CHAPTER VI

Investigation of Possible Conspiracy

This chapter sets forth the findings of the Commission as to whether

Lee Harvey Oswald had any accomplices in the planning or execution of

the assassination. Particularly after the slaying of Oswald by Jack

Ruby under the circumstances described in the preceding chapter, rumors

and suspicions developed regarding the existence of a conspiracy to

assassinate President Kennedy. As discussed in appendix XII, many of

these rumors were based on a lack of information as to the nature and

extent of evidence that Oswald alone fired the shots which killed

President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally. Others of the more

widely publicized rumors maintained that Oswald must have received aid

from one or more persons or political groups, ranging from the far

left to the far right of the political spectrum, or from a foreign

government, usually either the Castro regime in Cuba or the Soviet

Union.

The Commission faced substantial difficulties in determining whether

anyone conspired with or assisted the person who committed the

assassination. Prior to his own death Oswald had neither admitted his

own involvement nor implicated any other persons in the assassination

of the President. The problem of determining the existence or

nonexistence of a conspiracy was compounded because of the possibility

of subversive activity by a foreign power. Witnesses and evidence

located in other countries were not subject to subpena, as they would

have been if they had been located in the United States. When evidence

was obtained from a foreign nation, it could not be appraised as

effectively as if it had been derived from a domestic source. The

Commission has given the closest scrutiny to all available evidence

which related or might have related to a foreign country. All such

evidence was tested, whenever possible, against the contingency that it

had been fabricated or slanted to mislead or confuse.

In order to meet its obligations fully, the Commission has investigated

each rumor and allegation linking Oswald to a conspiracy which

has come to its attention, regardless of source. In addition,

the Commission has explored the details of Lee Harvey Oswald’s

activities and life, especially in the months immediately preceding

the assassination, in order to develop any investigative lead

relevant to the issue of conspiracy. All of Oswald’s known writings

or other possessions which might have been used for code or other

espionage purposes have been examined by either the Federal Bureau of

Investigation or the National Security Agency, or both agencies, to

determine whether they were so used.[C6-1]

In setting forth the results of this investigation, the first section

of this chapter reviews the facts related to the assassination itself,

previously considered in more detail in chapter IV. If any conspiracy

did exist, it might have manifested itself at some point during

Oswald’s preparation for the shooting, his execution of the plan, or

his escape from the scene of the assassination. The Commission has

therefore studied the precise means by which the assassination occurred

for traces of evidence that Oswald received any form of assistance in

effecting the killing.

The second section of the chapter deals more broadly with Oswald’s life

since 1959. During the period following his discharge from the Marines

in 1959, Oswald engaged in several activities which demand close

scrutiny to determine whether, through these pursuits, he developed

any associations which were connected with the planning or execution

of the assassination. Oswald professed commitment to Marxist ideology;

he defected to the Soviet Union in 1959; he attempted to expatriate

himself and acquire Soviet citizenship; and he resided in the Soviet

Union until June of 1962. After his return to the United States he

sought to maintain contacts with the Communist Party, Socialist Workers

Party, and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee; he associated with various

Russian-speaking citizens in the Dallas-Fort Worth area--some of whom

had resided in Russia; he traveled to Mexico City where he visited

both the Cuban and Soviet Embassies 7 weeks before the assassination;

and he corresponded with the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. In

view of these activities, the Commission has instituted a thorough

investigation to determine whether the assassination was in some manner

directed or encouraged through contacts made abroad or through Oswald’s

politically oriented activities in this country. The Commission has

also considered whether any connections existed between Oswald and

certain right-wing activity in Dallas which, shortly before the

assassination, led to the publication of hostile criticism of President

Kennedy.

The final section of this chapter considers the possibility that Jack

Ruby was part of a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. The

Commission explored Ruby’s background and his activities in the months

prior to the assassination, and especially his activities in the 2 days

after the assassination, in an effort to determine whether there was

any indication that Ruby was implicated in that event. The Commission

also sought to ascertain the truth or falsity of assertions that Oswald

and Ruby were known to one another prior to the assassination.

In considering the question of foreign involvement, the Commission

has received valuable assistance from the Department of State, the

Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and

other Federal agencies with special competence in the field of foreign

investigation. Some of the information furnished by these agencies is

of a highly confidential nature. Nevertheless, because the disclosure

of all facts relating to the assassination of President Kennedy is of

great public importance, the Commission has included in this report all

information furnished by these agencies which the Commission relied

upon in coming to its conclusions, or which tended to contradict those

conclusions. Confidential sources of information, as contrasted with

the information itself, have, in a relatively few instances, been

withheld.

CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE ASSASSINATION

Earlier chapters have set forth the evidence upon which the Commission

concluded that President Kennedy was fired upon from a single window

in the southeast corner of the sixth floor of the Texas School

Book Depository, and that Lee Harvey Oswald was the person who

fired the shots from this point. As reflected in those chapters, a

certain sequence of events necessarily took place in order for the

assassination to have occurred as it did. The motorcade traveled past

the Texas School Book Depository; Oswald had access to the sixth

floor of the building; Oswald brought the rifle into the building;

the cartons were arranged at the sixth-floor window; and Oswald

escaped from the building before the police had sealed off the exits.

Accordingly, the Commission has investigated these circumstances

to determine whether Oswald received help from any other person in

planning or performing the shooting.

Selection of Motorcade Route

The factors involved in the choice of the motorcade route by the Secret

Service have been discussed in chapter II of this report.[C6-2] It

was there indicated that after passing through a portion of suburban

Dallas, the motorcade was to travel west on Main Street, and then

to the Trade Mart by way of the Stemmons Freeway, the most direct

route from that point. This route would take the motorcade along the

traditional parade route through downtown Dallas; it allowed the

maximum number of persons to observe the President; and it enabled the

motorcade to cover the distance from Love Field to the Trade Mart in

the 45 minutes allocated by members of the White House staff planning

the President’s schedule in Dallas. No member of the Secret Service,

the Dallas Police Department, or the local host committee who was

consulted felt that any other route would be preferable.

To reach Stemmons Freeway from Main Street, it was determined that

the motorcade would turn right from Main Street onto Houston Street

for one block and then left onto Elm Street, proceeding through the

Triple Underpass to the Stemmons Freeway access road. This route took

the motorcade past the Texas School Book Depository Building on the

northwest corner of Elm and Houston Streets. Because of the sharp turn

at this corner, the motorcade also reduced its speed. The motorcade

would have passed approximately 90 yards further from the Depository

Building and made no turn near the building if it had attempted to

reach the Stemmons Freeway directly from Main Street. The road plan in

Dealey Plaza, however, is designed to prevent such a turn. In order to

keep motorists from reaching the freeway from Main Street, a concrete

barrier has been erected between Main and Elm Streets extending beyond

the freeway entrance. (See Commission Exhibits Nos. 2114-2116, pp.

35-37.) Hence, it would have been necessary for the motorcade either

to have driven over this barrier or to have made a sharp =S=-turn

in order to have entered the freeway from Main Street. Selection

of the motorcade route was thus entirely appropriate and based on

such legitimate considerations as the origin and destination of the

motorcade, the desired opportunity for the President to greet large

numbers of people, and normal patterns of traffic.

Oswald’s Presence in the Depository Building

Oswald’s presence as an employee in the Texas School Book Depository

Building was the result of a series of happenings unrelated to the

President’s trip to Dallas. He obtained the Depository job after

almost 2 weeks of job hunting which began immediately upon his arrival

in Dallas from Mexico on October 3, 1963.[C6-3] At that time he was

in poor financial circumstances, having arrived from Mexico City

with approximately $133 or less,[C6-4] and with his unemployment

compensation benefits due to expire on October 8.[C6-5] Oswald and

his wife were expecting the birth of their second child, who was

in fact born on October 20.[C6-6] In attempting to procure work,

Oswald utilized normal channels, including the Texas Employment

Commission.[C6-7]

On October 4, 1963, Oswald applied for a position with Padgett Printing

Corp., which was located at 1313 Industrial Boulevard, several blocks

from President Kennedy’s parade route.[C6-8] Oswald favorably impressed

the plant superintendent who checked his prior job references, one

of which was Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall, the firm where Oswald had done

photography work from October 1962 to April 1963.[C6-9] The following

report was written by Padgett’s plant superintendent on the reverse

side of Oswald’s job application: “Bob Stovall does not recommend this

man. He was released because of his record as a troublemaker.--Has

Communistic tendencies.”[C6-10] Oswald received word that Padgett

Printing had hired someone else.[C6-11]

Oswald’s employment with the Texas School Book Depository came about

through a chance conversation on Monday, October 14, between Ruth

Paine, with whom his family was staying while Oswald was living in

a roominghouse in Dallas, and two of Mrs. Paine’s neighbors.[C6-12]

During a morning conversation over coffee, at which Marina Oswald was

present, Oswald’s search for employment was mentioned. The neighbors

suggested several places where Oswald might apply for work. One of

the neighbors present, Linnie Mae Randle, said that her brother had

recently been hired as a schoolbook order filler at the Texas School

Book Depository and she thought the Depository might need additional

help. She testified, “and of course you know just being neighborly and

everything, we felt sorry for Marina because her baby was due right

away as we understood it, and he didn’t have any work * * *.”[C6-13]

When Marina Oswald and Mrs. Paine returned home, Mrs. Paine promptly

telephoned the Texas School Book Depository and spoke to Superintendent

Roy Truly, whom she did not know.[C6-14] Truly agreed to interview

Oswald, who at the time was in Dallas seeking employment. When Oswald

called that evening, Mrs. Paine told him of her conversation with

Truly.[C6-15] The next morning Oswald went to the Texas School Book

Depository where he was interviewed and hired for the position of order

filler.[C6-16]

On the same date, the Texas Employment Commission attempted to refer

Oswald to an airline company which was looking for baggage and cargo

handlers at a salary which was $100 per month higher than that offered

by the Depository Co.[C6-17] The Employment Commission tried to advise

Oswald of this job at 10:30 a.m. on October 16, 1963. Since the records

of the Commission indicate that Oswald was then working,[C6-18] it

seems clear that Oswald was hired by the Depository Co. before the

higher paying job was available. It is unlikely that he ever learned of

this second opportunity.

