The killing of Lee Harvey Oswald on live television was dramatic, and helped to spark decades of speculation about a conspiracy surrounding Kennedy’s assassination. Much less remembered was the trial that followed - a trial to convict a man who had committed murder in front of millions of witnesses.
The “Great Sedition Trial” uncovered shocking connections at the time with the German reich that we were fighting, and challenged the idea that the nation was of a single mind during the war. It also challenged exactly how far the national commitment to freedom of speech and opinion reached, especially in extraordinary times.