WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.160 Welcome back to the deep dive. We are doing something 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:04.639 a little different today. Usually when people 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:07.219 bring up the topic we're about to cover, they 00:00:07.219 --> 00:00:10.560 they bring a cork board, some red string and 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:14.220 about six different theories about the CIA or 00:00:14.220 --> 00:00:16.800 the mafia. It is the ultimate rabbit hole. I 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:19.440 mean, you can spend a lifetime digging into it. 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:21.800 You will never, ever find the bottom. We are 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:23.879 talking about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 00:00:24.019 --> 00:00:27.390 but. And this is the key. We are explicitly not 00:00:27.390 --> 00:00:30.269 talking about the grassy knoll or the umbrella 00:00:30.269 --> 00:00:32.409 man or, you know, the magic bullet trajectory. 00:00:32.549 --> 00:00:34.770 We're stripping all of that away. All of it. 00:00:34.789 --> 00:00:37.210 To look at the one thing that gets so lost in 00:00:37.210 --> 00:00:40.890 that just the noise of conspiracy, the actual 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:43.450 biography of the man holding the rifle. Leah 00:00:43.450 --> 00:00:45.950 Hervey Oswald. Exactly. Because I think for most 00:00:45.950 --> 00:00:49.450 of us, for me anyway, Oswald is this this two 00:00:49.450 --> 00:00:51.329 dimensional figure. He's either the lone nut 00:00:51.329 --> 00:00:53.189 villain from the official story. Or he's the 00:00:53.189 --> 00:00:55.600 innocent Patsy. Right. He's a symbol. He's not 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:58.119 a human being. But when you sent over the source 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:01.060 material for this, I mean, the biographical data, 00:01:01.179 --> 00:01:03.039 the psychiatric reports from his childhood, the 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:05.519 witness testimonies, I just realized I didn't 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:07.799 know this guy at all. And that's a very, very 00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:10.819 common reaction. Oswald is so often treated as 00:01:10.819 --> 00:01:13.459 a plot device in his own story. But when you 00:01:13.459 --> 00:01:15.579 actually read the documents, the Warren Commission 00:01:15.579 --> 00:01:17.540 exhibits or the House Select Committee reports 00:01:17.540 --> 00:01:20.359 or his own diary, which we have excerpts from, 00:01:20.459 --> 00:01:24.629 you see a very specific and... a very consistent 00:01:24.629 --> 00:01:28.010 personality pattern emerge. So that's the mission 00:01:28.010 --> 00:01:30.189 for this deep dive. We want to try and understand 00:01:30.189 --> 00:01:32.510 the psychology and the specific movements of 00:01:32.510 --> 00:01:35.790 Oswald. Not the myth, but the man. And frankly, 00:01:35.870 --> 00:01:37.890 the man is so much stranger than the myth. I 00:01:37.890 --> 00:01:39.890 mean, the sheer volume of failure in his life 00:01:39.890 --> 00:01:42.530 is just, it's staggering. It is a catalog of 00:01:42.530 --> 00:01:45.000 rejection from start to finish. And the fact 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:47.680 that he attempted a high profile political assassination 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:50.019 before Kennedy, that was the detail that really, 00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:52.040 really stuck with me. The general Walker attempt. 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:54.340 It's well, I think it's the skeleton key to the 00:01:54.340 --> 00:01:57.420 whole case. If you can understand why he shot 00:01:57.420 --> 00:01:59.319 at Walker, you understand Dallas in November. 00:01:59.900 --> 00:02:02.959 OK, so let's get into it. We aren't going to 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:04.780 go chronologically just for the sake of it, but 00:02:04.780 --> 00:02:07.900 because the timeline actually builds this. This 00:02:07.900 --> 00:02:10.860 pressure cooker. We have to start with the environment 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:13.759 that produced him. And the source material paints 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:16.680 a pretty bleak picture of his entry into the 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:19.520 world. It was unstable from day one, or actually 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:22.419 from day minus 60. Lee was born in New Orleans 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:26.039 in October 1939, but his father, Robert E. Lee 00:02:26.039 --> 00:02:28.840 Oswald, died of a sudden heart attack two months 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:30.979 before Lee was even born. So there's a ghost 00:02:30.979 --> 00:02:33.099 at the head of the table immediately. No father 00:02:33.099 --> 00:02:35.479 figure from the very start. Exactly. And his 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:38.139 mother, Marguerite. She is really the central 00:02:38.139 --> 00:02:40.740 context for his early life. You read the social 00:02:40.740 --> 00:02:43.039 worker reports of the later testimony from family 00:02:43.039 --> 00:02:45.159 and she's described as incredibly difficult. 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:48.219 The words you see are self -involved, conflicted 00:02:48.219 --> 00:02:50.780 and just. She struggled to maintain any kind 00:02:50.780 --> 00:02:53.180 of stability whatsoever. And the stat that just 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:55.659 jumped out at me that quantifies that instability 00:02:55.659 --> 00:02:58.919 was the moving. I moved a few times as a kid 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:02.900 and I hated it. But Oswald. He moved 21 times 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:05.879 by the time he was 17. 21 times. And along with 00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:09.259 that, he attended 12 different schools. 12! I 00:03:09.259 --> 00:03:11.740 mean, that is almost hard to conceptualize. You're 00:03:11.740 --> 00:03:14.139 never in a classroom long enough to learn the 00:03:14.139 --> 00:03:16.580 teacher's name, let alone make a single friend. 00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:19.659 It guarantees isolation. It's a formula for it. 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:22.979 You are perpetually the new kid. You are always 00:03:22.979 --> 00:03:25.479 on the outside looking in. And for a child who 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:28.110 is already... you know, naturally quiet or withdrawn, 00:03:28.509 --> 00:03:31.030 that creates a barrier between you and the rest 00:03:31.030 --> 00:03:33.349 of the world that just calcifies over time. And 00:03:33.349 --> 00:03:35.509 wasn't there a period where she just couldn't 00:03:35.509 --> 00:03:38.189 handle it and put him in an orphanage? Yes, the 00:03:38.189 --> 00:03:41.430 Bethlehem Orphan Asylum. She put Lee and his 00:03:41.430 --> 00:03:43.830 two older brothers, Robert and John, there for 00:03:43.830 --> 00:03:46.129 about a year. She claimed she couldn't afford 00:03:46.129 --> 00:03:47.830 to take care of them, that she needed to work. 00:03:48.129 --> 00:03:49.689 But there's a little detail in there that seems 00:03:49.689 --> 00:03:52.349 really important. There is. Here's the nuance 00:03:52.349 --> 00:03:55.729 that matters. She left the older brothers there. 00:03:56.280 --> 00:03:58.979 But she pulled Lee out early. He was the baby. 