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

assassination. At one point she told Stafford, “Now maybe Lee Harvey Oswald was the
assassin….But does that make him a louse?” 173 Many people would say yes, but
Marguerite explained that the assassination may have been a “mercy killing” because
“President Kennedy was a dying man” and needed to be killed for the “security of the
country.” 174
These interviews took place in 1965 before Kennedy’s medical problems,
including his suffering from Addison’s disease, were well known, but as Stafford
interjected, “Some mercy killing! The methods used in his instance must surely be
unique in the annals of euthanasia.” 175 Marguerite also had a plaque on her wall of her
quote, “MY SON – LEE HARVEY OSWALD EVEN AFTER HIS DEATH HAS DONE
MORE FOR HIS COUNTRY THAN ANY OTHER LIVING HUMAN BEING.” 176
Marguerite even wanted her son buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Stafford found her subject’s arguments “specious, her logic bizarre, and her
deductions plucked from the foggy, foggy air.” 177 Marguerite had a severe persecution
complex. She believed the government needed to reimburse her for her son’s work as a
secret agent, but even if one believes Oswald was connected to U.S. intelligence, she
takes her case to the extreme, comparing herself to the Virgin Mary. She told Stafford,
“if you research the life of Jesus Christ, you find that you never did hear anything more
about the mother of Jesus, Mary, after He was crucified. And really nobody has worried
173 Stafford, 12.
174 Stafford, 12.
175 Stafford, 13.
176 Stafford, 38.
177 Stafford, 47.
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