| Marina Oswald Porter | |
| Birth Date: | 17 July 1941 |
| Birth Place: | Severodvinsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Occupation: | Pharmacist |
| Citizenship: | United States |
| Children: | 3[1] |
Marina Nikolayevna Oswald Porter (Prusakova; Russian: Марина Николаевна Прусакова; born July 17, 1941) is a Russian-American woman who was the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald. She married Oswald during his temporary defection to the Soviet Union and emigrated to the United States. After the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Oswald's murder, she testified against Oswald for the Warren Commission and remarried. She ultimately came to believe Oswald was innocent.
Porter was born Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova in the city of Molotovsk (Severodvinsk), in Arkhangelsk Oblast, in the northwest of the Soviet Union. She lived there with her mother and stepfather until 1957 when she moved to Minsk to live with her uncle Ilya Prusakov, a colonel in the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs, and to study pharmacy.[2]
Marina met Lee Harvey Oswald (a former U.S. Marine who had defected to the Soviet Union) at a dance on March 17, 1961.[3] They married six weeks later and had a daughter, June Lee Oswald, born the following year. In June 1962, the family emigrated to the United States and settled in Dallas, Texas. At a party in February 1963, George de Mohrenschildt introduced the couple to Ruth Paine, a Quaker and Russian language student.
In January 1963, Oswald mail-ordered a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver and then, in March, a Mannlicher–Carcano rifle.[4] Later that month, as Marina told the Warren Commission, she took only one photograph of Oswald dressed in black and holding his weapons along with an issue of The Militant newspaper, which named ex-general Edwin Walker as a "fascist."
These photos became known as the "backyard photos" of Lee Oswald, which some conspiracy theorists dismiss as fake. Two photographs were later found in the garage of the Paine household. A third one was in the possession of George de Mohrenschildt.[5]
The photo that had been given to de Mohrenschildt was signed and dated by Lee Oswald on April 5, 1963, five days before the attempted assassination of General Walker. George eventually revealed this photograph to the HSCA (House Select Committee on Assassinations) in 1977, shortly before committing suicide. It is similar to the photo published by LIFE magazine in early 1964, except that it has a much more extensive background. The image also has a quote in Russian, the translation of which reads, "Hunter of Fascists, Ha-Ha-Ha!!!"[6]
In April 1963, Marina and her daughter moved in with Ruth Paine (who had recently separated from her husband, Michael). Lee Oswald rented a separate room in Dallas and briefly moved to New Orleans during the summer of 1963. He returned to Dallas in early October, eventually renting a room in a boarding house in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas.
Ruth Paine learned from a neighbor that employment was available at the Texas School Book Depository, and Oswald was hired and began working there on October 16, 1963, as an order filler. On October 18, Marina and Ruth Paine had planned a birthday party for Oswald. They put up some decorations and got a birthday cake and wine. Oswald was so moved by the gesture that he had tears in his eyes. He remained emotional throughout the evening, crying and apologizing to Marina for everything he had put her through.[7] On October 20, Marina gave birth to a second daughter, Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald at Parkland Memorial Hospital.[8] Her husband continued to live in Oak Cliff on weekdays, but stayed with her at the Paine household in Irving on weekends, an arrangement that continued until Oswald was arrested for the assassination of President Kennedy.
Marina learned of the assassination of John F. Kennedy from the media coverage of the event and, later, of the arrest of her husband. That afternoon, Dallas Police Department detectives arrived at the Paine household, and when asked if Lee owned a rifle, Marina gestured to the garage, where Oswald stored his rifle rolled up in a blanket; no rifle was found. She was subsequently questioned both at the Paine household and later at Dallas Police Department headquarters about her husband's involvement in the assassination of the President and the murder of Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit. Marina and Oswald's mother Marguerite Oswald arrived at Dallas City Hall in the evening. Marina was shown the rifle by Carl Day and said in her statement that she was not sure whether the rifle shown to her was Lee's.[9] [10] Captain J. W. Fritz of the Homicide and Robbery Bureau stated in a report that Marina did not positively ID the rifle.[11] On the afternoon of November 23, Marina and Marguerite talked to Lee. Marina said that when she saw her husband, he was calm, but "by his eyes I could tell that he was afraid. He said goodbye to me with his eyes. I knew that."[12]
Marina was widowed at age 22, on November 24, when Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby. Marina asked to go to Parkland Hospital to see Oswald's body. She opened his eyelids and said, "He cry, he eye wet."[13] After the assassination of Kennedy and the arrest of her husband, Marina was under Secret Service protection until she completed her testimony before the Warren Commission. In her testimony, she stated her belief that her husband was guilty, an opinion she reiterated in testimony before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978.[14]
Following the assassination, Marina rented a house in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, where she also found work as a drugstore clerk.[15] Donations sent to her by anonymous donors totaled about $70,000, roughly . She sold Lee's Russian diary for $20,000 and a picture of him holding the rifle for $5,000. She also attempted, but failed, to gain possession of the gun to sell it.
In January 1965, Marina enrolled at the University of Michigan,[16] but she later returned to the Dallas area and bought a house in Richardson.[17] On June 1, 1965, she and electronics worker Kenneth Jess Porter travelled to Fate, Texas, and were wed by a justice of the peace.[18] They had a son.[19] She later accused Kenneth of domestic violence.[17] In 1981, Marina had Oswald's body exhumed to refute a claim that a look-alike Russian Soviet agent was buried in place of Oswald.[20] In 1989, she became a naturalized United States citizen.[21] As of 2013, Marina lives in Rockwall, Texas, with her husband, and she generally avoids publicity.[22] [23]
Though she has not formally recanted any of her Warren Commission testimony,[24] Marina has said, in various interviews since the late 1980s, that she came to believe that Oswald was completely innocent of the murders of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit.[25] [26] [27] Jim Leavelle, the detective who was handcuffed to Oswald when Ruby shot him, had several meals from time to time with Marina and said that Marina would "sound him out" to see if he had any doubts on Oswald's guilt.[28] In 2018, Marina was contacted by several conspiracy theorists for the theory that the unidentified "prayer man" filmed on the steps of the Texas School Book Depository during the assassination by Dave Wiegman, Jr., of NBC, and James Darnell, of WBAP-TV, was Oswald. Ed Ledoux phoned Marina after Stan Dane had sent enlargements of the Darnell and Wiegman films showing the "prayer man" figure. An unprompted Marina volunteered, "It's Lee".[29] She maintains her belief that Oswald was the "prayer man".