November 22, 1963: Death of the President - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum November 22, 1963: Death of the President November 22, 1963: Death of the President Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. By the fall of 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his political advisers were preparing for the next presidential campaign. Although he had not formally announced his candidacy, it was clear that President Kennedy was going to run and he seemed confident about his chances for re-election. At the end of September, the president traveled west, speaking in nine different states in less than a week. The trip was meant to put a spotlight on natural resources and conservation efforts. But JFK also used it to sound out themes—such as education, national security, and world peace—for his run in 1964. Campaigning in Texas A month later, the president addressed Democratic gatherings in Boston and Philadelphia.

Then, on November 12, he held the first important political planning session for the upcoming election year. At the meeting, JFK stressed the importance of winning Florida and Texas and talked about his plans to visit both states in the next two weeks. Mrs. Kennedy would accompany him on the swing through Texas, which would be her first extended public appearance since the loss of their baby, Patrick, in August. On November 21, the president and first lady departed on Air Force One for the two-day, five-city tour of Texas. President Kennedy was aware that a feud among party leaders in Texas could jeopardize his chances of carrying the state in 1964, and one of his aims for the trip was to bring Democrats together. He also knew that a relatively small but vocal group of extremists was contributing to the political tensions in Texas and would likely make its presence felt—particularly in Dallas, where US Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson had been physically attacked a month earlier after making a speech there. Nonetheless, JFK seemed to relish the prospect of leaving Washington, getting out among the people and into the political fray. The first stop was San Antonio. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor John B.

Connally, and Senator Ralph W. Yarborough led the welcoming party. They accompanied the president to Brooks Air Force Base for the dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center. Continuing on to Houston, he addressed a Latin American citizens' organization and spoke at a testimonial dinner for Congressman Albert Thomas before ending the day in Fort Worth. Morning in Fort Worth A light rain was falling on Friday morning, November 22, but a crowd of several thousand stood in the parking lot outside the Texas Hotel where the Kennedys had spent the night. A platform was set up and the president, wearing no protection against the weather, came out to make some brief remarks. "There are no faint hearts in Fort Worth," he began, "and I appreciate your being here this morning. Mrs. Kennedy is organizing herself. It takes longer, but, of course, she looks better than we do when she does it." He went on to talk about the nation's need for being "second to none" in defense and in space, for continued growth in the economy and "the willingness of citizens of the United States to assume the burdens of leadership." The warmth of the audience response was palpable as the president reached out to shake hands amidst a sea of smiling faces.

Back inside the hotel the president spoke at a breakfast of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, focusing on military preparedness. "We are still the keystone in the arch of freedom," he said. "We will continue to do…our duty, and the people of Texas will be in the lead." On to Dallas The presidential party left the hotel and went by motorcade to Carswell Air Force Base for the thirteen-minute flight to Dallas. Arriving at Love Field, President and Mrs. Kennedy disembarked and immediately walked toward a fence where a crowd of well-wishers had gathered, and they spent several minutes shaking hands. The first lady received a bouquet of red roses, which she brought with her to the waiting limousine. Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, were already seated in the open convertible as the Kennedys entered and sat behind them. Since it was no longer raining, the plastic bubble top had been left off. Vice President and Mrs. Johnson occupied another car in the motorcade. The procession left the airport and traveled along a ten-mile route that wound through downtown Dallas on the way to the Trade Mart where the President was scheduled to speak at a luncheon.

The Assassination Crowds of excited people lined the streets and waved to the Kennedys. The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza. Bullets struck the president's neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy. The governor was also hit in the chest. The car sped off to Parkland Memorial Hospital just a few minutes away. But little could be done for the President. A Catholic priest was summoned to administer the last rites, and at 1:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead. Though seriously wounded, Governor Connally would recover. The president's body was brought to Love Field and placed on Air Force One. Before the plane took off, a grim-faced Lyndon B. Johnson stood in the tight, crowded compartment and took the oath of office, administered by US District Court Judge Sarah Hughes. The brief ceremony took place at 2:38 p.m. Less than an hour earlier, police had arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, a recently hired employee at the Texas School Book Depository.

