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

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.