Is it Harvey Oswald's rifle? Who is Harvey Oswald

It is considered the largest national tragedy of the 20th century. November 22, 1963, driving in an open limousine through the streets of Dallas, Texas, the 35th President of the United States was shot dead. The only official defendant, or, in the opinion of the Warren Commission, guilty, is Lee Harvey Oswald, an American who vehemently hated his country. The facts of his biography indicate that Oswald could be the assassin of John F. Kennedy or the victim of a conspiracy.

Childhood and youth

Lee Harvey Oswald was born October 18, 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Father Robert Edward Lee Oswald Sr. died of a heart attack 2 months before his birth. Children - Lee and older brothers Robert Edward Lee and John Edward Peak - remained in the care of Marguerite's mother Francis Claverie. It turned out to be difficult to provide for three sons: the boys spent 13 months in an orphanage.

In 1944, the Oswald family moved to Dallas, where a year later, Lee entered the 1st grade. Teachers described the boy as "withdrawn and aggressive". The latter trait was most often manifested at school, because of which 12 institutions had to be changed. In August 1952, 12-year-old Li beat his mother and threatened his half-brother's wife with a knife.

As a child, Oswald underwent a psychiatric examination that revealed "a personality disorder with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies". In other words, Lee tried to compensate for his shortcomings with a demonstration of strength: he suffered from dyslexia - he read quickly, but almost could not write.

In 1954 the family returned to New Orleans. The teenager, not without difficulty, graduated from the 8th and 9th grades, and left school in the 10th. He worked as a messenger in the office, a courier. In July 1956, Lee made another attempt to graduate from high school, but dropped out at 17 to join the Marine Corps.

Military service and career

On October 24, 1956, Oswald enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. At the Warren Commission (established to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy), Lee's half-brother John Pick testified that joining the army was an excuse to get out of the oppression of his mother.

In the personal card of Private Oswald, it is indicated that he weighed 61 kg with a height of 173 cm, was distinguished by mobility and nervousness. He had "permission to process classified materials, including confidential" as an operator of aviation electronics.

Like other infantrymen, Li took the marksmanship test. The result for December 1956 was 212 points, which is slightly higher than the requirements for snipers. 3 years later, his performance deteriorated - 191 points.

The weapon was the cause of Oswald's problems in the army. He first stood before the tribunal when he shot himself in the elbow with a pistol that was not on the safety catch. The young man decided that one of the sergeants of his unit was guilty of this, and lost the fight. The 3rd time, Lee fired unnecessarily into the jungle. On September 11, 1959, he resigned of his own free will.

Oswald was interested in communism, life in the USSR, and while still in the army he began to learn Russian. In October 1959, an American came to Moscow and applied for citizenship. The application was rejected. Enraged by the news, Lee tried to commit suicide.

After 10 days spent in a mental hospital, Oswald applied to the US Embassy in Moscow to renounce American citizenship. He told the diplomats about his service at the radar station and promised to inform the USSR of some interesting information. The proposal did not go unnoticed: Lee was not deported.

The young man was sent to Minsk to work as a turner at the Horizont electronics plant. His salary with bonuses and allowances was 700 rubles - 5 times more than any Soviet worker. Oswald was given a furnished apartment in a prestigious building on the street. Kalinin (now - Communist street). He was taught Russian by Stanislav Shushkevich, the future head of the Republic of Belarus.

In June 1962, Lee moved to the United States with his wife, Marina Oswald, and their daughter, June. The family settled near Dallas, in the "Russian quarter". The emigrant George de Mohrenschild became a close friend of the American. They discussed communist and revolutionary ideas, hated the country in which they live. The Warren Commission suggested that it was these conversations that led the mentally unstable Lee to attempt to assassinate retired US Major General Edwin Walker, an ardent anti-communist.

In March 1963 Oswald bought a rifle and a revolver under the pseudonym A. Hidell. On April 10, Lee shot Edwin Walker, who was sitting at a table in his house, from a distance of 30 m. The bullet pierced the window frame, which saved the soldier's life. It is assumed that Oswald wanted to scare Walker, not kill him, and deliberately misfired.

In the months that followed, Oswald was active in supporting the Cuban Revolution, unsuccessfully attempting to infiltrate the island and eventually returning to Dallas. He got a job at the Texas School Book Depository, from the window of which President Kennedy was assassinated.

Personal life

Both women in Lee Harvey Oswald's personal life are Russian. Since June 1960, he was in a relationship with his Horizon colleague Ella Herman. In early 1961, a young man invited her to become his wife, she refused - she did not love Lee and was afraid to marry an American. Herman's refusal is believed to have spurred Oswald to immigrate.

In March 1961, Lee met Marina Nikolaevna Prusakova, a 19-year-old pharmacology student. The lovers got married in April of the same year, and on February 15, 1962, their daughter June was born.

Lee's acquaintances at the Warren Commission testified that there was domestic violence in the Oswald family. Russian emigrants who lived nearby in Dallas felt sorry for the girl, brought her food and children's toys, but this only angered Lee more.

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

The route of John F. Kennedy's motorcade through Dallas was known in advance - the path ran next to the Texas School Book Depository.

On November 21, the day before the murder, Oswald asked Weasley Fraser, an acquaintance, to give him a lift to the center - he was supposed to transport the cornices from Marina's house to a rented apartment, which he rented not far from work. Leaving on the morning of November 22, Lee left his wife $170 and an engagement ring, and took a long paper bag with him, allegedly with cornices. It is assumed that the package contained a rifle.

Charles Givens, Oswald's colleague, told the Warren Commission that he saw him on the 6th floor of the book depository around 11:55 am on November 22 - 35 minutes before the motorcade appeared at the building. Several other employees saw Lee at work until 12:10. Shooting at John F. Kennedy was carried out at 12:20.

The killer fired 3 shots. The first bullet flew past the presidential limousine, the second landed between Kennedy and John Connally, the governor of Texas, the third Kennedy was killed - a shot hit the temple. Later, Howard Brennan, a passer-by, reported that after the first shot he saw a man in the window of the book depository on the 6th floor.

It took Oswald a minute and a half to hide the rifle in the boxes of books and leave the book depository. On the 2nd floor, he ran into police officer Marrion Baker and his boss, Roy Trulli.

In the report, Baker indicated that Oswald did not look suspicious, having become frightened when the gun was pointed at him. After a short conversation with the policeman, Lee moved on and then left the warehouse through the front door. At about 13:00, the young man took things from the rented apartment and left.

An orientation on the Kennedy assassin, compiled from the words of Howard Brennan, helped Patrolman Tippit stop the suspect. As Tippit got out of the car, Lee pulled out a revolver and pulled the trigger 4 times.

Arrest and investigation

In an attempt to escape, Oswald slipped into the Texas theater without paying. A janitor from a nearby store who saw this advised the theater controller to contact the police. The killer wanted to fight off the arriving outfit, pointed a gun at them, but he was disarmed.

Around 2:00 pm on November 22, Lee was taken to the Dallas Police Department. By 7:00 pm, he was charged with the death of Patrolman Tippit, and the next day with the possible assassin of John F. Kennedy. Oswald told reporters:

“I didn't shoot anyone. They arrested me because I lived in the Soviet Union."

During interrogation, Oswald denied having a rifle. There are photographs in the file, in which a young man holds a rifle found in a book depository in one hand, and newspapers in the other. The picture was taken by Marina around March 31, 1963. Lee called these photos "duck".

The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald shot the president alone. The main motive is called "hatred of American society." 3% of the report, consisting of 888 pages, has not yet been published, which causes the emergence of alternative points of view. Some experts call Lee the victim of a national conspiracy, while others say the killer did not act alone.

According to another version, John F. Kennedy was shot not by Oswald, but by his "twin" from the Soviet Union. To test the theory, with the consent of the widow, the body was exhumed in 1981. According to dental photographs and a scar left after an autopsy, it was established that Oswald was in the grave.

Death

On November 24, 1963, the police drove Oswald to an armored car to take him to prison. Jack Ruby, owner of a Dallas nightclub, stepped out of the crowd and shot Lee at close range. The bullet hit the stomach.

Oswald was taken unconscious to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same place where John F. Kennedy had died two days earlier. Cardiac arrest occurred at 13:07.

Jack Ruby called his act an attempt to "save the soul of Mrs. Kennedy." In March 1964 he was sentenced to death. The decision was challenged. Ruby died of lung cancer in 1967.

Oswald's body is buried on November 25 at Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park in Fort Worth. The original tombstone with full name and dates of life and death was stolen. Now there is a granite slab with the inscription "Oswald" on the grave.

Memory

The biggest national tragedy of the 20th century has become the occasion for the release of documentaries and fiction, and Lee Harvey Oswald, as the only suspect in the death of John F. Kennedy, is their key character.