Although publicity concerning the President’s trip to Dallas appeared

in Dallas newspapers as early as September 13, 1963, the planning of

the motorcade route was not started until after November 4, when the

Secret Service was first notified of the trip.[C6-19] A final decision

as to the route could not have been reached until November 14, when

the Trade Mart was selected as the luncheon site.[C6-20] Although

news reports on November 15 and November 16 might have led a person

to believe that the motorcade would pass the Depository Building, the

route was not finally selected until November 18; it was announced

in the press on November 19, only 3 days before the President’s

arrival.[C6-21] Based on the circumstances of Oswald’s employment and

the planning of the motorcade route, the Commission has concluded that

Oswald’s employment in the Depository was wholly unrelated to the

President’s trip to Dallas.

Bringing Rifle Into Building

On the basis of the evidence developed in chapter IV the Commission

concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald carried the rifle used in the

assassination into the Depository Building on Friday, November 22,

1963, in the handmade brown paper bag found near the window from

which the shots were fired.[C6-22] The arrangement by which Buell

Wesley Frazier drove Oswald between Irving and Dallas was an innocent

one, having commenced when Oswald first started working at the

Depository.[C6-23] As noted above, it was Frazier’s sister, Linnie May

Randle, who had suggested to Ruth Paine that Oswald might be able to

find employment at the Depository. When Oswald started working there,

Frazier, who lived only a half block away from the Paines, offered to

drive Oswald to and from Irving whenever he was going to stay at the

Paines’ home.[C6-24] Although Oswald’s request for a ride to Irving on

Thursday, November 21, was a departure from the normal weekend pattern,

Oswald gave the explanation that he needed to obtain curtain rods for

an “apartment” in Dallas.[C6-25] This served also to explain the long

package which he took with him from Irving to the Depository Building

the next morning.[C6-26] Further, there is no evidence that Ruth Paine

or Marina Oswald had reason to believe that Oswald’s return was in

any way related to an attempt to shoot the President the next day.

Although his visit was a surprise, since he arrived on Thursday instead

of Friday for his usual weekend visit, both women testified that they

thought he had come to patch up a quarrel which he had with his wife a

few days earlier when she learned that he was living in Dallas under an

assumed name.[C6-27]

It has also been shown that Oswald had the opportunity to work in

the Paines’ garage on Thursday evening and prepare the rifle by

disassembling it, if it were not already disassembled, and packing

it in the brown bag.[C6-28] It has been demonstrated that the paper

and tape from which the bag was made came from the shipping room of

the Texas School Book Depository and that Oswald had access to this

material.[C6-29] Neither Ruth Paine nor Marina Oswald saw the paper

bag or the paper and tape out of which the bag was constructed.[C6-30]

If Oswald actually prepared the bag in the Depository out of materials

available to him there, he could have concealed it in the jacket or

shirt which he was wearing.[C6-31] The Commission has found no evidence

which suggests that Oswald required or in fact received any assistance

in bringing the rifle into the building other than the innocent

assistance provided by Frazier in the form of the ride to work.

Accomplices at the Scene of the Assassination

The arrangement of boxes at the window from which the shots were fired

was studied to determine whether Oswald required any assistance in

moving the cartons to the window. Cartons had been stacked on the

floor, a few feet behind the window, thus shielding Oswald from the

view of anyone on the sixth floor who did not attempt to go behind

them.[C6-32] (See Commission Exhibit No. 723, p. 80.) Most of those

cartons had been moved there by other employees to clear an area for

laying a new flooring on the west end of the sixth floor.[C6-33]

Superintendent Roy Truly testified that the floor-laying crew moved

a long row of books parallel to the windows on the south side

and had “quite a lot of cartons” in the southeast corner of the

building.[C6-34] He said that there was not any particular pattern that

the men used in putting them there. “They were just piled up there more

or less at that time.”[C6-35] According to Truly, “several cartons”

which had been in the extreme southeast corner had been placed on

top of the ones that had been piled in front of the southeast corner

window.[C6-36]

The arrangement of the three boxes in the window and the one on which

the assassin may have sat has been described previously.[C6-37] Two

of these four boxes, weighing approximately 55 pounds each, had been

moved by the floor-laying crew from the west side of the floor to the

area near the southwest corner.[C6-38] The carton on which the assassin

may have sat might not even have been moved by the assassin at all.

A photograph of the scene depicts this carton on the floor alongside

other similar cartons. (See Commission Exhibit No. 1301, p. 138.)

Oswald’s right palmprint on this carton may have been placed there as

he was sitting on the carton rather than while carrying it. In any

event both of these 55-pound cartons could have been carried by one

man. The remaining two cartons contained light block-like reading aids

called “Rolling Readers” weighing only about 8 pounds each.[C6-39]

Although they had been moved approximately 40 feet[C6-40] from their

normal locations at the southeast corner window, it would appear that

one man could have done this in a matter of seconds.

In considering the possibility of accomplices at the window, the

Commission evaluated the significance of the presence of fingerprints

other than Oswald’s on the four cartons found in and near the window.

Three of Oswald’s prints were developed on two of the cartons.[C6-41]

In addition a total of 25 identifiable prints were found on the 4

cartons.[C6-42] Moreover, prints were developed which were considered

as not identifiable, i.e., the quality of the print was too fragmentary

to be of value for identification purposes.[C6-43]

As has been explained in chapter IV, the Commission determined that

none of the warehouse employees who might have customarily handled

these cartons left prints which could be identified.[C6-44] This was

considered of some probative value in determining whether Oswald moved

the cartons to the window. All but 1 of the 25 definitely identifiable

prints were the prints of 2 persons--an FBI employee and a member of

the Dallas Police Department who had handled the cartons during the

course of the investigation.[C6-45] One identifiable palmprint was not

identified.[C6-46]

The presence on these cartons of unidentified prints, whether or

not identifiable, does not appear to be unusual since these cartons

contained commercial products which had been handled by many people

throughout the normal course of manufacturing, warehousing, and

shipping. Unlike other items of evidence such as, for example, a

ransom note in a kidnaping, these cartons could contain the prints of

many people having nothing to do with the assassination. Moreover,

the FBI does not maintain a filing system for palmprints because,

according to the supervisor of the Bureau’s latent fingerprint section,

Sebastian F. Latona, the problems of classification make such a system

impracticable.[C6-47] Finally, in considering the significance of the

unidentified prints, the Commission gave weight to the opinion of

Latona to the effect that people could handle these cartons without

leaving prints which were capable of being developed.[C6-48]

Though the fingerprints other than Oswald’s on the boxes thus provide

no indication of the presence of an accomplice at the window, two

Depository employees are known to have been present briefly on the

sixth floor during the period between 11:45 a.m., when the floor-laying

crew stopped for lunch, and the moment of the assassination. One of

these was Charles Givens, a member of the floor-laying crew, who went

down on the elevator with the others and then, returned to the sixth

floor to get his jacket and cigarettes.[C6-49] He saw Oswald walking

away from the southeast corner, but saw no one else on the sixth floor

at that time. He then took one of the elevators back to the first floor

at approximately 11:55 a.m.[C6-50]

Bonnie Ray Williams, who was also working with the floor-laying crew,

returned to the sixth floor at about noon to eat his lunch and watch

the motorcade.[C6-51] He looked out on Elm Street from a position

in the area of the third or fourth set of windows from the east

wall.[C6-52] At this point he was approximately 20-30 feet away from

the southeast corner window. He remained for about “5, 10, maybe 12

minutes” eating his lunch which consisted of chicken and a bottle of

soda pop.[C6-53] Williams saw no one on the sixth floor during this

period, although the stacks of books prevented his seeing the east side

of the building.[C6-54] After finishing his lunch Williams took the

elevator down because no one had joined him on the sixth floor to watch

the motorcade.[C6-55] He stopped at the fifth floor where he joined

Harold Norman and James Jarman, Jr., who watched the motorcade with

him from a position on the fifth floor directly below the point from

which the shots were fired. Williams left the remains of his lunch,

including chicken bones and a bottle of soda, near the window where he

was eating.[C6-56]

