Oswald's Tale - An American Mystery

Oswald's Tale

An American Mystery

By: Norman Mailer

Oswald was born on October 8, 1939, into a lower-middle -class family in a downtrodden New Orleans neighborhood. Oswald's father had died just two months before he was born. Lee was born into an unstable family and had it really rough in his younger years. He had been in and out of about thirteen to fifteen schools during his childhood. To almost every school he attended the teachers and the students said he never talked to anyone and kept only to himself. Oswald was always in fights and had been to several psychiatrists during his teen years. He only received a seventh grade education.

He joined the marines one week after he had turned seventeen. He was assigned to the Second Battalion. This is when he began to discover he had a feel for communism and followed Marxists ideas. Oswald became a great sharp shooter with the M-1 and later certified himself on the firing range.

Oswald Plush

Downtown Dallas in the background with the Trinity...

It is a collage image of the City of Fort Worth, T...

While in the marines he was humiliated by his fellow marines, court martialed for having an unregistered weapon, and later discharged.

Oswald felt after his discharge that it was time to fulfill his dream of becoming a Soviet Defector by applying for his Soviet citizenship. He went through a lot of trouble and paper work just to get a visa approved for a temporary stay in Russia. He felt that once he got there and stayed a while that he would convince the Soviet to grant him full citizenship. Not long after he arrived in Russia, he met the love of his life, Marina. He married her shortly after meeting her and not long after, they had a kid. Soon after marring Marina, Oswald starting realizing that communism wasn't all that he thought it was. Soon...