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

Walker Shooting Photographs

Marina Oswald testified that three days after the Walker shooting, Oswald showed her a notebook containing photographs of General Walker’s home and a map of the area, though Oswald later destroyed the notebook. Three photographs found among Oswald’s possessions after the assassination of President Kennedy were identified by Marina as photographs of Walker’s house. Two were taken from the rear of the house, and the Commission confirmed by comparison with other photographs that they depicted the rear of Walker’s home. An examination of the rear window, the wall the bullet passed through, and the fence behind the house indicated the bullet was fired from a position near where one of the photographs was taken. The third photograph showed the entrance to Walker’s driveway from a back alley, including the fence on which the assailant apparently rested the rifle. Construction work visible in the background dated this photograph to between March 8 and 12, 1963, most likely March 9 or 10, shortly before Oswald purchased the rifle money order on March 12 and the rifle was shipped on March 20. An FBI photography expert determined this photograph was taken with the Imperial Reflex camera owned by Oswald. A fourth photograph of railroad tracks was identified by Marina as taken by her husband in connection with the Walker shooting; investigation placed it approximately seven-tenths of a mile from Walker’s house. A fifth, unidentified photograph of railroad tracks was taken from a point slightly less than half a mile from Walker’s house. Marina testified that when she asked Oswald what he had done with the rifle, he said he had buried it or hidden it in bushes near railroad tracks, and several days later he recovered the rifle and brought it back to their apartment.