Several witnesses outside the building claim to have seen a person in

the southeast corner window of the sixth floor. As has already been

indicated, some were able to offer better descriptions than others and

one, Howard L. Brennan, made a positive identification of Oswald as

being the person at the window.[C6-57] Although there are differences

among these witnesses with regard to their ability to describe the

person they saw, none of these witnesses testified to seeing more than

one person in the window.[C6-58]

One witness, however, offered testimony which, if accurate, would

create the possibility of an accomplice at the window at the time of

the assassination. The witness was 18-year-old Arnold Rowland, who

testified in great detail concerning his activities and observations

on November 22, 1963. He and his wife were awaiting the motorcade,

standing on the east side of Houston Street between Maine and

Elm,[C6-59] when he looked toward the Depository Building and noticed

a man holding a rifle standing back from the southwest corner window

on the sixth floor. The man was rather slender in proportion to his

size and of light complexion with dark hair.[C6-60] Rowland said that

his wife was looking elsewhere at the time and when they looked back

to the window the man “was gone from our vision.”[C6-61] They thought

the man was most likely someone protecting the President. After the

assassination Rowland signed an affidavit in which he told of seeing

this man, although Rowland was unable to identify him.[C6-62]

When Rowland testified before the Commission on March 10, 1964, he

claimed for the first time to have seen another person on the sixth

floor. Rowland said that before he had noticed the man with the rifle

on the southwest corner of the sixth floor he had seen an elderly Negro

man “hanging out that window” on the southeast corner of the sixth

floor.[C6-63] Rowland described the Negro man as “very thin, an elderly

gentleman, bald or practically bald, very thin hair if he wasn’t

bald,” between 50 and 60 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10

inches tall, with fairly dark complexion.[C6-64] Rowland claimed that

he looked back two or three times and noticed that the man remained

until 5 or 6 minutes prior to the time the motorcade came. Rowland did

not see him thereafter. He made no mention of the Negro man in his

affidavit.[C6-65] And, while he said he told FBI agents about the man

in the southeast corner window when interviewed on the Saturday and

Sunday following the assassination,[C6-66] no such statement appears in

any FBI report.[C6-67]

Mrs. Rowland testified that her husband never told her about seeing

any other man on the sixth floor except the man with the rifle in

the southwest corner that he first saw. She also was present during

Rowland’s interview with representatives of the FBI[C6-68] and said

she did not hear him make such a statement,[C6-69] although she also

said that she did not hear everything that was discussed.[C6-70]

Mrs. Rowland testified that after her husband first talked about

seeing a man with the rifle, she looked back more than once at the

Depository Building and saw no person looking out of any window on

the sixth floor.[C6-71] She also said that “At times my husband is

prone to exaggerate.”[C6-72] Because of inconsistencies in Rowland’s

testimony and the importance of his testimony to the question of a

possible accomplice, the Commission requested the FBI to conduct an

inquiry into the truth of a broad range of statements made by Rowland

to the Commission. The investigation showed that numerous statements

by Rowland concerning matters about which he would not normally be

expected to be mistaken--such as subjects he studied in school, grades

he received, whether or not he had graduated from high school, and

whether or not he had been admitted to college--were false.[C6-73]

The only possible corroboration for Rowland’s story is found in the

testimony of Roger D. Craig, a deputy sheriff of Dallas County, whose

testimony on other aspects of the case has been discussed in chapter

IV. Craig claimed that about 10 minutes after the assassination he

talked to a young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Rowland,

* * * and the boy said he saw two men on the sixth floor of

the Book Depository Building over there; one of them had a

rifle with a telescopic sight on it--but he thought they were

Secret Service agents or guards and didn’t report it. This

was about--oh, he said, 15 minutes before the motorcade ever

arrived.[C6-74]

According to Craig, Rowland said that he looked back a few minutes

later and “the other man was gone, and there was just one man--the man

with the rifle.”[C6-75] Craig further testified that Rowland told him

that when he first saw the two men, they were walking back and forth in

front of the window for several minutes. They were both white men and

one of them had a rifle with a scope on it.[C6-76] This report by Craig

is contradicted by the testimony of both the Rowlands, and by every

recorded interview with them conducted by law enforcement agencies

after the assassination.

As part of its investigation of Rowland’s allegation and of the

general question of accomplices at the scene of the assassination,

the Commission undertook an investigation of every person employed

in the Texas School Book Depository Building. Two employees might

possibly fit the general description of an elderly Negro man, bald or

balding. These two men were on the first floor of the building during

the period before and during the assassination.[C6-77] Moreover, all

of the employees were asked whether they saw any strangers in the

building on the morning of November 22.[C6-78] Only one employee saw

a stranger whom he described as a feeble individual who had to be

helped up the front steps of the building. He went to a public restroom

and left the building 5 minutes later, about 40 minutes before the

assassination.[C6-79]

Rowland’s failure to report his story despite several interviews

until his appearance before the Commission, the lack of probative

corroboration, and the serious doubts about his credibility, have led

the Commission to reject the testimony that Rowland saw an elderly

balding Negro man in the southeast corner window of the sixth floor of

the Depository Building several minutes before the assassination.

Oswald’s Escape

The Commission has analyzed Oswald’s movements between the time of

the assassination and the shooting of Patrolman Tippit to determine

whether there is any evidence that Oswald had assistance in his flight

from the building. Oswald’s activities during this period have been

traced through the testimony of seven witnesses and discussed in detail

in chapter IV.[C6-80] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1119-A, p. 158

and Commission Exhibit No. 1118, p. 150.) Patrolman M. L. Baker and

Depository superintendent Roy Truly saw him within 2 minutes of the

assassination on the second floor of the building. Mrs. R. A. Reid saw

him less than 1 minute later walking through the second-floor offices

toward the front of the building. A busdriver, Cecil J. McWatters,

and Oswald’s former landlady, Mrs. Mary Bledsoe, saw him board a bus

at approximately 12:40 p.m., and get off about 4 minutes later. A

cabdriver, William W. Whaley, drove Oswald from a cabstand located a

few blocks from where Oswald left the bus to a point in Oak Cliff about

four blocks from his roominghouse; and Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper

at Oswald’s roominghouse, saw him enter the roominghouse at about 1

p.m. and leave a few minutes later. When seen by these seven witnesses

Oswald was always alone.

Particular attention has been directed to Oswald’s departure from

the Depository Building in order to determine whether he could have

left the building within approximately 3 minutes of the assassination

without assistance. As discussed more fully in chapter IV, the building

was probably first sealed off no earlier than 12:37 by Inspector

Herbert Sawyer.[C6-81] The shortest estimate of the time taken to seal

off the building comes from Police Officer W. E. Barnett, one of the

officers assigned to the corner of Elm and Houston Streets for the

Presidential motorcade, who estimated that approximately 3 minutes

elapsed between the time he heard the last of the shots and the time he

started guarding the front door.[C6-82] According to Barnett, “there

were people going in and out” during this period.[C6-83] The evidence

discussed in chapter IV shows that 3 minutes would have been sufficient

time for Oswald to have descended from the sixth floor and left the

building without assistance.[C6-84]

One witness, James R. Worrell, Jr., claims to have seen a man running

from the rear of the building shortly after the assassination, but in

testimony before the Commission he stated that he could not see his

face.[C6-85] Two other witnesses who watched the rear of the building

during the first 5 minutes after the shooting saw no one leave.[C6-86]

The claim of Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig that he saw Oswald leave the

Depository Building approximately 15 minutes after the assassination

has been discussed in chapter IV.[C6-87] Although Craig may have seen

someone enter a station wagon 15 minutes after the assassination, the

person he saw was not Lee Harvey Oswald, who was far removed from the

building at that time.

The possibility that accomplices aided Oswald in connection with

his escape was suggested by the testimony of Earlene Roberts, the

housekeeper at the 1026 North Beckley roominghouse.[C6-88] She

testified that at about 1 p.m. on November 22, after Oswald had

returned to the roominghouse, a Dallas police car drove slowly by the

front of the 1026 North Beckley premises and stopped momentarily; she

said she heard its horn several times.[C6-89] Mrs. Roberts stated that

the occupants of the car were not known to her even though she had

worked for some policemen who would occasionally come by.[C6-90] She

said the policeman she knew drove car No. 170 and that this was not the

number on the police car that honked on November 22. She testified that

she first thought the car she saw was No. 106 and then said that it was

No. 107.[C6-91] In an FBI interview she had stated that she looked out

the front window and saw police car No. 207.[C6-92] Investigation has

not produced any evidence that there was a police vehicle in the area

of 1026 North Beckley at about 1 p.m. on November 22.[C6-93] Squad car

207 was at the Texas School Book Depository Building, as was car 106.

