The Assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy November
The Assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy November 22, 1963
JFK’s Inauguration Jan. 20 th, 1961 35 th U. S. President
Democratic President JFK, age 46 and in the third year of his term visits Dallas, Texas on a “good will” tour.
JFK and wife Jacqueline at Love Field, Dallas
Texas Governor John Connolly and his wife ride with the Kennedys
The motorcade route to a speaking engagement at the Trade Mart takes Kennedy through Dealey Plaza
Dealey Plaza
The Texas School Book Depository Building
JFK motorcade approximately 12: 30 p. m. Friday Nov. 22, 1963
Dallas dress maker Abraham Zapruder and the Zapruder Film
The Triple Underpass on the way to Parkland Hospital
Kennedy is rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital
Emergency room efforts are to resuscitate the president
The Dallas doctors make informal observations of Kennedy’s wounds while trying to resuscitate him
Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One
President Kennedy is put aboard Air Force One and flown to Bethesda Naval Hospital for an autopsy
The same day shooting of Dallas policeman J. D. Tippet The suspect (fitting Lee Harvey Oswald’s description) flees into a nearby movie theater
24 year old suspect Lee Harvey Oswald upon arrest
Oswald in custody
Oswald obtains a hardship discharge from the marines in 1959
Oswald was an outspoken Marxist and supporter of Cuba
Oswald with his Russian wife Marina and child Oswald had defected to the USSR before returning to the US
Oswald shot on Sunday by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters
Dallas night club owner Jack Ruby was suspected to have ties to the mafia/organized crime
Ruby dies of lung cancer in prison in 1967
The Warren Commission • During his first week in office President Lyndon Baines Johnson created the President's Commission on the assassination of President Kennedy. Led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, the commission was to determine who was responsible for the assassination of Kennedy and the wounding of Governor Connolly.
Pres. Johnson receives the Warren Report in 1964
Key findings of the Warren Commission • 1. Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed President Kennedy and wounded Texas Governor John Connolly. • 2. Oswald acting alone killed Dallas policeman J. D. Tippet. • 3. Three shots were fired from the direction of the Texas School Book Depository Building. One struck the President in the neck passing through and then striking the Governor, one shot missed, one shot was the fatal “head shot” which killed the President. • 4. Jack Ruby acting alone shot and killed Oswald.
Challenges to the Warren Report • “Head snap” and timing problem suggesting a second gunman • The “Grassy Knoll” evidence • Acoustics evidence from police dictabelt suggesting additional shots • Conflicting interpretation of the President's wounds between Dallas (Parkland Memorial Hospital) and Bethesda Naval Hospital where the autopsy was performed • Trajectory and alignment problems of the bullet paths • The pristine condition of the “magic bullet” (exhibit #399) supporting the “single bullet theory” • Suspicion of links between Oswald and Ruby • Oswald not “lone gunman”, patsy or part of conspiracy
The “grassy knoll”
Were there shots fired at the president from the front/the grassy knoll area?
The sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository Building where Lee Harvey Oswald was employed
The view from the “sniper’s nest”
The murder weapon? A 6. 5 mm Italian Mannlicher. Carcano bolt action rifle recovered on the sixth floor.
Oswald was said to have obtained the rifle from a Chicago mail order house under the name A. Hidell
Three spent shell casing are discovered on the 6 th floor of the Texas School Book Depository building
The “backyard photos” of Oswald
Path of the “magic bullet”
The “magic bullet” in “pristine condition”
Warren Commission exhibit #399
Test bullets used as comparisons
The Head Wound the moment of impact frame #313 of the Zapruder film
Was the massive and fatal head wound fired from the front or the rear? Questions of the “head snap” and timing problems persisted
House Select Committee on Assassinations 1976 The second major investigation into the assassination
• • • Summary of Findings and Recommendations I. Findings of the Select Committee on Assassinations in the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Tex. , November 22, 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at President John F. Kennedy. The second and third shots he fired struck the President. The third shot he fired killed the President. – President Kennedy was struck by two rifle shots fired from behind him. – The shots that struck President Kennedy from behind him were fired from the sixth floor window of the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository building. – Lee Harvey Oswald owned the rifle that was used to fire the shots from the sixth floor window of the southeast comer of the Texas School Book Depository building. – Lee Harvey Oswald, shortly before the assassination, had access to and was present on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. – Lee Harvey Oswald's other actions tend to support the conclusion that he assassinated President Kennedy. Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy. Other scientific evidence does not exclude the possibility of two gunmen firing at the President. Scientific evidence negates some specific conspiracy allegations. The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy.
Popular conspiracy theories: • • Oswald working with any of the following: Organized Crime (Mafia) Renegade elements of the CIA and/or Secret Service Pro-Castro Cubans Anti-Castro Cubans The Soviet KGB VP Lyndon Johnson and Texas Oilmen
JFK’s younger brother Robert (Bobby), the Attorney General Assassinated in 1968 while seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination
Mrs. Kennedy and Caroline and John Jr.
JFK’s grave site at Arlington National Cemetery
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