a case for oswald

Photo by the Life photographer Allan Grant. On the left is Marguerite Oswald, Lee’s mother. On the right is Marina, Lee’s wife. Marguerite was furious that Life would run a photograph with her pantyhose rolled down.

I’ve spent the last few weeks buried in Norman Mailer’s incredible Oswald’s Tale, an exhaustive biography on all facets of Lee Oswald’s life, with fascinating interviews of his friends and associates in Minsk and some very smart and informative readings of the Warren Commission’s shoddy work. Don Delillo’s Libra is my favorite book on the subject — he does a masterful job of writing in the voices of both Lee Oswald and his mother Marguerite — and James Ellroy’s more fantastical American Tabloid is great as well. Today on eMusic, we received from Smithsonian Folkways a handful of important additions to the Kennedy/Oswald archives, most notably The Oswald Case: Mrs. Marguerite Oswald Reads Lee Harvey Oswald’s Letters from Russia.

Every writer I have read on the subject seems to agree: Mrs. Marguerite Oswald was an extremely odd and difficult woman. She was an overbearing mother, intrusive into all three of her sons’ lives, and Lee more than the others. For his part, Lee treated his mother very poorly, routinely taking advantage of her devotion for his own ends, and callously rejecting her when it benefited him. The Smithsonian recording showcases Mrs. Oswald in all of her glory: in between reading Lee’s letters from Moscow and Minsk, she interjects much about her son’s innocence, as well as her own financial situation (a common theme in both her Warren Commission testimony, as well as biographical interviews).

It’s the first time I have heard Mrs. Oswald’s voice, and the “snobbishness” that many acquaintances have accused her of comes through very clearly. Despite coming from humble origins and never possessing a job of much stature, Marguerite speaks with a defiant haughtiness that’s hard to ignore. The purpose of these recordings is obvious: they are not meant to help clear or contextualize her son, they are meant to raise her profile and establish her as a Good American Mother. Ultimately, they do neither, but it makes for fascinating listening, nonetheless.

Also in this vein from the Smithsonian: The Oswald Case: Mark Lane’s Testimony to the Warren Commission, Watergate, Vol.1: The Break In (testimony from Watergate burglars McCord and Barker), Watergate, Vol.2: The Testimony of Jeb Stuart MacGruder and Watergate, Vol.3: “I Hope the President is Forgiven”.