JFK Coursework: The Warren commission decided that Lee Harvey Oswald had killed President Kennedy. Did they go far enough?

JFK Coursework Question 2

The Warren commission decided that Lee Harvey Oswald had killed President Kennedy. Oswald had many motives for this crime, but there is also evidence showing it may not have been Oswald at all, and why the commission did not investigate further. Some of the evidence that points the finger towards Oswald was his time growing up as a child, his travels to Russia, and his false identity.

In source F, which sets out findings by the Warren commission, it states much of Oswald’s childhood and how it was spent moving around various parts of the USA, and attending many different schools. He was also doing this without a father by his side, as his father had died before he was born. He also had two brothers, who looked after him, but left home by 1952. This might have been very hard for him to cope with and may have made him think that there was a problem with him. The childhood of a person often sets the foundations of later life and if he had quite an unfortunate childhood this may have been why he ended up killing.

In Oswald’s later life he entered the Soviet Union on a six-day tourist visa, but after the six days were up he gave up his American passport and was allowed to stay in the USSR. After six weeks he married a woman named Marina Prusakova and settled with her in Minsk. In 1962 he returned to the USA with his wife and baby daughter. People may have thought he was a spy for the USSR, because he came back to his home country after four years, which also may have led to people think he wanted to kill the president.

The Warren commission also found a false identity card with the name A Hidell, which in source C says was used by Oswald to buy a Mannlicher-Carcano Rifle from Italy. He also rented out a post office box, which is where the rifle was sent. This is rather suspicious because it would have been much easier to buy one from a local gun shop instead of keeping it hidden and no one knowing about it.

After returning to America he joined a left-wing party called the fair play for Cuba committee and in source F it says that he ...

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After returning to America he joined a left-wing party called the fair play for Cuba committee and in source F it says that he set up a new branch in New Orleans. This party was totally against president Kennedy and all the things he had been doing there is a picture of him giving out leaflets promoting the party, which apparently found its way into a file of evidence. This as well is a perfect reason to kill someone, because he didn’t like the leader of another political group. So obviously it shows here that he had the motive to commit the crime.

There is however evidence of the Warren commission cutting corners and not doing the whole job properly, for example they were under great pressure to get the job done to meet the deadline of March or April in 1964, also the staff employed for the job were on a part time or temporary basis because it was planned to be a small investigation. After the investigation had been extended many employees did not stay on as they had been offered better jobs somewhere else. All these things I believe made the Warren commission hastily accuse Oswald and did not take in any other information which may have changed there minds about the prosecution of Oswald.

Also much of the information retrieved by the warren commission was given by the CIA and the FBI, this means they did not get all of the information available as they didn’t ask for it they only took what was provided. Also much of the information was not passed on because the CIA and FBI did not like the Warren commission.

In source A and E it explains on the day of the killing Oswald reportedly went to work in the Texas schoolbook depository with a 28 inch long paper bag, after the president was shot he was seen exiting the depository and taking a bus. If someone were shot the first thing to do would be to see if the person was okay or to see what had happened to him or her. This is very suspicious when because you would not exit your place of work, take no interest in your president being shot and take the first bus you could catch. He got off he bus when he was in traffic and caught a taxi the rest of the way to his house. Oswald stayed at his house for eight minutes and then left. I don’t think a person would stay at their house for eight minutes just after hearing about there president dieing and coming back from work, I am sure you would be in shock. A policeman was reported shot and later Oswald was identified as the murderer. Before the police arrested him for the murder he went to the Texas theatre where the arrest took place. These events that took place were very abnormal for example bringing a 28” long bag in to work or exiting a place of great interest. These signs of fear obviously meant he was getting nervous and did not know what to do. This irrational behaviour gave the warren commission even more reasons to think it was him who killed the president.

In sources E and F it states that Marina, the wife of Oswald, knew he owned a rifle and that it was kept in the garage. When the garage was searched the rifle was missing from the spot she thought it was in. both a next-door neighbour and a co-worker said they saw him carrying a large brown paper bag out with him whilst going to work.

To conclude this question, I think there was lots of evidence to back up the Warren committee with their prosecution of Lee Harvey Oswald. Also the committee did not have very much time to finish the investigation and at that time I think most if not all the evidence was pointing towards Oswald, and as he was shot on the journey from the police headquarters to court, we will never no if the decision made by the Warren committee was the right one.

James Cook