If there are dozens of films about these events, then there are only a few books. in the fantasy novel 11/22/63 (2011), tells the story of an English teacher, Jake Epping, who travels back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Despite the fact that the book is fiction, the facts about Lee Harvey Oswald are not distorted. The novel formed the basis of a miniseries of the same name. In the image of the criminal was Daniel Webber.

Movies

• 1964 - "Four November days"

• 1983 - "Kennedy"
• 1991 - "John F. Kennedy: Shots in Dallas"
• 1995 - Nixon
• 2000 - "First Lady"
• 2007 - The Ghost of Oswald
• 2011 - The Kennedy Clan
• 2013 - "Parkland"
• 2016 - "Jackie"
• 2016 - "11/22/63"

But now, more than half a century later, this cheap pine coffin has become a bone of contention. (Wow comparison: the coffin is an apple, although of discord, and over time thoroughly decomposed). Some in the media refer to this crusade as the "comical ending to the tragic tragedy" of Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963.

The point is the following. Three days after Oswald assassinated Kennedy from the window of the Texas School Depository, and the day after he himself was assassinated by fanatic and nightclub owner Jack Ruby, Oswald was buried in Fort Worth Cemetery. There were so few people present that the coffin had to be carried by the media.

But the ashes of Oswald still did not find rest. In 1981, the body of the Kennedy assassin was exhumed to refute the "conspiracy theory" - they say, instead of Oswald, a KGB agent who pretended to be buried was buried. After the doctors refuted this wild "theory", Oswald's ashes were again buried in the earth, but already in a new coffin. As for the old one, it was hidden in Baumgardner's funeral home in the same Fort Worth.

Now half a century after the assassination of President Kennedy, when everything connected with his name became the subject of hunting for mad collectors, Oswald's coffin has become a tidbit for them. (Again, a tasteless comparison: the coffin is a tasty morsel).

Avant-garde battles began in the court of the same Fort Worth. Oswald's brother Robert sniffed out that Baumgardner Funeral Home had sold the decayed pine coffin to a Los Angeles auction house for $87,468. Brother Robert, realizing that he had made a mistake, filed a lawsuit declaring this deal null and void, since, they say, the marketing of the coffin is sacrilege, that it has "no historical value" and generally belongs to him, since it was he who bought it.

The funeral home immediately counterattacked. He refers to the fact that Robert, now 80, is not the owner of the coffin, as he gave it posthumously to his older brother.

The other day this case was heard by Judge Don Cosby in Fort Worth. The trial went on for two days. The judge's verdict is expected on Christmas Eve. Robert himself, who lives in Wichita Falls, 115 miles from Fort Worth, was not in court due to poor health, his lawyer explained. Instead, the court showed a 77-minute video recorded by Robert for the trial. In the video, the younger Oswald, gray-haired and wearing glasses, calls the sale of the coffin "bad taste" and himself its rightful owner. (Not taste, but a coffin). He says he thought the coffin was destroyed after being exhumed. It wasn't until 2010 that he learned otherwise from the Nate D. Sanders Eek auction house.

Robert Oswald's lawyer Grant Grimes, commenting on the video, said: "My client doesn't want money. Nor does he want the coffin to be displayed in a museum. He wants the coffin to be destroyed. There must be a limit to the historical curiosity of the public?” In his video, Robert emphasizes that no one has ever bought a "used coffin" before. But dashing trouble is the beginning!

A completely different point of view is shared by the owner of the funeral home, Allen Baumgardner Sr. At one time, he bought the Miller Funeral Home, which he buried Lee Harvey “on the first run”. Then in 1981, Baumgardner Sr. assisted in the exhumation of Oswald's body. When the first coffin was examined, it became clear that it was unsuitable for reuse. And since then, for 30 years, Baumgardner Sr. kept it in the pantry of his funeral home, until he put it up for auction four years ago. At the trial, Baumgardner stated, that is, showed that it was his funeral home that was the legal owner of the disputed coffin, especially since no one had encroached on this right before. As for Robert's demand to "destroy" the coffin, Baumgardner Sr. objects as it is "part of history". (Not Baumgardner Sr., but a coffin).

And, finally, purely legal casuistry. Baumgardner Sr. proceeds from the fact that, having bought a coffin for his brother, Robert thereby transferred ownership to him, along with his widow Marina and their two daughters. The last coffin is not required back.

Baumgardner Sr. started tricks with some museums, but no one could give him a guarantee of the safety of the coffin. Then there was a deal with an auction house that bought a coffin measuring 80 inches long and 24 inches wide. In addition to the coffin under the hammer, the table on which Oswald was embalmed and the certificate of his death, which was later declared invalid because of some factual error, crept into it.

