Harvey lee oswald biography

Tippit tried to question Oswald near his house; Oswald shot and killed the man. He then fled to the nearby Texas Theatre where he was apprehended by police around two o'clock. Oswald was charged with the murder of Officer Tippit. On November 23, he was charged with the assassination of President Kennedy. While in custody, Oswald denied his involvement in the assassination during police interrogations.

He was never able to explain his behavior or motivation fully because he too was killed the following day. On November 24, while being transferred from the police station to the county jail through a basement parking lot, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby , a night club owner. Ruby was convicted of first degree murder on February 17, and sentenced to death.

Two years later his conviction was overturned. Before a new trial could begin, Ruby died of cancer on January 3, Since Oswald never had an opportunity to tell his own story, there has been a lot of speculation as to his motive for killing the president. Some believe that he was disgruntled with society in general and President Kennedy was the key representative of that society.

Others say that he was upset by his inability to travel to Cuba, which he blamed on the politics of the Kennedy administration. Still others contend that Oswald wanted to make his mark on history and immortalize himself. All of these arguments assume that Oswald planned and executed the murder by himself. However, this is the subject of much controversy, as some believe Oswald was just a small player in a larger conspiracy to kill the president and alter the American political scene.

Proponents of the conspiracy theory argue that the Mafia, political opponents of President Kennedy, or foreign players such as the Soviet Union devised the plan to assassinate the president. They argue that Oswald was just one of several shooters in the event. These various arguments, as well as detailed reviews of the evidence, are the subject of many books and articles.

Hollywood filmmaker Oliver Stone even made a film on the subject, called JFK, which ignited the discussion once again. As a result of this controversy, Congress passed the John F. Kennedy Assassination Materials Disclosure Act of , which declassified thousands of documents related to the case. Despite the new information, the circumstances surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy, and Oswald's role in the event, are still one of the great mysteries of history.

It is clear, however, that the death of John F. Kennedy had a profound impact on the course of American history. Oswald, Robert L. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list.

Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia. His father, Robert E. Lee Oswald, was an insurance collector who died in August , just before Oswald's birth. Oswald spent much of his childhood moving from one residence to another with his mother, Marguerite Claverie Oswald, a nurse.

At age three he joined his brother and half-brother at the Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Orphan's Asylum, where the older boys had been living for one year. In Marguerite, after remarrying, reclaimed them. She was divorced in and thereafter moved frequently. Oswald never graduated from high school but was of slightly higher than average intelligence; his diary and other writings suggest that he suffered from dyslexia.

Oswald enlisted in the U. Marine Corps in , at age seventeen, and spent a three-year tour of duty involved in radar operations for the U-2 spy plane. A vocal critic of capitalism, he spent his free time studying the Russian language and vowed to emigrate to Russia upon his discharge. In he secured entry to Russia through Finland by posing as a student, arriving on 15 October on a six day visa.

He was detained in Moscow when he announced his desire to renounce his U. The American correspondent Priscilla J. McMillan later suggested that he was a "pitiful, slightly unbalanced boy" who was allowed to remain in Russia if only to disprove the international criticism of Soviet intolerance of outsiders. His request for citizenship was denied, however, and he was assigned the status of a stateless person.

Oswald settled in Minsk, Byelorussia, where he worked in a radio-television factory. On 30 April he married Marina Nikolaevna Prusakova. Their first daughter was born in Minsk in February Oswald tired quickly of the drab, proletariat lifestyle. In May he and his family boarded a train to Moscow. Oswald, who had become secretive and erratic, then walked off his job without notice in early October Early in November he rented an apartment at Elsbeth Street and sent for Prusakova and their daughter.

After learning of his wife's pregnancy, he moved in March to a larger apartment, at nearby West Neely Street. Oswald repaid his State Department loan on 25 January Two days later, under the alias of A. Hidell, he ordered a. On November 24, , while the year-old was being taken to the county jail, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a club owner with mob affiliations.

Over the years, the question of conspiracies has continued to follow the Oswald case. The Warren Commission declared that no evidence of a conspiracy had been found. Yet an investigation initiated by the House of Representatives Assassination Committee in eventually found that another shooter could have been involved in the assassination. Debate and much speculation—including who Oswald met with during his final stay in New Orleans—continue to this day.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X. A History of Presidential Assassination Attempts. Julius Caesar. On the same day, he flew to Helsinki , where he checked in at the Hotel Torni , room , then moved to Hotel Klaus Kurki, room Oswald left Helsinki by train on the following day, crossed the Soviet border at Vainikkala , and arrived in Moscow on October Almost immediately after arriving, Oswald informed his Intourist guide of his desire to become a Soviet citizen.

