25 Facts You Were Never Told About Lee Harvey Oswald
The average American knows very little about the man accused of killing the 35th President of the United States. But this article is determined to change that. Below are 25 quick facts about Lee Harvey Oswald that you never learned from the government education system or the mainstream media. These 25 facts will also include inconvenient truths that those with a monopoly on the dissemination of information don’t want you to know.
FAMILY TIES
1). Born on October 18, 1939, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lee Harvey Oswald was the fifth cousin (five times removed) of Confederate General, Robert E. Lee. In Fact, Lee Harvey Oswald’s father’s name was Robert E. Lee Oswald Senior.
THE EARLY YEARS
2). As a teenager, Lee Harvey Oswald was a fan of the television show, I Led Three Lives. The show aired from 1953 to 1956 and is described as:
“An advertising executive poses as a Communist agent but secretly reports to the FBI.”
3). Enlisting with the Marines in 1956, Oswald eventually obtained top secret security clearance and was stationed at the American U2 radar base in Atsugi, Japan where he monitored radar for American military spy planes.
TO RUSSIA AND BACK
4). Oswald defected to Russia—America’s Cold War enemy at the time—in October of 1959.
(Note: Those who believe Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy point to this defection as proof that Oswald was a communist. However, those critical of the official story about Oswald’s involvement in the assassination point to this as one of Oswald’s many covers as a U.S. intelligence agent in order to appear as a communist sympathizer. In the intelligence community this is commonly referred to as “sheep dipping.”)
5). Less than two years after defecting, Oswald typed a letter to the American Embassy on August 08, 1961, regarding his return to America. In this letter he even suggested:
“I believe I could catch a military hop back to the States, from Berlin.”
(Note: Suggesting he can catch a ride on an American military plane would be an utterly outlandish expectation from someone who genuinely defected to America’s Cold War enemy. But more outlandish than that was the American government’s response: the U.S. State Department actually loaned Oswald—a supposed enemy defector—$435.71 so he could fly back to America. Let that sink in.)
6). After returning to the United States, not only was Oswald not arrested, but his new Russian wife, Marina, was also allowed into the country without reservation.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
7). Back in America, Oswald continued to publicly present himself as a Marxist while simultaneously maintaining friendships with avowed anti-communists such as Clay Shaw (businessman and CIA informant), Guy Banister (former FBI), and David Ferrie (Civil Air Patrol and involved in CIA military training for anti-Castro exiles).
8). Another one of Oswald’s anti-communist friends was European émigré, George de Mohrenschildt, a petroleum geologist who just happened to be friends with CIA employee, George H.W. Bush. (Yes, the same George H.W. Bush who would later become director of the CIA and the 41st president of the United States, and who claimed he couldn’t remember where he was the day JFK was assassinated.)
OSWALD, THE CIA, AND THE FBI
9). While in New Orleans, Oswald remained highly visible—conveniently being captured in photographs and on video handing out pro-Castro literature on the streets (in an era before cameras and cell phones were ubiquitous).
Oswald was engaged in this very activity on August 9, 1963, when he got into a fight and was arrested for disturbing the peace.
While in custody for this altercation, Oswald requested to speak to an FBI agent. Remarkably, the Federal Bureau of Investigation honored this request and sent Special Agent John Lester Quigley to the jail to speak with Oswald.
(Note: We will never know what these two men discussed because Agent Quigley burned his notes.)
10). The aforementioned George de Mohrenschildt introduced Lee Oswald and Marina Oswald to Ruth Paine who allowed the Oswald family to move into her house in Irving, Texas. In another example of one of the many astounding coincidences surrounding Oswald, Ruth Paine’s mother-in-law was friends with Allen Dulles. Dulles was the United States CIA Director from 1953 until 1961 when he was fired by President John F. Kennedy. What are the odds?
(Note: In an incredible conflict of interest, President Lyndon Baines Johnson would later appoint Allen Dulles to the Warren Commission to investigate the murder of JFK.)
Furthermore, Ruth Paine’s father, William Avery Hyde, also had CIA connections, and at one time was being considered for an undisclosed covert operation in Vietnam. Even Ruth Paine’s sister, Sylvia Hoke, was an employee of the CIA in Falls Church, Virginia.
11). It was Ruth Paine who told her new tenant, Lee Oswald, about the job opening at the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD). The TSBD was owned by Texas oilman, D. Harold Boyd who not only disliked JFK, but also happened to be friends with George de Mohrenschildt, the man who introduced Lee to Ruth Paine.
12). Oswald began working at the TSBD on October 16, 1963, and was later accused of shooting JFK from that same building on November 22, 1963.
13). The fact that Oswald was an FBI informant came out during the Warren Commission investigation in January of 1964. It was revealed that Oswald had been employed with the FBI since September of 1962 with a salary of $200 a month. Although there is disagreement about which number is correct, his FBI number was reported to be either S172 or S179.
14). The CIA opened a 201 file on Oswald in December of 1960.
