Description:

Warren Commission Exhibit No. 240. Lee Harvey Oswald writes his mother on verso of a May Day color postcard as he awaits his wife's U.S. visa to enter the USA

Autograph Letter Signed "Love xxx / Lee," [Minsk], May 10. 1962, on verso of a 5.75" x 4" color May Day postcard with an atomic energy theme, addressed by Lee Harvey Oswald to his mother "U.S.A. / Vernon, Texas / Box 982 / Mrs. M. Oswald." The address has been crossed out in pencil and forwarded to "c/o John E Long / Box 473 / Crowell Tex." Oswald has written his return address, where requested, at the bottom "Ul Kommunidstecheski / D. 4 Kb 24." Signing "A. Oswald." He was "Alek" in Russia. Three different Soviet stamps postmarked in Minsk. Minor flaws. Penciled at top edge "Ex 240" unknown hand. Warren Commission Exhibit No. 240. Pictured on page 680 of Volume XVI of the Warren Commission Hearings. Fine condition.

In full, as written, not corrected,"Dear Mother. Well theres nothing much new. we are just waiting for the Embassy to finish up the paper work and give us the word they are very slow about it. weather here is good June is getting big. Marina is O.K. and so am I. Will write when something new comes up. Love XXX Lee." Marina and LeeÍs daughter June was born three months earlier, on February 15, 1962.

Marguerite Oswald, on February 10, 1964, her first day of testimony before the Warren Commission, testified that "I received a speedletter from the State Department stating that Lee would leave Moscow, and how he would leave and arrive in New York – on June 13, 1962. I was on a case in Crowell, Tex. I am a practical nurse. And I was taking care of a very elderly woman, whose daughter lived in Fort Worth, Tex. So I was not able to leave and meet Lee. Robert, his brother, met him, and Lee went to Robert's homeƒ"

A June 14, 1962, New York State Department of Welfare memorandum from Mrs. Janet Ruscoll to Virginia James, Subject: repatriation from U.S.S.R., was a Warren Commission Exhibit. In part, "We understand Mr. Oswald had been in the U.S.S.R. for the last two and one-half years and that his wife is Russian. The family ƒ will be eligible under the repatriation program ƒ The family was considered destitute although they had paid part of their passage, but may need help in going to Texas if the relatives are unable to pay passage. The address for Mr, Oswald's mother, Mrs. Margurette Oswald, is Box 473, 316 East Donnell, Crowell, Texas, [the forwarding address on this postcard] She is said to be interested but the extent of her help and interest is unknownƒ" Coincidently, on the day Oswald wrote this postcard, May 10, 1962, Joseph P. Norbury, American Consul at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, wrote Oswald, in part, "I am pleased to inform you that the Embassy is now in a position to take final action on your wifeÍs visa application. Therefore, you and your wife are invited to come to the Embassy at your convenienceƒ" From the Warren Report: "The Oswalds were notified on December 25, 1961, that their requests for exit visas had been granted by Soviet authorities. Marina Oswald picked up her visa, valid until December 1, 1962, on January 11, 1962. Oswald did not pick up his visa until May 22 [after Marina had received her visa from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service] ƒ Because his exit visa had a 45-day expiration time after date of issuance, Lee Oswald delayed picking it up until he knew when he was leaving. He could not arrange a departure date until he received permission from the Department of State in May to return to the United States." From the collection of Dr. John K. Lattimer (1914-2007). The family of President John F. Kennedy chose Dr. Lattimer to be the first nongovernmental medical specialist to review evidence in Kennedy's assassination. On January 7, 1972, at the National Archives, Dr. Lattimer examined 65 X-rays, color transparencies, and black-and-white negatives taken during Kennedy's autopsy, concluding, according to The New York Times that "they ‘eliminate any doubt completely’ about the validity of the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all the shots that struck the President."

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