren Commission Report, Appendix 13, page 682-683.</ref> He was assigned first to [[Marine Corps Air Station El Toro]] in July 1957,<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/html/WH_Vol19_0338b.htm Marine Corps service record of Lee Harvey Oswald].</ref> then to [[Naval Air Facility Atsugi]] in Japan in September 1957 as part of [[Marine Air Control Squadron 1]]. Atsugi was a base for CIA [[Lockheed U-2|U-2]] spy planes flying over the Soviet Union. (Oswald may have subsequently passed information on this program to the Soviets.)<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919345,00.html | work=Time | title=Nation: Was Lee Oswald a Soviet Spy? | date=February 27, 1978 | accessdate=May 7, 2010}}</ref>

Oswald was court-martialed after accidentally shooting himself in the elbow with an unauthorized handgun, then court-martialed again for starting a fight with a sergeant he thought responsible for his punishment in the shooting matter. He was demoted from [[private first class]] to [[Private (rank)|private]] and briefly imprisoned. He was later punished for a third incident: while on nighttime sentry duty in the Philippines, he inexplicably fired his rifle into the jungle.<ref>Posner,Gerald "Case Closed" Random House, New York, 1993 pg. 28</ref>

Slightly-built relative to some other Marines, Oswald was nicknamed ''[[Ozzie Rabbit]]'' after the cartoon character, as well as ''Oswaldskovich'' because of his pro-Soviet sentiments. In December 1958 he transferred back to the El Toro,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/oswald.htm |title=Lee Harvey Oswald - Lone Assassin or Patsy? |publisher=Mcadams.posc.mu.edu |date= |accessdate=2009-02-27}}</ref> where the function of his unit "...was to serveil [sic] for aircraft, but basically to train both enlisted men and officers for later assignment overseas." An officer there termed Oswald a "very competent" crew chief.<ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh8/html/WC_Vol8_0149b.htm Testimony of John E. Donovan], Warren Commission Hearings, Volume 8, pp. 290, 298.</ref>

Oswald subscribed{{When|date=May 2010}} to the Communist newspaper,''[[The Worker]]'', and claimed{{When|date=May 2010}} to have taught himself rudimentary Russian, but in February 1959, he rated "poor" on a Marine proficiency exam in written and spoken Russian.<ref>Summers, Anthony. ''[[Not in Your Lifetime]]'', (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1998), pp. 94, 99. ISBN 1-56924-739-0</ref>

===Defection to the Soviet Union===
[[File:oswald-1959.jpg|thumb|left|100px|Photo of Oswald taken in October 1959 shortly after his arrival in the Soviet Union.]]
In October 1959, just days before turning 20, Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union. The trip was planned well in advance. Along with having taught himself rudimentary Russian, he had saved $1,500 of his Marine Corps salary,<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 22, p. 705, CE 1385, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/html/WH_Vol22_0366a.htm Notes of interview of Lee Harvey Oswald conducted by Aline Mosby in Moscow in November 1959]. Oswald: "When I was working in the middle of the night on guard duty, I would think how long it would be and how much money I would have to save. It would be like being out of prison. I saved about $1500." During Oswald's 2 years and 10 months of service in the Marine Corps he received $3,452.20, after all taxes, allotments and other deductions. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 26, p. 709, CE 3099, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/contents/wc/contents_wh26.htm Certified military pay records for Lee Harvey Oswald for the period October 24, 1956, to September 11, 1959].</ref> got a hardship discharge (claiming he needed to care for his injured mother)<ref name="Saturday"/><ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 19, Folsom Exhibit No. 1, p. 85, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/html/WH_Vol19_0373b.htm Request for Dependency Discharge].</ref> obtained a passport, and submitted several fictional applications to foreign universities in order to obtain a student visa.{{Clarify|date=May 2010}} <!-- he did or did not actually obtain such a visa? -->

Oswald spent two days with his mother in [[Fort Worth, Texas|Fort Worth]], then embarked by ship from New Orleans on September 20 to [[Le Havre]], France, then immediately proceeded to England.  Arriving in [[Southampton]] on October 9, he told officials he had $700 and planned to remain in the United Kingdom for one week before proceeding to a school in Switzerland. But on the same day, he took a [[Finnair]] flight to [[Helsinki]], Finland, where he was issued a Soviet visa on October 14.  Oswald left Helsinki by train on the following day, crossed the Soviet border at [[Vainikkala]], and arrived in Moscow on October 16.<ref>Lee Harvey Oswald in Russia, [http://www.russianbooks.org/oswald/journey.htm The Journey From USA to USSR] at ''Russian Books''</ref>

Almost immediately, Oswald told his [[Intourist]] guide of his desire to become a Soviet citizen,<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 16, p. 94, CE 24, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/html/WH_Vol16_0059b.htm Lee Harvey Oswald's "Historic Diary"], entry of October 16, 1959.</ref> but was told on October 21 that his application had been refused. Oswald then inflicted a minor but bloody wound to his left wrist in his hotel room bathtub, after which the Soviets put him under psychiatric observation at a hospital.<!-- until when? --><ref>Lee Harvey Oswald in Russia, [http://www.russianbooks.org/oswald/moscow2.htm Moscow Part 2] at ''Russian Books''</ref><ref>Lee Harvey Oswald in Russia, [http://www.russianbooks.org/oswald/moscow3.htm Moscow Part 3] at ''Russian Books''</ref>

Next Oswald appeared unexpectedly at the United States embassy in Moscow on October 31, declaring a desire to renounce his U.S. citizenship.<ref>Lee Harvey Oswald in Russia, [http://www.russianbooks.org/oswald/moscow1.htm Moscow Part 1] at ''Russian Books''</ref><ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 18, p. 108, CE 912, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh18/html/WH_Vol18_0061b.htm Declaration of Lee Harvey Oswald, dated November 3, 1959, requesting that his U.S. citizenship be revoked].</ref>
John McVickar, an official at the Moscow embassy, felt that Oswald, "...was following a pattern of behavior in which he had been tutored by [a] person or persons unknown ... seemed to be using words which he had learned but did not fully understand ... in short, it seemed to me that there was a possibility that he had been in contact with others before or during his Marine Corps tour who had guided him and encouraged him in his actions."<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh18/html/WH_Vol18_0085a.htm State Department Memorandum from John A. McVickar to Thomas Ehrlich, dated November 27, 1963], Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 18, p. 155, CE 941</ref>

He told Soviet officials{{When|date=May 2010}} "...that he had been a radar operator in the Marine Corps and that he ... would make known to them such information concerning the Marine Corps and his speciality as he possessed. He intimated that he might know something of special interest."<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh18/pdf/WH18_CE_908.pdf Foreign Service Despatch from the American Embassy in Moscow to the Department of State], Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 18, p. 98, CE 908</ref> When the Navy Department learned of this, it changed Oswald's Marine Corps discharge from "hardship/honorable" to "[[Section 8 (military)|undesirable]]".<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, CE 780, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/pdf/WH17_CE_780.pdf Documents from Lee Harvey Oswald's Marine Corps file].</ref>

[[File:CE2595.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Marina Prusakova, Minsk 1959]]
Although Oswald had wanted to attend [[Moscow University]], he was sent to [[Minsk]], where he was given a job as a lathe operator at the Gorizont (Horizon) Electronics Factory, a huge facility producing radios, televisions,and military and space electronics. He was given a subsidized,{{Clarify|date=May 2010}} fully furnished studio apartment in a prestigious building and, in addition to his factory pay, received subsidies from the Russian [[Red Cross Society]]&mdash;an idyllic existence by Soviet working-class standards,<ref>Lee Harvey Oswald in Russia, [http://www.russianbooks.org/oswald/minsk3.htm Minsk Part 3] at ''Russian Books''</ref> though, he was under constant surveillance.<ref>Lee Harvey Oswald in Russia, [http://www.russianbooks.org/oswald/minsk2.htm Minsk Part 2] at ''Russian Books''</ref>

But Oswald grew bored in Minsk.<ref>Warren Commission Report, [http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-7.html#defection Chapter 7<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> He wrote in his diary in January 1961: "I am starting to reconsider my desire about staying. The work is drab, the money I get has nowhere to be spent. No nightclubs or bowling alleys, no places of recreation except the trade union dances. I have had enough."<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 16, p. 102, CE 24, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/html/WH_Vol16_0063b.htm Lee Harvey Oswald's "Historic Diary"], entry of January 4–31, 1961.</ref>  Shortly afterwards, Oswald (who had never formally renounced his U.S. citizenship) wrote to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow requesting return of his American passport, and proposing his return to the U.S. if any charges against him would be dropped.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 18, p. 131, CE 931, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh18/html/WH_Vol18_0073a.htm Undated letter from Lee Harvey Oswald to the American Embassy in Moscow].
</ref>
(In 1964, Oswald's mother, Marguerite, recorded and released an audio album, ''The Oswald Case: Mrs. Marguerite Oswald Reads Lee Harvey Oswald's Letters from Russia,'' on which she reads from and comments on his letters from his time in Soviet Union.)<ref>[http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=1046 Oswald Letters]</ref>

