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

Oswald’s Finances

The Commission conducted a thorough audit of Oswald’s finances from his return from the Soviet Union on June 13, 1962, through his arrest on November 22, 1963, with assistance from the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI. Investigators queried banks, telegraph companies, employers, landlords, credit associations, hospitals, utility companies, government offices, post offices, periodicals, newspapers, and employment agencies across New Orleans, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and Laredo, finding no bank accounts or safe deposit boxes tied to Oswald during this period. Marina Oswald testified she knew of no income beyond his wages and unemployment compensation, and the Commission’s analysis confirmed this: the Oswalds received $3,665.89 in cash (including $63 brought from the Soviet Union), spent an estimated $3,501.79, and left a balance of $164.10—within $19 of the $183.87 actually found in Oswald’s possession at arrest. Oswald’s lifestyle reflected extreme frugality: he and his family lived in modest $60–$75-per-month apartments, frequently stayed rent-free with relatives and acquaintances, owned no major appliances or automobile, used dental and hospital clinics, obtained baby furniture as gifts, did not smoke or drink, used public libraries for reading material, and subsisted on meager groceries. He repaid his $435.71 State Department travel loan and $200 loan from his brother Robert by January 1963, financed the $21.45 assassination rifle and $31.22 revolver in March 1963 using his own funds, and spent approximately $23 on Fair Play for Cuba Committee materials during the summer. His Mexico City trip in September 1963 was financed by roughly $200 in accumulated savings, consistent with an estimated $85 in trip expenses. The Commission also considered testimony from Leonard E. Hutchison of Hutch’s Market in Irving, who claimed a man he believed to be Oswald attempted to cash a $189 personal check in early November 1963; no source of such a check was identified, and although Oswald did cash a $33 Texas Unemployment Commission check at another Irving supermarket on November 1, the discrepancy in instrument type makes confusion unlikely, leaving the matter unresolved.