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

Personality Assessment in New York and Predictive Limitations

The personality factors observed in Lee Oswald in New York revealed great difficulty adapting to the city, with his typical reaction being withdrawal. These factors indicated a severe inability to enter into relationships with others, and similar problems were apparently already present before he went to New York. This failure to adapt to his environment was a dominant trait that would persist throughout his later life. However, it would be incorrect to believe that the personality aspects observed in New York could have led anyone to predict his later outburst of violence.

Probation Officer Carro’s Institutional Placement Recommendation

Probation officer Carro was the only one of Oswald’s three principal observers in New York to recommend placement in a boys’ home or similar institution. However, Carro specified that his recommendation was based primarily on adverse environmental factors, including Lee’s lack of friends, the unavailability of agency assistance, and his mother’s ineffectuality, rather than any particular mental disturbance in Lee himself. Carro testified that there was nothing when he saw Lee at age 12 that would have led him to believe there were “seeds of destruction for somebody.”

Therapeutic Assessment and Unavailable Mental Health Services

Mrs. Siegel concluded her report by stating that despite Oswald’s withdrawal, he gave the impression of being not so difficult to reach as he appeared, and that patient, prolonged effort in a sustained relationship with one therapist might yield results. She indicated he had suffered serious personality damage that could be repaired with timely help. However, Lee Oswald never received such help; few New York social agencies were equipped to provide the intensive treatment he needed, and when a clinic found room for him, the opportunity was never utilized. When his mother failed to cooperate with school authorities after Lee became a disciplinary problem, the court began considering placement in a boys’ home, but the Oswalds left New York in January 1954 before any action was taken.