Lee and Harvey in Three Consecutive School Semesters

For three consecutive school semesters, in three different cities, it's easy to see which schools each Oswald attended.  For the fall semester of 1953, Lee Oswald attended Public School 44 in New York City.  At the very same time, Harvey Oswald was enrolled in Beauregard Junior High School in New Orleans.  The following semester, spring 1954, both Lee  and Harvey attended Beauregard. According to Lee Oswald's report cards, published in the Warren Volumes, Lee was in homeroom 303 on the third floor at Beauregard.  Harvey was in the same school, in Myra DaRouse's homeroom in the basement cafeteria at Beauregard. In the fall semester of 1954, Lee continued attending Beauregard in New Orleans, but Harvey left New Orleans in the summer of 1954 and moved to Fort Worth where he began attending Stripling Junior High School in the fall semester.  Now, we shall examine the school records for each of these three consecutive semesters in more detail.

Fall semester 1953

Lee Oswald at Public School 44 in New York City

Harvey Oswald at Beauregard Junior High School in New Orleans

LEE Oswald attended PS 44 in the Bronx during the fall semester of 1953, without incident. But where was HARVEY Oswald, and what was he doing in the summer and fall of 1953? Louise Robertson was a housekeeper in NYC, employed by the Marguerite Oswald impostor for 6 weeks in the summer of 1953 to clean her apartment 2 or 3 days per week. Mrs. "Oswald" (the impostor) told Louise that she had brought her son to New York so that he could have mental tests performed at the Jacobi Hospital. Could young HARVEY Oswald, instead of truanting, have been spending some of his days receiving psychiatric evaluation, mental tests, drug induced hypnosis? Mrs. Robertson remembered that she was working at their small NYC apartment shortly before Mrs. Oswald (the impostor) left New York City, in the summer of 1953, but she did not know where they had gone.

 QUESTION: How and why could the often financially destitute Marguerite Oswald afford a housekeeper in NYC ??

In the summer of 1953 12-year-old William Henry Timmer was living with his grandmother in the small community of Stanley, North Dakota. Timmer and his friends were riding bicycles when they noticed an older boy riding a bicycle nearby. This boy introduced himself as HARV or HARVEY, said he came from New York City, and soon began talking about communism. He took a pamphlet about communism from his back pocket and showed it to the boys. Following the assassination, Timmer's mother wrote a letter to President Johnson and advised that young Oswald had briefly lived in Stanley, North Dakota and knew her son. This was the first time that the small, slender, introverted Oswald referred to himself as "HARVEY."

NOTE: JFK researchers  travelled to Stanley, N.D. and interviewed several people who remembered Marguerite Oswald when she briefly resided in Stanley.  (Read more about North Dakota here)

In the fall fall of 1953, while LEE Oswald was in the eighth grade at PS 44 in in the Bronx (New York), HARVEY Oswald and his caretaker/mother were living at 126 Exchange Place in New Orleans. HARVEY was enrolled part time in the eighth grade at Beauregard Junior High, and because he was a part-time student he was not assigned a home room. On page 817, of Warren Volume 22, there is a copy of Oswald's cumulative school records at Beauregard.  The first row, highlighted in yellow, is the fall semester of 1953 and shows that Oswald attended a General Science class, a Physical Education class, and attended 89 days of school with only one absence. The second row is for the last half of the eighth grade (the spring semester of 1954).  The third row shows final grades, absences, and tardies for the entire 1953-54 school year (eighth grade).

1953 Beauregard JHS record showing HARVEY Oswald attended 89 days of school during the fall semester of 1953, at the same time LEE Oswald attended PS 44 in New York City. See HARVEY's complete attendance and grade information for the fall 1953 semester directly below.

Wilfred Head, assistant principal at Warren Easton High School in New Orleans, provided HARVEY Oswald's grade and  attendance records for Beauregard JHS (8th & 9th grade) and Warren Easton HS (10th grade) to the FBI. The record above  shows HARVEY'S grades under "1953-54 REPORT 1" (General Science & Physical Education), which is the 1st half  of the 1953-54 school year--the fall semester of 1953.

The document above shows that HARVEY Oswald attended 89 days and was  absent just one day in the 1953 fall semester at Beauregard JHS  (1953-54 REPORT 1).		The above record continues the text from the bottom of the page at left. Assistant Principal Wilfred Head advised the FBI that the abbreviation "Re ad," represented "Re Admitted" and added that the numbers set forth opposite these abbreviations would represent the total number of school days attended. HARVEY Oswald attended 89 days of school at Beauregard JHS during the fall semester of 1953.