The person who purchased the coffin with personal belongings through the auction remains anonymous. But after Robert's appeal to the court in 2010, the purchase of the coffin by an anonymous person was declared illegal until the court's decision. Nate D. Sanders auction house manager Laura Intema says the casket is now “somewhere in Los Angeles until the case is resolved. What the court says will decide our attitude towards the coffin. In the meantime, he is in a safe and secret place and there is nothing to worry about his fate. ” By the way, in the papers on the sale of the coffin, it is indicated that it "crumbles from old age, dampness and other symptoms of degradation." (Main of which is the auction). Mrs. Intema, as if apologizing, says: “What do you want. It was a simple pine coffin and, having lain in the ground for so many years, he could not help but take on such an unpresentable appearance.

But almost everyone involved in the Oswald coffin case says it goes beyond pieces of rotting wood and is (again!) rooted in American history, which in this particular case “looks kind of frozen in time.” Even Robert Oswald adheres to this view. Consider the title of his complaint: “Plaintiff is the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald, now deceased, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.” Briefly and clearly, concisely and historically.

One of Oswald's pallbearers was Associated Press reporter Mike Cochrane. Today, he again remembers November 25, 1963 - the day of the funeral of the assassin of President Kennedy. He and other journalists volunteered to carry the coffin at Rose Hill Cemetery. Oswald's family members sat on five flimsy aluminum chairs. In addition to them, there was also a small group of onlookers, but on the other side of the cemetery fence. The entire burial ceremony took 20 minutes.

“At first, when I was offered to carry the coffin of Oswald, I cried out: “To hell with you, I refuse; but when my rival from the United Press agreed, I immediately followed him. Then I was still young and inexperienced. And still not very smart. But certainly not stupid. So I immediately changed my mind,” recalls Cochrane. Attached to the coffin of Oswald, he clung to the story of the Kennedy assassination.

Lawyers in the “coffin case” also feel its “historical sound”. Lawyer Myers, who represents Baumgardner Sr. Funeral Home, says: “When you deal with people who remember the history of distant days, it seems that all this happened very recently ...”

As I already warned you, these are, of course, not crusades for the Holy Sepulcher, but still ...

Prime suspect in the Kennedy assassination. A year and a half earlier, he returned to America from the Soviet Union.

It all started with a madhouse

In the army, Oswald left because of "care for his mother", and not at all because of his political views. Whatever it was, Li provided fictitious documents about his intention to enter foreign universities and received a European student visa. On September 20, 1959, the pseudo-entrant sailed from New Orleans to France. From France, Oswald went to England, then flew to Helsinki, where he received a Soviet visa. On October 16, Lee Harvey Oswald arrived in Moscow by train. Immediately upon arrival, the fugitive declared his desire to obtain Soviet citizenship: “I want to obtain citizenship because I am a communist and a worker. I lived in a decadent capitalist society where workers are slaves. I am twenty years old, I served three years in the US Marine Corps, I served with the occupying forces in Japan. I have seen American imperialism in all its forms. And I do not want to return to any country outside the USSR. I am ready to give up my American citizenship and take on the duties of a Soviet citizen." Oswald's citizenship was denied, Oswald cut his veins and was sent to a psychiatric hospital. After leaving the clinic, Lee went to the American embassy, ​​where he announced his desire to renounce American citizenship. At that time, American tabloids were already writing about the persistent fugitive. He showed inimitable stubbornness and intended to stay in Moscow and study at Moscow State University, but he was sent to Minsk to work as a turner at a radio factory. Oswald wanted Soviet life - Oswald got Soviet life.

He is Lyosha, he is Alik

Lee assimilated well in Minsk. He was given all the conditions for this: they gave him a job with a good salary, allocated an apartment and supported him in every possible way. Of course, he was constantly monitored, his acquaintances were under constant control of the KGB, but in the middle of the night they did not break into the apartment with a search and did not wring their hands. From Lee's diary: "As a test, I was appointed as a mechanic, they pay 700 rubles a month, it's very easy to work. I learn Russian quite quickly. Now everyone is very friendly and kind." Lee did not show any special zeal in his work, but what was required of him, he performed clearly: a marine, after all. Over time, Oswald, being a rather sociable person, made friends and led the life of a simple Soviet worker. His friends called him Lyosha and Alik.

