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.

The attempted assassination of General Walker

General Edwin Walker was an outspoken anti-communist, segregationist, and member of the John Birch Society. Walker was commanding officer of the Army's 24th Infantry Division based in West Germany and under NATO supreme command, but was relieved command by JFK in 1961 for distributing right-wing literature to his troops. Walker resigned from the service and returned to his native Texas. He ran in the six-man Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1962 but lost to John Connally, who went on to win the race. When Walker came to Oswald's attention in February 1963, the general was making front page news by joining forces with an evangelist in an anti-Communist tour called "Operation Midnight Ride".

Related Topics:
Edwin Walker - Anti-communist - Segregation - John Birch Society - NATO - Right-wing - Texas - Democratic - John Connally - Evangelist

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Oswald began to put Walker under surveillance, taking pictures of Walker's home and nearby railroad tracks, perhaps his planned escape route, using the same camera used by Marina to take the famous backyard poses (see below). Oswald mail-ordered a rifle (see below) using his alias Alex Hidell (he had already mail-ordered a revolver in January). He planned the assassination on April 10, ten days after he was fired from Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall. He chose a Wednesday evening because the neighborhood would be relatively crowded because of services in a church adjacent to Walker's home; he would not stand out and could mingle with the crowds if necessary to make his escape. He left a note in Russian for Marina with instructions should he be caught. Walker was sitting at a desk in his dining room when Oswald fired at him from less than a hundred feet (33 m) away. Walker survived only because the bullet struck the wooden frame of the window, deflecting its path, though he was injured in the forearm by bullet fragments.

Related Topics:
Surveillance - January - April 10

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At the time, the Dallas police had no idea who attempted to kill Walker. Marina saw Oswald burn most of his written assassination plans in the bathtub, though she hid the note he left her in a cookbook, intending to bring it to the police should Oswald again attempt to kill Walker or anyone else. Oswald's involvement was unknown until the note and some of the photos were found by the authorities following the assassination of JFK. The bullet was too badly damaged to run conclusive ballistics tests, though neutron activation tests later proved that the bullet had been from the same cartridge manufacturer as the one that had later struck Kennedy.

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