Claim: Lee Harvey Oswald was a former U.S. soldier.

Lee Harvey Oswald -LRB- October 18 , 1939 -- November 24 , 1963 -RRB- was an American former U.S. Marine who was arrested for the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22 , 1963 . According to four federal government investigations and one municipal investigation , These were investigations by : the Federal Bureau of Investigation -LRB- 1963 -RRB- , the Warren Commission -LRB- 1964 -RRB- , the House Select Committee on Assassinations -LRB- 1979 -RRB- , the Secret Service , and the Dallas Police Department . Oswald shot and killed Kennedy as the President traveled by motorcade through Dealey Plaza in the city of Dallas , Texas .   Oswald was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959 . He lived in the Belarusian city of Minsk until June 1962 , at which time he returned to the United States with Marina , his Russian-born wife , eventually settling in Dallas .   Following Kennedy 's assassination , Oswald was initially arrested for the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit , who was killed on a Dallas street about 45 minutes after Kennedy was shot . Oswald was later charged with the murder of Kennedy . He denied shooting anybody , saying that he was a `` patsy '' . Two days later , while being transferred from the city jail to the county jail , Oswald was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in full view of television cameras broadcasting live .   In September 1964 , the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy by firing three shots from the Texas School Book Depository . This conclusion was supported by previous investigations carried out by the FBI , the Secret Service , and the Dallas Police Department . Despite forensic , ballistic , and eyewitness evidence supporting the lone gunman theory , public opinion polls taken over the years have shown that most Americans believe that Oswald did not act alone , but conspired with others to kill the president . The assassination has spawned numerous conspiracy theories .