FRONTLINE: WHO WAS LEE HARVEY OSWALD? (TV)

Summary

One in this documentary series. This edition focuses on accused John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, wondering whether he was a "lone gunman, conspirator, or patsy."

The program begins near Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, the site of the assassination on November 22, 1963, before archival footage shows news reports from the day. Included is an interview with Abraham Zapruder, the clothing manufacturer and amateur moviemaker who shot the now-famous film of the assassination. James P. Hosty of the FBI discusses Oswald's initial arrest on November 22 and how he was considered part of a communist conspiracy. Hosty further discusses how new President Lyndon B. Johnson immediately ordered all references to Oswald's communism to be eliminated, for fear of an international crisis setting off World War III. Then, the program discusses the Warren Commission's initial findings on the assassination before detailing many of the conspiracy theories that have arisen over the years. Gerald Posner, author of "Case Closed," discusses how Oswald has almost become a "footnote" as people have focused on numerous other assassination conspiracy theories.

Next, the program gives biographical information on Oswald, discussing the death of his father two months before he was born, his rocky family life before being sent to an orphanage at age three for several years, eventually moving to New York with his mother Marguerite Claverie Oswald, and his time as a troublesome youth. His social worker, Evelyn Siegel, discusses Oswald as a youth, referring to him as "emotionally frozen." Next, Edward J. Epstein, author of "Legend," traces Oswald's "political awakening," arriving at the time of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's execution as espionage conspirators, and his discovery of socialist literature.

Just after his seventeenth birthday, in 1956, Oswald enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps during the height of the Cold War. There, Oswald learned rifle marksmanship, got to travel, and most importantly, escaped his family life. Eventually, Oswald was sent to Atsugi, Japan, before he eventually defected to Russia, making some wonder if he was recruited as a spy. Epstein discusses the "secret life" that Oswald led at the time, with none of his colleagues being sure what he was "up to."

Posner discusses the troubles Oswald had while in the Marines, getting court martialed and sent to the brig. U.S. Marine Owen Dejanovich details how Oswald was anti-capitalist and subscribed to Karl Marx's beliefs. G. Robert Blakey of the House Assassinations Committee discusses how Oswald could have been so "un-American" yet still be allowed in the Marines. Epstein details Oswald's defection to Russia, wondering if Oswald had help planning it. KGB official Vladimir Semichastny discusses handling Oswald's case when he asked for political asylum in Russia. Oswald's "historic diary" details his own thoughts on the incident.

The program then discusses Oswald's suicide attempt after being denied asylum. Semichastny further discusses the KGB having considered recruiting Oswald as a spy. Eventually, Oswald went to the U.S. Embassy to revoke his U.S. citizenship, as detailed by U.S. consul Richard Snyder. Oswald's older brother Robert discusses first learning about his sibling's defection to Russia. Epstein details the "choice" accommodations Oswald was given in Minsk upon defecting. Vacheslav Nikonov details the KGB's monitoring of Oswald during the time. Archival tapes play Oswald's audio interview from the time. Reporter W. Scott Malone discusses how U.S. government officials began searching for Oswald's whereabouts in Russia.

Meanwhile, according to friend Yuri Merezhinsky, Oswald was continuing to study Marxism and was falling in love with Marina Prusakova. Semichastny discusses the theories that the KGB planted Prusakova in Oswald's life. The program details how in 1962, Oswald and new wife Prusakova -- and baby daughter June -- moved back to America, to Fort Worth, Texas, where he was immediately questioned by the FBI. Richard Helms, former CIA director, details why the FBI would have interrogated him, but not the CIA.

The program details why it believes the CIA covered up previous contact with Oswald, questioning if that contact has remained hidden for decades. Next, the program details how in autumn 1962, Oswald and his family moved to Dallas, where he was befriended by Russian emigres and began working at a photography lab. Home movies show Oswald visiting with Robert and other family members during a gathering from that time. Then, the program details the "left wing" papers Oswald was reading at the time, his growing anger with Kennedy, and his support for Cuba's Fidel Castro. According to Priscilla McMillan, author of "Marina and Lee," Oswald began picking fights at work and at home, abusing his wife on several occasions.

Next, the program discusses how Oswald began to direct his anger toward anti-Communist General Edwin Walker, eventually attempting to assassinate him, as detailed by Posner. Clips from Oliver Stone's 1991 film "J.F.K." suggest how Oswald may have been framed by an incriminating and famous backyard-pose photograph. Walker discusses Oswald's assassination attempt on him. After the assassination attempt, Oswald abruptly left town and headed for New Orleans.

Beginning in April of 1963, Oswald stayed in New Orleans for five months and began one of the most "mysterious chapters" of his life, where many suspect the plot to kill Kennedy was hatched. Blakey discusses the "crucial" question surrounding the assassination. Posner details how Oswald's fascination with guns was taken to a new level in New Orleans.