Women

An American in Minsk, 59 years old, is a rare bird. Lee enjoyed success with women and often came to work tired, because "there was love at night." Women around an American in the Soviet Union are not only romance and moonlight conversations - they are also the most reliable source of information and an element of control. The girls surrounding Oswald were KGB informants, but Lee was hardly embarrassed: he did not show anti-Soviet views, although he was known among his comrades as a "patriot of America." In March 1961, Oswald, who was already beginning to get bored with Soviet life, met Marina Prusakova. A month and a half later, they got married. In February 1962, they had a daughter, who was named June.

Case on the hunt

Doubts that Oswald killed Kennedy appeared in his Soviet acquaintances immediately after the indictment. According to the memoirs of Leonid Tsagoiko, a radio factory mechanic, with whom Oswald once went hunting, Lee shot poorly, although he was a sniper in the second army specialty. The men once took Lee on a hunt, so the American didn’t even kill a hare, hesitated and missed, almost hit his friends. After that unsuccessful hunt, Tsagoiko was summoned by the authorities and forbidden to take Oswald with him another time.

Lee romantic

What all the memories of Oswald of the "Minsk period" unambiguously converge on is that he loved his wife Marina very much. He gave her flowers all the time. In his diaries, Lee wrote that he married Marina to annoy another of his girlfriends, Ella, who had previously refused the American. "May. The transition of all my love from Ella to Marina was very difficult, especially because I saw Ella every day at the factory. But every week I became more and more close to my wife. I have not yet told her about the desire to return to the USA. She loves me to the point of madness Boat trips on Lake Minsk, walks in the park, evenings at home and with her aunt Valya… June Same as in May, we are getting closer and closer, I think very little about Ella In the last days month I open up to my wife that I want to leave. She was dumbfounded at first, but now she encourages me to do what I want.

Lee ponders

Oswald did not live in poverty in Minsk. He received 1,400 rubles a month, which at that time corresponded to the salary of the director of the plant (salary, plus funds from the Red Cross). He paid 60 rubles a month for an apartment. Everything would be fine, but there was actually nowhere to spend money. In discos, especially after the wedding, you don’t particularly disperse, constantly go on a spree - it doesn’t look like Oswald. As a result, the American fugitive began to think about returning to his homeland. In his diary, he writes: ““I am starting to reconsider my desire to stay. The work is gray, there is nowhere to spend money, there are no nightclubs and bowling alleys, there are no places for recreation, except for union dances. I’ve had enough.” Marina was not enthusiastic about her husband’s initiative to leave to America, the marriage was no longer as romantic as at the very beginning, the Oswalds often cursed.

Farewell, Minsk

The Oswalds left Minsk on May 22, 1962. Less than a year and a half was left before the events due to which Lee Harvey would become famous. Lee Harvey knew America, while Marina was leaving for complete obscurity, she could not even imagine how life would turn out and that she, a pharmacist from Minsk, would be on the cover of Time magazine. The Oswalds in America even became nostalgic for their life in Minsk and subscribed to Soviet magazines. And then something happened that happened ... nobody knows for sure what happened.

MOSCOW, November 23 - RIA Novosti. Over 200 "absolutely proven" versions of the assassination of the 35th US President John F. Kennedy have been made public in America for half a century, but none of them is 100% convincing.

Why Americans do not believe the official version of the murder, what kind of psychological portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald was made by the KGB, and how attempts to delve into the details of this case can lead to the death of America - these questions were discussed during another discussion on a historical topic in the RIA Novosti multimedia press center.

The discussion "Political Assassinations: John F. Kennedy and Others" was held as part of a joint project between RIA Novosti and Diletant magazine. As usual, the focus of the meeting is a controversial historical fact, versions and historical figures, to whom the key material of the issue is devoted. The moderator of the meeting, editor-in-chief of Diletant, Vitaly Dymarsky, immediately made a reservation that there were so many questions about the Kennedy assassination that it was impossible to find unambiguous answers to them, and suggested that we confine ourselves to discussing the personality of Lee Harvey Oswald and his motives.

“Political assassinations throughout human history are such a leitmotif. Unfortunately, perhaps, but history is what it is,” said Dymarsky, anticipating a conversation about one of the most mysterious murders in the history of the 20th century.

Will the Kennedy assassination be solved?

