fbpx
Wikipedia

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

January 13, 2023

"Kennedy assassination" redirects here. For the assassination of John's brother Robert, see Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
"November 22, 1963" redirects here. For the date, see November 1963.

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, Nellie, when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US Marine. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting; Connally was also wounded in the attack but recovered. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the presidency upon Kennedy's death.

Assassination of John F. Kennedy
President Kennedy with his wife, Jacqueline, and Texas governor John Connally with his wife, Nellie, in the presidential limousine, minutes before the assassination. Secret Service agents William Greer (driving) and Roy Kellerman are in the front seats.
LocationDealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas U.S.
Coordinates32°46′45″N 96°48′31″W / 32.77903°N 96.80867°W / 32.77903; -96.80867Coordinates: 32°46′45″N 96°48′31″W / 32.77903°N 96.80867°W / 32.77903; -96.80867
DateNovember 22, 1963; 59 years ago (1963-11-22)
12:30 p.m. (CST)
TargetJohn F. Kennedy
Attack type
Sniper assassination
Weapons6.5×52mm Italian Carcano M91/38 (bolt-action rifle)
DeathsJohn F. Kennedy
J. D. Tippit[a]
InjuredJohn Connally
James Tague[b]
PerpetratorLee Harvey Oswald
ChargesMurder with malice (2 counts, murdered before trial)

Around 70 minutes after Kennedy and Connally were shot, Oswald was arrested by the Dallas Police Department and charged under Texas state law with the murders of Kennedy and Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit. At 11:21 a.m. on November 24, 1963, as live television cameras covered Oswald being moved through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters, he was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby. Like Kennedy, Oswald was also taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he soon died. Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder, though it was later overturned on appeal, and Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial.

After a 10-month investigation, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, that Oswald had acted entirely alone, and that Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald. In its 1979 report, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that Kennedy was likely "assassinated as a result of a conspiracy". The HSCA did not identify a second gunman or group involved in the possible conspiracy, but concluded that there was "a high probability that two gunmen fired at [the] President". The U.S. Justice Department concluded active investigations and stated that there was no "persuasive evidence" of a conspiracy. However, Kennedy's assassination is still the subject of widespread debate and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories and alternative scenarios. Polls have found that a majority of Americans believe there was a conspiracy.

The assassination was the first of four major assassinations during the 1960s in the United States, coming two years before the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and five years before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. The assassination was also the fourth and most recent time a U.S. president was assassinated.

Background

 
The First Family in 1962

Kennedy

Further information: Presidency of John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy (born 1917) was the 35th president of the United States. After representing Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate, Kennedy was elected to the White House in 1960, alongside his Vice Presidential pick, Lyndon B. Johnson. Kennedy's tenure as president coincided with the height of the Cold War, and much of his foreign policy focused on countering communism. He authorized numerous operations to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. It culminated in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961, during which he declined to directly involve American troops. The following year, Kennedy successfully resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis, often regarded as the closest humanity has been to nuclear holocaust.

In 1963, Kennedy decided to travel to Texas to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party between liberals Ralph Yarborough, Don Yarborough, and conservative Texas governor John Connally.[1] The visit was first agreed upon by Kennedy, Johnson, and Connally during a meeting in El Paso in June.[2] The trip was announced in September 1963. The motorcade route was finalized on November 18 and announced soon thereafter.[3] Kennedy had three basic goals in mind:

  1. To help raise more Democratic Party presidential campaign fund contributions;[2]
  2. To begin his quest for reelection in November 1964;[4]
  3. To help make political amends among several leading Texas Democratic party members who appeared to be fighting amongst themselves[5]

Oswald

 
Lee Harvey Oswald as a Marine in 1956, seven years prior to the assassination
Main article: Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald (born 1939)[6] was a former US Marine who had served in Japan and the Phillipines.[7][8] After accidentally shooting his elbow with an unauthorized handgun and subsequently fighting an officer over the incident, Oswald was court-martialed twice and demoted.[8] After claiming his mother was ill, Oswald received a hardship discharge in September 1959 and was placed on the United States Marine Corps Reserve.[9][10][11]

In 1959, Oswald defected to the Soviet Union,[12] and in 1960 he was sent to work as a factory-worker in Minsk, Belarus.[13] There, in 1961, Oswald met and married Marina Prusakova,[14][15] with whom he had a child the following year.[16] In 1962, he returned to the United States with a repatriation loan of $435.71 from the U.S. Embassy,[16] settling in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.[17] Here, Oswald became acquainted with the Russian emigre community—notably George de Mohrenschildt.[18][19] In March 1963, Oswald likely attempted to assassinate General Edwin Walker.[20][21]

November 22

See also: Timeline of the John F. Kennedy assassination

Arrival in Dallas and route to Dealey Plaza

 
The Kennedys arriving at Dallas Love Field
 
Dealey Plaza showing the route of Kennedy's motorcade. In the overhead view north is at left.

Kennedy's itinerary called for him to arrive at Dallas Love Field via a short flight from Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth.[22][23] The meandering 10-mile motorcade route through Dallas with Kennedy, Connally, and their wives together in a single limousine, and Johnson and his wife two cars behind was intended to give Kennedy maximum exposure to local crowds before his arrival for a luncheon at Dallas Market Center to meet with local leaders.[22][24] Special Agent Winston G. Lawson, a member of the White House detail who acted as the advance Secret Service Agent, and Secret Service Agent Forrest V. Sorrels, special agent in charge of the Dallas office, were the most active in planning the actual motorcade route. From Love Field, the route passed through a suburban section of Dallas, through Downtown along Main Street, a right turn on N. Houston Street for one block, a left turn on Elm Street passing through Dealey Plaza, and down a short segment of the Stemmons Freeway to the Trade Mart.[24] The planned route to the Trade Mart was widely reported in Dallas newspapers several days before the event, for the benefit of people who wished to view the motorcade.[24]

To pass through Downtown Dallas, a route west along Main Street, rather than Elm Street (one block to the north) was chosen, since this was the traditional parade route and provided the maximal building and crowd views. The Main Street section of the route prevented a direct turn onto the Fort Worth Turnpike exit (which served also as the Stemmons Freeway exit), which was the route to the Trade Mart, as this exit was only accessible from Elm Street. Therefore, the planned motorcade route included a short one-block turn at the end of the downtown segment of Main Street, onto Houston Street for one block northward, before turning again west onto Elm, that way they could proceed through Dealey Plaza before exiting Elm onto the Stemmons Freeway. The Texas School Book Depository was (and still is) situated at the northwest corner of the Houston and Elm Street intersection.[25]

The Dallas motorcade used three vehicles for Secret Service and police protection:

  • The first car, an unmarked white Ford (hardtop), carried Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry, Secret Service Agent Win Lawson, Sheriff Bill Decker and Dallas Field Agent Forrest Sorrels.
  • The second car, a 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible, was occupied by driver Agent Bill Greer, SAIC Roy Kellerman, Governor John Connally, Nellie Connally, President Kennedy, and Jackie Kennedy.[26]
  • The third car, a 1955 Cadillac convertible code-named "Halfback," contained driver Agent Sam Kinney, ATSAIC Emory Roberts, presidential aides Ken O'Donnell and Dave Powers, driver Agent George Hickey and PRS agent Glen Bennett. Secret Service agents Clint Hill, Jack Ready, Tim McIntyre and Paul Landis rode on the running boards.

On November 22—after a breakfast speech in Fort Worth, where Kennedy had stayed overnight after arriving from San Antonio, Houston, and Washington, D.C., the previous day—Kennedy boarded Air Force One, which departed at 11:10 and arrived at Love Field 15 minutes later. At about 11:40, Kennedy's motorcade left Love Field for the trip through Dallas, running on a schedule about 10 minutes longer than the planned 45, due to enthusiastic crowds estimated at 150,000 to 200,000 people, and two unplanned stops directed by Kennedy.[27]

Assassination

Shooting in Dealey Plaza

 
Dealey Plaza, with Elm Street on the right and the Triple Underpass in the middle. The white concrete pergola, from which Zapruder was filming, is at the right, and the Grassy Knoll is in front of it (slightly left of it in the picture). The red brick building partially visible at the upper right is the Texas School Book Depository. Kennedy was struck by the final bullet when he was just left of the lamp-post in front of the pergola.
 
Kennedy in Dealey plaza, before the first shot
 
Polaroid photo by Mary Moorman taken a fraction of a second after the fatal shot (detail).
 
Secret Service Special Agent Clint Hill shields the occupants of the presidential limousine moments after the fatal shots. (Background blurred because the camera was panning in to follow the limousine).
 
Other view of the moment when Hill shields the occupants
 
Witness Howard Brennan sitting in the identical spot across from the Texas School Book Depository four months after the assassination. Circle "A" indicates where he saw Oswald firing a rifle.

Kennedy's open-top 1961 Lincoln Continental four-door convertible limousine entered Dealey Plaza at 12:30 p.m. CST. Nellie Connally, the First Lady of Texas, turned to Kennedy, who was sitting behind her, and commented, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you". Kennedy's reply – "No, you certainly can't" – were his last words.[28][29][30]

From Houston Street, the limousine made the planned left turn onto Elm en route to the Stemmons Freeway. As it turned, it passed by the Texas School Book Depository, and as it continued down Elm Street, shots were fired. About 80% of the witnesses recalled hearing three shots.[31] A Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and three shell casings were also found near an open window on the book depository's sixth floor.[32][33][34][35][36]

Shortly after Kennedy began waving, a few witnesses recognized the first gunshot for what it was, but there was little reaction from most in the crowd or those riding in the motorcade. Many later said they imagined what they heard to be a firecracker, or a vehicle backfiring.[37] The Warren Commission—based on the Zapruder film—found that the limousine had traveled an average speed of 11.2 miles per hour (18.0 km/h) over the 186 ft (57 m) of Elm Street immediately preceding the fatal head shot.[38] Texas School Book Depository employee Bonnie Ray Williams testified that he recognized Oswald as someone whom he saw on the sixth floor twice before the assassination took place.[39][40]

Within one second of each other, Governor Connally and Mrs. Kennedy turn abruptly from looking to their left to looking to their right, beginning at Zapruder film frame 162.[41] Connally, like Kennedy, was a World War II military veteran, and was a longtime hunter; he testified that he immediately recognized the sound as that of a high-powered rifle, and turned his head and torso rightward to see Kennedy behind him. He testified he could not see Kennedy, so he then started to turn forward again (turning from his right to his left), and that when his head was facing about 20 degrees left of center,[29] he was hit in his upper right back by a bullet that he did not hear fired. The doctor who operated on Connally estimated that his head at the time he was hit had been 27 degrees left of center.[29] After Connally was hit, he shouted, "Oh, no, no, no. My God. They're going to kill us all!"[42]

Mrs. Connally testified that just after hearing a loud, frightening noise that came from somewhere behind her and to her right, she turned toward Kennedy and saw him raise up his arms and elbows, with his hands in front of his face and throat. She then heard another shot and then Governor Connally yelling. Mrs. Connally then turned away from Kennedy toward her husband, at which point another gunshot sounded, and both she and the limousine's rear interior were covered with fragments of skull, blood, and brain.

According to the Warren Commission[43] and the House Select Committee on Assassinations,[44] Kennedy was waving to the crowds on his right with his right arm upraised on the side of the limo when a shot entered his upper back, penetrated his neck and slightly damaged a spinal vertebra and the top of his right lung. The bullet exited his throat nearly centerline just beneath his larynx and nicked the left side of his suit tie knot. He raised his elbows and clenched his fists in front of his face and neck, then leaned forward and left. Mrs. Kennedy, facing him, then put her arms around him in concern.[29][45]

According to the Warren Commission's single bullet theory, Governor Connally also reacted after the same bullet penetrated his back just below his right armpit. The bullet created an oval-shaped entry wound, impacted and destroyed four inches (10 cm) of his right fifth rib, and exited his chest just below his right nipple. This created a two-point-five-inch (6.5 cm) oval-shaped air-sucking chest wound. That same bullet then entered his arm just above his right wrist and cleanly shattered his right radius bone into eight pieces. The bullet exited just below the wrist at the inner side of his right palm and finally lodged in his left inner thigh.[29][45] The Warren Commission theorized that the "single bullet" struck sometime between Zapruder frames 210 and 225, while the House Select Committee theorized that it struck at approximately Zapruder frame 190.[46]

According to the Warren Commission, a second shot that struck Kennedy was recorded at Zapruder film frame 313. The commission made no conclusion as to whether this was the second or third bullet fired. The limousine then passed in front of the John Neely Bryan north pergola concrete structure. The two investigative committees concluded that the second shot to hit Kennedy entered the rear of his head (the House Select Committee placed the entry wound four inches higher than the Warren Commission placed it) and passed in fragments through his skull; this created a large, "roughly ovular" [sic] hole on the rear, right side of the head. Kennedy's blood and fragments of his scalp, brain, and skull landed on the interior of the car, the inner and outer surfaces of the front glass windshield, the raised sun visors, the front engine hood, and the rear trunk lid. His blood and fragments also landed on the Secret Service follow-up car and its driver's left arm, as well on the motorcycle officers who were riding on both sides of Kennedy just behind his vehicle.[47][48]

Secret Service Special Agent Clint Hill was riding on the left front running board of the follow-up car, which was immediately behind Kennedy's limousine. Hill testified that he heard one shot, then, as documented in other films and concurrent with Zapruder frame 308, he jumped off into Elm Street and ran forward to board the trunk of the limousine and protect Kennedy; Hill testified to the Warren Commission that he heard the fatal headshot as he was reaching the limousine, "approximately five seconds" after the first shot that he heard.[49]

After Kennedy was shot in the head, Mrs. Kennedy began climbing out onto the back of the limousine, though she later had no recollection of doing so.[42][50] Hill believed she was reaching for something, perhaps a piece of Kennedy's skull.[49] He jumped onto the back of the limousine while at the same time Mrs. Kennedy returned to her seat, and he clung to the car as it exited Dealey Plaza and accelerated, speeding to Parkland Memorial Hospital.

After Mrs. Kennedy crawled back into her limousine seat, both Governor and Mrs. Connally heard her repeatedly say, "They have killed my husband. I have his brains in my hand."[28][29] Mrs. Kennedy recalled, "All the ride to the hospital I kept bending over him saying, 'Jack, Jack, can you hear me? I love you, Jack.' I kept holding the top of his head down trying to keep the brains in."[51]

Governor Connally and a spectator wounded

Governor Connally was seated directly in front of Kennedy and three inches more to the left than Kennedy; he was also seriously injured, but survived. Doctors later stated that after the Governor was shot, his wife pulled him onto her lap, and the resulting posture helped close his front chest wound, which was causing air to be sucked directly into his chest around his collapsed right lung.

Bystander James Tague received a minor wound to the right cheek while standing 531 feet (162 m) away from the depository's sixth floor easternmost window, 270 feet (82 m) in front of and slightly to the right of Kennedy's head facing direction and more than 16 feet (4.9 m) below the top of Kennedy's head. Tague's injury occurred when a bullet or bullet fragment with no copper casing struck the nearby Main Street south curb. A deputy sheriff noticed some blood on Tague's cheek, and Tague realized that something had stung his face during the shooting. When Tague pointed to where he had been standing, the police officer noticed a bullet smear on a nearby curb. Nine months later the FBI removed the curb, and a spectrographic analysis revealed metallic residue consistent with that of the lead core in Oswald's ammunition.[52] Tague testified before the Warren Commission and initially stated that he was wounded on his cheek by either the second or third shot of the three shots that he remembered hearing. When the commission counsel pressed him to be more specific, Tague testified that he was wounded by the second shot.[53]

Aftermath in Dealey Plaza

 
Bill and Gayle Newman dropped to the grass and shielded their children.