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:02.139 He was special. So she creates this dynamic where 00:04:02.139 --> 00:04:04.379 he is the only one who matters, but he's also 00:04:04.379 --> 00:04:07.419 a burden that she can just, you know, check into 00:04:07.419 --> 00:04:09.780 an institution when it's inconvenient. It was 00:04:09.780 --> 00:04:12.719 a claustrophobic, confusing bond. The reports 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.000 say she slept in the same bed with him until 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:17.600 he was nearly a teenager. She insisted he was 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:19.439 special, that he was smarter than other kids, 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:22.040 but she also completely neglected his emotional 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:26.160 needs. It created this toxic mix of entitlement 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.300 and deep, deep resentment. That resentment seems 00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:31.300 to boil over in what the notes called the New 00:04:31.300 --> 00:04:34.339 York incident. This feels like the villain's 00:04:34.339 --> 00:04:36.259 origin story. He's 12 years old, and they've 00:04:36.259 --> 00:04:38.060 moved to New York City to live with his half 00:04:38.060 --> 00:04:40.259 -brother, John Pick. That's right. This is the 00:04:40.259 --> 00:04:42.939 first time we see the fantasy life, the rage, 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:46.379 actually manifest as physical violence. There 00:04:46.379 --> 00:04:48.040 was an argument. We don't know the exact trigger, 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:50.699 but Oswald allegedly struck his mother. He hit 00:04:50.699 --> 00:04:52.959 her. He did. And when his half -brother's wife, 00:04:53.139 --> 00:04:55.079 John's wife, intervened to protect Marguerite, 00:04:55.259 --> 00:04:57.800 Oswald pulled a pocket knife on her. A 12 -year 00:04:57.800 --> 00:04:59.980 -old pulling a knife on his sister -in -law. 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:02.079 That is not just a temper tantrum. That is a 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:04.500 whole different level. No, and the courts recognized 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:07.139 that. He was truant. He was refusing to go to 00:05:07.139 --> 00:05:10.060 school. So they sent him to a juvenile reformatory, 00:05:10.279 --> 00:05:13.649 youth house, for observation. And that led to 00:05:13.649 --> 00:05:17.389 a psychiatric assessment by Dr. Renatus Hartogs. 00:05:17.889 --> 00:05:20.170 This report is one of the most critical documents 00:05:20.170 --> 00:05:22.569 we have on Oswald's personality. I have the quote 00:05:22.569 --> 00:05:25.110 here. Hartog has diagnosed him with personality 00:05:25.110 --> 00:05:28.350 pattern disturbance with schizoid features. Can 00:05:28.350 --> 00:05:30.629 we break that down? Because schizoid is a word 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:32.870 people throw around. What does it actually mean 00:05:32.870 --> 00:05:35.730 in this context from the 1950s? Well, in that 00:05:35.730 --> 00:05:37.790 era's psychiatric terminology, it wasn't about 00:05:37.790 --> 00:05:40.750 schizophrenia. It referred to a profound detachment 00:05:40.750 --> 00:05:43.550 from social relationships, a very limited range 00:05:43.550 --> 00:05:46.149 of emotional expression, and a strong tendency 00:05:46.149 --> 00:05:48.930 toward solitary activities. He was a loner who 00:05:48.930 --> 00:05:51.519 couldn't connect. But Hartog's went much further 00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:53.399 than that. This is the key part. This is the 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:56.100 key part. He noted that Oswald had a vivid fantasy 00:05:56.100 --> 00:05:58.519 life, turning around the topics of omnipotence 00:05:58.519 --> 00:06:01.800 and power. Omnipotence and power. I mean, that 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:04.839 is a heavy, heavy phrase to describe a 12 -year 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:07.300 -old boy. It means he felt small and powerless 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:10.959 in his real life. No father, no stability, no 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:14.639 friends, no money. So he compensated by building 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:17.300 a world inside his head where he was a giant. 00:06:17.660 --> 00:06:20.540 He wanted to be a great man. He fantasized about 00:06:20.540 --> 00:06:22.860 controlling the world that was currently controlling 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:25.100 him. The social worker at the time, Evelyn Siegel, 00:06:25.220 --> 00:06:27.500 had a really sad but sharp observation about 00:06:27.500 --> 00:06:30.240 him. She called him an emotionally starved, affectionless 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:32.600 youngster. She did, and she actually saw hope 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:35.339 for him. This is the tragic part. She recommended 00:06:35.339 --> 00:06:38.680 probation, but she insisted he get ongoing psychotherapy. 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:42.079 She warned, and this is on the record, that if 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:44.720 he didn't get help, his behavior would only deteriorate 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:46.819 and his detachment from reality would grow. But 00:06:46.819 --> 00:06:49.019 he didn't get the help. No, because just like 00:06:49.019 --> 00:06:50.740 she did with everything else, Marguerite ran 00:06:50.740 --> 00:06:53.300 away. Before the court could mandate the therapy, 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:55.779 before the system could intervene, she packed 00:06:55.779 --> 00:06:58.540 Lee up and moved back to New Orleans. She literally 00:06:58.540 --> 00:07:01.199 fled the solution. So he falls right back into 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:03.259 the cracks. He eventually drops out of school 00:07:03.259 --> 00:07:06.040 at 17 in the 10th grade, never gets a diploma. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:08.399 But the notes are really clear that he wasn't 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:10.620 stupid. In fact, he was reading stuff that most 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:12.740 kids his age, even kids in college, wouldn't 00:07:12.740 --> 00:07:15.220 touch. Oh, he was a voracious reader. But he 00:07:15.220 --> 00:07:17.079 wasn't reading for pleasure. He was reading to 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:20.199 find a key. He felt the world was broken and 00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:22.920 unfair, and he was looking for a system, a grand 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:25.860 theory that explained why. And he finds it. He 00:07:25.860 --> 00:07:27.720 finds it in the dusty shelves of the New Orleans 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:31.019 Public Libraries. He finds Karl Marx. Which is 00:07:31.019 --> 00:07:34.120 just such a bizarre image. It's the mid -1950s. 00:07:34.279 --> 00:07:37.300 Eisenhower is president. The Cold War is at its 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:40.819 absolute peak. And here is this lonely teenager 00:07:40.819 --> 00:07:44.079 in the Deep South, probably surrounded by crew 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:47.339 cuts and patriotism, deciding he is a Marxist. 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:49.160 It was the ultimate rebellion. It was a way to 00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:51.379 feel intellectually superior to everyone around 00:07:51.379 --> 00:07:53.600 him. You guys are all living in the delusion 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:56.209 of capitalism. I alone know the truth. By the 00:07:56.209 --> 00:07:58.550 time he's 15, he's writing letters to the Socialist 00:07:58.550 --> 00:08:01.290 Party of America asking for literature. So he 00:08:01.290 --> 00:08:04.149 builds this new identity for himself. I am a 00:08:04.149 --> 00:08:06.750 Marxist revolutionary. But then he does something 00:08:06.750 --> 00:08:08.930 that seems to completely, totally contradict 00:08:08.930 --> 00:08:11.649 that. He joins the United States Marines. It's 00:08:11.649 --> 00:08:13.550 the great contradiction of his youth, and it's 00:08:13.550 --> 00:08:15.370 a pattern we'll see again and again. So why? 00:08:15.750 --> 00:08:18.509 I mean, if you hate the American system, if you 00:08:18.509 --> 00:08:21.189 think it's oppressive, why join the most aggressive 00:08:21.189 --> 00:08:23.610 arm of its military? There are really two reasons. 