1963 Lee Harvey Oswald's Last Paycheck, Issued for His Employment During the Period JFK Assassination Occurred....

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"Texas Book Depository" paycheck was delivered to widow Marina

1963 Lee Harvey Oswald's Last Paycheck, Issued for His Employment During the Period JFK Assassination Occurred. More than half a century later, the wounds still fester, and the mystery continues to haunt. Abraham Zapruder's film captured only the gruesome terminus of two bullets' journey, but not their origin, and as the inexorable march of time claims the last of the men who might have the answers, we're left to face the painful reality that the full truth of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy will almost certainly never see daylight.

Few today are satisfied with the official conclusions of the Warren Commission Report which placed the blame on a lone gunman by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald, a shady loner with tenuous connections to Soviet Russia and organized crime. Oswald himself intimated knowledge of a wider conspiracy when he objected to his arrest not with the words, "I'm innocent!" but rather "I'm just a patsy!"

But the absence of any substantive proof of a murderous cabal after five and a half decades virtually assures Oswald's eternal infamy as the face of the Kennedy assassination, as well as his supreme relevance to collectors of twentieth century American history. Presented is one of the most intriguing items to surface from the decidedly limited supply of Oswald-related memorabilia.

It was ten days after that bloody afternoon in Dealey Plaza that this "Texas Book Depository" check was issued to the widow "Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald," the $43.47 figure representing "4 Days, Lee Harvey Oswald for Nov '63," as a handwritten notation at lower left expresses. If Oswald was indeed a shooter on his last day of employment, this check effectively covers the time when he pulled the trigger and forever changed the course of American history.

Marina Oswald, instantly transformed into a national pariah by her husband's alleged villainy, tasked her attorney John Thorne with cashing this check, and Thorne retained the document in his files after delivering the cash to the bereaved widow. Thorne's name appears often in newspaper articles in the aftermath of the assassination. When Thorne passed away in 1981, the check was transferred to the ownership of his own widow, Lois, whose signed letter of provenance accompanies this enormously significant closing bookend to Oswald's association with the most notorious building in Dallas.

The check survives in effectively perfect condition, bearing only a vertical center fold line to diverge from its as-issued status. It measures 3x8.25" in size. Letter of provenance from widow of Marina Oswald's lawyer.