Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, according to the conclusions of two government investigations into the assassination. The 1964 Warren Commission concluded Oswald acted alone; the House Select Committee on Assassinations, during the late 1970s, concluded that while Oswald was the shooter, President Kennedy "most likely was assassinated as the result of a conspiracy". Some critics of the official accounts have claimed that Oswald was not involved at all and was framed, and many conspiracy theories have been developed, but no single compelling alternative suspect has emerged.

Early life and Marine Corps service

Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, Robert Edward Lee Oswald, died before he was born, and his mother Marguerite Claverie raised him and his two older siblings, his brother Robert and his half-brother John Pic (Marguerite’s child by her first marriage). His mother doted on him to excess, but despite this she was a domineering and quarrelsome woman. They lived an itinerant lifestyle; before the age of 18, Oswald had lived in 22 different residences and attended 12 different schools, mostly around New Orleans and Dallas. Oswald's mother was of French and German descent, and raised him in the Lutheran faith.

Related Topics:
New Orleans - Louisiana - Dallas - French - German - Lutheran

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Oswald was a withdrawn and temperamental child. After they moved in with John Pic, who had joined the US Coast Guard and was stationed in New York City, Oswald struck and pulled a knife on his sister-in-law. His truancy caused him to be evaluated by psychiatrist Renatus Hartogs who had diagnosed the 14 year old Oswald as having a "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies." In reaction, Marguerite returned to New Orleans with her son before he could be institutionalized.

Related Topics:
US Coast Guard - New York City - Psychiatrist

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When he was enrolled in school, Oswald attended infrequently. He never received a high school diploma and was for his entire life quite a terrible writer and speller; in fact, the content and style of his letters and diary have led some to speculate that he was dyslexic. Others have contended that his poor writing and spelling skills were simply the result of his sporadic and inadequate education. Despite this, he read voraciously and as a result was said to claim he was better educated than those around him. Starting at around age 15, he became an ardent Marxist, solely from his reading on the topic. He wrote 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."

Related Topics:
High school - Dyslexic - Marxist

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Oswald at age 15 had been a member of the New Orleans chapter of the Civil Air Patrol. Despite being a Marxist, Oswald wished to join the US Marines. He idolized his older brother Robert and wore Robert's US Marine ring constantly. This relationship overrode the obvious ideological conflict for Oswald, and enlisting in the Marines may also have been a way to escape from his overbearing mother. He enlisted in the USMC in October 1956, a week after his 17th birthday.

Related Topics:
Civil Air Patrol - Marxist - US Marine

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Oswald was trained as a radar operator and assigned to the Marine Corps air station at El Toro, California and then to the naval air station at Atsugi, Japan. Though Atsugi was a base for the U-2 spy planes which flew over the USSR, Oswald was not involved in that operation. Oswald's experience in the Marine Corps was unpleasant. Small and frail compared to the other Marines, he was nicknamed "Ozzie Rabbit" after a cartoon character. His shyness and his Soviet sympathies did not endear him to his fellow Marines, and the more ostracized he was, the more ardent and outspoken a communist he became, to the point where his nickname became "Oswaldskovich". The Marine had subscribed to The Worker and taught himself rudimentary Russian. Oswald was court martialed twice, first for unauthorized possession of a handgun, and later for starting a fight with a sergeant. As a result, he was demoted from private first class to private and briefly served time in the brig. He was not punished for another incident when, while on sentry duty one night while stationed in the Philippines, he inexplicably started firing his rifle into the jungle. By the end of his Marine career, he was doing menial labor.

Related Topics:
El Toro - Atsugi - Japan - U-2 - USSR - The Worker - Russian - Court martial - Sergeant - Private first class - Private - Brig - Philippines

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