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:26.660 The first is simple and practical, to escape 00:08:26.660 --> 00:08:29.620 his mother. His brother testified that Lee felt 00:08:29.620 --> 00:08:31.480 he was living under the yoke of oppression with 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:34.360 Marguerite. He was 17, he needed a ticket out, 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:37.039 and the Marines were that ticket. And the second 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:38.860 reason? I think the second reason goes back to 00:08:38.860 --> 00:08:42.039 Dr. Hartog's report. The fantasy of omnipotence 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:44.730 and power. Where do you find power? in the real 00:08:44.730 --> 00:08:47.470 world, the military. It's a place of structure, 00:08:47.610 --> 00:08:50.250 of weapons, of control. I think a part of him 00:08:50.250 --> 00:08:52.570 was drawn to that, even as his ideology rejected 00:08:52.570 --> 00:08:55.190 it. So how did he fit in? I can't imagine this 00:08:55.190 --> 00:08:59.210 solitary, bookish Marxist vibing well in the 00:08:59.210 --> 00:09:02.129 barracks. He absolutely did not. They called 00:09:02.129 --> 00:09:05.330 him Ozzy Rabbit after a cartoon character, partly 00:09:05.330 --> 00:09:07.350 because of his name and partly because he was 00:09:07.350 --> 00:09:10.529 small and quiet. He was mocked. He was an outsider 00:09:10.529 --> 00:09:13.549 there, too. But... And this is critically important 00:09:13.549 --> 00:09:17.169 for the events of 1963. He was trained. OK, let's 00:09:17.169 --> 00:09:18.710 talk about his shooting skills, because there 00:09:18.710 --> 00:09:20.269 is a lot of debate. You see it online all the 00:09:20.269 --> 00:09:22.710 time about whether he was actually a good shot. 00:09:22.909 --> 00:09:25.590 The Marine records are very clear. In December 00:09:25.590 --> 00:09:29.210 1956, shortly after you joined, he was tested 00:09:29.210 --> 00:09:32.470 on the shooting range. He scored a 212. That's 00:09:32.470 --> 00:09:35.450 out of 250. That score qualified him as a sharpshooter. 00:09:35.549 --> 00:09:37.850 And what does that mean in layman's terms? It's 00:09:37.850 --> 00:09:39.509 the second highest rating you can get. It's a 00:09:39.509 --> 00:09:41.899 good score. It's definitely above average. It 00:09:41.899 --> 00:09:44.639 means he was proficient with an M1 Garand rifle 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:47.519 at distances up to 500 yards. But that score 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:50.100 went down later, right? It did. Years later, 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:53.460 in 1959, he was retested and he scored a 191. 00:09:53.659 --> 00:09:55.879 That dropped his rating down to marksman, which 00:09:55.879 --> 00:09:57.559 is the lowest passing grade. Which is what a 00:09:57.559 --> 00:09:59.700 lot of conspiracy theorists point to. See, he 00:09:59.700 --> 00:10:02.500 was a lousy shot. Right. But we have to be really 00:10:02.500 --> 00:10:05.539 careful with that data. A marksman in the United 00:10:05.539 --> 00:10:08.080 States Marine Corps is still a trained shooter. 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:11.600 He knows how to handle a rifle, how to use iron 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:14.100 sights, how to lead a target, how to control 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:17.259 his breathing, how to maintain a weapon. He wasn't 00:10:17.259 --> 00:10:19.759 some elite sniper, but he was absolutely not 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:22.559 an amateur. He was competent. And beyond the 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:24.620 rifle, he also had a pretty sensitive job, right? 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:26.679 A security clearance. He did. He was a radar 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:29.860 operator. He worked in a MACS, a Marine Air Control 00:10:29.860 --> 00:10:32.379 Squadron. This gave him access to classified 00:10:32.379 --> 00:10:35.320 information about U .S. aircraft movements. And 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:38.220 specifically... the locations and altitudes of 00:10:38.220 --> 00:10:40.460 the U -2 spy planes. But at the same time, his 00:10:40.460 --> 00:10:42.559 behavior was getting more and more erratic. I 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:44.379 saw a note in the file about him shooting himself. 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.940 In the elbow, yes. He was playing with an unauthorized 00:10:47.940 --> 00:10:51.500 .22 pistol he had smuggled onto the base, and 00:10:51.500 --> 00:10:53.159 it went off. He was court -martialed for that. 00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:55.340 He was also court -martialed for a separate incident 00:10:55.340 --> 00:10:57.559 for fighting with a sergeant who outranked him. 00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:00.539 And the jungle incident? That one is so strange. 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:03.460 It's one of those weird telling details. While 00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:05.419 he was stationed in the Philippines on sentry 00:11:05.419 --> 00:11:07.919 duty one night, he just fired his rifle off into 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.460 the dark jungle. He claimed he heard something. 00:11:10.600 --> 00:11:12.830 No one else did. He was disciplined for that, 00:11:12.850 --> 00:11:15.789 too. It sounds like he was trying to create action, 00:11:15.950 --> 00:11:17.690 trying to make something happen in his boring 00:11:17.690 --> 00:11:20.450 life. Or the fantasy life was bleeding into reality 00:11:20.450 --> 00:11:23.029 again. He was seeing enemies in the shadows that 00:11:23.029 --> 00:11:24.649 weren't really there. So he gets sick of the 00:11:24.649 --> 00:11:27.090 Marines. He pulls a fast one to get out a few 00:11:27.090 --> 00:11:29.029 months early, claiming his mother is sick and 00:11:29.029 --> 00:11:31.730 needs his care, which she wasn't really. And 00:11:31.730 --> 00:11:34.730 he gets a hardship discharge. And then he executes 00:11:34.730 --> 00:11:37.690 what must be the biggest, most audacious plan 00:11:37.690 --> 00:11:40.600 of his life up to that point. He defects. October 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:43.720 1959. He'd saved up his Marine pay, about $1 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:46.980 ,500. He takes this incredibly convoluted route 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:49.759 of ships and planes to get to Helsinki, Finland, 00:11:49.980 --> 00:11:52.899 and then takes the train into Moscow. He walks 00:11:52.899 --> 00:11:55.879 into his hotel room and announces to his in -tourist 00:11:55.879 --> 00:11:58.639 guide that he wants to defect to the Soviet Union. 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:00.960 He expects a parade. He thinks they're going 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:03.159 to welcome the American comrade with open arms. 00:12:03.480 --> 00:12:06.299 He truly does. He thinks he's a big deal. And 00:12:06.299 --> 00:12:08.360 instead, they check his visa and tell him it's 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:11.399 expiring in two days. The KGB looked at him. 00:12:11.460 --> 00:12:14.779 A 20 -year -old high school dropout with a history 00:12:14.779 --> 00:12:17.419 of instability. And they decided he was totally 00:12:17.419 --> 00:12:21.700 useless. Or worse, a potential plant. They told 00:12:21.700 --> 00:12:24.840 him thanks, but no thanks. Go home. That rejection 00:12:24.840 --> 00:12:27.259 must have absolutely shattered him. This was 00:12:27.259 --> 00:12:30.100 his grand gesture. It did. And his response was 00:12:30.100 --> 00:12:33.669 extreme and extremely theatrical. When the tour 00:12:33.669 --> 00:12:35.730 guide came back to his room to tell him he had 00:12:35.730 --> 00:12:38.250 to leave, she found him in the bathtub. He had 00:12:38.250 --> 00:12:40.669 slashed his left wrist. Was it a genuine suicide 00:12:40.669 --> 00:12:42.990 attempt or was it pure theater? It's debated. 00:12:43.309 --> 00:12:45.669 But the timing, the superficiality of the cut, 00:12:45.769 --> 00:12:48.509 it strongly suggests theater. He did it right 00:12:48.509 --> 00:12:50.759 before she was scheduled to arrive. He wanted 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:52.820 to force their hand. He knew the Soviets couldn't 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:54.980 just kick out a bleeding, dying American. It 00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:56.840 would be an international incident. And it worked. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:59.220 It worked perfectly. They hospitalized him. They 00:12:59.220 --> 00:13:01.500 put him under psychiatric observation. The irony. 