Squad cars 170 and 107 were sold in April 1963 and their numbers were

not reassigned until February 1964.[C6-94]

Whatever may be the accuracy of Mrs. Roberts’ recollection concerning

the police car, it is apparent from Mrs. Roberts’ further testimony

that she did not see Oswald enter a car when he hurriedly left the

house. She has stated that when she last saw Oswald, shortly after

1 p.m., he was standing at a bus stop in front of the house.[C6-95]

Oswald was next seen less than 1 mile away, at the point where he shot

Patrolman Tippit. Oswald could have easily reached this point on foot

by about 1:16 p.m., when Tippit was shot. Finally, investigation has

produced no evidence that Oswald had prearranged plans for a means to

leave Dallas after the assassination or that any other person was to

have provided him assistance in hiding or in departing the city.

BACKGROUND OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD

Finding no evidence in the circumstances immediately surrounding

the assassination that any person other than Lee Harvey Oswald was

involved in the killing of the President, the Commission directed an

intensive investigation into his life for the purpose, among others,

of detecting any possible traces that at some point he became involved

in a conspiracy culminating in the deed of November 22, 1963. As a

product of this investigation, the Commission has compiled a detailed

chronological biography of Oswald which is set forth as appendix XIII.

Study of the period from Oswald’s birth in 1939 to his military service

from 1956 to 1959 has revealed no evidence that he was associated with

any type of sinister or subversive organization during that period.

Though his personality and political views took shape during these

early years, the events of that period are significant primarily to an

understanding of the personality of Lee Harvey Oswald and are discussed

in that connection in chapter VII. Beginning with his preparation for

defection to the Soviet Union in 1959, however, Oswald engaged in

several activities which required close scrutiny by the Commission.

In an appraisal of Oswald’s actions since 1959 for the purpose of

determining whether he was part of a conspiracy, several aspects of

his background and character must be borne in mind. He was young,

inexperienced, and had only a limited education. As will be more fully

discussed in chapter VII, he was unable to establish relationships

with others and had a resentment for authority and any discipline

flowing from it. While he demonstrated the ability to act secretively

and alone, without regard to the consequences to himself, as in his

defection to the Soviet Union, he does not appear to have been the

kind of person whom one would normally expect to be selected as a

conspirator.

Residence in the Soviet Union

Lee Harvey Oswald was openly committed to Marxist ideology, he defected

to the Soviet Union in 1959, and resided there until June of 1962,

eventually returning to the United States with a Russian wife. In

order to evaluate rumors and speculations[C6-96] that Oswald may have

been an agent of the Soviet Union, the Commission investigated the

facts surrounding Oswald’s stay in Russia. The Commission was thus

fulfilling its obligation to probe all facts of possible relevance to

the assassination, and does not suggest by this investigation that the

rulers of the Soviet Union believed that their political interests

would be advanced by the assassination of President Kennedy. On this

question, the Secretary of State testified before the Commission on

June 10, 1964 as follows:

I have seen no evidence that would indicate to me that the

Soviet Union considered that it had an interest in the removal

of President Kennedy or that it was in any way involved in the

removal of President Kennedy.

* * * * *

I have not seen or heard of any scrap of evidence indicating

that the Soviet Union had any desire to eliminate President

Kennedy nor in any way participated in any such event.

Now, standing back and trying to look at that question

objectively despite the ideological differences between our two

great systems, I can’t see how it could be to the interest of

the Soviet Union to make any such effort.

* * * * *

I do think that the Soviet Union, again objectively considered,

has an interest in the correctness of state relations. This

would be particularly true among the great powers, with which

the major interests of the Soviet Union are directly engaged.

* * * * *

I think that although there are grave differences between

the Communist world and the free world, between the Soviet

Union and other major powers, that even from their point of

view there needs to be some shape and form to international

relations, that it is not in their interest to have this world

structure dissolve into complete anarchy, that great states

and particularly nuclear powers have to be in a position to

deal with each other, to transact business with each other, to

try to meet problems with each other, and that requires the

maintenance of correct relations and access to the leadership

on all sides.

I think also that although there had been grave differences

between Chairman Khrushchev and President Kennedy, I think

there were evidences of a certain mutual respect that had

developed over some of the experiences, both good and bad,

through which these two men had lived.

I think both of them were aware of the fact that any Chairman

of the Soviet Union, and any President of the United States,

necessarily bear somewhat special responsibility for the

general peace of the world. Indeed without exaggeration, one

could almost say the existence of the northern hemisphere in

this nuclear age.

* * * * *

So that it would be an act of rashness and madness for Soviet

leaders to undertake such an action as an active policy.

Because everything would have been put in jeopardy or at stake

in connection with such an act.

It has not been our impression that madness has characterized

the actions of the Soviet leadership in recent years.[C6-97]

The Commission accepts Secretary Rusk’s estimate as reasonable

and objective, but recognizes that a precise assessment of Soviet

intentions or interests is most difficult. The Commission has thus

examined all the known facts regarding Oswald’s defection, residence

in the Soviet Union, and return to the United States. At each step the

Commission sought to determine whether there was any evidence which

supported a conclusion that Soviet authorities may have directly or

indirectly influenced Oswald’s actions in assassinating the President.

_Oswald’s entry into the Soviet Union._--Although the evidence is

inconclusive as to the factors which motivated Oswald to go to the

Soviet Union, there is no indication that he was prompted to do so by

agents of that country. He may have begun to study the Russian language

when he was stationed in Japan, which was intermittently from August

1957 to November 1958.[C6-98] After he arrived in Moscow in October

1959 he told several persons that he had been planning his defection

for 2 years, which suggests that the decision was made while he was

in the Far East.[C6-99] George De Mohrenschildt, who met Oswald after

his return from the Soviet Union, testified that Oswald once told him

much the same thing: “I met some Communists in Japan and they got me

excited and interested, and that was one of my inducements in going

to Soviet Russia, to see what goes on there.”[C6-100] This evidence,

however, is somewhat at variance with Oswald’s statements made to two

American newspaper reporters in Moscow shortly after his defection

in 1959,[C6-101] and to other people in the United States after his

return in 1962.[C6-102] Though his remarks were not inconsistent as to

the time he decided to defect, to these people he insisted that before

going to the Soviet Union he had “never met a Communist” and that the

intent to defect derived entirely from his own reading and thinking.

He said much the same to his brother in a letter he wrote to him from

Russia explaining why he had defected.[C6-103] Which of Oswald’s

statements was the more accurate remains unknown.

There is no evidence that Oswald received outside assistance in

financing his trip to the Soviet Union. After he arrived in Moscow,

Oswald told a newspaper correspondent, Aline Mosby, that he had saved

$1,500 out of his Marine Corps salary to finance his defection,[C6-104]

although the news story based upon Oswald’s interview with Aline Mosby

unaccountably listed the sum of $1,600 instead of $1,500.[C6-105]

After this article had appeared, Marguerite Oswald also related the

$1,600 figure to an FBI agent.[C6-106] Either amount could have been

accumulated out of Oswald’s earnings in the Marine Corps; during

his 2 years and 10 months of service he received $3,452.20, after

all taxes, allotments and other deductions.[C6-107] Moreover Oswald

could certainly have made the entire trip on less than $1,000. The

ticket on the ship he took from New Orleans to Le Havre, France, cost

$220.75;[C6-108] it cost him about $20 to reach London from Le Havre;

his plane fare from London to Helsinki, where he received his visa,

cost him $111.90; he probably purchased Russian “tourist vouchers”

normally good for room and board for 10 days for $300; his train fare

from Helsinki to Moscow was about $44; in Moscow he paid only $1.50 to

$3 a night for his room and very little for his meals after his tourist

vouchers ran out;[C6-109] and apparently he did not pay his hotel bill

at all after November 30, 1959.[C6-110] Oswald’s known living habits

indicate that he could be extraordinarily frugal when he had reason to

be, and it seems clear that he did have a strong desire to go to the

Soviet Union.

While in Atsugi, Japan, Oswald studied the Russian language, perhaps

with some help from an officer in his unit who was interested in

Russian and used to “talk about it” with Oswald occasionally.[C6-111]

He studied by himself a great deal in late 1958 and early 1959 after

he was transferred from Japan to California.[C6-112] He took an Army

aptitude test in Russian in February 1959 and rated “Poor.”[C6-113]

When he reached the Soviet Union in October of the same year he could

barely speak the language.[C6-114] During the period in Moscow while

he was awaiting decision on his application for citizenship, his diary

records that he practiced Russian 8 hours a day.[C6-115] After he was

sent to Minsk in early January 1960 he took lessons from an interpreter

assigned to him for that purpose by the Soviet Government.[C6-116]

Marina Oswald said that by the time she met him in March 1961 he spoke

the language well enough so that at first she thought he was from one

of the Baltic areas of her country, because of his accent. She stated

that his only defects were that his grammar was sometimes incorrect and

that his writing was never good.[C6-117]

Thus, the limited evidence provides no indication that Oswald was

recruited by Soviet agents in the Far East with a view toward defection

and eventual return to the United States. Moreover, on its face such a

possibility is most unlikely. If Soviet agents had communicated with

Oswald while he was in the Marine Corps, one of the least probable

instructions they would have given him would have been to defect. If

Oswald had remained a Marine radar specialist, he might at some point

have reached a position of value as a secret agent. However, his

defection and the disloyal statements he made publicly in connection

with it eliminated the possibility that he would ever gain access to

confidential information or programs of the United States. The very

fact that he defected, therefore, is itself persuasive evidence that he

was not recruited as an agent prior to his defection.

