JFK Murder

1. JFK Murder Presented by Sherif A. Ahmed

2. It was on Friday, November 22, 1963 at 12.29 P.M. It was announce over the television at 1:40 P.M. EST CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite broke into As the World Turns with an audio announcement over a bulletin slide: "In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports said that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting." Minutes later, Cronkite appears on screen from CBS's New York newsroom to field live reports from Dallas and read news bulletins from Associated Press and CBS Radio. Eddie Barker, news director for CBS's Dallas affiliate KRLD-TV, reports live from the Trade Mart, where the president was to have attended a luncheon. As a stationary camera pans the ballroom, closing in on a black waiter who wipes tears from his face, Barker relates rumors "that the president is dead." Back in New York, a voice off camera tells Cronkite the same news, which the anchorman stresses is "totally unconfirmed." Switching back to Dallas, Barker again reports "the word we have is that the President is dead." Though he cautions "this we do not know for a fact," the visual image at the Trade Mart is ominous: workman can be seen removing the presidential seal from a podium on the dais.

3. How it was announced

4. Series of Events

5. 1. The Flight • On November 22nd, 1963 Air Force Two, carrying Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, landed at 11:30 a.m. after the brief flight from Fort Worth. • Air Force One followed at 11:40 a.m. On board were Kennedy and his wife, Texas Gov. John Connally and his wife, Nellie, and U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough.

6. 2. Airport • On hand at the airport was a small throng, including journalists and key Texas political supporters. • Kennedy greeted Texas dignitaries in a receiving line. He made certain to acknowledge well-wishers who lined fences at the airport to get a look at the president and First Lady.

7. 3. The Vehicle Sixteen cars, a dozen motorcycles and three buses were assembled to carry John F. Kennedy and his entourage to the Dallas Trade Mart, in the heart of downtown, Where the president was scheduled to address civic leaders.

8. The vehicle (continued) JFK's Lincoln convertible (GG 300) at the moment when JFK has been first hit

9. The vehicle (continued) LBJ in the convertible two cars behind, sitting between his wife Lady Bird and Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough. LBJ is wearing a dark cowboy hat (just the brim is visible below the top of windscreen).

10. Kennedy was devoting two days to Texas as an early campaign trip that he hoped would rally the Lone Star State's sometimes fractious Democrats around a single cause: his reelection.

11. Lady Kennedy • The presence of Jackie Kennedy on the trip was carefully considered. Mrs. Kennedy had become an iconic figure in America, with a celebrity that rivaled her husband's. • The president's advisors had plotted slow-rolling motorcades in the three largest Texas cities in part to allow citizen-voters a glimpse of America's elegant queen.

12. The Kennedys left Washington on the morning of Thursday, November 21, and flew to San Antonio. They were met there by Gov. Connally and Vice President Johnson, who joined the president in a motorcade downtown.

13. That afternoon the president flew to Houston, where another motorcade awaited. He spoke to a large crowd at Rice University Stadium, then attended a political dinner in Houston.

14. Late Thursday night, the Kennedys flew to Fort Worth, where they spent the night at the Texas Hotel. Friday morning, Kennedy attended a breakfast at the hotel and spoke to a crowd outdoors before leaving for Dallas.

15. At the hotel, the Kennedys and Kenneth O'Donnell, special assistant to the president, had a foreboding conversation about the potential danger of motorcades. O'Donnell would tell the Warren Commission that the President said, "If anybody really wanted to shoot the president of the United States, it was not a very difficult job. All one had to do was get in a high building someday with a telescopic rifle, and there was nothing anybody could do to defend against such an attempt." Kenneth O'Donnell,

16. The Dallas motorcade set off from the airport just 10 minutes after the president's jet landed. The schedule allotted 45 minutes for the 10-mile trip from Love to the Trade Mart. The motorcade route had been well-publicized in the week before Kennedy's visit. The president's political handlers hoped for a huge show of support. That's why he had gone to Texas, after all.

17. Motorcade Route

18. Motorcade Route

19. Motorcade Route • The motorcade left the airport and traveled along Main Street toward the tall buildings of downtown Dallas, where thousands of office workers would be free on lunch hour when the motorcade • Warren Commission investigators confirmed the motorcade route was chosen to maximize "participation" from citizens

20. Witnesses: Delay on Elm Street • Secret Service Agent Sam Kinney (driver of the follow-up car behind JFK's limo)---indicates, via his report to Chief Rowley, that Greer hit the gas after the fatal head shot to JFK and after the President's slump to the left toward Jackie. From the HSCA's 2/26/78 interview of Kinney: "He also remarked that 'when Greer (the driver of the Presidential limousine) looked back, his foot must have come off the accelerator “ Kinney observed that at the time of the first shot, the speed of the motorcade was '3 to 5 miles an hour”. • Secret Service Agent Clint Hill (follow-up car, rear of limo)---"…I jumped from the follow-up car and ran toward the Presidential automobile. I heard a second firecracker-type noise…SA Greer had, as I jumped onto the Presidential automobile, accelerated the Presidential automobile forward." [18 H 742; Nix film; "The Secret Service" and "Inside The Secret Service" videos from 1995];

