A Russian who said he knew Lee Harvey Oswald in the former Soviet Union recalled the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy as a man of weak character and a poor marksman, a magazine reported.
The Russian, identified as Pavel Golovachev, made the comments in an interview to be printed in "Echo of the Planet," which is published by the ITAR-Tass news agency. ITAR-Tass carried excerpts on Monday, and an advance copy was obtained by The Associated Press.The interview discloses nothing about the assassination but offers glimpses about Oswald's time in the former Soviet Union from the late 1950s until 1962.
Golovachev told the magazine he met Oswald in the Belarussian capital of Minsk while they worked in the same factory there.
"My attitude to Oswald was the same as if he were an extraterrestrial. It was interesting for me to know what this American was like," he was quoted as saying. Golovachev said he found Oswald to be "a weak man, not very bright or intellectual."
The magazine quoted him as saying that Oswald at one point bought a hunting gun and joined a Soviet hunters' club but that he rarely attended training sessions and was a bad shot.
"He failed to hit the target even once," Golovachev told the magazine.