The Commission has investigated the circumstances under which Oswald

obtained a visa to enter the Soviet Union for possible evidence that

he received preferential treatment in being permitted to enter the

country. Oswald left New Orleans, La., for Europe on September 20,

1959,[C6-118] having been released from active duty in the Marine Corps

on September 11, 1959.[C6-119] He went directly to Helsinki, Finland,

by way of Le Havre, France, and London, England, arriving at Helsinki

on Saturday, October 10, 1959.[C6-120] Oswald probably arrived in

Helsinki too late in the evening to have applied for a visa at the

Soviet Union consulate that night.[C6-121] In light of the rapidity

with which he made connections throughout his entire trip,[C6-122] he

probably applied for a visa early on Monday, October 12. On October 14,

he was issued Soviet Tourist Visa No. 403339, good for one 6-day visit

in the U.S.S.R.[C6-123] He left Helsinki on a train destined for Moscow

on October 15.[C6-124]

The Department of State has advised the Commission that it has some

information that in 1959 it usually took an American tourist in

Helsinki 1 to 2 weeks to obtain a visa,[C6-125] and that it has other

information that the normal waiting period during the past 5 years has

been a week or less.[C6-126] According to the Department’s information,

the waiting period has always varied frequently and widely, with one

confirmed instance in 1963 of a visa routinely issued in less than

24 hours.[C6-127] The Central Intelligence Agency has indicated that

visas during the 1964 tourist season were being granted in about 5 to 7

days.[C6-128]

This information from the Department of State and the Central

Intelligence Agency thus suggests that Oswald’s wait for a visa may

have been shorter than usual but not beyond the range of possible

variation. The prompt issuance of Oswald’s visa may have been merely

the result of normal procedures, due in part to the fact that the

summer rush had ended. It might also mean that Oswald was unusually

urgent in his demands that his visa be issued promptly. Oswald himself

told officials at the American Embassy in Moscow on October 31, when

he appeared to renounce his citizenship, that he had said nothing to

the Soviets about defecting until he arrived in Moscow.[C6-129] In

any event, the Commission has found nothing in the circumstances of

Oswald’s entry into the Soviet Union which indicates that he was at the

time an agent of the U.S.S.R.

_Defection and admission to residence._--Two months and 22 days elapsed

from Oswald’s arrival in Moscow until he left that city to take up

residence in Minsk. The Commission has considered the possibility that

Oswald was accepted for residence in the Soviet Union and sent to Minsk

unusually soon after he arrived, either because he had been expected

or because during his first weeks in Moscow he developed an undercover

relationship with the Soviet Government. In doing so, the Commission

has attempted to reconstruct the events of those months, though it is,

of course, impossible to account for Oswald’s activities on every day

of that period.

Oswald’s “Historic Diary,”[C6-130] which commences on October 16,

1959, the date Oswald arrived in Moscow, and other writings he later

prepared,[C6-131] have provided the Commission with one source of

information about Oswald’s activities throughout his stay in the

Soviet Union. Even assuming the diary was intended to be a truthful

record, it is not an accurate guide to the details of Oswald’s

activities. Oswald seems not to have been concerned about the accuracy

of dates and names,[C6-132] and apparently made many of his entries

subsequent to the date the events occurred. Marina Oswald testified

that she believed that her husband did not begin to keep the diary

until he reached Minsk, 3 months after his arrival in Russia,[C6-133]

and scraps of paper found in Oswald’s possession, containing much the

same information as appears in his diary,[C6-134] suggest that he

transcribed the entries into the diary at a later time. The substance

of Oswald’s writings has been carefully examined for consistency

with all other related information available to the Commission. In

addition, the writings have been checked for handwriting,[C6-135] and

for consistency of style, grammar, and spelling with earlier and later

writings which are known to be his.[C6-136] No indication has been

found that entries were written or coached by other persons.[C6-137]

However, the most reliable information concerning the period Oswald

spent in Moscow in the latter part of 1962 comes from the records

of the American Embassy in Moscow,[C6-138] the testimony of Embassy

officials,[C6-139] and the notes of two American newspaper reporters,

Aline Mosby [C6-140] and Priscilla Johnson,[C6-141] who interviewed

Oswald during this period. Oswald’s correspondence with his brother and

mother has also been relied upon for some relatively minor information.

The findings upon which the Commission based its conclusion concerning

Soviet involvements in the assassination were supported by evidence

other than material provided by the Soviet Union[C6-142] or Oswald’s

writings. The Central Intelligence Agency has also contributed data

on the normal practices and procedures of the Soviet authorities in

handling American defectors.

The “Historic Diary” indicates that on October 16, 1959, the day Oswald

arrived in Moscow, he told his Intourist guide, Rima Shirokova, that

he wished to renounce his American citizenship and become a Soviet

citizen. The same day, the guide reportedly helped Oswald prepare a

letter to the Soviet authorities requesting citizenship.[C6-143] The

diary indicates, however, that on October 21 he was informed that

his visa had expired and that he would be required to leave Moscow

within 2 hours.[C6-144] During the preceding days, according to the

diary, he had been interviewed once and perhaps twice by Soviet

officials.[C6-145] During this period the KGB,[B] the agency with

primary responsibility for examining defectors arriving in Russia,

undoubtedly investigated Oswald as fully as possible. In 1959,

virtually all Intourist guides were KGB informants, and there is no

reason to believe that this was not true of Oswald’s guide.[C6-146]

[B] The Committee for State Security, best known by its

Russian initials, “KGB,” is a lineal descendant of the

revolutionary ChEKA and has passed through numerous

changes of name since 1917 with little change of function.

Presently the KGB handles all Soviet counterintelligence

operations and is the instrument for various types of

subversive activities. It is responsible for the internal

security of the Soviet state and the safety of its leaders.

In addition it shares responsibility for foreign espionage

activities with the intelligence component of the Ministry

of Defense, the “GRU.” The KGB would have the primary

responsibility for keeping track of a defector such as

Oswald.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs or “MVD” was for many years

the designation of the organization responsible for civil

law enforcement and administration of prisons and forced

labor camps in the Soviet Union. During a part of its

history it also directed vast economic combines. In January

1960, the central or all-union MVD was abolished and its

powers transferred to the MVD’s of the several Soviet

republics. A further change took place in the summer of

1962, when the republic MVD’s were renamed Ministries for

the Preservation of Public Order and Safety. In the past

few years the republic MVD’s have been gradually divesting

themselves of their economic functions. When Lee Harvey

Oswald was in the Soviet Union though, the MVD still

carried on substantial economic activities. For example,

inmates of the MVD-administered “corrective labor colonies”

engaged in brickmaking, heavy construction work, and

lumbering.

In the Commission’s report, the term KGB will be used, as

above, to describe the principal Soviet counterintelligence

and espionage service. Oswald often inaccurately referred

to the “secret police” as the MVD; and in any quotations

from him, the Commission will reproduce his actual words.

Whenever the Commission refers to the MVD, it will be

referring to it as defined in this footnote.

According to Oswald’s diary he attempted suicide when he learned

his application for citizenship had been denied.[C6-147] If true,

this would seem to provide strong evidence that, at least prior to

October 21, there was no undercover relationship between Oswald and

the Soviet Government. Though not necessarily conclusive, there is

considerable direct evidence which indicates that Oswald did slash his

wrist. Oswald’s autopsy showed that he had a scar on his left wrist

and that it was of the kind which could have been caused by a suicide

attempt.[C6-148] The medical records from the Botkinskaya Hospital in

Moscow, furnished by the Soviet Government, reveal that from October

21 to October 28 he was treated there for a self-inflicted wound on

the left wrist.[C6-149] The information contained in these records is

consistent with the facts disclosed by the autopsy examination relating

to Oswald’s wrist and to other facts known about Oswald. Although no

witness recalled Oswald mentioning a suicide attempt,[C6-150] Marina

Oswald testified that when she questioned her husband about the

scar on his wrist, he became “very angry,” and avoided giving her a

reply.[C6-151] Oswald’s character, discussed in the following chapter,

does not seem inconsistent with a suicide or feigned suicide attempt,

nor with his having failed to disclose the suicide attempt. Many

witnesses who testified before the Commission observed that he was not

an “open” or trusting person, had a tendency toward arrogance, and was

not the kind of man who would readily admit weaknesses.[C6-152]

Oswald appeared at the American Embassy in Moscow on October 31,

1959, 3 days after his release from the Botkinskaya Hospital.[C6-153]

He did not give the officials at the Embassy any indication that he

had recently received medical treatment.[C6-154] Oswald’s appearance

was the first notification to the American Government that he was

in Russia, since he had failed to inform the Embassy upon his

arrival,[C6-155] as most American tourists did at the time.[C6-156]

In appendix XV, Oswald’s dealings with the Embassy in 1959 until his

return to the United States in 1962 are described in full, and all

action taken by the American officials on his case is evaluated. His

conduct at the Embassy has also been considered by the Commission for

any indication it may provide as to whether or not Oswald was then

acting under directions of the Soviet Government.