At a dance in March 1961,<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=d32jyAysvGQC&pg=PA112&lpg=PA112&dq=oswald+marina+dance+minsk&source=bl&ots=IHFZ6n30it&sig=b9OnLt7nWuxSKQMUA1dQZlZ7NO4&hl=en&ei=2WUBTLPSOpCGNs_r2Ds&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=oswald%20marina%20dance%20minsk&f=false  |title=Assignment, Oswald |first = James P. and Thomas C |last=Hosty |page=112}}
</ref>
Oswald met [[Marina Oswald Porter|Marina Prusakova]], a 19-year-old pharmacology student.<ref>Though later reports described her uncle, with whom she was living, as a colonel in the [[KGB]], he was actually a lumber industry expert in the [[Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs]] (MVD) with a bureaucratic rank of ''Polkovnik''. Priscilla Johnson McMillan, ''Marina and Lee'', Harper & Row, 1977, pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0060129538.</ref><ref>[[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]], Hearings, vol. 2 p. 207, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol2/html/HSCA_Vol2_0106a.htm Testimony of Marina Oswald Porter], September 13, 1978.</ref> They married on April 30, 1961, less than six weeks after they met.
On July 11 Oswald and Marina applied in person at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for documents enabling her to immigrate to the U.S.<ref>
{{cite book
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=TpzGMAmH2LEC&pg=PA761&lpg=PA761&dq=marina+oswald+visa&source=bl&ots=iivYyv1F-H&sig=IEuEbKWnDJOdxe2AQnqJ2pWH3Pc&hl=en&ei=gLIBTMWGO464NbzExDs&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=marina%20oswald%20visa&f=false
|title=The Warren Commission Report
|year=1964
|accessdate=2010-05-30}}
</ref>
Their first child, June, was born on February 15, 1962. On June 1, 1962, the family left for the United States, where they received a measure of attention in the press.<ref>"Young Ex-Marine Asks To Be Russian Citizen", ''[[Oakland, California|Oakland]] Tribune'', October 31, 1959, p. 1. "Ex-Marine Requests Citizenship", ''New York Times'', November 1, 1959, p. 3. "Texan in Russia: He Wants to Stay", ''Dallas Morning News'', November 1, 1959, sec. 1, p. 9. "Brother Tries to Telephone, Halt Defector", ''Oakland Tribune'' November 2, 1959, p. 8. "U.S. Boy Prefers Russia", ''[[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]] Herald-Journal'', December 11, 1959, p. 46. "Third Yank Said Quitting Soviet Union, ''[[San Mateo, California|San Mateo]] Times'', June 8, 1962, p. 8. "Marine Returning", ''The [[Lima, Ohio|Lima]] News'', June 9, 1962, p. 1.</ref>

===Dallas===
The Oswalds now settled in the [[Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex|Dallas/Fort Worth]] area, where his mother and brother{{Which?|date=May 2010}} lived, and Lee attempted to write ''The Collective'', a memoir and commentary on Soviet life. Though he eventually gave up this project  his search for literary feedback put him in touch with anti-Communist Russian émigrés in the area. While merely tolerating the belligerent and arrogant Lee, they sympathized with Marina, partly because she spoke no English&mdash;Oswald refused to teach her, saying he didn't want to forget Russian&mdash;and because Oswald had begun to beat her.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-7.html#relationship |title=Warren Commission Report Chapter 7 — Relationship with Wife |publisher=Archives.gov |date= |accessdate=2009-02-27}}</ref><ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 11, p. 123, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh11/html/WC_Vol11_0067a.htm Affidavit of Alexander Kleinlerer]: "Anna Meller, Mrs. Hall, George Bouhe, and the deMohrenschildts, and all that group had pity for Marina and her child. None of us cared for Oswald because of his political philosophy, his criticism of the United States, his apparent lack of interest in anyone but himself, and because of his treatment of Marina."</ref>

Although the Russian émigrés eventually abandoned Marina when she made no sign of leaving Oswald,<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 11, p. 298, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh11/html/WC_Vol11_0154b.htm Testimony of Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald]. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 2, p. 307, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh2/html/WC_Vol2_0158a.htm Testimony of Mrs. Katherine Ford]. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 9, p. 252, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh9/html/WC_Vol9_0130b.htm Testimony of George de Mohrenschildt]. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 9, p. 238, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh9/html/WC_Vol9_0123b.htm Testimony of George de Mohrenschildt]. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 9, p. 266, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh9/html/WC_Vol9_0137b.htm Testimony of George de Mohrenschildt].</ref> Oswald found an unlikely friend in [[George de Mohrenschildt]], a well-educated petroleum geologist.<ref>''[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol12/pdf/HSCA_Vol12_deMohren.pdf George de Mohrenschildt]''. Staff Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, 1979.</ref> (A native Russian-speaker himself, de Mohrenschildt wrote that Oswald spoke Russian "very well, with only a little accent.")<ref>George DeMorenschildt, ''[http://scribblguy.50megs.com/patsy1.htm#mark1 "I'm a Patsy"]''.</ref> Marina meanwhile befriended [[Ruth Paine]],<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 2, p. 435, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh2/html/WC_Vol2_0222a.htm Testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine].</ref> who was trying to learn Russian, and her husband Michael.

In July 1962, Oswald was hired by Dallas' Leslie Welding Company; he disliked the work and quit after three months. In October he was hired by the graphic-arts firm of Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall as a photoprint trainee,<ref>The company has been cited as doing classified work for the US government, but this work was limited to typesetting for maps and carried out in a section to which Oswald had no access.</ref> but his inefficiency and rudeness were such that fights threatened to break out,<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/ofstein.htm Testimony of Dennis Hyman Ofstein]: 'I would say he didn't get along with people and that several people had words with him at times about the way he barged around the plant, and one of the fellows back in the photosetter department almost got in a fight with him one day, and I believe it was Mr. Graef that stepped in and broke it up before it got started…'</ref> and he was seen reading a Russian publication, ''[[Krokodil]]''.<ref>This magazine was largely a satire of the performance of the Soviet system, not of the West&mdash;by this time Oswald had long been disillusioned with the U.S.S.R., as noted.</ref> He was fired during the first week of April 1963.<ref>http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh23/pdf/WH23_CE_1886.pdf Warren Report C.E. 1886 shows his last weekly paycheck was for work ending April 6.</ref>
(He may have used equipment at the firm to forge identification documents,<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 19, p. 288, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/html/WH_Vol19_0153b.htm Photograph of the face sides of a Selective Service System Notice of Classification]. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 10, p. 201, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh10/html/WC_Vol10_0105a.htm Testimony of Dennis Hyman Ofstein].</ref> including some in the name of an alias, ''Alek James Hidell''.)

===Attempted killing of General Walker===
The Warren Commission concluded that on April 10, 1963, Oswald attempted to kill retired U.S. General Major General [[Edwin Walker]]. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html#walker |title=Warren Commission Report p. 184-195 |publisher=Archives.gov |date= |accessdate=2009-02-27}}</ref> Walker was an outspoken anti-communist, segregationist, and member of the [[John Birch Society]] who had been relieved of his command in 1962 for distributing right-wing literature to his subordinates. He was subsequently involved in resistance to the racial integration of the [[University of Mississippi]] and consequently arrested for insurrection, seditious conspiracy, and other charges, but a grand jury refused to indict him. Oswald considered Walker the leader of a "[[fascism|fascist]] organization."<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 1, p. 16, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh1/html/WC_Vol1_0014b.htm Testimony of Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald].</ref> 

In March 1963, Oswald purchased a 6.5&nbsp;mm caliber [[Carcano]] rifle (commonly but improperly called [[Mannlicher-Carcano]]) by mail, using the alias ''A. Hidell.''<ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0071b.htm The Assassin], Warren Commission Report, p. 118-119.</ref> He also purchased a revolver by the same method.<ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0296a.htm Questioned Documents], Warren Commission Report, Appendix 10, p. 567-571.</ref>

