CHAPITRE I.
This chapter details the sequence of events following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit, including the flight and arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald, the discovery of the sniper’s nest and murder weapon at the Texas School Book Depository, and a comprehensive account of Oswald’s early life, personal history, and ideological development leading up to the November 22, 1963 attacks.
Escape from the Tippit Shooting Scene
After shooting Officer Tippit, the gunman fled the scene on foot, heading south on Patton Avenue from the 10th Street and Patton intersection. Multiple civilian witnesses—including Helen Markham, Barbara Jeanette Davis, Virginia Davis, taxicab driver William W. Scoggins, and used car salesman Ted Callaway—observed his flight. He discarded his jacket in a gas station parking lot before continuing west on Jefferson Boulevard toward the Texas Theatre.
Arrest at the Texas Theatre
The suspect entered the Texas Theatre on West Jefferson without purchasing a ticket, an act observed by shoe store manager Johnny Calvin Brewer, who alerted theater cashier Julia Postal. Postal called police, and shortly after 1:45 p.m., officers surrounded the theater, identified the suspect, and after a brief struggle in which the suspect drew a concealed weapon, disarmed and arrested him. He was transported to police headquarters by approximately 2 p.m.
Search of the Texas School Book Depository
Following reports that the presidential shots were fired from the Texas School Book Depository, Dallas Police officers responded to the building. Inspector J. Herbert Sawyer arrived shortly after 12:34 p.m., conducted an initial search of the lower floors, and ordered no one be permitted to leave the building between 12:37 and 12:40 p.m. Capt. J. Will Fritz arrived shortly before 1 p.m. to take charge of the investigation.
Discovery of the Sniper’s Nest
During the search of the sixth floor, Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney discovered a stack of cartons in the southeast corner arranged to conceal a person at the half-open window, positioned so a person sitting on the carton could look down Elm Street toward the motorcade route with minimal visibility from outside. Three empty cartridge cases were found on the floor near the window, confirming the site as the firing position.
The Rifle and Serial Number
Approximately 10 minutes after the cartridge cases were found, Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone located a bolt-action rifle with a telescopic sight stuffed between two rows of boxes in the northwest corner of the sixth floor. The rifle was stamped with serial number C2766 and markings “1940”, “MADE ITALY”, and “CAL. 6.5”, and was photographed before being collected. A handmade paper sack large enough to hold the disassembled rifle was later found in the southeast corner of the sixth floor near the cartridge cases.
Identification of Lee Harvey Oswald
While evidence was being collected from the sixth floor, building superintendent Roy Truly notified police that Lee Harvey Oswald, one of the Depository’s 15 warehouse employees, was missing. After providing Oswald’s personal details, Capt. Fritz left for police headquarters, only to discover that the man arrested at the Texas Theatre was the missing Depository employee, making Oswald the primary suspect in both the presidential assassination and Tippit’s murder.
Early Life and Family Background
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1939, two months after his father’s death, to mother Marguerite Claverie Oswald. He had two older brothers: half-brother John Pic and full brother Robert, 5 years his senior. At age 3, he was placed in an orphanage where his brothers already resided due to his mother’s need to work. In 1944, he was removed from the orphanage and moved with his mother to Dallas, where his older brothers joined them later that year. His mother married Edwin A. Ekdahl in 1945, and Oswald lived with the couple until their 1949 divorce, attending school in multiple Texas and Louisiana locations with generally declining average grades through age 9.
Youth House Psychiatric Evaluation
In 1952, 12-year-old Oswald moved with his mother to New York City, where he became a chronic truant and exhibited serious emotional and psychological issues. He was placed at Youth House, a New York juvenile psychiatric observation facility, where a social worker described him as “seriously detached”, withdrawn, and emotionally starved, noting he felt his mother saw him as a burden and had violent fantasies. The chief psychiatrist diagnosed him with a “personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies” and recommended psychiatric treatment. He returned to school in May 1953 with temporary improvement, but behavioral issues resurfaced by fall, and his mother refused further psychiatric care. In January 1954, he and his mother moved back to New Orleans.
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