Whatever you believe about Lee Harvey Oswald, his tale is a sad one indeed. It’s either the story of an innocent man framed for the crime of the century, or it’s the story of a nobody who never accomplished anything in his life, and when he finally does, it’s so extraordinary that nobody believes he could have pulled it off. But if Oswald did indeed shoot Kennedy, why did he deny it?
Quite simply, because he could.
All the previous presidential assassins had committed their crime with a side-arm at point-blank range, leaving no room for doubt as to who pulled the trigger. The assailant was quickly identified, in and in most cases immediately subdued (with the exception of John Wilkes Booth, who briefly evaded his captors).
Since Kennedy was the first President assassinated with a long-range weapon, his assailant was the first Presidential assassin with the luxury of relative anonymity. In other words, unlike Booth, Czolzgoz, and Guiteau, President Kennedy’s assassin was not surrounded by throngs of witnesses who saw him pull the trigger. The best witness we have against Oswald was Howard Brennan, who claims to have seen Oswald firing the rifle from the sniper’s nest. But Brennan was across the street from the nest, and six floors below it, unlike the mass of witnesses surrounding all the other Presidential assassins. So Oswald could deny his guilt with a degree of plausibility—at least until the evidence started to stack up against him, which it eventually did.
Okay, So He Was the First Presidential Assassin Who Could Deny It, But Why Would He?
From his behavior, diaries and interactions with other individuals, Oswald was clearly a man with delusions of grandeur, and a man who saw a place for himself in the history books. Why then would he deny the very act that would assure this self-fulfilling prophecy? Various researchers have come to their own conclusions concerning this notion, but I believe it boils down to one thing:
Oswald Liked Fucking With People
He fucked with his peers, he fucked with authority figures, he fucked with the anti-communists in New Orleans, he fucked with the Feds and he fucked with the Fuzz. One day he would go to the anti-communists in New Orleans and claim to be one of them, and then the next he’d go out in the streets and hand and pro-communist leaflets right in their face. Look at the images from that day, and note the obnoxious little smirk on Oswald’s face. He’s getting a rise out of everybody, and having a blast.
When Oswald was arrested the day of Kennedy’s assassination, the Dallas cops found two IDs on him, and asked Oswald which one was real. “You’re the policemen, you figure out,” was his reply. Classic Lee Oswald, doing what he does best: fucking with people.
When the reporters started showing up at the Dallas Police Station, Oswald finally got the chance of a lifetime: To fuck with the WHOLE WORLD. And he did, masterfully. Previously, Oswald was only afforded opportunities to fuck with this person or that, a co-worker or fellow marine, but now he was given the opportunity to go on television and fuck with every man, woman, and child on the whole planet. And every time someone goes on YouTube and watches the footage of Oswald claiming innocence, he’s fucking with them too. Even from the grave, Lee Oswald is still getting a rise out of people.
The tragic part of Oswald’s sick little joke, is that people believe him. He preyed on the American ideal of innocent until proven guilty and started one of the most vicious debates in our history.
So in light of his long history of fucking with people, one has to ask the question:
Who’s the Real Patsy? Lee Oswald? Or anybody gullible enough to believe a damn thing he says.