The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald fired at Walker through a window, from less than 100 feet (30 m) away, as Walker was sat at a desk in his dining room; the bullet struck the windowframe and Walker's injury was struck only by bullet fragments in the forearm. Oswald returned home and told Marina what he had just done.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}}  (The [[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]] stated that the "evidence strongly suggested" that Oswald did the shooting.)<ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/report/html/HSCA_Report_0046a.htm Findings of the Select Committee on Assassinations], HSCA Final Report, p. 61.</ref>

At the time, Dallas police had no suspects in the shooting,<ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/report/pdf/HSCA_Report_1A_LHO.pdf HSCA Final Report: I. Findings - A. Lee Harvey Oswald Fired Three Shots<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
but Oswald's involvement was suspected within hours of his arrest following the Kennedy assassination.<ref>"Officials Recall Sniper Shooting at Walker Home", ''Dallas Morning News'', November 23, 1963, sec. 1, p. 15.</ref> (A note Oswald left for Marina on the night of the attempt, telling her what to do if he did not return, was not found until early December 1963.)<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 23, p. 392–393, CE 1785, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh23/html/WH_Vol23_0212b.htm Secret Service report dated December 5, 1963, on questioning of Marina Oswald about note Oswald wrote before he attempted to kill General Walker].</ref><ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh9/html/WC_Vol9_0201a.htm Testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine], Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 9, p. 393–394.</ref><ref>"Oswald Notes Reported Left Before Walker Was Shot At", ''Dallas Morning News'', December 31, 1963, sec. 1, p. 6.</ref> The Walker bullet was too damaged to run conclusive ballistics studies on it,<ref>"FBI Unable to Link Walker Slug, Rifle", ''Dallas Moring News'', December 20, 1963, sec. 1, p. 7.</ref> but [[neutron activation]] tests later showed that it was "extremely likely" that that it was made by the same manufacturer and for the same rifle make as the two bullets which later struck Kennedy.<ref>[[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]],

[http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/m_j_russ/hscaguin.htm Testimony of Dr. Vincent P. Guinn]:
:Mr. WOLF. In your professional opinion, Dr. Guinn, is the fragment removed from General Walker's house a fragment from a WCC ([[Western Cartridge Company]]) Mannlicher-Carcano bullet?
:Dr. GUINN. I would say that it is extremely likely that it is, because there are very few, very few other ammunitions that would be in this range. I don't know of any that are specifically this close as these numbers indicate, but somewhere near them there are a few others, but essentially this is in the range that is rather characteristic of WCC Mannlicher-Carcano bullet lead.</ref>

===New Orleans===
[[File:4911MagazineNOLA.JPG|right|thumb|Oswald rented an apartment in this building in [[Uptown New Orleans]] c. May-September 1963]][[File:Pizzo Exh B-Oswald leaflets FPFC-WH Vol21 139.jpg|thumb|Oswald and two people he had hired for the day pass out "Fair Play for Cuba" leaflets in New Orleans, August, 1963. Two months later Oswald would travel to Mexico City with the purpose of obtaining a visa to travel to Cuba]] [[File:Oswaldneworleans.jpg|thumb|Oswald's mugshot following his arrest in New Orleans]]

Oswald returned to New Orleans on April 25, 1963 and got a job as a machinery greaser with the [[Reily Foods Company|Reily Coffee Company]] in May.  Oswald's wife, Marina, joined him in New Orleans, after being driven there by family friend [[Ruth Paine]]. In July, Oswald was fired from Reily for [[malingering]].

On May 26, 1963, Oswald, without any previous contact with the FPCC, and with no membership in the Communist Party USA, wrote a letter to the New York City headquarters of the [[Fair Play for Cuba Committee]], a pro-Castro organization, and proposed "...renting a small office at my own expense for the purpose of forming a FPCC branch here in New Orleans."  The FPCC Chairman replied, rejecting Oswald's proposal and later commented on its suspicious nature.  In that letter, Oswald also claimed to have had a public brawl with a Cuban refugee, although that fight would not occur for two weeks.

On August 5 and 6, according to [[Carlos Bringuier]], Oswald visited him at a store he owned in New Orleans. Bringuier was the New Orleans delegate for the anti-Castro Cuban Student Directorate. Bringuier told the Warren Commission that he believed Oswald's visits were an attempt by Oswald to infiltrate his anti-Castro group.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 10, pp. 34–37, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh10/html/WC_Vol10_0021b.htm Testimony of Carlos Bringuier].</ref> Three days later, on August 9, Oswald turned up in downtown New Orleans handing out pro-Castro fliers. Bringuier confronted Oswald, claiming he was tipped off about Oswald's leafleting by a friend. During an ensuing scuffle, Oswald, along with Bringuier and two of his friends, was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace.<ref>Summers, Anthony. ''Not in Your Lifetime'', (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1998), p. 211. ISBN 1-56924-739-0</ref>

The arrest got news media attention and Oswald was interviewed afterwards. He was also filmed passing out fliers in front of the [[International Trade Mart]] with two 'volunteers' he had hired (hired, because Oswald was not a member of the Communist Party USA so he had no regular volunteers).  Oswald's political work in New Orleans came to an end after a [[WDSU]] radio debate between Bringuier and Oswald arranged by journalist Bill Stuckey. During the course of the debate, Oswald was confronted with accusations about his past in the [[Soviet Union]] and his activities in New Orleans.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 21, p. 633, Stuckey Exhibit 3, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh21/html/WH_Vol21_0329a.htm Literal transcript of an audio-tape recording of a debate among Lee Harvey Oswald, Carlos Bringuier, and Ed Butler on August 21, 1963], Radio station WDSU, New Orleans.</ref>

Oswald's activities in New Orleans in mid-1963 were investigated by New Orleans District Attorney [[Jim Garrison]] during his [[Trial of Clay Shaw|prosecution of Clay Shaw]] in 1969. Garrison was particularly interested in investigating [[David Ferrie]]'s connections to Oswald, which Ferrie himself denied.  Ferrie died before he could be brought to trial.  In 1993, the PBS television program ''Frontline'' obtained a group photograph, taken eight years before the assassination, that showed Oswald and Ferrie at a cookout with other [[Civil Air Patrol]] cadets.<ref name=autogenerated11>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oswald/glimpse/ferrie.html PBS ''Frontline'' "Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald"], broadcast on PBS stations, November 1993 (various dates).</ref>

Ron Lewis claimed that he briefly met [[David Ferrie]] and [[Guy Banister]], and Lewis could have substantiated many claims proposed by [[Jim Garrison]], but Lewis decided not to risk personal danger by coming forward with his testimony during the trial of [[Clay Shaw]].

{{See|David Ferrie}}
{{See|Trial of Clay Shaw}}

===Mexico===
While Ruth Paine drove Marina back to Dallas in late September 1963, Oswald lingered in New Orleans for two more days waiting to collect a $33 unemployment check. It has never been conclusively established precisely when Oswald left New Orleans, or what mode of transportation he took. He is next known to have boarded a bus in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], but instead of heading north to Dallas, he took a bus southwest towards [[Laredo, Texas|Laredo]] and the [[U.S.-Mexico border]]. Once in Mexico he hoped to continue to Cuba, a plan he openly shared with other passengers on the bus.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, volume 11, pp. 214-215, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh11/html/WC_Vol11_0112b.htm Affidavit of John Bryan McFarland and Meryl McFarland].</ref> Arriving in [[Mexico City]], he completed a transit visa application at the Cuban Embassy,<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 25, p. 418, CE 2564, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/html/WC_Vol25_0422b.htm Cuban visa application of Lee Harvey Oswald, September 27, 1963].</ref> claiming he wanted to visit the country on his way back to the [[Soviet Union]]. The Cubans insisted the Soviet Union would have to approve his journey to the USSR before he could get a Cuban visa, but he was unable to get speedy co-operation from the Soviet embassy.

