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.

Oswald in fiction

One of Oswald's Marine Corps comrades, Kerry Thornley, shortly after learning of Oswald's October 1959 departure for the USSR, began writing a novel titled The Idle Warriors; its protagonist of Johnny Shellburne (a disillusioned Marine stationed in Japan who defects to the Soviet Union) being significantly inspired by Oswald's character and actions. The Idle Warriors is currently the only known literary work about Lee Oswald completed before the JFK assassination. Although an unpublished copy of Thornley's completed manuscript had been given to the Warren Commission in 1964 and was later stored in the National Archives, The Idle Warriors was not formally published until 1991.

Related Topics:
Kerry Thornley - USSR - Protagonist - National Archives

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Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman present another interpretation of the events in their musical Assassins. In the play Oswald goes to work on November 22 with the intention of killing himself, but John Wilkes Booth (Abraham Lincoln's assassin) appears out of the bookcases. Other assassins follow and convince Oswald that the way to gain his fame and appreciation is to shoot Kennedy instead of himself.

Related Topics:
Stephen Sondheim - John Weidman - Assassins - John Wilkes Booth - Abraham Lincoln's

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He has also been portrayed in various novels, such as Libra by Don DeLillo and The Two Faces of Lee Harvey Oswald by Glenn B. Fleming.

Related Topics:
Libra - Don DeLillo

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Another novel featuring Oswald and speculation on the Grassy Knoll theory is 1975's The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.

Related Topics:
Grassy Knoll - The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Robert Shea - Robert Anton Wilson

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In the 1973 movie Executive Action, actual archival footage of Oswald is used, while an Oswald "double" in the film is played by James Mac Coll.

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In the 1977 movie "The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald" John Pleshette plays Oswald in a fictional dramatization of the trial that never happened.

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In the British comedy series Red Dwarf, Oswald is disturbed by the arrival of the Red Dwarf crew. Forced to choose another location, Oswald's shot goes wide, and history is changed. Having seen the dystopic future their actions have caused, the crew recruit an alternative John F. Kennedy from the future to shoot "himself" from behind the Grassy Knoll. The character Kryten claims that not only will these actions restore the original timeline, but they will also "drive the conspiracy theorists crazy".

Related Topics:
British - Comedy - Red Dwarf - History - Dystopic - Character - Kryten - Conspiracy theorists

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In the 5th season of the show Quantum Leap, the character of Sam Beckett 'leaps' into the body of Oswald, days before he's supposed to shoot Kennedy. In fact, the leap 'into' Oswald was while he was posing for the photo of himself holding a rifle, taken by his wife.

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In Woody Allen's 1977 film Annie Hall, Woody's character of Alvy Singer obsesses over the JFK assassination, unable to believe the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald acted alone. His wife Allison (Carol Kane), accuses him of using his 'conspiracy theory' as "an excuse to avoid sex with me". As it happens, they're both right.

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In Ken Grimwood's novel Replay, the protagonist, upon finding himself reliving the month of November 1963, travels to Dallas and sends death threats to Kennedy, signed with Oswald's name, from Oswald's local post office. Oswald is arrested soon after; to the protagonist's surprise, Kennedy is still assassinated on the 22nd.

Related Topics:
Ken Grimwood - Replay

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In a 4th season episode of the fictional show X-Files, it is revealed that the Cigarette Smoking Man, then an Army Captain, killed Kennedy by shooting him from a storm drain as the President's motorcade was passing by. CSM was secretly ordered to do so by a vindictive army General who felt Kennedy had bungled the Bay of Pigs invasion by withholding air support for the invading fleet. CSM also arranged the situation in such a way as to frame Oswald.

Related Topics:
X-Files - Cigarette Smoking Man

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