21. Witnesses: Delay on Elm Street • Secret Service Agent John Ready (follow-up car) "I heard what sounded like fire crackers going off from my post on the right front running board. The President's car slowed. • Secret Service Agent Glen Bennett (follow-up car)---after the fatal head shot "the President's car immediately kicked into high gear." [18 H 760; 24 H 541-542]. During his 1/30/78 HSCA interview, Bennett said the follow-up car was moving at "10-12 m.p.h.", an indication of the pace of the motorcade on Elm Street.

22. Witnesses: Delay on Elm Street • Secret Service Agent "Lem" Johns (V.P. follow-up car)---"…I felt that if there was danger [it was] due to the slow speed of the automobile." [18 H 774]. During his 8/8/78 HSCA interview, Johns said that "Our car was moving very slowly", a further indication of the pace of the motorcade on Elm Street [RIF# 180-10074-10079; Altgens photo]; • Secret Service Agent Winston Lawson (rode in the lead car)---"…I think it [the lead car on Elm Street] was a little further ahead [of JFK's limo] than it had been in the motorcade, because when I looked back we were further ahead." [4 H 352], an indication of the lag in the limo during the assassination.; • Secret Service Agent William "Tim" McIntyre (follow-up car)---"He stated that Greer, driver of the Presidential limousine, accelerated after the third shot." [RIF#180-10082-10454: 1/31/78 HSCA interview];

24. The parade route was mobbed. • Police had manned all bridge overpasses and shooed away unauthorized individuals. But screening the crowd or searching buildings along the route for miscreants was impossible. • The convoy buzzed along Main Street at 25 to 30 miles an hour in the more sparsely populated outer reaches of Dallas. But even there a number of people waited to see the Kennedys, and the motorcade gradually slowed as it headed downtown.

25. The first car in the convoy, known as the "pilot car," carried Dallas police officers. It stayed a quarter-mile ahead of the political parade that followed and was assigned to report signs of trouble. • Next came six motorcycles, then the "lead car," an unmarked Dallas police vehicle driven by Police Chief Police Jesse Curry and occupied by Dallas County Sheriff J.E. Decker and Secret Service Agents Forrest Sorrels, of the White House detail, and Winston Lawson, special agent in charge of the Dallas office.

26. According to the Warren Commission report, "The occupants scanned the crowd and the buildings along the route. Their main function was to spot trouble in advance and to direct any necessary steps to meet the trouble. • Following normal practice, the lead automobile stayed approximately four to five car lengths ahead of the President's limousine."

27. The presidential car, a specially designed 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible, was fitted with a futuristic plastic bubble that could protect the occupants from rain while allowing people along the motorcade route to get a good look at their dashing president and his lovely wife.

28. But the weather was fair, so the bubble had been removed. The plastic was not bullet-proof, in any case. • Kennedy sat in the right rear seat with his wife to the left. John and Nellie Connally were seated in front of them in a jump seat, with Nellie on the left.

29. Secret Service Agent William Greer drove the car, and Agent Roy Kellerman, head of the White House detail, rode shotgun. The limousine was fitted with running boards that allowed agents to ride beside the president, but Kennedy preferred to give citizens an unobstructed view during motorcades.

30. Four more motorcycles flanked the president's car to keep the crowd back. Again, Kennedy had asked that the cycles lag back to give people a good view. • Behind the presidential limo was a 1955 Cadillac that carried eight armed agents—four inside, four on the running boards. O'Donnell and another aide rode in that car, as well. The agents on the running boards were assigned to hurry up to the presidential car any time it slowed to a stop or a walking pace.

31. Next in line was the vice president's car, a four-door Lincoln convertible that carried the Johnsons, Sen. Yarborough and a Secret Service agent. A Texas highway patrolman drove. • Behind Johnson's Lincoln was a car driven by a Dallas cop that carried three more agents and Clifton Garter, assistant to Johnson.

32. And this was followed by the rest of the motorcade, including five cars with the Dallas mayor and other Texas politicians; the president's physician, Admiral George Burkley; telephone and Western Union vehicles; a White House communications car; three cars of press photographers; a bus for White House staffers, and two press buses. • A Dallas police car and three more motorcycles brought up the rear.

