November 22, 1963, President John Fitzgerald
Kennedy’s open-top Lincoln Continental limousine drives through the streets of Dallas, Texas. Crowds are ecstatic, cheering, holding flags
aloft and taking photos. Nellie Connally, the First Lady of Texas,
who’s also in the car, turns around to the President and says, “Mr. President, you
can't say Dallas doesn't love you.” Filled with joyousness, the President replies,
“No, you certainly can't.” Moments later, as the car passes the Texas
School Book Depository, shots ring out. The President’s hands move towards his neck
as he leans forwards and a little to the left. His wife Jackie, grabs hold of him. Another shot hits him in the head. Jackie, utterly distraught, cries, “They
have killed my husband. I have his brains in my hand.” This was one of the most shocking events in
US history, and not without controversy. For many years after, right up until today
in fact, various theories have been put forward as to how it actually happened and who exactly
did it. However, one man and one man only was ever
charged with the crime and that was Lee Harvey Oswald. You’ve all heard the name, you’ve likely
heard some of the countless conspiracy theories about the assassination, but we guess not
so many of you know much about the man who was said to have pulled the trigger. Today you’re going to meet him and you’re
going to ask yourself what would drive a person to do such a thing? That’s something you can tell us at the
end of this video. Lee Harvey Oswald is born on October 18, 1939. He doesn’t have the best start in life since
his father dies of a heart attack just two months into his life. The family, now the mother named Marguerite,
young Lee, and his two half-brothers, John and Robert, are thrust into poverty. Those kids move around in the city of New
Orleans, from orphanages to children’s homes to boarding schools. Not having a father-figure around, young Oswald’s
development is what you might call strangled. As his older brother once said, “Very early
on, he’d learned that he wasn’t wanted. We weren’t wanted. Mother was always alienating herself from
us.” When he’s 12, Marguerite takes him to New
York City where they live in a run-down area in the Bronx. He is pretty much asked to take care of himself
as his mother goes out to work. He hardly goes to school at all. Instead, he hangs around the zoo and rides
the subway system. It’s at the zoo where one day a truant officer
sees him. Oswald is not happy about being found out,
calling the officer a “damned Yankee.” He ends up in a detention center called Youth
House and while there he has a psychiatric evaluation. He’s said to live a “vivid fantasy life”
and possibly has some kind of personality disorder. One thing for sure is, this kid desperately
needs some love and attention. His social worker confirms this, saying he
is “emotionally frozen”, having never really developed a relationship with anyone. “You got the feeling of a kid nobody gave
a darn about,” says the social worker. In his early teens, he has an “awakening.” He’s walking down the street when an old
woman hands him a pamphlet. It’s socialist in ethos and has in it two
folks named Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. These two are sentenced to death in the US
for spying for Russia. Sometime later Oswald writes in his diary:
“I was looking for a key to my environment, and then I discovered socialist literature. I had to dig for my books in the back dusty
shelves of libraries.” He writes this to The Socialist Party of America:
“I am sixteen years of age and would like more information about your youth League,
I would like to know if there is a branch in my area, how to join, ect., I am a Marxist,
and have been studying socialist principles for well over fifteen months.” Later, after running from the clutches of
truant officers, Oswald and his mother return to New Orleans. They live in an area beset with poverty and
vice, something that affects young Oswald deeply. Drug addicts, prostitutes, violent crime,
pervasive racism, dilapidated housing, oppressive cops, no help for the poor, and no opportunities
for those not born with silver spoons. He’s taking it all in, guided by his socialist
sympathies. At age 16, he becomes a cadet with the Civil
Air Patrol. He also tries to join the army but is turned
down for being too young. That doesn’t stop him from memorizing from
back to front the “Marine Manual.” The obvious question is why does this budding
Communist want to join the US military during a very cold war with the ‘commies’? This is a kid who tells a friend he wants
to kill President Eisenhower for exploiting the working classes. This is a boy who regularly showers praise
on the Russian leader, Nikita Khrushchev. One day a friend’s father kicks him out
of his house because he is “expounding the Communist doctrine and saying communism was
the only way of life for the worker.” It seems his reason is he just needs to get
away from his mother, that or it’s the fact his father had been a Marine and his brother
has joined up. The Warren Commission later wrote, “His
study of Communist literature, which might appear to be inconsistent with his desire
to join the Marines, could have been another manifestation of Oswald's rejection of his
environment.” You should also remember, he’s a boy who
just wants to be accepted. And so at age 17, he becomes a Marine. Nothing much changes, though. He makes few friends and not so many people
like him. He isn’t seen as mentally unstable, but
he just doesn’t fit in, nor does he ever rise above the rank of private first class. Still, he knows something about foreign affairs
because he reads voraciously. At times he picks fights with officers, according