THE  3 DOCUMENTS ABOVE CLEARLY SHOW THAT RUSSIAN SPEAKING HARVEY OSWALD ATTENDED BEAUREGARD JHS IN NEW ORLEANS IN THE FALL OF 1953 (HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW). THE NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL RECORD PUBLISHED BY THE WARREN COMMISSION (CE 1384), SHOWS THAT AT THE SAME TIME LEE OSWALD WAS ATTENDING PS 44 IN NEW YORK CITY (FALL OF 1953--HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW). WHILE RUSSIAN-SPEAKING HARVEY WAS IN NEW ORLEANS, LEE WAS IN NEW YORK, FROM SEPTEMBER THROUGH DECEMBER, 1953.

Spring semester 1954

Lee in homeroom 303 (3rd floor) at Beauregard JHS

Harvey in Myra DaRouse's homeroom (basement cafeteria) at Beauregard

Myra DaRouse was the girls physical education teacher at Beauregard. During the 1953-54 school year Myra had a home room in the basement cafeteria, but only for one year. At the beginning of the Spring semester, in January, 1954, HARVEY Oswald walked into Myra DaRouse's eighth grade home room in the basement cafeteria and handed Myra his file. Myra told me, "Well, the first day he came into my homeroom he handed me his file. When I read that his name was Lee Harvey Oswald, I said to him, 'how do you want to be called,' and he told me to call him HARVEY. So, I always called him HARVEY. I knew him only as HARVEY." This was the second time that the thin, slender young man  called himself "HARVEY." In 1954 young Oswald wanted to be called "HARVEY," so after talking with Bill Timmer and Myra DaRouse I began referring to the smaller, thinner, quiet Oswald as "HARVEY."

click here for 1997 interview of Myra DaRouse

Myra described young HARVEY as "a little fellow, scrawny, skinny, and quiet. He came to the middle of my chest-about 4 ft 6 inches tall." A personal history sheet for Harvey Oswald was never found among Beauregard JHS records. LEE Oswald, however, did fill out a personal history sheet when he began attending Beauregard in January, 1954. Lee Oswald listed his height at 5'5" and his weight at 135 lbs, which was very different than the description of Harvey Oswald as remembered by Myra DaRouse. In 1954 LEE Oswald was much heavier and slightly taller than Myra, whereas HARVEY Oswald was very thin and quite a bit shorter than Myra. She saw HARVEY nearly every day before school, sitting on the front steps waiting for the school to open, and thought he was lonely. She saw him in her homeroom class, in the school library, and after school riding bicycles on the school grounds with Ed Voebel. On one occasion, after school, Voebel ran up to Myra and shouted, "Miss DaRouse come quick... come quick... a piano fell on HARVEY." Myra and fellow teacher Dorothy Duvic followed Voebel into the basement cafeteria and found HARVEY, on the floor, with a small upright piano lying across his legs. The two women lifted the piano off of HARVEY and then, with the Principal's permission, Myra drove HARVEY to the Monte Lepre Clinic on Canal Street. After examination by a physician, Myra drove HARVEY to his home on Exchange Alley and asked where his mother was. HARVEY replied, "She's working in a bar." A photograph of HARVEY's caretaker, the Marguerite Oswald imposter, was taken during the spring of 1954 in the apartment on Exchange Alley.

Marguerite Oswald imposter in 1954 in the apartment at 126 Exchange Place, New Orleans	1994 image of 126 Exchange Alley in New Orleans (J. Armstrong)

March 2, 1954 was Mardi Gras, and young Harvey Oswald was watching the parade on Canal St, a half-block from his home on 126 Exchange. In the National Archives I found and copied several photos that were taken of the parade, and Harvey Oswald is in one of these photos. In 2002 I sent Myra DaRouse a photo of a young boy watching the parade with a handwritten notation on the back of the photo "Mardi Gras, 1954." I asked Myra if she could identify the young boy in the photo. Myra wrote to me and said, "I have had four people look at these photos who knew Oswald at his time at Beauregard and they (and myself) agreed it was a picture of him."

While HARVEY and his caretaker mother were living in the small apartment on Exchange Alley, LEE Oswald and his tall, nice-looking mother were living 3 1/2 miles away in an apartment at 1454 St. Marys St. The apartment building was owned and operated by Julian and Myrtle Evans, who had known the tall, nice-looking Marguerite Oswald for over 20 years. Julian described Marguerite as, "a beautiful woman with black hair, a real 'fashion plate' who dressed beautifully."