[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 913

NOTE HANDED BY OSWALD TO THE AMERICAN EMBASSY IN MOSCOW ON OCT. 31,

1959]

At the Embassy, Oswald declared that he wished to renounce his U.S.

citizenship,[C6-157] but the consul to whom he spoke, Richard E.

Snyder, refused to accept his renunciation at that time, telling him

that he would have to return to complete the necessary papers.[C6-158]

However, Oswald did give the consul his passport[C6-159] and a

handwritten statement requesting that his American citizenship be

“revoked” and “affirm[ing] [his] * * * allegiance” to the Soviet

Union.[C6-160] (See Commission Exhibit No. 913, p. 261.) The FBI has

confirmed that this statement is in Oswald’s handwriting,[C6-161]

and Snyder has testified that the letter’s phrases are consistent

with the way Oswald talked and conducted himself.[C6-162] During the

approximately 40-minute interview, Oswald also informed Snyder that he

had been a radar operator in the Marine Corps, intimating that he might

know something of special interest, and that he had informed a Soviet

official that he would give the Soviets any information concerning

the Marine Corps and radar operation which he possessed.[C6-163]

Although Oswald never filed a formal renunciation, in a letter to the

Embassy dated November 3, 1959, he again requested that his American

citizenship be revoked and protested the refusal to accept his

renunciation on October 31.[C6-164] (See Commission Exhibit No. 912, p.

263.)

While at the Embassy,[C6-165] and in a subsequent interview with

an American journalist,[C6-166] Oswald displayed familiarity with

Communist ideological arguments, which led those with whom he spoke

to speculate that he may have received some instruction from Soviet

authorities. Oswald’s familiarity with the law regarding renunciation

of citizenship, observed by both Embassy officials,[C6-167] could also

be construed as a sign of coaching by Soviet authorities. However,

Oswald is known to have been an avid reader[C6-168] and there is

evidence that he had read Communist literature without guidance while

in the Marine Corps and before that time.[C6-169] After his arrival in

Moscow, Oswald most probably had discussions with his Intourist guide

and others,[C6-170] but none of the Americans with whom he talked in

Moscow felt that his conversations necessarily revealed any type of

formal training.[C6-171] The “Historic Diary” indicates that Oswald did

not tell his guide that he intended to visit the Embassy because he

feared she would disapprove.[C6-172] (See Commission Exhibit No. 24,

p. 264.) Though Oswald gave Snyder the impression “of an intelligent

person who spoke in a manner and on a level, which seemed to befit

his apparent level of intelligence,”[C6-173] correspondent Priscilla

Johnson, who spent about 5 hours talking with him,[C6-174] received a

much less favorable impression:

He liked to create the pretense, the impression that he was

attracted to abstract discussion and was capable of engaging in

it, and was drawn to it. But it was like pricking a balloon.

I had the feeling that if you really did engage him on this

ground, you very quickly would discover that he didn’t have

the capacity for a logical sustained argument about an abstract

point on economics or on noneconomic, political matters or any

matter, philosophical.[C6-175]

[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 912

LETTER MAILED BY OSWALD TO THE AMERICAN EMBASSY IN MOSCOW.]

[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 24

OSWALD’S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS MEETING AT THE AMERICAN EMBASSY IN MOSCOW

OCT. 31, 1959

Excerpts from his “Historic Diary”]

A comparison of the formal note Oswald handed Snyder[C6-176] and his

letter of November 3[C6-177] with the provisions of section 349(a)

of the Immigration and Nationality Act[C6-178] suggests that Oswald

had read the statute but understood it imperfectly; he apparently was

trying to use three out of the four ways set out in the statute to

surrender his citizenship, but he succeeded in none.

Moreover, persuasive evidence that Oswald’s conduct was not carefully

coached by Soviet agents is provided by some of his actions at the

Embassy. The single statement which probably caused Oswald the most

future trouble was his declaration that he had already volunteered to a

Soviet official that he would, if asked, tell the Soviet Government all

that he knew about his job in radar as a Marine. Certainly a statement

of this type would prejudice any possibility of his being an effective

pro-Communist agent.

Further, though unquestionably evidencing anti-American sentiments,

Oswald’s behavior at the Embassy, which brought him exceedingly close

to expatriation, was unlikely to have increased his value in any

capacity to the Soviet Union. Richard E. Snyder, the official who

interviewed Oswald on October 31, testified that he “had every reason

to believe” that Oswald would have carried through a formal--and

therefore effective--renunciation of his American citizenship

immediately if he had let him.[C6-179] However, as a defector, Oswald

could have had considerable propaganda value without expatriating

himself; and if he had expatriated himself his eventual return to

the United States would have been much more difficult and perhaps

impossible. If Snyder’s assessment of Oswald’s intentions is accurate,

it thus tends to refute the suggestion that Oswald was being coached

by the Soviets. In addition, reporters noticed Oswald’s apparent

ambivalence in regard to renouncing his citizenship--stormily demanding

that he be permitted to renounce while failing to follow through by

completing the necessary papers[C6-180]--behavior which might have

detracted from his propaganda value.

According to Oswald’s “Historic Diary”[C6-181] and the documents

furnished to the Commission by the Soviet Government,[C6-182] Oswald

was not told that he had been accepted as a resident of the Soviet

Union until about January 4, 1960. Although on November 13 and 16

Oswald informed Aline Mosby[C6-183] and Priscilla Johnson[C6-184] that

he had been granted permission to remain in the country indefinitely,

the diary indicates that at that time he had been told only that

he could remain “until some solution is found with what to do with

me.”[C6-185] The diary is more consistent with the letter Oswald

wrote to his brother Robert on December 17, saying that he was then,

more than a month after he saw Johnson and Mosby, about to leave his

hotel,[C6-186] and with some later correspondence with his mother.

Oswald mailed a short note to his mother which she received in Texas on

January 5; that same day she mailed a money order to him in Moscow,

but it apparently got there too late, because she received it back,

unopened, on February 25.[C6-187] Oswald’s conflicting statement to the

correspondents also seems reconcilable with his very apparent desire to

appear important to others. Moreover, so long as Oswald continued to

stay in a hotel in Moscow, the inference is that the Soviet authorities

had not yet decided to accept him.[C6-188] This inference is supported

by information supplied by the CIA on the handling of other defectors

in the Soviet Union.[C6-189]

Thus, the evidence is strong that Oswald waited at least until November

16, when he saw Miss Johnson, and it is probable that he was required

to wait until January 4, a little over 2½ months from October 16,

before his application to remain in Russia was granted. In mid-November

Miss Johnson asked Oswald whether the Russians were encouraging his

defection, to which Oswald responded: “The Russians are treating

it like a legal formality. They don’t encourage you and they don’t

discourage you.”[C6-190] And, when the Soviet Government finally acted,

Oswald did not receive Soviet citizenship, as he had requested, but

merely permission to reside in Russia on a year-to-year basis.[C6-191]

Asked to comment upon the length of time, 2 months and 22 days, that

probably passed before Oswald was granted the right to remain in the

Soviet Union, the CIA has advised that “when compared to five other

defector cases, this procedure seems unexceptional.”[C6-192] Similarly,

the Department of State reports that its information “indicated that a

2-month waiting period is not unusual.”[C6-193] The full response of

the CIA is as follows:

Oswald said that he asked for Soviet citizenship on 16 October

1959. According to his diary, he received word a month later

that he could stay in the USSR pending disposition of his

request, but it was another month and a half before he was

given his stateless passport.

When compared to five other defector cases, this procedure

seems unexceptional. Two defectors from US Army intelligence

units in West Germany appear to have been given citizenship

immediately, but both had prior KGB connections and fled as

a result of Army security checks. Of the other three cases,

one was accepted after not more than five weeks and given a

stateless passport apparently at about the same time. The

second was immediately given permission to stay for a while,

and his subsequent request for citizenship was granted three

months later. The third was allowed to stay after he made his

citizenship request, but almost two months passed before he was

told that he had been accepted. Although the Soviet Ministry of

Foreign Affairs soon after told the US Embassy that he was a

Soviet citizen, he did not receive his document until five or

six months after initial application. We know of only one case

in which an American asked for Soviet citizenship but did not

take up residence in the USSR. In that instance, the American

changed his mind and voluntarily returned to the United

States less than three weeks after he had requested Soviet

citizenship.[C6-194]

The Department of State has commented as follows:

The files of the Department of State reflect the fact that

Oswald first applied for permission to remain in Russia

permanently, or at least for a long period, when he arrived in

Moscow, and that he obtained permission to remain within one or

two months.

A. Is the fact that he obtained permission to stay within this

period of time usual?

_Answer_--Our information indicates that a two months waiting

period is not unusual. In the case of [name withheld] the

Supreme Soviet decided within two months to give Soviet

citizenship and he was thereafter, of course, permitted to stay.

B. Can you tell us what the normal procedures are under similar

circumstances?