00:13:01.700 --> 00:13:04.320 And eventually the KGB decided it was just easier 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:06.620 to let him stay than to deal with the hassle 00:13:06.620 --> 00:13:09.059 of deporting him. He even went to the U .S. embassy 00:13:09.059 --> 00:13:12.039 in Moscow to, what, make it official? Oh, it 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:14.820 was a huge dramatic scene. He stormed into the 00:13:14.820 --> 00:13:17.799 embassy, slammed his U .S. passport on the consul's 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:21.820 desk, and announced, I'm through. He renounced 00:13:21.820 --> 00:13:23.620 his citizenship. He even threatened to give up 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:26.159 his radar secrets about the U -2 spy plane. He 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:28.799 wanted to burn the bridge so completely that 00:13:28.799 --> 00:13:31.240 he could never go back. So he gets his wish. 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:33.940 He is now, for all intents and purposes, living 00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:36.700 in the Soviet Union. And they send him to Minsk. 00:13:36.820 --> 00:13:39.000 Which is not exactly Moscow. It's an industrial 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:41.460 city, a provincial capital. They gave him a job 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:43.940 at a radio and electronics factory called Gorizont. 00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:46.779 The Horizon Factory. And this is where the fantasy 00:13:46.779 --> 00:13:49.399 of being a revolutionary hero collides head on 00:13:49.399 --> 00:13:52.000 with the drab reality of communism. Exactly. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.139 We have his historic diary. That's what he called 00:13:54.139 --> 00:13:55.960 it, which, again, speaks volumes about his ego. 00:13:56.100 --> 00:13:58.360 And he's just complaining constantly. He wrote, 00:13:58.460 --> 00:14:00.620 the work is drab. He complained that there was 00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:02.700 no nightlife. I mean, he specifically complained 00:14:02.700 --> 00:14:04.460 that there were no bowling alleys or nightclubs. 00:14:04.519 --> 00:14:08.019 I have to laugh at that. He defects to the worker's 00:14:08.019 --> 00:14:10.200 paradise in the middle of the Cold War. And his 00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:12.740 main complaint is the lack of bowling. It just 00:14:12.740 --> 00:14:15.519 shows his incredible immaturity. He liked the 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:18.860 idea of communism, the theory of it, but he hated 00:14:18.860 --> 00:14:21.159 the actual boredom of living in that system. 00:14:21.620 --> 00:14:24.299 He had a subsidized apartment. He had good pay 00:14:24.299 --> 00:14:26.700 from the factory, plus a subsidy from the Red 00:14:26.700 --> 00:14:29.419 Cross. But there was nothing to buy and nothing 00:14:29.419 --> 00:14:32.419 to do. But he did find a wife. He did. Marina 00:14:32.419 --> 00:14:34.519 Prusakova, she was a 19 -year -old pharmacy student. 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:37.419 They met at a trade union dance. And what was 00:14:37.419 --> 00:14:39.320 the attraction there? What did they see in each 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:42.269 other? Well, for her... Lee was exotic. He was 00:14:42.269 --> 00:14:45.049 a real American. Even though he was a defector, 00:14:45.129 --> 00:14:48.629 he represented the West, a different world. She 00:14:48.629 --> 00:14:50.230 probably thought he was a ticket to a better, 00:14:50.269 --> 00:14:52.649 more exciting life. For him, having a Russian 00:14:52.649 --> 00:14:55.509 wife was like a trophy. It was proof that he 00:14:55.509 --> 00:14:57.669 had successfully integrated into this new world. 00:14:57.830 --> 00:15:00.149 And they married really quickly. Just six weeks 00:15:00.149 --> 00:15:02.490 after they met. It was a whirlwind. But the bloom 00:15:02.490 --> 00:15:05.049 came off that rose pretty quickly, too. Almost 00:15:05.049 --> 00:15:09.070 immediately. By 1962, the boredom was just unbearable 00:15:09.070 --> 00:15:12.149 for him. The novelty was gone. He realized he 00:15:12.149 --> 00:15:14.470 wasn't going to be a leader or an important figure 00:15:14.470 --> 00:15:16.850 in the Soviet Union. He was just another cog 00:15:16.850 --> 00:15:20.070 in a drab machine. So he starts the process to 00:15:20.070 --> 00:15:22.370 go back. And the U .S. just lets him back in. 00:15:22.429 --> 00:15:24.590 After he renounced his citizenship and threatened 00:15:24.590 --> 00:15:26.909 to give away secrets? They did. It was the height 00:15:26.909 --> 00:15:29.970 of the Cold War. Bringing a dissolution defector 00:15:29.970 --> 00:15:32.980 back was seen as a major propaganda win. See, 00:15:33.059 --> 00:15:35.320 even the communists who go there want to come 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:37.659 back to America. They actually gave him a loan 00:15:37.659 --> 00:15:40.019 from the embassy to pay for the travel. So in 00:15:40.019 --> 00:15:42.899 June of 1962, he arrives back in the U .S. with 00:15:42.899 --> 00:15:45.399 Marina and a baby daughter, June. They settle 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:47.740 in the Dallas -Fort Worth area. And this is where 00:15:47.740 --> 00:15:49.960 the final slide toward the assassination really 00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:52.100 begins. He tries to connect with the local Russian 00:15:52.100 --> 00:15:54.000 emigre community in Dallas. These are people 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:55.879 who had fled Stalin, who had escaped the Soviet 00:15:55.879 --> 00:15:59.419 Union. They are fiercely, passionately anti -communist. 00:15:59.500 --> 00:16:02.000 And Oswald, the genius, walks in talking about 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.480 how great Marx is and how the Soviet system has 00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:06.460 its good points. It was a complete disaster. 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:09.710 They hated him. They found him arrogant, rude, 00:16:09.889 --> 00:16:12.370 and politically naive. They felt sorry for Marina. 00:16:12.470 --> 00:16:14.629 They saw her as this poor girl trapped with this 00:16:14.629 --> 00:16:17.210 abusive, delusional little man. They would help 00:16:17.210 --> 00:16:19.750 her out, give her diapers and food, but they 00:16:19.750 --> 00:16:21.309 couldn't stand to be in the same room as Lee. 00:16:21.470 --> 00:16:25.090 Except for one guy, George DeMorenschild. He 00:16:25.090 --> 00:16:27.570 is the fascinating exception. DeMorenschild was 00:16:27.570 --> 00:16:30.450 a wealthy, highly educated, worldly geologist, 00:16:30.629 --> 00:16:35.039 much older. And he found Oswald amusing. He was 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:36.840 almost like an anthropological study to him. 00:16:36.899 --> 00:16:38.899 He told the Warren Commission later that Oswald 00:16:38.899 --> 00:16:41.620 was surprisingly fluent in Russian and had a 00:16:41.620 --> 00:16:43.980 sharp, albeit twisted, intellect. I think de 00:16:43.980 --> 00:16:46.320 Morenchal is important because he was maybe the 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.860 only person giving Oswald the kind of intellectual 00:16:48.860 --> 00:16:51.220 respect he craved so badly. I think that's right. 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:53.700 But even he eventually got tired of Oswald's 00:16:53.700 --> 00:16:56.299 personality and started to drift away. And as 00:16:56.299 --> 00:16:59.320 he drifted, Oswald became more isolated and more 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:02.120 desperate for a cause for something to do. Which 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:05.740 brings us to April 1963, the General Walker attempt. 00:17:06.410 --> 00:17:09.009 I really want to slow down here because, as you 00:17:09.009 --> 00:17:10.910 said, this completely changes his profile. This 00:17:10.910 --> 00:17:14.210 isn't just a theory. It's a documented act. General 00:17:14.210 --> 00:17:16.829 Edwin Walker was a major public figure in Dallas 00:17:16.829 --> 00:17:19.490 at the time. He was a retired U .S. Army general 00:17:19.490 --> 00:17:21.450 who had actually been relieved of command for 00:17:21.450 --> 00:17:23.769 promoting right -wing political literature to 00:17:23.769 --> 00:17:26.390 his troops. After retiring, he became a staunch 00:17:26.390 --> 00:17:28.970 segregationist and a virulent anti -communist 00:17:28.970 --> 00:17:32.500 speaker. To Oswald's mind, he was basically the 00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:34.700 personification of American fascism. Exactly. 