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.