After shuttling back and forth between consulates for five days, getting into a heated argument with the Cuban consul, making impassioned pleas to [[KGB]] agents, and coming under at least some [[CIA]] interest,<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcmemos/Oswald_Foreign_Activities/html/180-10096-10364_0094a.htm (undated) Oswald's Foreign Activities (Coleman and Slawson to Rankin)] (page 94) at ''The Assassination Archives and Research Center''</ref> Oswald was told by the Cuban consul that "as far as [he] was concerned [he] would not give him a visa" and that "a person like him [Oswald] in place of aiding the Cuban Revolution, was doing it harm."<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-7.html#cuba Warren Commission Report], p. 413</ref> However, less than three weeks later, on October 18 the Cuban embassy in Mexico City finally approved the visa, and 11 days before the assassination Oswald wrote a letter to the Soviet embassy in [[Washington, D.C.]], which said, "Had I been able to reach the Soviet Embassy in [[Havana]] as planned, the embassy there would have had time to complete our business."<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oswald/forum/ Oswald: Myth, Mystery, and Meaning], [[Frontline (TV series)|FRONTLINE]], November 20, 2003</ref><ref>HSCA Appendix to Hearings, vol. 8, p. 358, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol8/html/HSCA_Vol8_0181b.htm Letter from Lee Oswald to Embassy of the U.S.S.R., Washington, D.C., November 9, 1963]. [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/cia/201/104-10004-10202/html/104-10004-10202_0019a.htm CIA Report on Oswald's Stay in Mexico], December 13, 1963. (page 19) at ''The Assassination Archives and Research Center''.</ref>

===Return to Dallas===
Oswald left Mexico City on October 3, and returned by bus to Dallas, where he looked for employment. Through Ruth Paine he found a job filling book orders at the [[Texas School Book Depository]], where he started work on October 16. During the week, he lived in a [[Boarding house|rooming house]] on Beckley Street in Dallas (under the pseudonym O.H. Lee),<ref name="Saturday2">{{cite journal |last=Bagdikian |first=Ben H. |authorlink=Ben Bagdikian |editor1-first=Clay |editor1-last=Blair Jr. |editor1-link=Clay Blair |date=December 14, 1963 |title=The Assassin |journal=The Saturday Evening Post |issue=44 |page=26 |publisher=The Curtis Publishing Company |location=Philadelphia, PA. 19105}}</ref> and spent the weekends with his wife at the Paine home in [[Irving, Texas]], about 15 miles (24&nbsp;km) from central Dallas. On October 20, the Oswalds' second daughter was born. During this period, the [[FBI]] was aware of Oswald's whereabouts in Texas, and agents from the Dallas office twice visited the Paine home in early November when Oswald was not present, hoping to get more information about Marina Oswald, whom the FBI suspected of being a Soviet agent.<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/appendix-13.html Warren Commission Report, p. 739].</ref> In return, Oswald visited the FBI field office in Dallas approximately 10 days to a week before the assassination, in an attempt to speak to Special Agent James Hosty. When informed that Hosty was not available, Oswald left a note, which according to the receptionist at the field office read:
: Let this be a warning. I will blow up the FBI and the Dallas Police Department if you don’t stop bothering my wife. Signed - Lee Harvey Oswald.

After the assassination, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge for Dallas J. Gordon Shanklin ordered Hosty to destroy the note.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book5/html/ChurchVol5_0051a.htm
|last = Church
|first = Frank
|title=Book V: The Investigation of the Assassination of President J.F.K.: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies, Appendix B
|date=1976-04-23
|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office, Senate, Report 94-755, [[Church Committee]]
|accessdate=2010-04-03
}}</ref>

On November 16, a local newspaper reported that President Kennedy's [[motorcade]] would be going through central Dallas on November 22, "probably on Main Street" one block from the Texas School Book Depository, which it would have to pass to get onto the freeway to the President's luncheon site. This was confirmed by exact descriptions of the motorcade route published on November 19.<ref>[http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dmntue.gif Dallas Morning News], November 19, 1963. [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dthtue.gif Dallas Times Herald], November 19, 1963, p. A-13.</ref> On Thursday, November 21, Oswald asked Buell Wesley Frazier, a co-worker, for a ride to Irving, saying he had to pick up some curtain rods. The next morning, after leaving $170 and his wedding ring,<ref>[http://www.jfk-assassination.de/warren/wch/vol1/page72.php Warren Commission Hearings, vol. I, p. 72-73, Testimony of Marina Oswald].</ref> he returned to Dallas with Frazier, carrying a long paper bag with him.<ref>Magen Knuth, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/bag.htm The Long Brown Bag].</ref>

Oswald was last seen by a co-worker alone on the sixth floor of the depository about 30 minutes before the assassination.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/givens1.htm Testimony of Charles Givens]. An FBI report from November 26, 1963 said that Depository employee Carolyn Arnold, as she left the building to watch the motorcade, thought she caught a fleeting glimpse of Oswald standing in the first floor hallway of the building, a few minutes before 12:15 pm. In 1978, she told author Anthony Summers that the FBI report misquoted her, and that she "clearly" saw Oswald sitting in the second floor lunchroom at 12:15 pm or slightly after. In either case, no other depository employee reported seeing Oswald on the first or second floors between 12 noon and 12:30 pm (e.g., [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/html/WH_Vol22_0351b.htm Mrs. Pauline Sanders], who left the second floor lunchroom at "approximately 12:20 pm," did not see Oswald any time that day). The two Depository employees with whom Oswald said he ate lunch on the first floor both denied it.</ref>

===Assassination of JFK===
{{Main|John F. Kennedy assassination}}
According to Government investigations, Oswald shot [[John F. Kennedy]] and two other people at 12:30 pm on November 22, 1963, resulting in the death of Kennedy. The 1964 [[Warren Commission]] report on the [[John F. Kennedy assassination]] concluded that those bullets came from a 6.5 millimeter Italian carbine with a four-power scope that Oswald fired from a window on the sixth floor of the book depository warehouse, where he was an employee, as the President's motorcade passed through Dallas's [[Dealey Plaza]]. {{See|Lone gunman theory}}

Texas Governor [[John Connally]] was also seriously wounded along with assassination witness [[James Tague]] who received a minor facial injury.

===Oswald's flight and the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit===
[[File:LHO14.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Dallas PD color mugshot November 23, 1963]]
According to the Warren Commission report, immediately after he shot President Kennedy, Oswald hid the rifle behind some boxes and descended four flights of stairs via the depository's rear stairwell. On the second floor he encountered Dallas police officer Marion Baker and Roy Truly, Oswald's supervisor, who identified Oswald as an employee, and Baker let Oswald pass. This encounter occurred in the second floor lunch room approximately 90 seconds after the shooting. According to Baker, Oswald was drinking a soda and did not appear to be out of breath or nervous. Subsequently, Oswald crossed the floor to the front staircase, descended and left the building through the front entrance on Elm Street, just before the police sealed off the building. Oswald was the only employee of the Depository who permanently left the building after the assassination; his supervisor later noticed Oswald missing<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh3/html/WC_Vol3_0119b.htm Testimony of Roy Sansom Truly].</ref> and reported his name and address to the Dallas police in the building.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh4/html/WC_Vol4_0107b.htm Testimony of J.W. Fritz].</ref>

At about 12:40 p.m. (CST), Oswald boarded a city bus, but due to heavy traffic, he requested a bus transfer from the driver and exited the bus two blocks later.<ref>[http://www.jfkassassination.net/transfer.gif Bus transfer (.gif)] at ''Kennedy Assassination Home Page''</ref> He took a [[taxicab]] to his rooming house, which he entered about 1:00 p.m. His housekeeper, Earlene Roberts, testified that as he entered "he was walking pretty fast"."<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/robertse.htm Testimony of Earlene Roberts].</ref> He went into his room briefly, put on a jacket, and left. Oswald was last seen by Roberts waiting by a bus stop on a route that headed back to downtown Dallas.<ref>Warren Commission Report, Chapter 4: The Assassin, [http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html#movements Oswald's Movements After Leaving Depository Building].</ref>