00:17:34.940 --> 00:17:37.339 He was the perfect target. Oswald started fixating 00:17:37.339 --> 00:17:40.279 on him. He saw Walker as the leader of a dangerous, 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:42.640 burgeoning fascist movement in America. So he 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:45.289 decides to kill him. How much planning went into 00:17:45.289 --> 00:17:47.769 this? Was it an impulsive act of rage? No, it 00:17:47.769 --> 00:17:50.049 was highly premeditated. This was not a bar fight. 00:17:50.210 --> 00:17:53.430 This was a planned political assassination. Oswald 00:17:53.430 --> 00:17:56.990 ordered a rifle by mail, a 6 .5 millimeter Mannlicher 00:17:56.990 --> 00:18:00.190 Carcano from an ad in American Rifleman magazine. 00:18:00.329 --> 00:18:02.670 The same rifle he'd use later. The very same 00:18:02.670 --> 00:18:06.230 rifle. He paid $19 .95 plus shipping. Yeah. He 00:18:06.230 --> 00:18:08.329 also ordered a revolver at the same time. And 00:18:08.329 --> 00:18:12.509 he's an alias to buy it. Yes. A .J. Heidel. He 00:18:12.509 --> 00:18:14.450 had a post office box set up under that name, 00:18:14.529 --> 00:18:16.390 which is where the weapons were sent. And he 00:18:16.390 --> 00:18:19.009 didn't just buy the gun. He stacked out Walker's 00:18:19.009 --> 00:18:21.369 house. We know this because police later found 00:18:21.369 --> 00:18:23.490 photographs he had taken of Walker's home and 00:18:23.490 --> 00:18:26.309 the alley behind it among his possessions. He 00:18:26.309 --> 00:18:28.529 studied the bus routes to plan his escape. And 00:18:28.529 --> 00:18:30.650 the note, this is the smoking gun for his mindset 00:18:30.650 --> 00:18:33.109 at the time. On the night of the attempt, April 00:18:33.109 --> 00:18:35.950 10th, he left a multi -page note for Marina, 00:18:36.150 --> 00:18:38.759 written in Russian. It didn't mention Walker 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:40.880 by name, but it gave her detailed instructions. 00:18:41.079 --> 00:18:44.799 If I am arrested, if I don't return. It detailed 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:46.940 where his money was hidden, how to handle the 00:18:46.940 --> 00:18:49.200 rent. It was a soldier's final letter before 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:51.460 a mission. So walk us through the attempt itself. 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:54.000 Walker was at home, sitting at his desk in his 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.660 study, working on his taxes. Behind him was a 00:18:56.660 --> 00:18:59.619 window facing the alley. Oswald was outside in 00:18:59.619 --> 00:19:02.180 the darkness, maybe 100 feet away, aiming that 00:19:02.180 --> 00:19:04.960 $20 rifle. He fired one shot. And he missed. 00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:08.259 Barely, by less than an inch. The bullet struck 00:19:08.259 --> 00:19:10.960 the wooden frame of the window sash. It deflected 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:13.359 just enough to miss Walker's head, though fragments 00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:15.460 of the bullet and wood flew into the room and 00:19:15.460 --> 00:19:18.180 struck Walker's arm. He had minor injuries. That 00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:20.980 is terrifyingly close. A fraction of an inch 00:19:20.980 --> 00:19:23.519 and history is different. It is. Walker thought 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:25.299 a rock had been thrown to the window at first. 00:19:25.779 --> 00:19:28.660 Oswald turned and ran. He hid the rifle wrapped 00:19:28.660 --> 00:19:31.059 in a blanket near some railroad tracks and took 00:19:31.059 --> 00:19:34.150 a bus home. He came in the door, white as a sheet 00:19:34.150 --> 00:19:36.329 according to Marina's testimony, and confessed 00:19:36.329 --> 00:19:39.309 to her, I shot Walker. And Marina didn't turn 00:19:39.309 --> 00:19:41.450 him in. She didn't go to the police. She was 00:19:41.450 --> 00:19:43.430 terrified. You have to put yourself in her shoes. 00:19:43.589 --> 00:19:45.990 She's a Soviet citizen in Cold War America. She 00:19:45.990 --> 00:19:48.430 barely speaks English. She has a baby. And her 00:19:48.430 --> 00:19:50.150 husband has just confessed to trying to kill 00:19:50.150 --> 00:19:52.250 a famous general. She thought they would both 00:19:52.250 --> 00:19:54.609 be deported or imprisoned. She made him promise 00:19:54.609 --> 00:19:57.200 never to do it again. This event is so critical 00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:00.099 because it proves he was a hunter of fascists, 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:02.920 which explains those bizarre backyard photos. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:06.019 Right. Around this same time, March of 63, he 00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:08.720 had Marina take these now infamous pictures of 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:10.859 him in their backyard. He's dressed all in black, 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:13.980 holding the Carcano rifle in one hand and two 00:20:13.980 --> 00:20:17.000 communist newspapers, the Militant and the Worker 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.660 in the other. And he has the revolver holstered 00:20:19.660 --> 00:20:21.799 on his hip. It looks like a cosplay photo for 00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:24.220 a revolutionary. It's so performative. It is 00:20:24.220 --> 00:20:26.579 completely performative. He sent a copy to a 00:20:26.579 --> 00:20:28.640 friend with the inscription written on it, Hunter 00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:31.779 of Fascists. Ha ha ha. That laugh, ha ha ha. 00:20:32.380 --> 00:20:34.920 It's almost supervillain territory. It's chilling. 00:20:35.140 --> 00:20:37.539 It shows that he was actively creating a persona 00:20:37.539 --> 00:20:40.450 for himself. He wasn't just Lee, the warehouse 00:20:40.450 --> 00:20:42.869 worker. He was an Avenger. He was a historical 00:20:42.869 --> 00:20:46.069 force. The Walker attempt proves, beyond any 00:20:46.069 --> 00:20:48.329 doubt, that he didn't need a conspiracy or a 00:20:48.329 --> 00:20:50.509 handler to plan and execute political violence. 00:20:50.750 --> 00:20:53.549 He had his own agenda. So after Walker survives, 00:20:53.930 --> 00:20:56.329 Oswald gets spooked. He thinks the police might 00:20:56.329 --> 00:20:58.950 be on to him. So he packs up and moves the family 00:20:58.950 --> 00:21:01.869 to New Orleans in April of 63. And this begins 00:21:01.869 --> 00:21:03.710 what the source material calls the summer of 00:21:03.710 --> 00:21:05.930 discontent. He tries to reinvent himself again. 00:21:05.950 --> 00:21:08.559 He gets a job. Loses it. And then he decides 00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:11.119 he's going to become a major pro -Castro activist. 00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:15.079 He decides to open a New Orleans chapter of the 00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:17.640 Fair Play for Cuba committee. Which sounds very 00:21:17.640 --> 00:21:20.140 official, like a real organization. It was a 00:21:20.140 --> 00:21:22.700 complete and total sham. He was the only member. 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:25.619 He wrote to the National FPCC headquarters in 00:21:25.619 --> 00:21:27.579 New York, claiming he had a thriving chapter. 00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:31.019 He printed his own flyers. He even signed membership 00:21:31.019 --> 00:21:34.200 cards for his one -man chapter. A .J. Hedel is 00:21:34.200 --> 00:21:36.380 the chapter president and Lee Oswald is a secretary. 00:21:36.460 --> 00:21:38.980 He was role -playing an entire organization. 00:21:39.319 --> 00:21:41.579 He was his own boss and his own employee. He 00:21:41.579 --> 00:21:43.740 even hired people to help him hand out flyers, 00:21:43.779 --> 00:21:45.759 right? Yes. He paid a couple of guys he found 00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:48.000 at the local unemployment office to stand on 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:50.220 street corners with him and distribute his pro 00:21:50.220 --> 00:21:53.240 -Castro literature. And that is what led to the 00:21:53.240 --> 00:21:55.940 street corner confrontation with Carlos Brigné. 