On November 22nd, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. It was concluded by The Warren Commission that the man who assassinated President Kennedy was 24 year old, Lee Harvey Oswald. Less than 48 hours after Kennedy was shot, while Oswald was being transferred to the county jail, he was assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald was killed before he could undergo any psychological or psychiatric analysis, so it is impossible to know for certain what his mental state was at the time of President Kennedy's assassination. The Warren Commission states that they were unable “to reach any definite conclusions as to whether or not he (Lee Harvey Oswald) was ‘sane’ under prevailing legal standards (Warren et al., 1964, p. 375).” I do not believe that human behavior can ever fully be predicted. However, an analysis of Oswald’s childhood, as well as, his actions leading up to the assassination help us to understand the type of person Lee Harvey Oswald was and give us an insight into his psychological state.
Oswald had a troubling childhood to say the least. His father died two months before he was born in 1939 leaving him with no father figure in his life. Not only did the death of Oswald’s father leave him with without a father-figure, it “robbed him of a home and family life with constant parental figures (Abrahamsen, 1967, p. 869).” The death of Oswald’s father forced his mother to go to work, essentially leaving him without a mother as well. His mother sent Oswald, his older brother, Robert Oswald, and his older half-brother, John Pic, to an orphanage. Oswald stayed at the orphanage for thirteen months, until his mother married her third husband (Ewing & McCann, 2006, p. 22). Now that Oswald’s mother was remarried there w...
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...brahamsen, David. (1967). A Study of Lee Harvey Oswald: Psychological Capability of Murder. Bulletin of The New York Academy of Medicine, 43, 861-888.
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Warren, E., Russell, R. B., Ford, G. R., Cooper, J. S., Dulles, A. W., Boggs, A., McCloy, J. J. (1964). The Warren Commission Report: Reports of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
O'Reilly, Bill, and Martin Dugard. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever. New York: Henry Holt and, 2011. Print.
In this paper I will discuss the biological, psychological and social upbringing of John Lee Malvo and how these factors contributed to the making of a serial killer known as the DC Sniper.
Kassin, Saul, and Lawrence Wrightsman (Eds.). The Psychology of Evidence and Trial Procedure. Chapter 3. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1985. Print.
Malcolm did not realize he was getting government help. He also did not realize that the nice Social Workers who would sometimes slip him treats were really out to put him in a foster home. As a boy Ma...
II. If Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter, most of these conspiracies would not be here today.
Gest, Ted, at al. "JFK The Untold Story of the Warren Commission." U.S. News & World Report 17 August 1992: 28-42.
David Berkowitz, otherwise known as the “Son of Sam”, was notorious for his crimes committed between 1976 and 1977 that ended the lives of six innocent victims and wounded several others in New York (“David Berkowitz Biography”, n.d.). At first, police did not make a connection between the murders because there was nothing unusual about them; all the victims were shot with a 40 caliber gun, not fairly unusual during this time or place especially since the killings were over an extended period of time. Police finally made the connection when Berkowitz began to live behind notes that were meant to tantalize authorities since they had yet to catch him (“David Berkowitz| Son of Sam Killer,” 2015). Often times, the psychological structure of a human
Some theories are that it was organized by the CIA, Fidel Castro, an Anarchist group, even by Vice-President Lyndon Johnson. However, once all the evidence is examined, it appears that the assassination was done by a lone man. So much of the evidence, from the way the assassination occurred, to the details of the alleged assassins’ life, and even to the official government findings and a film of the assassination, all point to the fact that there was no conspiracy and that Kennedy was killed by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. Evidence that proves Oswald’s guilt are as follows; Oswald was pro-Communist, and hated America. He was in the Depository at the time of the assassination, and searches of the building found evidence of his work. The rifle with his finger prints on it was found by a make-shift snipers nest.
Thesis Statement: Because of extensive evidence, I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone on the day of November 22, 1963 in the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The additional gunman was strategically placed in the grassy knoll area, in order to shoot at Kennedy from a frontal view (Rubinstein 4).
This deprivation of emotional attachments made him seem devoid of remorse and a conscience. Surprisingly, even though he did not attend school regularly, he was apparently well read and claimed, “I am a Marxist and have been studying socialist principles for well over 15 months” (“Who Was”). After joining the Marine Corps, Oswald received extensive training in marksmanship. Conspiracy theorist have lamented that Oswald was a poor shot and could not have been the assassin but military records indicate otherwise. Gerald Posner adamantly claimed, “He shoots on the rifle range 212, which means he qualifies for the second highest position in the Marine Corps, that of a sharpshooter” (“Who Was”). Oswald even though not seeming to have money was able to afford a decidedly expensive trip to the Soviet Union, where he was able to convince the Russian government to let him defect. While living there he spoke fluent Russian, which he could not have been learned from a book (Koenigsdorf). His marriage was in trouble as he and his wife who frequently argued were living separately at the time of the assignation. His wife worried about his mental state and his ambitions of being a great man, she claimed that he often used an assumed name and lived in a fantasy world (“Who
While researching the Kennedy assassination there were many articles, saying that the mob was involved in the shooting. The writers were convinced that there was more than one person involved when it came too killing John Kennedy, on that warm sunny day in downtown Dallas. However, while these authors were convinced that there was another party involved, so was the rest of America with eighty percent saying the report was false. The goal of this paper is to bring this topic into the spotlight once more, by connecting the shooting of the president with the mob, and Lee Harvey Oswald.
Oswald being shot, recalls investigation” NY Daily News 17 Nov. 2013. Web. 7 Feb. 2014.
Goldman, Stuart. "Murder As Therapy." National Review 45.23 (1993): 44. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 14
President John F. Kennedy was travelling along a predetermined motorcade route in Dallas, Texas when he was fatally shot, receiving wounds to the chest, back, and head. Shortly after the assassination, Dallas police arrested former U.S. Marine Corps Private Lee Harvey Oswald. On November 24 of the same year, Jack Ruby, owner of a Dallas nightclub, shot Oswald. Less than a year after the two murders, on September 24, 1964, the Warren Commission, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, released a report stating their verdict that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy "alone and without advice or assistance" (Encarta). Now, thirty-five years after the assassination, many Americans still believe the commission's claim that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin of President Kennedy. However, all evidence points toward the more frightening reality that the United States government might have been involved in a conspiracy to kill the president and an ensuing cover-up. Thus, the question still remains: Who really killed J.F.K.? The day of President Kennedy's assassination, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into the office of president while flying back to Washington on Air Force One. Seven days later, Johnson appointed a commission of seven members, headed by Earl Warren, to investigate the assassination. After questioning 552 witnesses, the Warren Commission released their 296,000-word report on September 24, 1964 (Encarta). The Warren Report stated that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all three of the shots that killed President Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository. This conclusion was accepted by the nation as proven fact until educated q...
Spellman, B., & Busey, T. (2010). EMERGING TRENDS IN PSYCHOLOGY AND LAW RESEARCH: An editorial overview. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17(2), 141-141-2.