John F. Kennedy assassination
The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 PM Central time (18:30 UTC). Kennedy was fatally wounded by multiple gunshots while riding in a presidential motorcade within Dealey Plaza.
Two official investigations have concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was involved as an assassin, with one investigation concluding that Oswald acted alone, and one investigation concluding he acted with, at least, one other person.
Background to the Texas trip
Kennedy had chosen to visit Dallas on 22 November for three main reasons: to help raise more Democratic Party presidential campaign fund contributions in advance of the November 1964 presidential election; to begin his quest for re-election; and, because the Kennedy-Johnson ticket had barely won Texas in 1960 he wanted to help mend political fences among several leading Texas Democratic party members who appeared to be fighting politically amongst themselves.
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Timeline of the assassination
Main article: Detailed timetable of the assassination
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It was planned that he would go from the Love Field airport in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza to give a speech at the Dallas Trade and Mart in downtown Dallas. The car in which he was traveling was a 1961 Lincoln Continental, open-top, modified limousine. Riding with Kennedy in the limousine were: First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy; Texas Governor John Connally, Sr., and his wife, Nellie; Secret Service agent and White House Detail Team #3 Assistant in Charge, Roy Kellerman; and Secret Service agent and limousine driver Bill Greer. The limousine was not equipped with a bulletproof top (plans for such a top were presented in October 1963), and no presidential car with a bulletproof top existed in 1963. (FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, however, had three bulletproofed cars.)
Throughout Dallas, and especially along the motorcade route, several groups critical of Kennedy expressed their views and distributed a handout flyer. There was a spattering of handmade protest signs held aloft by motorcade viewers. Also, in a November 22 Dallas newspaper there appeared a black-bordered, full-page advertisement paid for by Kennedy critics.
The assassination itself
The presidential motorcade traveled nearly its entire route without incident, stopping twice so Kennedy could shake hands with some Catholic nuns, then, some school children. Shortly before the limousine turned onto Main Street a male ran towards the limousine, but was thrust to the ground by a Secret Service agent and hustled away. Just before 12:30 PM CST (18:30 UTC), Kennedy slowly approached the Texas School Book Depository head-on, then the limousine slowly turned the 120-degrees directly in front of the depository, now only 65 feet (20 meters) away.
When the limousine had passed the depository President Kennedy was shot at for an estimated 6 to 9 seconds. During the assassination the limousine is measured to have slowed from over thirteen miles per hour to only nine m.p.h. The Warren Commission later concluded that the first of three shots missed the motorcade, that the second went through JFK and also injured Connally, and that the third hit JFK in the head. Nearly all agree that Kennedy was hit with at least two bullets, and was killed when struck in his head.
There was hardly any reaction to the supposed first shot, most later saying they thought they had heard a firecracker. Only after Governor Connally was injured and had screamed, "No, no, no. They are going to kill us all!" did the gravity of the situation become clear to the Secret Service limousine driver, Bill Greer. During the attack Greer had turned very quickly to look, behind him and towards the screaming governor and/or President, then turned forward again. He then turned very quickly again rearward (the limousine brake-lights were filmed illuminating at this point), and driver Greer was the only occupant of the limousine actually facing the president when Kennedy suffered the fatal head shot.
When President Kennedy was struck in his head, it moved slightly forward and down 1 to 2 inches (25 to 50 mm) as blood, brain matter, and skull particles simultaneously sprayed explosively forward and upward. The cause of what happened next is one of several considerations that has kept the investigation going for so many people for so long. After a 0.11 second pause, President Kennedy's upper right torso and right arm moved quickly upwards, and then his entire body moved quickly backwards (towards the depository) and leftwards (away from the grassy knoll), until the President bounced off the rear seat vertical cushion slumping leftward towards his wife.