The limousine was passing the grassy knoll to the north of Elm Street at the time of the fatal head shot. As the motorcade left Dealey Plaza, police officers and spectators ran up the grassy hill and from the triple underpass, to the area behind a five-foot (1.5 m) high stockade fence atop the knoll, separating it from a parking lot. No sniper was found there.[54]

Lee Bowers was in a two-story railroad switch tower[55] which gave him an unobstructed view of the rear of the stockade fence atop the grassy knoll.[56] He saw four men in the area between his tower and Elm Street: two men who seemed not to know each other near the triple underpass, some 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 m) apart, and one or two uniformed parking lot attendants. At the time of the shooting, he saw "something out of the ordinary, a sort of milling around", which he could not identify. Bowers testified that one or both of the men were still there when motorcycle officer Clyde Haygood ran up the grassy knoll to the back of the fence.[57] In a 1966 interview, Bowers clarified that the two men he saw were standing in the opening between the pergola and the fence, and that "no one" was behind the fence at the time the shots were fired.[58][59]

Meanwhile, Howard Brennan, a steamfitter who had been sitting across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, approached police to say that as the motorcade passed he heard a shot come from above, then looked up to see a man with a rifle take another shot from a sixth-floor corner window. He said he had seen the same man looking out the window minutes earlier.[60] Police broadcast Brennan's description of this man at 12:45, 12:48, and 12:55 p.m.[61][62] After the second shot, Brennan recalled,[when?] "This man ... was aiming for his last shot ... and maybe paused for another second as though to assure himself that he had hit his mark."[63]

As Brennan spoke to the police in front of the building, they were joined by two Book Depository employees who had been watching the motorcade from windows at the southeast corner of the building's fifth floor.[64] One reported hearing three gunshots come from directly over their heads[65] and sounds of a bolt-action rifle and cartridges dropping on the floor above.[66]

Dallas police sealed off the exits from the depository approximately between 12:33 and 12:50 p.m.[67][68]

There were at least 104 earwitnesses in Dealey Plaza who were on record with an opinion as to the direction from which the shots came. Fifty-four (51.9%) thought that all shots came from the depository building. Thirty-three (31.7%) thought that they came from either the grassy knoll or the triple underpass. Nine (8.7%) thought that each shot came from a location entirely distinct from the knoll or the depository. Five (4.8%) believed that they heard shots from two locations, and 3 (2.9%) thought that the shots originated from a direction consistent with both the knoll and the depository.[31][69]

The Warren Commission additionally concluded that three shots were fired and said that "a substantial majority of the witnesses stated that the shots were not evenly spaced. Most witnesses recalled that the second and third shots were bunched together".[70]

Oswald and killing of J. D. Tippit

Main article: Lee Harvey Oswald
External video
  Oswald professing innocence on YouTube
  Oswald's press conference

Depository employee Buell Wesley Frazier, who drove Oswald to work, testified that he saw Oswald take a long brown paper bag into the building which Oswald told him contained "curtain rods."[71][72][73] After Oswald's supervisor at the depository reported him missing,[74] police broadcast his description as a suspect in the shooting at Dealey Plaza.[citation needed] Police officer J. D. Tippit subsequently spotted Oswald walking along a sidewalk in the residential neighborhood of Oak Cliff (three miles from Dealey Plaza) and called him over to the patrol car. After an exchange of words, Tippit got out of his car; Oswald shot Tippit four times, emptied the bullet casings from his gun, and fled.[75] The long brown bag which Frazier described was also found by six Dallas police officers near the sixth floor window where Oswald was determined to have fired gunshots at President Kennedy and was revealed to be 38 inches long with marks on the inside consistent with those of a rifle.[73]

Oswald was subsequently seen "ducking into" the entrance alcove of a store by the store's manager, who then watched Oswald continue up the street and slip into the Texas Theatre without paying.[76] The store manager alerted the theater's ticket clerk, who telephoned police[77] at about 1:40 p.m. Officers arrived and arrested Oswald inside the theater. According to one of the officers, Oswald resisted and was attempting to draw his pistol when he was struck and restrained.[78]

Oswald was charged with the murders of Kennedy and Tippit later that night.[79] He denied shooting anyone and claimed he was being made a "patsy" because he had lived in the Soviet Union.[80]

Carcano rifle

Main article: John F. Kennedy assassination rifle

An Italian Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle (see 6.5×52mm Mannlicher–Carcano cartridge) was found on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository by Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman and Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone soon after the assassination.[81] The recovery was filmed by Tom Alyea of WFAA-TV.[82]

This footage shows the rifle to be a Carcano, and photographic analysis commissioned by the HSCA verified that the rifle filmed was the one later identified as the assassination weapon.[83] Compared to photographs taken of Oswald holding the rifle in his backyard, "one notch in the stock at [a] point that appears very faintly in the photograph" matched,[84] as well as the rifle's dimensions.[85]

The rifle had been purchased, secondhand, by Oswald the previous March under the alias "A. Hidell" and delivered to a post-office box he had rented in Dallas.[86] According to the Warren Report, a partial palm print belonging to Oswald was also found on the barrel,[87][88] and fibers found in a crevice of the rifle were consistent with the fibers from the shirt Oswald was wearing when he was arrested.[89][90]

A bullet found on Governor Connally's hospital gurney and two bullet fragments found in the limousine were ballistically matched to this rifle.[91]

Kennedy declared dead in the emergency room

 
Cecil Stoughton's photograph of Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in as President as Air Force One prepares to depart Love Field in Dallas. Jacqueline Kennedy (right), still in her blood-spattered clothes (not visible here), looks on.

In a death certificate executed the following day, Kennedy's personal physician, George Burkley, recited that he arrived at the hospital some five minutes after Kennedy and – though Secret Service personnel reported that Kennedy had been breathing – immediately saw that survival was impossible. The certificate listed "gunshot wound, skull" as the cause of death.[92][93]

Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m., CST (19:00 UTC) after heart activity ceased. Father Oscar Huber administered the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church.[94] Huber told The New York Times that by the time he arrived at the hospital Kennedy had died, and that he had to draw back a sheet covering Kennedy's face to administer the sacrament of Extreme Unction.[94] Kennedy's death was announced by White House Acting Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff at 1:33 p.m.[95][96] (Press Secretary Pierre Salinger was traveling to Japan that day, along with much of the Cabinet.)[97][98][99] Governor Connally, meanwhile, underwent surgery.

Members of Kennedy's security detail were attempting to remove Kennedy's body from the hospital when they briefly scuffled with Dallas officials, including Dallas County Coroner Earl Rose, who believed that he was legally obligated to perform an autopsy before Kennedy's body was removed.[100] The Secret Service pushed through and Rose eventually stepped aside.[101] The forensic panel of the HSCA, of which Rose was a member, later said that Texas law made it the responsibility of the justice of the peace to determine cause of death and to determine whether an autopsy was needed.[102] A Dallas County justice of the peace signed the official record of inquest[when?][102] as well as a second certificate of death.[when?][103]

A few minutes after 2:00 p.m,[further explanation needed] Kennedy's body was taken from Parkland Hospital to Love Field. His casket was loaded into the rear of the passenger compartment of Air Force One in place of a removed row of seats.

Vice President Lyndon Johnson had accompanied Kennedy to Dallas and been riding two cars behind Kennedy's limousine in the motorcade. He became President as soon as Kennedy died and, at 2:38 p.m., with Jacqueline Kennedy at his side, he was administered the oath of office by federal judge Sarah Tilghman Hughes aboard Air Force One shortly before departing for Washington.[104]

Immediate aftermath

 
President Kennedy during the autopsy, displaying an exit wound below his neck

Autopsy

Main article: John F. Kennedy autopsy

Kennedy's body was flown back to Washington, D.C.[105] His autopsy was performed at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, between about 8 p.m. and midnight EST, Saturday, November 23. It was performed at a naval hospital at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy, on the basis that President Kennedy had been a naval officer during World War II.[106]

Funeral

Main articles: State funeral of John F. Kennedy and List of dignitaries at the state funeral of John F. Kennedy

Kennedy's body was brought back to Washington after his assassination. Early on November 23, six military pallbearers carried the flag-draped coffin into the East Room of the White House, where he lay in repose for 24 hours.[107][108] Then, the coffin was carried on a horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol to lie in state. Throughout the day and night, hundreds of thousands lined up to view the guarded casket,[109][110] with a quarter million passing through the rotunda during the 18 hours of lying in state.[109]

Kennedy's funeral service was held on November 25, at St. Matthew's Cathedral.[111] The Requiem Mass was led by Cardinal Richard Cushing.[111] About 1,200 guests, including representatives from over 90 countries, attended.[112][113] After the service, Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.[114]

Killing of Oswald

 
Jack Ruby shooting Oswald, who was being escorted by police detective Jim Leavelle (tan suit) for the transfer from the city jail to the county jail.

On Sunday, November 24 at 11:21 a.m. CST, as Oswald was being escorted to a car in the basement of Dallas Police headquarters for the transfer from the city jail to the county jail, he was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. The shooting was broadcast live on American television. Unconscious, Oswald was taken by ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy had died two days earlier; he died at 1:07 p.m.[115] An autopsy later that day, by Dallas County Medical Examiner Earl Rose, found that Oswald had been killed by a gunshot wound to the chest.[116] Robert H. Jackson of the Dallas Times Herald captured the incident in a photograph, for which he was awarded the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.[117]

Arrested immediately after the shooting, Ruby said that he had been distraught by Kennedy's death and that killing Oswald would spare "Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial".[118] He also stated he shot Oswald on the spur of the moment when the opportunity presented itself, without considering any reason for doing so.[119]: 199  Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism, secondary to bronchogenic carcinoma, on January 3, 1967, less than a month after his cancer diagnosis, at Parkland Hospital, the same facility where Oswald and Kennedy died.[120]

Film and audio captures of assassination events

 
The Bell & Howell Zoomatic movie camera used by Abraham Zapruder to shoot footage of the motorcade, which later came to be known as the Zapruder film. The camera is preserved within the collection of the U.S. National Archives.

No radio or television stations broadcast the assassination live. Most media crews did not ride with the motorcade, but were instead waiting at the Dallas Trade Mart in anticipation of Kennedy's arrival there. Members of the media who were with the motorcade were riding at the rear of the procession.

The Dallas police were recording their radio transmissions over two different channels. Channel One was used for routine police communications, while Channel Two was dedicated to the motorcade; until shots were fired, most traffic on the second channel was Police Chief Jesse Curry's updates on the motorcade's location.

Kennedy's last seconds of traveling through Dealey Plaza were recorded on silent 8 mm film for the 26.6 seconds before, during, and immediately following the assassination. This famous film footage was taken by garment manufacturer and amateur cameraman Abraham Zapruder, and became known as the Zapruder film. Frame enlargements from the Zapruder film were published by Life magazine shortly after the assassination. The footage was first shown publicly as a film at the trial of Clay Shaw in 1969, and on television in 1975.[121] According to the Guinness Book of World Records, in 1999 an arbitration panel ordered the United States government to pay $615,384 per second of film to Zapruder's heirs for giving the film to the National Archives. The complete film, which lasts for roughly over 26 seconds, was valued at $16 million.[122][123]

Including Zapruder, 32 photographers are known to have been in Dealey Plaza that day. Amateur movies taken by Orville Nix, Marie Muchmore (shown on television in New York on November 26, 1963),[124][125][126] and photographer Charles Bronson captured the fatal shot, although at a greater distance than Zapruder did. Other motion picture films were taken in Dealey Plaza at or around the time of the shooting by Robert Hughes, F. Mark Bell, Elsie Dorman, John Martin Jr., Patsy Paschall, Tina Towner, James Underwood, Dave Wiegman, Mal Couch, Thomas Atkins, and an unknown woman in a blue dress on the south side of Elm Street.[127]

Still photos were taken by Phillip Willis, Mary Moorman, Hugh W. Betzner Jr., Wilma Bond, Robert Croft, and many others. Ike Altgens, a photo editor for the Associated Press in Dallas, was the only professional photographer in Dealey Plaza who was not in the press cars.

Motion pictures and photographs taken by some of these people show an unidentified woman, nicknamed by researchers Babushka Lady, apparently filming the motorcade around the time of the assassination.

Previously unknown color footage filmed on the assassination day by George Jefferies was released in February 2007.[128][129] The film was shot over 90 seconds before the assassination, several blocks away. However, it gives a clear view of Kennedy's bunched suit jacket, just below the collar, which has led to varying calculations of how low in the back Kennedy was first shot (see discussion above).

Official investigations

Dallas Police

After the Dallas Police arrested Oswald and collected physical evidence at the crime scenes, they held Oswald at their headquarters, questioning him all afternoon about the shootings of Kennedy and Tippit. They intermittently questioned him for approximately 12 hours between 2:30 p.m., on November 22, and 11 a.m., on November 24.[130] Throughout, Oswald denied any involvement with either shooting.[130] Captain J. W. Fritz of the homicide and robbery bureau did most of the questioning; he kept only rudimentary notes.[131][132] Days later, he wrote a report of the interrogation from notes he made afterwards.[131] There were no stenographic or tape recordings. Representatives of other law enforcement agencies were also present, including the FBI and the Secret Service, and occasionally participated in the questioning.[133] Several of the FBI agents who were present wrote contemporaneous reports of the interrogation.[134]

On the evening of the assassination, Dallas Police performed paraffin tests on Oswald's hands and right cheek in an effort to establish whether or not he had recently fired a weapon.[133] The results were positive for the hands and negative for the right cheek.[133] Such tests were unreliable, and the Warren Commission did not rely on these results.[133]

Oswald provided little information during his questioning. When confronted with evidence that he could not explain, he resorted to statements that were found to be false.[133][135]

FBI investigation

On December 9, 1963, the Warren Commission received the FBI's report of its investigation which concluded that three bullets had been fired‍—‌the first hitting Kennedy, the second hitting Connally, and the third hitting Kennedy in the head, killing him.[136] The Warren Commission concluded that one of the three shots missed, one passed through Kennedy and then also struck Connally, and a third struck Kennedy in the head.

Warren Commission

 
The Warren Commission presents its report to President Johnson. From left to right: John McCloy, J. Lee Rankin (General Counsel), Senator Richard Russell, Congressman Gerald Ford, Chief Justice Earl Warren, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Allen Dulles, Senator John Sherman Cooper, and Congressman Hale Boggs.
Main article: Warren Commission

The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 29, 1963, by President Johnson to investigate the assassination.[137] Its 888-page final report was presented to Johnson on September 24, 1964, and made public three days later.[138] It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in killing Kennedy and wounding Connally, and that Jack Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald.[139][140] The commission's findings have proven controversial and been variously criticized and supported by later studies.[141]

The commission was chaired by Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren. According to published transcripts of Johnson's presidential phone conversations, some major officials were opposed to forming such a commission, and several commission members took part only with extreme reluctance.[142] One of their chief reservations was that a commission would ultimately create more controversy than consensus, and those fears ultimately proved valid.[142]

All of the Warren Commission's records were submitted to the National Archives in 1964. The unpublished portion of those records was initially sealed for 75 years (to 2039) under a general National Archives policy that applied to all federal investigations by the executive branch of government, a period "intended to serve as protection for innocent persons who could otherwise be damaged because of their relationship with participants in the case".[143][144] The 75-year rule no longer exists, supplanted by the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 and the JFK Records Act of 1992.

Ramsey Clark Panel

In 1968, a panel of four medical experts appointed by Attorney General Ramsey Clark met to examine photographs, X-rays, documents, and other evidence. The panel concluded that Kennedy was struck by two bullets fired from above and behind, one traversing the base of the neck on the right without striking bone, and the other entering the skull from behind and destroying its upper right side. They also concluded that the skull shot entered well above the external occipital protuberance, which was at odds with the Warren Commission's findings.[145]

Rockefeller Commission

The United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States was set up under President Gerald Ford in 1975 to investigate the activities of the CIA within the United States. The commission was led by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and is sometimes referred to as the Rockefeller Commission.

Part of the commission's work dealt with the Kennedy assassination, specifically, the head snap as seen in the Zapruder film (first shown to the general public in 1975), and the possible presence of E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis in Dallas.[146] The commission concluded that neither Hunt nor Sturgis was in Dallas at the time of the assassination.[147]

Church Committee

Main article: Church Committee

The Church Committee is the common term referring to the 1975 United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church, to investigate the illegal intelligence gathering by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the Watergate incident. It also investigated the CIA and FBI conduct relating to the JFK assassination.