_Answer_--It is impossible for us to state any “normal”

procedures. The Soviet Government never publicizes the

proceedings in these cases or the reasons for its action.

Furthermore, it is, of course, extremely unusual for an

American citizen to defect.[C6-195]

The information relating to Oswald’s suicide attempt indicates that

his application to remain in the Soviet Union was probably rejected

about 6 days after his arrival in Moscow. Since the KGB is the Soviet

agency responsible for the initial handling of all defectors,[C6-196]

it seems likely that the original decision not to accept Oswald was

made by the KGB. That Oswald was permitted to remain in Moscow after

his release from the hospital suggests that another ministry of the

Soviet Government may have intervened on his behalf. This hypothesis

is consistent with entries in the “Historic Diary” commenting that the

officials Oswald met after his hospital treatment were different from

those with whom he had dealt before.[C6-197] The most plausible reason

for any such intervention may well have been apprehension over the

publicity that would follow the rejection of a devout convert to the

Communist cause.

_Oswald’s Life in Minsk._--According to the “Historic Diary”[C6-198]

and documents received from the Soviet Government,[C6-199] Oswald

resided in the city of Minsk from January 1960 until June 1962.

Oswald’s life in Minsk is the portion of his life concerning which the

least is known. The primary sources of information are Oswald’s own

writings and the testimony of Marina Oswald. Other evidence, however,

establishes beyond doubt that Oswald was in fact located in Minsk on

at least two occasions. The Commission has obtained two photographs

which were taken by American tourists in Minsk in August 1961 in which

Oswald appears.[C6-200] The tourists did not know Oswald, nor did

they speak with him; they remembered only that several men gathered

near their car.[C6-201] (See Kramer Exhibit 1, p. 268.) In addition,

Oswald was noticed in Minsk by a student who was traveling with the

University of Michigan band on a tour of Russia in the spring of

1961.[C6-202] Oswald corresponded with the American Embassy in Moscow

from Minsk,[C6-203] and wrote letters from Minsk to his family in

the United States.[C6-204] Oswald and his wife have many photographs

taken of themselves which show Minsk backgrounds and persons who are

identifiable as residents of Minsk.[C6-205] After he returned to the

United States, Oswald conversed about the city with Russian-born

American citizens who were familiar with it.[C6-206] Marina Oswald

is also familiar with the city.[C6-207] The Commission has also

been able independently to verify the existence in Minsk of many of

the acquaintances of Oswald and his wife whom they said they knew

there.[C6-208] (See Commission Exhibits Nos. 1392, 1395, 2606, 2609,

2612 and 2623, pp. 270-271.)

[Illustration: OSWALD, MAN STANDING ON RIGHT IN FIGURED SHIRT.

PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN MINSK, U.S.S.R. BY AN AMERICAN TOURIST IN AUGUST,

1961.

(KRAMER DEPOSITION 1)]

Once he was accepted as a resident alien in the Soviet Union, Oswald

was given considerable benefits which ordinary Soviet citizens in his

position in society did not have. The “Historic Diary” recites that

after Oswald was informed that he could remain in the Soviet Union and

was being sent to Minsk he was given 5,000 rubles[C] ($500) by the “Red

Cross, * * * for expenses.” He used 2,200 rubles to pay his hotel bill,

and another 150 rubles to purchase a train ticket. With the balance

of slightly over 2,500 rubles, Oswald felt, according to the diary,

like a rich man.[C6-209] Oswald did not receive free living quarters,

as the diary indicates the “Mayor” of Minsk promised him,[C6-210] but

about 6 weeks after his arrival he did receive an apartment, very

pleasant by Soviet standards, for which he was required to pay only 60

rubles ($6.00) a month. Oswald considered the apartment “almost rent

free.”[C6-211] Oswald was given a job in the “Byelorussian Radio and

Television Factory,” where his pay on a per piece basis ranged from

700 to 900 rubles ($70-$90) a month.[C6-212] According to his wife,

this rate of pay was average for people in his occupation but good

by Soviet standards generally.[C6-213] She explained that piecework

rates throughout the Soviet Union have generally grown out of line

with compensation for other jobs.[C6-214] The CIA has confirmed that

this condition exists in many areas and occupations in the Soviet

Union.[C6-215] In addition to his salary, Oswald regularly received

700 rubles ($70) per month from the Soviet “Red Cross.”[C6-216] The

well-paying job, the monthly subsidy, and the “almost rent-free”

apartment combined to give Oswald more money than he needed. The only

complaint recorded in the “Historic Diary” is that there was “no place

to spend the money.”[C6-217]

[C] About a year after Oswald received this money, the ruble

was revalued to about 10 times its earlier value.

The Commission has found no basis for associating Oswald’s preferred

income with Soviet undercover activity. Marina Oswald testified that

foreign nationals are commonly given special treatment in the Soviet

Union,[C6-218] and the Central Intelligence Agency has confirmed that

it is standard practice in the Soviet Union for Americans and other

foreign defectors from countries with high standards of living to be

“subsidized.”[C6-219] Apparently it is Soviet practice to attempt

to make life sufficiently pleasant for a foreign defector so that

he will not become disillusioned and return to his native country.

The Commission has also assumed that it is customary for Soviet

intelligence agencies to keep defectors under surveillance during their

residence in the Soviet Union, through periodic interviews of neighbors

and associates of the defector.[C6-220] Oswald once mentioned that the

Soviet police questioned his neighbors occasionally.[C6-221]

[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE OSWALDS IN MINSK, U.S.S.R.

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 1392)

OSWALD AND MARINA ON A BRIDGE IN MINSK

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 2623)

UNCLE VASILY AKSIONOV AND AUNT LUBOVA AKSIONOVA, WITH THE OSWALDS

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT 1395)

MARINA WAITING FOR BUS]

[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHS OF OSWALDS IN U. S. S. R.

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 2609)

ROSA KUZNETSOVA, ELLA GERMAN, LEE HARVEY OSWALD, AND PAVEL GOLOVACHEV

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 2612)

OSWALD AND ALFRED (LAST NAME UNKNOWN), A HUNGARIAN FRIEND OF ANITA ZIGER

(COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 2606)

VIEW OVERLOOKING THE SYISLOCH RIVER FROM THE BALCONY OF THE OSWALDS’

APARTMENT IN MINSK]

Moreover, it is from Oswald’s personal writings alone that the

Commission has learned that he received supplementary funds from the

Soviet “Red Cross.” In the notes he made during the return trip to

the United States Oswald recognized that the “Red Cross” subsidy had

nothing to do with the well-known International Red Cross. He frankly

stated that the money was paid to him for having “denounced” the

United States and that it had come from the “MVD.”[C6-222] Oswald’s

papers reveal that the “Red Cross” subsidy was terminated as soon as

he wrote the American Embassy in Moscow in February 1961 asking that

he be permitted to return.[C6-223] (See Commission Exhibit No. 25, p.

273.) Marina Oswald’s testimony confirmed this; she said that when she

knew Oswald he no longer was receiving the monthly grant but still

retained some of the savings accumulated in the months when he had been

receiving it.[C6-224] Since she met Oswald in March and married him in

April of 1961, her testimony was consistent with his records.

The nature of Oswald’s employment while in Minsk has been examined

by the Commission. The factory in which he worked was a large plant

manufacturing electronic parts and radio and television sets. Marina

Oswald has testified that he was an “apprentice machinist” and “ground

small metallic parts for radio receivers, on a lathe.”[C6-225] So far

as can be determined, Oswald never straightforwardly described to

anyone else in the United States exactly what his job was in the Soviet

Union.[C6-226] Some of his acquaintances in Dallas and Fort Worth had

the impression that he was disappointed in having been given a menial

job and not assigned to an institution of higher learning in the Soviet

Union.[C6-227] Marina Oswald confirmed this and also testified that

her husband was not interested in his work and not regarded at the

factory as a very good worker.[C6-228] The documents furnished to the

Commission by the Soviet government were consistent with her testimony

on this point, since they included a report from Oswald’s superior at

the factory which is critical of his performance on the job.[C6-229]

Oswald’s employment and his job performance are thus consistent with

his known occupational habits in this country and otherwise afford no

ground for suspicion.

Oswald’s membership in a hunting club while he was in the Soviet Union

has been a matter of special interest to the Commission. One Russian

emigre testified that this was a suspicious circumstance because no one

in the Soviet Union is permitted to own a gun for pleasure.[C6-230] The

Commission’s investigation, however, has established that this is not

so. The Central Intelligence Agency has advised the Commission that

hunting societies such as the one to which Oswald belonged are very

popular in the Soviet Union.[C6-231] They are frequently sponsored

by factories for their employees, as was Oswald’s.[C6-232] Moreover,

Soviet citizens (or foreigners residing in the Soviet Union) are

permitted to own shotguns, but not rifles, without joining a society;

all that is necessary is that the gun be registered at the local

militia office immediately after it has been purchased.[C6-233] Experts

from the Central Intelligence Agency have examined Oswald’s club

membership certificate and gun permit and expressed the opinion that

its terms and numbers are consistent with other information the CIA has

about the Soviet Union.[C6-234]

[Illustration: (COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 25)

EXCERPTS FROM A SPEECH OSWALD NEVER DELIVERED, WHICH HE PROBABLY WROTE

ABOARD THE SHIP WHILE RETURNING FROM THE U. S. S. R. WITH HIS FAMILY]

Marina Oswald testified that her husband went hunting only on one

occasion during the time of their marriage.[C6-235] However, Oswald

apparently joined the Byelorussian Society of Hunters and Fishermen

in the summer of 1960[C6-236] and did not marry until April 30,

1961,[C6-237] so he could have been more active while he was still a

bachelor. Oswald made no secret of his membership in the hunting club.

