BOSTON – Lee Harvey Oswald’s U. S. Marine Corps score book sold for $75,000 at RR Auction.
The 80-page softcover workbook issued on December 3, 1956, was filled out by Oswald. The first few pages of the workbook contain instructions for shooting and scoring, with Oswald’s pencil notations.
It was accompanied by interesting correspondence from 1969 between Marguerite Oswald and Dr. John Lattimer, a notable researcher of the Kennedy assassination, who originally purchased the score book from her. It includes one handwritten letter from Dr. Lattimer to Marguerite Oswald and four letters and envelopes from Marguerite Oswald, the most fascinating being one stating in part: “My late son’s Marine score book is in the same condition as when he left it with me … Someday soon, it will be proven that a conspiracy did exist and that my son was indeed the ‘patsy.'”
On December 21, 1956, Oswald was tested for marksmanship with his rifle on five different exercises — from 200, 300, and 500 yards firing slowly and from 200 and 300 yards firing rapidly. Based on these results, a Marine would be rated by a defined scoring system: 190 points and above was considered a marksman, 210 and above was a sharpshooter, and in excess of 220 was considered an expert. Oswald scored 212 and was rated in the middle as a sharpshooter.
The Warren Commission used only one piece of physical evidence to state that Oswald was capable of assassinating President Kennedy, and it was these scorecards from December 21, 1956. They can be found in Warren Commission Volume 16, as Commission Exhibit 239. In their single-volume final report, the Warren Commission stated: “The Commission has concluded further that Oswald possessed the capability with a rifle which enabled him to commit the assassination.”
“It’s an extraordinary piece of history used as a major exhibit of evidence in the Warren Commission conclusions implicating Lee Harvey Oswald to the Kennedy assassination,” said Bobby Livingston, Executive VP at RR Auction.
Additional highlights from the sale include a 1953 Mary Blair concept storyboard nightscape painting from Peter Pan, which sold for $25,944, and an Eliot Ness-signed letter with roulette Lammer chips seized during the last Capone mob raid, which sold for $32,282.
The Fine Autograph and Artifacts from RR Auction, began on October 14 and concluded on November 10. For more information, go to www.rrauction.com.
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