In the series premier, we recap the basic events surrounding President Kennedy's assassination. We’ll discuss the formation of the famous Warren Commission, its findings — and highlight the one thing about its report that's often overlooked.

Lee Harvey Oswald’s childhood was difficult. He never knew his biological father. His unstable mother considered Lee and his two brothers burdens. They moved constantly. By the time Lee was 18, he'd lived in 21 different homes and attended a dozen schools. He was angry, a loner, and developed an ...

Hoping to escape his mother and his unstable home life, Oswald drops out of high school and enlists in the Marines at age 17. But the violent behaviors he learned in childhood go with him. Oswald’s antics get him court-martialed — twice. He serves at an air base in Japan, where the CIA is also op...

Deluded into thinking that the Soviet Union is a “communist paradise,” Oswald defects in October 1959, just weeks after leaving the Marines. At first, the Soviets don’t want him, and order him to leave. But after a suicide attempt, Oswald is given permission to stay. But not in Moscow. He's shunt...

Lee Harvey Oswald is living in Minsk, a backwater Soviet city, and working a lowly and menial job in a radio-TV factory. He soon learns that life in the USSR is anything but paradise, and schemes to return to America. The KGB worries he's a CIA spy. The CIA worries he's a KGB spy. And Oswald depa...

Living in Minsk, a backwater Soviet city, and working a lowly and menial job in a radio-TV factory, Oswald soon learns that life in the USSR is anything but paradise, and schemes to return to America. But he doesn't return alone. When he lands stateside in 1962, he has a wife, Marina, and daughte...

Oswald returns to Texas. “What, no reporters?” He asks his brother. Oswald has difficulty finding work and getting back on his feet. Marina is a hit with the emigre community in Dallas-Fort Worth but Lee — surly and angry as ever — turns people off. The episode ends on Thanksgiving Day, 1962 — ex...

Oswald’s return to the United States attracts the attention of the FBI — but what about the CIA? Meanwhile, Marina Oswald makes a splash with the emigre community in Dallas-Ft. Worth — but fellow emigrates are quickly turned off by Oswald’s arrogance, rude behavior, and brutal treatment of Marina...

Using phony names, Oswald buys a mail-order rifle and handgun. His wife Marina, pregnant and aware of how deprived their lives are, thinks he’s crazy. In the backyard of their shabby Dallas apartment, he forces her to take photos of him with his weapons. Oswald, meanwhile, keep drifting from job ...

Oswald carefully plans to assassinate retired U.S. Army General Edwin Walker, whose right-wing policies he despises. He takes reconnaissance photos of Walker’s Dallas home, studies maps — and practices with his rifle. On the appointed night, he leaves Marina detailed plans for his absence and set...

Oswald leaves Dallas after getting fired from his job and returns to New Orleans - the city of his birth - looking for a fresh start. After securing the only job he can find - as the greaser of coffee machinery for the Reily Coffee Co. - he sends for his pregnant wife, Marina, and their daughter ...

After his arrest, Oswald — unemployed and relying on benefits from the government he claims to detest — goes on a radio show to brag about himself, but is instead confronted with his past. Meanwhile, he remains desperate to go to Cuba, which — after a disappointing two-and-a-half years in the Sov...

Determined to get to Cuba—where he dreams of joining Castro’s revolution—Lee Harvey Oswald travels to Mexico City, where he hopes to get a visa. But he immediately runs into trouble at both the Cuban and Soviet Embassies. Meanwhile, the CIA—which closely monitors both communist embassies—tracks O...

After failing to get a visa to visit Cuba — dashing his dream of joining Castro’s revolution — Lee Harvey Oswald reluctantly returns to the United States. He has no job and little money. He has been fired from two other jobs in the past six months. He has been arrested, and humiliated on a radio ...

President Kennedy’s Texas trip takes shape. How were the arrangements made for Kennedy’s trip? Who decided where he would go and when?

What was presidential security like before President Kennedy’s fatal visit to Dallas? Paul Brandus explores motorcades and more — plus, the attitude that 20th-century presidents had towards their own safety.

Final preparations are made for President Kennedy’s trip. Coming off the death of their son Patrick, Jacqueline Kennedy is eager to travel with her husband, but dreads Texas itself. In New York, a Secret Service agent aims his rifle at a motorist who gets too close. Meanwhile, in these final days...

While campaigning in Florida, President Kennedy takes his usual security risks—and comments in the possibility of being assassinated. Ahead of his upcoming visit to Dallas, President Kennedy's motorcade route is released to both of the city’s newspapers — where it is seen by Lee Harvey Oswald. Re...

After learning that President Kennedy would pass right in front of his work place — the Texas School Bool Depository — Lee Harvey Oswald makes a surprise—and unwanted—visit to Marina Oswald, who is living with her two children at the home of Ruth Paine in Irving. He brings with him a 38-inch long...

In Fort Worth, Kennedy makes jokes about being assassinated. In his final speech, he says the world is “dangerous and uncertain”. Oswald, meantime, drives into Dallas with Frazier, with a long, heavy-looking package in the backseat. He asks a co-worker which way the president’s motorcade is comin...

The Warren Commission has been the subject of ridicule for decades. But conspiracy theorists often overlook one key thing about it. And—why have conspiracy writers—who have accused the Commission of overlooking things during its nine-month probe, overlooked things during a far longer time—two-thi...

President and Mrs. Kennedy arrive in Dallas. The weather is spectacular, so the president’s top aide orders the Secret Service to keep the “bubble top” roof off Kennedy's car, so everyone can get a good look at the First Couple. The motorcade proceeds along a route that has been publicized for da...