The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p.m. CST (18:30 UTC). John F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald was the conclusion of multiple government investigations, including the ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963–1964 and the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) of 1976–1979. This conclusion initially met with widespread support among the American public, but polls, since the original 1966 Gallup poll, show a majority of the public hold beliefs contrary to these findings. The assassination is still the subject of widespread speculation and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories, though none of these theories have been proven.
Background of the visit
Kennedy had chosen to visit Dallas for three main reasons: to help generate more campaign funds in advance of the November 1964 presidential election; to begin his quest for re-election; and, because the Kennedy-Johnson ticket barely won Texas (and had lost Dallas) in 1960, to mend political fences among several leading Texas Democratic Party members who appeared to be fighting politically amongst themselves. The basic decision on the November trip to Texas was made at a meeting of President Kennedy, Vice President Johnson, and Texas Governor John Connally on June 5, 1963. The trip also included a first stop in Houston for a 3,200-person dinner for senior Congressman Albert Thomas, who was considering not seeking re-election. On September 26, 1963, the two daily Dallas newspapers confirmed plans of the November visit.
There were concerns about security, because as recently as October 24, 1963, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, had been jeered, jostled, struck by a protest sign, and spat upon during a visit to Dallas. The danger from a concealed sniper on the Dallas trip was also of concern. President Kennedy had mentioned it the morning he was assassinated, as had the Secret Service agents when they were fixing the motorcade route. The motorcade route was described in both Dallas newspapers on November 19, 1963, and a map of the route was published on November 21, 1963.
It was planned that Kennedy would travel from Love Field airport in a motorcade through downtown Dallas (including Dealey Plaza) to give a speech at the Dallas Trade Mart. The car in which he was traveling was a 1961 Lincoln Continental, open-top, modified limousine. A presidential car with a bulletproof top was not yet in service in 1963, although plans for such a top were presented in October 1963.
Assassination
The route taken by the motorcade within Dealey Plaza (north is toward the almost direct-left)Further information: Timeline of the John F. Kennedy assassination and Single bullet theory
Just before 12:30 p.m.CST, Kennedy’s limousine entered Dealey Plaza and slowly approached the Texas School Book Depository head-on, then turned left 120-degrees directly in front of the Depository, 65 feet (20 m) away.
When the Presidential limousine passed the Depository and continued down Elm Street, shots were fired at Kennedy; the great majority of witnesses recalled hearing three shots.[4] There was hardly any reaction in the crowd to the first shot, many later saying they thought they had heard a firecracker or the exhaust backfire of a vehicle. President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally, sitting with his wife in front of the Kennedys in the limousine, both turned abruptly from looking to their left to looking to their right. Connally immediately recognized the sound of a high powered rifle. "Oh, no, no, no", he said as he turned further right, and then started to turn left, attempting to see President Kennedy behind him.
Elm Street seen from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository
Photo of presidential limousine by Ike Altgens taken between the first and second shots that hit President Kennedy (detail)According to the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations, as President Kennedy waved to the crowds on his right, a shot entered his upper back, penetrated his neck, and exited his throat. He raised his clenched fists up to his neck and leaned forward and to his left, as Mrs. Kennedy put her arms around him in concern. Governor Connally also reacted, as the same bullet penetrated his back, chest, right wrist, and left thigh. He yelled, "My God, they are going to kill us all."
The final shot took place when the Presidential limousine was passing in front of the John Neely Bryan north pergola concrete structure. As the shot was heard, a fist-size hole exploded out from the right side of President Kennedy's head, covering the interior of the car and a nearby motorcycle officer with blood and brain tissue.
Polaroid photo by Mary Moorman taken a fraction of a second after the fatal shot (detail)Secret Service agent Clint Hill was riding on the left front running board of the car immediately behind the Presidential limousine. Sometime after the shot that hit the president in the back, Hill jumped off and ran to overtake the limousine. After the president had been shot in the head, Mrs. Kennedy climbed onto the rear of the limousine, though she later had no recollection of doing so. Hill believed she was reaching for something, perhaps a piece of the president's skull. He jumped onto the back of the limousine, pushed Mrs. Kennedy back into her seat, and clung to the car as it exited Dealey Plaza and sped to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Others wounded
Governor Connally, riding in the same limousine in a seat in front of the President, was also critically injured but survived. Doctors later stated that after the governor was shot, his wife pulled him onto her lap, and the resulting posture helped close his front chest wound (which was causing air to be sucked directly into his chest around his collapsed right lung).
James Tague, a spectator and witness to the assassination, also received a minor wound to his right cheek while standing 270 feet (82 m) in front of where Kennedy was shot. The injury resulted from debris ejected when a bullet or bullet fragment struck a nearby curb.
Aftermath in Dealey Plaza
The Presidential limousine was passing a grassy knoll on the north side of Elm Street at the moment of the fatal head shot. As the motorcade left the plaza, police officers and spectators ran up the knoll and from a railroad bridge over Elm Street (the Triple Underpass), to the area behind a five-foot (1.5 m) high stockade fence atop the knoll, separating it from a parking lot. No sniper was found. S. M. Holland, who had been watching the motorcade on the Triple Underpass, testified that "immediately" after the shots were fired, he went around the corner where the overpass joined the fence but did not see anyone running from the area.
Lee Bowers, a railroad switchman sitting in a two-story tower, had an unobstructed view of the rear of the stockade fence atop the grassy knoll during the shooting. He saw a total of four men in the area between his tower and Elm Street: a middle-aged man and a younger man, standing 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 m) apart near the Triple Underpass, who did not seem to know each other, and one or two uniformed parking lot attendants. At the time of the shooting, he saw "something out of the ordinary, a sort of milling around", which he could not identify, but he did not see a gunman. Bowers testified that one or both of the men were still there when motorcycle officer Clyde Haygood ran up the grassy knoll to the back of the fence. In a 1966 interview, Bowers clarified that the two men he saw were on the opposite side of the stockade fence from him, and that no one was behind the fence at the time the shots were fired.
Howard Brennan sitting across from the Texas School Book Depository. Circle "A" indicates where he saw a man fire a rifle at the motorcadeMeanwhile, Howard Brennan, a steamfitter who was sitting across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, notified police that as he watched the motorcade go by, he heard a shot come from above, and looked up to see a man with a rifle make another shot from a corner window on the sixth floor. He had seen the same man minutes earlier looking out the window. Brennan gave a description of the shooter, which was broadcast to all Dallas police at 12:45 p.m., 12:48 p.m., and 12:55 p.m.
As Brennan spoke to the police in front of the building, they were joined by Harold Norman and James Jarman, Jr., two employees of the Texas School Book Depository who had watched the motorcade from windows at the southeast corner of the fifth floor. The two reported that they and a third companion, Bonnie Ray Williams, heard three gunshots come from directly over their hearing range.
The most believed cause of his assasination was that Oswald killed him with a sniper rifle on a bridge. He was a very experienced marksman which could get 3 rounds off/min.
Also, click on this link for pictures, citations, diagrams, and related topics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_assassination