What was Lee Harvey Oswald's life like?

Answer 1

Lee Harvey Oswald. Going by the information below, he had a somewhat rough life. But still doesn't make killing the President right.

Lee Harvey Oswald was born on Oct. 18, 1939. His father died two months before Oswald was born. He had an older half-brother and an older brother. He and his brothers lived in an orphanage for a year while their mother worked. In 1944, his mother pulled Lee and his brothers from the orphanage. She remarried in 1945 but separated from her husband in 1946.

The Oswald family moved around a lot. Oswald went to school in Texas, Louisiana and New York. While in New York City, Lee began to exhibit behavioral problems in school. A social worker deemed him to be an average student who was emotionally starved. He often had fantasies in which he held power over other people. (source:[http://wiki.answers.com/who-killed-jfk7.htm#warrencommissionreport]).

At 16, Oswald dropped out of school and tried to join the Marine Corps. The Marines rejected his application because of his young age. He worked odd jobs and began to read Communist literature. He wrote to the Socialist Party of America when he was 17 to express his enthusiasm for Marxism.

Six days after he turned 17, he reapplied to the Marines and was accepted. Oswald qualified as a sharpshooter during boot camp. Later, he would take a similar test and rate only as marksman, one rank lower than sharpshooter. Oswald served in the Marines from 1956 until 1959. Much of his time in the Marines was spent overseas. While in the Marines, Oswald taught himself Russian and continued to study the Soviet Union.

Three days after leaving the Marines, Oswald left home on a long trip to the Soviet Union. He had falsified an application to the Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland to obtain a passport. Once in Moscow, he applied for Soviet citizenship. Soviet officials denied his request and ordered him to leave Moscow. On Oct. 21, 1959, Oswald slashed his left wrist in an apparent suicide attempt. Soviet officials said Oswald could stay in the Soviet Union on a year-to-year basis. While Oswald expressed interest in renouncing his American citizenship, he never made it official.

Oswald met, fell in love with and married Marina Nikolaevna Prusakova. After his marriage, Oswald wrote to the Soviet and American embassies, seeking a return to the United States. He had become disenchanted with the realities of the Soviet Union, which failed to meet his expectations. The pair left Moscow on June 1, 1962.

Upon his return, Oswald stayed with his brother and then his mother before securing an apartment. The FBI interviewed Oswald regarding his decision to move to the Soviet Union and subsequent decision to return to the United States. Oswald agreed to inform the FBI should any representative from the Soviet Union ask him to engage in Espionage activities.

Oswald's wife Marina spoke little English and felt isolated. The Oswalds met a small community of Russian-speaking people in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald continued to criticize the United States and capitalism. Marina became close friends with a woman named Ruth Paine, who felt sympathy for the young bride.

On April 10, 1963, four days after losing his job, Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to murder Major General Edwin A. Walker. Oswald used a rifle he had purchased through mail order using a false name. The attempt failed, and the Oswalds decided to leave town before the authorities could identify the assailant. The two left Texas for New Orleans.

In Louisiana, Oswald tried to establish a chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Oswald was the sole member of the chapter, though he attempted to hand out flyers and give interviews as though it were a large organization. In September 1963, Marina left New Orleans to live with Ruth Paine in Texas. Meanwhile, Oswald traveled to Mexico City in an effort to visit the Cuban and Russian embassies.

After several failed attempts to secure a visa to travel to Cuba and the Soviet Union, Oswald returned to the United States and moved to Dallas. He secured a job with the Texas School Book Depository on Oct. 16, 1963. A little over a month later, he would shoot the President of the United States. Two days later, Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald as police prepared to transport him to a secure location. Oswald died in the same hospital as JFK -- Parkland Memorial.

It seems as though Oswald felt he was an outsider and was never satisfied with his surroundings. He left the United States for the Soviet Union, grew disenchanted with the realities of Communism, returned to the United States and then tried to get back to the U.S.S.R. From various reports and interviews, it seems as though Soviet and Cuban officials were unimpressed with Oswald. Based on these and other numerous facts, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted as the lone gunman.