Marguerite Oswald (mother of LEE) in 1957	1994 image of 1454 (and 1452) St. Marys St., New Orleans, owned by Myrtle Evans, Marguerite Oswald's friend for 30 years. Marguerite and LEE lived here from January, 1954 thru April, 1955. (J. Armstrong)

Myrtle Evans had known Marguerite Oswald since the early 1930's and visited her 9 years earlier in Dallas in 1945 when Marguerite was dating Mr. Ekdahl. On February 19, 1954 Marguerite began working at Burt's Shoe Store and listed her address as 1454 St. Marys. This is the same month that Myra DaRouse LaRue drove HARVEY Oswald to his home on Exchange Place, after taking him to the Monte Lepre Clinic because a piano had fallen on his legs. Marguerite's former sister in law, Hazel Oswald, visited her on several occasions at Burt's. The New Orleans Retail Credit Bureau reports that Marguerite was living on St. Marys Street from May through October, 1954. While LEE and his mother were living at 1454 St. Marys thru October,  HARVEY and the Marguerite Oswald impostor were still living at 126 Exchange Place in the French Quarter.

In the spring of 1954, while HARVEY was in Myra DaRouse's eighth grade homeroom class in the basement cafeteria, school records published in the Warren Commission volumes show that LEE Oswald was in homeroom 303 on the 3rd floor of Beauregard. On each and every one of LEE Oswald's eighth grade report cards is the notation "303" and a student progress report that read, "Lee Oswald, grade 8, homeroom 303." These records show that tall, husky LEE Oswald was in homeroom 303 in the eighth grade at Beauregard (spring semester of 1954), while at the same time the short, thin, quiet HARVEY Oswald was in Myra DaRouse's homeroom class in the basement cafeteria. When I told Myra that "Oswald's" school report cards listed his homeroom as "303" she said, "That's impossible. He was in my homeroom in the basement cafeteria." I then showed Myra the photo of HARVEY Oswald, taken at the Bronx Zoo in 1953 in New York. She said, "That's him, just like I remember him." And then I showed Myra the classroom photo of the tall, husky LEE Oswald taken in October, 1954 at Beauregard that appeared in Life Magazine. She looked at the photo a long time and then said, "That's not HARVEY. That's not the boy from my homeroom. Look at this boy. He looks like a football player and HARVEY was skinny." Myra saw HARVEY Oswald every day during the Spring semester of 1954 at Beauregard, before school, in her homeroom, in the school library, and after school. Ed Voebel and HARVEY were good friends, and were always riding their bicycles together after school. Voebel was with HARVEY when the piano fell on his legs during the spring semester of 1954. But after school ended in early June, 1954 (8th grade) neither Myra nor Ed Voebel ever saw HARVEY Oswald again.

4'8" HARVEY Oswald at Bronx Zoo in 1953. John Pic testified this did not appear to be his half-brother.	5'4" LEE Oswald at Beauregard  JHS in 1954, John Pic's real half brother.

Fall semester, 1954

Lee at Beauregard JHS in New Orleans

Harvey at Stripling JHS in Fort Worth, Texas

As the cumulative record above shows, Lee continued to attend Beauregard Junior High School in New Orleans.  But where was Harvey?

Stripling Junior High School--Fort Worth, Texas

HARVEY Oswald graduated from the eighth grade at Beauregard in June, 1954. Late that summer HARVEY and his caretaker/mother moved from 126 Exchange Place in New Orleans to Fort Worth, TX. LEE Oswald and his tall, nice looking mother then moved from 1454 St. Marys St. to 126 Exchange Place in the French Quarter, where they would live for the next two years. LEE Oswald entered the 9th grade at Beauregard while his mother worked in several department stores selling women's clothing.  In the fall of 1954,  while LEE and his mother were living in New Orleans, HARVEY Oswald and his caretaker mother were living in Ft. Worth. HARVEY entered the ninth grade at Stripling Junior High, directly across the street from where he and his caretaker mother were living at 2220 Thomas Place. Graduating from the eighth grade at Beauregard (June, 1954), HARVEY Oswald and his caretaker/mother relocated to Ft. Worth, TX. In the fall (September, 1954)  HARVEY Oswald entered the ninth grade at Stripling Junior High, directly across the street from where he and the Marguerite Oswald impostor were living at 2220 Thomas Place. At the same time LEE Oswald was in the ninth grade at Beauregard JHS in New Orleans and was living at 126 Exchange Place.

