Introduction
On November 22nd, 1963,
tragedy struck the United States of America as President John Fitzgerald
Kennedy was assassinated in front of the entire world. On that day, assassin Lee
Harvey Oswald fired multiple shots at President Kennedy in his motorcade,
killing him and wounding others. (Chapter 1) However, many do not believe Oswald
was solely responsible for the assassination of the president. While no one
doubts that Oswald fired shots at the president, many people believed he was
assisted in his assassination by either other gunman or by a higher authority
that was paying him to do the job. Some
believe that the Mafia was at work. Others think the CIA was behind Kennedy’s
death. (Saad) In a 2003 poll, 17% of
people claimed that Kennedy was the greatest president of all time, tied with
Abraham Lincoln. (Saad) Many people do
not think a lone gunman could be responsible for the death of such a great man
and therefore could not have done the deed alone. |
| A portrait of the late President Kennedy made post-mortem |
Character
Analysis
Lee Harvey Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy
on November 22, 1963 (LEE
HARVEY OSWALD). Sadly, the motives of
Oswald killing the President are never to be known. Before he could be
thoroughly interrogated, Oswald is shot and killed by assassin Jack Ruby on
November 24th, 1963 (1). While we will never be able to fully understand why Oswald
killed our nation’s leader, we can analyze the events of his life to try and
get a better understanding of his mental psyche when he murdered Kennedy.
It is
impossible to determine whether Oswald was a disturbed individual, but if he
was then the source of his insanity can be found by looking toward his
childhood. Born October 18, 1939, to widow Marguerite Oswald, Oswald and his
family moved from house to house in the New Orleans area for the first few
years of his life until he moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in January of
1944 (Lee Oswald Timeline 1 / Childhood and Youth). At that time Oswald started
schooling, but despite this Oswald’s family continued to move over the
following years of his life causing him to attend 12 different schools
throughout his educational career (1). 1952, however, was the low point of his
educational career, at this time Oswald was sent to a youth home for troubled
children, due to his truancy problems (1).
While
moving around would not raise a child with a strong psyche, this alone would
not lead him to become an assassin, therefore
the source of any of Oswald’s mental health problems would be found in
his adult life (Lee Harvey Oswald: Troubled Youth." Lee Harvey Oswald:
Troubled Youth). After leaving
school, Oswald goes to Marine Corps got basic training in San Diego on October
26, 1956 and continues in the Marines until he is released from active duty on
September 11, 1959 (LEE HARVEY OSWALD). During Oswald’s time in service he had a few altercations with his
commanding officer and was a difficult man to work with (1).
After his
time in service, Oswald left to visit Europe and had an apparent suicide
attempt in Moscow on October 21st, 1959 (LEE HARVEY OSWALD). Ten
days later Oswald attempts to renounce his U.S. citizenship and he goes to live
in Russia for the next two years (1). During this time, Oswald is put under
close surveillance of the KGB (Ivestia).
Eventually Oswald would meet and marry his wife, Marina
Nikolayevna Psuakova, while in Russia in the spring of 1961. Together they
would come back to America and live out their lives in Dallas, Texas (LEE HARVEY OSWALD).
Throughout
Oswald's time in Texas, the man had been conducting suspicious activities. The
man purchased multiple firearms and attempted to assassinate Major General Edwin Anderson Walker (LEE HARVEY OSWALD). After his failed attempt to kill
General Walker on April 10th, 1963, Oswald flees Texas and goes to Florida for
a few months (1). Upon his return to Dallas, Oswald gets a job at the Texas
School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza, the building he would shoot at
President Kennedy from in the following month (1).
 |
| Assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald's mugshot |
Possible
Theories
John F. Kennedy’s murder case is the most
controversial in American History. While
it is undoubtable that Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at President Kennedy
and killed him, no one is exactly sure of the motives by Oswald’s actions. While
the official statement made by The President's Commission on the Assassination
of President Kennedy, also known as the Warren Commission, is that Lee Harvey
Oswald was a lone gunman and was solely responsible for the assassination of
President Kennedy (Chapter 1). However, there are many theories that try and
pin other people and organizations as responsible for Kennedy's death. Various
theories range from vicious organizations, such as the KGB, CIA, Mafia, and the
Illuminati, trying to take out the American leader, individuals, such as Jackie
Kennedy, acting for their own personal gain, and of course the classic aliens
theory(Who Killed JFK? 51 Years of
Intriguing Conspiracy Theories).
The organization that is most widely
believed responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy is the KGB. The
KGB was the security agency for the Soviet Union in the 20th
century. During Oswald’s time in Moscow, from 1959 to 1961, he would slowly
find himself becoming a more devout communist (LEE HARVEY OSWALD). Oswald was
even willing to share top secret information with the KGB about the U-2 spy
planes(Scientia Press).Oswald typically had a violent nature, as seen in his
assault of a commanding officer and his attempted suicide, which the KGB could
take advantage of to manipulate and convince Oswald to assassinate the
President (LEE HARVEY OSWALD). While
the KGB would have likely placed a hit on Kennedy, Oswald had chosen to kill
the President of his own free will. In 1962, the KGB sent out a call to all of
its agents to halt their assassinations (Scientia Press). The soviet leader,
Nikita Khruschev, had recently received bad press for assassinations he had
ordered in Germany; therefore further assassinations had been halted to prevent
further suspicion (Scientia Press). Despite KGB orders, Oswald decided to go
ahead with the assassination of President Kennedy anyways.
Another group that had the finger
pointed at them is the Mafia. Kennedy’s younger brother, Robert Kennedy, was
serving as the US Attorney General and was adamant at putting a stop to the
Mafia (Who Killed JFK? 51 Years of
Intriguing Conspiracy Theories). The hit on Kennedy would have likely been
placed in order to put a stop to Robert’s work through emotional trauma.
However, what makes this theory stand out more than the KGB theory is Oswald’s
assassin, Jack Ruby. On November 24, 1963 Jack Ruby shoot and killed Oswald
(Jack Ruby). Ruby, a night club owner and supposed mobster, claimed to kill
Oswald so that Jackie Kennedy would not have to return and suffer through a
testimony in Oswald’s murder trial (1). However, Ruby’s history with the mob
has led people to believe that he killed Oswald in order to silence the man and
keep him from spilling Mafia secrets.
Though unlikely, it has also been
speculated that Jackie Kennedy, the President's widow, had ordered the hit on
her husband (Who Killed
JFK? 51 Years of Intriguing Conspiracy Theories). It is a very popular rumor that President
Kennedy had multiple affairs while in office, most famously with Marilyn Monroe
and a 19-year old White House intern. However, her jealousy would not lead to
the president's death. Before her death, Ms. Kennedy had stated that she had
her own affairs with celebrities such as actor William Holden and Fiat founder
Gianni Agnelli, to get revenge on her husband (Jackie Kennedy Believed LBJ Had Her Husband Killed According
to Tapes). Since she has cheated
on President Kennedy, to extract revenge, it is very unlikely that she would
also hire a hitman to kill her husband.
One of the strangest theories for
Kennedy’s death is that an interest in extra-terrestrial life forms led him to
his death. William Lester, author of “A Celebration of Freedom: JFK and the New
Frontier,” claims that CIA documentation has shown that Kennedy had shown a
strong interest in UFOs about a week before his assassination (The Independent). From this
it could be inferred that the CIA hired Oswald to kill Kennedy to prevent the
young president from learning the truth about UFOs and aliens.
No
one will ever truly know the reality behind Kennedy’s death. While it can be
speculated and theorized, the only person who knew the actual reason behind
Kennedy’s passing is his assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, who sadly took the truth
with him to the grave.
The assassination of the beloved President John F.
Kennedy is doomed to be surrounded in mystery. When Jack Ruby killed Kennedy’s
assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, he threw a blanket of mystery over the case that
was destined to never be removed. To this day, the public has been made to
believe that Kennedy was killed by a lone assassin, Oswald, but the reasons for
his actions are never to be known. The enigma of Oswald’s motive is a problem
that will never truly be solved, however as long as humanity has curiosity we
will attempt to discover the reason behind his actions.
Works Cited
"Chapter 1." National
Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records
Administration. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
"Ivestia." The Kennedy
Assasination. RUSSICA Information Inc. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
"Jack Ruby." The
Kennedy Assasination. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
"Jackie Kennedy Believed LBJ
Had Her Husband Killed According to Tapes." IrishCentral. 8
Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
"LEE HARVEY OSWALD." The
Kennedy Assasination.Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
"Lee Oswald Timeline 1 /
Childhood and Youth."The Kennedy Assasination.Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
"Lee Harvey Oswald: Troubled
Youth." Lee Harvey Oswald: Troubled Youth. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Saad, Lydia. "Americans: Kennedy Assassination
a Conspiracy." Gallup.com. 21 Nov. 2003. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
"Scientia Press." Scientia
Press RSS.Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
"Who Killed JFK? 51 Years of
Intriguing Conspiracy Theories." The Week UK.Web. 16 Nov.
2015.
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