Only after Kennedy was mortally wounded did the limousine then speed up to exit Dealey Plaza to proceed to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Others who were wounded
Texas Governor John Bowden Connally, Sr., riding in the same limousine in front of the president, was also critically injured but survived. His injuries occurred a split second after JFK's first injury. Doctors have stated that his wife's pulling him onto her helped cover up his sucking-air front chest wound and saved his life.
James Tague, a spectator and witness to the assassination, also received a minor gunshot-caused wound to his right facial cheek while standing 270 feet (82 meters) in front of where Kennedy was hit.
Recordings of the assassination
No radio or television stations broadcast the assassination live, as the area the motorcade was traveling through was not considered important enough to broadcast. KBOX-AM did recreate the sounds of the shooting for an LP record it released with excerpts of news coverage of that day, but it was not an original recording. Except for the media positioned at the rear of the motorcade, most media crews were in fact waiting, in anticipation for Kennedy's arrival, at the Trade Mart.
However, Kennedy's last seconds of life through Dealey Plaza were recorded on silent 8mm film in the 26.6 seconds before, during, and immediately following the assassination by amateur cameraman Abraham Zapruder, in what became known as the Zapruder film. Depending on the study, this film has been used to prove that Oswald was the sole assassin of Kennedy, or that another gunman or gunmen must have been involved. Although the film graphically depicts the assassination and does provide important clues to the assassination, it also provides some clues that are not agreed upon. There were also some twenty other known (and still unknown) persons taking photos and shooting film within the plaza.
For several minutes before, during, and after the assassination a Dallas police motorcycleman's radio microphone was stuck in the "transmit" position and was recorded back at the police radio dispatcher's room on a Dictabelt. The Dictabelt evidence, even today, is still receiving on-going scientific studies, and is covered in a separate section.
Kennedy declared dead
Personnel at Parkland Hospital trauma room # 1 who treated Kennedy observed that his condition was "moribund," meaning, he had no chance of survival upon arrival at the hospital. "We never had any hope of saving his life," one doctor said. The priest who administered the last rites to Kennedy told The New York Times that he was already dead upon the priest's arrival at the hospital and the priest had to draw back a sheet covering his face to perform the sacrament of extreme unction. JFK's death was officially announced some time later, at 1:38 PM CST. Governor Connally, meanwhile, was soon taken to emergency surgery where he underwent two operations that day.
A few minutes after 2:00 PM CST (20:00 UTC), and after a ten to fifteen minute confrontation with cursing and weapons-brandishing Secret Service agents, Kennedy's body was taken from Parkland Hospital and driven to Air Force One. The body was removed before undergoing a forensic examination by the Dallas coroner, and against Texas state laws (the murder was a state crime, and legally occurred under Texas jurisdiction).
Although Lyndon B. Johnson had automatically become President of the United States upon Kennedy's death, he took the oath of office onboard Air Force One before it departed Love Field. After Air Force One landed just outside Washington, D.C., Kennedy's body was taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital for an autopsy. The autopsy was conducted by three military doctors and witnessed by over thirty military men. Two FBI men have since revealed that Kennedy had a large wound on the right side of his head, another wound 5.5" below his suit coat collar top just to the right of his spine, and a third wound centered in the front of his throat at the bottom edge of his Adam's Apple. Several photos and x-rays were captured during the autopsy (several of which have disappeared from the official record).
Autopsy photos
The autopsy photos are graphic. If you decide to view them, along with the skull x-rays, and medical drawings prepared by the Assassination Records and Review Board when it took testimonies from the Parkland Hospital medical witnesses, they are available here (http://www.jfklancer.com/MDsmall.html) and here (http://www.jfklancer.com/Backes.html)
Reaction to the assassination
Main article: Reaction to the assassination of John F. Kennedy
The news of Kennedy's murder shocked the world. In New York, men and women wept openly. So many phone calls were placed in the New York phone exchange that operators were eventually forced to refuse calls. People instinctively clustered in department stores (to catch TV coverage) and others prayed. Auto traffic in some areas came to a halt as the news of Kennedy's death spread literally from car to car. An unguided fury against 'Texas and Texans' was reported from some individuals. In Washington D.C., at 1:43 PM (12:43 Dallas time, just minutes after the attack (18:43 UTC)) the telephone system service was overloaded and sporadic for 59 minutes.