NOTE: 2220 Thomas Place was the same house where the Marguerite Oswald impostor stored clothes and furniture when she lived in Benbrook, TX. across the street from Georgia Bell in 1947. In the fall of 1954 Marguerite and HARVEY lived in a small apartment at the rear of this white, one story, wood-frame building. Nine years later, on November 22, 1963, after moving many times and living in many different cities, the Marguerite Oswald impostor was once again living at 2220 Thomas Place, and wearing a white nurse's uniform. From 1940 through 1963 this house was owned by Mary Anne McCarthy and Martha M McCarthy. The Marguerite Oswald impostor's repeated contacts with 2220 Thomas Place in 1947, 1954, and 1963, while always wearing a white nurse's uniform, makes this location a possible "safe house" and a "smoking gun."

Gym teacher Mark Summers, who began teaching at Stripling in 1950, remembered that Oswald was in his gym class.

Former Striping student Bobby Pitts remembered that Oswald attended Stripling with his younger brother, and that he (Bobby) remembered seeing (HARVEY) Oswald standing on the porch at 2220 Thomas Place, directly across the street from Stripling.  Former Stripling student Doug Gann, who attended ninth grade at Stripling with Harvey, remembered that he lived “across the street from the basketball courts and one or two houses to the left,” which exactly describes 2220 Thomas Place, where “Marguerite Oswald” was once again living at the time of the assassination of JFK.

Former Stripling student Francetta Schubert was in the eight grade, and ate her lunch on the school grounds. Every day she watched HARVEY Oswald walk across the street to 2220 Thomas Place for lunch. She described Oswald (HARVEY) as a skinny, quiet boy who wore a brown leather jacket and blue jeans. Fran used to see Oswald's mother and remembered that she was short, heavy-set, and always wore a white nurse's uniform.

click here for 1997 interview with Fran Schubert

1955

LEE Oswald attends Beauragard JHS in New Orleans

HARVEY Oswald works full time at Dolly Shoe in New Orleans

In early 1955 HARVEY Oswald and his caretaker/mother left Ft. Worth and returned to New Orleans. The Marguerite Oswald impostor soon found work at the Dolly Shoe Company, while HARVEY applied for a work permit on March 11, listing his address as 126 Exchange. HARVEY soon began working full-time at Dolly Shoe, along with his caretaker/mother. A copy of his work permit was sent to Mary Miller, a social worker at Beauregard. Mary recalled handling a case that involved a student who lived on Exchange Alley and remembered there was an attendance problem. HARVEY had the attendance problem because he was working full time at Dolly Shoe in the Spring of 1955, when he should have been attending junior high school. While HARVEY was working at Dolly Shoe, LEE Oswald was attending Beauregard with a near-perfect attendance record. Store manager Maury Goodman and co-worker Rita Paveur remembered that the short, heavy-set Marguerite worked as a bar-maid at local bars both before and after she worked for Dolly Shoe. A year earlier, in the spring of 1954, HARVEY Oswald told his homeroom teacher, Myra DaRouse, that his mother worked at a bar. I sent Mr. Goodman and Rita photographs of the short, heavy-set Marguerite Oswald impostor in 1954 and photographs of HARVEY Oswald from the 1956/57 Arlington Heights High School year book. They immediately recognized HARVEY and the Marguerite Oswald impostor as their former co-workers. They remembered Oswald as skinny boy-about 4 ft 10 inches tall, and Marguerite as short and heavy-set. I also sent them a photo of the tall, nice-looking Marguerite Oswald taken at Christmas, 1957 (Pauls Shoe Store) and the classroom photo of LEE Oswald taken at Beauregard in 1954. Nether Mr. Goodman nor Rita recognized either of these people.

In April, 1955 Mr. Goodman hired Louis Marziale as store manager, and his first day at work was Tuesday, April 12--the day his first son was born. Louis arrived at 10:00 am and began observing HARVEY Oswald and other store employees. While having lunch with Mr. Goodman, Louis recommended they fire young Oswald, which they did. Marguerite was also fired because she repeatedly refused to fill out insurance company bonding forms, which if completed may have raised unanswerable questions relating to two different women both using the name "Marguerite Oswald". After Marguerite was fired, Louis recalled that she worked at the Tradewinds Bar on Decatur Street.

click to see 1997 interview with Louis Marziale

1959--HARVEY Oswald "defects" to the Soviet Union

In 1959, HARVEY Oswald "defected" to the Soviet Union. Robert Oswald was interviewed by a Fort Worth newspaper reporter and said that his brother (HARVEY Oswald) had attended Stripling JHS (click here to read the 1959 article).

