Oswald, Lee Harvey, 1939–63, presumed assassin of John F. Kennedy, b. New Orleans. Oswald spent most of his boyhood in Fort Worth, Tex. Later, he attended a Dallas high school, and enlisted (1956) in the Marines and served until 1959. A Marxist, he went to the Soviet Union in 1959 declaring his intention to renounce his American citizenship. In 1962 he returned to the United States, bringing his Russian wife and young daughter. In succeeding months, Oswald moved around the country, finally coming back to Dallas, where, in Oct., 1963, he obtained a job at the Texas State School Book Depository. From that building apparently shots were fired that took President Kennedy's life on Nov. 22, 1963. Oswald fled the scene. Later that afternoon, a policeman trying to accost him was shot and killed. Oswald was later arrested and charged with both murders. On Nov. 24, while in police hands, Oswald was murdered by a nightclub proprietor, Jack Ruby. In 1964 the Warren Commission Warren Commission, popular name given to the U.S. Commission to Report upon the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, established (Nov. 29, 1963) by executive order of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
..... Click the link for more information. held Oswald to be the sole assassin.

Bibliography

See P. J. McMillan's biography, Marina and Lee (1977); N. Mailer's study, Oswald's Tale (1995).

Oswald, Lee Harvey

(born Oct. 18, 1939, New Orleans, La., U.S.—died Nov. 24, 1963, Dallas, Texas) Accused assassin of Pres. John F. Kennedy. While serving in the U.S. Marines (1956–59) he began to express pro-Soviet and politically radical views. Shortly after his discharge he moved to the Soviet Union, where he unsuccessfully tried to become a Soviet citizen. He returned to the U.S. in 1962 with his Russian wife and daughter but retained his radical political beliefs. In April 1963 he allegedly shot at but missed Edwin Walker, an ultrarightist retired general. In October he took a job at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. On Nov. 22, 1963, from a window on its sixth floor, he allegedly fired three shots that killed Kennedy and wounded Gov. John B. Connally while the two men were riding in the president's motorcade. Oswald killed a patrolman who had detained him, but he was soon captured and arraigned. On November 24, while being transferred to an interrogation office, he was fatally shot by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner.

Oswald, Lee Harvey (1939–63) assassin; born in New Orleans. After a troubled youth, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps (1956–59). Renouncing his U.S. citizenship, he lived in the Soviet Union (1959–62), then returned with his Russian wife to live in Texas. He shot and killed President John F. Kennedy in Dallas (1963) and two days later was killed by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner. The question whether he was acting on his own seemed destined to divide people for the foreseeable future.