About four-fifths of a mile (about 1.3&nbsp;km) away, Patrolman [[J. D. Tippit]] encountered Oswald on a residential street in the neighborhood of [[Oak Cliff]]. He pulled up next to Oswald and spoke to him through a passenger side window.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 19, p. 113, Barnes Exhibit A, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/html/WH_Vol19_0066a.htm Right side of Tippit squad car], showing open wing vent window.</ref> When Tippit exited his squad car, he was shot four times with a .38 caliber revolver, killing him in view of three eyewitnesses.<ref>Warren Commission Report, Chapter 4: The Assassin, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0095a.htm The Killing of Patrolman J.D. Tippit].</ref><ref>The third eyewitness was Jack Ray Tatum. "[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol12/html/HSCA_Vol12_0023a.htm Oswald-Tippit Associates]", HSCA Appendix to Hearings, vol. 12, p. 40–41.</ref> Seven other witnesses heard the shots and saw the gunman flee the scene with the revolver in his hand.<ref>Warren Commission Report, Chaper 4: The Assassin, [http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html#description Description of Shooting].</ref><ref>By the evening of November 22, five of them (Helen Markham, Barbara Jeanette Davis, Virginia Davis, Ted Callaway, Sam Guinyard) had identified Lee Harvey Oswald in police lineups as the man they saw. A sixth (William Scoggins) did so the next day. Three others (Harold Russell, Pat Patterson, Warren Reynolds) subsequently identified Oswald from a photograph. Two witnesses (Domingo Benavides, William Arthur Smith) testified that Oswald resembled the man they had seen. One witness (L.J. Lewis) felt he was too distant from the gunman to make a positive identification. Warren Commission Hearings, CE 1968, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh23/html/WH_Vol23_0425a.htm Location of Eyewitnesses to the Movements of Lee Harvey Oswald in the Vicinity of the Tippit Killing].</ref> Four cartridge cases were found at the scene by eyewitnesses. It was the unanimous testimony of [[expert witness]]es before the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations that these used cartridge cases were fired from the revolver in Oswald's possession to the exclusion of all other weapons.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 3, pp. 466–473, [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh3/html/WC_Vol3_0237b.htm Testimony of Cortlandt Cunningham]. Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 3, p. 511, [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh3/html/WC_Vol3_0260a.htm Testimony of Jospeh D. Nicol].</ref><ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol7/html/HSCA_Vol7_0193b.htm Tippit Murder: Findings and Conclusions], 7 HSCA 376.</ref>  [[File:TexasTheater oswaldsSeat.jpg|thumb|left|165px|Oswald's seat in the Texas Theater]]
[[File:GeraldHill-B.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Oswald being brought out of the [[Texas Theater]] immediately after his arrest there]]

A few minutes later, Oswald ducked into the entrance alcove of a shoe store and appeared to be avoiding passing police cars. Johnny Brewer, the shoe store's manager, had been listening to the day's events on the radio, and felt that Oswald was acting suspiciously. After Oswald walked away, Brewer went outside his shop and saw Oswald slip into the nearby [[Texas Theater]] without paying.<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/html/WC_Vol7_0006a.htm Testimony of Johnny Calvin Brewer], 7 H 3–5.</ref> Brewer alerted ticket clerk Julia Postal, who had also been listening to radio coverage of the assassination, and she phoned the police.<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/html/WC_Vol7_0010a.htm Testimony of Julia Postal], 7 H 11.</ref>

The police quickly arrived ''en masse'' and entered the theater as the lights were turned on. Brewer identified Oswald sitting near the rear, and Officer Maurice N. McDonald approached him and ordered him to stand up. Oswald said, "Well, it is all over now" and appeared to raise his hands in surrender, when he then struck the officer. A scuffle ensued where McDonald removed the gun from Oswald's possession.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://www.jfk-assassination.com/warren/wch/vol3/page295.php Testimony of M. N. McDonald].</ref> Oswald was eventually subdued. As he was led past an angry crowd of people who had gathered outside the theater, Oswald shouted that he was a victim of police brutality.<ref>[http://www.jfk-online.com/mcdonald.html "Oswald and Officer McDonald:The Arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald"] Retrieved 10 April 2010</ref>

At about 2 p.m., Oswald arrived at the Dallas Police Department building, where he was held on suspicion of the shooting of Officer Tippit and was questioned by Detective [[Jim Leavelle]]. Captain J. W. Fritz was told that the name of the suspect in the Tippit shooting was Lee Harvey Oswald, the same name that Fritz had received at the Texas School Book Depository as a missing employee who had last been seen in the building shortly after the assassination.<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh21/html/WH_Vol21_0268b.htm Copy of an undated statement made by Richard M. Sims and E. L. Boyd concerning the events surrounding the assassination], 21 H 512–514.</ref> "That is the suspect we are looking for in the President's killing," Fritz said.<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh4/html/WC_Vol4_0107b.htm Testimony of J.W. Fritz], 4 H 206.</ref> Oswald was then booked on suspicion of murdering both President Kennedy and Officer Tippit. By the end of the night he had been [[Arraignment|arraigned]] before [[Justice of the Peace]] [[David L. Johnston]] for both murders.<ref>Warren Commission Report, Chapter 5: Detention and Death of Oswald, [http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-5.html#chronology Chronology]. Tippit murder affidavit: [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh20/html/WH_Vol20_0170a.htm text], [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh20/html/WH_Vol20_0170b.htm cover]. Kennedy murder affidavit: [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh20/html/WH_Vol20_0171a.htm text], [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh20/html/WH_Vol20_0171b.htm cover].</ref>

In the hallway of the police station, early in his custody, Oswald had an impromptu, face-to-face brush with reporters and photographers, in which he declared "I didn't shoot anyone" and "They're taking me in because of the fact I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!" Later, just after midnight, at a brief arranged appearance before the press, a reporter asked him "Did you kill the President?" and Oswald, who had been advised at 7:10 p.m. of the charge of murdering Tippit, but was not arraigned for Kennedy's murder until 1:30 a.m., answered "No, I have not been charged with that. In fact, nobody has said that to me yet. The first thing I heard about it was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question." Before any more questions were asked and answered, police officers began leading Oswald out of the room, during which two more questions came: "What did you do in Russia?" and "How did you hurt your eye?" Oswald answered the latter, stating "A policeman hit me."<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 20, p. 366, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh20/html/WH_Vol20_0193b.htm Kantor Exhibit No. 3 — Handwritten notes made by Seth Kantor concerning events surrounding the assassination].</ref><ref>[http://youtube.com/watch?v=_ZYAIiErTNg&feature=related Lee Oswald claiming innocence] (film), YouTube.com.</ref><ref>[http://youtube.com/watch?v=yuudRsNewsM Lee Oswald's Midnight Press Conference], YouTube.com.</ref>

===Police interrogation===
[[Image:CE795.jpg|thumb|200px|Fake selective service (draft) card in the name of Alek James Hidell, found on Oswald when arrested on the day of the JFK/Tippit murders. "A.Hidell" was the name used on both envelope and order slip to buy the murder weapon (see CE 773) <ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0331a.htm] photo of the order slip and order envelope for the murder weapon]</ref>, and "A. J. Hidell" was the alternate name on the post office box rented by Oswald, to which the weapon was sent<ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0362a.htm CE 697] shows "A. J. Hidell" as alternate name on Oswald P.O. Box</ref>]]
Oswald was interrogated several times during his two days of detention at Dallas Police Headquarters. He denied killing President Kennedy and Officer Tippit, denied owning a rifle, said two photographs of him holding a rifle and a pistol were fakes, and denied telling his co-worker he wanted a ride to Irving to get curtain rods for his apartment, and denied he had been seen carrying a long heavy package to work the morning of the assassination. The Warren Commission also noted that Oswald denied that he knew "A. J. Hidell," and when shown a forged [[Selective Service System|Selective Service]] card in his possession at the time of his arrest in that name, refused to tell the interrogator why this card was in his possession, or to answer any questions concerning the card, saying "..you have the card yourself and you know as much about it as I do." <ref>[http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html#statements Warren Commission Report, pp. 180-182].</ref> The Warren Commission noted that this "spurious" card bore the name of "Alek James Hidell." <ref>[http://www.history-matters.com/archive/contents/wc/contents_wh17.htm Volume XVII of the Warren report] with a facsimile of spurious Hidell card CE 795 with the Commisssion notation: "A spurious Selective Service System notice of classification card in the name "Alek James Hidell." See [http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0354a.htm for the card] (illustrated at right)</ref>

During his first interrogation on Friday, November 22, Oswald was asked to account for himself at the time the President was shot. Oswald said that he ate lunch in the first-floor lunchroom of the Texas School Book Depository and then went up to the second floor for a [[Coca-Cola|Coke]], during which he encountered the police officer.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 4, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh4/html/WC_Vol4_0238a.htm Testimony of James P. Hosty, Jr.], p. 467-468; [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh4/html/WC_Vol4_0111a.htm Testimony of J.W. Fritz], p. 213-214; Commission Exhibit 2003, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/html/WH_Vol24_0142a.htm Dallas Police Department file on investigation of the assassination of the President], "Interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald", vol. 4, p. 265.</ref> During his last interrogation on Sunday, November 24, Oswald was asked again where he was at the time of the shooting. Oswald said he was working on one of the upper floors of the Depository when it occurred, and that he then went downstairs, where he encountered the police officer.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/html/WC_Vol7_0155b.htm Testimony of Harry D. Holmes], vol. 7, p. 302.</ref>

