Lee Harvey Oswald Biography

Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963. Oswald was a drifter with a murky past; he had been dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Marines and then defected to Russia in 1959, only to be refused citizenship there and sent back to the United States. Oswald allegedly shot Kennedy with a sniper's rifle from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as the president's motorcade traveled through Dallas. Oswald was arrested hours later in a movie theater, after also shooting and killing police officer J.D. Tippet. Oswald was never tried: two days later he himself was shot to death at Dallas police headquarters by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. In 1964 a special commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren decided that Oswald, acting alone, had shot and killed the president.