Archival film footage shows Oswald discussing his growing Marxism, as well as his fascination with Castro's Cuba. In the spring of 1963, Oswald wrote to America's leading pro-Castro group, offering to set up a branch in New Orleans, eventually creating his own one-man organization. Next, in August of 1963, Oswald approached anti-Castro Cuban Carlos Bringuier, mysteriously offering to help in the guerrilla fight against the dictator. Amateur footage from the time shows an angry Bringuier getting in a scuffle with Oswald, as Bringuier discusses how he believes Oswald wanted to be a martyr. Frank D. Wilson Sr. of the New Orleans Police Department discusses Oswald's strange behavior after being arrested for the skirmish.

Next, the program examines Oswald's mysterious relationship with Guy Banister, an investigator and extreme right winger who also trained Cuban exiles, as well as David Ferrie, a former airline pilot turned private investigator. Blakey details Banister and Ferrie's connection with organized crime figure Carlos Marcello, the head of the New Orleans crime family. Posner talks about how the chain between Oswald, Ferrie, Banister, and Marcello does not constitute a link that would prove that they all conspired to kill Kennedy.

The program also presents the first photograph that definitively places Oswald and Ferrie together, at a 1955 Civil Air Patrol barbecue. Epstein talks about how Oswald was trying to become "of use" to Castro, leading to a recording of a radio debate in which Oswald avowed his communist beliefs. McMillan details Oswald's thoughts on Kennedy during the summer of 1963 as well as the time Oswald's wife came home to find him handling his rifle.

Next, on September 25, 1963, Oswald disappeared from New Orleans, though no one is certain where he headed. Cuban exiles Annie and Silvia Odio talk about the subsequent appearance at their Dallas home of three mysterious men -- one of whom may have been Oswald, having been identified to them as "Leon Oswald." Posner believes that it is physically impossible that Oswald was at the Odios' house on the days mentioned by the women. Eventually, Oswald headed south on a bus from Houston toward Mexico City, as detailed by fellow bus passenger Patricia Winston.

In Mexico City, Oswald headed to the Cuban consulate, talking with Sylvia Duran, who told him that he could only get into Cuba with a Soviet visa. From there, Oswald headed to the Russian consulate in an attempt to get a Soviet visa, meeting with KGB officers Oleg Nechiporenko and Valery Kostikov. They thought him nervous and unstable and eventually denied his application.

Oswald went back to the Cuban consulate, where he lost his temper with Duran. Cuban intelligence photographs show that CIA operatives were shadowing Oswald during this period. Writer Anthony Summers discusses how a recently declassified report on Oswald's Mexico City trip proves that CIA photographs were taken at the time. Further, some believe that the CIA has a tape of Oswald's conversations while in the Cuban and Russian embassies. Blakey further discusses the conspiracy theory that Oswald was never in Mexico, but that a lookalike was sent there in an effort to frame Oswald. From Mexico City, Oswald is believed to have headed back to America, bound for Dallas.

On October 3, 1963, Oswald arrived in Dallas, taking a room at the YMCA. Without a job, and with the help of a family friend, Oswald got hired at the Texas School Book Depository as a warehouse clerk. Meanwhile, the FBI field office in Dallas was continuing to monitor Oswald, as discussed by Hosty. The program also mentions several "sinister" Oswald sightings reported throughout the Dallas area during the three weeks leading up to J.F.K.'s murder. Days before the assassination, a man resembling Oswald was observed at target practice, nearly starting a fight at the shooting range. Blakey details why such sightings must be taken with a "grain of salt." Posner discusses whether Oswald had any contact with Banister and Ferrie in the days leading up to the assassination.

In the week before the president's arrival, newspapers published maps of Kennedy's motorcade route, which passed directly by the book depository. McMillan details how, on the night before the assassination, Oswald had a row with his wife, before removing his rifle from storage, and then waking up the next morning, leaving his entire savings and wedding ring behind, and heading out early with a large, oblong package.

That same morning, Kennedy spoke at the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, as Oswald's co-workers -- such as Harold D. Norman -- eagerly awaited the president's arrival in Dallas. Oswald spent the morning on the depository's sixth floor, filling book orders. When his co-workers broke for lunch, Oswald stayed on the sixth floor, with street-level witnesses claiming to see one, if not two, men waiting on the sixth floor before the motorcade passed.

At 12:23 p.m., amateur cameraman Charles Bronson panned his lens across the depository, capturing footage which has long been debated for its content. "Frontline" has the footage scientifically enhanced to see if a second man is present on the sixth floor. Image processing analyst Francis Corbett discusses Robert Hughes' amateur film, which he believes shows no human form in one of the windows of the sixth floor, but which shows something moving in the corner window. Next, the famous twenty-one seconds of the Zapruder film are shown, as the program mentions the "growing consensus" that three shots were fired in eight seconds.

