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

wrote, “their sexual relationship grew more harmonious, and eventually Marina came to
consider her husband a tender and accomplished lover.” 188
McMillan recounted the last night Marina and Lee spent together, which has
become a trope in the assassination lore that maybe Oswald would not have assassinated
President Kennedy if Marina had not rejected Lee’s attempt at reconciliation. Marina and
Lee had argued when she found out he was living in a boarding house under an alias.
Marina was staying separately at the home of a Quaker woman, Ruth Paine, who
befriended Marina. Lee visited the Paine residence the Thursday evening before the
assassination, and attempted to convince Marina to live with him again, but Marina
refused: “Three times he had begged her to move to Dallas with him ‘soon.’ Three times
she had refused. And he had tried to kiss her three times.” 189
Marina saw symbolic significance in the recurrence of the threes. After being
informed that her husband was a suspect, Marina found that Lee had left his wedding ring
in a cup. Defenders of the Warren Commission would repeat the story of Oswald leaving
his wedding ring as a way to say goodbye before he killed Kennedy.
Ultimately, by emphasizing Oswald’s personal life, McMillan seems to blame the
assassination largely on the alleged assassin’s futility as a lover and husband, with the
added impetus of his left-wing political beliefs. She also concluded as an arm-chair
psychological analyst that President Kennedy stirred up “memories and associations” as a
parental figure, husband, and political leader that “were too deep, too charged
188 McMillan, 120-21.
189 McMillan, 419.
89