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Arts & Culture

FRONTLINE: Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?

Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife, Marina, leaving Russia.
Courtesy of National Archives/Public Domain
Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife, Marina, leaving Russia.

Airs Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV

FRONTLINE marks the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination with a two-hour reprise of its investigative biography of the man at the center of the political crime of the 20th century.

Lee Harvey Oswald as a young boy, at age 8 or 9.
Courtesy of National Archives/Public Domain
Lee Harvey Oswald as a young boy, at age 8 or 9.

At the heart of the assassination lies the puzzle of Lee Harvey Oswald: Was he the emotionally disturbed lone gunman of the 1964 Warren Commission report? Was he, as the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded, probably part of a conspiracy on that day in Dallas? Or was he an unwitting fall guy, the patsy, as Oswald himself claimed when he was arrested on Nov. 22, 1963?

Twenty years ago, in the most comprehensive attempt on American television to penetrate this enduring enigma, FRONTLINE’s investigative team spent more than a year re-examining Oswald’s life and sifting through the psychological, political and forensic evidence of his role in the assassination.

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Traveling to Japan, Russia, Europe, Mexico, Canada and across the United States, the team uncovered new witnesses, documents, photographs, video and audio recordings of Lee Oswald, many of which had never before been made public.

Past episodes of FRONTLINE are available for online viewing. FRONTLINE is on Facebook, and follow @frontlinepbs on Twitter.

Preview: Frontline: Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?