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done or said before him.” 195 He argued that given the alleged assassin’s personality,
these films “were important psychological ‘triggers’ in Oswald’s tangled web of motives.
If they provided even five to ten percent of the stimulus for his act their influence would
still be momentous.” 196
Of course, the connection between watching violent movies and committing an
act of violence is questionable, but the parallels between the Kennedy assassination and
films dealing with political killings are eerie and even resulted in “Suddenly” and “The
Manchurian Candidate” being withdrawn from circulation for a number of years.
Interestingly, the plots of all three films deal with conspiracies to assassinate political
leaders. Loken did not know how that may have affected Oswald’s psyche or his
willingness to act with others to kill.
Oswald’s brother, Robert, accepted the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee
was the lone gunman, and Robert co-authored a book describing his attempt to
understand his sibling’s violent act. Robert Oswald believed that the Warren
Commission failed to answer the question why Lee had killed the president, and he found
tentative answers in his own family history and its impact on his brother’s psyche.
Robert Oswald blamed his mother, in part, for Lee’s troubles. “Lee’s imagination
and love of intrigue,” according to Robert, “was a lot like Mother’s,” and her “wild
195 Loken, 5.
196 Loken, 2.
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