Their report concluded that the investigation into the assassination by FBI and CIA was fundamentally deficient and that facts that may have greatly affected the investigation had not been forwarded to the Warren Commission by the agencies. The report hinted that there was a possibility that senior officials in both agencies made conscious decisions not to disclose potentially important information.[148]

United States House Select Committee on Assassinations

Main article: United States House Select Committee on Assassinations
 
The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations in the 1970s concluded that Kennedy was likely assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.

As a result of increasing public and congressional skepticism regarding the Warren Commission's findings and the transparency of government agencies, House Resolution 1540 was passed in September 1976, creating the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) to investigate the assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.[149]

The committee investigated until 1978, and in March 1979 issued its final report, concluding that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.[150] The chief reason for this conclusion was, according to the report's dissent, the subsequently discredited[151][152] acoustic analysis of a police channel dictabelt recording. The committee concluded that previous investigations into Oswald's responsibility were "thorough and reliable" but they did not adequately investigate the possibility of a conspiracy, and that Federal agencies performed with "varying degrees of competency".[153] Specifically, the FBI and CIA were found to be deficient in sharing information with other agencies and the Warren Commission. Instead of furnishing all information relevant to the investigation, the FBI and CIA only responded to specific requests and were still occasionally inadequate.[154] Furthermore, the Secret Service did not properly analyze information it possessed prior to the assassination and was inadequately prepared to protect Kennedy.[150]

Concerning the conclusions of "probable conspiracy", four of the twelve committee members wrote dissenting opinions.[155] In accordance with the recommendations of the HSCA, the Dictabelt recording and acoustic evidence of a second assassin was subsequently reexamined. In light of investigative reports from the FBI's Technical Services Division and a specially appointed National Academy of Sciences Committee determining that "reliable acoustic data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman",[156] the Justice Department concluded "that no persuasive evidence can be identified to support the theory of a conspiracy" in the Kennedy assassination.[152]

Although the final report and supporting volumes of the HSCA was publicly released, the working papers and primary documents were sealed until 2029 under Congressional rules and only partially released as part of the 1992 JFK Act.[157]

JFK Act and Assassination Records Review Board

Main article: President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992
 
Oliver Stone's 1992 film JFK spurred the "JFK Act, which called for the release of classified files.

In 1992, the popular but controversial movie JFK renewed public interest in the assassination and particularly in the still-classified documents referenced in the film's postscript. Largely in response to the film, Congress passed the JFK Act, or "President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992". The goal of the legislation was to collect at the National Archives and make publicly available all of the assassination-related records held by federal and state government agencies, private citizens and various other organizations.

The JFK Act also mandated the creation of an independent office, the Assassination Records Review Board, to review the submitted records for completeness and continued secrecy. The Review Board was not commissioned to make any findings or conclusions regarding the assassination, just to collect and release all related documents. From 1994 until 1998, the Assassination Records Review Board gathered and unsealed about 60,000 documents, consisting of over 4 million pages.[158][159] Government agencies requested that some records remain classified and these were reviewed under section 6 criteria of the JFK Act. There were 29,420 such records and all of them were fully or partially released, with stringent requirements for redaction.

A staff report for the Assassinations Records Review Board contended that brain photographs in the Kennedy records are not of Kennedy's brain and show much less damage than Kennedy sustained. Boswell refuted these allegations.[160] The board also found that, conflicting with the photographic images showing no such defect, a number of witnesses (at both the hospital and the autopsy) saw a large wound in the back of Kennedy's head.[161] The board and board member, Jeremy Gunn, have also stressed the problems with witness testimony, asking people to weigh all of the evidence, with due concern for human error, rather than take single statements as "proof" for one theory or another.[162][163]

All remaining assassination-related records (approximately 5,000 pages) were scheduled to be released by October 26, 2017, with the exception of documents certified for continued postponement by succeeding presidents under the following conditions: (1) "continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to the military, defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations" and (2) "the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure." There was some concern among researchers that significant records, particularly those of the CIA, might still remain classified after 2017.[164][165] Although these documents may include interesting historical information, all of the records were examined by the Review Board and were not determined to impact the facts of the Kennedy assassination.[166] President Donald Trump said in October 2017 that he would not block the release of documents.[165] On 26 April 2018, the deadline set by President Trump to release all JFK records, he blocked the release of some records until October 26, 2021.[167][168] On December 15, 2022, the Biden Administration announced it would release, unredacted, 13,173 documents which makes 97% of the total collection now available. Some records will remain sealed until June 2023.[169]

Conspiracy theories

 
The wooden fence on the grassy knoll, where many conspiracy theorists believe another gunman stood
Main article: John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories

Many conspiracy theories posit that the assassination involved people or organizations in addition to Lee Harvey Oswald. Most current theories put forth a criminal conspiracy involving parties as varied as the FBI, the CIA, the U.S. military,[170] the Mafia,[171] Vice President Johnson, Cuban President Fidel Castro, the KGB, or some combination of those entities.[172]

Public opinion polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans believe there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Gallup polls have also found that only 20–30% of the population believe that Oswald had acted alone. These polls also show that there is no agreement on who else may have been involved.[173][174] Former Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi estimated that a total of 42 groups, 82 assassins, and 214 people had been accused in various Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories.[175]

Legacy

Cultural impact

The assassination was the first of four major assassinations during the 1960s in the United States, coming two years before the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and five years before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.[176]

The event left a lasting impression on many worldwide. As with the preceding attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941, and, much later, the September 11 attacks, asking "Where were you when you heard about President Kennedy's assassination?" would become a common topic of discussion.[177][178][179][180]

In art

Don DeLillo explored the event in his 1988 novel Libra, in which Oswald is a CIA agent.[181]

Artifacts, museums and locations today

 
An "X" now marks where the fatal bullet hit Kennedy.

The VC-137C SAM 26000 that served as Air Force One at the time of the assassination is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The 1961 Lincoln Continental limousine is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.[182]

Jacqueline Kennedy's pink suit, the autopsy report, the X-rays, and President Kennedy's blood-stained clothing are in the National Archives, with access controlled by the Kennedy family. Other items in the Archives include equipment from Parkland Hospital trauma room; Oswald's rifle, diary, and revolver; bullet fragments; and the windshield of Kennedy's limousine.[182] The Lincoln Catafalque, on which Kennedy's coffin rested in the Capitol, is on display at the United States Capitol Visitor Center.[183]

In 1993 the three-acre park within Dealey Plaza, the buildings facing it, the overpass, and a portion of the adjacent railyard – including the railroad switching tower – were incorporated into the Dealey Plaza Historic District by the National Park Service. Much of the area is accessible by visitors, including the park and grassy knoll. Elm Street is still an active thoroughfare; an X painted in the road marks the approximate spot at which the shots struck Kennedy and Connally.[184] The Texas School Book Depository and its Sixth Floor Museum draw over 325,000 visitors annually, and contains a re-creation of the area from which Oswald fired.[185] The Sixth Floor Museum also manages the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial located one block east of Dealey Plaza.[186]

At the direction of the deceased president's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, some items were destroyed by the United States government. The casket in which Kennedy's body was transported from Dallas to Washington was dropped into the sea by the Air Force, because "its public display would be extremely offensive and contrary to public policy".[187] The Texas State Archives has the clothes Connally was wearing when he was shot. The gun Ruby used to kill Oswald later came into the possession of Ruby's brother Earl, and was sold in 1991 for $220,000.[188]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Dallas police officer who was shot and killed by Oswald 45 minutes after the assassination attack.
  2. ^ Oswald's missed shot hit a curb, dispersing curbstone fragments, at least one of which struck Tague's cheek causing minor bleeding.