In 1962 Robert Oswald again told  a Fort Worth newspaper reporter that his brother (HARVEY Oswald) had attended Stripling (click here to read the 1962 article).

1963--Frank Kudlaty

In 1963 Frank Kudlaty was the assistant principal at Stripling Junior High School. On April 2, 1963, the Fort Worth Star Telegram had a short article that described Frank Kudlaty as the assistant principal of Stripling.

Seven months later, on November 23, 1963 (one day after the assassination) Mr. Kudlaty received an early morning phone call from his boss, Mr. Wylie, the principal of Stripling Junior High. Mr. Wylie told Kudlaty to immediately go to Stripling and meet two FBI agents who would arrive shortly and to give them Oswald's school records. In 1963 school records from prior years were kept at each school. In the mid-1960s school records from all Ft. Worth schools were transferred to the new Ft. Worth Independent School District where they were organized and stored. Frank told the author in a video taped interview, "I lived close to the school at that time and arrived at the school before they (the FBI agents) got there. I went into the school and located Oswald's records. In fact I found both Lee Harvey and Robert Oswald's records for Stripling. I opened Lee Harvey Oswald's folder and briefly looked over his records and noted that he had attended less than a full semester at Stripling. He had been there long enough to receive grades for a 6-week period, but not long enough to receive semester grades. I think he was in the 9th grade. I put the records back into the folder and waited for the FBI agents. When they arrived, they showed me their badges for identification and asked for the records. I told them that I had located both Lee Harvey and Robert Oswald's records and asked if they wanted both. They told me they only wanted Lee Harvey Oswald's records. After I handed the records to them, they thanked me and left. I locked up the school and went home." HARVEY Oswald's junior high school records from Stripling, confiscated within 20 hours of the assassination, clearly show that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover knew those Stripling records could expose the two Oswalds. The confiscation and disappearance of the Stripling records is another "smoking gun" and shows that Hoover probably had prior knowledge of HARVEY and LEE.

click here for 1997 interview with Frank Kudlaty

The next day, on November 24, 1963 (two days after the assassination) the Fort Worth Star Telegram published yet another article describing Oswald's attendance Stripling School.

In 1964 Robert Oswald testified to the Warren Commission and said that his "brother" attended Stripling.

Mr. OSWALD. Just a minute, please. In 1952 Lee was 13 years old. He would be attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School then.
Mr. JENNER. I see. For the school year 1951-52?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir. Junior high school there was from the seventh to the ninth grades. And as soon as he was through with his sixth year, he started attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School.

In the early 1990s, the author compared Robert Oswald's testimony concerning Stripling JHS with the Warren Commission records of LEE Harvey Oswald's school records. School records showed the following:

• Oswald  graduated from Ridglea West Elementary School in Ft. Worth in June, 1952
• Oswald attended PS 117 and PS 44 in New York City from the fall of 1952 thru January, 1954
• Oswald attended Beauregard Junior High School in New Orleans from January, 1954 until June, 1955
• Oswald briefly attended Warren Easton High School in New Orleans in the fall of 1955
• Oswald briefly attended Arlington Heights High School in the fall of 1956

According to the Warren Commission school records, Lee Harvey Oswald could not possibly have attended Stripling Junior High in Ft. Worth. However, the Warren Commission was not aware of the two Oswalds or, if they were aware, they intentionally ignored and avoided any reference to a second "Lee Harvey Oswald."

In 1994 the author contacted Mr. Ricardo Galindo, who was then principal of Stripling. Mr. Galindo told the author "it was 'common knowledge' that Lee Harvey Oswald attended Stripling." Galindo then suggested the author visit the Ft. Worth Independant School District to obtain a list of teachers who taught at Stripling in 1954. The author obtained the list, contacted many of these people, and learned from Mark Summers and Frank Kudlaty that Oswald had attended Stripling JHS in the fall of 1954. The author then obtained a Stripling JHS student directory for 1954, and was able to contact many former students who remembered Oswald (Bobby Pitts, Jackie Pitts, Doug Gann, Francetta Schubert).

