The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy , known unofficially as the Warren Commission , was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through Executive Order 11130 on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy that had taken place on November 22, 1963.
117-478: LHO could refer to: Lee Harvey Oswald , U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy Langho railway station , England ; National Rail station code LHO. Live Human Organs (Cargo Code, see List of aviation, aerospace and aeronautical abbreviations ) See also [ edit ] Lho , village in Nepal Asian name Lho one of
234-719: A Russian woman named Marina , and had a daughter. In June 1962, he returned to the United States with his wife, and eventually settled in Dallas, Texas, where their second daughter was born. Oswald shot and killed Kennedy on November 22, 1963, from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository as Kennedy traveled by motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas . About 45 minutes after assassinating Kennedy, Oswald shot and killed Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit on
351-487: 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. She said that Oswald considered Walker to be the leader of a " fascist organization". A note Oswald left for Marina on the night of the attempt, telling her what to do if he did not return, was found ten days after the Kennedy assassination. Before
468-522: A 'lot of baloney. ' " Voebel said that "Oswald commonly read ' paperback trash ' ". As a teenager in 1955, Oswald became a cadet member of Civil Air Patrol in New Orleans. Fellow cadets variously recalled him attending CAP meetings "three or four" times, or "10 or 12 times", over a one- to three-month period. Oswald enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on October 24, 1956, just
585-591: 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". Later, on October 18, the Cuban embassy approved the visa, but by this time Oswald was back in the United States and had given up on his plans to visit Cuba and the Soviet Union. Still later, eleven days before the assassination of President Kennedy, Oswald wrote to
702-478: A child, Oswald was described as withdrawn and temperamental by several people who knew him. When Oswald was 12 in August 1952, his mother took him to New York City where they lived for a short time with Oswald's half-brother, John. Oswald and his mother were later asked to leave after an argument in which Oswald allegedly struck his mother and threatened John's wife with a pocket knife. Oswald attended seventh grade in
819-591: A class of thirty in the Aircraft Control and Warning Operator Course, which "included instruction in aircraft surveillance and the use of radar". He was given the military occupational specialty of Aviation Electronics Operator. On July 9, he reported to the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in California. There he met fellow Marine Kerry Thornley , who co-created Discordianism . Thornley wrote
936-548: A commission and several commission members took part only reluctantly. One of their chief reservations was that a commission would ultimately create more controversy than consensus. The creation of the Warren Commission was a direct consequence of the murder by Jack Ruby of the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, carried live on national television in the basement of the Dallas police station. The lack of
1053-567: A court order to remove him from his mother's care so he could be placed into a home for boys to complete his education. This was postponed, perhaps partially because his behavior abruptly improved. Before the New York family court system could address their case, the Oswalds left New York in January 1954, and returned to New Orleans. Oswald completed the eighth and ninth grades in New Orleans. He entered
1170-426: A damn for him. He always felt like a burden that she simply just had to tolerate." Furthermore, his mother did not apparently indicate an awareness of the relationship between her conduct and her son's psychological problems, with Siegel describing Marguerite as a "defensive, rigid, self-involved person who had real difficulty in accepting and relating to people" and who had "little understanding" of Lee's behavior and of
1287-666: A desire to renounce his U.S. citizenship. "I have made up my mind", he said; "I'm through." He told the U.S. embassy interviewing officer, Richard Edward Snyder , that "he had been a radar operator in the Marine Corps and that he had voluntarily stated to unnamed Soviet officials that as a Soviet citizen he would make known to them such information concerning the Marine Corps and his specialty as he possessed. He intimated that he might know something of special interest." Such statements led to Oswald's hardship/honorable military reserve discharge being changed to undesirable . The story of
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#17328813469131404-495: A desk in his Dallas home. The bullet struck the window-frame and Walker's only injuries were bullet fragments to the forearm. The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations stated that the "evidence strongly suggested" that Oswald carried out the shooting. General Walker was an outspoken anti-communist , segregationist , and member of the John Birch Society . In 1961, Walker had been relieved of his command of
1521-472: A federal crime, which was not the case in 1963. In November 1964, two months after the publication of its 888-page report, the Commission published twenty-six volumes of supporting documents, including the testimony or depositions of 552 witnesses and more than 3,100 exhibits making a total of more than 16,000 pages. The Warren report, however, lacked an index, which greatly complicated the work of reading. It
1638-597: A file on him." On May 26, Oswald wrote to the New York City headquarters of the pro- Fidel Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee , proposing to rent "a small office at my own expense for the purpose of forming a FPCC branch here in New Orleans". Three days later, the FPCC responded to Oswald's letter advising against opening a New Orleans office "at least not ... at the very beginning". In a follow-up letter, Oswald replied, "Against your advice, I have decided to take an office from