After the Bethesda Naval Hospital autopsy, Kennedy's body was prepared by morticians for burial then returned to the White House and placed in the East Room for 24 hours. The next day, Kennedy's flag-draped mahogany casket was taken to the Capitol rotunda to lie in state. Throughout the day and night, an estimated 250,000 people, some waiting in near-freezing temperatures for as long as 10 hours in a line that stretched 40 blocks up to 10 persons wide, personally paid their respects and expressed their grief as President Kennedy's body lay in state.
Hastily organized memorial services for President Kennedy were held worldwide. The U.S. government declared a day of national mourning and sorrow was declared for the day of Kennedy's state funeral, Monday, November 25, also known as the "day of drums." The funeral was attended by 220 foreign dignitaries from 92 countries, including 19 heads of state and government and members of royal families. After the service, the casket was taken by caisson to Arlington National Cemetery for burial.
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested eighty minutes after the assassination for killing a Dallas police officer and charged with killing Kennedy late that evening. Two days later while in police custody, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner who, like many in his profession at that time, had some documented ties to organized crime figures.
74 to 90 seconds after the last shot, Oswald was confronted in the second floor lunchroom of the Texas School Book Depository building by an armed Dallas policeman, Marion Baker, who first testified that the shots he remembered hearing as he approached the depository originated from the "building in front of me, or, the one to the right". Oswald was identified by the superintendent of the building, Roy Truly. Both Baker and Truly testified that Oswald appeared completely "calm, cool, normal, and was not out of breath in any way." In Baker's written statement he originally wrote that Oswald already had a Coca-Cola in his hand, but sometime during the 5 months after he first testified, the Baker statement about Oswald holding a Coca-Cola was lined-out and Baker's initials were written in above the lineout.
Oswald went back to his rented room where he retrieved a handgun and set out on foot for a destination that has never been determined. By this time a plaza assassin description was being broadcast to patrol officers across Dallas. Officer JD Tippet was shot to death beside his squad car after confronting Oswald, who then fled to a movie theater (ducking into a store alcove as police cars sped by him), which he entered without buying a ticket. A suspicious merchant alerted a theater employee. Called to the theater, the police approached Oswald, who resisted arrest, attempted to shoot another officer and after a brief but violent struggle was placed in custody. That evening he was charged with Tippet's murder and later charged with murdering Kennedy. During two days of incarceration Oswald consistently denied shooting anyone and was famously quoted, "I'm just a patsy." He was never tried. Two days after Kennedy's assassination Lee Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas police jail while the accused assasin was being escorted in handcuffs to a car for transport to the nearby county jail.
Official investigations
Dallas Police
After arresting Oswald and collecting physical evidence at the crime scenes, Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry was ordered at 10:30 PM cst on 11-22-63 by, in his words, "people in Washington" to send all of the physical evidence found, but not Oswald, to the FBI headquarters.
FBI investigation
The FBI was the first authority to complete an official investigation. On December 9, 1963, only 17 days after the assassination, the FBI report was issued and given to the Warren Commission while the FBI was still the primary investigating authority for the commission. The FBI stated that only three bullets were fired during the assassination; that the first shot hit President Kennedy, the second shot hit Governor Connally, and the third shot hit President Kennedy in the head, killing him. The FBI stated that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all three shots.
The Warren Commission
Main article: Warren Commission
The first official investigation of the assassination, dubbed informally the Warren Commission, was created by President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 29, 1963 after a week of calls by the US Senate, Congress and state of Texas, and Texas Rangers for individual investigations. The commission was headed by Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States.
