The President Killed the headlines read 44 years ago. It just seems like this happened just yesterday. It's still so vivid in my mind although I was only 15 then and a sophomore in high school. I still remember we were in English class when the news arrived on that day of November 22, 1963. I recall during the mourning period of our president's death, all rock 'n roll music ceased on the radio stations and classic music was played. Does anybody else recall that? The assassination of President Kennedy was the top news story of the 1960s decade.
President and Mrs. Kennedy were in Dallas, Texas, trying to win support in a state that Kennedy had barely carried in 1960. On his way to a luncheon in downtown Dallas, Kennedy and his wife sat in an open convertible at the head of a motorcade. Lyndon Johnson was two cars behind the president, and Texas Governor John B. Connally and his wife were sitting with the Kennedys. The large crowds were enthusiastic.
As the motorcade approached an underpass, three shots were fired in rapid succession. One bullet passed through the president’s neck and struck Governor Connally in the back. A second bullet struck the president in the head; a third one missed the motorcade. Kennedy fell forward, and his car sped to Parkland Hospital. At 1:00 pm Central Time, he was pronounced dead. He had never regained consciousness.
Less than two hours after the shooting, aboard the presidential plane at the Dallas airport, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States.
The Assassin
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested after the assassination on November 22, 1963, but was killed before standing trial.
Oswald was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, two months after the death of his father. As a child, Oswald was often in trouble and, according to a psychiatrist, was emotionally disturbed. Oswald dropped out of school at the age of 17 and joined the United States Marine Corps. In 1959 he was discharged from the Marines at his request. He then defected to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but was denied citizenship there. Oswald returned to the United States in 1962 with his Soviet-born wife, Marina, and their daughter. The Oswalds moved to Fort Worth, Texas, in June 1962. In October of that year, Oswald took a job at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. On November 22, 1963, a gunman from the sixth floor of this building fired three shots into President Kennedy's motorcade, killing Kennedy and injuring Texas Governor John B. Connally. Oswald was arrested at a movie theater just over an hour later. Oswald was also accused of killing police officer J. D. Tippit, who had been shot shortly after the president's assassination. On November 24, as police were moving him from the city jail to the county jail before a national television audience, Oswald was fatally shot by Jack Ruby while standing in a crowd of police officers and reporters. Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, claimed to be distraught over the president's assassination.
A special presidential commission, headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, was established to investigate the Kennedy assassination. Despite numerous conspiracy theories, the commission concluded in 1964 in the Warren Report that Oswald had acted alone. Most Americans today still are convinced that there was more to the conspiracy theory than actually came out during the Warren Commission's investigation. In fact a special committee from the House of Representatives concluded in their investigation in 1979 acknowledged the likelihood of a conspiracy and a second assassin might have been involved.
Two sensational books came out after the assassination of the President regarding a possible conspiracy. On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison and Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs. These books were used as the background for Oliver Stone's film JFK. The movie JFK was about the assassination of the President and the investigation by DA of New Orleans Jim Garrison who concluded that the assassination was a conspiracy. Although no hard counter evidence was provided to disprove Garrison’s theories, the FBI files on the case were still sealed from the public at the time of the movie's release, 28 years after the assassination.
Where were you when the President was Assassinated? Do you believe there was a consipiracy? I am waiting to hear your thoughts.
Labels: 1963, JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, November 22, President Assassinated, Warren Commission
I highly recommend "Changin' Times" by Al Sussman for all you sixties buffs and baby boomers. The author takes a look at 101 days that shaped our generation. 
