One of the most infamous photos in American history was taken 60 years ago today. The photo is of Lee Harvey Oswald, his pistol tucked on his right hip, his sniper rifle in his left hand, and copies of two communist newspapers The Militant and The Worker in his right hand.
The picture was taken on Sunday afternoon 31 March 1963 by Oswald’s wife Marina. She was in the back yard of their duplex at 214 W. Neely Street hanging diapers to dry when Oswald came down the backstairs dressed all in black. She broke out laughing at his outfit. He didn’t tell her of his imminent plan to assassinate General Walker. He simply explained that he wanted a photo for “posterity.” Eight months later, Oswald’s wish came true when he used the sniper rifle to assassinate President Kennedy.
Oswald secretly developed and printed at least four copies of the photo. He is known to have sent one copy to The Militant and presumably one copy to The Worker.
He signed a third copy on the back to his daughter, “For Junie from Papa.” When Marina asked, why their baby daughter would want a picture of him with guns, Oswald replied, “To remember Papa by.”
Oswald signed a fourth copy on the back to Baron George de Mohrenschildt, “To my friend George from Lee Oswald, 5 April 1963.”
Intriguingly, “Hunter of fascists, ha, ha, ha,” was also written in Russian on the back of this copy by somebody other than Lee or Marina Oswald. Presumably, this was written by De Mohrenschildt but exactly when is unknown as he had committed suicide before the copy was discovered in 1977.