In late September 1964, after a 10 month investigation and about 5 weeks before the Presidential election, the Warren Commission Report was published. It stated that only three bullets were fired during the assassination, and that Lee Harvey Oswald fired all three bullets from the Texas School Book Depository. The theory that Oswald acted alone is also informally called the lone gunman theory. The commission's determination was that one bullet hit President Kennedy in the neck, one bullet hit somewhere outside of the large limousine, and one bullet, the longest shot, struck President Kennedy in the head when he was 265.3 feet (80.9 meters) away. It noted that three empty shells were found in the sixth floor sniper's nest in the book depository (and one live bullet had been chambered and left within the rifle), and the rifle was found on the sixth floor balanced unsupported on its bottom edges.
Rather than introduce more than three fired bullets, the Commission was persuaded (by 4 to 3) that the same bullet that wounded President Kennedy twice, also caused Governor Connally's five bones-breaking wounds. This theory has become known as the single bullet theory. This single bullet then backed out of Connally's left thigh and was found in nearly pristine condition.
The Commission also reported that it could not find any persuasive evidence of a domestic or foreign conspiracy involving any other person(s), group(s), or country(ies). None of the 10 month proceedings of the commission members, were made public as they occurred. All files of the Warren Commission were sealed away from public view for 75 years (until 2039) by executive order of President Lyndon B. Johnson only weeks before the 1964 presidential election.
The Warren Commission's Report, chapter 8, details flaws in Secret Service security at the time of the assassination. Procedures in place and not in place combined with events of the day presented security lapses that enabled the assassination. These included:
- Not telling Dallas police, specifically, whom 'authorized personnel' were, to stand on bridges or overpasses
- Not having in place the policy of searching all buildings, windows, and roof tops surrounding the path of a motorcade
- Not properly/thoroughly checking the backgrounds of those in potential close contact with the President and those who were potential threats to the President - that program was new and undermanned in 1963
- Assuming that security measures taken in a 1936 Roosevelt visit to Dallas could be used to model Kennedy's visit
- Generally insufficient personnel to accomplish the task at hand of planning and executing the motorcade
- Incomplete coordination of information between US and local law enforcement bodies
- Not having a car with a bulletproof top available for the president (one had been proposed in October 1963 but had not been acted upon, and no such car had existed for the White House since 1953 because such a car would have a top difficult to add and remove on demand)
- Allowing the President enough leeway within security plans that put him in harm's way
- Letting the motorcade slow down dramatically at several turns - which probably gave ample times for shots
The House Select Committee on Assassinations
Main articles: House Select Committee on Assassinations, Dictabelt evidence relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy
An official investigation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, from 1976 to 1979 concluded that four bullets were fired during the assassination and that President Kennedy "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." This conclusion was based in part, but not entirely upon, the scientific analysis of a Dallas Police radio channel recorded Dictabelt tape captured during the assassination by a motorcade Dallas police motorcycle escort officer's stuck-open radio microphone. The HSCA concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the first, second, and fourth bullets, and that there was a 95% probability that an unnamed second assassin fired the third bullet from President Kennedy's right front from a location concealed behind the grassy knoll picket fence, 9' to the west of the picket fence east corner (exactly where an image is seen in the Moorman #5 polaroid photo captured at Zf-315 to 316, but not seen seconds later). The HSCA's test firings within Dealey Plaza in 1978 also acoustically matched this same grassy knoll fence location 9' to the west of the picket fence east corner where several witnesses claimed to observe gun smoke.
Summary of other evidence
Shots Sequencing and Origins
There were approximately 700 bystanders, witnesses, and motorcade witnesses within Dealey Plaza throughout the assassination. Of 267 identified witnesses who expressed or were asked the number of shots they recalled hearing, 249 (93%) claimed to hear only 3 shots (or 3 closely spaced volleys of shots), or fewer.
Of 207 witnesses who expressed or were asked from where the shots they remembered hearing originated from 34 could not tell (16%), 63 heard all shots they remembered hearing come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area of the depository (31%), and 110 witnesses remembered hearing at least one shot that did not come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area (53%). Therefore, of the 173 persons who stated a specific opinion of the shots locations, 64% remembered hearing at least one shot that did not come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area, while 36% heard all shots they remembered hearing come from the depository or the Houston/Elm intersection area of the depository.
Witnesses
Main articles: Testimony of the witnesses to the assassination of John F. Kennedy
On November 22, and in the months and years following President Kennedy's assassination, many witnesses in Dealey Plaza at that moment have come forward or have been identified and have stated their observations about what happened during the crucial seconds of the attack. Many witnesses were known to investigators, but some were never called by the investigators to describe what they observed. Many witnesses photographed at the scene (including several photographers and film-makers) are still unknown and have chosen to not come forward or have died.
The details of the events described by the identified witnesses match in many respects but there are also conflicting details between information described by the witnesses. Some witnesses have also described details that no other witness has yet described. Among the important witness considerations were:
- The gunshots reactions of all limousine occupants relative to each other during the assassination and relative to what each limousine occupant testified they saw, heard, and felt during the assassination.
- How many audible muzzle blasts a witness remembered hearing.
- Where the audible muzzle blasts a witness remembered hearing originated from.
- The identities of two armed men and at least one other man seen on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
- The identities of other potential witnesses, photographers, filmers and/or other located assassins and/or co-conspirators.
Conspiracy Theories
Main article: Kennedy assassination theories
Many people dispute the claim that Oswald was an assassin, or, the sole assassin. Investigations, scientific testing, and recreations into the circumstances of John F. Kennedy's death have not, in the American public's view, settled the question of who plotted to kill him. A 2003 "ABC tv news" poll showed that only 32 percent (plus or minus 3 percent) of Americans who expressed a view believe that Oswald acted alone in the assassination of John F. Kennedy [1] (http://abcnews.go.com/images/pdf/937a1JFKAssassination.pdf); a "Discovery Channel" poll revealed that only 21% believe Oswald acted alone. [2] (http://poll.discovery.com/servlet/viewsflash?jfk=6&cmd=tally&pollid=jfk&results=data%2Fdsc%2Fpackage%2Fjfk.results.html&submit.x=51&submit.y=6); a "History Channel" poll gave a figure of 17%. [3] (http://www.historychannel.com/jfk/jfk_poll_results.jsp)
Unreleased documents
As of June 2004 tens of thousands of pages of documents remain classified and sealed away from the public's availability and research:
- 3+% of all Warren Commission documents
- 21+% of the House Select Committee on Assassinations documents
- An undeterminable percentage of CIA, FBI, secret service, National Security Agency, State Department, U.S. Marine Corps, Naval Investigative Service, Defense Investigative Service, and many other U.S. governmental documents.
Additionally, several key pieces of evidence and documentation are known to have been cleaned, destroyed or are missing from the original chain-of-evidence (limousine cleaned out at hospital, Connally's suit dry-cleaned, Oswald's military file destroyed, President Kennedy's brain not accounted for, Connally's "Stetson" hat and shirt sleeve gold cufflink missing, forensic autopsy photos missing, etc.)
All assassination related documents that have not been destroyed are scheduled, according to the 1992 Assassinations Records Review Board laws, to be released to the public by 2017 (originally the Warren Commission documentations were sealed just before the 1964 presidential election against public availability by President Johnson until 2039)
On May 19, 2044, the 50th anniversary of the death of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, if her last child has died, there will be a 500-page transcript of an oral history about John F. Kennedy given by Mrs. Kennedy before her 1994 death released for the public by the Kennedy library.
See Also
External links
If the reader decides to research the assassination further, there are tens of 1000's of internet links available relating to the assassination, the official investigations conclusions and theories, evidence, forensic tests, re-creative tests, witnesses, the principal and secondary persons involved, and professionally-qualified and amateur researchers opinions and theories on personal websites widely available on the internet using key search words contained within this article.
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