References

  1. ^ Russ. . Lifeinlegacy.com. Archived from the original on May 12, 2011. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  2. ^ a b Warren 1964, p. 28
  3. ^ Warren 1964, p. 40
  4. ^ White 1965, p. 3
  5. ^ United Press International & American Heritage 1964, p. 7
  6. ^ Pontchartrain, Blake (June 17, 2019). "Blake Pontchartrain: Where was the French Hospital in New Orleans, and what's its story?". The Advocate. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  7. ^ Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Appendix 13 1964, p. 683.
  8. ^ a b Gerald Posner "Case Closed" Random House, New York, 1993 pg. 28
  9. ^ Bagdikian, Ben H. (December 14, 1963). Blair, Clay Jr. (ed.). "The Assassin". The Saturday Evening Post. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Curtis Publishing Company (44): 23.
  10. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 19, Folsom Exhibit No. 1, p. 85, Request for Dependency Discharge.
  11. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, Folsom Exhibit No. 1 (cont'd). Vol. XIX Folsom. p. 734.
  12. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 22, p. 705, CE 1385, Notes of interview of Lee Harvey Oswald conducted by Aline Mosby, Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 26, p. 709, CE 3099, Certified military pay records for Lee Harvey Oswald for the period October 24, 1956, to September 11, 1959.
  13. ^ Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Appendix 13 1964, p. 697.
  14. ^ Priscilla Johnson McMillan, Marina and Lee, Harper & Row, 1977, pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0-06-012953-8.
  15. ^ United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, Hearings, vol. 2 p. 207, Testimony of Marina Oswald Porter, September 13, 1978.
  16. ^ a b Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Appendix 13 1964, p. 712.
  17. ^ Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Appendix 13 1964, p. 714.
  18. ^ George de Mohrenschildt. Staff Report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, vol. 12, 4, p. 53–54, 1979.
  19. ^ Summers 1998, pp. 152–160.
  20. ^ Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Chapter 4 1964, pp. 184–195.
  21. ^ Findings of the Select Committee on Assassinations, HSCA Final Report, p. 61.
  22. ^ a b Testimony of Kenneth P. O'Donnell. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. VII. pp. 440–457. from the original on January 25, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  23. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 2, p. 31.
  24. ^ a b c Warren 1964, chpt. 2, p. 40.
  25. ^ McAdams, John (2012). "Changed Motorcade Route in Dallas?". The Kennedy Assassination. Marquette University. from the original on October 7, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  26. ^ Blaine, G. (2003). The Kennedy Detail. New York: Gallery Books. p. 196.
  27. ^ "November 22, 1963: Death of Kennedy". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. from the original on November 15, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  28. ^ a b Testimony of Mrs. John Bowden Connally, Jr. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. IV. pp. 146–149. from the original on March 15, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  29. ^ a b c d e f Testimony of Gov. John Bowden Connally, Jr. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. IV. pp. 129–146. from the original on March 15, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  30. ^ . Warren Commission. p. 179. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  31. ^ a b McAdams, John (2012). "Dealey Plaza Earwitnesses". The Kennedy Assassination. Marquette University. from the original on October 7, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  32. ^ "Chapter 4". National Archives. August 15, 2016. from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  33. ^ "Warren Commission Report Chapter 3". National Archives. August 15, 2016. from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  34. ^ "Texas School Book Depository: Oswald's Sniper's Nest". from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  35. ^ "History of The Texas School Book Depository Building | The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza". from the original on October 20, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  36. ^ "John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation | The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza". from the original on November 29, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  37. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 2, p. 49
  38. ^ "Chapter 2". National Archives. August 15, 2016. from the original on May 24, 2018. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  39. ^ "Testimony Of Bonnie Ray Williams". from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  40. ^ "An Overview · The Employees of the TSBD · JFK Witnesses". jfkwitnesses.omeka.net. from the original on December 30, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  41. ^ HSCA Appendix to Hearings (Report). Vol. VI. p. 29. from the original on July 1, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via History Matters Archive.
  42. ^ a b Testimony of Mrs. John F. Kennedy. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. V. June 5, 1964. pp. 178–181. from the original on October 23, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  43. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 1, pp. 18–19.
  44. ^ Stokes 1979, pp. 41–46.
  45. ^ a b Testimony of Dr. Robert Roeder Shaw. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. IV. April 21, 1964. pp. 101–117. from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  46. ^ Monroe, Monte L. (January–February 2012). "Waggoner Carr investigates the JFK assassination". Texas Techsan. Lubbock: Texas Tech Alumni Association: 23–31. Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr attempted a state-level investigation but received no cooperation from the Warren Commission. In the end, Carr generally endorsed the Warren Commission's findings.
  47. ^ Testimony of Bobby W. Hargis. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. VI. April 8, 1964. pp. 293–296. from the original on September 25, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  48. ^ Zapruder Film on YouTube
  49. ^ a b Testimony of Clinton J. Hill, Special Agent, Secret Service. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. II. pp. 132–144. from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  50. ^ Zapruder film: frames 370 2022-08-20 at the Wayback Machine, 375 2009-07-04 at the Wayback Machine, 380 2022-08-11 at the Wayback Machine, 390 2022-08-12 at the Wayback Machine.
  51. ^ Leaming, Barbara (2014). Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story. St. Martin's Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-250-01764-2.
  52. ^ The Truth Behind JFK's Assassination 2016-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, by Max Holland, Newsweek, November 20, 2014.
  53. ^ Testimony of James Thomas Tague. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. VII. July 23, 1964. pp. 552–558. from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  54. ^ Testimony of Clyde A. Haygood. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. VI. April 9, 1964. pp. 296–302. from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  55. ^ Rahn, Kenneth A. Sr. (November 2001). "Up by the Triple Underpass 1". Ken and Greg's Excellent Adventure: Dallas. from the original on November 17, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2012. See photos 1, 4, 7, and 8.
  56. ^ Commission Exhibit 2118: View From North Tower of Union Terminal Company, Dallas, Texas. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. XXIV. p. 548. from the original on March 19, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  57. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, Testimony of Lee E. Bowers, Jr. 2022-06-26 at the Wayback Machine
  58. ^ Myers, Dale K. (2008). "The Testimony of Lee Bowers, Jr". Secrets of a Homicide: Badge Man. Oak Cliff Press. from the original on July 21, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  59. ^ Myers, Dale K. (September 14, 2007). "Lee Bowers: The Man Behind the Grassy Knoll". Secrets of a Homicide: JFK Assassination. Oak Cliff Press. from the original on June 6, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  60. ^ Testimony of Howard Brennan. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. III. p. 143. from the original on July 26, 2018. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  61. ^ Testimony of Howard Brennan. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. III. p. 145. from the original on July 26, 2018. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  62. ^ McAdams, John (November 22, 1963). "The JFK Assassination Dallas Police Tapes: History in Real Time". The Kennedy Assassination. Marquette University. from the original on November 15, 2011. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  63. ^ Summers 2013, p. 62.
  64. ^ Photograph of Harold Norman, Bonnie Ray Williams, and James Jarman, Jr. showing their positions on the fifth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as the motorcade passed. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. XVII. p. 202, CE 485. from the original on March 26, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  65. ^ "Testimony Of Bonnie Ray Williams". mu.edu. from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  66. ^ "Testimony of Harold Norman". Warren Commission Hearings. from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  67. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, Testimony of Welcome Eugene Barnett 2022-07-01 at the Wayback Machine. Via History Matters Archive
  68. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, Testimony of Forrest V. Sorrels 2022-07-01 at the Wayback Machine. Via History Matters Archive
  69. ^ Not included in the 51.9% are two earwitnesses who though the shots came from the TSBD, but from a lower floor or at street level, and who are thus included in the 8.7%. Included in the 31.7% is a witness who thought the shots came from "the alcove near the benches".
  70. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 3, p. 110.
  71. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, vol. I, pp. 72–73, Testimony of Marina Oswald 2017-10-27 at the Wayback Machine.
  72. ^ Testimony of Wesley Frazier 2018-07-25 at the Wayback Machine, Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 2, pp. 226–227.
  73. ^ a b Magen Knuth, The Long Brown Bag. 2022-06-26 at the Wayback Machine
  74. ^ Testimony of Roy Truly 2017-08-08 at the Wayback Machine, Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits, vol. 3, p. 230.
  75. ^ Testimony of Helen Markham. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. III. p. 307. from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  76. ^ Testimony of Johnny Calvin Brewer. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. III. pp. 3–5. from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  77. ^ Testimony of Julia Postal. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). p. 11. from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  78. ^ Testimony of M.N. McDonald. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. III. p. 300. from the original on October 23, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  79. ^ Tippit murder affidavit: text 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine, cover 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine. Kennedy murder affidavit: text 2012-02-29 at the Wayback Machine, cover 2019-06-27 at the Wayback Machine. Via History Matters Archive
  80. ^ Kantor Exhibit No. 3 — Handwritten notes made by Seth Kantor concerning events surrounding the assassination. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. XX. p. 366. from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  81. ^ "John F. Kennedy Assassination Homepage :: Warren Commission :: Report :: Page 645". Jfk-assassination.de. December 5, 2004. from the original on September 27, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
  82. ^ "Tom Alyea, "Facts and Photos"". Jfk-online.com. December 19, 1963. from the original on July 25, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
  83. ^ Addendum: Report on an Examination of Photographs of the Rifle Associated with the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. HSCA Appendix to Hearings (Report). Vol. VI. pp. 66–107. from the original on October 8, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  84. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 4, pp. 125–126.
  85. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 4, p. 129.
  86. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 4, p. 118.
  87. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 4, p. 122.
  88. ^ Testimony of Lt. J. C. Day. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. IV. p. 260. from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  89. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 4, p. 124.
  90. ^ Shaneyfelt Exhibit No. 24. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. XXI. p. 467. from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  91. ^ Warren 1964, chpt. 3, p. 79.
  92. ^ "Biographical sketch of Dr. George Gregory Burkley, Arlington National Cemetery". Arlington National Cemetery. from the original on January 12, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
  93. ^ "MD 6 – White House Death Certificate (Burkley – 11/23/63), pg". from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2010 – via History Matters Archive.
  94. ^ a b Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 110, Number 3, January 2007, pp. 380–393. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
  95. ^ Associated Press 1963, p. 15
  96. ^ "Biographical sketch of Malcolm MacGregor Kilduff, Jr". Arlington National Cemetery. from the original on March 29, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
  97. ^ Associated Press 1963, p. 19
  98. ^ Rusk, Dean (1990). Rusk, Richard; Papp, Daniel S. (eds.). As I Saw It. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 296. ISBN 0-393-02650-7.
  99. ^ "Johnson Feared a Plot in Dallas". The New York Times. Associated Press. December 24, 1963. p. 6. Mr. Kilduff was the White House press man in charge at Dallas because Pierre Salinger, the chief press secretary, was traveling to Japan with members of the Cabinet.
  100. ^ Bugliosi 2007, pp. 92f–93f.
  101. ^ Bugliosi 2007, pp. 110–111.
  102. ^ a b "Specific considerations pertaining to the John F. Kennedy autopsy". Appendix to Hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives. Vol. VII. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. March 1979. pp. 188–190. from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  103. ^ "[Death Certificate of John F. Kennedy]". The Portal to Texas History. November 22, 1963. from the original on August 31, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  104. ^ "President Lyndon B. Johnson takes Oath of Office, 22 November 1963" 19 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  105. ^ Associated Press 1963, pp. 36–37, 56–57, 68
  106. ^ Associated Press 1963, pp. 29–31
  107. ^ Associated Press 1963, pp. 36–37, 56–57, 68
  108. ^ The New York Times 2003, pp. 197–201
  109. ^ a b White 1965, p. 16
  110. ^ NBC News 1966, pp. 106–107, 110, 114–115, 119–123, 133–134
  111. ^ a b White 1965, p. 17
  112. ^ Associated Press 1963, p. 93
  113. ^ NBC News 1966, p. 126
  114. ^ White 1965, p. 18
  115. ^ Bagdikian, Ben H. (December 14, 1963). Blair, Clay Jr. (ed.). "The Assassin". The Saturday Evening Post. Philadelphia, PA: The Curtis Publishing Company (44): 26.
  116. ^ . The Nook: An Investigation of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. November 24, 1963. Archived from the original on February 26, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
  117. ^ Fischer, Heinz-D; Fischer, Erika J. (2003). "Prizes for Pictorial Journalism Areas". The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-Winning Materials in Journalism, Letters and Arts. Vol. 17 Complete Historical Handbook of the Pulitzer Prize System 1917–2000. Munich: De Gruyter. p. 206. ISBN 978-3-11-093912-5.
  118. ^ Testimony of Jack Ruby. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). Vol. V. pp. 198–200. from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2023 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  119. ^ "Testimony of Jack Ruby". Warren Commission Hearings. 5 – via aarclibrary.org.
  120. ^ "Phil Burleson, 61, Jack Ruby's Lawyer". The New York Times. June 1, 1995. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  121. ^ Zaid, Mark; James Lesar; Charles Sanders (November 23, 1998). "Zapruder Film Civil Suit Filed". Assassination Research. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
  122. ^ Inverne, James (June 11, 2004). "Think you know your film facts?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  123. ^ Pasternack, Alex (November 23, 2012). . Motherboard. Archived from the original on November 30, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2016. Finally, in 1999, an arbitration panel ordered the government to pay the Zapruders $16 million to keep the original film. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, that works out to a record-breaking $615,384 per second.
  124. ^ Friedman, Rick (November 30, 1963). "Pictures of the Assassination Fall to Amateurs on Street". Editor & Publisher: 17.
  125. ^ "A World Listened and Watched" (PDF). Broadcasting. Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting Publications: 36–40, 46. December 2, 1963. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
  126. ^ Schonfeld, Maurice W. (July–August 1975). "The shadow of a gunman". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
  127. ^ A different person than the so-called "Babushka Lady".
  128. ^ "George Jefferies Film". George Jefferies Collection. Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  129. ^ "Newly released film of JFK before assassination". MSNBC. NBC News. Associated Press. February 19, 2007. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  130. ^ a b Warren 1964, chpt. 4, p. 180.
  131. ^ a b Report of Capt. J. W. Fritz, Dallas Police Department. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). pp. 599–611. from the original on October 8, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  132. ^ . JFK Lancer Productions & Publications. Archived from the original on November 30, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012. Captain Fritz told the Warren Commission that "I kept no notes at the time" of his several interrogations of Oswald (4 H 209). However, many years later, someone discovered some two and a half pages of Fritz's contemporaneous handwritten notes at the National Archives. Fritz also said that "several days later" he wrote more extensive notes of the interrogations (4 H 209).
  133. ^ a b c d e Warren 1964, chpt. 4, pp. 180–195.
  134. ^ Reports of Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Warren Commission Hearings (Report). pp. 612–625. from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  135. ^ For testimony relating to the interrogation sessions, see 4 H 152–153, 157 (Curry); 4 H 207–211, 217, 221–231, 239–240 (Fritz); 4 H 355–357 (Winston Lawson); 4 H 466–470 (James Hosty, Jr.); 7 H 123–127 (Elmer Boyd); 7 H 164–182 (Sims); 7 H 309–318 (James Bookhout); 7 H 320–321 (Manning Clements); 13 H 58–62 (Sorrels); 7 H 590 (Kelley); 7 H 296–306 (Holmes); CE 1982.
  136. ^ Associated Press 1963, p. 16
  137. ^ Baluch, Jerry T. (November 30, 1963). "Warren Heads Probe into Assassination". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press.
  138. ^ Roberts, Chalmers M. (September 28, 1964). "Warren Report Says Oswald Acted Alone; Raps FBI, Secret Service". The Washington Post. p. A1.
  139. ^ Lewis, Anthony (September 27, 1964). "Warren Commission Finds Oswald Guilty and Says Assassin and Ruby Acted Alone". The New York Times. p. 1. from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  140. ^ Pomfret, John D. (September 28, 1964). "Commission Says Ruby Acted Alone in Slaying". The New York Times. p. 17.
  141. ^ "Findings". National Archives. August 15, 2016. from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  142. ^ a b Beschloss, Michael R. (1997). "Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963–1964". New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80407-7.
  143. ^ National Archives Deputy Archivist, Dr. Robert H. Bahmer, interview in New York Herald Tribune, December 18, 1964, p. 24
  144. ^ Bugliosi 2007, pp. 136–137.
  145. ^ 1968 Panel Review of Photographs, X-Ray Films, Documents and Other Evidence Pertaining to the Fatal Wounding of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas June 26, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. It was also the first report to note a round fragment, measuring 6.5 mm in diameter, visible in the X-rays.. Archived from the original on July 7, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2006.
  146. ^ Table of Contents. Rockefeller Commission Report (Report). from the original on November 28, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2012 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  147. ^ McAdams, John. "E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis: Were Watergate Conspirators Also JFK Assassins?". The Kennedy Assassination. Marquette University. from the original on June 3, 2004. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  148. ^ Book V: The Investigation of the Assassination of President J.F.K.: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies. Church Committee Reports (Report). p. 7. from the original on May 18, 2011. Retrieved February 6, 2011 – via Assassination Archives and Research Center.
  149. ^ Stokes 1979, pp. 9–16.
  150. ^ a b Stokes 1979, p. 2.
  151. ^ Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics. National Research Council. 1982. doi:10.17226/10264. ISBN 978-0-309-25372-7. from the original on December 6, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  152. ^ a b "Letter from Assistant Attorney General William F. Weld to Peter W. Rodino Jr., undated" (PDF). Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  153. ^ Stokes 1979, pp. 2–3.
  154. ^ Stokes 1979, pp. 239–261.
  155. ^ Stokes 1979, pp. 483–511.
  156. ^ Council, National Research (1982). Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics. doi:10.17226/10264. ISBN 978-0-309-25372-7. from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  157. ^ "1. The Problem of Secrecy and the Solution of the JFK Act". Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board. September 1998. from the original on April 9, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  158. ^ "Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, Chapter 4". Fas.org. May 30, 2008. from the original on April 30, 2011. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
  159. ^ "Assassination Records Review Board: Unlocking the Government's Secret Files on the Murder of a President". Mcadams.posc.mu.edu. from the original on November 15, 2011. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
  160. ^ "Washingtonpost.com: JFK Assassination Report". www.washingtonpost.com. from the original on April 29, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  161. ^ "Oliver Stone: JFK conspiracy deniers are in denial". USA Today. from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  162. ^ "JFK Assassination: Kennedy's Head Wound". mcadams.posc.mu.edu. from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  163. ^ "Clarifying the Federal Record on the Zapruder Film and the Medical and Ballistics Evidence". Federation of American Scientists. from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  164. ^ Bender, Bryan (November 25, 2013). "Troves of files on JFK assassination remain secret". The Boston Globe. from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  165. ^ a b . Winston-Salem Journal. Associated Press. October 21, 2017. Archived from the original on October 22, 2017. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  166. ^ Bugliosi 2007, End Notes, p. 147.
  167. ^ Pruitt, Sarah. "Trump Holds Some JFK Assassination Files Back, Sets New 3-Year Deadline". HISTORY. from the original on April 26, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  168. ^ "National Archives Releases JFK Assassination Records". October 26, 2017. from the original on April 22, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  169. ^ Matza, Max (December 15, 2022). "Thousands of unedited government JFK assassination files released". BBC. from the original on December 19, 2022. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  170. ^ Assassination Records Review Board (September 30, 1998). "Chapter 1: The Problem of Secrecy and the JFK Act" (PDF). Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. p. 6. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  171. ^ Nicholson Baker, 'How JFK got shot,' The Baffler July 2014.
  172. ^ Summers, Anthony (2013a). . Not in Your Lifetime. New York: Open Road. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-4804-3548-3. Archived from the original on November 1, 2013.
  173. ^ . Gallup, Inc. November 15, 2013. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016.
  174. ^ Lydia Saad (November 21, 2003). "Americans: Kennedy Assassination a Conspiracy". Gallup, Inc.
  175. ^ Patterson, Thom (November 18, 2013). "One JFK conspiracy theory that could be true". CNN.
  176. ^ Shahid M. Shahidullah, Crime Policy in America: Laws, Institutions, and Programs (2015), p. 94.
  177. ^ Brinkley, David (2003). Brinkley's Beat: People, Places, and Events That Shaped My Time. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-375-40644-7.
  178. ^ White 1965, p. 6.
  179. ^ Dinneen, Joseph F. (November 24, 1963). "A Shock Like Pearl Harbor". The Boston Globe. p. 10.[permanent dead link] – via Boston Globe Archive (subscription required)
  180. ^ "United in Remembrance, Divided over Policies". September 1, 2011.
  181. ^ Lawson, Mark (October 27, 2017). "The best books about the JFK assassination, from Norman Mailer to Don DeLillo". The Guardian. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  182. ^ a b Keen, Judy (November 20, 2009). "JFK 'relics' stir strong emotions". USA Today. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  183. ^ "The Catafalque". History of Capitol Hill. Architect of the Capitol. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  184. ^ . National Historic Landmarks Program. National Park Service. Archived from the original on November 13, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  185. ^ . Frequently Asked Questions. Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Archived from the original on November 17, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  186. ^ "John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org.
  187. ^ . JFK Lancer Independent News Exchange. Archived from the original on September 22, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  188. ^ Goldberg, Barbara (December 26, 1991). "Jack Ruby's Gun Sold For $220,000". Associated Press. Retrieved February 15, 2013.

Further reading

  • The Torch Is Passed: The Associated Press Story of the Death of a President. New York: Associated Press. Associated Press. 1963. LCCN 64001351.
  • Brandimarte, Cynthia A. "Review: The Sixth Floor: John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation," Journal of American History 78#1 (1991), pp. 268–274 online
  • Bugliosi, Vincent (2007). Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04525-3.
  • Eder, Elizabeth. "Memory of a Nation: Effectively Using Artworks to Teach about the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" Social Education (November/December 2011), pp. 296–300. online
  • George, Alice. The assassination of John F. Kennedy: political trauma and American memory (Routledge, 2012).
  • Gunzenhäuser, Randi. "History, and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy" Amerikastudien/ American Studies 43#1 (1998), pp. 75–91 online
  • Kelin, John (2007). Praise from a Future Generation: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the First Generation Critics of the Warren Report. foreword by H. C. Nash. San Antonio, TX: Wings Press. ISBN 978-0-916727-32-1.
  • Manchester, William (1967). The Death of a President: November 20 – November 25, 1963. New York: Harper & Row. LCCN 67010496.
  • NBC News (1966). There Was a President. New York: Random House.
  • The New York Times (2003). Semple, Robert B. Jr. (ed.). Four days in November. New York: St. Martin's Press.
  • Stokes, Louis (1979). "Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives". Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.
  • Sturdivan, Larry M. (2005). The JFK Myths: A Scientific Investigation of the Kennedy Assassination. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House. ISBN 978-1-55778-847-4.
  • Summers, Anthony (2013). . New York: Open Road. ISBN 978-1-4804-3548-3. Archived from the original on March 31, 2018. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  • Thompson, Josiah (1967). Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination. New York: Bernard Geis Associates. LCCN 67023577.
  • Trask, Richard B. (1994). Pictures of the Pain: Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy. Danvers, Mass: Yeoman Press. ISBN 978-0-9638595-0-1.
  • Warren, Earl (1964). "Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy". Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.
  • White, Theodore H. (1965). The Making of the President, 1964. New York: Atheneum Publishers. LCCN 65018328.
  • United Press International; American Heritage (1964). Four Days: The Historical Record of the Death of President Kennedy. American Heritage Publishing Company.
  • "Appendix 13: Biography of Lee Harvey Oswald". Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. pp. 697, 699.
  • "Chapter 4: The Assassin". Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. p. 191.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Assassination of John F. Kennedy.
  • The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection – National Archives and Records Administration
  • JFK Assassination:A look back at the death of President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago – CBS News
  • "November 22, 1963: Death of the President". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
  • "JFK: One PM Central Standard Time" – documentary produced by PBS
  • "The Assassination of President Kennedy" – radio documentary by Mike Swickey
  • "Weisberg Collection on the JFK Assassination" – Internet Archive
  • LIFE Magazine Nov. 25, 1966
  • John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection finding aid at University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Special Collections via Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO)

