Q&A on the News

Q: How long did Lee Harvey Oswald work at the Texas School Book Depository before Nov. 22, 1963? Was that a government facility, a public company or a private company? Are there any records of his hiring there and his work performance? How did he get that job? Is his supervisor there at the time known? Is there any other information about Oswald’s previous work history?

—Jim Halverson, Roswell

A: Oswald started work at the Texas School Book Depository, a privately owned company, on Oct. 16, 1963, about five weeks before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. He had an inconsistent work history, bouncing between jobs, and was collecting unemployment before he was hired at the depository. Oswald was told of the opening on Oct. 14, and he applied the next day. Roy S. Truly, who testified for the Warren Commission in 1964, was Oswald's supervisor, and told officers that Oswald was an employee at the depository when he initially was confronted by police in the building moments after the shooting. Truly died in 1985. The Warren Report includes an extensive biography of Oswald, including his work history. He was an inconsistent U.S. Marine, qualifying as a sharpshooter, but twice was court-martialed. After returning to the U.S. from the Soviet Union in June 1962, Oswald worked several jobs, including short stints at Leslie Welding in Fort Worth, at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall, a graphic arts company in Dallas, and Reily Coffee in New Orleans, between July 1962 and July 1963. He left his job at Leslie Welding and was fired from the other two.