Assassination of John F. Kennedy
On the evening of November 21, Air Force One touched down in Fort Worth, Texas at 11:07 pm. The President and First Lady arrived at the Hotel Texas in downtown Fort Worth at 11:35 pm. The following morning, November 22, President Kennedy and the First Lady boarded a 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible limousine to travel to a luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart. Other occupants of this vehicle were Secret Service Agent Bill Greer, who drove; Special Agent Roy Kellerman in the front passenger seat; and Governor Connally and his wife Nellie, who sat just forward of the Kennedys. Four Dallas police motorcycle officers accompanied the Kennedy limousine.
The motorcade's meandering route through Dallas was designed to give Kennedy maximum exposure to crowds by passing through a suburban section of Dallas, and Main Street in Downtown Dallas, before turning right on Houston Street. After another block, the motorcade was to turn left onto Elm Street, pass through Dealey Plaza, and travel a short segment of the Stemmons Freeway to the Trade Mart. The planned route had been reported in newspapers several days in advance. Despite concerns about hostile protestors, Kennedy was greeted warmly by enthusiastic crowds.
Lee Harvey Oswald (born 1939) was a former U.S. Marine who had served in Japan and the Philippines, and had espoused communist beliefs since reading Karl Marx aged 14. In September 1959, he received a dependency discharge after claiming his mother was disabled. A 19-year-old Oswald sailed on a freighter from New Orleans to France and then traveled to Finland, where he was issued a Soviet visa. He defected to the Soviet Union, and in January 1960 he was sent to work at a factory in Minsk, Belarus.
In 1961, he met and married Marina Prusakova with whom he had a child. In 1962, he returned to the United States with a repatriation loan from the U.S. embassy. He settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where he socialized with Russian émigrés, notably George de Mohrenschildt, a CIA informant. On October 3, Oswald returned to Dallas and found work at the Texas School Book Depository on Dealey Plaza. During the workweek he lived separately from Marina at a Dallas rooming house. On the morning of the assassination, he carried a long package into the depository; the Warren Commission concluded that this package contained Oswald's disassembled rifle.
Kennedy's limousine entered Dealey Plaza at 12:30 p.m. CST. Nellie Connally turned and commented to Kennedy, who was sitting behind her, Mr. President, they can't make you believe now that there are not some in Dallas who love and appreciate you, can they? Kennedy's reply No, they sure can't were his last words. As it continued down Elm Street, multiple shots were fired: about 80% of the witnesses recalled hearing three shots.
Within one second of each other, Governor Connally and Mrs. Kennedy turned abruptly from their left to their right. Connally testified that he could not see Kennedy, so he started to turn forward again, and when his head was facing about 20 degrees left of center, he was struck in his upper right back by a shot he did not hear. According to the Warren Commission, Kennedy was waving to the crowds on his right when a shot entered his upper back and exited his throat just beneath his larynx. He raised his elbows and clenched his fists in front of his face and neck, then leaned forward and leftward.
As the limousine passed the grassy knoll, Kennedy was struck a second time by a fatal shot to the head. The bullet created a large, roughly ovular hole on the rear, right side of the head, and sprayed blood and fragments. His brain and blood spatter landed as far as the following Secret Service car and the motorcycle officers. Secret Service agent Clint Hill jumped onto the limousine's bumper, and he clung to the car as it exited Dealey Plaza and sped to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
When searching the sixth floor of the depository, two deputies found an Italian Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle. Oswald had purchased the used rifle the previous March under the alias A. Hidell and had it delivered to his Dallas P.O. box. The FBI found Oswald's partial palm print on the barrel, and fibers on the rifle were consistent with those of Oswald's shirt. A bullet found on Governor Connally's hospital gurney and two fragments found in the limousine were ballistically matched to the Carcano.
Oswald left the depository and traveled by bus to his boarding house, where he retrieved a jacket and revolver. At 1:12 p.m., police officer J. D. Tippit spotted Oswald walking in the residential neighborhood of Oak Cliff and called him to his patrol car. After an exchange of words, Tippit exited his vehicle; Oswald then shot Tippit three times in the chest. As Tippit lay on the ground, Oswald fired a final shot into his right temple. Oswald then calmly walked away before running as witnesses emerged. At 1:36 p.m., the police were called after a conspicuous Oswald was seen sneaking into the Texas Theatre without paying. With the film War Is Hell still playing, Dallas policemen arrested Oswald after a brief struggle.
At 12:38 p.m., Kennedy arrived in the emergency room of Parkland Memorial Hospital. Although Kennedy was still breathing after the shooting, his personal physician, George Burkley, immediately saw that survival was impossible. After Parkland surgeons performed futile cardiac massage, Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m., 30 minutes after the shooting. CBS host Walter Cronkite broke the news on live television.