Oswald asked for legal representation several times during his interrogations and when passing by reporters. But when representatives of the [[Dallas Bar Association]] met with Oswald in his cell on Saturday afternoon, he declined their services and said he wanted to be represented by [[John Abt]], who was chief counsel to the [[Communist Party USA]], or by lawyers who were members of the [[American Civil Liberties Union]].<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/html/WC_Vol7_0168b.htm Testimony of H. Louis Nichols], 7 H 328–329.</ref><ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/html/WC_Vol7_0154a.htm Testimony of Harry D. Holmes], 7 H 299–300.</ref> Oswald and Ruth Paine tried to reach Abt by telephone several times on Saturday and Sunday,<ref>Jesse E. Curry, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=iopAAAAAIAAJ Retired Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry Reveals His Personal JFK Assassination File]'', Self-published, 1969, p. 74, affidavit of Dallas police officer Thurber T. Lord on August 20, 1964.</ref><ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh3/html/WC_Vol3_0048b.htm Testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine], 3 H 88–89.</ref> but Abt had gone away for the weekend and did not return the calls.<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh10/html/WC_Vol10_0062b.htm Testimony of John J. Abt], 10 H 116.</ref> Oswald also declined his brother Robert's offer on Saturday afternoon to get him a local attorney.<ref>Robert L. Oswald, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lBpCAAAAIAAJ Lee: A Portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald by His Brother]'', Coward-McCann, 1967, p. 145.</ref>

===Oswald's death===
[[File:Ruby-shooting-oswald2.png|thumb|200px|right|Oswald is shot by Jack Ruby.]]

At 11:21 am Sunday, November 24, 1963, while he was handcuffed to Detective Leavelle and as he was about to be taken to the Dallas County Jail, Oswald was shot and fatally wounded before live television cameras in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters by [[Jack Ruby]], a Dallas nightclub operator who said that he had been distraught over the Kennedy assassination.

Unconscious, Oswald was put into an ambulance and rushed to [[Parkland Memorial Hospital]], the same hospital where President Kennedy had died two days earlier. Doctors operated on Oswald, but Ruby's single bullet had severed major abdominal blood vessels, and the doctors were unable to repair the massive trauma. Oswald was pronounced dead at 1:07 pm.<ref name="Saturday2"/> After a full autopsy, Oswald's body<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.celebritymorgue.com/jfk/oswald-slab.html |title=Oswald's body after death |publisher=Celebritymorgue.com |date= |accessdate=2009-02-27}}</ref> was returned to his family. Oswald's grave is in Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park in [[Fort Worth]].<ref>[http://jfkassassination.net/parnell/grave.htm Directions to Lee Harvey Oswald's Grave] at ''Kennedy Assassination Home Page''</ref><ref>[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Oswald&GSfn=Lee&GSmn=H&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=781&] Photos of Gravesite</ref> The original tombstone, which included Oswald's full name and dates of birth and death, was stolen; today, the grave is marked by a stone which reads simply, ''Oswald''.<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oswald/cron/</ref>

His wife Marina was sequestered by federal agents the day after the assassination and later released.  However, she had Secret Service protection until she concluded her testimony before the Warren Commission.

==Investigations==
The [[Warren Commission]] created by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy and that he acted alone (also known as the [[lone gunman theory]]). The proceedings of the commission were closed, but not secret, and about 3% of its files have yet to be released to the public, which has continued to provoke speculation among researchers.<ref>"Two misconceptions about the Warren Commission hearing need to be clarified...hearings were closed to the public unless the witness appearing before the Commission requested an open hearing. No witness except one...requested an open hearing...Second, although the hearings (except one) were conducted in private, they were not secret. In a secret hearing, the witness is instructed not to disclose his testimony to any third party, and the hearing testimony is not published for public consumption. The witnesses who appeared before the Commission were free to repeat what they said to anyone they pleased, and ''all'' of their testimony was subsequently published in the first fifteen volumes put out by the Warren Commission." (Bugliosi, p. 332)</ref>

In 1968, the [[Ramsey Clark]] Panel met in Washington, D.C., to examine various photographs, X-ray films, documents, and other evidence pertaining to the death of President Kennedy. It concluded that President Kennedy was struck by two bullets fired from above and behind him, one of which traversed the base of the neck on the right side without striking bone and the other of which entered the skull from behind and destroyed its right side.<ref>[http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/clark.txt 1968 Panel Review of Photographs, X-Ray Films, Documents and Other Evidence Pertaining to the Fatal Wounding of President John E Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas] (.txt) at ''Kennedy Assassination Home Page''</ref>

In 1979, an investigation by the [[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]] concluded that Oswald assassinated President Kennedy "probably [...] as the result of a [[Conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]]." The HSCA prepared an initial report concluding that Oswald acted alone, until a [[Dictabelt evidence relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy|Dictabelt recording]] purportedly of the assassination surfaced and the Committee revised its conclusion. The new conclusion was that Oswald had fired three shots, of which the last two struck the president and were the only shots to have done so. However, on the basis of the new acoustic evidence, the committee believed that a second gunman had fired a fourth shot, which missed the president. The inferred existence of second gunman automatically made the assassination a conspiracy.<ref name="autogenerated1">[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/report/html/HSCA_Report_0005a.htm Findings of the Select Committee on Assassinations] HSCA Final Report, pp. 3-4.</ref>

The acoustic evidence which the HCSA used for its conclusion has since been called into question, and some believe it is not a recording of the assassination at all.<ref>Holland, Max. [http://hnn.us/articles/21289.html The JFK Lawyers' Conspiracy] Published in ''The Nation'' on unknown date, reposted by George Mason University's History News Network, February 6, 2006</ref> The staff director and chief counsel for the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, [[G. Robert Blakey]], told ABC News that at least 20 persons heard a shot from the [[grassy knoll]], and that the conclusion that a conspiracy existed in the assassination was established by both the witness testimony and acoustic evidence. In 2004, he expressed less confidence in the acoustic evidence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKblakey.htm |title=G. Robert Blakey |publisher=Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2009-02-27}}</ref> Officer H.B. McLain, from whose motorcycle radio the HSCA acoustic experts said the Dictabelt evidence came,<ref>[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol5/html/HSCA_Vol5_0311a.htm Testimony of Mark Weiss and Ernest Aschkenasy], 5 HSCA 617.</ref><ref>G. Robert Blakey
and Richard N. Billings, ''The Plot to Kill the President'', Times Books, 1981, p. 103. ISBN 978-0812909296.</ref> has repeatedly stated that he was not yet in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination.<ref>Greg Jaynes, ''The Scene of the Crime'', [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/jaynes/mclain.htm Afterward].</ref> McLain asked the Committee, "‘If it was my radio on my motorcycle, why did it not record the revving up at high speed plus my siren when we immediately took off for Parkland Hospital?’”<ref>"[http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/report/html/HSCA_Report_0261b.htm Separate Views of Hons. Samuel L. Devine and Robert W. Edgar]", HSCA Report, pp. 492–493.</ref> The HSCA was unable to identify any other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy. It also had insufficient evidence to identify any group responsible.

In 1982, a group of twelve scientists appointed by the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] (NAS), led by Professor [[Norman Ramsey]] of [[Harvard University]], concluded that the acoustic evidence and the team behind its submission to the HSCA was "seriously flawed." While the NAS said that the HSCA acoustical evidence was flawed, a 2001 peer-reviewed article in ''Science and Justice'', the journal of Britain's Forensic Science Society, said that the NAS investigation was itself flawed. The article's author, Dr. Donald B. Thomas, a government scientist and JFK assassination researcher, concluded, with a 96.3 percent certainty, that there were at least two gunmen firing at President Kennedy and that one of the shots came from the [[grassy knoll]] in front of Kennedy.<ref>Donald B. Thomas, [http://pages.prodigy.net/whiskey99/thomas.pdf "Echo Correlation Analysis and the Acoustic Evidence in the Kennedy Assassination Revisited"], ''Science and Justice'', Volume 41(1), 2001 Retrieved 10 April 2010</ref> Commenting on the British study, [[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]] staff director and chief counsel [[G. Robert Blakey]] said: "This is an honest, careful scientific examination of everything we did, with all the appropriate statistical checks."<ref>George Lardner Jr., "Study Backs Theory of 'Grassy Knoll'", ''Washington Post'', March 26, 2001</ref>

===Possible motives===
The Warren Commission could not ascribe any one motive or group of motives to Oswald's actions:

