American Confidential

In the tradition of Capote, Didion, and Krakauer, American Confidential is a haunting exploration of America’s shadowlands, excavating buried aspects of the national character.

From a critically acclaimed writer, a myth-shattering chronicle of one of the 20th century's most notorious assassins, Lee Harvey Oswald - and the mother who raised him...

Lee Harvey Oswald has inspired hundreds of conspiracy theories throughout the decades. Was he a hired gun? A patsy? Celebrated writer Deanne Stillman has little interest in these questions. In American Confidential, combining history, true crime, social commentary, and sense of place, she argues that the true origin story of JFK’s assassination lies within a family, particularly in the relationship between Marguerite Oswald and her son Lee Harvey. 

Exploring a story of American violence and discontent that is all too familiar, Stillman delves into Oswald’s childhood in a dysfunctional household, and the strong influence of his mother, a disillusioned and self-centered woman who passed along a legacy of class resentment and the clamorous need to matter. Stillman also suggests that Oswald's act was a rebel yell coming right out of the old South and West.

In this new and surprising look at the short, troubled life of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who would commit the most consequential homicide of the 20th century, Stillman traces the echoes of what happened on November 22, 1963 to the mass shootings of today, situating Oswald as the predecessor of the numerous violent young men who have come to define a new era of American brutality.

Following in the tradition of Capote, Didion, and Krakauer, American Confidential is a haunting exploration of America’s shadowlands, excavating buried aspects of the national character.