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JFK Assassination Discussion & Debate / Re: Why did Oswald kill JFK?
« Last post by John Corbett on Yesterday at 02:46:27 PM »A problem trying to figure out the "Why?" question involves how he pulled it off, the ad hoc nature of the act. Using a cheap rifle - he had money to buy a better one - a weapon that he retrieved only the day before the assassination (that he apparently didn't practice with for weeks). He goes back to his rooming house for his revolver. He leaves behind incriminating evidence. Et cetera. There was little planning, little forethought involved: it was last minute. As you know, it's argued that had Marina agreed to move back in with him and find an apartment then he may have not gone through with the act. Something that simple.
How do we fit this spur of the moment act into this explanation of a larger purpose behind it? Viz., his hatred of the US, his support for Castro, his opposition to America? Someone driven by those grievances doesn't act, it seems to me, so hastily. He plans things out.
This is where Ruby's act was so awful, so indefensible. Besides the vigilantism of it, the denial of Oswald's rights, it denied the world a fuller explanation. Had Oswald lived I don't think any of us would be here. He would have admitted - implicitly if not explicitly - to the crime. He wouldn't be able to answer all of these questions about the rifle, the photos, his post-assassination behavior. But all of that was denied by Ruby's act. Ruby wanted to punish Oswald, hold him accountable when in reality he helped him avoid accountability.
Let's face facts. We are all guessing what Oswald was thinking both before and after the shooting. None of us will ever know. I'm happy to play the guessing game. My guess is Oswald was a lonely, pissed off little loser who hated the USA and blamed the world for his lowly lot in life. He was a little nobody who wanted to become a somebody. He tried and failed to do that when he missed General Walker. Just 7 1/2 months later, fate handed him a once in a lifetime opportunity to become a big somebody and he took full advantage. Once he had finally succeeded at doing something important for the first time in his life, I don't think he had a plan beyond that. He had to know he wasn't going to get away with it but he was going to make it as difficult as possible for the society he despised to administer justice to him. If the cops were going to try to arrest him, he would try to take as many of them down as he could, possibly with the idea of committing suicide-by-cop. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. As Royell Storing likes to say, prove me wrong.
As for Ruby's killing of Oswald, that was deplorable (wink, wink). I can't justify it legally or morally but that doesn't stop me from saying I'm glad he did it anyway. The 48 hours Oswald lived after killing JFK were probably the happiest of his life. For the first time in his life, he was a somebody. He was the center of attention and the whole world was watching. I think he was looking forward to his trial and the daily notoriety that would bring him. A well placed shot by Jack Ruby denied him all that and hopefully inflicted excruciating pain for the last two hours of Oswald's life. If the price for denying Oswald what he sought is that we'll never know why he did it, that's a price I'm glad we paid. Oswald might still be spending time acting defiantly in the Texas penitentiary. I have no doubt there would be lots of people who would be advocating for his parole, just as they have done for Sirhan Sirhan. Jack Ruby spared us all that nonsense. Thanks again, Jack.
