Accused Assassin of United States President John F. Kennedy. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Robert Edward Lee Oswald and Marguerite Claverie. Two months before his birth, Oswald's father died of a sudden heart attack, and he was raised by a succession of step-fathers. Growing up, he was considered a loner, not very good academically, and dropped out of high school when he was 15. When he was 16, he took an interest in Socialism and applied to join the Socialist Party of America, but nothing came of the application. In 1956, he joined the United States Marine Corps and was trained as an Aviation Electronics Operator to carry out aircraft surveillance and the use of radar. Despite stories to the contrary, he never learned to fire his rifle as an "expert" and was never trained as a sniper. He was stationed in El Toro MCAS, California, and Atsugi MCAS, Japan near Tokyo. He was court-martialed twice, once for keeping a private weapon, a pistol in his locker without permission and again for assaulting a non-commissioned officer. During this period, he remained a loner, and upon receiving his discharge in 1959, he used his savings to travel to Soviet Union. The Russians assigned him to a radio and television factory in Minsk and treated him well. They gave him the pay and an apartment equivalent to a plant manager, as they did with all western defectors. Despite this, he became disenchanted with the USSR, and in 1961, he decided to return to the United States. In March of 1961, while waiting for permission to return to the US, he met Marina Prusakova at a dance, and they were married six weeks later. In June of 1962, he, his wife, and their daughter were allowed to leave Russia, and they moved to Fort Worth, Texas. Although disillusioned with the Soviet Union, Lee Oswald remained "Marxist," even though his understanding of the communist system was limited. After he assassinated President Kennedy from a sniper's nest at the Texas School Book Depository on November 22, 1963, he escaped the building and allegedly shot and killed Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit on a local street. He was arrested in a movie theater for the murder of Officer Tippit and later charged with the assassination of President Kennedy. Two days later, while being transferred from the City Jail to the County Jail, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters on live television in an act that shocked the already stunned nation. A photograph of Oswald being shot won the Pulitzer Prize and made Detective Jim Leavelle famous. Despite the fact that the Warren Commission later declared that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin of President Kennedy and that he acted alone, many conspiracy theories about the assassination still exist.