When asked why by the various Soviet officials he encountered — all of whom, by Oswald's account, found his wish incomprehensible — he said that he was a communist, and gave what he described in his diary as "vauge [ sic ] answers about 'Great Soviet Union'". Distraught, Oswald inflicted a minor but bloody wound to his left wrist in his hotel room bathtub soon before his Intourist guide was due to arrive to escort him from the country, according to his diary because he wished to kill himself in a way that would shock her.

According to Oswald, he met with four more Soviet officials that day, who asked if he wanted to return to the United States. Oswald replied by insisting that he wanted to live in the Soviet Union as a Soviet national. When pressed for identification papers, he provided his Marine Corps discharge papers. I'm through. He intimated that he might know something of special interest.

Though Oswald had wanted to attend Moscow State University , in January he was sent to Minsk , Byelorussia , to work as a lathe operator at the Gorizont Electronics Factory, which produced radios, televisions, and military and space electronics. Oswald wrote in his diary in January "I am starting to reconsider my desire about staying.

The work is drab, the money I get has nowhere to be spent. No nightclubs or bowling alleys, no places of recreation except the trade union dances. I have had enough. In March , Oswald met Marina Prusakova born , a year-old pharmacology student; they married six weeks later. On May 24, , Oswald and Marina applied at the U. Embassy in Moscow for documents that enabled her to immigrate to the U.

On June 1, the U. Here they were met by Spas T. Oswald began a manuscript on Soviet life, though he eventually gave up the project. In July , Oswald was hired by the Leslie Welding Company as a sheet metal worker in Dallas; he disliked the work and quit after three months.

Harvey lee oswald biography

On October 12, he started working for the graphic-arts firm of Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall as a photoprint trainee. A fellow employee at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall testified that Oswald's rudeness at his new job was such that fights threatened to break out, and that he once saw Oswald reading a Russian-language publication. In March , Oswald used the alias "A.

Hidell" to make a mail-order purchase of a secondhand 6. Major General Edwin Walker on April 10, , and that Oswald fired the Carcano rifle at Walker through a window from less than feet 30 m away as Walker sat at a desk in his Dallas home. The bullet struck the window-frame and Walker's only injuries were bullet fragments to the forearm. General Walker was an outspoken anti-communist , segregationist , and member of the John Birch Society.

In , Walker had been relieved of his command of the 24th Division of the U. Army in West Germany for distributing right-wing literature to his troops. He was temporarily held in a mental institution on orders from President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy , but a grand jury declined to indict him. Marina Oswald testified that her husband told her that he traveled by bus to General Walker's house and shot at Walker with his rifle.

Before the Kennedy assassination, Dallas police had no suspects in the Walker shooting, [ ] but Oswald's involvement was suspected within hours of his arrest following the assassination. George de Mohrenschildt testified that he "knew that Oswald disliked General Walker". The de Mohrenschildts testified that on April 14, , just before Easter Sunday, they were visiting the Oswalds at their new apartment and had brought them a toy Easter bunny to give to their child.

As Oswald's wife Marina was showing Jeanne around the apartment, they discovered Oswald's rifle standing upright, leaning against the wall inside a closet. Oswald returned to New Orleans on April 24, These were the law offices of Guy Banister , a former FBI agent, an avid segregationist, and a local politician. Garrison added that Guy Banister, during the summer of in New Orleans, was most interested in infiltrating the Fair Play for Cuba Committee , and used Oswald as his spy.

There are, however, indications that Banister at least knew of Oswald's leafletting activities and probably maintained a file on him. Hidell" as chapter president on his membership card. Bringuier would later tell the Warren Commission that he believed Oswald's visits were an attempt by Oswald to infiltrate his group. Bringuier confronted Oswald, claiming he was tipped off about Oswald's leafleting by a friend.

A scuffle ensued and Oswald, Bringuier, and two of Bringuier's friends were arrested for disturbing the peace. A week later, on August 16, Oswald again passed out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets with two hired helpers, this time in front of the International Trade Mart. It is uncertain when he left New Orleans; he is next known to have boarded a bus in Houston on September 26 — bound for the Mexican border, rather than Dallas — and to have told other bus passengers that he planned to travel to Cuba via Mexico.