00:21:56.059 --> 00:21:58.940 And Brigné was a prominent anti -Castro Cuban 00:21:58.940 --> 00:22:01.819 exile. That's right. And what's wild is that 00:22:01.819 --> 00:22:03.980 Oswald had actually approached Brignier days 00:22:03.980 --> 00:22:06.619 earlier, pretending to be anti Castro himself, 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:09.779 trying to infiltrate the exile groups. So when 00:22:09.779 --> 00:22:11.980 Brignier saw this same guy on the street handing 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:14.500 out hands off Cuba flyers, he went ballistic. 00:22:14.700 --> 00:22:16.980 They got into a scuffle. The police were called. 00:22:17.019 --> 00:22:19.400 And Oswald got arrested for disturbing the peace. 00:22:20.029 --> 00:22:22.069 But he didn't seem upset about it at all. He 00:22:22.069 --> 00:22:23.910 seemed to enjoy it. This was the attention he 00:22:23.910 --> 00:22:26.309 craved. He immediately requested to be interviewed 00:22:26.309 --> 00:22:29.089 by the FBI. And then he managed to get himself 00:22:29.089 --> 00:22:32.329 invited onto a local radio station, WDSU, for 00:22:32.329 --> 00:22:34.430 a debate about Cuba. This is one of the only 00:22:34.430 --> 00:22:36.609 times we can actually hear his voice. We have 00:22:36.609 --> 00:22:40.019 the recording. Yeah. And he sounds calm. He sounds 00:22:40.019 --> 00:22:42.720 surprisingly articulate. He's using all the Marxist 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:45.220 buzzwords he's read in his books. And you can 00:22:45.220 --> 00:22:47.380 just hear the satisfaction in his voice. For 00:22:47.380 --> 00:22:49.440 those 20 minutes, he was the center of attention. 00:22:49.700 --> 00:22:51.759 He was the important man he always wanted to 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:54.119 be. But the radio debate didn't spark a revolution 00:22:54.119 --> 00:22:57.240 in New Orleans. No. It barely made a ripple. 00:22:57.660 --> 00:22:59.700 Dallas ignored him. New Orleans ignored him. 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:02.819 So he decided he had to aim higher. He decided 00:23:02.819 --> 00:23:05.279 he needed to go to Cuba and fight for the revolution 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:08.259 personally. This is the Mexico City trip. September 00:23:08.259 --> 00:23:11.240 1963, just two months before the assassination. 00:23:11.579 --> 00:23:14.119 He takes a bus from Houston to Laredo, crosses 00:23:14.119 --> 00:23:16.319 the border, and takes another long bus ride down 00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:19.400 to Mexico City. He walks into the Cuban consulate 00:23:19.400 --> 00:23:22.039 and demands a transit visa that will let him 00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:25.000 travel to the Soviet Union by way of Cuba. And 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:27.220 he brings a whole dossier of his activities, 00:23:27.420 --> 00:23:30.079 right? The flyers, the newspaper clippings about 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:32.799 his arrest, his fake membership cards. He lays 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:34.779 it all out on the desk like it's a resume. Look 00:23:34.779 --> 00:23:36.660 at me, look at my credentials. I am a soldier 00:23:36.660 --> 00:23:39.279 for the cause. And the Cubans are not impressed. 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:41.900 It was a spectacular disaster. The consulate 00:23:41.900 --> 00:23:44.539 officials found him volatile, arrogant, and just. 00:23:45.380 --> 00:23:48.180 Strange. They called the Soviet embassy to check 00:23:48.180 --> 00:23:50.839 on his story, and the Soviets said, this kind 00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:52.839 of visa usually takes four months to process. 00:23:54.269 --> 00:23:56.609 Oswald started shouting. He got into a screaming 00:23:56.609 --> 00:23:59.410 match with the consul, a man named Eusebio Askew. 00:23:59.589 --> 00:24:02.029 And Askew actually told him off, didn't he? The 00:24:02.029 --> 00:24:05.250 same as Lyons. Askew told him, quote, a person 00:24:05.250 --> 00:24:07.490 like you is doing harm to the Cuban revolution. 00:24:08.529 --> 00:24:10.950 He essentially told him he was a liability, a 00:24:10.950 --> 00:24:13.380 nut, and he kicked him out. That has to be the 00:24:13.380 --> 00:24:16.180 final nail in the coffin for his ego. He is rejected 00:24:16.180 --> 00:24:18.220 by the U .S. Marines, rejected by the Soviet 00:24:18.220 --> 00:24:20.900 Union, rejected by the anti -communist Russians 00:24:20.900 --> 00:24:24.579 in Dallas, and now, finally, rejected by Castro's 00:24:24.579 --> 00:24:27.059 Cuba, the very people he's championing. He returns 00:24:27.059 --> 00:24:31.000 to Dallas in early October 1963 as a man with 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:33.599 absolutely no options left. Yeah. He is broke. 00:24:34.099 --> 00:24:36.660 His wife is pregnant with her second child and 00:24:36.660 --> 00:24:39.180 is living with a Quaker friend, Ruth Payne, because 00:24:39.180 --> 00:24:40.960 she can't stand living with him anymore. He is 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:43.319 completely, totally alone. And he needs a job, 00:24:43.420 --> 00:24:45.960 any job. And Ruth Payne hears about an opening 00:24:45.960 --> 00:24:48.119 at a warehouse through a neighbor. The Texas 00:24:48.119 --> 00:24:50.279 School Book Depository. He starts work there 00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:52.640 on October 16th for a dollar and a quarter an 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:54.960 hour filling book orders. It's just so mundane. 00:24:55.059 --> 00:24:56.819 He's just a guy filling orders in a warehouse. 00:24:57.619 --> 00:25:00.619 And then history aligns. The universe puts the 00:25:00.619 --> 00:25:02.829 pieces on the board. When did he find out the 00:25:02.829 --> 00:25:04.410 presidential motorcade was going to be passing 00:25:04.410 --> 00:25:06.630 right by his building? The full motorcade route 00:25:06.630 --> 00:25:09.269 was published in the Dallas newspapers on Tuesday, 00:25:09.509 --> 00:25:13.509 November 19th. Oswald would have seen that the 00:25:13.509 --> 00:25:15.470 president's car was scheduled to make a slow 00:25:15.470 --> 00:25:18.750 turn directly in front of his workplace. So he 00:25:18.750 --> 00:25:21.509 had roughly three days to process this information 00:25:21.509 --> 00:25:24.210 and form a plan. Yes. And on Thursday, November 00:25:24.210 --> 00:25:27.730 21st, he breaks his routine. Normally, he stayed 00:25:27.730 --> 00:25:29.450 in a rooming house in Dallas during the week 00:25:29.450 --> 00:25:31.329 and would go to Ruth Payne's house in Irving 00:25:31.329 --> 00:25:33.750 to see his family on Friday nights. But that 00:25:33.750 --> 00:25:35.849 Thursday, he asked a co -worker, Wesley Frazier, 00:25:35.950 --> 00:25:38.450 for a lift out to Irving. Did Frazier ask him 00:25:38.450 --> 00:25:40.390 why he was going home on a Thursday? He did. 00:25:40.789 --> 00:25:42.589 Oswald said he needed to pick up some curtain 00:25:42.589 --> 00:25:45.089 rods to put up in his room. Curtain rods. Yeah. 00:25:45.150 --> 00:25:47.490 Probably the most famous lie in American history. 00:25:47.769 --> 00:25:50.930 The next morning, Friday the 22nd, Oswald gets 00:25:50.930 --> 00:25:54.089 in Frazier's car for the ride to work. He puts 00:25:54.089 --> 00:25:56.509 a long, bulky brown paper package in the back 00:25:56.509 --> 00:25:59.450 seat. Frazier asks him what it is. Oswald says 00:25:59.450 --> 00:26:02.210 curtain rods. Frazier later testified that Oswald 00:26:02.210 --> 00:26:04.470 was incredibly quiet during that drive into work. 00:26:04.609 --> 00:26:07.569 Just silent. Barely spoke a word. Walked ahead 00:26:07.569 --> 00:26:09.390 of Frazier into the building. And he left something 00:26:09.390 --> 00:26:11.950 important behind in Irving that morning. Two 00:26:11.950 --> 00:26:14.190 things. Yeah. He left his wedding ring in a little 00:26:14.190 --> 00:26:17.930 cup on the dresser. And he left $170 in cash. 00:26:18.630 --> 00:26:21.839 Basically, his life savings from Marina. He did 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:23.880 not expect to come back. So he's at work. He 00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:26.319 goes up to the sixth floor. He spends part of 00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:28.799 the morning building a sniper's nest, moving 00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:31.599 boxes of books around to create a screen to shield 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:33.880 him from view from the rest of the floor. There 00:26:33.880 --> 00:26:35.980 were other employees on that floor earlier in 00:26:35.980 --> 00:26:37.720 the morning, but they all went down for lunch 00:26:37.720 --> 00:26:41.480 around 11 .45. Oswald told a co -worker he was 00:26:41.480 --> 00:26:43.859 going to stay up there and eat. He stayed behind, 00:26:44.099 --> 00:26:48.069 alone. 