{{quote|It is apparent, however, that Oswald was moved by an overriding hostility to his environment. He does not appear to have been able to establish meaningful relationships with other people. He was perpetually discontented with the world around him. Long before the assassination he expressed his hatred for American society and acted in protest against it. Oswald's search for what he conceived to be the perfect society was doomed from the start. He sought for himself a place in history — a role as the "great man" who would be recognized as having been in advance of his times. His commitment to Marxism and communism appears to have been another important factor in his motivation. He also had demonstrated a capacity to act decisively and without regard to the consequences when such action would further his aims of the moment. Out of these and the many other factors which may have molded the character of Lee Harvey Oswald there emerged a man capable of assassinating President Kennedy.<ref>
[http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-7.html#conclusions Warren Commission Report, Chapter 7: Unanswered Questions].</ref>}}

===1981 exhumation===
[[File:IMG 5271.JPG|thumb|right|200px| The grave of Lee Harvey Oswald]]

In October 1981 Oswald's body was [[exhumation|exhumed]] at the behest of British writer Michael Eddowes, with [[Marina Oswald Porter]]'s support. He sought to prove a thesis developed in a 1975 book, ''Khrushchev Killed Kennedy'' (re-published in 1976, in Britain as ''November 22: How They Killed Kennedy'' and in America a year later as ''The Oswald File''). Eddowes' theory was that during Oswald's stay in the [[Soviet Union]] he was replaced with a Soviet [[Doppelgänger|double]] named Alek, who was a member of a KGB assassination squad. Eddowes' claim is that it was this look-alike who killed Kennedy, and not Oswald. Eddowes's support for his thesis was a claim that the corpse buried in 1963 in the Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park cemetery in [[Fort Worth, Texas|Fort Worth]], [[Texas]] did not have a scar that resulted from surgery conducted on Oswald years before. When Oswald's body was exhumed it was found that the plain, mole skin-covered pine coffin had ruptured and was filled with water, leaving the body in an advanced state of decomposition with partial [[Skeletonization (forensics)|skeletonization]]. The examination positively identified Oswald's corpse through [[dental records]], and also detected a [[mastoid]] scar from a childhood operation.<ref>W. Tracy Parnell, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/parnell/xindex.htm The Exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald].</ref> Contrary to reports, the skull of Oswald had been autopsied and this was confirmed at the exhumation.<ref>W. Tracy Parnell, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/parnell/dimaio.htm My Interview With Dr. Vincent J.M. Di Maio].</ref>

====Kennedy assassination theories====
{{Main|Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories}}

Critics have not accepted the conclusions of the Warren Commission and have proposed a number of [[Kennedy assassination theories|other theories]], which assert that Oswald conspired with others or was not involved at all and was framed. One government investigation, the HSCA, ruled out many of these theories but concluded that, while Oswald was the assassin, Kennedy was "probably" killed as the result of a conspiracy. However, the HSCA report did not identify any probable co-conspirators and its conclusion has been criticized for its reliance upon [[Dictabelt evidence relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy|acoustic evidence]] that has been called into question.

====Fictional trials====
Several films have fictionalized a trial of Oswald, including ''The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald'' in 1964, another movie of the same name in 1977, and ''On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald'' in 1986. In 1986, [[London Weekend Television]] hosted a 21 hour television special in which an unscripted trial was held with an actual judge and lawyers. U.S. prosecutor [[Vincent Bugliosi]] described the event in his book ''[[Reclaiming History]]''. Real eyewitnesses from the assassination testified as to what they saw and the mock jury returned a verdict of guilty. Author [[Gerald Posner]] (whose book ''Case Closed'' surmises that the Warren Commission reached the correct conclusions) also participated in a shorter (5 hour) televised mock trial of Oswald which made use of actors rather than witnesses.

==Carcano rifle==
{{Main|John F. Kennedy assassination rifle}}
[[File:Oswaldrifle.jpg|thumb|Lee Harvey Oswald's Carcano rifle, in the US National Archives]]

==Backyard photos==
[[File:Lho-133A.jpg|thumb|left|Image CE-133A, one of three known "backyard photos." This is the same image sent by Oswald (as a first generation copy) to his friend [[George de Mohrenschildt]] in April, 1963, dated and signed by Oswald on the back of the photo. In the image, Oswald holds a Carcano rifle, with markings which have been match to the Carcano rifle that was found in the book depository and used in the assassination.]]

The "backyard photos", which were taken by [[Marina Oswald Porter|Marina Oswald]], probably around Sunday, March 31, 1963, show Oswald dressed all in black and holding two Marxist newspapers—''[[The Militant]]'' and ''[[Daily Worker|The Worker]]''—in one hand, a rifle in the other, and carrying a pistol in its holster. The backyard photos were shot using a camera belonging to Oswald, an Imperial Reflex Duo-Lens 620.<ref>http://www.copweb.be/Imperial_Camera.htm</ref><ref>Warren Commission Report, Chapter 4: The Assassin, [http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html#photograph Photograph of Oswald With Rifle]</ref> When shown the pictures at Dallas Police headquarters after his arrest, Oswald insisted they were fakes.<ref>Warren Commission Report, Chapter 4: The Assassin, [http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html#denial Denial of Rifle Ownership].</ref> However, Marina Oswald testified in 1964,<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 1, p. 15, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh1/html/WC_Vol1_0014a.htm Testimony of Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald].</ref> 1969,<ref>[http://www.jfk-online.com/marinashaw2.html Testimony of Marina Oswald Porter], [[Trial of Clay Shaw]], Criminal District Court, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, February 21, 1969.</ref> 1977,<ref>[[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]], [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo4/jfk12/marinade.htm#maraug Deposition of Marina Oswald Porter]:
:Q. I want to mark these two photographs. On the back of the first one, which I would ask be marked JFK committee exhibit No. 1, it says in the bottom right-hand corner copy from the National Archives, records group No. 272, under that it says CE-133B. I will ask that be marked JFK exhibit No. 1. (The above referred to photograph was marked JFK committee exhibit No. 1 for identification.)
:Q. New, this second picture that I will ask to be marked says copy from the National Archives, record group No. 272, CE-133. I would ask that this be marked JFK committee exhibit No. 2. (The above referred to photograph was marked JFK committee exhibit No. 2 for identification.)
:By Mr. KLEIN:
:Q. I will show you those two photographs which are marked JFK exhibit No. 1 and exhibit No. 2, do you recognize those two photographs?
:A. I sure do. I have seen them many times.
:Q. What are they?
:A. That is the pictures that I took.</ref> and 1978,<ref>[[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]], Hearings, vol. 2 p. 239, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol2/html/HSCA_Vol2_0122a.htm Testimony of Marina Oswald Porter]:
:Mr. McDONALD. Mrs. Porter, I have got two exhibits to show you, if the clerk would procure them from the representatives of the National Archives. We have two photographs to show you. They are [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0094a.htm Warren Commission Exhibits C-133-A and B], which have been given JFK Nos. F-378 and F-379. If the clerk would please hand them to you, and also if we could now have for display purposes JFK Exhibit F-179, which is a blowup of the two photographs placed in front of you. Mrs. Porter, do you recognize the photographs placed in front of you?
:Mrs. PORTER. Yes, I do.
:Mr. McDONALD. And how do you recognize them?
:Mrs. PORTER. That is the photograph that I made of Lee on his persistent request of taking a picture of him dressed like that with rifle.</ref> and reaffirmed in 2000<ref>Marina Oswald Porter, interview with author Vincent Bugliosi and lawyer Jack Duffy, Dallas, Texas, November 30, 2000, reported in Bugliosi, ''Reclaiming History'', p. 794.</ref> that she took the photographs at Oswald's request.
These photos were labelled CE 133-A and CE 133-B. CE 133-A shows the rifle in Oswald's left hand and newsletters in front of his chest in the other, while the rifle is held with the right hand in CE 133-B. Oswald's mother testified that on the day after the assassination she and Marina destroyed another photograph with Oswald holding the rifle with both hands over his head, with "To my daughter June" written on it.<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 1, p. 146, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh1/html/WC_Vol1_0079b.htm Testimony of Mrs. Marguerite Oswald].</ref>