1755-411: A local street. He then slipped into a movie theater , where he was arrested for Tippit's murder. Oswald was charged with the assassination of Kennedy, but he denied responsibility for the killing, claiming that he was a " patsy " (a fall guy ). Two days later, Oswald was fatally shot by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby on live television in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters. In September 1964,
1872-408: A memorandum intended of Bill Moyers that: "The public must be convinced that Oswald was the killer; that he had no accomplices still at large; and that evidence was such that he would have been found guilty at trial" creating a political orientation of the results of the investigation, even before the start of the first official investigations and knowledge of the results. Its objective was to cut short
1989-433: A motive to assassinate Kennedy. The report concluded, "In the long term, the decision of John McCone and Agency leaders in 1964 not to disclose information about CIA's anti-Castro schemes might have done more to undermine the credibility of the Commission than anything else that happened while it was conducting its investigation." In the years following the release of its report and 26 investigatory evidence volumes in 1964,
2106-735: A period "intended to serve as protection for innocent persons who could otherwise be damaged because of their relationship with participants in the case." The 75-year rule no longer exists, supplanted by the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 and the JFK Records Act of 1992 . By 1992, 98 percent of the Warren Commission records had been released to the public. Six years later, after the Assassination Records Review Board 's work, all Warren Commission records, except those records that contained tax return information, were available to
2223-457: A possible connection between Oswald and Banister at the Camp Street address. The HSCA wrote that it "could find no documentary proof that Banister had a file on Lee Harvey Oswald nor could the committee find credible witnesses whoever saw Lee Harvey Oswald and Guy Banister together. There are indications, however, that Banister at least knew of Oswald's leafletting activities and probably maintained
2340-510: A presidential commission of inquiry by Executive Order 11130 of November 29, 1963. This act made it possible both to avoid an independent investigation led by Congress and to avoid entrusting the case to the Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy , deeply affected by the assassination, whose federal jurisdiction would have been applied in the event of withdrawal of the share of the State of Texas for
2457-662: A public process addressing the mistakes of the Dallas Police, who concluded that the case was closed, created doubt in the mind of the public. The new president, Lyndon B. Johnson , himself from Texas, the state where the two assassinations had taken place, found himself faced with the risk of a weakening of his presidency. Confronted with the results obtained by the Texas authorities, themselves seriously discredited and criticized, he decided after various consultations, including in particular that with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover , to create
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#17328813469132574-557: A radio debate with Carlos Bringuier and Bringuier's associate Edward Scannell Butler, head of the right-wing Information Council of the Americas (INCA). Marina's friend Ruth Paine transported Marina and her child by car from New Orleans to the Paine home in Irving, Texas , near Dallas, on September 23, 1963. Oswald stayed in New Orleans at least two more days to collect a $ 33 unemployment check. It
2691-572: A relationship with Ella German ( Belarusian : Эла Герман ), a Belarusian coworker born in 1937. They ate together in the factory cafeteria every day and dated about twice each week. German later described Oswald as "a pleasant-looking guy with a good sense of humor ... not as rough and rude as the men here were back then"; she did not love him, but thought he was lonely and continued to date him out of pity. Their relationship became more serious – in Oswald's eyes – during
2808-539: A secondhand 6.5 mm caliber Carcano rifle for $ 19.95, plus $ 1.50 for shipping. He also purchased a .38 Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver by mail for $ 29.95 plus $ 1.27 shipping. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald attempted to kill retired U.S. Major General Edwin Walker on April 10, 1963, and that Oswald fired the Carcano rifle at Walker through a window from less than 100 feet (30 m) away as Walker sat at
2925-493: A social worker who interviewed both Lee and Marguerite Oswald at Youth House, while describing "a rather pleasant, appealing quality about this emotionally starved, affectionless youngster which grows as one speaks to him", found that he had detached himself from the world around him because "no one in it ever met any of his needs for love". Hartogs and Siegel indicated that Marguerite gave him very little affection, with Siegel concluding that Lee "just felt that his mother never gave
3042-412: A store he owned in New Orleans. Bringuier was the New Orleans delegate for the anti-Castro organization Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil (DRE). Bringuier would later tell the Warren Commission that he believed Oswald's visits were an attempt by Oswald to infiltrate his group. On August 9, Oswald turned up in downtown New Orleans handing out pro-Castro leaflets. Bringuier confronted Oswald, claiming he
3159-410: 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. Jeanne told George that Oswald had a rifle, and George joked to Oswald, "Were you the one who took a pot-shot at General Walker?" When asked about Oswald's reaction to this question, George de Mohrenschildt told
3276-430: A week after his seventeenth birthday; because of his age, his brother Robert Jr. was required to sign as his legal guardian . Oswald also named his mother and his half-brother John as beneficiaries. Oswald idolized his older brother Robert Jr., and wore his Marine Corps ring. John Pic (Oswald's half-brother) testified to the Warren Commission that Oswald's enlistment was motivated by wanting "to get from out and under ...