He mentioned it on occasion to friends after he returned to the United

States;[C6-238] discussed it at some length in a speech at a Jesuit

Seminary in Mobile, Ala., in the summer of 1962;[C6-239] included it

in his correspondence with his brother Robert;[C6-240] and kept his

membership certificate[C6-241] and gun permit[C6-242] until the day

he was killed. In view of these facts, it is unlikely that Oswald’s

membership in a hunting club was contrived to conceal some sort of

secret training. Moreover, the CIA has informed the Commission that it

is in possession of considerable information on the location of secret

Soviet training institutions and that it knows of no such institution

in or near Minsk during the time Oswald was there.[C6-243]

Oswald’s marriage to Marina Prusakova on April 30, 1961,[C6-244] is

itself a fact meriting consideration. A foreigner living in Russia

cannot marry without the permission of the Soviet Government.[C6-245]

It seems unlikely that the Soviet authorities would have permitted

Oswald to marry and to take his wife with him to the United States if

they were contemplating using him alone as an agent. The fact that

he had a Russian wife would be likely, in their view, to increase

any surveillance under which he would be kept by American security

agencies, would make him even more conspicuous to his neighbors as “an

ex-Russian,” and would decrease his mobility. A wife’s presence in the

United States would also constitute a continuing risk of disclosure.

On the other hand, Marina Oswald’s lack of English training and her

complete ignorance of the United States and its customs[C6-246] would

scarcely recommend her to the Soviet authorities as one member of

an “agent team” to be sent to the United States on a difficult and

dangerous foreign enterprise.

_Oswald’s departure from the Soviet Union._--On February 13, 1961, the

American Embassy in Moscow received a letter from Oswald postmarked

Minsk, February 5, asking that he be readmitted to the United

States.[C6-247] This was the first time that the Embassy had heard

from or about Oswald since November 16, 1959.[C6-248] The end of the

15-month silence came only a few days after the Department of State in

Washington had forwarded a request to the Moscow Embassy on February

1, 1961, informing the Embassy that Oswald’s mother was worried about

him, and asking that he get in touch with her if possible.[C6-249]

The simultaneity of the two events was apparently coincidental. The

request from Marguerite Oswald went from Washington to Moscow by

sealed diplomatic pouch and there was no evidence that the seal had

been tampered with.[C6-250] The officer of the Department of State

who carried the responsibility for such matters has testified that

the message was not forwarded to the Russians after it arrived in

Moscow.[C6-251]

Oswald’s letter does not seem to have been designed to ingratiate him

with the Embassy officials. It starts by incorrectly implying that he

had written an earlier letter that was not answered, states that he

will return to the United States only if he can first “come to some

agreement” on there being no legal charges brought against him, and

ends with a reminder to the officials at the Embassy that they have a

responsibility to do everything they can to help him, since he is an

American citizen.[C6-252]

The Embassy’s response to this letter was to invite Oswald to

come personally to Moscow to discuss the matter.[C6-253] Oswald

at first protested because of the difficulty of obtaining Soviet

permission.[C6-254] He wrote two more protesting letters during the

following 4 months,[C6-255] but received no indication that the Embassy

would allow him to handle the matter by mail.[C6-256] While the

Department of State was clarifying its position on this matter,[C6-257]

Oswald unexpectedly appeared in Moscow on Saturday, July 8,

1961.[C6-258] On Sunday, Marina Oswald flew to Moscow,[C6-259] and was

interviewed by officials in the American Embassy on Tuesday.[C6-260]

The Commission asked the Department of State and the Central

Intelligence Agency to comment on whether the Oswalds’ travel to Moscow

without permission signified special treatment by the Soviet Union.

From their responses, it appears that since Marina Oswald possessed a

Soviet citizen’s internal passport, she did not require prior approval

to make the trip.[C6-261] Although Soviet law did require her husband,

as the holder of a “stateless passport,” to obtain advance permission

for the trip, his failure to do so would not normally have been

considered a serious violation. In this respect, the CIA has advised

the Commission as follows:

OSWALD’S travel from Minsk to Moscow and return in July 1961

would normally have required prior authorization. Bearers of a

Soviet “passport for foreigners” (_vid na zhitelstov v. SSSR

dlya innostrantsa_) are required to obtain travel authorization

from the Visa and Registration Department (OVIR) (or Passport

Registration Department (PRO) in smaller towns) if they desire

to leave the city (or oblast) where they are domiciled.

This same requirement is believed to apply to persons, such

as OSWALD, holding Soviet “stateless passports” (_vid na

zhitelstvo_ v. _SSSR dlya lits bez grazhdanstva_).

The practicality of even “unauthorized” travel was demonstrated

by events related by a United States citizen who defected

in 1960, and subsequently was sent to Kiev to study. After

repatriating this defector told U.S. authorities he had made

a total of seven unauthorized trips from Kiev during his stay

in the USSR. He was apprehended on two of his flights and was

returned to Kiev each time, the second time under escort. On

both occasions he was merely reprimanded by the deputy chief

of the institute at which he was studying. Since Marina had a

Soviet citizen’s internal passport there would have been no

restrictions against her making the trip to Moscow.[C6-262]

The answers of the Department of State, together with the Commission’s

specific questions, are as follows:

B. Could resident foreigners normally travel in this manner

without first obtaining such permission?

_Answer_--There are only a few U.S. nationals now living in the

Soviet Union. They include an American Roman Catholic priest,

an American Protestant minister, a number of correspondents,

some students and technical advisers to Soviet businesses. We

know that the priest, the minister, the correspondents and the

students must obtain permission from Soviet authorities before

taking any trips. The technical advisers notify officials of

their project before they travel and these officials personally

inform the militia.

C. If travel of this type was not freely permitted, do you

believe that Oswald normally would have been apprehended during

the attempt or punished after the fact for traveling without

permission?

_Answer_--Based on the information we have, we believe that

if Oswald went to Moscow without permission, and this was

known to the Soviet authorities, he would have been fined or

reprimanded. Oswald was not, of course, an average foreign

resident. He was a defector from a foreign country and the

bearer of a Soviet internal “stateless” passport * * * during

the time when he was contemplating the visit to Moscow to come

to the Embassy * * *

The Soviet authorities probably knew about Oswald’s trip

even if he did not obtain advance permission, since in most

instances the Soviet militia guards at the Embassy ask for the

documents of unidentified persons entering the Embassy grounds

* * *

An American citizen who, with her American citizen husband,

went to the Soviet Union to live permanently and is now trying

to obtain permission to leave, informed the Embassy that she

had been fined for not getting permission to go from Odessa to

Moscow on a recent trip to visit the Embassy.

D. Even if such travel did not have to be authorized, do you

have any information or observations regarding the practicality

of such travel by Soviet citizens or persons in Oswald’s status?

_Answer_--It is impossible to generalize in this area. We

understand from interrogations of former residents in the

Soviet Union who were considered “stateless” by Soviet

authorities that they were not permitted to leave the town

where they resided without permission of the police. In

requesting such permission they were required to fill out a

questionnaire giving the reason for travel, length of stay,

addresses of individuals to be visited, etc.

Notwithstanding these requirements, we know that at least

one “stateless” person often traveled without permission of

the authorities and stated that police stationed at railroad

stations usually spotchecked the identification papers of

every tenth traveler, but that it was an easy matter to avoid

such checks. Finally, she stated that persons who were caught

evading the registration requirements were returned to their

home towns by the police and sentenced to short jail terms

and fined. These sentences were more severe for repeated

violations.[C6-263]

When Oswald arrived at the Embassy in Moscow, he met Richard E. Snyder,

the same person with whom he had dealt in October of 1959.[C6-264]

Primarily on the basis of Oswald’s interview with Snyder on Monday,

July 10, 1961, the American Embassy concluded that Oswald had not

expatriated himself.[C6-265] (See app. XV, pp. 752-760.) On the

basis of this tentative decision, Oswald was given back his American

passport, which he had surrendered in 1959.[C6-266] The document was

due to expire in September 1961,[C6-267] however, and Oswald was

informed that its renewal would depend upon the ultimate decision by

the Department of State on his expatriation.[C6-268] On July 11, Marina

Oswald was interviewed at the Embassy and the steps necessary for her

to obtain an American visa were begun.[C6-269] In May 1962, after 15

months of dealings with the Embassy, Oswald’s passport was ultimately

renewed and permission for his wife to enter the United States was

granted.[C6-270]