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's death

On November 24, at 11:21 am CST, after 15 hours of interrogation, while he was being transferred via car to a nearby jail, Oswald was shot and fatally wounded in the basement of the Dallas police headquarters, in front of live TV cameras, by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner with many friends and acquaintances in the Dallas Police and in the underworld.

Related Topics:
Jack Ruby - Nightclub

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Millions watched the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald on television. It was the first time in TV history that a homicide was captured and shown publicly live, but it was shown live on only one network, NBC.

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The route that Ruby took to get down into the basement of the Dallas jail has been disputed, although Ruby was very specific about having used the basement vehicle entrance ramp (and his access to the jail on other days). This was recorded during the polygraph test Ruby insisted on taking and documented in a Warren Report appendix. Additionally, one witness, a former Dallas police officer named Napoleon Daniels, stated that he had seen Ruby use the ramp. However, others speculate Ruby entered the basement from inside police headquarters. The use of a route through the jail building suggests to some that Ruby had received help from authorities inside the building, however, many journalists entered the building without having their credentials checked, and Ruby can be seen on film also inside the building on the previous Friday night, apparently posing as a reporter.

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In the preparations to his trial Ruby later stated that he killed Oswald on the spur of the moment to spare Jacqueline Kennedy the stress and embarrassment a trial would cause her, and during the trial his defense team suggested that Ruby’s actions were related to an epileptic event brought on by the photographers camera flashbulbs and movie camera lights. Immediately after his arrest however, Ruby expressed to Dallas policemen that the American people would see him "as a hero," that he had maintained Dallas's "good reputation" and/or that the murder was proof that "Jews have guts."

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Oswald’s grave is in Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park in Fort Worth. The November 25th burial and funeral were paid for by Oswald’s brother Robert. There was no religious service and reporters acted as pallbearers. When his mother died in 1981, she was buried next to Oswald with no headstone. Originally, his headstone read "Lee Harvey Oswald", but this was stolen and replaced with a marker which simply reads "Oswald". Oswald's wife, Marina, married Kenneth Porter in 1965 and her two daughters, June and Rachel, took Porter's last name.

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