3393-531: A week, until October 28, 1959. 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. On October 31, Oswald appeared at the United States embassy in Moscow and declared
3510-409: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy , the 35th president of the United States , on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 for truancy, during which time he
3627-454: 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. Warren Commission The U.S. Congress passed Senate Joint Resolution 137 authorizing the Presidential appointed Commission to report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy , mandating the attendance and testimony of witnesses and
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3744-648: 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. He arrived in Mexico City on September 27, where he applied for a transit visa at the Cuban consulate, claiming he wanted to visit Cuba on his way to the Soviet Union. The Cuban consular officials insisted Oswald would need Soviet approval, but he
3861-494: The Cree syllabics Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title LHO . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=LHO&oldid=1227001203 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
3978-741: The Maasdam and landed at Hoboken in New Jersey. Here they were met by Spas T. Raikin of the Travelers Aid Society who had been contacted by the US Department of State. The Oswalds soon settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where Lee's mother and brother lived. Lee began a manuscript on Soviet life, though he eventually gave up the project. The Oswalds also became acquainted with a number of anti-Communist Russian and East European émigrés in
4095-723: The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald had acted alone when assassinating Kennedy. This conclusion, though controversial, was supported by investigations from the Dallas Police Department , the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Secret Service , and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) . Despite forensic , ballistic , and eyewitness accounts supporting
4212-427: The "protective shell he has drawn around himself". Hartogs reported that she did not understand that Lee's withdrawal was a form of "violent but silent protest against his neglect by her and represents his reaction to a complete absence of any real family life". When Oswald returned to school for the 1953 Fall semester, his disciplinary problems continued. When he failed to cooperate with school authorities, they sought
4329-471: The 1960s, and that of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. The Church Committee questioned the process of obtaining the information, blaming federal agencies for failing in their duties and responsibilities and concluding that the investigation into the assassination had been flawed. The American Senator Richard Schweiker indicated on this subject, in a television interview on June 27, 1976: "The John F. Kennedy assassination investigation
4446-411: The 1962 fictional book The Idle Warriors based on Oswald. This was the only book written about Oswald before the Kennedy assassination. Oswald departed for Japan the following month, where he was assigned to Marine Air Control Squadron 1 at Naval Air Facility Atsugi near Tokyo. Like all Marines, Oswald was trained and tested in shooting. In December 1956, he scored 212, which was slightly above
4563-583: The 1978-79 House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which reexamined the evidence with the help of the largest forensics panel and bringing new materials to the public. In 1975, the Church Committee was created per US Senate after the revelations about illegal actions of federal agency as the FBI , CIA and IRS on the territory of the United States of America and after the political Watergate scandal . The Church Committee carried out investigative work on
4680-524: The 24th Division of the U.S. Army in West Germany for distributing right-wing literature to his troops. Walker's later actions in opposition to racial integration at the University of Mississippi led to his arrest on insurrection, seditious conspiracy, and other charges. He was temporarily held in a mental institution on orders from President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy , but
4797-633: The Bronx, New York , but was often truant, which led to a psychiatric assessment at a juvenile reformatory. The reformatory psychiatrist, Dr. Renatus Hartogs, described Oswald as immersed in a "vivid fantasy life, turning around the topics of omnipotence and power, through which [Oswald] tries to compensate for his present shortcomings and frustrations". Hartogs concluded: Lee has to be diagnosed as "personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies". Lee has to be seen as an emotionally, quite disturbed youngster who suffers under
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4914-455: The Cuban regime on a lasting basis and to open up new prospects, contributed to directing, if not slightly, within the many groups of paramilitary operations the most radical fringe of anti-Castro Cubans, American intelligence agents and Mafia criminals who continued their operations to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro despite requests for formal arrests from the White House. The HSCA invited
5031-463: The Department of Justice to resume investigations. The latter would respond eight years later, arguing the absence of decisive evidence allowing the reopening of an investigation, which is equivalent to supporting the conclusions of Warren report. The findings of the Warren Commission are generally highly criticized, and while the majority of American citizens believe that Oswald shot President Kennedy,
5148-460: The FBI and the autopsy reports were not the subject of any counter-investigation, which made the commission directly dependent on the work of the latter. The Warren Commission, by decision of Earl Warren, refused to hire its own independent investigators. However, it had its own investigative capacity thanks to direct access to the emergency presidential budget funds granted by President Lyndon Johnson when it