The Cuban consular officials insisted Oswald would need Soviet approval, but he was unable to get prompt co-operation from the Soviet consulate. CIA documents note Oswald spoke "terrible hardly recognizable Russian" during his meetings with Cuban and Soviet officials. After five days of shuttling between consulates — and including a heated argument with an official at the Cuban consulate, impassioned pleas to KGB agents, and at least some CIA scrutiny [ ] — Oswald was told by a Cuban consular officer that he was disinclined to approve the visa, saying "a person like [Oswald] in place of aiding the Cuban Revolution, was doing it harm".

Still later, eleven days before the assassination of President Kennedy, Oswald wrote to the Soviet embassy in Washington, D. While the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald had visited Mexico City and the Cuban and Soviet consulates, questions regarding whether someone posing as Oswald had appeared at the embassies were serious enough to be investigated by the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

Later, the Committee agreed with the Warren Commission that Oswald had visited Mexico City and concluded that "the majority of evidence tends to indicate" that Oswald visited the consulates, but the Committee could not rule out the possibility that someone else had used his name in visiting the consulates. According to a CIA document released in , it is possible Oswald was trying to get the necessary documents from the embassies to make a quick escape to the Soviet Union after the assassination.

Ruth Paine said that a neighbor told her on October 14 about a job opening at the Texas School Book Depository , where her neighbor's brother, Wesley Frazier, worked. Truly — , said that Oswald "did a good day's work" and was an above-average employee. Lee", [ ] but he spent his weekends with Marina at the Paine home in Irving. Oswald did not drive a car, but he commuted to and from Dallas on Mondays and Fridays with his co-worker Wesley Frazier.

On October 20 a month before the assassination , the Oswalds' second daughter, Audrey, was born. When he was told that Hosty was unavailable, Oswald left a note that, according to the receptionist, read: "Let this be a warning. The note allegedly contained a threat, but accounts vary as to whether Oswald threatened to "blow up the FBI" or merely "report this to higher authorities".

According to Hosty, the note said, "If you have anything you want to learn about me, come talk to me directly. If you don't cease bothering my wife, I will take the appropriate action and report this to the proper authorities. In the days before Kennedy's arrival, several local newspapers published the route of Kennedy's motorcade, which passed the Texas School Book Depository.

The next morning the day of the assassination , he returned to Dallas with Frazier. Frazier reported that Oswald told him the bag contained curtain rods. Robert Reid, and Bill Lovelady — who were either in the first or second floor lunchrooms at times between and pm reported that Oswald was not present in those rooms during their lunch breaks.

As Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza at approximately p. One shot apparently missed the presidential limousine entirely, another struck both Kennedy and Connally, and a third bullet struck Kennedy in the head, [ ] killing him. Bystander James Tague received a minor facial injury from a small piece of curbstone that had fragmented after it was struck by one of the bullets.

Witness Howard Brennan was sitting across the street from the Texas School Book Depository and watching the motorcade go by. He notified police that he heard a shot come from above and looked up to see a man with a rifle fire another shot from the southeast corner window on the sixth floor. He said he had seen the same man minutes earlier looking through the window.

The paper bag Frazier had described was found by police near the open sixth-floor window from which Oswald was determined to have fired; [ ] it was 38 inches 97 cm long and had marks on its inside consistent with having been used to carry a rifle. According to the investigations, after the shooting Oswald covered the rifle with boxes and descended via the rear stairwell.

About 90 seconds after the shots sounded, he was encountered in the second-floor lunchroom by Dallas police officer Marrion L. Baker, who was with Oswald's supervisor, Roy Truly. Baker let Oswald pass after Truly identified him as an employee. Baker later said Oswald did not seem "nervous" or "out of breath". Robert Reid, a clerical supervisor at the depository who returned to her office within two minutes of the shooting, said she saw Oswald, "very calm", on the second floor holding a Coca-Cola bottle.

Reid said to Oswald, "The President has been shot" to which he mumbled something in response, but Reid did not understand him. Truly later pointed out to officers that Oswald was the only employee that he was certain was missing. At about p. Probably due to heavy traffic, he requested a transfer from the driver and got off two blocks later.

According to his housekeeper Earlene Roberts, Oswald immediately went to his room, "walking pretty fast". As Oswald left, Roberts looked out of the window of her house and last saw him standing at the northbound Beckley Avenue bus stop in front of her house. The Warren Commission concluded that at approximately p. Tippit drove up in his patrol car alongside Oswald, presumably because Oswald resembled the broadcast description of the man seen by witness Howard Brennan firing shots at Kennedy's motorcade.