Posner emphasizes how some experts have determined that a fourth shot was fired in Dealey Plaza, possibly emanating from the adjacent grassy knoll. Modern computer modeling is used to figure the trajectory of the so-called "magic bullet," trying to determine the exact locale from which the assassin fired. Policeman Gerald Hill, who helped search the depository, discusses his findings there after the assassination. Oswald was seen near the depository's lunchroom in the wake of the shooting, acting calm. Next, he walked out the depository's front door, boarded a bus, then hailed a taxi when the bus got stuck in traffic, and headed to his rooming house.

After getting a .38 revolver, Oswald left his lodgings. At the same time, police officer J.D. Tippit was killed in Oswald's neighborhood. Fellow officer Jack Tatum gives his eyewitness account of Tippit's murder, though it's not conclusive that Oswald was the murderer. From there, Tatum claims that Oswald fled the scene and ducked behind a Texaco service station, hid his "Eisenhower" jacket, and slinked into the Texas Movie Theater. Hill discusses his police crew capturing Oswald in the theater, arresting him for the murder of Tippit, and returning him to the police station.

In the interrogation room, police discovered he was the only employee not accounted for from the book depository. Reporter Lonnie Hudkins discusses speaking with the curiously non-sweating Oswald as he sat in the interrogation room. Hosty details the "game" Oswald was playing with the police at that time. Film footage shows Oswald leaving the interrogation room, "emphatically" denying the charges against him.

Oswald's brother Robert details meeting with him in the two days after his arrest. Around midnight on November 22, Oswald was paraded in front of the press, as film footage shows the underworld-connected Jack Ruby lurking in the back of the room. Blakey details how Oswald would have to be killed if he had been a pawn as part of a government conspiracy. Then, the program gives a brief biography of Ruby, the man who would eventually kill Oswald. Posner details how he believes Ruby acted alone and was not a hired hit man.

Next, the program speculates how Ruby was able to get access to Oswald, as film clips shows Oswald's murder. Posner discusses what Ruby said immediately after killing Oswald. Blakey details why he thinks it's plausible that the Mafia had a hand in the assassinations of Kennedy and Oswald. The program discusses further clues which were later found in the FBI's investigation of the Kennedy assassination, discussing what the evidence means. Blakey discusses why the Kennedy assassination should actually be considered an "easy case," devoid of conspiracy theories. Blakey concludes: "The question is not, 'Did Lee Harvey Oswald shoot the President,' the question is, 'Did he have help?'" The program ends with a shot of Oswald's gravestone in Fort Worth.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Details

• NETWORK: PBS WGBH Boston, MA
• DATE: November 16, 1993 Tuesday 9:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 1:06:39
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: T:75494
• GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
• SUBJECT HEADING: Biography; Assassination; U.S. - History - 1961-1963
• SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1983-
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• David Fanning … Executive Producer
• Michael Sullivan … Senior Producer
• Martin Smith … Senior Producer
• William Cran … Senior Producer, Producer, Director, Writer
• Ben Loeterman … Producer, Director, Writer
• Stephanie Tepper … Co-Producer
• Christopher Buchanan … Associate Producer
• Courtney Hayes … Associate Producer
• June Cross … Production (Misc.), Staff Producer
• Jim Gilmore … Production (Misc.), Staff Producer
• Paul Foss … Music by
• Mason Daring … Theme Music by
• Martin Brody … Theme Music by
• Will Lyman … Narrator
• W. Scott Malone … Reporter
• Gus Russo … Reporter
• Gary Oldman … Voice, Lee Harvey Oswald
• Guy Banister
• G. Robert Blakey
• Carlos Bringuier
• Charles Bronson
• Fidel Castro
• Francis Corbett
• Owen Dejanovich
• Sylvia Duran
• Edward J. Epstein
• David Ferrie
• Richard Helms
• Gerald Hill
• James P. Hosty
• Lonnie Hudkins
• Robert Hughes
• Lyndon B. Johnson
• John F. Kennedy
• Valery Kostikov
• Carlos Marcello
• Karl Marx
• Priscilla McMillan
• Yuri Merezhinsky
• Oleg Nechiporenko
• Vacheslev Nikonov
• Harold D. Norman
• Annie Odio
• Silvia Odio
• June Oswald
• Lee Harvey Oswald
• Marguerite Claverie Oswald
• Robert Oswald
• Gerald Posner
• Marina Prusakova
• Ethel Rosenberg
• Julius Rosenberg
• Jack Ruby
• Vladimir Semichastny
• Evelyn Siegel
• Richard Snyder
• Oliver Stone
• Anthony Summers
• Jack Tatum
• J.D. Tippit
• Edwin Walker
• Frank D. Wilson
• Patricia Winston
• Abraham Zapruder