President Kennedy's autopsy was performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland on the night of November 22. The autopsy was conducted by three physicians: naval commanders James Humes and J. Thornton Boswell, with assistance from ballistics wound expert Pierre A. Finck. Under pressure from the Kennedy family and White House staffers to expedite the procedure, the physicians conducted a rushed and incomplete autopsy. Three years after the autopsy, Kennedy's brain, which had been removed and preserved for later analysis, was found to be missing when the Kennedy family transferred material to the National Archives.
Most historians regard the autopsy as the most botched segment of the government's investigation. The HSCA forensic pathology panel concluded that the autopsy had extensive failings, including failure to take sufficient photographs, failure to determine the exact exit or entry point of the head bullet, not dissecting the back and neck, and neglecting to determine the angles of gunshot injuries relative to body axis.
On November 29, President Johnson established by executive order The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy and selected Chief Justice Earl Warren of the U.S. Supreme Court to chair the investigation. Its 888-page final report was presented to Johnson on the 24th of September 1964, and made public three days later. It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in killing Kennedy and wounding Connally, and that Jack Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald. It made no conclusions as to Oswald's motive, but noted his Marxism, anti-authoritarianism, violent tendencies, failure to form personal relationships, and his desire to be significant in history.
Upon examining the Zapruder film, commission staffers realized that the FBI's gunshot theory was impossible. The reaction times of Kennedy and Connally were too close to have been caused by two bullets from Oswald: the reaction interval was less than the 2.3 seconds that it took to reload. This was one of the commission's most crucial findings: that a single shot caused the non-fatal wounds of Kennedy and Connally, known as the single-bullet theory. In May 1964, staffer Arlen Specter replicated the single bullet's trajectory via a reenactment in Dealey Plaza: the bullet's path was exactly consistent with Kennedy's and Connally's wounds.
In 1975, President Gerald Ford established the United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States, better known as the Rockefeller Commission after its chairman, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. After five months of investigation, the Rockefeller Commission submitted its report to President Ford. The report reviewed the medical evidence and agreed that Kennedy had been killed by two shots from behind. Refuting claims that the backwards motion of Kennedy's head seen on the Zapruder film was indicative of a grassy knoll shooter, the commission found that such a motion would be caused by a violent straightening and stiffening of the entire body as a result of a seizure-like neuromuscular reaction.
In 1976 the House Select Committee on Assassinations was created to investigate the assassinations of Kennedy and of Martin Luther King, Jr. The HSCA conducted its inquiry until 1978 and issued its final report the following year, concluding that Kennedy was likely assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. They concluded that there was a high probability that a fourth shot was fired from the grassy knoll, but they stated that this shot missed Kennedy. The chief reason for the conclusion of probable conspiracy was, according to the report's dissent, the subsequently discredited acoustic analysis of a police channel Dictabelt recording.
On November 27, five days after the assassination, President Johnson delivered his Let Us Continue speech to Congress. Effectively an inaugural address, Johnson called for the realization of Kennedy's policies, particularly on civil rights; this effort soon materialized as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Confusion surrounding Johnson's succession led to the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S Constitution, which was adopted in 1967 and affirmed that the vice president became president upon the president's death. On November 29, President Johnson issued Executive Order 11129, renaming Florida's Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy.
Kennedy's assassination also resulted in an overhaul of the Secret Service and its procedures. Open limousines were eliminated, staffing was significantly increased, and specialized teams like counter-sniper units were established. The agency's budget has also increased, from $5.5 million in 1963 to over $1.6 billion by the 50th anniversary in 2013. In 1993, the National Park Service designated Dealey Plaza, the surrounding buildings, the overpass, and a portion of the adjacent railyard as a National Historic Landmark District.
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Common questions
When and where did the assassination of John F. Kennedy take place?
The assassination of John F. Kennedy occurred on the 22nd of November 1963, in Dallas, Texas. The motorcade entered Dealey Plaza at 12:30 p.m. CST before multiple shots were fired as the limousine traveled down Elm Street.
Who was responsible for killing President Kennedy according to the Warren Commission report?
The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy and wounding Governor Connally. The commission also stated that Jack Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald without any conclusions regarding Oswald's motive.
What rifle did Lee Harvey Oswald use during the assassination of John F. Kennedy?
Lee Harvey Oswald used an Italian Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle which he had purchased under the alias A. Hidell. FBI investigators found Oswald's partial palm print on the barrel and ballistically matched bullets from this weapon to wounds sustained by Kennedy and Connally.
How many shots were fired during the assassination of John F. Kennedy according to witnesses?
About 80% of the witnesses recalled hearing three shots during the event. The House Select Committee on Assassinations later concluded there was a high probability that a fourth shot was fired from the grassy knoll but missed Kennedy.
When was the autopsy of John F. Kennedy performed and who conducted it?
President Kennedy's autopsy was performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland on the night of the 22nd of November 1963. Three physicians including naval commanders James Humes and J. Thornton Boswell with assistance from ballistics wound expert Pierre A. Finck conducted the procedure.