33. In downtown Dallas, the motorcade slowed to 10 mph as the Kennedys and Connallys smiled and waved to the masses lining the route, a crowd estimated at a quarter-million. At Houston St., the motorcade turned right off Main, then left onto Elm to allow quick passage through Dealey Plaza to the Stemmons Freeway for the final leg of the trip. • At the corner of Houston and Elm stood a seven-story building leased to the Texas School Book Depository, which shipped schoolbooks in the southwest.

34. As the motorcade moved toward the Book Depository, Nellie Connally turned and remarked about the greeting that the Kennedys were receiving. • The governor's wife said, "Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn't love you." • Kennedy replied, "That is very obvious." • These were John Kennedy's last words.

35. The Shooting • The motorcade was running a few minutes late. • As he was prone to do, Kennedy had twice ordered his limo to stop—once when he saw a man holding a sign inviting the president to shake his hand, and a second time to greet a Catholic nun and a group of schoolchildren.

36. Secret service standown

37. The dense crowds downtown had also slowed the pace of the motorcade. • The president's car was crawling at 11 mph past the Texas School Book Depository at precisely 12:30 p.m., the hour the president was due at the Trade Mart. • Rifle shots rang out.

38. The Magic Bullet

39. The Magic Bullet

40. The Magic Bullet • was fired from the far east-end windowof the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository building,entered JFK's back;exited from his throat;entered Connally's back; exited his chest near the right nipple;went through his right wrist shattering the radius bone; entered his left leg embedding itself in his thigh bone*, then dropped out later, in pristine condition,on his stretcher in Parkland Hospital.synopsis of the Sep 27, 1964 Warren Report • No real bullet could do that. It defies the laws of physics. We all know that 2 + 2 = 4. • And no real man could go from the front east corner to the back east corner of the sixth floor - stash a rifle behind some boxes - then cross to the west side and down four flights of stairs to the lunchroom on the second floor in ninety seconds to be seen there - sipping a Coke - by his boss and a police officer as they ran passed on their way upstairs. But that's what the government says Lee Harvey Oswald did. • Those are a couple of reasons why some people - so called "conspiracy theorists" - don't believe the "official" version of the JFK assassination.

41. The Magic Bullet • One slug passed through the president's neck, according to the Warren Commission. A second, subsequent, lethal bullet shattered the right side of his skull. Connally was wounded in his back, the right side of his chest, right wrist and left thigh. • Secret Service agents rushed to the limousine. • Jackie Kennedy cried out, "Oh, my God, they have shot my husband. I love you, Jack."

43. Agent Kellerman, in the president's car, radioed ahead to Police Chief Curry, who led a high-speed dash to Parkland Hospital, 4 miles away. • There was no saving the president, of course. He was declared dead 30 minutes after the shooting. An emergency operation was conducted on Connally; he would survive.

44. By 2:15 p.m., Kennedy's body was in a casket and loaded on Air Force One for the return flight to Washington. • But the takeoff was delayed while aides arranged an urgent ceremony to ensure continuity of government. • Federal Judge Sarah Hughes, appointed by Kennedy in 1961 as the first female U.S. District Court judge in Texas, hurried to Love Field.

45. At 2:38 p.m., just before the jet departed for Washington, Hughes swore in Lyndon Johnson as the 36th President. He was flanked by his wife and Mrs. Kennedy during the brief, solemn ceremony.

46. Judge Hughes later said, "I thought she (Jackie Kennedy) showed remarkable poise. She didn't weep. She didn't say a word. Her poise was outstanding. Her courage was outstanding."

47. Within minutes of the assassination, several eyewitnesses had pointed to the Book Depository building as the source of the gunshots. • One witness, Howard Brennan, said he noticed a man at a window of the building several times just before the motorcade passed. Brennan said he looked up after hearing the first shot and saw the same man fire a rifle, then disappear. Based on Brennan's account, police at 12:45 p.m. broadcast a description: white male, slender, 165 pounds, 5-foot-10.

49. Cops flooded the building, and near a sixth-floor window they found three shell casings and a bolt-action rifle with a telescopic sight. • At 1:15 p.m., Dallas Patrolman J.D. Tippit noticed a man near 10th and Patton streets, a couple of miles from the assassination scene, who matched the suspect's description. Tippit called the man to his patrol car. After a brief exchange through the window, the cop got out, apparently to question the man more closely. • The man pulled a pistol and fired four shots that struck and killed Tippit.

50. A dozen people witnessed the shooting. Someone called police, and heads turned to watch as radio cars raced to the location with sirens crying. • News of the president's shooting had Dallas residents on high alert, and several people noticed a suspicious man duck into a doorway eight blocks from the shooting scene as cop cars passed. • One such witness was Johnny Brewer, a shoe store manager, who saw the man slip into the Texas Theater.