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

Marital and Family Relations

After returning from the Soviet Union, Oswald’s marriage quickly deteriorated. George Bouhe, a Russian-speaking acquaintance, attempted to “liberate” Marina from Oswald, and around early November 1962 the De Mohrenschildts helped Marina move out with the baby; Oswald resisted, threatening to destroy her clothing and the baby’s furniture, but ultimately acquiesced. He subsequently persuaded Marina to return after about a two-week separation, a decision that so angered Bouhe that nearly all contact between the Oswalds and the Russian community in Dallas ceased, with only occasional meetings with the De Mohrenschildts continuing through spring 1963. Oswald also severed relations with his mother, Marguerite, soon after returning from the USSR; he had told American Embassy officials in Moscow that he defected partly because of the capitalist system’s “exploitation” of his mother, and he initially denied to Marina that he even had a mother. Although the Oswalds lived briefly with his brother Robert and then briefly with Marguerite in Fort Worth, Oswald soon moved out on his own. Marguerite’s efforts to help furnish the apartment and buy gifts for Marina were rebuffed—Oswald resented what he viewed as evidence of his inability to provide for his family—and after moving to Dallas around October 8, 1962, he cut off all contact with her until after the assassination. In April 1963, however, Oswald visited elderly relatives of his deceased father in New Orleans and his father’s gravesite in an apparent first attempt to learn about his family background, obtaining a large portrait of his father that contrasted with his earlier indifference to his father during the defection.

Employment

Oswald experienced persistent employment problems that he blamed on his Soviet past but that the evidence attributes largely to his own shortcomings. He held a satisfactory job as a sheet metal worker in Fort Worth from July 1962 until he voluntarily left on October 8, 1962, despite telling Marina he had been fired. The next day he registered with the Texas Employment Commission in Dallas, expressing a desire to write rather than work in industry; aptitude testing placed him in the upper range on verbal and clerical measures, and counselors described him as well-groomed and articulate. He was referred to a commercial advertising photography firm on October 11 and began work as a trainee on October 12, 1962, but his employer found his output imprecise and his relations with coworkers strained, and he was discharged on April 6, 1963, ostensibly for inefficiency and a difficult personality. A supervisor conceded that bringing a Russian-language newspaper to the workplace did not drive the firing decision but “didn’t do his case any good.” After moving to New Orleans on April 24, 1963—leaving Marina and the child with Ruth Paine in Irving, Texas—Oswald took a job on May 10, 1963 as a greaser and oiler at the William B. Reily coffee company, though he told his wife and Paine that he was working as a commercial photographer; he was dismissed on July 19, 1963 for unsatisfactory work and for spending work time in a neighboring garage reading rifle and hunting magazines. Oswald’s Fair Play for Cuba Committee activities, publicly identified only after August 9, 1963, made finding further work harder: a Louisiana placement interviewer declined to provide references after seeing him on television, and his October 1963 application to another Dallas photography firm failed when its president warned a prospective employer that Oswald was “kinda peculiar,” knew Russian, and might be a Communist. He finally obtained work at the Texas School Book Depository, where he performed satisfactorily.

Attack on General Walker

The Commission concluded that on April 10, 1963—two weeks before Oswald moved to New Orleans and shortly after his discharge from the photography firm—Oswald shot at Major General Edwin A. Walker, an event the chapter examines in detail because of its relevance to Oswald’s possible motive for the assassination. Oswald had been planning the attack for one to two months, recording details in a notebook, studying Dallas bus routes to and from Walker’s home, and posing with his rifle and pistol alongside copies of the Worker and the Militant; he told Marina he wanted to send the photographs to the Militant and save one for his daughter June. After the unsuccessful attempt, Oswald returned home to find Marina had discovered his explanatory note; she testified she had no advance knowledge of the plot, became angry upon learning what he had done, and extracted a promise that he would not repeat it. Although Marina urged him to destroy the notebook, Oswald delayed and only later burned it after apparently worrying that it could incriminate him; some photographs he had pasted into the book survived among his effects and were found after the assassination. Marina testified that Oswald said he wanted to leave “a complete record” so that the details would be available, and she speculated he wished to appear brave if arrested. The Commission finds that the materials Oswald left at home—particularly the photographs showing him armed with the rifle and Communist and Socialist Workers Party publications—suggest a strong concern for his place in history and indicate he had considered the possibility of capture, considerations the Commission treats as significant alongside other evidence in assessing his motivation for the assassination. Marina reported that Oswald compared Walker to Adolf Hitler, arguing that killing a figure he characterized as a fascist leader would save lives, thereby indicating the kind of political reasoning he regarded as sufficient justification for taking a life.