January 13, 2023
assassination, john, kennedy, kennedy, assassination, redirects, here, assassination, john, brother, robert, assassination, robert, kennedy, november, 1963, redirects, here, date, november, 1963, john, kennedy, 35th, president, united, states, assassinated, fr. Kennedy assassination redirects here For the assassination of John s brother Robert see Assassination of Robert F Kennedy November 22 1963 redirects here For the date see November 1963 John F Kennedy the 35th president of the United States was assassinated on Friday November 22 1963 at 12 30 p m CST in Dallas Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline Texas Governor John Connally and Connally s wife Nellie when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by Lee Harvey Oswald a former US Marine The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting Connally was also wounded in the attack but recovered Vice President Lyndon B Johnson assumed the presidency upon Kennedy s death Assassination of John F KennedyPresident Kennedy with his wife Jacqueline and Texas governor John Connally with his wife Nellie in the presidential limousine minutes before the assassination Secret Service agents William Greer driving and Roy Kellerman are in the front seats LocationDealey Plaza in Dallas Texas U S Coordinates32 46 45 N 96 48 31 W 32 77903 N 96 80867 W 32 77903 96 80867 Coordinates 32 46 45 N 96 48 31 W 32 77903 N 96 80867 W 32 77903 96 80867DateNovember 22 1963 59 years ago 1963 11 22 12 30 p m CST TargetJohn F KennedyAttack typeSniper assassinationWeapons6 5 52mm Italian Carcano M91 38 bolt action rifle DeathsJohn F KennedyJ D Tippit a InjuredJohn ConnallyJames Tague b PerpetratorLee Harvey OswaldChargesMurder with malice 2 counts murdered before trial Around 70 minutes after Kennedy and Connally were shot Oswald was arrested by the Dallas Police Department and charged under Texas state law with the murders of Kennedy and Dallas policeman J D Tippit At 11 21 a m on November 24 1963 as live television cameras covered Oswald being moved through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters he was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby Like Kennedy Oswald was also taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital where he soon died Ruby was convicted of Oswald s murder though it was later overturned on appeal and Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial After a 10 month investigation the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy that Oswald had acted entirely alone and that Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald In its 1979 report the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations HSCA concluded that Kennedy was likely assassinated as a result of a conspiracy The HSCA did not identify a second gunman or group involved in the possible conspiracy but concluded that there was a high probability that two gunmen fired at the President The U S Justice Department concluded active investigations and stated that there was no persuasive evidence of a conspiracy However Kennedy s assassination is still the subject of widespread debate and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories and alternative scenarios Polls have found that a majority of Americans believe there was a conspiracy The assassination was the first of four major assassinations during the 1960s in the United States coming two years before the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 and five years before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F Kennedy in 1968 The assassination was also the fourth and most recent time a U S president was assassinated Contents 1 Background 1 1 Kennedy 1 2 Oswald 2 November 22 2 1 Arrival in Dallas and route to Dealey Plaza 2 2 Assassination 2 2 1 Shooting in Dealey Plaza 2 2 2 Governor Connally and a spectator wounded 2 3 Aftermath in Dealey Plaza 2 4 Oswald and killing of J D Tippit 2 5 Carcano rifle 2 6 Kennedy declared dead in the emergency room 3 Immediate aftermath 3 1 Autopsy 3 2 Funeral 3 3 Killing of Oswald 4 Film and audio captures of assassination events 5 Official investigations 5 1 Dallas Police 5 2 FBI investigation 5 3 Warren Commission 5 4 Ramsey Clark Panel 5 5 Rockefeller Commission 5 6 Church Committee 5 7 United States House Select Committee on Assassinations 5 8 JFK Act and Assassination Records Review Board 6 Conspiracy theories 7 Legacy 7 1 Cultural impact 7 2 In art 7 3 Artifacts museums and locations today 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External linksBackground The First Family in 1962 Kennedy Further information Presidency of John F Kennedy John F Kennedy born 1917 was the 35th president of the United States After representing Massachusetts in the U S Senate Kennedy was elected to the White House in 1960 alongside his Vice Presidential pick Lyndon B Johnson Kennedy s tenure as president coincided with the height of the Cold War and much of his foreign policy focused on countering communism He authorized numerous operations to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro It culminated in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961 during which he declined to directly involve American troops The following year Kennedy successfully resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis often regarded as the closest humanity has been to nuclear holocaust In 1963 Kennedy decided to travel to Texas to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party between liberals Ralph Yarborough Don Yarborough and conservative Texas governor John Connally 1 The visit was first agreed upon by Kennedy Johnson and Connally during a meeting in El Paso in June 2 The trip was announced in September 1963 The motorcade route was finalized on November 18 and announced soon thereafter 3 Kennedy had three basic goals in mind To help raise more Democratic Party presidential campaign fund contributions 2 To begin his quest for reelection in November 1964 4 To help make political amends among several leading Texas Democratic party members who appeared to be fighting amongst themselves 5 Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald as a Marine in 1956 seven years prior to the assassination Main article Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald born 1939 6 was a former US Marine who had served in Japan and the Phillipines 7 8 After accidentally shooting his elbow with an unauthorized handgun and subsequently fighting an officer over the incident Oswald was court martialed twice and demoted 8 After claiming his mother was ill Oswald received a hardship discharge in September 1959 and was placed on the United States Marine Corps Reserve 9 10 11 In 1959 Oswald defected to the Soviet Union 12 and in 1960 he was sent to work as a factory worker in Minsk Belarus 13 There in 1961 Oswald met and married Marina Prusakova 14 15 with whom he had a child the following year 16 In 1962 he returned to the United States with a repatriation loan of 435 71 from the U S Embassy 16 settling in the Dallas Fort Worth area 17 Here Oswald became acquainted with the Russian emigre community notably George de Mohrenschildt 18 19 In March 1963 Oswald likely attempted to assassinate General Edwin Walker 20 21 November 22See also Timeline of the John F Kennedy assassination Arrival in Dallas and route to Dealey Plaza The Kennedys arriving at Dallas Love Field Dealey Plaza showing the route of Kennedy s motorcade In the overhead view north is at left Kennedy s itinerary called for him to arrive at Dallas Love Field via a short flight from Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth 22 23 The meandering 10 mile motorcade route through Dallas with Kennedy Connally and their wives together in a single limousine and Johnson and his wife two cars behind was intended to give Kennedy maximum exposure to local crowds before his arrival for a luncheon at Dallas Market Center to meet with local leaders 22 24 Special Agent Winston G Lawson a member of the White House detail who acted as the advance Secret Service Agent and Secret Service Agent Forrest V Sorrels special agent in charge of the Dallas office were the most active in planning the actual motorcade route From Love Field the route passed through a suburban section of Dallas through Downtown along Main Street a right turn on N Houston Street for one block a left turn on Elm Street passing through Dealey Plaza and down a short segment of the Stemmons Freeway to the Trade Mart 24 The planned route to the Trade Mart was widely reported in Dallas newspapers several days before the event for the benefit of people who wished to view the motorcade 24 To pass through Downtown Dallas a route west along Main Street rather than Elm Street one block to the north was chosen since this was the traditional parade route and provided the maximal building and crowd views The Main Street section of the route prevented a direct turn onto the Fort Worth Turnpike exit which served also as the Stemmons Freeway exit which was the route to the Trade Mart as this exit was only accessible from Elm Street Therefore the planned motorcade route included a short one block turn at the end of the downtown segment of Main Street onto Houston Street for one block northward before turning again west onto Elm that way they could proceed through Dealey Plaza before exiting Elm onto the Stemmons Freeway The Texas School Book Depository was and still is situated at the northwest corner of the Houston and Elm Street intersection 25 The Dallas motorcade used three vehicles for Secret Service and police protection The first car an unmarked white Ford hardtop carried Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry Secret Service Agent Win Lawson Sheriff Bill Decker and Dallas Field Agent Forrest Sorrels The second car a 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible was occupied by driver Agent Bill Greer SAIC Roy Kellerman Governor John Connally Nellie Connally President Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy 26 The third car a 1955 Cadillac convertible code named Halfback contained driver Agent Sam Kinney ATSAIC Emory Roberts presidential aides Ken O Donnell and Dave Powers driver Agent George Hickey and PRS agent Glen Bennett Secret Service agents Clint Hill Jack Ready Tim McIntyre and Paul Landis rode on the running boards On November 22 after a breakfast speech in Fort Worth where Kennedy had stayed overnight after arriving from San Antonio Houston and Washington D C the previous day Kennedy boarded Air Force One which departed at 11 10 and arrived at Love Field 15 minutes later At about 11 40 Kennedy s motorcade left Love Field for the trip through Dallas running on a schedule about 10 minutes longer than the planned 45 due to enthusiastic crowds estimated at 150 000 to 200 000 people and two unplanned stops directed by Kennedy 27 Assassination Shooting in Dealey Plaza Dealey Plaza with Elm Street on the right and the Triple Underpass in the middle The white concrete pergola from which Zapruder was filming is at the right and the Grassy Knoll is in front of it slightly left of it in the picture The red brick building partially visible at the upper right is the Texas School Book Depository Kennedy was struck by the final bullet when he was just left of the lamp post in front of the pergola Kennedy in Dealey plaza before the first shot Polaroid photo by Mary Moorman taken a fraction of a second after the fatal shot detail Secret Service Special Agent Clint Hill shields the occupants of the presidential limousine moments after the fatal shots Background blurred because the camera was panning in to follow the limousine Other view of the moment when Hill shields the occupants Witness Howard Brennan sitting in the identical spot across from the Texas School Book Depository four months after the assassination Circle A indicates where he saw Oswald firing a rifle Kennedy s open top 1961 Lincoln Continental four door convertible limousine entered Dealey Plaza at 12 30 p m CST Nellie Connally the First Lady of Texas turned to Kennedy who was sitting behind her and commented Mr President you can t say Dallas doesn t love you Kennedy s reply No you certainly can t were his last words 28 29 30 From Houston Street the limousine made the planned left turn onto Elm en route to the Stemmons Freeway As it turned it passed by the Texas School Book Depository and as it continued down Elm Street shots were fired About 80 of the witnesses recalled hearing three shots 31 A Mannlicher Carcano rifle and three shell casings were also found near an open window on the book depository s sixth floor 32 33 34 35 36 Shortly after Kennedy began waving a few witnesses recognized the first gunshot for what it was but there was little reaction from most in the crowd or those riding in the motorcade Many later said they imagined what they heard to be a firecracker or a vehicle backfiring 37 The Warren Commission based on the Zapruder film found that the limousine had traveled an average speed of 11 2 miles per hour 18 0 km h over the 186 ft 57 m of Elm Street immediately preceding the fatal head shot 38 Texas School Book Depository employee Bonnie Ray Williams testified that he recognized Oswald as someone whom he saw on the sixth floor twice before the assassination took place 39 40 Within one second of each other Governor Connally and Mrs Kennedy turn abruptly from looking to their left to looking to their right beginning at Zapruder film frame 162 41 Connally like Kennedy was a World War II military veteran and was a longtime hunter he testified that he immediately recognized the sound as that of a high powered rifle and turned his head and torso rightward to see Kennedy behind him He testified he could not see Kennedy so he then started to turn forward again turning from his right to his left and that when his head was facing about 20 degrees left of center 29 he was hit in his upper right back by a bullet that he did not hear fired The doctor who operated on Connally estimated that his head at the time he was hit had been 27 degrees left of center 29 After Connally was hit he shouted Oh no no no My God They re going to kill us all 42 Mrs Connally testified that just after hearing a loud frightening noise that came from somewhere behind her and to her right she turned toward Kennedy and saw him raise up his arms and elbows with his hands in front of his face and throat She then heard another shot and then Governor Connally yelling Mrs Connally then turned away from Kennedy toward her husband at which point another gunshot sounded and both she and the limousine s rear interior were covered with fragments of skull blood and brain According to the Warren Commission 43 and the House Select Committee on Assassinations 44 Kennedy was waving to the crowds on his right with his right arm upraised on the side of the limo when a shot entered his upper back penetrated his neck and slightly damaged a spinal vertebra and the top of his right lung The bullet exited his throat nearly centerline just beneath his larynx and nicked the left side of his suit tie knot He raised his elbows and clenched his fists in front of his face and neck then leaned forward and left Mrs Kennedy facing him then put her arms around him in concern 29 45 According to the Warren Commission s single bullet theory Governor Connally also reacted after the same bullet penetrated his back just below his right armpit The bullet created an oval shaped entry wound impacted and destroyed four inches 10 cm of his right fifth rib and exited his chest just below his right nipple This created a two point five inch 6 5 cm oval shaped air sucking chest wound That same bullet then entered his arm just above his right wrist and cleanly shattered his right radius bone into eight pieces The bullet exited just below the wrist at the inner side of his right palm and finally lodged in his left inner thigh 29 45 The Warren Commission theorized that the single bullet struck sometime between Zapruder frames 210 and 225 while the House Select Committee theorized that it struck at approximately Zapruder frame 190 46 According to the Warren Commission a second shot that struck Kennedy was recorded at Zapruder film frame 313 The commission made no conclusion as to whether this was the second or third bullet fired The limousine then passed in front of the John Neely Bryan north pergola concrete structure The two investigative committees concluded that the second shot to hit Kennedy entered the rear of his head the House Select Committee placed the entry wound four inches higher than the Warren Commission placed it and passed in fragments through his skull this created a large roughly ovular sic hole on the rear right side of the head Kennedy s blood and fragments of his scalp brain and skull landed on the interior of the car the inner and outer surfaces of the front glass windshield the raised sun visors the front engine hood and the rear trunk lid His blood and fragments also landed on the Secret Service follow up car and its driver s left arm as well on the motorcycle officers who were riding on both sides of Kennedy just behind his vehicle 47 48 Secret Service Special Agent Clint Hill was riding on the left front running board of the follow up car which was immediately behind Kennedy s limousine Hill testified that he heard one shot then as documented in other films and concurrent with Zapruder frame 308 he jumped off into Elm Street and ran forward to board the trunk of the limousine and protect Kennedy Hill testified to the Warren Commission that he heard the fatal headshot as he was reaching the limousine approximately five seconds after the first shot that he heard 49 After Kennedy was shot in the head Mrs Kennedy began climbing out onto the back of the limousine though she later had no recollection of doing so 42 50 Hill believed she was reaching for something perhaps a piece of Kennedy s skull 49 He jumped onto the back of the limousine while at the same time Mrs Kennedy returned to her seat and he clung to the car as it exited Dealey Plaza and accelerated speeding to Parkland Memorial Hospital After Mrs Kennedy crawled back into her limousine seat both Governor and Mrs Connally heard her repeatedly say They have killed my husband I have his brains in my hand 28 29 Mrs Kennedy recalled All the ride to the hospital I kept bending over him saying Jack Jack can you hear me I love you Jack I kept holding the top of his head down trying to keep the brains in 51 Governor Connally and a spectator wounded Governor Connally was seated directly in front of Kennedy and three inches more to the left than Kennedy he was also seriously injured but survived Doctors later stated that after the Governor was shot his wife pulled him onto her lap and the resulting posture helped close his front chest wound which was causing air to be sucked directly into his chest around his collapsed right lung Bystander James Tague received a minor wound to the right cheek while standing 531 feet 162 m away from the depository s sixth floor easternmost window 270 feet 82 m in front of and slightly to the right of Kennedy s head facing direction and more than 16 feet 4 9 m below the top of Kennedy s head Tague s injury occurred when a bullet or bullet fragment with no copper casing struck the nearby Main Street south curb A deputy sheriff noticed some blood on Tague s cheek and Tague realized that something had stung his face during the shooting When Tague pointed to where he had been standing the police officer noticed a bullet smear on a nearby curb Nine months later the FBI removed the curb and a spectrographic analysis revealed metallic residue consistent with that of the lead core in Oswald s ammunition 52 Tague testified before the Warren Commission and initially stated that he was wounded on his cheek by either the second or third shot of the three shots that he remembered hearing When the commission counsel pressed him to be more specific Tague testified that he was wounded by the second shot 53 Aftermath in Dealey Plaza Bill and Gayle Newman dropped to the grass and