15). Not only was it established that Oswald worked for the FBI, but it was also discovered that he was a paid informant for the CIA.
Former CIA accountant, James B. Wilcott, testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations that Oswald was “an employee of the agency and was an agent of the agency.” When asked to clarify what he meant by the term “agent,” Wilcott said that Oswald “was a regular employee, receiving a full-time salary for agent work for doing CIA operational work.”
According to Dallas District Attorney, Henry Wade, Oswald’s CIA informant number was 110669.
(Note: Further proof of Oswald’s employment with these intelligence agencies could be confirmed by viewing his tax information, however, to this day, for some inexplicable reason, the government refuses to release Oswald’s tax returns.)
16). Not only has Oswald’s employment with U.S. intelligence agencies been documented in official files and testimony, Jeanne de Mohrenschildt (wife of the aforementioned George de Mohrenschildt) said she believed Oswald was an agent and he did not kill JFK, and even Oswald’s mistress Judyth Vary Baker, and his own mother Marguerite Oswald, claimed they both knew he was a government agent.
According to Judyth Vary Baker, Oswald revealed to her that he had infiltrated a ring to assassinate JFK, and although he had a feeling he was being set up, he had to stay in it because of fear that harm would come to his family if he backed out. He also told Baker that by remaining involved, one less bullet would be fired at JFK.
AFTER THE ASSASSINATION
17). Shortly after JFK was shot, Oswald returned to his boarding house in Dallas (where he was renting a room when not staying with his wife at Ruth Paine’s home in Irving).
While in his room for approximately three to four minutes, his landlady, Earlene Roberts, saw a Dallas Police Department squad car pull up “directly in front” of the residence with two police officers inside (while all of Dallas PD was aflutter with the President of the United States having just been shot in their city). The driver honked the horn twice before driving away. Moments later, Oswald left the house wearing a dark colored jacket.
Earlene last saw Oswald standing across the street waiting at the bus stop for a bus that would have taken him in the opposite direction of where Dallas PD Officer J.D. Tippit was about to be killed (a murder Oswald would be blamed for).
Shortly after this last sighting of Oswald by his landlady, Oswald is alleged to have encountered Officer Tippit and fatally shot him in the street, in spite of eyewitnesses like Acquilla Clemons who say two men were involved in Tippit’s murder—neither of which were Oswald.
If you recall, Earlene Roberts’ testimony was that Oswald left the boarding house wearing a dark colored jacket, however, the “official” narrative claims that after shooting Tippit, for some unknown reason Oswald removed his light colored jacket and conveniently left it behind.
18). Oswald was arrested for the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit but not for the murder of JFK. It wasn’t until 10 hours after his arrest that he was finally charged with murdering the president.
Interestingly though, during Oswald’s arrest at the Texas Theater, one of the officers is quoted as saying to Oswald, “Kill the president, will you?”
(Note: What’s significant about that statement is, officially, no one had supposedly made a connection between Tippit’s murder and the assassination of JFK yet.)
19). The handgun that Oswald was in possession of when he was arrested was later found to have a damaged firing pin, preventing it from operating. A gun that can’t fire would have prevented Oswald from being able to shoot Officer Tippit. That exculpatory evidence would have been an enormous problem for the prosecution had Oswald been allowed to live long enough to go to trial.
20). About two hours after the assassination of JFK, Oswald was brought to the jail. Dallas PD investigators, however, did not know for sure who they had in custody since Oswald was found to have two different identifications on his person. One was in his real name and the other bore the name Alek James Hidell. To make identification even more difficult, Oswald refused to tell them who he was, instead, choosing to recommend that since they were the cops, they could figure it out themselves.
At about this same time, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called JFK’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), to tell him that the man responsible for his brother’s death was in custody. Also during this phone call, Hoover provided RFK with details about who Oswald was and about Oswald’s history.
This was remarkably fast suspectology (especially for 1963 technology) regarding a man they just arrested and hadn’t confirmed his identity yet, and who wasn’t volunteering information about himself.
21). Oswald attempted to make an unsuccessful phone call from jail to a John David Hurt in Raleigh, North Carolina.
John David Hurt of Raleigh, North Carolina just happened to have been involved in U.S. counterintelligence during World War II.
22). A small Minox camera was found among Oswald’s belongings where he and his wife lived with Ruth Paine.
Dallas Assistant District Attorney William Alexander confirmed it was a camera, as did Dallas property manager H.W. Hill and FBI agent Warren du Brueys (both of whom signed the property inventory that reflected the Minox was a camera). The camera had been documented and inventoried numerous times as a “camera” and the Dallas detectives who found it even noted that it still contained film.
In spite of all this, however, once the camera reached FBI headquarters in Washington DC, a secondary inventory was created and the camera now turned into a “light meter.”
What made this particular Minox camera unique is that it was not only far more expensive than Oswald should have been able to afford (around $200), but it was also the camera commonly used by spies at that time.