5265-582: The FBI, on November 25, 1963. The latter received instructions not to make any publicity on this subject. It was the Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy , who, informed by a letter from Dr. Cairns transmitted to the Warren Commission, allowed the latter to question the practitioner. The non-use by the members of the Warren Commission of the direct elements of the autopsy such as notes, photos and x-rays. He only used drawings by FBI artists reproducing photographic images. The revelation by Edward Jay Epstein , in his book Inquest published in 1966, that as early as
5382-453: The Fact or Josiah Thompson's Six Seconds in Dallas . English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote: "The Warren report will have to be judged, not by its soothing success, but by the value of its argument. I must admit that from the first reading of the report, it seemed impossible to me to join in this general cry of triumph. I had the impression that the text had serious flaws. Moreover, when probing
5499-470: The HSCA also evaluated the performance of the Warren Commission, which included interviews and public testimony from the two surviving Commission members (Ford and McCloy) and various Commission legal counsel staff. The Committee concluded in their final report that the Commission was reasonably thorough and acted in good faith, but failed to adequately address the possibility of conspiracy: "...the Warren Commission
5616-522: 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 2017, it
5733-407: 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. The Walker bullet was too damaged to run conclusive ballistics studies on it, but neutron activation analysis later showed that it was "extremely likely" that it was made by the same manufacturer and for the same rifle make as
5850-488: The Marines; he never earned a high school diploma. By this point, he had resided at 22 locations and attended 12 schools. Though Oswald had trouble spelling in his youth and may have had a " reading-spelling disability ", he read voraciously. By age 15, he considered himself a socialist . According to 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
5967-491: The Soviet Union that evening. 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. Delaying Oswald's departure because of his self-inflicted injury, the Soviets kept him in a Moscow hospital under psychiatric observation for
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#17328813469136084-508: The Soviet border at Vainikkala , and arrived in Moscow on October 16. His visa, valid only for a week, was due to expire on October 21. During his stay in the Soviet Union his mail was intercepted and read by the CIA, with Reuben Efron being charged with this assignment. Almost immediately after arriving, Oswald informed his Intourist guide of his desire to become a Soviet citizen. When asked why by
6201-580: The Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C., saying, "Had I been able to reach the Soviet Embassy in Havana , as planned, the embassy there would have had time to complete our business." 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
6318-626: The United Kingdom. Arriving in Southampton on October 9, he told officials he had $ 700 and planned to stay for one week before proceeding to a school in Switzerland. On the same day, he flew to Helsinki , where he checked in at the Hotel Torni , room 309, then moved to Hotel Klaus Kurki, room 429. He was issued a Soviet visa on October 14. Oswald left Helsinki by train on the following day, crossed
6435-621: The Warren Commission has been frequently criticized for some of its methods, important omissions, and conclusions. Many independent investigators, journalists, historians, jurists, and academics issued opinions opposing the conclusions of the Warren commission based on the same elements collected by its works. These skeptics and their works included Thomas Buchanan, Sylvan Fox , Harold Feldman, Richard E. Sprague, Mark Lane ' s Rush to Judgment , Edward Jay Epstein ' s Inquest , Harold Weisberg's Whitewash , Sylvia Meagher's Accessories After
6552-411: The Warren Commission hearing need to be clarified...hearings were closed to the public unless the witness appearing before the Commission requested an open hearing. No witness except one...requested an open hearing... Second, although the hearings (except one) were conducted in private, they were not secret. In a secret hearing, the witness is instructed not to disclose his testimony to any third party, and
6669-487: The Warren Commission that Oswald "smiled at that". When de Mohrenschildt's wife Jeanne was asked about Oswald's reaction, she said, "I didn't notice anything"; she continued, "we started laughing our heads off, big joke, big George's joke". Jeanne de Mohrenschildt testified that this was the last time she or her husband ever saw the Oswalds. Oswald returned to New Orleans on April 24, 1963. Marina's friend Ruth Paine drove her by car from Dallas to join Oswald in New Orleans
6786-523: The Warren Commission that Oswald had a "remarkable fluency in Russian". Marina, meanwhile, befriended Ruth Paine , a Quaker trying to learn Russian, and her husband Michael Paine , who worked for Bell Helicopter . In July 1962, Oswald was hired by the Leslie Welding Company as a sheet metal worker in Dallas; he disliked the work and quit after three months. On October 12, he started working for
6903-484: The Warren Commission's conclusion or its material in different circumstances. The Church Committee analyzed in 1976 the work of the CIA and FBI which had communicated the different elements to the Warren Commission Members. The three others concluded with the initial conclusions that two shots struck JFK from the rear: the 1968 panel set by Attorney General Ramsey Clark , the 1975 Rockefeller Commission , and
7020-519: The area. In testimony to the Warren Commission, Alexander Kleinlerer said that the Russian émigrés sympathized with Marina, while merely tolerating Oswald, whom they regarded as rude and arrogant. Although the Russian émigrés eventually abandoned Marina when she made no sign of leaving her husband, Oswald found an unlikely friend in 51-year-old Russian émigré George de Mohrenschildt , a well-educated petroleum geologist with international business connections. A native of Russia, Mohrenschildt later told
