Why did Oswald kill JFK?

[Jim Hawthorn]

Publicly he acted confused, perplexed - "I don't know what this is all about." Privately, during the interrogations he was confrontational, belligerent, uncooperative. He was acting (it's why in part that he wanted the Marxist lawyer John Abt; he was going to play the victim defense and Abt was good at using that defense).

In any case, for a political person, someone who supposedly liked JFK, he showed no interest or concern in what happened to JFK from the moment he left the TSBD shortly after the shooting to the moment he was arrested in the theater. He leaves work without permission, he doesn't inquire about this incredible event that happened outside the building where he worked (it's chaos, people running around and he's not interested in what the heck happened?), he doesn't discuss the shooting with anyone, he doesn't stop and watch the news coverage on TV when he goes to his rooming house, he doesn't call Marina to talk about this tragedy, he's in a movie theater an hour after the shooting completely uninterested in what happened.

If you don't find that suspicious then you don't want to think it is.

Was it more than him? Did it end there? We can argue whether there was more, it was Oswald plus. But to suggest he was completely innocent, just some guy working is simply ignoring all of the evidence otherwise.

See my above comment.

[John Iacoletti]

Nope. Not even a nice try. You're really trying (in vain) to stretch your argument to fit your assumption. You are putting yourself inside Oswald's head, assuming his thoughts. Wow, impressive (but you are only impressing yourself with that hogwash).

"Richard" has a magic crystal ball in the basement of his mom's house where he lives.

[John Iacoletti]

The underlying question assumes that Oswald killed JFK.  It literally says "Why did Oswald kill JFK"?  In that context there is no assumption as to Oswald's guilt.  What is being discussed is WHY he did it.  There are plenty of thread to discuss baseless conspiracy theories about WHETHER he did it.  This is not one of them, however.

Why does "Richard Smith" beat his wife?  Aren't loaded questions fun?

[John Iacoletti]

The fact is, he was by all accounts astonishingly composed, arrogant, hostile and spouting preposterous lies during intense interrogation.

"Lie" defined as a statement contrary to what you'd prefer to believe is true.

[Richard Smith]

Bingo! Hence his behaviour, which screams "Oh f**k, the bastards have set ME up!"

What "behavior" was that?  If Oswald was set up, he was given ample opportunity to name names to the world press or the police. 

[David Von Pein]

I'll toss my 2 cents into this discussion by quoting from an Internet post concerning this topic that I wrote exactly ten years ago this week:

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"All we can do is guess. And I think the best guess is that Lee Harvey Oswald probably killed JFK because he felt that by murdering the leader of the United States (i.e., Fidel Castro's bitter enemy in the early 1960s, particularly following the Cuban Missile Crisis), he would be aiding a person he greatly admired (Castro) and a cause he wanted very much to defend (Castro's Cuban Revolution).

But, at the same time, I've often wondered if Oswald himself really knew what his true motive was. And I wonder the same thing about Oswald's motive and mindset when it comes to his attempt on General Edwin Walker's life in April of 1963. But the facts clearly indicate, regardless of the motive(s), that Oswald, who was very politically active in the year 1963, did in fact take shots at both of those political figures (Walker and Kennedy) in nineteen sixty-three in attempts to end both men's lives. And each of those political figures was very much ANTI-Castro and ANTI-Communist in their beliefs, just the opposite of Mr. Oswald's ideology.

As far as the JFK murder, I've said in the past that it's my belief that Oswald simply took advantage of a golden opportunity to do something on a "grand scale" when that perfect opportunity was presented to him on a platter on November 22, 1963.

He realized that with very little effort and preparation on his part, he could easily be in the right place at the right time when JFK passed by the building where he worked. And if conditions were such so that he could secrete himself in a corner of that warehouse known as the School Book Depository without anyone in the building being aware of his presence in that corner, he might have a chance to change history and make up for the fact he was unsuccessful in his earlier attempt in April to kill another political figure. I think it's quite possible that Lee Harvey Oswald was, in effect, daring himself to take those shots at President Kennedy from his sixth-floor sniper's perch that Friday in Dallas.

However, I also think Oswald's mind was very muddled on November 21st...and I think Marina's account of the events at Ruth Paine's house on the night of Nov. 21 indicates that Lee would have likely been happy to go out and search for a new apartment "tomorrow" (the word Marina said Lee used on 11/21/63) had Marina agreed to get back together with Lee right away.

So unless Lee was just putting on a little "act" for Marina's benefit (or to throw people off), it would seem as if Lee Oswald, as of the night of November 21st, had every intention of hunting for lodgings for himself and his family on November 22nd rather than take his rifle to work and shoot the President.

And I doubt he could have been silly enough to think he could have performed BOTH of those tasks on 11/22/63. Lee Oswald was a very strange character with a twisted mind, yes, but I doubt very much that even his warped mind could have possessed the following thoughts in tandem with each other --- I'll shoot at President Kennedy at around noontime; I'll then leave the building and go search for that apartment, just as I promised Marina I would do last night. I doubt I'll be missed at work because of all the commotion that will follow the assassination attempt that I am also planning for tomorrow.

I think Oswald definitely had a MOTIVE--whatever that might have been--for shooting President Kennedy PRIOR to ever visiting Marina on Thursday night, November 21st. (That's obvious to me because of the "curtain rods" lie he told to Buell Wesley Frazier on Thursday morning.) But his plans to shoot at the President were not fixed in stone as of Thursday night--not until after he talked to Marina.

That scenario might sound way too simplistic (and, frankly, crazy) to many conspiracy theorists (especially those who don't think Oswald ever fired a shot at JFK), but it's what I think is the truth nonetheless.

Can I prove any of the above? No, of course I can't. But, conversely, no conspiracist can prove that Lee Oswald had NO MOTIVE at all for wanting to shoot John F. Kennedy either. The "motive" vs. "no motive" argument is endless--and it goes nowhere. The only one who could possibly answer the "motive" question is Lee Harvey Oswald. And he can't say very much now." -- DVP; February 2015

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http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2011/04/index.html#Lee-Harvey-Oswald

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P.S. -- Hi Lance! It is so good to see you posting on a JFK forum once again! I have missed your thoughtful and on-target posts ever since you decided to leave The Education Forum. (I was reinstated there in June 2022 after a three-year exile.)

[Jim Hawthorn]

What "behavior" was that?  If Oswald was set up, he was given ample opportunity to name names to the world press or the police.

Simple- one can imagine that if any member of the group squealed, their wives and families would be killed. One could understand Oswald's predicament and behaviour.
There is also the theory that he was in liaison with the CIA to infiltrate said group - hence his asking for a phone connection to the region of Langley.