shielded their children The limousine was passing the grassy knoll to the north of Elm Street at the time of the fatal head shot As the motorcade left Dealey Plaza police officers and spectators ran up the grassy hill and from the triple underpass to the area behind a five foot 1 5 m high stockade fence atop the knoll separating it from a parking lot No sniper was found there 54 Lee Bowers was in a two story railroad switch tower 55 which gave him an unobstructed view of the rear of the stockade fence atop the grassy knoll 56 He saw four men in the area between his tower and Elm Street two men who seemed not to know each other near the triple underpass some 10 to 15 feet 3 to 5 m apart and one or two uniformed parking lot attendants At the time of the shooting he saw something out of the ordinary a sort of milling around which he could not identify Bowers testified that one or both of the men were still there when motorcycle officer Clyde Haygood ran up the grassy knoll to the back of the fence 57 In a 1966 interview Bowers clarified that the two men he saw were standing in the opening between the pergola and the fence and that no one was behind the fence at the time the shots were fired 58 59 Meanwhile Howard Brennan a steamfitter who had been sitting across the street from the Texas School Book Depository approached police to say that as the motorcade passed he heard a shot come from above then looked up to see a man with a rifle take another shot from a sixth floor corner window He said he had seen the same man looking out the window minutes earlier 60 Police broadcast Brennan s description of this man at 12 45 12 48 and 12 55 p m 61 62 After the second shot Brennan recalled when This man was aiming for his last shot and maybe paused for another second as though to assure himself that he had hit his mark 63 As Brennan spoke to the police in front of the building they were joined by two Book Depository employees who had been watching the motorcade from windows at the southeast corner of the building s fifth floor 64 One reported hearing three gunshots come from directly over their heads 65 and sounds of a bolt action rifle and cartridges dropping on the floor above 66 Dallas police sealed off the exits from the depository approximately between 12 33 and 12 50 p m 67 68 There were at least 104 earwitnesses in Dealey Plaza who were on record with an opinion as to the direction from which the shots came Fifty four 51 9 thought that all shots came from the depository building Thirty three 31 7 thought that they came from either the grassy knoll or the triple underpass Nine 8 7 thought that each shot came from a location entirely distinct from the knoll or the depository Five 4 8 believed that they heard shots from two locations and 3 2 9 thought that the shots originated from a direction consistent with both the knoll and the depository 31 69 The Warren Commission additionally concluded that three shots were fired and said that a substantial majority of the witnesses stated that the shots were not evenly spaced Most witnesses recalled that the second and third shots were bunched together 70 Oswald and killing of J D Tippit Main article Lee Harvey Oswald External video Oswald professing innocence on YouTube Oswald s press conferenceDepository employee Buell Wesley Frazier who drove Oswald to work testified that he saw Oswald take a long brown paper bag into the building which Oswald told him contained curtain rods 71 72 73 After Oswald s supervisor at the depository reported him missing 74 police broadcast his description as a suspect in the shooting at Dealey Plaza citation needed Police officer J D Tippit subsequently spotted Oswald walking along a sidewalk in the residential neighborhood of Oak Cliff three miles from Dealey Plaza and called him over to the patrol car After an exchange of words Tippit got out of his car Oswald shot Tippit four times emptied the bullet casings from his gun and fled 75 The long brown bag which Frazier described was also found by six Dallas police officers near the sixth floor window where Oswald was determined to have fired gunshots at President Kennedy and was revealed to be 38 inches long with marks on the inside consistent with those of a rifle 73 Oswald was subsequently seen ducking into the entrance alcove of a store by the store s manager who then watched Oswald continue up the street and slip into the Texas Theatre without paying 76 The store manager alerted the theater s ticket clerk who telephoned police 77 at about 1 40 p m Officers arrived and arrested Oswald inside the theater According to one of the officers Oswald resisted and was attempting to draw his pistol when he was struck and restrained 78 Oswald was charged with the murders of Kennedy and Tippit later that night 79 He denied shooting anyone and claimed he was being made a patsy because he had lived in the Soviet Union 80 Carcano rifle Main article John F Kennedy assassination rifle An Italian Carcano M91 38 bolt action rifle see 6 5 52mm Mannlicher Carcano cartridge was found on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository by Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman and Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone soon after the assassination 81 The recovery was filmed by Tom Alyea of WFAA TV 82 This footage shows the rifle to be a Carcano and photographic analysis commissioned by the HSCA verified that the rifle filmed was the one later identified as the assassination weapon 83 Compared to photographs taken of Oswald holding the rifle in his backyard one notch in the stock at a point that appears very faintly in the photograph matched 84 as well as the rifle s dimensions 85 The rifle had been purchased secondhand by Oswald the previous March under the alias A Hidell and delivered to a post office box he had rented in Dallas 86 According to the Warren Report a partial palm print belonging to Oswald was also found on the barrel 87 88 and fibers found in a crevice of the rifle were consistent with the fibers from the shirt Oswald was wearing when he was arrested 89 90 A bullet found on Governor Connally s hospital gurney and two bullet fragments found in the limousine were ballistically matched to this rifle 91 Kennedy declared dead in the emergency room Cecil Stoughton s photograph of Lyndon B Johnson being sworn in as President as Air Force One prepares to depart Love Field in Dallas Jacqueline Kennedy right still in her blood spattered clothes not visible here looks on In a death certificate executed the following day Kennedy s personal physician George Burkley recited that he arrived at the hospital some five minutes after Kennedy and though Secret Service personnel reported that Kennedy had been breathing immediately saw that survival was impossible The certificate listed gunshot wound skull as the cause of death 92 93 Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1 00 p m CST 19 00 UTC after heart activity ceased Father Oscar Huber administered the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church 94 Huber told The New York Times that by the time he arrived at the hospital Kennedy had died and that he had to draw back a sheet covering Kennedy s face to administer the sacrament of Extreme Unction 94 Kennedy s death was announced by White House Acting Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff at 1 33 p m 95 96 Press Secretary Pierre Salinger was traveling to Japan that day along with much of the Cabinet 97 98 99 Governor Connally meanwhile underwent surgery Members of Kennedy s security detail were attempting to remove Kennedy s body from the hospital when they briefly scuffled with Dallas officials including Dallas County Coroner Earl Rose who believed that he was legally obligated to perform an autopsy before Kennedy s body was removed 100 The Secret Service pushed through and Rose eventually stepped aside 101 The forensic panel of the HSCA of which Rose was a member later said that Texas law made it the responsibility of the justice of the peace to determine cause of death and to determine whether an autopsy was needed 102 A Dallas County justice of the peace signed the official record of inquest when 102 as well as a second certificate of death when 103 A few minutes after 2 00 p m further explanation needed Kennedy s body was taken from Parkland Hospital to Love Field His casket was loaded into the rear of the passenger compartment of Air Force One in place of a removed row of seats Vice President Lyndon Johnson had accompanied Kennedy to Dallas and been riding two cars behind Kennedy s limousine in the motorcade He became President as soon as Kennedy died and at 2 38 p m with Jacqueline Kennedy at his side he was administered the oath of office by federal judge Sarah Tilghman Hughes aboard Air Force One shortly before departing for Washington 104 Immediate aftermath President Kennedy during the autopsy displaying an exit wound below his neck Autopsy Main article John F Kennedy autopsy Kennedy s body was flown back to Washington D C 105 His autopsy was performed at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda Maryland between about 8 p m and midnight EST Saturday November 23 It was performed at a naval hospital at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy on the basis that President Kennedy had been a naval officer during World War II 106 Funeral Main articles State funeral of John F Kennedy and List of dignitaries at the state funeral of John F Kennedy Kennedy s body was brought back to Washington after his assassination Early on November 23 six military pallbearers carried the flag draped coffin into the East Room of the White House where he lay in repose for 24 hours 107 108 Then the coffin was carried on a horse drawn caisson to the Capitol to lie in state Throughout the day and night hundreds of thousands lined up to view the guarded casket 109 110 with a quarter million passing through the rotunda during the 18 hours of lying in state 109 Kennedy s funeral service was held on November 25 at St Matthew s Cathedral 111 The Requiem Mass was led by Cardinal Richard Cushing 111 About 1 200 guests including representatives from over 90 countries attended 112 113 After the service Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia 114 Killing of Oswald Jack Ruby shooting Oswald who was being escorted by police detective Jim Leavelle tan suit for the transfer from the city jail to the county jail On Sunday November 24 at 11 21 a m CST as Oswald was being escorted to a car in the basement of Dallas Police headquarters for the transfer from the city jail to the county jail he was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby The shooting was broadcast live on American television Unconscious Oswald was taken by ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital where Kennedy had died two days earlier he died at 1 07 p m 115 An autopsy later that day by Dallas County Medical Examiner Earl Rose found that Oswald had been killed by a gunshot wound to the chest 116 Robert H Jackson of the Dallas Times Herald captured the incident in a photograph for which he was awarded the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Photography 117 Arrested immediately after the shooting Ruby said that he had been distraught by Kennedy s death and that killing Oswald would spare Mrs Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial 118 He also stated he shot Oswald on the spur of the moment when the opportunity presented itself without considering any reason for doing so 119 199 Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism secondary to bronchogenic carcinoma on January 3 1967 less than a month after his cancer diagnosis at Parkland Hospital the same facility where Oswald and Kennedy died 120 Film and audio captures of assassination events The Bell amp Howell Zoomatic movie camera used by Abraham Zapruder to shoot footage of the motorcade which later came to be known as the Zapruder film The camera is preserved within the collection of the U S National Archives No radio or television stations broadcast the assassination live Most media crews did not ride with the motorcade but were instead waiting at the Dallas Trade Mart in anticipation of Kennedy s arrival there Members of the media who were with the motorcade were riding at the rear of the procession The Dallas police were recording their radio transmissions over two different channels Channel One was used for routine police communications while Channel Two was dedicated to the motorcade until shots were fired most traffic on the second channel was Police Chief Jesse Curry s updates on the motorcade s location Kennedy s last seconds of traveling through Dealey Plaza were recorded on silent 8 mm film for the 26 6 seconds before during and immediately following the assassination This famous film footage was taken by garment manufacturer and amateur cameraman Abraham Zapruder and became known as the Zapruder film Frame enlargements from the Zapruder film were published by Life magazine shortly after the assassination The footage was first shown publicly as a film at the trial of Clay Shaw in 1969 and on television in 1975 121 According to the Guinness Book of World Records in 1999 an arbitration panel ordered the United States government to pay 615 384 per second of film to Zapruder s heirs for giving the film to the National Archives The complete film which lasts for roughly over 26 seconds was valued at 16 million 122 123 Including Zapruder 32 photographers are known to have been in Dealey Plaza that day Amateur movies taken by Orville Nix Marie Muchmore shown on television in New York on November 26 1963 124 125 126 and photographer Charles Bronson captured the fatal shot although at a greater distance than Zapruder did Other motion picture films were taken in Dealey Plaza at or around the time of the shooting by Robert Hughes F Mark Bell Elsie Dorman John Martin Jr Patsy Paschall Tina Towner James Underwood Dave Wiegman Mal Couch Thomas Atkins and an unknown woman in a blue dress on the south side of Elm Street 127 Still photos were taken by Phillip Willis Mary Moorman Hugh W Betzner Jr Wilma Bond Robert Croft and many others Ike Altgens a photo editor for the Associated Press in Dallas was the only professional photographer in Dealey Plaza who was not in the press cars Motion pictures and photographs taken by some of these people show an unidentified woman nicknamed by researchers Babushka Lady apparently filming the motorcade around the time of the assassination Previously unknown color footage filmed on the assassination day by George Jefferies was released in February 2007 128 129 The film was shot over 90 seconds before the assassination several blocks away However it gives a clear view of Kennedy s bunched suit jacket just below the collar which has led to varying calculations of how low in the back Kennedy was first shot see discussion above Official investigationsDallas Police After the Dallas Police arrested Oswald and collected physical evidence at the crime scenes they held Oswald at their headquarters questioning him all afternoon about the shootings of Kennedy and Tippit They intermittently questioned him for approximately 12 hours between 2 30 p m on November 22 and 11 a m on November 24 130 Throughout Oswald denied any involvement with either shooting 130 Captain J W Fritz of the homicide and robbery bureau did most of the questioning he kept only rudimentary notes 131 132 Days later he wrote a report of the interrogation from notes he made afterwards 131 There were no stenographic or tape recordings Representatives of other law enforcement agencies were also present including the FBI and the Secret Service and occasionally participated in the questioning 133 Several of the FBI agents who were present wrote contemporaneous reports of the interrogation 134 On the evening of the assassination Dallas Police performed paraffin tests on Oswald s hands and right cheek in an effort to establish whether or not he had recently fired a weapon 133 The results were positive for the hands and negative for the right cheek 133 Such tests were unreliable and the Warren Commission did not rely on these results 133 Oswald provided little information during his questioning When confronted with evidence that he could not explain he resorted to statements that were found to be false 133 135 FBI investigation On December 9 1963 the Warren Commission received the FBI s report of its investigation which concluded that three bullets had been fired the first hitting Kennedy the second hitting Connally and the third hitting Kennedy in the head killing him 136 The Warren Commission concluded that one of the three shots missed one passed through Kennedy and then also struck Connally and a third struck Kennedy in the head Warren Commission The Warren Commission presents its report to President Johnson From left to right John McCloy J Lee Rankin General Counsel Senator Richard Russell Congressman Gerald Ford Chief Justice Earl Warren President Lyndon B Johnson Allen Dulles Senator John Sherman Cooper and Congressman Hale Boggs Main article Warren Commission The President s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy known unofficially as the Warren Commission was established on November 29 1963 by President Johnson to investigate the assassination 137 Its 888 page final report was presented to Johnson on September 24 1964 and made public three days later 138 It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in killing Kennedy and wounding Connally and that Jack Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald 139 140 The commission s findings have proven controversial and been variously criticized and supported by later studies 141 The commission was chaired by Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren According to published transcripts of Johnson s presidential phone conversations some major officials were opposed to forming such a commission and several commission members took part only with extreme reluctance 142 One of their chief reservations was that a commission would ultimately create more controversy than consensus and those fears ultimately proved valid 142 All of the Warren Commission s records were submitted to the National Archives in 1964 The unpublished portion of those records was initially sealed for 75 years to 2039 under a general National Archives policy that applied to all federal investigations by the executive branch of government a period intended to serve as protection for innocent persons who could otherwise be damaged because of their relationship with participants in the case 143 144 The 75 year rule no longer exists supplanted by the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 and the JFK Records Act of 1992 Ramsey Clark Panel In 1968 a panel of four medical experts appointed by Attorney General Ramsey Clark met to examine photographs X rays documents and other evidence The panel concluded that Kennedy was struck by two bullets fired from above and behind one traversing the base of the neck on the right without striking bone and the other entering the skull from behind and destroying its upper right side They also concluded that the skull shot entered well above the external occipital protuberance which was at odds with the Warren Commission s findings 145 Rockefeller Commission The United States President s Commission on CIA Activities within the United States was set up under President Gerald Ford in 1975 to investigate the activities of the CIA within the United States The commission was led by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and is sometimes referred to as the Rockefeller Commission Part of the commission s work dealt with the Kennedy assassination specifically the head snap as seen in the Zapruder film first shown to the general public in 1975 and the possible presence of E Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis in Dallas 146 The commission concluded that neither Hunt nor Sturgis was in Dallas at the time of the assassination 147 Church Committee Main article Church Committee The Church