John F. Kennedy Assassination

What Mistakes Were Immediately Made The Hours After The Kennedy Assassination By The Authorities?

Several mistakes were made after the Kennedy assassination by the authorities. On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States, was shot and killed while riding in the back seat of a limousine in a motorcade passing through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. The shooting occurred at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, just after the president's limousine made a 120-degree left-hand turn off of Houston Street onto Elm Street in front of the Texas Schoolbook Depository. Also injured was Texas governor John B. Connally, who was riding in the limousine's front seat directly in front of the president.

Dallek (pp. 67-89) mentions the shooting took place over a period of six to nine seconds. Only after the driver of the limousine, Secret Service agent Bill Greer, turned and saw what proved to be the fatal wound to the president's head did he speed up to exit the plaza and head to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where the president was pronounced dead in Trauma Room #1 at 1:00 p.m. Just an hour later, after a fifteen-minute argument involving Secret Service agents who were cursing and brandishing their weapons, the agents removed the president's body, in violation of state law because no forensic examination had been conducted (Dallek, pp. 67-89). They took the body to Love Field, where it was placed on Air Force One, the president's plane, and flown to Washington, D.C. There, an autopsy was conducted at the Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Did These Mistakes Matter When It Came To Oswald's Guilt?

I think that these mistakes matter when it came to Oswald's guilt. Eighty minutes after the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee at the Texas Schoolbook Depository, was arrested for shooting a police ...