Fine Books & Manuscripts

[Kennedy Assassination] Oswald, Lee Harvey. Lee Harvey Oswald’s Personally—Owned and Worn Dress Suit. Circa 1957. A gray two-piece suit (jacket and pants) with his name, “Lee H. Oswald,” embroidered in yellow thread on the right-side inside pocket of the jacket, with typical age-wear including several minor moth holes and soiling, trousers slightly more worn due to more frequent wear. Purchased by Oswald around 1957 while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps at the Naval Air Facility near Yokahama, Japan. Apparently his only formal clothes, Oswald brought this suit with him when he defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959 and it appears in at least three photographs from that period, including an image taken on his wedding day, April 30, 1961. The garment is also described in the Warren Commission report: “Oswald owned one suit, of Russian make and purchase, poor fitting and of heavy fabric which, despite its unsuitability to the climates of Texas and Louisiana and his obvious discomfort, he wore on the few occasions that required dress” (Earl Warren, et al., Report of the Warren Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, 1964, p. 329). Obtained by the present consigner directly from Oswald’s brother, and accompanied by a COA by Robert Oswald, dated June 2015.