12 .30 p .m. The shots ring out. Now, 00:26:48.109 --> 00:26:49.930 we are not going to dissect the ballistics here, 00:26:49.990 --> 00:26:51.910 but I want to focus on what happens in the immediate 00:26:51.910 --> 00:26:54.470 aftermath, because this, to me, speaks directly 00:26:54.470 --> 00:26:56.569 to that schizoid diagnosis from all those years 00:26:56.569 --> 00:26:59.910 ago. The chaos in Dealey Plaza is absolute. People 00:26:59.910 --> 00:27:03.369 screaming, sirens wailing. Marion Baker, a motorcycle 00:27:03.369 --> 00:27:06.009 cop, runs into the depository building immediately. 00:27:06.329 --> 00:27:08.390 He runs up the stairs with the building superintendent, 00:27:08.589 --> 00:27:11.509 Roy Truly. On the second floor, in the lunchroom, 00:27:11.609 --> 00:27:15.420 they spot Oswald. And this is maybe 90 seconds 00:27:15.420 --> 00:27:17.539 after the president's head was blown off six 00:27:17.539 --> 00:27:20.400 floors above. Baker points his revolver directly 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:23.559 at Oswald. Oswald doesn't flinch. He doesn't 00:27:23.559 --> 00:27:26.119 panic. He doesn't look surprised. He is standing 00:27:26.119 --> 00:27:28.819 calmly at the vending machine, drinking a Coca 00:27:28.819 --> 00:27:31.160 -Cola. Drinking a Coke. He wasn't out of breath 00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:32.720 from running down four flights of stairs. He 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:35.460 wasn't shaking. He was just there. Baker asks, 00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:39.000 Truly, do you know this man? Truly says, yes, 00:27:39.019 --> 00:27:41.609 he works here. So Baker lowers his gun, says 00:27:41.609 --> 00:27:43.829 okay, and continues up the stairs looking for 00:27:43.829 --> 00:27:47.230 a shooter. Oswald was let go. That level of calm 00:27:47.230 --> 00:27:49.529 is just chilling. It's almost reptilian. It's 00:27:49.529 --> 00:27:51.630 like a switch has been flipped. It suggests a 00:27:51.630 --> 00:27:53.549 complete and total dissociation from the act. 00:27:53.910 --> 00:27:55.849 He had just committed the crime of the century, 00:27:55.970 --> 00:27:58.369 and he was taking a soda break. And he just walks 00:27:58.369 --> 00:28:00.250 out the front door in the confusion. Walks right 00:28:00.250 --> 00:28:02.450 out. He walks about seven blocks east. He gets 00:28:02.450 --> 00:28:04.710 on a city bus, but the traffic is gridlocked 00:28:04.710 --> 00:28:07.269 because of the assassination. So he gets off 00:28:07.269 --> 00:28:09.910 the bus. asks the driver for a transfer ticket, 00:28:10.069 --> 00:28:13.109 and then grabs a taxi. He takes the taxi to his 00:28:13.109 --> 00:28:15.630 rooming house in Oak Cliff. His housekeeper, 00:28:15.750 --> 00:28:18.930 Earlene Roberts, sees him rush in. He goes to 00:28:18.930 --> 00:28:21.569 his room, grabs a light -colored jacket and his 00:28:21.569 --> 00:28:24.670 .38 revolver. He rushes back out without a word. 00:28:25.049 --> 00:28:27.329 She sees him standing at the bus stop for a moment, 00:28:27.430 --> 00:28:29.700 and then he just starts walking away. He seems 00:28:29.700 --> 00:28:31.640 to be drifting. He doesn't have a clear escape 00:28:31.640 --> 00:28:34.180 plan anymore. The curtain rods plan only got 00:28:34.180 --> 00:28:36.799 him as far as the shooting. Now he's just improvising. 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:38.559 He's walking through the Oak Cliff neighborhood. 00:28:38.839 --> 00:28:42.220 It's about 1 .1 p .m. p .m. now. Officer J .D. 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:44.799 Tippett is patrolling the area in his squad car. 00:28:45.220 --> 00:28:47.619 He gets the radio broadcast with a description 00:28:47.619 --> 00:28:49.940 of the suspect based on Howard Brennan's sighting 00:28:49.940 --> 00:28:52.819 from the depository window. White male, roughly 00:28:52.819 --> 00:28:56.140 30, 5 '10", slender. Oswald fits the description. 00:28:56.599 --> 00:28:58.440 Tippett pulls his squad car over to check him 00:28:58.440 --> 00:29:00.099 out. Tippett gets out of the car. He doesn't 00:29:00.099 --> 00:29:01.440 have his gun drawn. He's just walking around 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:03.619 the hood of his car toward Oswald. And Oswald 00:29:03.619 --> 00:29:05.480 doesn't wait to talk. He doesn't try to run. 00:29:05.640 --> 00:29:08.339 He just draws his revolver and fires four shots 00:29:08.339 --> 00:29:10.700 across the hood of the car. Tippett was hit multiple 00:29:10.700 --> 00:29:13.559 times and went down immediately. He didn't stand 00:29:13.559 --> 00:29:16.839 a chance. This is the moment that, for me, completely 00:29:16.839 --> 00:29:20.200 destroys the Patsy argument. If Oswald is an 00:29:20.200 --> 00:29:22.619 innocent man who has been framed for the crime 00:29:22.619 --> 00:29:25.279 of the century, why does he execute a police 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:28.619 officer in broad daylight 45 minutes later? It 00:29:28.619 --> 00:29:30.940 is the action of a desperate man who has nothing 00:29:30.940 --> 00:29:34.279 left to lose. He shoots Tippett. Then, according 00:29:34.279 --> 00:29:36.819 to witnesses, he walks over and fires another 00:29:36.819 --> 00:29:38.880 shot into Tippett's head to make sure he's dead. 00:29:39.019 --> 00:29:41.960 Then he turns and runs. Multiple witnesses see 00:29:41.960 --> 00:29:44.140 him emptying the spent shells from the revolver 00:29:44.140 --> 00:29:46.279 and reloading as he runs down the street. He 00:29:46.279 --> 00:29:48.140 ducks into the entryway of a shoe store for a 00:29:48.140 --> 00:29:51.039 second to hide as police sirens get closer. Then 00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:53.420 he sees the Texas theater up the block. The ticket 00:29:53.420 --> 00:29:55.980 booth lady, Julia Postal, sees him slip past 00:29:55.980 --> 00:29:57.660 the entrance and go into the theater without 00:29:57.660 --> 00:30:00.400 paying. The shoe store manager, who saw him hiding, 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:03.079 follows him and points him out. They call the 00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:05.319 police. And the movie playing was war as hell. 00:30:05.480 --> 00:30:07.279 You really, you just can't make this stuff up. 00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:10.019 The house lights go up in the theater. The police 00:30:10.019 --> 00:30:13.400 swarm in. Officer Nick McDonald approaches Oswald, 00:30:13.579 --> 00:30:16.339 who is sitting alone in the back row. Does Oswald 00:30:16.339 --> 00:30:19.339 surrender peacefully? He says, well, it's all 00:30:19.339 --> 00:30:21.660 over now. But as McDonald goes to search him, 00:30:21.700 --> 00:30:23.920 he punches McDonald in the face and draws the 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:26.180 gun. He pulls the trigger. He tried to kill another 00:30:26.180 --> 00:30:29.309 cop. He did. But the hammer of the revolver came 00:30:29.309 --> 00:30:31.529 down on the webbing of Officer McDonald's hand, 00:30:31.750 --> 00:30:34.230 which was between the hammer and the firing pin. 00:30:34.690 --> 00:30:37.309 It didn't fire. They wrestled him to the ground. 00:30:37.589 --> 00:30:40.529 And as they dragged him out, Oswald started shouting, 00:30:40.670 --> 00:30:44.130 I am not resisting arrest. I am a victim of police 00:30:44.130 --> 00:30:47.410 brutality. The switch is flipped again. The hunter 00:30:47.410 --> 00:30:49.670 of fascists who just murdered two people is gone 00:30:49.670 --> 00:30:52.670 and the victim is back. Exactly. By the time 00:30:52.670 --> 00:30:54.940 he gets to the police station. He is fully in 00:30:54.940 --> 00:30:57.819 character as the innocent, confused working man 00:30:57.819 --> 00:30:59.759 who's been caught up in something he doesn't 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:01.740 understand. Let's talk about the interrogation. 