assassination of John F Kennedy Friday
November 22nd 1963 John F Kennedy served
as president during the height of the
Cold War during his presidency he saw
the increase of military spending on
both nuclear and conventional forces and
increased the number of US advisors in
Vietnam from 400 to 16,000 the Bay of
Pigs fiasco the failure of 1,400 Cuban
exiles trained by the CIA to invade
their own country began at the start of
his presidency then there was the Cuban
Missile Crisis resulting in the USSR and
the USA is signing the test ban treaty
forbidding nuclear testing in the
atmosphere it also established the
hotline a direct telephone contact
between the White House and the Kremlin
during Kennedy's time in office the
Berlin wall was built by the Soviets in
order to stop refugees from fleeing from
East Germany to West Germany in Berlin
he delivered a speech challenging Soviet
oppression and gave hope to the people
of the city but in the winter of 1963
the presidency of John F Kennedy would
be tragically cut short
on November 21st 1963 President John F
Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline departed
on Air Force One for a two-day five-city
tour of Texas he was to announce his
candidacy for the 1964 presidential
elections there because Texas was vital
for his re-election Texans needed to be
convinced as the state was largely not
in favor of Kennedy's civil rights
policies and handling of foreign
policies like the Bay of Pigs fiasco the
feuding among Democratic Party leaders
there also hindered his chances of
reelection and they needed to be brought
together the next morning on November
22nd Kennedy made a speech to a large
crowd outside the hotel that he had
stayed in at Fort Worth and then made
another speech inside at a breakfast
hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce
he would say in the last speech he would
ever make this is a very dangerous and
uncertain world we would like to live as
we once lived but history will not
permit it the presidential party left
the Texas hotel and went by motorcade to
Carswell Air Force Base boarding Air
Force One landing at Dallas Love Field
Airport a short time later President
Kennedy and his wife shook hands with an
enthusiastic crowd and sat in the back
seats of their limousine as part of the
motorcade Democratic Texas Governor John
Connally and his wife were seated in the
seats in front of them in front of these
seats were two Secret Service agents the
president's next stop was the Dallas
Trade Mart approximately ten miles away
where Kennedy was scheduled to deliver
another speech it's estimated that about
200,000 people lined the route to the
Trade Mart the limousine the president
was traveling in was an open-top 1961
Lincoln Continental four-door
convertible limousine that was called
the SS 100 X by the Secret Service
the motorcade moved through Dealey Plaza
in downtown Dallas Nellie Connolly the
first lady of Texas turned around to the
president who was sitting behind her and
commented mr. president you can't say
Dallas doesn't love you
which President Kennedy acknowledged by
saying no you certainly can't those were
the last words ever spoken by John F
Kennedy at 12:30 p.m. the motorcade was
passing the grassy knoll to the north of
Elm Street and moving towards the Texas
School Book Depository then gunshots
were heard a bullet hit President
Kennedy's neck and hit governor Connally
shoulder and wrist a second shot then
hit President Kennedy in the head
covering the limousines rear interior
with fragments of skull blood and brain
the impact was so severe that blood and
fragments even landed on the Secret
Service car that was following behind
the limousine sped off to Parkland
Memorial Hospital within minutes but it
was already too late and doctors efforts
were in vain
Kennedy was declared dead at 1:00 p.m.
Connally would recover from his wounds
the country and the world was in shock
President Kennedy's body was taken from
Parkland Hospital to Love Field and
loaded onto Air Force One at 2:38 p.m.
