# Lee Harvey Oswald motivation **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 27, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529 "2013-01-27T12:53:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/1 "2013-01-27T12:53:16Z")
The thing that always struck me about his actions was that I could never determine if he had any motive for killing Kennedy. I am thinking that if I can’t find a motive, he must have been a pawn, and there must have been a conspiracy. Sirhan Sirhan…what possibly could be his motive? The redneck who shot King. What did he have to gain from throwing his life away? Did he really have enough hatred for black people to kill King? Some folks are simply crazy. The three above mentioned didn’t seem crazy, yet they didn’t really seem to have enough motive to do the horrible things they did. ---
**Author:** ![Bones\_Daley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Bones\_Daley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bones_Daley)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/2 "2013-01-27T12:57:12Z")
They were, all three, pawns in a CIA conspiracy (or so I have been told by a man in a bar who seemed to know what he was talking about ) ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/3 "2013-01-27T13:10:07Z")
I knew an FBI guy who told me the public would never know how close Hoover came to blowing up the whole country. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/4 "2013-01-27T13:15:35Z")
All three of the assassins in the OP showed differing degrees of craziness. There is substantial evidence that Oswald was not a pawn, Sirhan maybe but no evidence publicly available to support that, and James Earl Ray was at most a willing pawn. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/5 "2013-01-27T13:16:30Z")
The desire to “be somebody”, to make a “dent on the universe”, seems motive enough for some people. And it worked for Oswald, after a fashion. He became famous; he has been portrayed in an Oscar-winning film and probably quite a few other films; many of us know a lot more about his life story than we otherwise would. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/6 "2013-01-27T13:17:50Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > All three of the assassins in the OP showed differing degrees of craziness. There is substantial evidence that Oswald was not a pawn, Sirhan maybe but no evidence publicly available to support that, and James Earl Ray was at most a willing pawn. I don’t get his motivation (Oswald) though, so I think, perhaps, he was a very cleverly concealed pawn. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/7 "2013-01-27T13:33:33Z")
So, was Lyndon Johnson actually one of our greatest presidents, Civil rights and all that, or did he pull the puppet strings? Was he about to be exposed, so he quit? ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/8 "2013-01-27T13:33:42Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > I don’t get his motivation (Oswald) though, so I think, perhaps, he was a very cleverly concealed pawn. But if he was a _very cleverly_ concealed pawn, wouldn’t have they been clever enough to think up a plausible motivation for him? I mean, if I was orchestrating a conspiracy and I wanted everyone to fall for my cover story, I would definitely give a motive that seemed obvious and realistic - then my conspiracy would be more likely to remain a secret. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/9 "2013-01-27T13:37:29Z")
I was the right age, at the right place to hero worship John, switch to Bobby with what remained of my idiotic sense of public service duty, then simply go into a 4 decades funk after Martin. The bastards changed the US, sent us on the wrong, completely hedonistic and materialistic path (temperance would be better, not abstinence), and set us up to distrust everything about our institutions. Maybe all the bastards are dead, now. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/10 "2013-01-27T13:38:49Z")
> [@Waenara](#): > > But if he was a _very cleverly_ concealed pawn, wouldn’t have they been clever enough to think up a plausible motivation for him? I mean, if I was orchestrating a conspiracy and I wanted everyone to fall for my cover story, I would definitely give a motive that seemed obvious and realistic - then my conspiracy would be more likely to remain a secret. Maybe. Maybe they were smart enough to know how you would think they thought and were thinking we wouldn’t think that if they didn’t think it in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/11 "2013-01-27T13:40:51Z")
There were no indications, no writings, no calls to talk shows, no ‘hesitation cuts’, so to speak. He just got a gun, practiced a little, found a perch that just happened to give him a clear sniper shot, and did it. Where the hell is the motivation? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/12 "2013-01-27T13:52:20Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > There were no indications, no writings, no calls to talk shows, no ‘hesitation cuts’, so to speak. He just got a gun, practiced a little, found a perch that just happened to give him a clear sniper shot, and did it. Where the hell is the motivation? He was crazy. That was the motivation. He had some kind of paranoid delusions, his life consisted of a series of dramatic failures. One reason he was so unlikely to be a pawn is that no one trusted him. Crazy people have crazy motivations. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/13 "2013-01-27T14:03:21Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > There were no indications, no writings, no calls to talk shows, no ‘hesitation cuts’, so to speak. He just got a gun, practiced a little, found a perch that just happened to give him a clear sniper shot, and did it. Where the hell is the motivation? Crucible, have you read “Case Closed” or the other threads on this topic on this board? I’m not being narky, but this has been discussed endlessly and most, certainly not all, agree that Oswald was a guy with a problem- a misfit.. He was not a guy who just got a gun and found a position- he had marksman training and had previously tried to shoot a military figure. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/14 "2013-01-27T14:03:47Z")
Yet, and I hate to bring gun control into this discussion, there is a large sentiment out there for letting any crazy who can walk and chew gum have the weapon he used (not a semi-automatic, far from it) and letting him express his fear of tyrannical government (what they say the 2nd amendment is for) by killing someone in government. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/15 "2013-01-27T14:05:15Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Crucible, have you read “Case Closed” or the other threads on this topic on this board? > > I’m not being narky, but this has been discussed endlessly and most, certainly not all, agree that Oswald was a guy with a problem- a misfit.. He was not a guy who just got a gun and found a position- he had marksman training and had previously tried to shoot a military figure. I would suppose such a topic was discussed endlessly, but I doubt you convinced everyone that Oswald acted alone in a demented fancy. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/16 "2013-01-27T14:12:55Z")
I never said I convinced anyone of anything. Other posters are far more persuasive. Demented fancy? Okay, I see you have an agenda. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/17 "2013-01-27T14:20:59Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > There were no indications, no writings, no calls to talk shows . . . [Lee Harvey Oswald on a talk show, August 1963](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYNp1orPM5c). ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/18 "2013-01-27T14:22:02Z")
Why does no one ever build conspiracy theories around John Hinckley? It should be obvious to anyone that those dirty left-wing hippies were behind it! Ted Kennedy was the mastermind! Once Reagen was dead, Fidel Castro would have been invited to rule the country! But, alas, Hinckley was simply a nut - like Oswald, like Sirhan, like Ray, like Bremer. I’ll bet that any city in America has a number of nuts who would gladly kill a President if they only had the opportunity. Opportunity knocked for Oswald & he answered. ---
**Author:** ![26charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/9d8465/32.png) [@26charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/26charlie)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/19 "2013-01-27T14:41:43Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > ``` > I am thinking that if I can't find a motive, he must have been a pawn, and there must have been a conspiracy..... > > ``` What was robert deniro’s taxi driver character’s motive for shooting a public figure? If he told you what it was and it made no sense, would he be part of a conspiracy? Theres alot of people out there like him, like bremer and like sirhan. All confused people with free access to firearms. Sirhan, hinkley and ray wanted to be heros - maybe all of them did. Is that a conspiracy to be a hero? ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529/20 "2013-01-27T14:50:38Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > Why does no one ever build conspiracy theories around John Hinckley? > [@26charlie](#): > > What was robert deniro’s taxi driver character’s motive for shooting a public figure? Jodi Foster is behind it all! Note that she was born EXACTLY one year before the JFK assassination, was LIVING IN LOS ANGELES when RFK was killed, and motivated HINKLEY to shoot Reagan. COINCIDENCE??? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lee-harvey-oswald-motivation/648529.md?page=2)