Later, the Oswald family lived in Fort Worth, Texas, and New York City, but I sense that for Lee, New Orleans was his emotional home, where he felt most comfortable. All suggest that Oswald grew up on the run. Lee’s itinerant childhood in New Orleans also included some time in the French Quarter on Exchange Place and several apartments in the Garden District. But nearby on Bartholomew, Pauline, and Congress streets there are other modest residences where briefly in the early 1940s Oswald’s mother moved her three boys (her husband died before Lee was born). There’s only a vacant lot on Alvar Street where Oswald was born the floods of Hurricane Katrina swept away the wooden, bungalow-style house. The Assassination Comes Calling at 544 Camp Street Oswald was born in the city in 1939, at 2109 Alvar Street, and during his short and unhappy life he spent many years living in a string of bungalow houses around New Orleans, mostly in the wards east of downtown.Īlthough JFK was shot in Dallas when Oswald was working at the Texas School Depository along the route of the presidential motorcade, Oswald had spent the summer before the assassination living in New Orleans at 4905 Magazine Street, where he worked hard to establish his street cred as either a Fidel Castro front man (passing out leaflets for something called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee) or as a foot soldier in the guerrilla war that wanted to restore American hegemony over Cuba.įrom the internet I had downloaded maps entitled “Lee Harvey Oswald’s New Orleans Residences” and “Theories on Oswald in New Orleans”, and over the course of a hot and humid day I cruised my bicycle around contours of the conspiracy theories that would indicate that at the very least Oswald was swimming in the waters of assassination politics-and was in way over his head. Lee Harvey Oswald: New Orleans’ Native Son I warmed to the wrought-iron balconies (many are actually Spanish) above the sidewalks, and I enjoyed window shopping over my handlebars, despite the voodoo-themed gifts in many galleries.įarther from the tourist haunts, I spent one of my days in New Orleans tracking down many of the houses and addresses associated with Lee Harvey Oswald (President John F. Photo: Matthew Stevenson.Įarly in the morning, on my way to a breakfast diner, I loved riding my beach cruiser bicycle through the French Quarter, which, despite the evening onslaught of the tourist brigades, come sunrise retained its European sensibility. One of the many bungalow residences in which Lee Harvey Oswald lived with his mother and brothers while growing up in New Orleans.
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