MikhailT/lj-speech huggingface dataset:
or, if either the first or third shots missed, the assassin fired the three shots during a minimum time span of 7.1
to 7.9 seconds.
A series of tests were performed to determine whether the weapon and ammunition used in the assassination
were capable of firing the shots which were fired by the assassin on November 22, 1963.
The ammunition used by the assassin was manufactured by Western Cartridge Co. of East Alton, Illinois.
In tests with the Mannlicher-Carcano C2766 rifle, over 100 rounds of this ammunition were fired by the FBI
and the Infantry Weapons Evaluation Branch of the U.S. Army. There were no misfires.
In an effort to test the rifle under conditions which simulated those which prevailed during the assassination,
the Infantry Weapons Evaluation Branch of the Ballistics Research Laboratory had expert riflemen fire the assassination weapon
from a tower at three silhouette targets at distances of 175, 240, and 265 feet.
The target at 265 feet was placed to the right of the 240-foot target
which was in turn placed to the right of the closest silhouette.
Using the assassination rifle mounted with the telescopic sight, three marksmen, rated as master by the National Rifle Association,
each fired two series of three shots.
In the first series the firers required time spans of 4.6, 6.75,
and 8.25 seconds respectively.
On the second series they required 5.15, 6.45, and 7 seconds.
None of the marksmen had any practice with the assassination weapon except for exercising the bolt for 2 or 3 minutes on a dry run.
They had not even pulled the trigger because of concern about breaking the firing pin.
The marksmen took as much time as they wanted for the first target and all hit the target.
For the first four attempts, the firers missed the second shot by several inches.
The angle from the first to the second shot
was greater than from the second to the third shot and required a movement in the basic firing position of the marksmen.
This angle was used in the test because the majority of the eyewitnesses to the assassination
stated that there was a shorter interval between shots two and three than between shots one and two.
As has been shown in chapter 3, if the three shots were fired within a period of from 4.8 to 5.6 seconds,
the shots would have been evenly spaced and the assassin would not have incurred so sharp an angular movement.
Five of the six shots hit the third target where the angle of movement of the weapon was small.
On the basis of these results, Simmons testified that in his opinion the probability of hitting the targets at the relatively short range at which they were hit
Considering the various probabilities which may have prevailed during the actual assassination,
the highest level of firing performance which would have been required of the assassin and the C2766 rifle
would have been to fire three times and hit the target twice within a span of 4.8 to 5.6 seconds.
In fact, one of the firers in the rapid fire test in firing his two series of three shots,
hit the target twice within a span of 4.6 and 5.15 seconds.
The others would have been able to reduce their times if they had been given the opportunity to become familiar with the movement of the bolt and the trigger pull.
Simmons testified that familiarity with the bolt could be achieved in dry practice and, as has been indicated above,
Oswald engaged in such practice. If the assassin missed either the first or third shot,
he had a total of between 4.8 and 5.6 seconds between the two shots which hit
and a total minimum time period of from 7.1 to 7.9 seconds for all three shots.
All three of the firers in these tests
were able to fire the rounds within the time period which would have been available to the assassin under those conditions.
Three FBI firearms experts tested the rifle in order to determine the speed with which it could be fired.
The purpose of this experiment was not to test the rifle under conditions which prevailed at the time of the assassination
but to determine the maximum speed at which it could be fired.
The three FBI experts each fired three shots from the weapon at 15 yards in 6, 7, and 9 seconds,
and one of these agents, Robert A. Frazier,
fired two series of three shots at 25 yards in 4.6 and 4.8 seconds.
At 15 yards each man's shots landed within the size of a dime.
The shots fired by Frazier at the range of 25 yards landed within an area of 2 inches and 5 inches respectively.
Frazier later fired four groups of three shots at a distance of 100 yards in 5.9, 6.2,
5.6, and 6.5 seconds.
Each series of three shots landed within areas ranging in diameter from 3 to 5 inches.
