born Oct. 18, 1939, New Orleans, La., U.S.
died Nov. 24, 1963, Dallas, Texas
Accused assassin of Pres.
John F. Kennedy . While serving in the U.S. Marines (1956–59) he began to express pro-Soviet and politically radical views. Shortly after his discharge he moved to the Soviet Union, where he unsuccessfully tried to become a Soviet citizen. He returned to the U.S. in 1962 with his Russian wife and daughter but retained his radical political beliefs. In April 1963 he allegedly shot at but missed Edwin Walker, an ultrarightist retired general. In October he took a job at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. On Nov. 22, 1963, from a window on its sixth floor, he allegedly fired three shots that killed Kennedy and wounded Gov. John B. Connally while the two men were riding in the president's motorcade. Oswald killed a patrolman who had detained him, but he was soon captured and arraigned. On November 24, while being transferred to an interrogation office, he was fatally shot by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner.