- The bizarre story behind Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of assassinating U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, and what might have happened had he been brought to trial, if he had not been murdered by Jack Ruby.
- A news excerpt for Lee Harvey Oswald (John Pleshette) saying that he wants justice to be done. He's not clear about his guilt or innocence. Oswald is kept in a cage separate from all the rest of the inmates at prison. He is deemed to be uncapable of emotion. He married Marina Prusakowa (Mo Malone) in Russia, where he lived for a while and even asked for the Russian citizenship.
Cut back in time, to Dallas, to Lee asking Marina to live with him again. Meanwhile, while he's unable to finance his family, they are living at Ruth Haville's. Their marriage is obviously in trouble because she prefers to watch tv rather than talk to him. There is a mention of JFK's visit to Dallas.
JFK is being accused by some to be a traitor. But during the parade, women are crazy for Jackie Kennedy (Cristine Rose)'s style, they cheer and clap when the official convoy passes by. Suddenly, three shots are heard. Lee Harvey realises that the three shots came from up the window of a building. A mad woman points to somebody hidden among the bushes. A police officer aims at a black-suited man. He shows his identification card: it's somebody from the secret service. The police officer lets him go. The secret agent is supposed to be checking the area.
Jim Neal is the clerk at the building. He opens the doors for the police. A police officer is farther shot, and at 13:22 a shotgun is found. It's a Mauser. Lee Harvey leaves the area. At 13:37 police officer JD Tippit is shot to death in the Oak Cliff section of town, possibly because he saw the secret agent. From the building, there are three workers missing.
Lee Harvey leaves and behaves suspiciously. He enters a cinema because a shop assistant found him suspicious. The shop assitant has followed her and has asks the cinema cashier to call the police. The shop assistant identifies Lee. He tries to resist. Lee says that he didn't kill the president: he was at the lunch room with Ed Barnes and Sam Joseph, but it looks like both friends denied this.
At the interrogation, Lee asks for a lawyer. An FBI agent called Benson has been following Lee to Mexico, as he suports the Marxist party but not the Marxist-Leninist section. For example, Lee supports the Communist society in Cuba. Anson 'Kip' Roberts (Ben Gazzara) is an editor who wants to blame JFK's murder on a whole conspiration. Lee was court-martialled because he was found an illegal weapon and he abused his power with his aide.
A rich Jew lawyer is responsible for defending Lee. They meet face-to-face. Lee is suspicious and thinks that there must be a microphone planted somewhere. The lawyer says that there is no agreement with the White House whatsoever, and also mentions a son studying Law at Harvard. Lee insists he's innocent. The lawyer asks Lee whether he's got something else to say. As the lawyer is about to leave, Lee decides to speak. The lawyer says that, at that moment, Lee will look guilty to a jury. Lee wants to know what his lawyer believes, and he says he doesn't know.
Lee Harvey had Benson's car and telephone number written down. Lee went to threaten Benson at his office at the FBI. Benson says that there is no record of such a visit or threat of Lee to the FBI building. Kip starts smelling something fishy going on. Kip thinks that the FBI was supposed to spy on Lee, but that he run away with it somehow, and that the note he wrote to Benson was destroyed. At that moment, Melvin Johnson (Charles Robinson) ex-president and new president, phones Kip to say that there is no conspiracy at all.
Roger Helbour saw a bullet bouncing off, something which was caught on film. Everybody starts to think that there had to be more than one shooter. Paul Ewbank (Lawrence Pressman) is the person who is going to investiage the matter.
A secretary reads Lee's life in Russia. He was refuses citizenship and his student visa was not extended. Marina was the person responsible for telling him that he was going to be expelled, escorted out of his hotel at 8 in the evening. Lee tries to commit suicide. At that moment, Lee renounces his USA citizenship. Some time later, in Minsk, Lee argues with his girlfriend. There, he meets Marina Prusakova and dances with her, who at that moment was barefoot. Lee wanted to go to university, but he is rejected. Marina works as a nurse. She wants to asks her uncle to recommend him, but he refuses. Lee turns on the music really loud. When Marina turns the damn noise down, he slaps her. She wants to leave him, but she has no other friends or family. With Marina telling him she's pregnant, he consoles her by telling her to slap him, so that they would be even. Lee thinks it's a bad moment for a baby to be born. At that moment, it's when Lee tell her that he wants to go back to the US.