FINGERPRINTS
23). After Oswald’s autopsy, federal agents visited Miller’s Funeral Home and spent over an hour with Oswald’s body. The funeral director, Paul Groody, said that after the agents left, Oswald now had ink on his hands that Groody had to remove to prepare him for burial. Groody believed the ink was for fingerprinting purposes (even though Oswald had already been fingerprinted prior to his death).
The alleged rifle used to kill JFK—that was documented by the four cops that found it to have been a Mauser 7.65, only for it to later miraculously change to a Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5 (just like the Minox camera)—had already been tested and found not to contain Oswald’s prints on it. However, the day after this strange visit by the agents at Miller’s Funeral Home, Oswald’s palm print was suddenly found on the rifle.
24). Minimal fingerprints of Oswald’s were found on the sixth floor of the TSBD, but any presence of his fingerprints on the sixth floor would not be unusual because the TSBD is where Oswald worked. What was unusual, however, is that fingerprints of someone not employed at the TSBD were located in the “sniper’s nest.” Those prints belonged to Malcom “Mac” Wallace.
Who was Malcom Wallace?
Malcom Wallace was a friend of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (the same Lyndon B. Johnson who would become president of the United States when JFK was assassinated). Mac Wallace also happened to be a convicted murderer who shot and killed John Kinser on October 22, 1951. Kinser had been having an affair with Josefa Johnson, the sister of Lyndon B. Johnson.
To connect the dots between Malcom Wallace and LBJ even more prodigiously (and there’s more dots than I’m addressing here), when Wallace was arrested for the murder of Kinser he was subsequently released after Bill Carroll and M.E. Ruby—both financial supporters of Lyndon B. Johnson—posted his bail. Additionally, the defense lawyer that represented Wallace in the murder trial was none other than LBJ’s own attorney, James Cofer.
Although the jury convicted Wallace of the murder of Kinser, he served no time. Instead, he received a suspended sentence for the homicide.
“LEE” SPARES JFK’S LIFE (FOR THREE WEEKS)
25). On November 02, 1963 (just twenty days before JFK’s assassination in Dallas), a plot to kill JFK in Chicago was thwarted when an FBI informant tipped off the FBI about the impending assassination.
The informant’s name?
Lee.
Unfortunately, until all the assassination files are released, there is no evidence available at this time to prove or disprove whether or not this FBI informant named Lee was actually FBI informant Lee Harvey Oswald, but the coincidence is unarguably strong.
Additional coincidences that can’t be ignored in the Chicago plot to kill JFK are the similarities between accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas and would-be assassin Thomas Arthur Vallee in Chicago.
From the research website 22November1963.org:
Both were former Marines.
Both had served at Marine bases in Japan that hosted the U–2 spy plane: Oswald at Atsugi, Vallee at Camp Otsu.
Both had been involved with anti–Castro Cubans: Oswald in New Orleans, Vallee at a training camp at Levittown on Long Island, New York.
Both had recently started working at premises that overlooked the routes of presidential parades: Oswald at the Texas School Book Depository on Elm Street in Dallas, Vallee at IPP Litho–Plate at 625 West Jackson Boulevard in Chicago.
CONCLUSION
Regardless of your opinion about who killed JFK (or who orchestrated it), nearly 60 years has elapsed since the assassination and yet most of the preceding 25 facts are still unknown to most Americans. This is nothing less than a shameful indictment of our news and entertainment media, our public education system, and our federal government which still holds back many files on this case.
Any government that keeps information from the public’s view is a government that has something to hide, and—as President Kennedy warned—is a government afraid of its own people.
“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts . . . . For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” -John F. Kennedy
See related: Thirteen People Who Had Foreknowledge of JFK’s Assassination
J.L. Pattison has been an autodidactic student of the JFK assassination for as long as he can remember, and he feels it’s vitally important to educate future generations about the facts surrounding the assassination of the 35th president of the United States.
He considers it a labor of love to introduce the subject of the JFK assassination to newer generations by taking the complexities of the assassination and boiling them down to bite-sized, easy to understand essays, like his popular work 13 people Who Had Foreknowledge Of JFK’s Assassination.
J.L. Pattison is also the author of four contemporary speculative fiction books, including Saving Kennedy (a collection of short stories about time travelers attempting to stop the JFK assassination). To find out more, and to see his other books, visit his blog.
Before you go, if you want to show your appreciation for this article and encourage J.L. Pattison to produce more content like this, please consider buying him a coffee.
I never heard of most of this. Thanks.
JKF's assination was totally set up by LBJ who had diverse interests from JFK. There was no love lost. The CIA does nothing without the permission from the presidential office, including the VP. LBJ was intently racist to the point of his conversation using the 'n' word recorded on tape in the Oval Office regarding civil rights act. Everything else was a ruse but for the above mentioned friends and appointees. I don't believe Russia was involved. Just blamed. LBJ took the US into a full blown Cold War because war is money.