KENNEDY ASSISSINATION

Kennedy Assissination

Kennedy Assissination

Introduction

President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) was shot and killed on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Texas Governor John B. Connally, who was riding in the limousine with Kennedy, was also seriously wounded but survived. Kennedy had traveled to Dallas to resolve political infighting among the Democratic leadership in Texas and to raise funds and support for the 1964 election. Within hours of the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested as a suspect in the murder of a Dallas police officer and the assassination of Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's vice president, was sworn in as president. Oswald was shot to death by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby 2 days after the assassination. Television reporters who had traveled to Dallas to report on Kennedy's trip covered the assassination as breaking news. The assassination was the subject of two controversial federal investigations.

Events of the Assassination

On the morning of November 22, 1963, Kennedy spoke at a breakfast gathering in Ft. Worth and then boarded Air Force One with the rest of his party to fly to Dallas. Air Force One arrived at Love Field in Dallas at 11:40 a.m. CST, and 10 minutes later Kennedy's motorcade left on the way to the Dallas Business and Trade Mart, where Kennedy was to attend a luncheon.

As Kennedy's motorcade traveled through large crowds gathered on the streets of Dallas, it turned left in front of the Texas School Book Depository building to make its way to Dealey Plaza. At 12:30 p.m. CST, shortly after the motorcade made the turn, shots were fired. Kennedy was hit by two shots, Connally was hit by one shot, and a bystander was nicked on the right cheek by debris from a shot.

As the motorcade raced away from Dealey Plaza to Parkland Hospital, Marrion L. Baker, a Dallas patrolman ran to the School Book Depository because he believed the shots had come from the building. After gaining access to the building, Baker and Roy Truly, the building superintendent, began a floor-by-floor search. They found Oswald in the second-floor lunchroom at 12:35 p.m. CST. Truly identified Oswald as an employee, and the two moved on.

At 1:00 p.m. CST, Kennedy was officially declared dead at Parkland Hospital, and Connally was taken into surgery to treat his wounds. Out of concern for his security, Johnson left the hospital and traveled to Air Force One. Dallas police officer J. D. Tippet was shot shortly after 1:15 p.m. CST by a man witnesses identified as Oswald. Oswald was seen entering the Texas Theater at 1:40 p.m. CST, police were called, and Oswald was confronted and arrested at about 2:00 p.m. CST after drawing a pistol on officers. Oswald was taken to the Dallas jail and charged first with Tippit's murder and later with Kennedy's murder.

About the same time Oswald was being arrested, Kennedy's body was taken to Air Force One. Johnson was sworn in as president by Federal District Court Judge Sarah T. Hughes on board Air Force One before it ...