7137-477: The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, questioning 50 witnesses and accessing 3,000 documents. It focuses on the necessary actions and the support provided by the FBI and the CIA to the Warren Commission and raises the question of the possible connection between the plans to assassinate political leaders abroad, in particular in relation to Fidel Castro in Cuba , a huge point of international tension in
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#17328813469137254-483: The back dusty shelves of libraries." At 16, he wrote to the Socialist Party of America for information on their Young People's Socialist League , saying he had been studying socialist principles for "well over fifteen months". Edward Voebel, "whom the Warren Commission had established was Oswald's closest friend during his teenage years in New Orleans", said "reports that Oswald was already 'studying Communism ' were
7371-400: The basement, allowing Ruby to enter and subsequently shoot Oswald, noting that "the acceptance of inadequate press credentials posed a clear avenue for a one-man assault." Oswald's death was said to have been a direct result of "the failure of the police to remove Oswald secretly or control the crowd in the basement." The consequence of Oswald's death, according to the Commission, was that "it
7488-417: The beginning of 1964, the chief adviser, J. Lee Rankin , had given the outcome of the results of the work of the commission: guilt of Oswald, the latter having acted alone. Even before the creation of the commission, on November 25, 1963, and a few hours after the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby in the premises of the Dallas police, Nicolas Katzenbach, assistant attorney general, had indicated in
7605-404: The benefit of the federal authorities in Washington. Nicholas Katzenbach , Deputy Attorney General, provided advice that led to the creation of the Warren Commission. On November 25 he sent a memo to Johnson's White House aide Bill Moyers recommending the formation of a Presidential Commission to investigate the assassination. To combat speculation of a conspiracy , Katzenbach said that
7722-401: The commission because he stated the principle of law that a member of the judicial power could not be at the service of the executive power. It was only under pressure from President Lyndon Johnson, who spoke of international tensions and the risks of war resulting from the death of his predecessor, that he agreed to chair the commission. The other members of the commission were chosen from among
7839-582: The commission focused on "what the Agency believed at the time was the 'best truth' — that Lee Harvey Oswald, for as yet undetermined motives, had acted alone in killing John Kennedy." The CIA may have also covered up evidence of being in communication with Oswald before 1963, according to the 2014 report findings. Also withheld were earlier CIA plots, involving CIA links with the Mafia, to assassinate Cuban president Fidel Castro , which might have been considered to provide
7956-561: The corner of a picket fence that was above and to President Kennedy's right front on the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll . However, this conclusion has also been criticized, especially for its reliance upon disputed acoustic evidence . The HSCA Final Report in 1979 did agree with the Warren Report's conclusion in 1964 that two bullets caused all of President Kennedy's and Governor Connally's injuries, and that both bullets were fired by Oswald from
8073-631: The defection of a former U.S. Marine to the Soviet Union was reported by both the Associated Press and United Press International . Though Oswald had wanted to attend Moscow State University , in January 1960 he was sent to Minsk , Belarus, to work as a lathe operator at the Gorizont Electronics Factory, which produced radios, televisions, and military and space electronics. Stanislau Shushkevich , who later became independent Belarus's first head of state, also worked at Gorizont at
8190-543: The director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, who had centralized all of the information from the FBI agents before synthesizing it and transmitting it to the Warren Commission. He campaigned for a reopening of the file considering that the director of the FBI had lied to the Warren commission. He disappeared in a plane crash in October 1972. Commission member Richard Russell told the Washington Post in 1970 that Kennedy had been
8307-561: The favors of the Cuban leader during the change of regime. In 1959, the income generated by criminal activities amounted to an annual amount of 100 million dollars, i.e. 900 million reported in 2013. The HSCA determined that the gradual change in policy of the Kennedy administration toward Cuba, first with the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961, then more sustainably with the missile crisis of October 1962, in order to appease relations with
8424-701: The following month. On May 10, Oswald was hired by the Reily Coffee Company as a machinery greaser. He was fired in July "because his work was not satisfactory and because he spent too much time loitering in Adrian Alba's garage next door, where he read rifle and hunting magazines". In his 1988 book On the Trail of the Assassins , New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison claimed that Oswald really spent that time across
8541-415: 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. Oswald was fired in the first week of April 1963. In March 1963, Oswald used the alias "A. Hidell" to make a mail-order purchase of
8658-450: The grassy knoll after the shots were fired, were fleeing the area of the shooting. In reality, the people present, including a dozen members of the security forces, in particular Sheriff Decker's team, who had given the order to investigate the area, all testified that they were running to the search for one or more shooters posted on the grassy Knoll. It also did not interview John Fitzgerald Kennedy's personal doctor, George Burkley , who