to one soldier, so he “could come out top dog.” This kid still hates authority with a vengeance,
but he’s also smart and can be likable to certain people. One day he shocks some folks listening to
his rants by saying, “All the Marine Corps did was to teach you to kill and after you
got out of the Marines you might be good gangsters.” During this stint in the Marines, he has two
court-martials, one for having an unauthorized pistol he accidentally shoots himself with. His other court-martial is for calling an
officer out to fight him. He still holds those sympathies towards the
Soviet Union and he even teaches himself some Russian, albeit, he isn’t very good. He gets taken off active duty to look after
a sick mother, but then he decides he’s going to Russia. For that decision, he’s undesirably discharged. So, there he is in Russia, telling people
how much he loves the Soviet Union in his rudimentary Russian. He tries to apply for citizenship, which is
turned down. This is what he writes in a letter to his
brother: “I have been a pro-communist for years and
yet I have never met a communist, instead I kept silent and observed, and what I observed
plus my Marxist learning brought me here to the Soviet Union. I have always considered this country to be
my own.” He also writes this:
“In the event of war. I would kill any American who put a uniform
on in defense of the American government - any American.” Just before his visa runs out and he’s about
to leave the country, he cuts himself on purpose, after which, he’s taken to a psychiatric
facility. He actually can’t believe that the country
he’s given his heart to has snubbed him. In his diary, he writes, “I am shocked!” He says his dream has been shattered because
one solitary official has taken it upon himself to turn his visa down. He finishes an entry in his diary with these
words: “I decide to end it. Soak fist in cold water to numb the pain. Then slash my left wrist. Then plug wrist into bathtub of hot water.... Somewhere, a violin plays, as I watch my life
whirl away. I think to myself ‘How easy to Die’ and
‘A Sweet Death’.” When he gets out of the hospital he goes straight
to the American Embassy. He has a signed note with him which he hands
over to an official. On it are the words, “I Lee Harvey Oswald
do hereby request that my present citizenship in the United States of America, be revoked.” He says he wants this for political reasons. He’s a Marxist now, and damn American poverty
and the life he lived as a kid. He says the only real reason he joined the
Marines was that he wanted to have “a chance to observe American imperialism.” He writes in his diary, “I'm sure Russians
will accept me after this sign of my faith in them.” He’s right. He’s allowed to stay, but does he then become
a tool of the Soviet government? Is he hired as a spy? Is he trained as an assassin? Perhaps not, and later investigations will
say that. Not only that, The Russians are obviously
a bit suspicious of him, so the KGB follow him around a lot and plant bugs in his house. Oswald is actually working for neither side. He’s sent to work as a lathe operator at
an electronics firm in Minsk. Over there he’s given quite a good wage
packet and lives in an apartment that is better than most people’s places. Still, his distrust of authority doesn’t
change. Now he talks about the oppressive Soviets. Communist Party officials he writes are given
benefits that he believes they shouldn’t receive. His conclusion is that there are “fat stinking
politicians over there just like we have over here.” In January of 1961 he writes in his diary:
“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.” He subsequently gets in touch with the US
Embassy and says he wants to come home. Prior to that happening, he has a whirlwind
romance with a 19-year-old pharmacology student named Marina Prusakova. After six weeks, they marry, and around a
year later they have their first child. Not long after, the three of them land on
American soil ready to live the American dream... But something happens on Oswald’s return. He suddenly becomes not himself, not the man
Prusakova knows. He’s become easily enraged, irritable. She later told a court, “after coming to
the United States Lee changed. I did not know him as such a man in Russia.” What has happened to him? Well, that’s the million-dollar question. Maybe his demons have caught up with him. This is a young man who’s had psychological
problems as a child. He’s tried the Marines and that hasn’t
helped. He’s tried moving to the Soviet Union and
that hasn’t helped, either. Here is a man that now detests both communism
and capitalism. This is evident in his writing, of which one
diary goes like this: “No man, having known, having lived, under
the Russian Communist and American capitalist system, could possibly make a choice between
them, there is no choice, one offers oppression the other poverty.” He believes there can be another system, one
which doesn’t have the shortfalls of capitalism and one which isn’t a corrupt and twisted
form of Marxism. He writes that he hates the mass exterminations
of Stalin and how Communism oppresses people, but he equally detests what he considers a
corrupt form of capitalism in the US. He gets a job as a sheet metal worker, but
he soon leaves that. He then starts working as a photoprint trainee
but is fired after rankling one too many people when waxing about his beliefs. He isn’t very good at the job, either, but
what really peeves his fellow employees is the fact one day he brings into work a Russian
language newspaper. His employer later said the newspaper incident
wasn’t the only reason he was let go, but it “didn’t do him any good.” Oswald is rejected once again. Is he now ready to put his hand on the trigger? In March 1963, he pays $29.95 for a secondhand