The author soon realized that the FBI's top priority, even before being assigned to investigate the murder of JFK by President Johnson, was to locate and confiscate all records relating to a second Oswald. This is a clear indication that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover knew about LEE Oswald and HARVEY Oswald, and knew the Stripling school records could expose the two Oswalds. Hoover had prior knowledge of HARVEY and LEE.

On May 11, 2002 the same Fort Worth newspaper published an article commemorating the 75th anniversary of Stripling School, noting that “Lee Harvey Oswald” was its best-known student, and making note of the infamous Thomas Place address.  "Marguerite Oswald" was living at 2220 Thomas Place on the day of the assassination of JFK.

 

In November, 2017 a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article indicated that Oswald’s “teachers and classmates remembered him at Stripling, though there is no official record.”  Read the article here.

The records from Stripling JHS were confiscated by the FBI the day after the assassination and quickly disappeared, but the evidence that HARVEY Oswald attended Stripling Junior High School is simply overwhelming. And the one person with first hand knowledge of HARVEY Oswald and his brief attendance at Stripling JHS was Robert Oswald.

Robert Oswald knew HARVEY Oswald

In 1948 Robert Oswald enrolled in the 9th grade at Stripling Junior High School in Ft. Worth (1948-49 school year). Six years later, in 1954, HARVEY Oswald enrolled in the 9th grade at Stripling JHS. Two years later, during the summer and fall of 1956 Robert Oswald, HARVEY Oswald, and the short, heavy-set Marguerite Oswald impostor were living in an apartment at 4936 Collinwood in Ft. Worth, not far from Stripling JHS. 

Google Maps

While living together in this small apartment, it is the author's opinion that Robert and HARVEY discussed their attendance, teachers, and experiences at nearby Stripling JHS. The would explain how Robert Oswald learned that HARVEY had attended Stripling JHS, and would also explain how Robert was able to tell the Warren Commission that his "brother" had attended Stripling.

NOTE: It is worth noting that during the summer of 1956 Robert's mother, the tall, nice-looking Marguerite Claverie Oswald, was still living in New Orleans and  working at Goldrings Dept. Store. LEE Oswald was also in New Orleans, working under the supervision of Frank DiBenedetto at the Gerard F. Tujague Company. Late that summer Marguerite Claverie Oswald relocated from New Orleans to Ft. Worth and moved into an apartment at 3830 W. 6th, not far from 4936 Collinwood. While in the Marines her son, LEE Oswald (not HARVEY), resided with her when on leave from the Marine Corps.

HARVEY Oswald joined the Marines in October, 1956, left Fort Worth, and arrived at Camp Pendleton in California. One month later, in November, Robert Oswald married Vada Mercer, and the Marguerite Oswald impostor was now alone in her apartment at 4936 Collinwood. During the time that Robert and Vada were dating, the summer and fall of 1956, Robert never introduced his future wife to HARVEY Oswald (supposedly his "brother") nor to the Marguerite Oswald impostor (supposedly his "mother"). This makes perfect sense, because HARVEY Oswald was not Robert's brother and the short, heavy-set Marguerite Oswald impostor was not Robert's mother.

Robert Oswald clearly participated knowingly in the Oswald Project, which began around the time the Central Intelligence Agency was created (1947). This CIA project began by allowing a very young Russian-speaking youth to share the identity of a young American boy--Lee Harvey Oswald. While growing up both boys--American born LEE Harvey Oswald and Russian speaking HARVEY Lee Oswald--would live in the same city, often attend the same schools, and at the age of 17 both young men would join the US Marine Corps. The goal was for HARVEY Oswald to assume the identity of LEE Oswald and "defect" to the Soviet Union, where he could secretly use his Russian language ability to collect information on behalf of the CIA. Robert Oswald likely met the Russian speaking HARVEY Oswald in New York City in the fall of 1953. Three years later Robert, HARVEY, and the Marguerite Oswald impostor lived together at 4936 Collinwood in Fort Worth, TX, from  June thru October, 1956. In 1958 Robert took a photo of his real brother, the taller, huskier LEE Oswald, which he published in his book titled LEE, a Portrait of  Lee  Harvey Oswald.  One year later Robert took a photo of 19 year old HARVEY Oswald, only a few days before left the United States and "defected" to the Soviet Union.

Above (left): 1958 photo of LEE Oswald on leave from USMC taken by his brother Robert and published in Robert's
 book, Lee. Above (right): 1959 photo shows HARVEY Oswald standing next to Robert Oswald.