Committee is the common term referring to the 1975 United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities a U S Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church to investigate the illegal intelligence gathering by the Central Intelligence Agency CIA and Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI after the Watergate incident It also investigated the CIA and FBI conduct relating to the JFK assassination Their report concluded that the investigation into the assassination by FBI and CIA was fundamentally deficient and that facts that may have greatly affected the investigation had not been forwarded to the Warren Commission by the agencies The report hinted that there was a possibility that senior officials in both agencies made conscious decisions not to disclose potentially important information 148 United States House Select Committee on Assassinations Main article United States House Select Committee on Assassinations The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations in the 1970s concluded that Kennedy was likely assassinated as a result of a conspiracy As a result of increasing public and congressional skepticism regarding the Warren Commission s findings and the transparency of government agencies House Resolution 1540 was passed in September 1976 creating the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations HSCA to investigate the assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr 149 The committee investigated until 1978 and in March 1979 issued its final report concluding that President John F Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy 150 The chief reason for this conclusion was according to the report s dissent the subsequently discredited 151 152 acoustic analysis of a police channel dictabelt recording The committee concluded that previous investigations into Oswald s responsibility were thorough and reliable but they did not adequately investigate the possibility of a conspiracy and that Federal agencies performed with varying degrees of competency 153 Specifically the FBI and CIA were found to be deficient in sharing information with other agencies and the Warren Commission Instead of furnishing all information relevant to the investigation the FBI and CIA only responded to specific requests and were still occasionally inadequate 154 Furthermore the Secret Service did not properly analyze information it possessed prior to the assassination and was inadequately prepared to protect Kennedy 150 Concerning the conclusions of probable conspiracy four of the twelve committee members wrote dissenting opinions 155 In accordance with the recommendations of the HSCA the Dictabelt recording and acoustic evidence of a second assassin was subsequently reexamined In light of investigative reports from the FBI s Technical Services Division and a specially appointed National Academy of Sciences Committee determining that reliable acoustic data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman 156 the Justice Department concluded that no persuasive evidence can be identified to support the theory of a conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination 152 Although the final report and supporting volumes of the HSCA was publicly released the working papers and primary documents were sealed until 2029 under Congressional rules and only partially released as part of the 1992 JFK Act 157 JFK Act and Assassination Records Review Board Main article President John F Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 Oliver Stone s 1992 film JFK spurred the JFK Act which called for the release of classified files In 1992 the popular but controversial movie JFK renewed public interest in the assassination and particularly in the still classified documents referenced in the film s postscript Largely in response to the film Congress passed the JFK Act or President John F Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 The goal of the legislation was to collect at the National Archives and make publicly available all of the assassination related records held by federal and state government agencies private citizens and various other organizations The JFK Act also mandated the creation of an independent office the Assassination Records Review Board to review the submitted records for completeness and continued secrecy The Review Board was not commissioned to make any findings or conclusions regarding the assassination just to collect and release all related documents From 1994 until 1998 the Assassination Records Review Board gathered and unsealed about 60 000 documents consisting of over 4 million pages 158 159 Government agencies requested that some records remain classified and these were reviewed under section 6 criteria of the JFK Act There were 29 420 such records and all of them were fully or partially released with stringent requirements for redaction A staff report for the Assassinations Records Review Board contended that brain photographs in the Kennedy records are not of Kennedy s brain and show much less damage than Kennedy sustained Boswell refuted these allegations 160 The board also found that conflicting with the photographic images showing no such defect a number of witnesses at both the hospital and the autopsy saw a large wound in the back of Kennedy s head 161 The board and board member Jeremy Gunn have also stressed the problems with witness testimony asking people to weigh all of the evidence with due concern for human error rather than take single statements as proof for one theory or another 162 163 All remaining assassination related records approximately 5 000 pages were scheduled to be released by October 26 2017 with the exception of documents certified for continued postponement by succeeding presidents under the following conditions 1 continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to the military defense intelligence operations law enforcement or conduct of foreign relations and 2 the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure There was some concern among researchers that significant records particularly those of the CIA might still remain classified after 2017 164 165 Although these documents may include interesting historical information all of the records were examined by the Review Board and were not determined to impact the facts of the Kennedy assassination 166 President Donald Trump said in October 2017 that he would not block the release of documents 165 On 26 April 2018 the deadline set by President Trump to release all JFK records he blocked the release of some records until October 26 2021 167 168 On December 15 2022 the Biden Administration announced it would release unredacted 13 173 documents which makes 97 of the total collection now available Some records will remain sealed until June 2023 169 Conspiracy theories The wooden fence on the grassy knoll where many conspiracy theorists believe another gunman stood Main article John F Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories Many conspiracy theories posit that the assassination involved people or organizations in addition to Lee Harvey Oswald Most current theories put forth a criminal conspiracy involving parties as varied as the FBI the CIA the U S military 170 the Mafia 171 Vice President Johnson Cuban President Fidel Castro the KGB or some combination of those entities 172 Public opinion polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans believe there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy Gallup polls have also found that only 20 30 of the population believe that Oswald had acted alone These polls also show that there is no agreement on who else may have been involved 173 174 Former Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi estimated that a total of 42 groups 82 assassins and 214 people had been accused in various Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories 175 LegacyCultural impact The assassination was the first of four major assassinations during the 1960s in the United States coming two years before the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 and five years before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F Kennedy in 1968 176 The event left a lasting impression on many worldwide As with the preceding attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7 1941 and much later the September 11 attacks asking Where were you when you heard about President Kennedy s assassination would become a common topic of discussion 177 178 179 180 In art Don DeLillo explored the event in his 1988 novel Libra in which Oswald is a CIA agent 181 Artifacts museums and locations today An X now marks where the fatal bullet hit Kennedy The VC 137C SAM 26000 that served as Air Force One at the time of the assassination is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton Ohio The 1961 Lincoln Continental limousine is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan 182 Jacqueline Kennedy s pink suit the autopsy report the X rays and President Kennedy s blood stained clothing are in the National Archives with access controlled by the Kennedy family Other items in the Archives include equipment from Parkland Hospital trauma room Oswald s rifle diary and revolver bullet fragments and the windshield of Kennedy s limousine 182 The Lincoln Catafalque on which Kennedy s coffin rested in the Capitol is on display at the United States Capitol Visitor Center 183 In 1993 the three acre park within Dealey Plaza the buildings facing it the overpass and a portion of the adjacent railyard including the railroad switching tower were incorporated into the Dealey Plaza Historic District by the National Park Service Much of the area is accessible by visitors including the park and grassy knoll Elm Street is still an active thoroughfare an X painted in the road marks the approximate spot at which the shots struck Kennedy and Connally 184 The Texas School Book Depository and its Sixth Floor Museum draw over 325 000 visitors annually and contains a re creation of the area from which Oswald fired 185 The Sixth Floor Museum also manages the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial located one block east of Dealey Plaza 186 At the direction of the deceased president s brother Attorney General Robert F Kennedy some items were destroyed by the United States government The casket in which Kennedy s body was transported from Dallas to Washington was dropped into the sea by the Air Force because its public display would be extremely offensive and contrary to public policy 187 The Texas State Archives has the clothes Connally was wearing when he was shot The gun Ruby used to kill Oswald later came into the possession of Ruby s brother Earl and was sold in 1991 for 220 000 188 See alsoList of assassinated and executed heads of state and government List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots Assassination of John F Kennedy in popular culture Assassination of Robert F Kennedy Assassination of Shinzo Abe Curse of Tippecanoe Kennedy Curse Let Us ContinueNotes Dallas police officer who was shot and killed by Oswald 45 minutes after the assassination attack Oswald s missed shot hit a curb dispersing curbstone fragments at least one of which struck Tague s cheek causing minor bleeding References Russ 26 2009 P12844 Life in Legacy Lifeinlegacy com Archived from the original on May 12 2011 Retrieved March 28 2010 a b Warren 1964 p 28 Warren 1964 p 40 White 1965 p 3 United Press International amp American Heritage 1964 p 7 Pontchartrain Blake June 17 2019 Blake Pontchartrain Where was the French Hospital in New Orleans and what s its story The Advocate Retrieved September 29 2019 Report of the President s Commission on the Assassination of President John F Kennedy Appendix 13 1964 p 683 a b Gerald Posner Case Closed Random House New York 1993 pg 28 Bagdikian Ben H December 14 1963 Blair Clay Jr ed The Assassin The Saturday Evening Post Philadelphia Pennsylvania The Curtis Publishing Company 44 23 Warren Commission Hearings vol 19 Folsom Exhibit No 1 p 85 Request for Dependency Discharge Warren Commission Hearings Folsom Exhibit No 1 cont d Vol XIX Folsom p 734 Warren Commission Hearings vol 22 p 705 CE 1385 Notes of interview of Lee Harvey Oswald conducted by Aline Mosby Warren Commission Hearings vol 26 p 709 CE 3099 Certified military pay records for Lee Harvey Oswald for the period October 24 1956 to September 11 1959 Report of the President s Commission on the Assassination of President John F Kennedy Appendix 13 1964 p 697 Priscilla Johnson McMillan Marina and Lee Harper amp Row 1977 pp 64 65 ISBN 978 0 06 012953 8 United States House Select Committee on Assassinations Hearings vol 2 p 207 Testimony of Marina Oswald Porter September 13 1978 a b Report of the President s Commission on the Assassination of President John F Kennedy Appendix 13 1964 p 712 Report of the President s Commission on the Assassination of President John F Kennedy Appendix 13 1964 p 714 George de Mohrenschildt Staff Report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations vol 12 4 p 53 54 1979 Summers 1998 pp 152 160 Report of the President s Commission on the Assassination of President John F Kennedy Chapter 4 1964 pp 184 195 Findings of the Select Committee on Assassinations HSCA Final Report p 61 a b Testimony of Kenneth P O Donnell Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol VII pp 440 457 Archived from the original on January 25 2012 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Warren 1964 chpt 2 p 31 a b c Warren 1964 chpt 2 p 40 McAdams John 2012 Changed Motorcade Route in Dallas The Kennedy Assassination Marquette University Archived from the original on October 7 2013 Retrieved November 26 2012 Blaine G 2003 The Kennedy Detail New York Gallery Books p 196 November 22 1963 Death of Kennedy John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Archived from the original on November 15 2012 Retrieved November 26 2012 a b Testimony of Mrs John Bowden Connally Jr Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol IV pp 146 149 Archived from the original on March 15 2013 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center a b c d e f Testimony of Gov John Bowden Connally Jr Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol IV pp 129 146 Archived from the original on March 15 2013 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Testimony of Mrs John F Kennedy Warren Commission p 179 Archived from the original on December 19 2013 Retrieved December 20 2013 a b McAdams John 2012 Dealey Plaza Earwitnesses The Kennedy Assassination Marquette University Archived from the original on October 7 2013 Retrieved November 26 2012 Chapter 4 National Archives August 15 2016 Archived from the original on June 28 2011 Retrieved January 10 2023 Warren Commission Report Chapter 3 National Archives August 15 2016 Archived from the original on October 27 2017 Retrieved January 10 2023 Texas School Book Depository Oswald s Sniper s Nest Archived from the original on January 18 2022 Retrieved January 10 2023 History of The Texas School Book Depository Building The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Archived from the original on October 20 2022 Retrieved January 10 2023 John F Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Archived from the original on November 29 2022 Retrieved January 10 2023 Warren 1964 chpt 2 p 49 Chapter 2 National Archives August 15 2016 Archived from the original on May 24 2018 Retrieved May 23 2018 Testimony Of Bonnie Ray Williams Archived from the original on June 26 2022 Retrieved January 10 2023 An Overview The Employees of the TSBD JFK Witnesses jfkwitnesses omeka net Archived from the original on December 30 2022 Retrieved January 10 2023 HSCA Appendix to Hearings Report Vol VI p 29 Archived from the original on July 1 2022 Retrieved January 10 2023 via History Matters Archive a b Testimony of Mrs John F Kennedy Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol V June 5 1964 pp 178 181 Archived from the original on October 23 2013 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Warren 1964 chpt 1 pp 18 19 Stokes 1979 pp 41 46 a b Testimony of Dr Robert Roeder Shaw Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol IV April 21 1964 pp 101 117 Archived from the original on July 20 2013 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Monroe Monte L January February 2012 Waggoner Carr investigates the JFK assassination Texas Techsan Lubbock Texas Tech Alumni Association 23 31 Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr attempted a state level investigation but received no cooperation from the Warren Commission In the end Carr generally endorsed the Warren Commission s findings Testimony of Bobby W Hargis Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol VI April 8 1964 pp 293 296 Archived from the original on September 25 2012 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Zapruder Film on YouTube a b Testimony of Clinton J Hill Special Agent Secret Service Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol II pp 132 144 Archived from the original on October 15 2012 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Zapruder film frames 370 Archived 2022 08 20 at the Wayback Machine 375 Archived 2009 07 04 at the Wayback Machine 380 Archived 2022 08 11 at the Wayback Machine 390 Archived 2022 08 12 at the Wayback Machine Leaming Barbara 2014 Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis The Untold Story St Martin s Press p 141 ISBN 978 1 250 01764 2 The Truth Behind JFK s Assassination Archived 2016 02 05 at the Wayback Machine by Max Holland Newsweek November 20 2014 Testimony of James Thomas Tague Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol VII July 23 1964 pp 552 558 Archived from the original on July 20 2013 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Testimony of Clyde A Haygood Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol VI April 9 1964 pp 296 302 Archived from the original on July 20 2013 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Rahn Kenneth A Sr November 2001 Up by the Triple Underpass 1 Ken and Greg s Excellent Adventure Dallas Archived from the original on November 17 2012 Retrieved November 27 2012 See photos 1 4 7 and 8 Commission Exhibit 2118 View From North Tower of Union Terminal Company Dallas Texas Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol XXIV p 548 Archived from the original on March 19 2013 Retrieved November 25 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Warren Commission Hearings Testimony of Lee E Bowers Jr Archived 2022 06 26 at the Wayback Machine Myers Dale K 2008 The Testimony of Lee Bowers Jr Secrets of a Homicide Badge Man Oak Cliff Press Archived from the original on July 21 2012 Retrieved November 26 2012 Myers Dale K September 14 2007 Lee Bowers The Man Behind the Grassy Knoll Secrets of a Homicide JFK Assassination Oak Cliff Press Archived from the original on June 6 2012 Retrieved November 26 2012 Testimony of Howard Brennan Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol III p 143 Archived from the original on July 26 2018 Retrieved January 10 2023 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Testimony of Howard Brennan Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol III p 145 Archived from the original on July 26 2018 Retrieved January 10 2023 via Assassination Archives and Research Center McAdams John November 22 1963 The JFK Assassination Dallas Police Tapes History in Real Time The Kennedy Assassination Marquette University Archived from the original on November 15 2011 Retrieved November 26 2012 Summers 2013 p 62 Photograph of Harold Norman Bonnie Ray Williams and James Jarman Jr showing their positions on the fifth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as the motorcade passed Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol XVII p 202 CE 485 Archived from the original on March 26 2022 Retrieved January 10 2023 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Testimony Of Bonnie Ray Williams mu edu Archived from the