The lone piece of evidence used to prove Lee Harvey Oswald was a good enough rifle shot to assassinate former President John F. Kennedy from a perch 265 feet away was auctioned off this week.
Oswald’s U.S. Marine Corps Score Book, which showed he was in the “sharpshooter” range and the second best behind expert, was sold by RR Auctions of Boston for $75,000.
The sale took place a day before Veteran’s Day and on the 246th Birthday of the Marine Corps.
“It’s an extraordinary piece of history used as a major exhibit of evidence in the Warren Commission conclusions implicating Lee Harvey Oswald to the Kennedy assassination,” said Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction.
The 80-page softcover workbook was issued on Dec. 3, 1956, filled out by Oswald in pencil. It showed that while in the Marines, he was a good shot. That’s all the Warren Commission, formed to probe the JFK killing, needed to conclude that he was the killer.
The commission concluded, “Oswald possessed the capability with a rifle which enabled him to commit the assassination.”
Oswald was never tried or convicted of the crime of the century because two days after he shot Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as the motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, nightclub owner Jack Ruby killed him on live television in the basement of Dallas Police headquarters.
He and his mother claimed he was a “patsy” and that others were responsible. The case has sparked hundreds of conspiracy theories. Presidents as recently as Trump have blocked the release of key documents in the case.
Reasons for the shooting were also unclear, though he defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 after he was honorably released from active duty. He returned to the United States in 1962.