sheltered on board Air Force One in case
of further assassination attempts lyndon
b johnson took the oath of office with
jacqueline kennedy by his side still
wearing her blood-spattered clothes the
oath was administered by US District
Court Judge Sarah Hughes less than an
hour earlier a person had been arrested
by the police witnesses had reported
hearing and seeing shots from different
directions but several accounts
mentioned the southeast corner window on
the sixth floor of the Texas schoolbook
depository building only two employees
from the building were missing one who
had walked outside and wasn't allowed
back into the building by police at the
time of the shooting and another Lee
Harvey Oswald would only been working
there for a month he had been seen and
described by the witnesses who saw him
in the sixth floor window so a
description was sent out by the police
as he moved down the floors he was
encountered by Dallas Police Officer
Marion L Baker who had his gun drawn he
was allowed to pass however because
Oswald's supervisor identified him as an
employee Oswald had slipped out of the
book
taury after the shooting and walked
several blocks caught a city bus and
then hailed a taxi and took him straight
to his boardinghouse there he picked up
a pistol and a coat and began to walk
aimlessly Oswalt had already left the
scene on a bus to his boarding house by
12:40 p.m. but the police did discover a
rifle underneath some boxes and its
shells by the window on the 6th floor as
witnesses had described the police
identified it as a 7.65 Mouser but later
the FBI announced that the police were
mistaken and the rifle was an Italian
Carcano m91 38 bolt-action rifle the
second-hand Italian made Carcano rifle
had been purchased by Oswalt earlier in
the year
under the alias a Hydell the Carcano was
a notoriously inaccurate weapon and for
many it's hard to believe that with such
a weapon oswald
despite his former military training
could hit a moving target like the
president twice with such precision at a
range of approximately 250 feet shortly
afterwards a dallas policeman by the
name of JD Tippit
was patrolling his usual area and saw a
man who fitted the Oswald description on
the corner of 10th Street and Patton
Avenue after a brief exchange of words
Oswald shot tip at four times with a 38
revolver killing him in front of
witnesses
Oswald ran to the nearby commercial
street of Jefferson Boulevard a man
named Johnny Calvin brewer noticed his
suspicious behavior and followed Oswald
for several blocks to the Texas theater
Oswald ducked there without buying a
ticket Brewer hailed the police officer
Nick McDonald who entered the theater
accompanied by another officer both
officers apprehended Oswald on the stage
of the Texas theater six blocks away
from the scene of the crime
1:50 p.m. what Oswald was arrested he
was carrying a forged identity card
bearing the name Alec J Hydell the alias
he used to buy the rifle however Texas
law imposed no control over the purchase
of weapons there was no reason to buy it
under an assumed name so why did as Walt
buy the rifle and a handgun by
mail-order under his assumed name
curiously army intelligence was known to
have a file on AJ Hidell the contents of
which were destroyed before it could be
acquired by investigators on Sunday
morning November 24th after being held
for two nights
Oswald was being transferred from city
jail to the County Jail
the event was being broadcast live on TV
from millions of Americans to see
suddenly out of nowhere a man shot a
pistol point-blank at Oswald who died
two hours later at Parkland Memorial
Hospital
the man who fired the pistol was Jack
Ruby a local nightclub owner he said
that he killed Oswald to spare mrs.
Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back
to trial the state funeral for President
Kennedy was held on November 25th 1963
with representatives from more than 100
countries and millions of viewers
watching it on television on November
29th 1963 president lyndon b johnson
created the President's Commission on
the assassination of President John F
Kennedy also known as the Warren
Commission after its chairman Earl
Warren Chief Justice of the United
States
it's 888 page final report was presented
to Johnson on September 24th 1964 the
Warren report concluded that Oswald who
had become a skilled marksman as a
Marine had fired three shots one that
entered Kennedy's neck and exited
through his throat before hitting
Connally one that hit Kennedy in the
back of the head the fatal shot and one
that missed the president ricocheted off
a piece of sidewalk which injured James
take many disagreed with these findings
and argued instead that there had been a
second shooter on the grassy knoll in
Dealey Plaza that the motorcade had been
approaching and there were witnesses who
thought they had heard shots coming from
the direction of a rim
Road beyond the Knoll the report however
concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald and
Jack Ruby had acted alone although the
findings of the Warren Commission
continued to be controversial
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