8775-528: The half-brothers of U.S. Air Force veteran John Edward Pic (1932–2000). In 1944, Marguerite moved the family from New Orleans to Dallas, Texas . Oswald entered the first grade in 1945 and over the next six years attended several different schools in the Fort Worth areas through the sixth grade. Oswald took an IQ test in the fourth grade and scored 103; "on achievement tests in [grades 4 to 6], he twice did best in reading and twice did worst in spelling". As
8892-422: The hearing testimony is not published for public consumption. The witnesses who appeared before the Commission were free to repeat what they said to anyone they pleased, and all of their testimony was subsequently published in the first fifteen volumes put out by the Warren Commission. The report concluded that: In response to Jack Ruby's shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Warren Commission declared that
9009-401: The impact of really existing emotional isolation and deprivation, lack of affection, absence of family life and rejection by a self involved and conflicted mother. Hartogs recommended that Lee be placed on probation on condition that he seek help and guidance through a child guidance clinic, and that Oswald seek "psychotherapeutic guidance through contact with a family agency". Evelyn D. Siegel,
9126-400: The majority also believe that Oswald was part of a conspiracy and therefore do not believe the official thesis defended by the commission. In 1976, 81% of Americans disputed the findings of the Warren Report, 74% in 1983, 75% in 1993 and 2003. In 2009, a CBS poll indicated that 74% of respondents believed there had been an official cover-up by the authorities to keep the general public away from
9243-538: The news media must share responsibility with the Dallas police department for "the breakdown of law enforcement" that led to Oswald's death. In addition to the police department's "inadequacy of coordination," the Warren Commission noted that "these additional deficiencies [in security] were related directly to the decision to admit newsmen to the basement." The commission concluded that the pressure of press, radio, and television for information about Oswald's prison transfer resulted in lax security standards for admission to
9360-510: The official findings, public opinion polls have shown that most Americans still do not believe that the official version tells the whole truth of the events, and the assassination spawned numerous conspiracy theories . Oswald was born at the old French Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana , on October 18, 1939, to a MetLife worker Robert Edward Lee Oswald Sr. (1896–1939) and a legal clerk Marguerite Frances Claverie (1907–1981). Robert Oswald
9477-777: The production of evidence. Its 888-page final report was presented to President Johnson on September 24, 1964, and made public three days later. It concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald and that Oswald acted entirely alone. It also concluded that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald two days later. The Commission's findings have proven controversial and have been both challenged and supported by later studies. The Commission took its unofficial name—the Warren Commission—from its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren . According to published transcripts of Johnson's presidential phone conversations, some major officials were opposed to forming such
9594-578: The public that would ensure "there [would] be no interference with pending criminal investigations, court proceedings, or the right of individuals to a fair trial." The findings prompted the Secret Service to make numerous modifications to its security procedures. The Commission made other recommendations to the Congress to adopt new legislation that would make the murder of the President (or Vice-President)
9711-484: The public with redactions . The remaining Kennedy assassination-related documents were partly released to the public on October 26, 2017, twenty-five years after the passage of the JFK Records Act. President Donald Trump, as directed by the FBI and the CIA, took action on that date to withhold certain remaining files, delaying the release until April 26, 2018, then on April 26, 2018, took action to further withhold
9828-493: The records "until 2021". CIA Director McCone was "complicit" in a Central Intelligence Agency "benign cover-up" by withholding information from the Warren Commission, according to a report by the CIA Chief Historian David Robarge released to the public in 2014. According to this report, CIA officers had been instructed to give only "passive, reactive, and selective" assistance to the commission, to keep
9945-664: The representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties, in both houses of Congress, and added diplomat John J. McCloy , former president of the World Bank, and former CIA director Allen Dulles . The Warren Commission met formally for the first time on December 5, 1963, on the second floor of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. The Commission conducted its business primarily in closed sessions, but these were not secret sessions. Two misconceptions about
10062-482: The requirements for the designation of sharpshooter . In May 1959 he scored 191, which reduced his rating to marksman . Oswald was court-martialed after he accidentally shot himself in the elbow with an unauthorized .22 caliber handgun. He was court-martialed a second time for fighting with the sergeant he thought was responsible for his punishment in the shooting matter. He was demoted from private first class to private and briefly imprisoned. Oswald
10179-413: The results of the FBI's investigation should be made public. He wrote: The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large." Four days after Katzenbach's memo, Johnson appointed to the commission some of the nation's most prominent figures, including Earl Warren , Chief Justice of the United States . At first, Warren refused to head of
10296-434: The seven members of the Warren Commission all articulated, if sometimes off the record, some level of skepticism about the Commission's basic findings." In its conclusions, the opposition of the summary of the report and the documents constituting the 26 volumes of annexes leading to a falsification of the facts. For example, the Warren Commission argued that direct witnesses to the shooting, who immediately rushed en masse to
