Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

CHAPTER VII

This chapter, “CHAPTER VII,” examines the background and possible motives of Lee Harvey Oswald, whom the Commission identifies as the sole assassin of President Kennedy. The chapter opens by acknowledging that, although Oswald acted alone and was not part of any conspiracy, no single motive—such as Marxism, personal grievance, revolutionary aspiration, or desire for notoriety—fully explains his act when judged by ordinary standards. The Commission therefore analyzes Oswald’s character and state of mind through the events, relationships, and influences that shaped him, focusing on his profound alienation, isolation, frustration, grandiose self-image, and hostility toward his environment. The chapter then traces these formative influences through his early family life in Louisiana and Texas, his time in New York City during adolescence (including his psychiatric evaluation at Youth House), his Marine Corps experience, his turn toward Marxist doctrine, his 1959 defection to the Soviet Union, his return to the United States in 1962, his relationships and employment, his attempt on General Walker, his political activities, and his failed effort to reach Cuba in 1963, with possible motives treated within these contexts.

Lee Harvey Oswald: Background and Possible Motives

This introductory section frames the inquiry into Oswald’s motives. The Commission notes that since Oswald is dead, no definitive determination of legal sanity is possible, and that his complete state of mind and character are unknowable. However, material from his writings and life history offers insight. The most striking feature of Oswald’s psychology is his profound alienation: he had few close relationships, difficulty finding a meaningful place in the world, and dissatisfaction with every environment he inhabited—resenting capitalism in the United States, criticizing Communist Party privilege in the Soviet Union, and expressing ambivalence toward his wife. Despite appearing meek to acquaintances, Oswald imagined himself as “the Commander” and a future political leader, combining grandiose fantasies with feelings of oppression. He displayed a striking disregard for consequences through acts including his defection, the shooting of General Walker, attempts to reach Cuba, and ultimately the assassination of President Kennedy. His commitment to Marxism, which he adopted as a teenager and held as an “irrevocable” but largely theoretical conviction, was an important influence on his adult conduct and possibly on his decision to assassinate the President. The section concludes by previewing the chapter’s structure, which will examine Oswald’s early life, his time in New York and the Marines, his interest in Marxism, his defection and return, and his activities after mid-1962.

The Early Years

This section, “The Early Years,” traces the formative experiences of Oswald’s childhood. His father died of insurance-related causes two months before Lee was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1939, plunging the family into financial hardship. His mother Marguerite placed Lee’s older brothers John Pic and Robert in an orphans’ home, and sent Lee there as well on December 26, 1942, when he was three. When Lee was four, Marguerite withdrew him and moved with her sons to Dallas in anticipation of her 1945 marriage to Edwin A. Ekdahl, to whom Lee became closely attached, finding in him a father figure he had lacked. After stormy relations, Marguerite and Ekdahl divorced in the summer of 1948, and she complained bitterly about her treatment as a widow with three children, even though John Pic felt her circumstances were not unusually difficult. To supplement income, she had Pic falsely swear he was 17 so he could join the Marine Corps Reserves, and she later took miscellaneous jobs, sometimes bringing Lee along and leaving him alone in the car, or training him to return to an empty house rather than play with other children. An early indication of Lee’s character appeared in spring 1950, when he visited relatives in New Orleans and refused to play with children his own age. Pic later observed that Lee was raised in an atmosphere of constant money problems, which surely affected him deeply.

New York City

This section, “New York City,” examines the deterioration of Lee’s adjustment after he and his mother moved to New York in August 1952, shortly before his thirteenth birthday. Although his school record in Louisiana and Texas had been average with no major behavioral issues, Lee’s behavior worsened sharply in the Bronx. After an incident in which he allegedly pulled a pocketknife on his brother John Pic’s wife, the Pics asked the Oswalds to leave, and relations between Lee and his previously idolized brother became strained. Enrolling at P.S. 117, Lee was teased for his “western” clothes and Texas accent, and began staying home to read magazines and watch television. Despite intervention by school authorities and his mother, his truancy continued, and he was charged as “beyond the control” of his mother. From April 16 to May 7, 1953, he was held at Youth House for psychiatric observation, where Chief Psychiatrist Dr. Renatus Hartogs and social worker Mrs. Evelyn Strickman Siegel evaluated him. Contrary to later reports, the examination did not describe Oswald as a potential assassin or recommend institutionalization. Hartogs diagnosed him with a “personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies,” describing a tense, withdrawn, emotionally starved boy with intense anxiety, shyness, feelings of awkwardness and insecurity, and a vivid fantasy life centered on omnipotence and power. Mrs. Siegel noted his serious detachment and sense of being unloved by a mother who treated him as a burden. Lee himself spoke of a “veil” between himself and others that he preferred to keep intact, and admitted to fantasies of being powerful and of hurting or killing people, which he refused to discuss. Psychologist Irving Sokolow’s human figure-drawing test corroborated findings of insecurity, limited social contact, and particular anxiety in relation to the maternal figure. Hartogs recommended probation with treatment by a male psychiatrist to substitute for the absent father, alongside family guidance, with commitment only if probation failed.