"In the history of not only America, but also other countries, there are such events, the causes of which cannot always be explained, determined and answered the question of who and why. It will not be possible to give a truthful answer in a lifetime. What happened 50 years ago in Dallas is just such an event," says Professor Valery Garbuzov, Deputy Director of the Institute of the United States of America and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally and their spouses drove through the streets of Dallas in an open car as part of a motorcade. As participants in the discussion noted, questions already arise here: for example, why, in a state that was radically opposed to Kennedy's policies, was he driving in an open car on a route that involved a slow movement of a cortege past many buildings?

“There is an official response from the Warren Commission that lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy. He dismisses all conspiracy theories. This is the official version, and it was confirmed later. This is on the one hand, and on the other, there is a lot of evidence that that people don’t believe in this version. For some reason, the Americans themselves don’t believe,” Garbuzov added.

According to the participants in the discussion, the actions of the president's guards immediately after the shots and the fact that the driver began to slow down look strange. Oleg Nechiporenko, adviser to the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Fund, retired KGB colonel, believes that the question of the effectiveness of the presidential guard may cause documents on the role of the secret service in this matter to be closed for another 75 years, or maybe longer.

The prosecutor of New Orleans, journalists, witnesses, writers and historians conducted their investigations into the murder. Most researchers, in the absence of direct evidence, began to use indirect evidence. Inferences based on the atmosphere of that era, the knots of conflicts between Kennedy and various groups, only led to the emergence of many new versions, including conspiracy theories. “These theories will remain theories that will not lead us to absolute knowledge. It seems to me that this is an event of such a magnitude that it will remain forever a mystery,” Garbuzov is convinced.

In the end, despite the large number of blank spots in the official investigation, in the 50 years since the murder, not a single convincing evidence of a different version has appeared.

Who Framed Lee Harvey Oswald

Available documents and materials of the investigation lead most experts to the conclusion that Kennedy was killed by a 24-year-old book warehouse worker, disillusioned with both the USSR and the USA, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Only versions of motives differ: was he a lone killer or a pawn in a large-scale conspiracy against the United States? Or maybe Oswald was telling the truth when he denied any involvement in this case? But since the owner of the nightclub, Jack Ruby, shot Oswald out of good intentions, those who want to get to the bottom of the truth are left with crumbs of declassified documents.

Only the available data does not add up to a single picture, and each new fact only adds questions.

Indeed, why, given the biography of Oswald, was he not included in the list of potentially dangerous people? After all, the US intelligence services probably had information about the whereabouts of the fugitive former marine after his return from Minsk.

Retired Colonel Nechiporenko personally met with Oswald, interrogated him at the KGB. The expert admitted that he is a supporter of the version of a lone killer, but does not believe in large-scale conspiracies.

The KGB filed a case against Oswald when he arrived in the USSR, declaring his pro-communist and socialist views. "We treated him as a potential agent of the enemy, and the American side, after his return from the Soviet Union, and even with his Soviet wife,<…>they also considered him a possible agent," Nechiporenko said. According to him, when Oswald was already suspected of the murder, the KGB offered the help of their experts in the investigation, but the United States refused.

"The manifestation of Oswald's aggression and propensity for violence in our case, the State Security Committee, is reflected.<…>When he was about to return, disillusioned with the realities of our socialism, he suddenly created a container, a grenade, and was looking for an opportunity to find filling for this improvised explosive device, but since he was "under a hood", this became known. He didn't succeed. And he was going to do it on the eve of the visit to Minsk of the country's leadership," Nechiporenko said, referring to the case file.

According to him, Oswald also offered his wife to hijack a plane to Cuba. “He said that he would buy her a gun, she would hold the passengers at gunpoint, and he would command the pilots,” the expert explained.

Nechiporenko also told how, before Richard Nixon's visit to Dallas, Oswald went to meet him and reached for a revolver, but his wife took the revolver away, and his wife locked it in the toilet. The experts also remembered Oswald's assassination attempt on General Walker.

According to Nechiporenko, Oswald had a very unstable psyche. “The impression I had after talking with him and my colleagues was this: he is a neurotic, prone to psychopathy, hysterical. His hands were shaking when he was convinced that he would not receive a visa to the USSR back, he had a tantrum,” he said. The retired colonel mentioned that Oswald drew a revolver at that meeting, illustrating the seriousness of his words that in case of a threat to his life he would use a weapon.

"Damned Conspiracy"

Director of the Foundation for the Study of the United States. Franklin Roosevelt, professor at Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov Yuri Rogulev believes that there will be more questions than answers in the case of the assassination of the 35th President of the United States for a long time to come. If only because there is no explanation why, under apparently natural circumstances, all the "dangerous witnesses" in this case died pretty soon, or because the secret services prevented the doctors in the hospital from saving Kennedy, who was still alive, or because, according to one of the witnesses, there was a video recording of the autopsy at first, and then it was gone.