original on June 26 2022 Retrieved January 10 2023 Testimony of Harold Norman Warren Commission Hearings Archived from the original on June 26 2022 Retrieved January 10 2023 Warren Commission Hearings Testimony of Welcome Eugene Barnett Archived 2022 07 01 at the Wayback Machine Via History Matters Archive Warren Commission Hearings Testimony of Forrest V Sorrels Archived 2022 07 01 at the Wayback Machine Via History Matters Archive Not included in the 51 9 are two earwitnesses who though the shots came from the TSBD but from a lower floor or at street level and who are thus included in the 8 7 Included in the 31 7 is a witness who thought the shots came from the alcove near the benches Warren 1964 chpt 3 p 110 Warren Commission Hearings vol I pp 72 73 Testimony of Marina Oswald Archived 2017 10 27 at the Wayback Machine Testimony of Wesley Frazier Archived 2018 07 25 at the Wayback Machine Warren Commission Hearings vol 2 pp 226 227 a b Magen Knuth The Long Brown Bag Archived 2022 06 26 at the Wayback Machine Testimony of Roy Truly Archived 2017 08 08 at the Wayback Machine Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits vol 3 p 230 Testimony of Helen Markham Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol III p 307 Archived from the original on October 20 2021 Retrieved January 10 2023 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Testimony of Johnny Calvin Brewer Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol III pp 3 5 Archived from the original on January 11 2012 Retrieved January 10 2023 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Testimony of Julia Postal Warren Commission Hearings Report p 11 Archived from the original on January 11 2012 Retrieved January 10 2023 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Testimony of M N McDonald Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol III p 300 Archived from the original on October 23 2021 Retrieved January 10 2023 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Tippit murder affidavit text Archived 2011 06 29 at the Wayback Machine cover Archived 2011 06 29 at the Wayback Machine Kennedy murder affidavit text Archived 2012 02 29 at the Wayback Machine cover Archived 2019 06 27 at the Wayback Machine Via History Matters Archive Kantor Exhibit No 3 Handwritten notes made by Seth Kantor concerning events surrounding the assassination Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol XX p 366 Archived from the original on March 28 2019 Retrieved January 10 2023 via Assassination Archives and Research Center John F Kennedy Assassination Homepage Warren Commission Report Page 645 Jfk assassination de December 5 2004 Archived from the original on September 27 2010 Retrieved July 31 2010 Tom Alyea Facts and Photos Jfk online com December 19 1963 Archived from the original on July 25 2010 Retrieved July 31 2010 Addendum Report on an Examination of Photographs of the Rifle Associated with the Assassination of President John F Kennedy HSCA Appendix to Hearings Report Vol VI pp 66 107 Archived from the original on October 8 2012 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Warren 1964 chpt 4 pp 125 126 Warren 1964 chpt 4 p 129 Warren 1964 chpt 4 p 118 Warren 1964 chpt 4 p 122 Testimony of Lt J C Day Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol IV p 260 Archived from the original on July 20 2013 Retrieved November 25 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Warren 1964 chpt 4 p 124 Shaneyfelt Exhibit No 24 Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol XXI p 467 Archived from the original on July 20 2013 Retrieved November 25 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Warren 1964 chpt 3 p 79 Biographical sketch of Dr George Gregory Burkley Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery Archived from the original on January 12 2009 Retrieved April 28 2009 MD 6 White House Death Certificate Burkley 11 23 63 pg Archived from the original on July 29 2010 Retrieved July 31 2010 via History Matters Archive a b Southwestern Historical Quarterly Volume 110 Number 3 January 2007 pp 380 393 Retrieved October 20 2008 Associated Press 1963 p 15 Biographical sketch of Malcolm MacGregor Kilduff Jr Arlington National Cemetery Archived from the original on March 29 2009 Retrieved April 28 2009 Associated Press 1963 p 19 Rusk Dean 1990 Rusk Richard Papp Daniel S eds As I Saw It New York W W Norton amp Company p 296 ISBN 0 393 02650 7 Johnson Feared a Plot in Dallas The New York Times Associated Press December 24 1963 p 6 Mr Kilduff was the White House press man in charge at Dallas because Pierre Salinger the chief press secretary was traveling to Japan with members of the Cabinet Bugliosi 2007 pp 92f 93f Bugliosi 2007 pp 110 111 a b Specific considerations pertaining to the John F Kennedy autopsy Appendix to Hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U S House of Representatives Vol VII Washington D C United States Government Printing Office March 1979 pp 188 190 Archived from the original on January 10 2023 Retrieved January 10 2023 Death Certificate of John F Kennedy The Portal to Texas History November 22 1963 Archived from the original on August 31 2021 Retrieved January 10 2023 President Lyndon B Johnson takes Oath of Office 22 November 1963 Archived 19 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Retrieved September 1 2016 Associated Press 1963 pp 36 37 56 57 68 Associated Press 1963 pp 29 31 Associated Press 1963 pp 36 37 56 57 68 The New York Times 2003 pp 197 201 a b White 1965 p 16 NBC News 1966 pp 106 107 110 114 115 119 123 133 134 a b White 1965 p 17 Associated Press 1963 p 93 NBC News 1966 p 126 White 1965 p 18 Bagdikian Ben H December 14 1963 Blair Clay Jr ed The Assassin The Saturday Evening Post Philadelphia PA The Curtis Publishing Company 44 26 Official Autopsy Report of Lee Harvey Oswald The Nook An Investigation of the Assassination of John F Kennedy November 24 1963 Archived from the original on February 26 2019 Retrieved January 2 2013 Fischer Heinz D Fischer Erika J 2003 Prizes for Pictorial Journalism Areas The Pulitzer Prize Archive A History and Anthology of Award Winning Materials in Journalism Letters and Arts Vol 17 Complete Historical Handbook of the Pulitzer Prize System 1917 2000 Munich De Gruyter p 206 ISBN 978 3 11 093912 5 Testimony of Jack Ruby Warren Commission Hearings Report Vol V pp 198 200 Archived from the original on February 25 2021 Retrieved January 10 2023 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Testimony of Jack Ruby Warren Commission Hearings 5 via aarclibrary org Phil Burleson 61 Jack Ruby s Lawyer The New York Times June 1 1995 Retrieved September 19 2015 Zaid Mark James Lesar Charles Sanders November 23 1998 Zapruder Film Civil Suit Filed Assassination Research Retrieved November 27 2012 Inverne James June 11 2004 Think you know your film facts The Guardian London Retrieved May 6 2010 Pasternack Alex November 23 2012 The Other Shooter The Saddest and Most Expensive 26 Seconds of Amateur Film Ever Made Motherboard Archived from the original on November 30 2012 Retrieved June 18 2016 Finally in 1999 an arbitration panel ordered the government to pay the Zapruders 16 million to keep the original film According to the Guinness Book of World Records that works out to a record breaking 615 384 per second Friedman Rick November 30 1963 Pictures of the Assassination Fall to Amateurs on Street Editor amp Publisher 17 A World Listened and Watched PDF Broadcasting Washington D C Broadcasting Publications 36 40 46 December 2 1963 Retrieved November 27 2012 Schonfeld Maurice W July August 1975 The shadow of a gunman Columbia Journalism Review Retrieved November 27 2012 A different person than the so called Babushka Lady George Jefferies Film George Jefferies Collection Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Retrieved August 11 2019 Newly released film of JFK before assassination MSNBC NBC News Associated Press February 19 2007 Retrieved May 1 2017 a b Warren 1964 chpt 4 p 180 a b Report of Capt J W Fritz Dallas Police Department Warren Commission Hearings Report pp 599 611 Archived from the original on October 8 2012 Retrieved November 25 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Captain Will Fritz s notes of LHO interrogation JFK Lancer Productions amp Publications Archived from the original on November 30 2012 Retrieved November 25 2012 Captain Fritz told the Warren Commission that I kept no notes at the time of his several interrogations of Oswald 4 H 209 However many years later someone discovered some two and a half pages of Fritz s contemporaneous handwritten notes at the National Archives Fritz also said that several days later he wrote more extensive notes of the interrogations 4 H 209 a b c d e Warren 1964 chpt 4 pp 180 195 Reports of Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Warren Commission Hearings Report pp 612 625 Archived from the original on September 19 2012 Retrieved November 25 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center For testimony relating to the interrogation sessions see 4 H 152 153 157 Curry 4 H 207 211 217 221 231 239 240 Fritz 4 H 355 357 Winston Lawson 4 H 466 470 James Hosty Jr 7 H 123 127 Elmer Boyd 7 H 164 182 Sims 7 H 309 318 James Bookhout 7 H 320 321 Manning Clements 13 H 58 62 Sorrels 7 H 590 Kelley 7 H 296 306 Holmes CE 1982 Associated Press 1963 p 16 Baluch Jerry T November 30 1963 Warren Heads Probe into Assassination Pittsburgh Post Gazette Associated Press Roberts Chalmers M September 28 1964 Warren Report Says Oswald Acted Alone Raps FBI Secret Service The Washington Post p A1 Lewis Anthony September 27 1964 Warren Commission Finds Oswald Guilty and Says Assassin and Ruby Acted Alone The New York Times p 1 Archived from the original on February 9 2018 Retrieved January 11 2023 Pomfret John D September 28 1964 Commission Says Ruby Acted Alone in Slaying The New York Times p 17 Findings National Archives August 15 2016 Archived from the original on October 27 2017 Retrieved January 11 2023 a b Beschloss Michael R 1997 Taking Charge The Johnson White House Tapes 1963 1964 New York Simon amp Schuster ISBN 0 684 80407 7 National Archives Deputy Archivist Dr Robert H Bahmer interview in New York Herald Tribune December 18 1964 p 24 Bugliosi 2007 pp 136 137 1968 Panel Review of Photographs X Ray Films Documents and Other Evidence Pertaining to the Fatal Wounding of President John F Kennedy on November 22 1963 in Dallas Texas Archived June 26 2022 at the Wayback Machine It was also the first report to note a round fragment measuring 6 5 mm in diameter visible in the X rays McAdams s Kennedy Assassination Home Page Index Archived from the original on July 7 2007 Retrieved February 25 2006 Table of Contents Rockefeller Commission Report Report Archived from the original on November 28 2021 Retrieved November 26 2012 via Assassination Archives and Research Center McAdams John E Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis Were Watergate Conspirators Also JFK Assassins The Kennedy Assassination Marquette University Archived from the original on June 3 2004 Retrieved November 26 2012 Book V The Investigation of the Assassination of President J F K Performance of the Intelligence Agencies Church Committee Reports Report p 7 Archived from the original on May 18 2011 Retrieved February 6 2011 via Assassination Archives and Research Center Stokes 1979 pp 9 16 a b Stokes 1979 p 2 Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics National Research Council 1982 doi 10 17226 10264 ISBN 978 0 309 25372 7 Archived from the original on December 6 2013 Retrieved November 11 2013 a b Letter from Assistant Attorney General William F Weld to Peter W Rodino Jr undated PDF Retrieved October 19 2014 Stokes 1979 pp 2 3 Stokes 1979 pp 239 261 Stokes 1979 pp 483 511 Council National Research 1982 Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics doi 10 17226 10264 ISBN 978 0 309 25372 7 Archived from the original on March 14 2022 Retrieved January 11 2023 1 The Problem of Secrecy and the Solution of the JFK Act Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board September 1998 Archived from the original on April 9 2015 Retrieved January 11 2023 Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board Chapter 4 Fas org May 30 2008 Archived from the original on April 30 2011 Retrieved July 31 2010 Assassination Records Review Board Unlocking the Government s Secret Files on the Murder of a President Mcadams posc mu edu Archived from the original on November 15 2011 Retrieved July 31 2010 Washingtonpost com JFK Assassination Report www washingtonpost com Archived from the original on April 29 2020 Retrieved January 11 2023 Oliver Stone JFK conspiracy deniers are in denial USA Today Archived from the original on November 22 2013 Retrieved January 11 2023 JFK Assassination Kennedy s Head Wound mcadams posc mu edu Archived from the original on June 26 2022 Retrieved January 11 2023 Clarifying the Federal Record on the Zapruder Film and the Medical and Ballistics Evidence Federation of American Scientists Archived from the original on February 24 2021 Retrieved January 11 2023 Bender Bryan November 25 2013 Troves of files on JFK assassination remain secret The Boston Globe Archived from the original on February 11 2015 Retrieved February 12 2015 a b Trump has no plan to block scheduled release of JFK records Winston Salem Journal Associated Press October 21 2017 Archived from the original on October 22 2017 Retrieved October 21 2017 Bugliosi 2007 End Notes p 147 Pruitt Sarah Trump Holds Some JFK Assassination Files Back Sets New 3 Year Deadline HISTORY Archived from the original on April 26 2020 Retrieved January 11 2023 National Archives Releases JFK Assassination Records October 26 2017 Archived from the original on April 22 2020 Retrieved January 11 2023 Matza Max December 15 2022 Thousands of unedited government JFK assassination files released BBC Archived from the original on December 19 2022 Retrieved December 19 2022 Assassination Records Review Board September 30 1998 Chapter 1 The Problem of Secrecy and the JFK Act PDF Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board Washington D C United States Government Printing Office p 6 Retrieved June 10 2015 Nicholson Baker How JFK got shot The Baffler July 2014 Summers Anthony 2013a Six Options for History Not in Your Lifetime New York Open Road p 238 ISBN 978 1 4804 3548 3 Archived from the original on November 1 2013 Majority in U S Still Believe JFK Killed in a Conspiracy Mafia federal government top list of potential conspirators Gallup Inc November 15 2013 Archived from the original on August 1 2016 Lydia Saad November 21 2003 Americans Kennedy Assassination a Conspiracy Gallup Inc Patterson Thom November 18 2013 One JFK conspiracy theory that could be true CNN Shahid M Shahidullah Crime Policy in America Laws Institutions and Programs 2015 p 94 Brinkley David 2003 Brinkley s Beat People Places and Events That Shaped My Time New York Knopf ISBN 978 0 375 40644 7 White 1965 p 6 Dinneen Joseph F November 24 1963 A Shock Like Pearl Harbor The Boston Globe p 10 permanent dead link via Boston Globe Archive subscription required United in Remembrance Divided over Policies September 1 2011 Lawson Mark October 27 2017 The best books about the JFK assassination from Norman Mailer to Don DeLillo The Guardian Retrieved January 11 2023 a b Keen Judy November 20 2009 JFK relics stir strong emotions USA Today Retrieved November 20 2009 The Catafalque History of Capitol Hill Architect of the Capitol Retrieved November 26 2012 Dealey Plaza Historic District National Historic Landmarks Program National Park Service Archived from the original on November 13 2012 Retrieved November 26 2012 Q Why is it called The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Frequently Asked Questions Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Archived from the original on November 17 2012 Retrieved November 26 2012 John F Kennedy Memorial Plaza Historical Marker www hmdb org Documents State JFK s Dallas Coffin Disposed At Sea JFK Lancer Independent News Exchange Archived from the original on September 22 2012 Retrieved October 2 2012 Goldberg Barbara December 26 1991 Jack Ruby s Gun Sold For 220 000 Associated Press Retrieved February 15 2013 Further readingThe Torch Is Passed The Associated Press Story of the Death of a President New York Associated Press Associated Press 1963 LCCN 64001351 Brandimarte Cynthia A Review The Sixth Floor John F Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation Journal of American History 78 1 1991 pp 268 274 online Bugliosi Vincent 2007 Reclaiming History The Assassination of President John F Kennedy New York Norton ISBN 978 0 393 04525 3 Eder Elizabeth Memory of a Nation Effectively Using Artworks to Teach about the Assassination of President John F Kennedy Social Education November December 2011 pp 296 300 online George Alice The assassination of John F Kennedy political trauma and American memory Routledge 2012 Gunzenhauser Randi History and the Assassination of John F Kennedy Amerikastudien American Studies 43 1 1998 pp 75 91 online Kelin John 2007 Praise from a Future Generation The Assassination of John F Kennedy and the First Generation Critics of the Warren Report foreword by H C Nash San Antonio TX Wings Press ISBN 978 0 916727 32 1 Manchester William 1967 The Death of a President November 20 November 25 1963 New York Harper amp Row LCCN 67010496 NBC News 1966 There Was a President New York Random House The New York Times 2003 Semple Robert B Jr ed Four days in November New York St Martin s Press Stokes Louis 1979 Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U S House of Representatives Washington D C United States Government Printing Office Sturdivan Larry M 2005 The JFK Myths A Scientific Investigation of the Kennedy Assassination St Paul MN Paragon House ISBN 978 1 55778 847 4 Summers Anthony 2013 Not in Your Lifetime New York Open Road ISBN 978 1 4804 3548 3 Archived from the original on March 31 2018 Retrieved June 22 2020 Thompson Josiah 1967 Six Seconds in Dallas A Micro Study of the Kennedy Assassination New York Bernard Geis Associates LCCN 67023577 Trask Richard B 1994 Pictures of the Pain Photography and the Assassination of President Kennedy Danvers Mass Yeoman Press ISBN 978 0 9638595 0 1 Warren Earl 1964 Report of the President s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy Washington D C United States Government Printing Office White Theodore H 1965 The Making of the President 1964 New York Atheneum Publishers LCCN 65018328 United Press International American Heritage 1964 Four Days The Historical Record of the Death of President Kennedy American Heritage Publishing Company Appendix 13 Biography of Lee Harvey Oswald Report of the President s Commission on the Assassination of President John F Kennedy Washington D C United States Government Printing Office 1964 pp 697 699 Chapter 4 The Assassin Report of the President s Commission on the Assassination of President John F Kennedy Washington D C United States Government Printing Office 1964 p 191 External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Assassination of John F Kennedy The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza The President John F Kennedy Assassination Records Collection National Archives and Records Administration JFK Assassination A look back at the death of President John F Kennedy 50 years ago CBS News November 22 1963 Death of the President John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum JFK One PM Central Standard Time documentary produced by PBS The Assassination of President Kennedy radio documentary by Mike Swickey Weisberg Collection on the JFK Assassination Internet Archive LIFE Magazine Nov 25 1966 John F Kennedy Assassination Collection finding aid at University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Special Collections via Texas Archival Resources Online TARO Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Assassination of John F Kennedy amp oldid 1133301229, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.