Lee Harvey Oswald

Although he was arrested and placed in lock-up for trials, he never saw a trial for his alleged crimes. On November 24, 1963, just two days after the assassination, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, while being taken to the country jail.

Several films depicting a fictitious account of the trials of the assassin were made which include ‘The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald’ and ‘On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald’.

Lee Harvey Oswald was born to Robert Oswald Sr. and Marguerite Oswald Claverie, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Robert Oswald passed away of a heart attack a couple of months before Lee’s birth and soon after he was born, Marguerite sent Lee and his two brothers to an orphanage.

After Marguerite remarried, she shifted to Bronx, New York, with her children. Young Oswald changed a number of schools and was often described by his teachers as ‘temperamental’ and ‘withdrawn’.

He was sent for psychiatric assessments at a juvenile reformatory, where the psychiatrist described him suffering from ‘passive-aggressive tendencies’.

In order to get over his psychological complications, he voraciously read socialist-literature and even attended a few Civil Air Patrol meetings, which inspired him to enlist with the US Marine Corps in 1956.

He proved his mettle as a better-than-average marksman in the Marine Corps, but was court-martialed twice in 1958, for illegally possessing a weapon and exhibiting violent behavior.

He returned to the United States in 1962 as he was dissatisfied with the ‘Soviet way of life’. He set up residence in Dallas, Texas, and it was during this time, his support for communism grew.

In 1963, he inconspicuously purchased a .38 handgun and a rifle, which happened to be the same arms that were used to assassinate John F. Kennedy.

In April 1963, he allegedly tried to shoot General Edwin A. Walker, but failed. He then supposedly tried to flee the United States but soon, adapted to the ‘normal’ life and worked at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. It is said that he was a hard-working employee and religiously completed his day-to-day duties.

In the days before President Kennedy’s arrival in Dallas, several regional newspapers described the route of the presidential convoy, which passed through the Book Depository, the place where Oswald worked.

According to the Warren Commission, several of Oswald’s colleagues were interrogated about his whereabouts on the day of the assassination and many claimed to have seen him walking around on the 6th floor of their office building, gazing intently outside the window, with a clipboard in his hand. Many others claimed that they did not see him the whole day at all, while a few stated that he mysteriously disappeared post-lunch.

As Kennedy’s motorcade passed through the street of Oswald’s office on November 22, 1963, it is reported by the Warren Commission that he fired three rifle shots from the sixth-floor of the Book Depository, slaying the President and grievously wounding Texas Governor, John Connally.