JFK (pt. 2)

We’re told by the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lonely marxist who killed JFK in a bitter attempt to become a part of history. If we are to start with Oswald’s so-called motive, we see that this profile, and Oswald’s behaviors do not line up. It doesn’t take someone with a masters degree in psychology to tell us that a desperate lone nut wouldn’t be so worried about getting away from the scene of the crime. A man who would take such drastic actions for fame wouldn’t deny killing the president or officer Tippett to the television cameras. Although Kennedy had a past as a cold warrior, someone who was a devout marxist couldn’t help but rejoice at Kennedy’s behavior towards the USSR, Cuba, Vietnam, and his speech at American University in the more recent years of his presidency. Why kill a man who’s at least willing to extend an olive branch to those you sympathize with? It doesn’t add up. If Oswald was a loner how was he also a family man whom friends described as enjoying spending time playing with his children?

Oswald joined the marines at 17 years old, and his time in service is an important facet to investigate. The Warren commission and its champions contend that Oswald displayed overt marxist leanings while in the marines and was a great shot. This is based on the testimony of one solitary marine, against the testimony of all others; Kerry Thornley. (Garrison 47) Thornley, unlike several others did not live in close proximity to Oswald on the base, had served less time with him, and conspicuously was the only marine directly interviewed by the commission. (It is also worth noting that Thornley closely resembled Oswald, and was in several locations that a possible “decoy Oswald” had been sighted at the same time; both also worked at Riley Coffee Co. in New Orleans.) In contrast, Nelson Delgado, who bunked with Lee Oswald, and described him as a friend had this to say to the commission:

Q. Did you fire with Oswald?

DELGADO. Right; I was in the same line. By that I mean we were on line together, the same time, but not firing at the same position, but at the same time, and I remember seeing his [shooting]. It was a pretty big joke, because he got a lot of "Maggie's drawers," you know, a lot of misses, but he didn't give a darn.

Q. Missed the target completely?

DELGADO. He just qualified, that's it. He wasn't as enthusiastic as the rest of us. We all loved--liked, you know going to the range. (8 H 235)...

Delgado also refused to characterize Oswald as a Marxist. If that doesn’t clarify the majority opinion on Oswald’s marxist or marksman status, fellow marine Sherman Cooley offers the following: “if I had to pick one man in the whole United States to shoot me, I'd pick Oswald. I saw the man shoot. There's no way he could have ever learned to shoot well enough to do what they accused him of doing in Dallas.” (Hurt, 99) Again, Cooley refused to identify Oswald as a communist. Avoiding the overwhelming testimony which contradicts the pre-set notion the Warren Commission had in mind was, sadly, a patent feature of their “investigation.” Oswald was apparently good at hitting one target- himself. An injury he sustained using an unauthorized handgun on the base led to the first of his two court martials in the marines. Regardless of this, even if Oswald was a legit communist, would the marines have stationed him to be a radar operator at a base with the untouchable U2 spy plane? If so, it would be an incredibly foolish thing to do.

Oswald was also administered a russian language examination at El Toro air force base during his tenure with the marines. Many have found this to be at odds with the typical training a marine would have received. Jim Garrsion contends that only an officer training to be an intelligence agent would have likely received russian lessons. This and other behaviors point to a strong possibility that Oswald was working for some government intelligence agency. 

Oswald received an early discharge from the marines in september of 1959 for “hardship” to take care of his mother, whom he claimed was ill. He stayed with his mother for three days and departed for New Orleans, and quickly thereafter, the Soviet Union. Oswald received his passport to Russia in record time, within 24 hours. Passports from the Soviets typically took between 5-7 days to process. (Nechiporenko, 40)  Oswald was given quick employment and ended up marrying Marina, the daughter of a soviet Colonel. The Warren Commission made much of Oswald’s attempt to slit his wrists in Russia, but the man who dressed Oswald and put him in his coffin saw no such scars on his wrists. (Men Who killed...) This indicates that either a separate “Oswald” was burried in 1963, a different “Oswald” attempted suicide in 1959, or the information about a suicide attempt was simply false. This is one of several classic examples of so-called “sheep-dipping” - the process of putting a man into a character, for better or ill to serve in his role as an intelligence officer. Oswald also proclaimed his intentions to reveal details of classified information he had knowledge of to the Russians at the US embassy. J. Edgar Hoover later stated that none of this was investigated because the US embassy, The  Marines, and the O.N.I. had given Oswald a “clean bill.” (Garrison 50) [coincidently- Gary Powers’ U2 spy plane was shot down by the russians not long after Oswald’s arrival in the USSR. Pure conjecture- If Oswald was working for the intelligence community as a double agent, could they have had him provide the russians with vital information to sabotage Eisenhower’s treaty talks and prolong a profitable cold war?]

Returning briefly to Oswald’s marksmanship, while in Russia, Oswald was a member of a gun club. Those in the gun club also sited Oswald’s poor skills. (Blakey, 139) This account gives us a much larger context within which to judge Oswald’s skills with a gun. Since Oswald spent from 1959 till mid 1962 in Russia, we can fairly say that Oswald had only a little over a year to go from “maggie’s drawers” to Marksman who could pull of three of the most incredibly difficult shots in history with a broken scope in under nine seconds (liberal estimate) with a lousy bolt action rifle. Simply put, we’ve now ruled out  or cast serious doubts on Oswald’s motive and ability.