Although all of the shots were a few inches high and to the right of the target,
this was because of a defect in the scope which was recognized by the FBI agents and which they could have compensated for if they were aiming to hit a bull's-eye.
They were instead firing to determine how rapidly the weapon could be fired and the area within which three shots could be placed.
Frazier testified that while he could not tell when the defect occurred, but that a person familiar with the weapon could compensate for it.
Moreover, the defect was one which would have assisted the assassin aiming at a target which was moving away.
Frazier said, quote, The fact that the crosshairs are set high would actually compensate for any lead which had to be taken
So that if you aimed with this weapon as it actually was received at the laboratory, it would not be necessary to take any lead whatsoever
in order to hit the intended object. The scope would accomplish the lead for you, end quote,
Frazier added that the scope would cause a slight miss to the right.
It should be noted, however, that the President's car was curving slightly to the right when the third shot was fired.
Based on these tests the experts agreed that the assassination rifle was an accurate weapon.
Simmons described it as, quote, quite accurate, end quote, in fact, as accurate as current military rifles.
Frazier testified that the rifle was accurate, that it had less recoil than the average military rifle
and that one would not have to be an expert marksman to have accomplished the assassination with the weapon which was used.
was a substantial aid to rapid, accurate firing.
Oswald's Marine training in marksmanship, his other rifle experience and his established familiarity with this particular weapon
show that he possessed ample capability to commit the assassination.
Based on the known facts of the assassination,
the Marine marksmanship experts, Major Anderson and Sergeant Zahm, concurred in the opinion that Oswald had the capability to fire three shots,
with two hits, within 4.8 and 5.6 seconds.
Concerning the shots which struck the President in the back of the neck,
Sergeant Zahm testified, quote,
With the equipment he [Oswald] had and with his ability I consider it a very easy shot, end quote.
Having fired this slot
the assassin was then required to hit the target one more time within a space of from 4.8 to 5.6 seconds.
On the basis of Oswald's training and the accuracy of the weapon as established by the tests,
the Commission concluded that Oswald was capable of accomplishing this second hit even if there was an intervening shot which missed.
The probability of hitting the President a second time would have been markedly increased if, in fact, he had missed either the first or third shots
thereby leaving a time span of 4.8 to 5.6 seconds between the two shots which struck their mark.
The Commission agrees with the testimony of Marine marksmanship expert Zahm
that it was an easy shot to hit some part of the President's body, and that the range where the rifleman would be expected to hit
would include the President's head.
On the basis of the evidence reviewed in this chapter, the Commission has found that Lee Harvey Oswald (1)
owned and possessed the rifle used to kill President Kennedy and wound Governor Connally,
(2) brought this rifle into the Depository Building on the morning of the assassination,
(3) was present, at the time of the assassination, at the window from which the shots were fired
killed Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit in an apparent attempt to escape,
(5) resisted arrest by drawing a fully loaded pistol and attempting to shoot another police officer,
(6) lied to the police after his arrest concerning important substantive matters,
(7) attempted, in April 1963, to kill Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker, and (8)
possessed the capability with a rifle which would have enabled him to commit the assassination.
Chapter 7. Lee Harvey Oswald: Background and Possible Motives, Part 1.
The evidence reviewed above identifies Lee Harvey Oswald as the assassin of President Kennedy and indicates that he acted alone in that event.
There is no evidence that he had accomplices or that he was involved in any conspiracy directed to the assassination of the President.
There remains the question of what impelled Oswald to conceive and to carry out the assassination of the President of the United States.
The Commission has considered many possible motives for the assassination, including those which might flow from Oswald's commitment to Marxism or communism,
the existence of some personal grievance,
a desire to effect changes in the structure of society or simply to go down in history as a well publicized assassin.
None of these possibilities satisfactorily explains Oswald's act if it is judged by the standards of reasonable men.
The motives of any man, however, must be analyzed in terms of the character and state of mind of the particular individual involved.