6.5 mm caliber Carcano rifle. He buys himself a revolver, too. The next month, retired U.S. Major General
Edwin Walker is sitting at his desk in his home in Dallas when suddenly there’s a loud
crash. He’s injured after bullet fragments connect
with his arm. To investigators, it looks like an assassination
attempt, and it is, one it will turn out that was undertaken by Lee Harvey Oswald. This isn’t discovered until later, though. Why has he done it? Ozwald despises Walker for his far right-wing
sentiments, his anti-communist stance and his racist attitude. According to his wife, he believes that, “If
someone had killed Hitler in time it would have saved many lives.” He thought he was doing the right thing. The family moves to New Orleans, where Oswald
becomes more infatuated with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. There he distributes leaflets supporting Cuba,
and even though he gets on the radio twice, he doesn’t really garner that much attention
for the movement. Not only that, Cuban exiles can’t stand
him. It seems Oswald is as much concerned about
getting attention for himself as he is for the plight of Cuba. His wife later said in court, “He wanted
to be arrested. I think he wanted to get into the newspapers,
so that he would be known.” He then tries to get to Cuba via Mexico. In Mexico he pleads to officials at the Cuban
embassy, saying he supports the cause, and can he have a visa. He says he also intends to return to the former
Soviet Union. After speaking with officials, and even the
KGB, he is turned down. The Cubans say he’ll do more harm than good
for the cause. Ok, so now it’s just days before JFK is
gunned down in the street. His heavily-pregnant wife is happy when he
returns from Mexico, seeing as he is in a pleasant mood and treats her well. He seems like his old self again. She later said in court, “He helped me more
- although he always did help”, adding that he was delighted about the prospect of having
a second child with her. Strange, because he’s about to give all
that up. It’s this kind of fact that will later give
birth to a thousand conspiracies. Around this time, Oswald is told about a job
that is going at the Texas School Book Depository, and after an interview on October 16 he’s
hired there for $1.25 an hour. It’s now just over a month before the fateful
day. He is apparently pretty good at his job. Things are looking up, and then his second
child is born. Life couldn't be any better, on paper anyway. He still argues with his wife at times. Because of his radical left activities, he
is now on the radar of the FBI. Agents visit his house, but he isn’t there. They go again, and he isn’t home. With feathers ruffled, Oswald goes to the
FBI office In Dallas and asks to speak to the man on his case, James P. Hosty. Hosty isn’t available, so Oswald leaves
a note, one that will become famous. That note, people later say, included a threat
that said stop bothering me or I’ll blow up the FBI and the Dallas Police Department. Hosty later said there was no such threat,
and that the note read: “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.” Does that sound like the words of a soon-to-be
killer? The night before the assassination, Oswald
goes to bed before his wife. When she later retires, he says nothing to
her even though she is pretty sure he is awake. When she awakes in the morning he is gone. His wedding ring is sitting inside a cup on
the dresser. $170 is in a wallet in a drawer. He’s only taken $13.87 with him; hardly
enough to flee the country. The next day, after JFK is fatally injured,
Oswald is seen in a second-floor lunchroom by a cop who has a gun drawn on him. Oswald’s supervisor is also there, so Oswald
is allowed to walk on. He appears calm. Not long after, Oswald is apprehended after
a short altercation in a movie theater. During questioning, he is forthcoming and
seems composed. He denies all wrongdoing. He says he is a “patsy”, meaning he thinks
he is being framed. The evidence against him is “overwhelming.” He’s seen by multiple witnesses shooting
and killing a policeman when walking down a street. When he’s arrested in the movie theater,
he says the words, “Well, it is all over now.” But this isn’t another JFK assassination
story, it’s a who was Lee Harvey Oswald story. So then, why did he pull that trigger? It’s not easy to ascertain the answer, far
from it. He was shot and killed two days later by nightclub
owner Jack Ruby while being escorted through Dallas Police Headquarters. Ruby himself was later treated by the CIA’s
brainwashing specialist, Louis Jolyon West and diagnosed with psychosis. That’s a story to get conspiracy theorists
excited. While behind bars, Ruby got in touch with
the Warren Commission and said, “I want to tell the truth, and I can't tell it here.” Nothing came of it, and Ruby died not too
long after losing his mind. Was anyone else involved with the assassination,
from abroad or at home? We just don’t know. Theories range from the spectacular to the
heavily-rejected Oswald, often insecure, having argued with his wife and just gone off the
deep end. Maybe he just wanted to become the “center
of the world”. Maybe he really thought he could help society,
or perhaps as many theories go, the Mafia was involved, the KGB was involved, the Soviets
were involved, or the Cubans were involved. If you like rabbit holes, this is a deep one. Polls show that way many more Americans believe
he was part of some kind of conspiracy rather than acted alone. Was he an insecure guy that managed to shock
the world without any help, or was he a pawn in a much bigger game? Now you need to watch, “The JFK Assassination
- What Really Happened?” Or, have a look at, “Did OJ Commit Those
Murders?”
