Lee Harvey Oswald, long believed to be the assassin of John F. Kennedy, has been shrouded in mystery from the moment JFK was killed, 50 years ago today.
Oswald was a former U.S. Marine who defected to the U.S.S.R. in 1959. He lived in the Soviet Union until June 1962, at which time he returned to the U.S.
He was initially arrested for the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit, who was killed on a Dallas street approximately 45 minutes after Kennedy was shot.
Oswald would later be charged with the infamous assassination of the President of the United States, but denied involvement in either of the killings.
Two days later, while being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail, Oswald was shot and killed by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby.
In full view of television cameras broadcasting live, Oswald died and took whatever he knew about the assassination of JFK with him to his grave.
In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald, despite his unusual background, acted alone in assassinating Kennedy with three shots.
One shot allegedly missed the limo entirely, another struck Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally, and another struck Kennedy in the head.
This conclusion was supported by prior investigations carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and Dallas Police Dept.
The evidence of Oswald’s guilt was, and is, overwhelming.
The evidence for any sort of conspiracy is thin to non-existent, and is almost always predicated on various assumptions that themselves are very sketchy.
However, the loose ends, the coincidences and the bizarre circumstances that led up to a world-changing event have given way to so many theories.
JFK’s death was incredibly traumatic for all who were alive for it. How could a figure of such enormous historical importance be felled by just one man?
The sociological significance of all the theories may be our inability to accept this, even though it’s as incredible as a broad conspiracy would be.
What do you think? Did Lee Harvey Oswald kill JFK?