The [[HSCA]] obtained another first generation print (from CE 133-A) on April 1, 1977 from the widow of [[George de Mohrenschildt]]. The words "Hunter of fascists — ha ha ha!" written in block Russian were on the back. Also in English were added in script: "To my friend George, Lee Oswald, 5/IV/63 [April 5, 1963]"<ref>HSCA Appendix to Hearings, vol. 6, p. 151, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0079a.htm Figure IV-21].</ref> Handwriting experts consulted by the HSCA concluded the English inscription and signature were written by Lee Oswald. After two original photos, one negative and one first-generation copy had been found, the Senate Intelligence Committee located (in 1976) a third photograph of Oswald with a backyard pose that was different (CE 133-C), with newspapers held in his right hand away from his body). A test photo by the Dallas Police in the identical pose was released with the Warren Commission evidence in 1964,<ref>Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 17, p. 497, CE 712, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0262a.htm Photographs taken by the Dallas Police Department on November 29, 1963, showing backyard of home on Neely Street in Dallas, where Oswald once lived].</ref> but it is not known why the photo itself was not publicly acknowledged until a print was found in 1975 amongst the belongings of deceased Dallas police officer Roscoe White.<ref>[[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]], Appendix to Hearings, p. 141, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0074a.htm The Oswald Backyard Photographs].</ref>

These photos, widely recognized as some of the most significant evidence against Oswald, have been subjected to rigorous analysis.<ref>HSCA Appendix to Hearings, vol. 6, [http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol6/html/HSCA_Vol6_0072b.htm "The Oswald Backyard Photographs"].</ref> A panel of twenty-two photographic experts consulted by the HSCA examined the photographs and answered twenty-one points of contention raised by critics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/photos.txt |title=[[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]] Report Chapter VI |date= |accessdate=2009-02-27}}</ref> The panel concluded the photographs were genuine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/photos.txt |title=id. |date= |accessdate=2009-02-27}}</ref> Marina Oswald has always maintained she took the photos herself, and the 1963 de Mohrenschildt print with Oswald's own signature clearly indicate they existed before the assassination.  Despite such evidence, however some critics continue to contest the authenticity of the photographs.<ref>[[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]], Hearings, [http://jfkassassination.net/russ/jfkinfo/hscawhte.htm Testimony of Jack D. White].</ref>  After digitally analyzing the photograph of Oswald holding the rifle and paper, [[Dartmouth College]] computer scientist [[Hany Farid]] published his findings<ref>{{cite journal | journal=Perception | author=Farid, H | year=2009 | title=The Lee Harvey Oswald backyard photos: real or fake? | pages=1731–1734 | volume=38 | issue=11 | url=http://www.perceptionweb.com/abstract.cgi?id=p6580}}</ref> concluding that "the photo almost certainly was not altered."<ref>[http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2009/11/05.html Dartmouth Professor finds that iconic Oswald photo was not faked.] 11/05/09.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
*[[Vincent Bugliosi|Bugliosi, Vincent]]. ''Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy''. Norton, 2007, 1632 p.&nbsp;ISBN 0393045250.
*[[Michael Eddowes|Eddowes, Michael]]. ''Khrushchev Killed Kennedy'', self-published, (1975), paperback (republished as ''November 22, How They Killed Kennedy'', Neville Spearman (1976), hardback, ISBN 0-85978-019-8 and as ''The Oswald File'', Potter (1977), hardcover, ISBN 0-517-53055-4)
*[[Robert J. Groden|Groden, Robert J.]]. ''The Search of Lee Harvey Oswald: A Comprehensive Photographic Record'', New York: Penguin Studio Books, 1995. ISBN 0-670-85867-6
*La Fontaine, Ray and Mary, "Oswald Talked: The New Evidence in the JFK Assassination", Gretna: Pelican Publishing Co., 1996. ISBN 1-56554-029-8
*Lambert, Patricia. ''False Witness: The Real Story of Jim Garrison's Investigation and Oliver Stone's Film'' JFK, New York: M. Evans & Company, 1998, ISBN 0-87131-920-9
*[[David S. Lifton|Lifton, David S.]], ''Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the. Assassination of John F. Kennedy'', Carroll & Graf Publishers, NYC, 1988, softcover, ISBN 0-88184-438-1
*[[Norman Mailer|Mailer, Norman]]. ''Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery'', New York: Ballantine Books, (1995) ISBN 0-345-40437-8
*[[Jim Marrs|Marrs, Jim]]. ''Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy,'' New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1990, ISBN 0-88184-648-1
*McMillan, Priscilla Johnson. ''Marina and Lee'', New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
*[[Philip H. Melanson|Melanson, Philip H.]] ''Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald And U. S. Intelligence'', Praeger Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0-275-93571-X
*[[John Newman|Newman, John.]] ''Oswald and the CIA'', New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1995, ISBN 0-7867-0131-5
*Nechiporenko, Oleg M. ''Passport to Assassination: The Never-Before Told Story of Lee Harvey Oswald by the KGB Colonel Who Knew Him'', New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1993, ISBN 1-559-72210-X
*[[Gerald Posner|Posner, Gerald]]. ''Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK'', Random House, 1993, hardcover, ISBN 0-679-41825-3
*[[Matthew Smith|Smith, Matthew]]. ''JFK: Say Goodbye to America'', Mainstream Publishing, 2004.
*Smith, Matthew, ''JFK: The Second Plot''. Mainstream Publishing.Edinburgh and London. 2000. ISBN 1-84018-501-5
*[[Anthony Summers|Summers, Anthony]]. ''Conspiracy'', London: Fontana Books, 1980.
*Summers, Anthony. ''Not in Your Lifetime'', New York: Marlowe & Company, 1998, ISBN 1-56924-739-0
*Douglass, James W. (2008). JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. pp.&nbsp;544. ISBN 9781570757556. http://www.maryknollmall.org/description.cfm?ISBN=978-1-57075-755-6.
*Wilkes, Jr., Donald E.  [http://www.lawsch.uga.edu/academics/profiles/dwilkes_more/jfk_18oswald.html "Lee Harvey Oswald at Age 62."] ''Flagpole Magazine'', p.&nbsp;6 (November 21, 2001).
*Wilkes, Jr., Donald E. [http://www.lawsch.uga.edu/academics/profiles/dwilkes_more/jfk_19rosetta.html "The Rosetta Stone of the JFK Assassination?"] ''Flagpole Magazine'', p.&nbsp;8 (November 20, 2002).

==External links==
{{External links|date=April 2010}}
{{commons|Lee Harvey Oswald}}
{{Wikisource|Lee Harvey Oswald diary}}
{{Portal|United States Marine Corps}}
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oswald/ ''Frontline'': Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?]
*[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/oswald/ ''American Experience'': Oswald's Ghost]
*[http://oswaldinholland.web-log.nl/ Lee Harvey Oswald's journey from Minsk to the US, travelling through Holland] by Perry Vermeulen
*[http://www.jfkresearch.com/jfk_101.html JFK 101 An excerpt from ''Harvey & Lee: How the CIA Framed Oswald''] by John Armstrong
*[http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ Kennedy Assassination Home Page] by John McAdams
*[http://history-matters.com/essays/jfkgen/LastingQuestions/Lasting_Questions.htm Lasting Questions about the Murder of President Kennedy] by Rex Bradford
*[http://www.jfkassassination.net/oswald.htm Lee Harvey Oswald: Lone Assassin or Patsy]
*[http://jfkassassination.net/parnell/chrono.htm Lee Harvey Oswald Chronology]
*[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/assassins/jfk/7.html?sect=24 Crime Library: Lee Harvey Oswald]
*[http://www.russianbooks.org/oswald-in-russia.htm Lee Harvey Oswald In Russia]
*[http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/02/JilM.html Various photos of Oswald taken post mortem]
*[http://www.ctka.net/home.html CTKA: Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination]
*[http://www.mtgriffith.com/web_documents/hasty.htm Hasty Judgment: A Reply to Gerald Posner--Why the JFK Case Is Not Closed] by Michael T. Griffith
*{{Find a Grave|781}} Retrieved on 2009-02-13

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{{Persondata
|NAME=Oswald, Lee Harvey
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Alleged assassin of President [[John F. Kennedy]]
|DATE OF BIRTH={{birth date|mf=yes|1939|10|18|mf=y}}
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Slidell, Louisiana|Slidell]], [[Louisiana]]
|DATE OF DEATH={{death date|mf=yes|1963|11|24|mf=y}}
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]], [[Texas]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oswald, Lee Harvey}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:1963 deaths]]
[[Category:1963 crimes]]
[[Category:American assassins]]
[[Category:American defectors to the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:American expatriates]]
[[Category:American Marxists]]
[[Category:American murder victims]]
[[Category:Assassins of heads of state]]
[[Category:Assassins of heads of government]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Texas]]
[[Category:Filmed assassinations]]
[[Category:Murdered criminals]]
[[Category:People associated with the John F. Kennedy assassination]]
[[Category:People from New Orleans, Louisiana]]
[[Category:People murdered in Texas]]
[[Category:People of the Civil Air Patrol]]
[[Category:People who died in police custody]]
[[Category:United States Marines]]

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