10413-500: The show Good Night America of the Zapruder film , which had been stored by Life magazine and never shown to the public during the preceding twenty years. The HSCA involved Congressional hearings and ultimately concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, probably as the result of a conspiracy. The HSCA concluded that Oswald fired shots number one, two, and four, and that an unknown assassin fired shot number three (but missed) from near
10530-451: The sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository . In his September 1978 testimony to the HSCA, President Ford defended the Warren Commission's investigation as thorough. Ford stated that knowledge of the assassination plots against Castro may have affected the scope of the Commission's investigation but expressed doubt that it would have altered its finding that Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy. As part of its investigation,
10647-454: The speculations of public opinion either on a plot of communist origin (thesis of the Dallas police ) or a plot fomented by the far right to blame the communists (hypothesis defended by the press of communist bloc formed around the USSR ). As early as the 1970s, official members of the Warren Commission questioned its work, in particular Hale Boggs who criticized the influence of J. Edgar Hoover ,
10764-459: The street at 544 Camp Street. 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 1963 in New Orleans, was most interested in infiltrating the Fair Play for Cuba Committee , and used Oswald as his spy. In their 1978 investigation, the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigated
10881-409: The summer and fall of 1960, but began to deteriorate after German learned in October that Oswald had been seeing other women. On January 2, 1961, Oswald proposed, but German refused. Oswald wrote in his diary in January 1961: "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
10998-520: The tenth grade in 1955 but quit school after one month. After leaving school, Oswald worked for several months as an office clerk and messenger in New Orleans. In July 1956, Oswald's mother moved the family to Fort Worth, Texas, and Oswald re-enrolled in the tenth grade for the September session at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth. A few weeks later in October, Oswald quit school at age 17 to join
11115-692: The time in reading and writing. On September 11, 1959, he received a hardship discharge from active service, claiming his mother needed care. He was placed on the United States Marine Corps Reserve . Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union just before he turned 20 in October 1959. He had taught himself Russian and saved $ 1,500 of his Marine Corps salary (equivalent to $ 12,500 in 2023). Oswald spent two days with his mother in Fort Worth , then embarked by ship on September 20 from New Orleans to Le Havre , France, and immediately traveled to
11232-404: The time, and was assigned to help Oswald improve his Russian. Oswald received a government-subsidized, fully furnished studio apartment in a prestigious building and an additional supplement to his factory pay, which allowed him to have a comfortable standard of living by working-class Soviet standards, though he was kept under constant surveillance . From mid-1960 to early 1961, Oswald was in
11349-518: The trade union dances. I have had enough." Shortly afterwards, Oswald (who had never formally renounced his U.S. citizenship) wrote to the Embassy of the United States, Moscow requesting the return of his American passport, and proposing to return to the U.S. if any charges against him would be dropped. In March 1961, Oswald met Marina Prusakova (born 1941), a 19-year-old pharmacology student; they married six weeks later. The Oswalds' first child, June,
11466-437: The two bullets which later struck Kennedy. George de Mohrenschildt testified that he "knew that Oswald disliked General Walker". Regarding this, de Mohrenschildt and his wife Jeanne recalled an incident that occurred the weekend following the Walker assassination attempt. The de Mohrenschildts testified that on April 14, 1963, just before Easter Sunday, they were visiting the Oswalds at their new apartment and had brought them
11583-430: 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'". On October 21, the day his visa was due to expire, he was told that his citizenship application had been refused, and that he had to leave
11700-399: The very beginning." On May 29, Oswald ordered the following items from a local printer: 500 application forms, 300 membership cards, and 1,000 leaflets with the heading, "Hands Off Cuba". According to Marina, Lee told her to sign the name "A.J. Hidell" as chapter president on his membership card. According to anti-Castro militant Carlos Bringuier , Oswald visited him on August 5 and 6 at
11817-491: The victim of a conspiracy, criticizing the commission's no-conspiracy finding and saying "we weren't told the truth about Oswald". John Sherman Cooper also considered the ballistic findings to be "unconvincing". Russell also particularly rejected Arlen Specter's "single bullet" theory , and he asked Earl Warren to indicate his disagreement in a footnote, which the chairman of the commission refused. Four other U.S. government or senate investigations have been conducted about
11934-553: The weak parts, they appeared even weaker than at first sight." In 1992, following popular political pressure in the wake of the film JFK , the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) was created by the JFK Records Act to collect and preserve the documents relating to the assassination. In a footnote in its final report, the ARRB wrote: "Doubts about the Warren Commission's findings were not restricted to ordinary Americans. Well before 1978, President Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, and four of