A witness (John Addington) talks about some smoke among the bushes, no red-haired person and an official car at the top of the hill. The interviewer tells him that he will be forced to testify. Another witness, Halbourn, appeared dead at a lake. His statement agrees with that of a black woman's who also can point to the source of the shots. The witness dies in a lorry accident. There was no time for him to even sign his initial statement.
The judgement begins. Weldon, the lawyer, says that Lee Harvey Oswald hold the key to the mystery. Judge Claymore (Jack Collins) questions Weldon over the rifle found. He says that there is no proof Lee shot it. Lee speaks up and says that he never had a rifle, even when it was bought under his name. As Weldon tried to calm him down, Lee wants to reject his lawyer. Claymore rejects that offer. However, after an argument, he says that he's got prejudices against the defendant, so that he retires and a new judge will be appointed. He also says that the judgement should take place somewhere else. Roberts, the prosecutor, cann't do anything to prevent it.
In the UK, a journalist says that he talked to a friend of Osward and reveals a conspiration. Ben Kipper and Lee were friends. Lee doesn't want to talk about it. Weldon says that this so-called friend will testify that Lee really had that rifle. Kipper is at a sanatorium in Miami, but nobody knows who's paying for his treatment, if he is actually subject to any. When a reporter visits Kipper there, Kipper shoots himself. Weldon talks about the deaths of the witnesses on TV, and says that the prosecution has to prove that Osward is guilty or let him free.
The prosecution wants to include Tippit's murder together with JFK's murder. Lee looks at one of the jury members in particular. Mr Brandon, another witness, says that first he thought the noise was an exhaust tube noise, but then he saw somebody shooting from the sixth floor when the second shot happened. The witness is a bit unclear. He says that at the moment he couldn't see clearly the face of the killer, but in front of the court he says he hasn't got any doubt about Lee being guilty.
The rifle was paid with a cheque by some A. Hydell, and an expert says the writing belongs to Lee Harvey Oswald's. Melvin Johnson (Charlie Robinson) was at the fifth floor of the building. He thinks that the shots came from the sixth floor. Johnson heard something drop but can't assure it was the bullet of the rifle.
Marina visits Lee but doesn't bring the two daughters. Lee is worried that Marina's English is improving, so she won't need him anymore soon.
A witness says that he saw Lee taking out a brown-paper wrapped package. Weldon asks the witness to show how Lee carried it. The package which can contain a rifle is too big for Lee to have carried it as the witness said, under his armpit. The package had to be much smaller to be carried as the witness said. Also, the wrapping paper was clean, and the rifle had just been greased. How was that possible if there was no plastic bag around?
Lee wants to testify, but Weldon won't allow it.
An expert could have aimed well from that sixth floor window and aim right in 5.5 seconds, but somebody less expert will take longer, or will fail. So there had to be a second shooter hidden behind a wall among the bushes. Weldon also wants to find the black woman with red hair.
The police officer Jones talks about the secret agent. But, did that person have the time to shoot and pick up the remains of the bullets?
In Mexico, Oswald tried to get in touch with Kostikov. He wanted the Russian nationality, but in exchange... the tape is disturbed with ultra-sounds. The conspiration may be that Oswald was going to be used against Catro by the CIA and the maffia. Angel Bolano, the person responsible for all prostitution in Cuba before Castro was killed. He must be the person hired to kill Castro. Bolano was going to use Oswald. They wanted to blame Castro for having trained somebody to kill JFK. That would be the excuse for invading Cuba, getting rid of Castro and communism, and then, with a "democratic" capitalist society, the maffia would return to Havana.
Lee was an accesory: he was waiting at the lunch room for a call to tell him who was going to pick the rifle he had introduced into the building. Weldon interrogates Lee and he puts forward the view that he was unknowingly used in a conspiration. The prosecution says that Lee killed JFK because he was jealous of him, as his wife - who had not wanted to have sex with Lee himself - respected and admired him. This is the moment when Lee gets emotional, as the prosecutor states. Lee says that everybody feels emotional when their private life is mentioned.
After leaving the court that day, Lee Harvey Oswald is assassinated.
Final words of the producers stating that everything is a fiction based on the clues, and that the audience is the jury on this case.
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Top Gap
By what name was The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1977) officially released in Canada in English?
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