00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:04.279 Because he held out for two days, he gave them 00:31:04.279 --> 00:31:06.779 nothing. He was incredibly arrogant. He sparred 00:31:06.779 --> 00:31:08.900 with the detectives. When they showed him the 00:31:08.900 --> 00:31:11.700 infamous backyard photo with the rifle, he laughed 00:31:11.700 --> 00:31:14.000 and said it was a fake, that they had superimposed 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:16.960 his head on someone else's body, which forensic 00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:19.619 science later proved was a lie. And then there's 00:31:19.619 --> 00:31:22.019 the Patsy line, the line that launched a thousand 00:31:22.019 --> 00:31:24.500 theories. As he was being paraded before the 00:31:24.500 --> 00:31:26.480 press, he shouted, They've taken me in because 00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:29.319 I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy. 00:31:30.460 --> 00:31:32.700 It was a brilliant line. It was short, it was 00:31:32.700 --> 00:31:35.500 memorable, and it immediately fed into the paranoia 00:31:35.500 --> 00:31:37.460 that this was some kind of big Cold War plot. 00:31:38.059 --> 00:31:41.200 But notice what he admits to. Absolutely nothing. 00:31:41.930 --> 00:31:44.309 He denies owning the rifle. He denies the curtain 00:31:44.309 --> 00:31:46.769 rod story. He changes it to say he brought his 00:31:46.769 --> 00:31:50.529 lunch to work. But he did get caught on one tiny 00:31:50.529 --> 00:31:52.710 contradiction. When they asked him about his 00:31:52.710 --> 00:31:54.849 politics, he very pointedly corrected the officers. 00:31:55.049 --> 00:31:57.950 I am not a communist, he said. I am a Marxist. 00:31:58.609 --> 00:32:01.049 Even while facing the electric chair for assassinating 00:32:01.049 --> 00:32:03.210 the president, it was important to him that they 00:32:03.210 --> 00:32:05.930 got his ideology right. And then Sunday morning, 00:32:06.089 --> 00:32:08.509 November 24th. They're trying to move him from 00:32:08.509 --> 00:32:10.569 the city jail to the more secure county jail. 00:32:10.890 --> 00:32:13.630 Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner with a savior 00:32:13.630 --> 00:32:15.990 complex and loose mob ties, steps out of the 00:32:15.990 --> 00:32:18.029 crowd of reporters in the basement garage. One 00:32:18.029 --> 00:32:22.369 shot, point blank to the abdomen. Live on national 00:32:22.369 --> 00:32:24.829 television. Millions of people saw it happen. 00:32:25.009 --> 00:32:28.410 Oswald groans and collapses. The great man who 00:32:28.410 --> 00:32:31.509 craved a place in history dies on a concrete 00:32:31.509 --> 00:32:34.410 floor in a police station basement. And it effectively 00:32:34.410 --> 00:32:37.109 sealed the case in amber. Because there was no 00:32:37.109 --> 00:32:39.309 trial. There was no public presentation of evidence. 00:32:39.410 --> 00:32:41.950 There was no closure. It created the vacuum that 00:32:41.950 --> 00:32:44.369 all the conspiracy theories rushed in to fill. 00:32:44.549 --> 00:32:46.210 And they've been filling it ever since. I want 00:32:46.210 --> 00:32:47.730 to touch on one last thing from the notes because 00:32:47.730 --> 00:32:49.630 this story just keeps getting weirder even after 00:32:49.630 --> 00:32:52.619 he's dead. The coffin. Ah, the coffin controversy. 00:32:52.720 --> 00:32:56.140 Yes. In 1981, a British author published a book 00:32:56.140 --> 00:32:58.539 claiming that the man buried in Oswald's grave 00:32:58.539 --> 00:33:01.880 wasn't Oswald at all, but a Soviet spy imposter 00:33:01.880 --> 00:33:04.740 who had taken his place years earlier. And Oswald's 00:33:04.740 --> 00:33:07.539 widow, Marina, actually supported an exhumation. 00:33:07.539 --> 00:33:09.960 She did. She wanted to put the rumors to rest. 00:33:10.140 --> 00:33:14.019 So in October 1981, they dug him up. Robert Oswald. 00:33:14.329 --> 00:33:16.789 Lee's brother was there. They opened the casket 00:33:16.789 --> 00:33:19.329 and the body was in a poor state, but they were 00:33:19.329 --> 00:33:21.509 able to use the skull to check his dental records 00:33:21.509 --> 00:33:24.130 against his marine records. It was Lee. The dental 00:33:24.130 --> 00:33:27.009 records matched perfectly. The imposter theory 00:33:27.009 --> 00:33:30.349 was dead. But the coffin itself, that became 00:33:30.349 --> 00:33:32.710 a whole other story. The original pine coffin 00:33:32.710 --> 00:33:34.990 was badly water damaged and was falling apart. 00:33:35.369 --> 00:33:38.170 So they transferred Oswald's body to a new one 00:33:38.170 --> 00:33:41.660 and reburied him. But the funeral home that handled 00:33:41.660 --> 00:33:44.519 the exhumation kept the old, rotting coffin. 00:33:44.740 --> 00:33:47.440 Why on earth would they do that? To sell it. 00:33:48.019 --> 00:33:50.359 Years later, they put it up for auction, and 00:33:50.359 --> 00:33:54.259 it sold for over $87 ,000. That is just unbelievably 00:33:54.259 --> 00:33:57.480 macabre. Robert Oswald sued them. He was furious 00:33:57.480 --> 00:33:59.420 that they were trying to profiteer off his brother's 00:33:59.420 --> 00:34:02.000 misery and infamy. A judge eventually agreed 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:04.119 and ordered the coffin returned to the family. 00:34:04.279 --> 00:34:06.759 It was presumably destroyed. It really highlights 00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:09.760 how radioactive this man's legacy is. Even his 00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:12.179 garbage is worth a fortune. He achieved his goal, 00:34:12.260 --> 00:34:14.760 in a way. He wanted to be immortal. He wanted 00:34:14.760 --> 00:34:16.659 the world to study him, to analyze him and talk 00:34:16.659 --> 00:34:19.179 about him. And we are. So why don't we pull back 00:34:19.179 --> 00:34:21.820 and look at the whole picture. The lonely kid 00:34:21.820 --> 00:34:24.480 in the Bronx with fantasies of power, the failed 00:34:24.480 --> 00:34:26.460 Marine, the failed defector, the failed husband, 00:34:26.559 --> 00:34:30.440 the failed revolutionary. What do you see? I 00:34:30.440 --> 00:34:32.400 see a man who was desperate for significance. 00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:34.880 He tried to find it in the Marines and failed. 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:37.420 He tried to find it in the Soviet Union and failed. 00:34:37.639 --> 00:34:39.820 He tried to find it by killing General Walker 00:34:39.820 --> 00:34:42.659 and he failed. He was a collector of failures. 00:34:42.940 --> 00:34:47.820 But on November 22nd, 1963, he didn't fail. History 00:34:47.820 --> 00:34:50.119 presented him with a target of opportunity. The 00:34:50.119 --> 00:34:52.239 ultimate target. He had the rifle, he had the 00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:54.500 perfect vantage point from that window, and he 00:34:54.500 --> 00:34:56.940 had a lifetime of rage and resentment built up 00:34:56.940 --> 00:34:59.820 inside him. He didn't need a conspiracy, he just 00:34:59.820 --> 00:35:02.619 needed to be lucky once. It leaves me thinking 00:35:02.619 --> 00:35:04.980 about that moment in Mexico City, just a few 00:35:04.980 --> 00:35:08.579 weeks before, when the Cuban official, Eusebio 00:35:08.579 --> 00:35:11.260 Askew, yelled at him and kicked him out of the 00:35:11.260 --> 00:35:13.659 consulate. That's the hinge point. If Askew had 00:35:13.659 --> 00:35:15.860 just been in a better mood that day... If he 00:35:15.860 --> 00:35:18.940 had stamped that visa and said yes, Oswald would 00:35:18.940 --> 00:35:21.480 have been on a boat to Havana in November 1963. 00:35:22.079 --> 00:35:24.099 And John F. Kennedy would almost certainly have 00:35:24.099 --> 00:35:26.480 finished his term. The Vietnam War might have 00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:28.420 looked completely different. The Civil Rights 00:35:28.420 --> 00:35:30.280 Movement might have played out differently. An 00:35:30.280 --> 00:35:33.039 entire timeline of history changes. The margins 00:35:33.039 --> 00:35:36.019 are just terrifyingly thin. The fate of the world 00:35:36.019 --> 00:35:39.539 was determined by a bureaucrat's bad mood and 00:35:39.539 --> 00:35:43.760 a $20 mail order rifle. That, I think, is the 00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:45.840 scariest thought of all. We're going to leave 00:35:45.840 --> 00:35:47.960 it there. Thank you for joining us on this deep 00:35:47.960 --> 00:35:50.719 dive. It's a heavy one, but I feel like I finally 00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:53.340 maybe understand the ghost in the machine a little 00:35:53.340 --> 00:35:56.159 better. Always the human element, isn't it? That's 00:35:56.159 --> 00:35:58.440 what explains the unexplained. Thanks for listening. 00:35:58.500 --> 00:35:59.860 We'll catch you in the next deep dive.