[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

questions “Who was Lee Harvey Oswald?” and whether he was a “lone gunman,
conspirator or patsy?” Oswald was described as “the man at the center of the crime of the
century.” 738 The program included commentary from conspiracy theorists such as
Anthony Summers and mob expert G. Robert Blakey, but Warren Commission defenders
Gerald Posner, Robert Oswald, and Priscilla Johnson McMillan were more prominent.
Blakey also backed many of the Warren Commission’s findings about Oswald and the
forensic evidence – in line with his findings as chief counsel of the House Assassinations
Committee.
The program presented the details of the death of Oswald’s father before his birth,
his troubled early years, and the difficult relationship with his mother. Robert Oswald
deplored the “lack of stability” in his brother’s life, and the messages that Marguerite
imparted to her son that “The world owed her a living” and wanting “to be somebody.”
The narrator noted that young Oswald’s favorite program was “a saga of political intrigue
and espionage” – “I Led 3 Lives” – which told the tale of Communist party member and
undercover FBI informant Herbert A. Philbrick. The narrator intoned that “very real
events were making a lasting impression on Lee” – the conviction and execution of
nuclear spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Edward J. Epstein – the author of Legend and
a proponent of Oswald the Red theory – claimed this was Oswald’s “political
awakening.” The program recounted Lee’s troubles in school, his truancy and his stay at
the Youth House in New York City. Returning to his birthplace New Orleans, Blakey
738
“Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?” Frontline transcript,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/parges/frontline/programs/transcripts/1205.html (accessed
6/1/2010), 1-2.
326