For a motive that appears incomprehensible to other men may be the moving force of a man whose view of the world has been twisted,
possibly by factors of which those around him were only dimly aware.
Oswald's complete state of mind and character are now outside of the power of man to know.
He cannot, of course, be questioned or observed by those charged with the responsibility for this report or by experts on their behalf.
There is, however, a large amount of material available in his writings
and in the history of his life which does give some insight into his character and, possibly, into the motives for his act.
Since Oswald is dead,
the Commission is not able to reach any definite conclusions as to whether or not he was, quote, sane, unquote, under prevailing legal standards.
Under our system of justice no forum could properly make that determination unless Oswald were before it.
It certainly could not be made by this Commission which, as has been pointed out above,
ascertained the facts surrounding the assassination but did not draw conclusions concerning Oswald's legal guilt.
Indications of Oswald's motivation
may be obtained from a study of the events, relationships and influences which appear to have been significant in shaping his character and in guiding him.
Perhaps the most outstanding conclusion of such a study is that Oswald was profoundly alienated from the world in which he lived.
His life was characterized by isolation, frustration, and failure.
He had very few, if any, close relationships with other people and he appeared to have great difficulty in finding a meaningful place in the world.
He was never satisfied with anything.
When he was in the United States he resented the capitalist system which he thought was exploiting him and others like him.
He seemed to prefer the Soviet Union and he spoke highly of Cuba.
When he was in the Soviet Union, he apparently resented the Communist Party members,
who were accorded special privileges and who he thought were betraying communism, and he spoke well of the United States.
He accused his wife of preferring others to himself and told her to return to the Soviet Union without him but without a divorce.
At the same time he professed his love for her and said that he could not get along without her.
Marina Oswald thought that he would not be happy anywhere, quote, Only on the moon, perhaps, end quote.
While Oswald appeared to most of those who knew him as a meek and harmless person, he sometimes imagined himself as, quote, the Commander, end quote,
and, apparently seriously, as a political prophet -- a man who said that after 20 years he would be prime minister.
His wife testified that he compared himself with great readers of history.
Such ideas of grandeur were apparently accompanied by notions of oppression.
He had a great hostility toward his environment, whatever it happened to be,
which he expressed in striking and sometimes violent acts long before the assassination.
There was some quality about him that led him to act with an apparent disregard for possible consequences.
He defected to the Soviet Union, shot at General Walker, tried to go to Cuba and even contemplated hijacking an airplane to get there.
He assassinated the President, shot Officer Tippit, resisted arrest and tried to kill another policeman in the process.
Oswald apparently started reading about communism when he was about 15.
In the Marines, he evidenced a strong conviction as to the correctness of Marxist doctrine,
which one associate described as, quote, irrevocable, end quote, but also as, quote, theoretical, end quote,
That associate did not think that Oswald was a Communist.
Oswald did not always distinguish between Marxism and communism.
He stated several times that he was a Communist but apparently never joined any Communist Party.
His attachment to Marxist and Communist doctrine was probably, in some measure, an expression of his hostility to his environment.
While there is doubt about how fully Oswald understood the doctrine which he so often espoused, it seems clear
that his commitment to Marxism was an important factor influencing his conduct during his adult years.
It was an obvious element in his decision to go to Russia and later to Cuba and it probably influenced his decision to shoot at General Walker.
It was a factor which contributed to his character and thereby might have influenced his decision to assassinate President Kennedy.
The discussion below will describe the events known to the Commission which most clearly reveals the formation and nature of Oswald's character.
It will attempt to summarize the events of his early life, his experience in New York City and in the Marine Corps, and his interest in Marxism.
It will examine his defection to the Soviet Union in 1959, his subsequent return to the United States and his life here
after June of 1962.
The review of the latter period will evaluate his personal and employment relations, his attempt to kill General Walker, his political activities,
and his unsuccessful attempt to go to Cuba in late September of 1963.
Various possible motives will be treated in the appropriate context of the discussion outlined above.