Versions about the “Russian trace”, that Oswald was replaced in the USSR and sent to the States as a double, or that Oswald is a Cuban revolutionary, a triple agent and many others, will exist for a long time, according to film critic Alexander Shpagin, largely thanks to feature films. According to Shpagin, the assassination of Kennedy gave rise to "a few rather rotten matrices" in art. "The first matrix is ​​based on this murder.<…>It turned out the following: that there are some bastards, primarily the CIA, FBI, KGB, FSB, who want evil for their country. And it began to work perfectly, "the film critic believes. The second matrix, according to Shpagin, generated interest in" damned conspiracy theories. "Since the topic was beneficial to commercial cinema, it also became popular.

At the end of the discussion, the participants were invited to watch a feature film by American director Oliver Stone "John F. Kennedy: Shots in Dallas" (JFK) with Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Oldman, and decide for themselves which version is closer to them.

"Don't try to learn history from fiction. Therefore, enjoy a good film, but keep in mind that it's either not true or not the whole truth," Dymarsky traditionally warned viewers.

A new meeting with a discussion on a historical topic will also be devoted to one of the topics of the new issue of "Amateur" - this time the church schism.

Why the best JFK assassination conspiracy theories fail scrutiny

On November 22, the United States celebrates John F. Kennedy Memorial Day, declared by order of President Barack Obama. The 35th President of the United States, who is revered more than any leader in the Stars and Stripes country since World War II, was assassinated exactly 50 years ago.

On Friday, commemorative events will be held in Washington, where wreaths will be laid at Kennedy's grave at Arlington Cemetery near the capital. At the call of Obama, national flags will be flown at half mast throughout the country, and the same request is addressed to ordinary Americans.

Commemorative ceremonies will be held in Dallas, Texas, where the tragedy occurred in 1963. Excerpts from Kennedy's speeches will be read in Daly Plaza, not far from the site of the assassination, followed by church bells ringing throughout the city. At 12:30 (21:30 Minsk time), when fatal shots were fired, a minute of silence will be announced. Military planes will fly over the city, and the choir of the US Naval Academy will perform on the square.

As you know, the only official suspect in the Kennedy assassination is a US Marine. Lee Harvey Oswald, who, by the way, lived and worked in Minsk for a couple of years. Oswald was initially arrested for killing a police officer, about 40 minutes after Kennedy was shot. Oswald denied any involvement in both murders. Two days later, while being transferred from the police department to the county jail, Oswald was shot and killed by a nightclub owner. Jack Ruby.

According to the findings of the Warren Commission (1964), on November 22, 1963, Oswald fired three shots at the president's car from the sixth floor of a book warehouse in 5.6 seconds, as a result of which President Kennedy was killed, Texas Governor Connally was seriously injured, and one of the bystanders was slightly injured. . Then, according to investigators, Oswald killed a local policeman. According to the commission's findings, "acted alone and without anyone's advice or help".

Oswald moved to the Soviet Union in 1959 shortly before his twentieth birthday. Upon arrival in Moscow, he immediately announced his desire to obtain Soviet citizenship, but his application was rejected. Then Oswald went to the US Embassy in Moscow and said that he wanted to renounce American citizenship.

Oswald intended to study at Moscow State University, but he was sent to Minsk to work as a turner at the Minsk Radio Plant named after Lenin, engaged in the production of consumer and military space electronics. He also received an allowance, a furnished one-room apartment in a prestigious building, but was under constant surveillance.

After a while, Oswald got bored in Minsk. In January 1961 he wrote in his diary: “I'm starting to reconsider my desire to stay. The work is gray, there is nowhere to spend money, there are no nightclubs and bowling alleys, there are no places for recreation, except for union dances. I've had enough".

Shortly thereafter, Oswald (who never officially renounced his American citizenship) wrote to the US embassy in Moscow requesting the return of his US passport and an offer to return to the US if the charges against him were dropped.

In March 1961, Oswald met a 19-year-old student Marina Nikolaevna Prusakova, and in less than six weeks they were married. On February 15, 1962, Oswald and his wife had a daughter, June. On May 24, 1962, Oswald and Marina received documents from the US Embassy in Moscow allowing her to emigrate to the United States, after which Oswald, Marina, and their little daughter left the Soviet Union...

