Since Oswald is dead, the Commission is not able to reach any definite conclusions as to whether or not he was “sane” under prevailing legal standards. Under our system of justice no forum could properly make that determination unless Oswald were before it. It certainly could not be made by this Commission which, as has been pointed out above, ascertained the facts surrounding the assassination but did not draw conclusions concerning Oswald’s legal guilt.

Indications of Oswald’s motivation may be obtained from a study of the events, relationships and influences which appear to have been significant in shaping his character and in guiding him. Perhaps the most outstanding conclusion of such a study is that Oswald was profoundly alienated from the world in which he lived. His life was characterized by isolation, frustration, and failure. He had very few, if any, close relationships with other people and he appeared to have great difficulty in finding a meaningful place in the world. He was never satisfied with anything. When he was in the United States he resented the capitalist system which he thought was exploiting him and others like him. He seemed to prefer the Soviet Union and he spoke highly of Cuba.[C7-1] When he was in the Soviet Union, he apparently resented the Communist Party members, who were accorded special privileges and who he thought were betraying communism, and he spoke well of the United States.[C7-2] He accused his wife of preferring others to himself and told her to return to the Soviet Union without him but without a divorce. At the same time he professed his love for her and said that he could not get along without her.[C7-3] Marina Oswald thought that he would not be happy anywhere, “Only on the moon, perhaps.”[C7-4]

While Oswald appeared to most of those who knew him as a meek and harmless person, he sometimes imagined himself as “the Commander”[C7-5] and, apparently seriously, as a political prophet—a man who said that after 20 years he would be prime minister.[C7-6] His wife testified that he compared himself with great leaders of history. Such ideas of grandeur were apparently accompanied by notions of oppression.[C7-7] He had a great hostility toward his environment, whatever it happened to be, which he expressed in striking and sometimes violent acts long before the assassination. There was some quality about him that led him to act with an apparent disregard for possible consequences.[C7-8] He defected to the Soviet Union, shot at General Walker, tried to go to Cuba and even contemplated hijacking an airplane to get there. He assassinated the President, shot Officer Tippit, resisted arrest and tried to kill another policeman in the process.

Oswald apparently started reading about communism when he was about 15. In the Marines, he evidenced a strong conviction as to the correctness of Marxist doctrine, which one associate described as “irrevocable,” but also as “theoretical”; that associate did not think that Oswald was a Communist.[C7-9] Oswald did not always distinguish between Marxism and communism.[C7-10] He stated several times that he was a Communist but apparently never joined any Communist Party.[C7-11]

His attachment to Marxist and Communist doctrine was probably, in some measure, an expression of his hostility to his environment. While there is doubt about how fully Oswald understood the doctrine which he so often espoused, it seems clear that his commitment to Marxism was an important factor influencing his conduct during his adult years. It was an obvious element in his decision to go to Russia and later to Cuba and it probably influenced his decision to shoot at General Walker. It was a factor which contributed to his character and thereby might have influenced his decision to assassinate President Kennedy.

The discussion below will describe the events known to the Commission which most clearly reveals the formation and nature of Oswald’s character. It will attempt to summarize the events of his early life, his experience in New York City and in the Marine Corps, and his interest in Marxism. It will examine his defection to the Soviet Union in 1959, his subsequent return to the United States and his life here after June of 1962. The review of the latter period will evaluate his personal and employment relations, his attempt to kill General Walker, his political activities, and his unsuccessful attempt to go to Cuba in late September of 1963. Various possible motives will be treated in the appropriate context of the discussion outlined above.

The Early Years

Significant in shaping the character of Lee Harvey Oswald was the death of his father, a collector of insurance premiums. This occurred 2 months before Lee was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1939.[C7-12] That death strained the financial fortunes of the remainder of the Oswald family. It had its effect on Lee’s mother, Marguerite, his brother Robert, who had been born in 1934, and his half-brother John Pic, who had been born in 1932 during Marguerite’s previous marriage.[C7-13] It forced Marguerite Oswald to go to work to provide for her family.[C7-14] Reminding her sons that they were orphans and that the family’s financial condition was poor, she placed John Pic and Robert Oswald in an orphans’ home.[C7-15] From the time Marguerite Oswald returned to work until December 26, 1942, when Lee too was sent to the orphans’ home, he was cared for principally by his mother’s sister, by babysitters and by his mother, when she had time for him.[C7-16]

Marguerite Oswald withdrew Lee from the orphans’ home and took him with her to Dallas when he was a little over 4 years old.[C7-17] About 6 months later she also withdrew John Pic and Robert Oswald.[C7-18] Apparently that action was taken in anticipation of her marriage to Edwin A. Ekdahl, which took place in May of 1945.[C7-19] In the fall of that year John Pic and Robert Oswald went to a military academy where they stayed, except for vacations, until the spring of 1948.[C7-20] Lee Oswald remained with his mother and Ekdahl,[C7-21] to whom he became quite attached. John Pic testified that he thought Lee found in Ekdahl the father that he never had.[C7-22] That situation, however, was short-lived, for the relations between Marguerite Oswald and Ekdahl were stormy and they were finally divorced, after several separations and reunions, in the summer of 1948.[C7-23]

After the divorce Mrs. Oswald complained considerably about how unfairly she was treated, dwelling on the fact that she was a widow with three children. John Pic, however, did not think her position was worse than that of many other people.[C7-24] In the fall of 1948 she told John Pic and Robert Oswald that she could not afford to send them back to the military school and she asked Pic to quit school entirely to help support the family, which he did for 4 months in the fall of 1948.[C7-25] In order to supplement their income further she falsely swore that Pic was 17 years old so that he could join the Marine Corps Reserves.[C7-26] Pic did turn over part of his income to his mother, but he returned to high school in January of 1949, where he stayed until 3 days before he was scheduled to graduate, when he left school in order to get into the Coast Guard.[C7-27] Since his mother did not approve of his decision to continue school he accepted the responsibility for that decision himself and signed his mother’s name to all his own excuses and report cards.[C7-28]