Oswald immediately fired his pistol and killed the policeman with four shots. The bullets taken from Tippit's body could not be positively identified as having been fired from Oswald's revolver, as the bullets were too extensively damaged to make conclusive assessments. Shoe store manager Johnny Brewer testified that he saw Oswald "ducking into" the entrance alcove of his store.

Suspicious of this activity, Brewer watched Oswald continue up the street and slip without paying into the nearby Texas Theatre , where the film War Is Hell was playing. As police arrived, the house lights were brought up and Brewer pointed out Oswald sitting near the rear of the theater. Police Officer Nick McDonald testified that he was the first to reach Oswald and that Oswald seemed ready to surrender saying, "Well, it is all over now.

McDonald stated that the pistol did not fire because the pistol's hammer came down on the webbing between the thumb and index finger of his hand as he grabbed for the pistol. McDonald also said that Oswald struck him, but that he struck back and Oswald was disarmed. Oswald was formally arraigned for the murder of Officer Tippit at p.

Oswald declared, "I didn't shoot anybody" and, "They've taken me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy! In fact, nobody has said that to me yet. The first thing I heard about it was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question. Oswald was interrogated several times during his two days at Dallas Police Headquarters.

He admitted that he went to his rooming house after leaving the book depository. He also admitted that he changed his clothes and armed himself with a. He denied telling his co-worker he wanted a ride to Irving to get curtain rods for his apartment he said that the package contained his lunch. He also denied carrying a long, bulky package to work the morning of the assassination.

Oswald denied knowing an "A. Oswald was then shown a forged Selective Service System card bearing his photograph and the alias, "Alek James Hidell" that he had in his possession at the time of his arrest. Oswald refused to answer any questions concerning the card, saying "you have the card yourself and you know as much about it as I do". When Oswald was asked to account for himself at the time of the assassination, he replied that he was eating his lunch in the first-floor lounge known as the "domino room".

He said that he then went to the second-floor lunchroom to buy a Coca-Cola from the soda machine there and was drinking it when he encountered Dallas motorcycle policeman Marrion L. Baker, who had entered the building with his gun drawn. When asked if anyone else was in the domino room, Norman testified that somebody else was there, but he could not remember who it was.

Jarman testified that Oswald was not in the domino room when he was there. When homicide detective Jim Leavelle testified before the Warren Commission, he said that the first time he had ever sat in on an interrogation with Oswald was on Sunday morning, November 24, When Counsel Joseph Ball asked Leavelle if he had ever spoken to Oswald before this interrogation, he stated, "No, I had never talked to him before".

Leavelle then stated during his testimony that "the only time I had connections with Oswald was this Sunday morning [November 24, ]. I never had [the] occasion Holmes who attended the interrogation at the invitation of Captain Will Fritz said that Oswald replied that he was working on an upper floor when the shooting occurred, then went downstairs where he encountered Dallas motorcycle policeman Marrion L.

Oswald asked for legal representation several times during the interrogation, and he also asked for assistance during encounters with reporters. When H. During an interrogation with Captain Fritz, when asked, "Are you a communist? I am a Marxist. On Sunday, November 24, detectives were escorting Oswald through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters toward an armored car that was to take him from the city jail located on the fourth floor of police headquarters to the nearby county jail.

At a. CST, Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby approached Oswald from the side of the crowd and shot him once in the abdomen at close range. As Oswald ascended in the elevator to the basement, his last recorded words were "I want to see the American Civil Liberties Union". Detective Billy Combest asked Oswald, "Do you have anything you want to tell us now?

Drifting in and out of consciousness, Oswald was placed in an ambulance and was driven to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where Kennedy was pronounced dead two days earlier. Frederick Bieberdorf, a medical student on duty who rode in the ambulance, said that—several blocks before reaching the hospital—Oswald started thrashing about, resisting Beiberdorf's efforts of heart massage and attempting to free an oxygen mask over his mouth.

At p. A network television pool camera was broadcasting live to cover the transfer; millions of people watching on NBC saw the shooting as it happened, and on other networks within minutes afterward. Jackson of the Dallas Times Herald was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Photography for his photograph taken immediately after the shot was fired, as Oswald began to double over in pain.

Ruby later said he had been distraught over Kennedy's death and that his motive for killing Oswald was "saving Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial". Robert Blakey , chief counsel for the House Select Committee on Assassinations from to , said: "The most plausible explanation for the murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby was that Ruby had stalked him on behalf of organized crime, trying to reach him on at least three occasions in the forty-eight hours before he silenced him forever.

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