12051-614: The yoke of oppression from my mother". Oswald's enlistment papers recite that he was 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 meters) tall and weighed 135 pounds (61 kg), with hazel eyes and brown hair. His primary training was in radar operation, which required a security clearance . A May 1957 document stated that he was "granted final clearance to handle classified matter up to and including confidential after careful check of local records had disclosed no derogatory data". At Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi, Oswald finished seventh in
12168-417: Was a "very competent" crew chief and was "brighter than most people". While Oswald was in the Marines, he taught himself rudimentary Russian. Although this was an unusual endeavor, on February 25, 1959, he was invited to take a Marine proficiency exam in written and spoken Russian. His level at the time was rated "poor" in understanding spoken Russian, though he fared rather reasonably for a Marine private at
12285-471: Was a third cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt and a distant cousin of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War I . Robert died of a heart attack two months before Lee was born. Lee's elder brother Robert Jr. (1934–2017) was a U.S. Marine during the Korean War . Through Marguerite's first marriage to Edward John Pic Jr., Lee and Robert Jr. were
12402-557: Was assessed by a psychiatrist as "emotionally disturbed" due to a lack of normal family life. He attended 12 schools in his youth, quitting repeatedly, and at the age of 17 he joined the Marines, where he was court-martialed twice and jailed. In 1959, he was discharged from active duty into the Marine Corps Reserve, then flew to Europe and defected to the Soviet Union . He lived in Minsk , Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic , married
12519-537: Was born on February 15, 1962. On May 24, 1962, Oswald and Marina applied at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for documents that enabled her to immigrate to the U.S. On June 1, the U.S. Embassy gave Oswald a repatriation loan of $ 435.71. Oswald, Marina, and their infant daughter left for the United States, where they received less attention from the press than Oswald expected. According to the Warren Report , Oswald and his wife returned to America on June 13, they arrived onboard
12636-478: Was created, to conduct its own investigations. Thus the Warren commission was not informed by the FBI of the discovery the day after the attack, on November 23, 1963, by a medical student, William Harper, of a piece of occiput located at the rear left in relation to at the position of the presidential limo during the fatal shot to the head. He had it examined by the professor and medical examiner, Doctor Cairns who measured it and photographed this piece before informing
12753-476: Was later endowed with an index by the work of Sylvia Meagher for the report and the 26 volumes of documents. All of the commission's records were then transferred on November 23 to the National Archives . The unpublished portion of those records was initially sealed for 75 years (to 2039) under a general National Archives policy that applied to all federal investigations by the executive branch of government,
12870-624: Was later punished for a third incident: while he was on a night-time sentry duty in the Philippines, he inexplicably fired his rifle into the jungle. Slightly built, Oswald was nicknamed Ozzie Rabbit after the cartoon character; he was also called Oswaldskovich because he espoused pro- Soviet sentiments. In November 1958, Oswald transferred back to El Toro where his unit's function "was to serveil [ sic ] for aircraft, but basically to train both enlisted men and officers for later assignment overseas". An officer there said that Oswald
12987-405: Was no longer possible to arrive at the complete story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy through normal judicial procedures during the trial of the alleged assassin." While the Commission noted that the prime responsibility was that of the police department, it also recommended the adoption of a new "code of conduct" for news professionals regarding the collecting and presenting of information to
13104-524: Was not, in some respects, an accurate presentation of all the evidence available to the Commission or a true reflection of the scope of the Commission's work, particularly on the issue of possible conspiracy in the assassination." The HSCA also pointed to the role of the mafia in the attack because of Cuba . Indeed, the Cuban Castro Revolution of 1959 had caused the criminal organization to lose millions of dollars, which had tried in vain to win
13221-519: Was present during the shooting in the convoy of official vehicles then at Parkland Hospital , on board Air Force One, then at Bethesda Naval Hospital during the autopsy. He signed the death certificate and also took delivery of the brain of John Fitzgerald Kennedy which is declared lost in the National Archives . Concerning the conclusions of the Warren commission about the three shots, the practitioner had declared in 1967: "I would not like to be quoted on this subject". The ballistic reports conducted by
13338-519: Was snuffed out before it even began," and that "the fatal mistake the Warren Commission made was to not use its own investigators, but instead to rely on the CIA and FBI personnel, which played directly into the hands of senior intelligence" . The results of the Church Committee opened the way of the creation of the HSCA, with parallelly the March 6, 1975, first time diffusion on network television in
13455-544: Was the branch's only member and it had never been chartered by the national organization. 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 . The incident was filmed by WDSU-TV . The next day, Oswald was interviewed by WDSU radio commentator William Stuckey, who probed Oswald's background. A few days later, Oswald accepted Stuckey's invitation to take part in
13572-484: 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. Prior to leaving the police station, Oswald requested to speak with an FBI agent. Oswald told the agent that he was a member of the New Orleans branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee which he claimed had 35 members and was led by A. J. Hidell. In fact, Oswald
13689-400: 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
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