The Oswald's House on Neely Street
This house at 214 W. Neely Street has seen better days, but it hasn't met the wrecking ball, yet. From March 2 to April 24, 1963, Oswald lived upstairs with Marina and baby daughter, June, paying $60 per month, plus utilities. For Marina, the place wasn't much to write home about; in fact, the Spartan living conditions she endured here caused her to rethink her decision to marry Oswald and leave the Soviet Union in the first place. On March 12, Oswald sent off $21.45 for an Italian WWII military surplus Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, plus scope, from a Chicago mail order company advertising in the back of an outdoors magazine. This would be the rifle that was found in the Sixth Floor lair after the assassination. It was here in the backyard eight months before the assassination where Oswald persuaded Marina to snap three photos of him posing proudly – dressed in black, rifle in one hand, communist articles in the other, and a holstered handgun on his side. Of those three images, one later appeared on the cover of the February 4 edition of Life magazine; another was found in the possession of George de Mohrenschidt years after the president's death; and the third was found hidden in a book that Ruth Paine returned to Marina after the assassination. Conspiracy theorists have claimed that differences in the shaded light in the photo indicates that the image was doctored and that Oswald didn’t pose with the rifle, but Marina later confirmed to investigators that she, in fact, took the photo. According to the Warren Commission established that these photos were taken on a Sunday two weeks before the attempted shooting of the right-wing crackpot Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker on April 10, 1963. |