The first head of independent Belarus, former chairman of the Supreme Council Stanislav Shushkevich was one of those who communicated with Lee Harvey Oswald during his Soviet period of life. The Party Committee of the Minsk Radio Plant instructed the young engineer Shushkevich to study Russian with the American after work.

In an interview RIA News" Shushkevich recalls his student, assuring that he categorically does not believe that he could have killed Kennedy.

- How did it happen that it was you, yesterday's non-partisan graduate student, who was allowed to communicate with Oswald?

It was the Minsk Radio Plant. I was an engineer. We developed instruments for physical research. Naturally, it was necessary to be interested in publications on this topic. And, of course, the most effective publications were in English. I translated English-language texts quite skillfully and now I am translating. It was believed that I knew English better than others, because everyone ran to me with articles. When Oswald got into the experimental workshop, there was no person there who could understand at least a little in English.

Lebezin, the secretary of the party committee of the workshop, came to me, despite the fact that we had a conflict with him. I was given feedback on the rationalization proposals of the workers. There were normal proposals, but there were many completely stupid proposals. I said that I can only write that this is stupidity, and a person does not understand where he is climbing. And he told me that the working class is the hegemon, and how can I reason like that.

Lebezin told me that there was an American at the factory, that he needed to study Russian, and after conferring, the party committee decided to entrust this matter to me, even though I was a non-party member.

- Were you instructed before class?

Lebezin immediately formulated the conditions. You couldn't ask questions. You can't even ask who he is and where he came from. Nothing is possible. Besides, I've never been alone with Oswald. We were always together with Sasha Rubenchik. Now it is even impossible to assume, but then it was in the order of things. As far as I know, Sasha left for Israel a long time ago. We worked in the same lab. In the evening everyone left the factory at six o'clock. At six o'clock five minutes Lee Harvey Oswald came to our laboratory.

- Couldn't a security officer not be present with you at the lessons?

There was no one. No Chekist has ever spoken to me on this topic, officially or unofficially. I received all instructions from the party committee secretary Lebezin. I do not think that Sasha Rubenchik was a Chekist, because he was a normal Jew - talented, hardworking. Decent little one.

- You must have been interested in a live American?

Very! By that time I had never been abroad. I didn’t get to see, much less talk to a living American. Even at scientific conferences with the participation of foreigners, it was forbidden to contact them. And here - contact as much as you want, just don't ask questions. Well, I didn't ask. I was a disciplined person. Why should I ruin my career?

- What was Oswald in terms of personality? What an impression
did he produce?

I have a purely emotional perception. We had at least seven, but no more than ten lessons. And all this was completed in one month. I couldn't even ask him where he was from. One could only talk about the cinema, about the weather. There were rumors that he was a deserter, that he had run away. I could ask, but either Sasha will lay me down, or Oswald himself will lay me down. Now it is difficult to imagine, but then it was quite natural.

Was Oswald different from the Soviet people?

He gave the impression of a very clean, well-washed and ironed person. Even any modest clothes fit him very well. Everything was as it should be. He was different from most of the others.

- Was he an unbalanced person?

No. He never complained about anything. He just, I would say, was lethargic. He didn't have any sudden movements, any outbursts.

In Belarusian they will say: "Yak is a wet scoundrel." And he showed no great interest in our studies. I felt that for him they were some kind of obligation. In the workshop, we communicated at the level: hello - goodbye. I was afraid that my order would not get to him. Because he was a filthy locksmith. Yet he was meticulously precise. Five minutes after the end of the work, he appeared in the laboratory, and we began to study.

- After the message that Oswald killed the President of the United States, did you show excessive interest in you?

The whole plant knew that Sasha and I were working with him. When the news of the Kennedy assassination was broadcast on the radio, everyone who met me wanted to joke: “How are you still walking down the street? But Lebezin has already been taken, arrested.”

- Do you personally believe that John F. Kennedy was killed by Oswald?

Not! In my deep conviction, he could not do it. When I was at the Belarusian educational center in Kansas, I stayed late, rented a car and drove to Dallas. I looked through the entire route where the presidential cortege was traveling, walked it, listened to many storytellers, and visited museums. There are three six-story buildings. Sit on any floor and shoot. Only pure idiots, not professionals, could not provide for normal security there. So it was a well-planned, well-thought-out murder. And Oswald was framed as guilty.

Apparently, the Warren Commission, which has been investigating for 9 months and spent millions of dollars, made its conclusion based on political will. It was impossible to admit that a planned political assassination of a president could happen in the United States. Oswald was guilty. He was a martinet, to put it bluntly. Here he was framed.