Toward a Psychological Understanding of Lee Oswald, Assassin

While many over the years have pondered Oswald’s motive, clinical psychologist Dr. Gene Riddle took a different tack – analyzing how Oswald became a person capable of assassinating a president. Over the course of six years, Dr. Riddle conducted an in-depth study of Lee Harvey Oswald as part of a book-length project for the Professional School of Psychology in Sacramento.

Dr. Gene Riddle was in the fall term of his senior year at a county high school just outside Washington D.C. at the time of the deaths of John Kennedy, J. D. Tippit, and Lee Harvey Oswald. A licensed clinical psychologist in California, with a 1997 PhD from the San Francisco campus of the Professional School of Psychology, Riddle became fascinated with the psyche of Lee Harvey Oswald and spent more than six years compiling a professional book-length study of him.

Prior to entering the mental health profession, Dr. Riddle attained BA and MA degrees in Political Science and taught undergraduate political science courses at the University of Colorado, Denver. View this program on YouTube.