Significant in shaping the character of Lee Harvey Oswald was the death of his father, a collector of insurance premiums.
This occurred 2 months before Lee was born in New Orleans on October 18, 1939.
That death strained the financial fortunes of the remainder of the Oswald family.
It had its effect on Lee's mother, Marguerite, his brother Robert, who had been born in 1934,
and his half-brother John Pic, who had been born in 1932 during Marguerite's previous marriage.
It forced Marguerite Oswald to go to work to provide for her family.
Reminding her sons that they were orphans and that the family's financial condition was poor,
she placed John Pic and Robert Oswald in an orphans' home.
From the time Marguerite Oswald returned to work until December 26, 1942, when Lee too was sent to the orphans' home,
he was cared for principally by his mother's sister, by babysitters and by his mother, when she had time for him.
Marguerite Oswald withdrew Lee from the orphans' home and took him with her to Dallas when he was a little over 4 years old.
About 6 months later she also withdrew John Pic and Robert Oswald.
Apparently that action was taken in anticipation of her marriage to Edwin A. Ekdahl, which took place in May of 1945.
In the fall of that year John Pic and Robert Oswald went to a military academy
where they stayed, except for vacations, until the spring of 1948.
Lee Oswald remained with his mother and Ekdahl, to whom he became quite attached.
John Pic testified that he thought Lee found in Ekdahl the father that he never had.
That situation, however, was short-lived,
for the relations between Marguerite Oswald and Ekdahl were stormy and they were finally divorced, after several separations and reunions,
in the summer of 1948.
After the divorce Mrs. Oswald complained considerably about how unfairly she was treated,
dwelling on the fact that she was a widow with three children.
John Pic, however, did not think her position was worse than that of many other people.
In the fall of 1948 she told John Pic and Robert Oswald
that she could not afford to send them back to the military school and she asked Pic to quit school entirely to help support the family.
which he did for 4 months in the fall of 1948.
In order to supplement their income further she falsely swore that Pic was 17 years old so that he could join the Marine Corps Reserves.
Pic did turn over part of his income to his mother,
but he returned to high school in January of 1949, where he stayed until 3 days before he was scheduled to graduate,
when he left school in order to get into the Coast Guard. Since his mother did not approve of his decision to continue school
he accepted the responsibility for that decision himself and signed his mother's name to all his own excuses and report cards.
Pic thought that his mother overstated her financial problems and was unduly concerned about money.
Referring to the period after the divorce from Ekdahl, which was apparently caused in part by Marguerite's desire to get more money from him,
Pic said, quote,
Lee was brought up in this atmosphere of constant money problems, and I am sure it had quite an effect on him, and also Robert, end quote.
Marguerite Oswald worked in miscellaneous jobs after her divorce from Ekdahl.
When she worked for a time as an insurance saleslady,
she would sometimes take Lee with her, apparently leaving him alone in the car while she transacted her business.
When she worked during the school year, Lee had to leave an empty house in the morning,
return to it for lunch and then again at night, his mother having trained him to do that rather than to play with other children.
An indication of the nature of Lee's character at this time was provided in the spring of 1950,
when he was sent to New Orleans to visit the family of his mother's sister, Mrs. Lillian Murret, for 2 or 3 weeks.
Despite their urgings, he refused to play with the other children his own age.
It also appears that Lee tried to tag along with his older brothers
but apparently was not able to spend as much time with them as he would have liked, because of the age gaps of 5 and 7 years,
which became more significant as the children grew older.
Whatever problems may have been created by Lee's home life in Louisiana and Texas,
he apparently adjusted well enough there to have had an average, although gradually deteriorating, school record
with no behavior or truancy problems.
That was not the case, however, after he and his mother moved to New York in August of 1952, shortly before Lee's 13th birthday.
They moved shortly after Robert joined the Marines; they lived for a time with John Pic who was stationed there with the Coast Guard.
Relations soon became strained, however, so in late September Lee and his mother moved to their own apartment in the Bronx.
