Good Riddance: Lee Harvey Oswald

Six Feet Under Hollywood was created to describe some of the hundreds of burial sites I've visited through my travels.  While I mostly find the graves of Hollywood elite, I also encounter the graves of historical figures, news personalities, U.S. presidents, and in the case of this blog, a presidential assassin.  Keep in mind that I am no fan of this guy, but I have found his grave, and what you'll see there is really rather shocking.  But more on that later.

Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1939.  His father, a U.S. Marine who served in World War I, died of a heart attack two months before he was born.  When Oswald was five, his mother moved him and his half-brother to Dallas.

It was the first of many moves for the family, as Oswald would attend schools in Texas, the Bronx and New Orleans.  While he was a voracious reader, he had a learning disability that diminished his ability to spell correctly.  Still, he often wrote in a journal.

By 15, Oswald considered himself a Marxist.  As he wrote in his journal, "I was looking for a key to my environment, and then I discovered socialist literature.  I had to dig for my books in the back of dusty shelves of libraries."

Oswald never graduated from high school.  Following his 17th birthday, he followed in his father's footsteps and enlisted as a Marine.  He was still under age however, and needed his family's consent to enlist.  His half-brother Robert signed on his behalf.

He was trained as a radar technician, for which he seemed quite proficient.  And like all Marines, he was trained in the use of firearms, for which, unfortunately, he also proved quite adept at, scoring high enough to be ranked as a sharpshooter.

While Oswald seemed capable as a Marine, he seemed unable to get along with those with whom he served.  He was court-martialed no less than three times, one of which was for accidentally shooting himself.   He would often espouse Marxist doctrine to his fellow Marines, who quickly gave him the nickname "Oswaldskovich."  His tour came to an end in 1959, when he received a hardship discharge, claiming his mother needed him to come home.

A month after his discharge, Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union, where he quickly announced his desire to defect.  They didn't want him however, and in a bid to prove just how serious he was, he attempted suicide in his hotel room just as his visa was set to expire.  He survived the attempt and earned himself an extended stay in a Russian looney bin.

Following his release he was allowed to stay in the country.  He took a job in a factory and stayed for a few years.  Then in 1961, he related in his journal that he'd grown tired of Russia, stating that "the work is drab, the money I get has nowhere to be spent.  No nightclubs or bowling alleys, no places of recreation except the trade union dances.  I have had enough."  As he had never officially renounced his U.S. citizenship, he returned to the U.S. with his Russian bride Marina.

The Texas School Book Depository.

Over the next two years, they'd live in Dallas, New Orleans and Mexico, before finally returning to Dallas for the last time.  It was now October of 1963.  He took a job as a shipping clerk at the Texas School Book Depository. 

As everyone reading this knows, it was from this location where, just one month later, Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy as his presidential motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza.  Oswald fired three rifle shots from the sixth floor window, killing Kennedy and seriously wounding Texas Governor John Connally.  One bystander was also wounded by shrapnel.  Here's a clip of the infamous Zapruder film capturing the incident. 

Celebrated journalist Walter Cronkite broke into CBS's daytime drama "As the World Turns" with the news that shocked the world.  You can watch that pre-emption here.

But Oswald wasn't finished yet.  Fleeing the book depository, he returned to his rooming house and gathered a few items.  As he was leaving, he was spotted by Dallas Patrolman J.D. Tippit, who thought Oswald bore a resemblance to the description of the shooter.  As Tippit began to question him, Oswald shot him four times, killing him instantly.

Oswald fled to a local movie threatre, ducking into a picture called Cry of Battle.   Apparently everyone has forgotten this film, as I can't find any clips of it online.  His odd behavior caught the attention of several local merchants who quickly contacted the authorities.  Officers arrived to arrest him for Tippit's murder, still unaware of his connection to Kennedy.  The house lights were brought up, and Oswald appeared to surrender. Instead, he pulled a pistol from his pants and attempted to shoot at the officers but was unsuccessful as his pistol jammed. He was taken into custody.

Robert H. Jackson of the Dallas Times Herald
won the Pulitzer Prize for capturing this iconic
image of Oswald's assassination.

Police were able to connect the dots and tie Oswald to the assassination of Kennedy.  He vehemently denied having any part in either killing, but would never have his day in court.  One day after the assassination, Oswald was himself assassinated on live TV.  You can watch that footage here.

Police arrested Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner, who said he had been distraught by the death of Kennedy and had hoped to spare his widow the drama of a lengthy trial.

Oswald was buried in Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park in Fort Worth two days later.  Reporters who were covering the service were asked to serve as pallbearers.  Ugh.

Oswald's grave attracts a lot of visitors, who oddly like to decorate it.  The grass
leading to the grave has long since worn out.

Oswald and Marina had two children, who now have kids of their own. 
Ironically, I shot these photos on the anniversary of Oswald's death and it
appears that his grandchildren came to pay their respects.

Trivia

• Oswald's father was a distant cousin of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, for whom the boy was named.
  
  
• Television producer Donald Bellisario (Magnum, P.I.) was himself a Marine who encountered Oswald during his service.  Watch him discuss that encounter here.  Years later, following the release of Oliver Stone's JFK, a film with which he greatly disagreed, Bellisario addressed the assassination on his NBC series Quantum Leap.  Here's how the series presented the assassination.
  
  
• On October 4, 1981, Oswald's body was exhumed in order to confirm its identity, as conspiracy theories claimed that a Russian lookalike was buried in his place.  Dental records confirmed the corpse as that of Oswald.  He was reburied in a new coffin however, as the original had so badly degraded.
  
  
• The original coffin was held in a Fort Worth funeral home for nearly 30 years.  Then in 2010, it employed a Los Angeles area auction house in an attempt to sell the coffin.  A private bidder won the coffin for $87,468 (!).  However, upon reading of the auction in the papers, Oswald's brother Robert, still very much alive, sued to get it back, ultimately prevailing in court.  He had the coffin destroyed and died himself shortly thereafter.