That was the summer of 1963, when everybody called me "Baby", and it didn't occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came -- when I couldn't wait to join the Peace Corps, and I thought I'd never find a guy as great as my dad. That was the summer we went to Kellerman's.======
During all of August and September 1963, 25-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald was living in New Orleans, Louisiana, with his 22-year-old Russian-born wife Marina and one-year-old daughter June. Marina was about seven-months pregnant (a second daughter would be born on October 20).
On July 19, Lee had been fired from a machinery-maintenance job. On July 11, he established an unemployment claim and collected unemployment benefits through August and September.
His employment prospects were complicated by his undesirable discharge from the US Marines (because he had defected to Russia in 1959). He had requested a revision of that status, but his request was rejected on July 25, and he received the notification in the mail a few days later.
During August and September, Lee spent much of his time in political activities involving Cuba. His activities during those two months are described by The Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (commonly called The Warren Report) as follows (pages 407 and 287-288).
He [Oswald] distributed [pro-Cuba] literature in downtown New Orleans on August 9, 1963, and was arrested because of a dispute with three anti-Castro Cuban exiles, and again on August 16, 1963. Following his arrest, he was interviewed by the police, and at his own request, by an agent of the FBI.
On August 17, 1963, he appeared briefly on a radio program and on August 21, 1963, he debated over radio station WDSU, New Orleans, with Carlos Bringuier, one of the Cuban exiles who bad been arrested with him on August 9. Bringuier claimed that on August 5, 1963, Oswald had attempted to infiltrate an anti-Castro organization with which he was associated. ...
Oswald also attempted to initiate other dealings with the Communist Party, U.S.A., but the organization was not especially responsive. From New Orleans, he informed the party of his activities in connection with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, submitting membership cards in his fictitious chapter to several party officials. In a letter from Arnold S. Johnson, director of the information and lecture bureau of the party, Oswald was informed that although the Communist Party had no "organizational ties" with the committee, the party issued much literature which was "important for anybody who is concerned about developments in Cuba."
In September 1963 Oswald inquired how he might contact the party when he relocated in the Baltimore-Washington area, as he said he planned to do in October, and Johnson suggested in a letter of September 19 that he "get in touch with us here [New York] and we will find some way of getting in touch with you in that city [Baltimore]."
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On the morning of August 10, Oswald was in jail. He had been arrested during the previous day because of a street fight with Bringuier, an anti-Castro Cuban immigrant. While in jail, Oswald asked to talk with an FBI official, and so FBI special agent, John Quigley (who had not known anything about Oswald previously) came to the jail to talk with him.
Oswald told Quigley that the street fight had happened because he was attacked while handing out leaflets for the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Oswald said he belonged to the Committee's New Orleans chapter and showed Quigley his membership card, which Oswald had signed with his false name, A. Hidell.
Although Oswald himself had requested to talk with an FBI official, he refused to answer many of Quigley questions about Oswald's activities and about the Committee. Quigley did not understand why Oswald had requested to talk with him.
Unbeknownst to Quigley, Oswald was thinking about emigrating to Cuba and perhaps sending his wife and children back to Russia. In Oswald's own mind, his request for an FBI interview might have intended to advance that scheme. Anyway, Oswald's request for the FBI interview remains mysterious.
On the afternoon of August 10, Oswald was bailed out of jail by a family friend. On August 12 he pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace and was fined $10.
A local radio station invited Oswald to be interviewed about the incident. Oswald accepted the invitation and was interviewed for 37 minutes on August 17. The recording of the interview was edited down to four-and-a-half minutes and was broadcast that night.
Then the radio station invited Oswald to debate Bringuier on a live broadcast. Oswald accepted the invitation, and he and Bringuier debated on the evening of August 21.
Little is known for sure about Oswald's activities during the remainder of August. Perhaps he was working secretly for a former FBI official, Guy Banister, who now was working as a private investigator in New Orleans. If so, then perhaps Oswald was earning money from Banister by collecting information about local Cuban immigrants and about other matters. Perhaps Oswald had been distributing the leaflets on Banister's orders.
Many of the conspiracy theories about Oswald's assassination of President John Kennedy involve Oswald's suspected relationship with Banister. The following video clip shows Ron Lewis, who claims that he himself was involved with both Oswald and Banister.
The Warren Report ignored indications that Oswald might have been involved with Banister.
In the following scene from the 1991 movie JFK, Banister is played by the actor Ed Asner, and his assistant Jack Martin is played by the actor Jack Lemon. The scene takes place a few hours after the assassination of President Kennedy. In the scene, Banister beats up Martin to keep him quiet about Banister's relationship with Oswald.
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Some people have testified that Oswald family traveled to the towns of Jackson and Clinton, Louisiana, at about the end of August. Those people's combined stories indicated that Lee was trying to get a job at a hospital near Jackson. In order to have any chance at getting such a job, however, he had to be a local registered voter. Therefore, Oswald registered in nearby Clinton and was seen doing so there.
Those stories about Oswald being in Jackson and Clinton at the end of August probably are false. If they indeed are false, then there is no evidence that the Oswald family traveled out of New Orleans during August and early September.
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The Oswald family continued to live in New Orleans through most of September.
Marina and June Oswald moved from New Orleans to Irving, Texas, near Dallas, on September 23.
Lee collected his final unemployment check on September 25 and then traveled by bus from New Orleans to Mexico City. From there, he joined Marina and June in Irving on October 3.
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This article is the first in a series. The second article is The Oswalds' Plans to Hijack an Airplane.
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