Pic and his wife would have been happy to have kept Lee, however,
who was becoming quite a disciplinary problem for his mother, having struck her on at least one occasion.
The short-lived stay with the Pics was terminated after an incident in which Lee allegedly pulled out a pocket knife during an argument
and threatened to use it on Mrs. Pic.
When Pic returned home, Mrs. Oswald tried to play down the event but Mrs. Pic took a different view and asked the Oswalds to leave.
Lee refused to discuss the matter with Pic, whom he had previously idolized, and their relations were strained thereafter.
On September 30, 1952, Lee enrolled in P.S. 117
a junior high school in the Bronx, where the other children apparently teased him because of his, quote, western clothes and Texas accent.
He began to stay away from school, preferring to read magazines and watch television at home by himself.
This continued despite the efforts of the school authorities and, to a lesser extent, of his mother to have him return to school.
Truancy charges were brought against him alleging that he was, quote, beyond the control of his mother insofar as school attendance is concerned, end quote.
Oswald was remanded for psychiatric observation to Youth House, an institution in which children are kept for psychiatric observation
or for detention pending court appearance or commitment to a child-caring or custodial institution such as a training school.
He was in Youth House from April 16 to May 7, 1953,
during which time he was examined by its Chief Psychiatrist, Dr. Renatus Hartogs,
and interviewed and observed by other members of the Youth House staff.
Marguerite Oswald visited her son at Youth House, where she recalled that she waited in line, quote,
with Puerto Ricans and Negroes and everything, end quote.
She said that her pocketbook was searched, quote, because the children in this home were such criminals, dope fiends, and had been in criminal offenses,
that anybody entering this home had to be searched in case the parents were bringing cigarettes or narcotics or anything, end quote.
She recalled that Lee cried and said, quote, Mother, I want to get out of here.
There are children in here who have killed people, and smoke. I want to get out, end quote,
Marguerite Oswald said that she had not realized until then in what kind of place her son had been confined.
On the other hand, Lee told his probation officer, John Carro, that, quote,
while he liked Youth House, he missed the freedom of doing what he wanted. He indicated that he did not miss his mother, end quote.
Mrs. Evelyn D Siegel, a social worker who interviewed both Lee and his mother while Lee was confined in Youth House,
reported that Lee, quote, confided that the worse thing about Youth House was the fact that he had to be with other boys all the time,
was disturbed about disrobing in front of them, taking showers with them etc., end quote.
Contrary to reports that appeared after the assassination, the psychiatric examination did not indicate that Lee Oswald was a potential assassin,
potentially dangerous, that, quote, his outlook on life had strongly paranoid overtones, end quote, or that he should be institutionalized.
Dr. Hartogs did find Oswald to be a tense, withdrawn, and evasive boy who intensely disliked talking about himself and his feelings.
He noted that Lee liked to give the impression that he did not care for other people but preferred to keep to himself,
so that he was not bothered and did not have to make the effort of communicating.
Oswald's withdrawn tendencies and solitary habits were thought to be the result of, quote,
intense anxiety, shyness, feelings of awkwardness and insecurity, end quote.
He was reported to have said, quote, I don't want a friend and I don't like to talk to people, end quote, and, quote, I dislike everybody, end quote.
He was also described as having a, quote, Vivid fantasy life,
turning around the topics of omnipotence and power, through which he tries to compensate for his present shortcomings and frustrations, end quote.
Dr. Hartogs summarized his report by stating:
Quote, this 13 year old well built boy has superior mental resources and functions only slightly below his capacity level
in spite of chronic truancy from school which brought him into Youth House.
No finding of neurological impairment or psychotic mental changes could be made.
Lee has to be diagnosed as, quote, personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features and passive-aggressive tendencies, end quote.
Lee has to be seen as an emotionally, quite disturbed youngster
who suffers under the impact of really existing emotional isolation
and deprivation, lack of affection, absence of family life and rejection by a self involved and conflicted mother.