He was being held for the assassination of President Kennedy and the fatal shooting, shortly afterward, of Patrolman J. D. Tippit on a Dallas street. On Sunday morning, November 24, Oswald was scheduled to be transferred from police headquarters to the county jail. Viewers across America watching the live television coverage suddenly saw a man aim a pistol and fire at point blank range. The assailant was identified as Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. Oswald died two hours later at Parkland Hospital. The President's Funer al That same day, President Kennedy's flag-draped casket was moved from the White House to the Capitol on a caisson drawn by six grey horses, accompanied by one riderless black horse. At Mrs. Kennedy's request, the cortege and other ceremonial details were modeled on the funeral of Abraham Lincoln. Crowds line d Pennsylvania Avenue and many wept openly as the caisson passed. During the 21 hours that the president's body lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda, about 250,000 people filed by to pay their respects. On Monday, November 25, 1963 President Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

The funeral was attended by heads of state and representatives from more than 100 countries, with untold millions more watching on television. Afterward, at the grave site, Mrs. Kennedy and her husband's brothers, Robert and Edward, lit an eternal flame. Perhaps the most indelible images of the day were the salute to his father given by little John F. Kennedy Jr. (whose third birthday it was), daughter Caroline kneeling next to her mother at the president's bier, and the extraordinary grace and dignity shown by Jacqueline Kennedy. As people throughout the nation and the world struggled to make sense of a senseless act and to articulate their feelings about President Kennedy's life and legacy, many recalled these words from his inaugural address: All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days, nor in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration. Nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. The Warren Commission On November 29, 1963 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. It came to be known as the Warren Commission after its chairman, Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States.

President Johnson directed the commission to evaluate matters relating to the assassination and the subsequent killing of the alleged assassin, and to report its findings and conclusions to him. The Warren Commission's report is available here . The House Select Committee on Assassinations The US House of Representatives established the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1976 to reopen the investigation of the assassination in light of allegations that previous inquiries had not received the full cooperation of federal agencies. Note to the reader: Point 1B in the link below to the findings of the 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations states that the committee had found "a high probability that two gunmen fired" at the president. This conclusion resulted from the last-minute “discovery” of a Dallas police radio transmission tape that allegedly provided evidence that four or more shots were fired in Dealey Plaza. After the report appeared in print, acoustic experts analyzed the tape and proved conclusively that it was completely worthless—thus negating the finding in Point 1B. The committee, which also investigated the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., issued its report on March 29, 1979. To see the report, click here . Assassination Records Collection Through the President John F.

Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, the US Congress ordered that all assassination-related material be housed together under supervision of the National Archives and Records Administration. Learn more about the collection here . Arlington National Cemetery To learn more about President Kennedy's funeral and grave site, go to the Arlington National Cemetery website. Dallas - JFK's fateful trip to Texas: Then and now - Pictures - CBS News JFK's fateful trip to Texas: Then and now Next Dallas This Sept. 10, 2013 photo shows an Associated Press image taken Nov. 22, 1963, of Jackie Kennedy and Secret Service agent Clint Hill climbing on the back of the limousine after President Kennedy was shot, juxtaposed with the current scene in Dallas. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Houston This Nov. 7, 2013 photo shows an image taken on Nov. 21, 1963, of people lining Travis Street near Texas Avenue to see President John F. Kennedy's motorcade during a visit to Houston, juxtaposed against the current scene in the city. Kennedy was assassinated the following day in Dallas.

Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Dallas Police Headquarters This Sept. 10, 2013 photo shows an image taken by Bob Jackson of the Dallas Times Herald on Nov. 24, 1963, of Lee Harvey Oswald, reacting as Dallas night club owner Jack Ruby, foreground, shoots at him from point blank range in a corridor of Dallas Police Headquarters, juxtaposed with the current scene at the Dallas Police Headquarters, in Dallas. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Rice Hotel This Oct. 22, 2013 photo shows an image taken by Alexander Arroyos on Nov. 21, 1963, of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the Grand Ballroom at the Rice Hotel, juxtaposed against the current parking garage at the Rice Hotel, in Houston. Kennedy was assassinated the following day. The Grand Ballroom no longer exists after the hotel was remodeled making it into a parking garage. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Texas Theatre This Sept. 9, 2013 photo shows an image provided by the City of Dallas Archive taken Nov.

22, 1963, of a Dallas police officer pointing to the seat at the Texas Theatre where Lee Harvey Oswald was sitting when police entered to arrest him, juxtaposed against the current scene in Dallas. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Dallas This Sept. 10, 2013 photo shows an image taken by Darryl Heikes of the Dallas Times Herald on Nov. 22, 2013, of the scene where Lee Harvey Oswald shot Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit, juxtaposed against the current scene in Dallas. The decorated, 11-year veteran police officer was, according to two federal government investigations, shot and killed by Oswald. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Houston International Airport This Oct. 30, 2013 photo shows an image taken Nov. 21, 1963, of President Kennedy shaking hands with 22 prominent Houstonians after he and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy arrived at Houston International Airport, juxtaposed against the current William P. Hobby Airport in Houston. Kennedy was assassinated the following day. The airport's name was changed to William P.

Hobby Airport in 1967 in honor of the Texas governor, and the current-day terminal was finished in 2003. The original location where Air Force One was parked in the original photo is no longer an open area; it is now a parking toll plaza. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Dealey Plaza This Nov. 5, 2013 photo shows an image taken by Dallas Morning News photographer Tom Dillard on Nov. 22, 1963, of spectators lying on the ground in Dealey Plaza as a motorcycle police officer drives by immediately after the shooting of President Kennedy, juxtaposed outside of the current day Elm Street, in Dallas. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Texas Theatre This Sept. 10, 2013 photo shows an image taken by Stuart Reed on Nov. 22, 1963, of Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest, juxtaposed against the modern day Texas Theatre, in Dallas. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Texas School Book Depository This Sept. 10, 2013 photo shows an image taken by Dallas Times Herald photographer William Allen on Nov.

22, 1963, of police and detectives guarding the front entrance to the Texas School Book Depository building less than an hour after the assassination of President Kennedy, juxtaposed against the current scene in Dallas. Dallas Police Officer M.N. McDonald, right, went to Oak Cliff to investigate after hearing on the police radio that an officer had been shot there. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Rice Hotel This Oct. 23, 2013 photo shows an image taken Nov. 21, 1963, of University of Houston Phi Kappa Theta fraternity members joining the crowd outside the Rice Hotel to greet their fraternal alumni brother President Kennedy during a visit to the city, juxtaposed against the current scene in Houston. Kennedy was assassinated the following day. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Houston This Oct. 23, 2013 photo shows an image taken Nov. 21, 1963, of Houston Chronicle employees leaning out the window waiting on President John. F. Kennedy's motorcade, juxtaposed against the current scene in Houston. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Houston This Oct.

23, 2013 photo shows an image taken Nov. 21, 1963, of spectators waiting on U.S. President John F. Kennedy's motorcade during a visit to Houston, juxtaposed against the current day scene in the city. Kennedy was assassinated the following day. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP Houston This Nov. 7, 2013 photo shows an image taken Nov. 21, 1963, of people lining Travis Street near Rusk Street to see U.S. President John F. Kennedy's motorcade during a visit to Houston, juxtaposed against the current scene in Houston. Kennedy was assassinated the following day. Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle/AP President Kennedy is assassinated - Nov 22, 1963 - HISTORY.com President Kennedy is assassinated Publisher A+E Networks President John F. Kennedy is shot and killed as his motorcade drives through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy’s suspected assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was believed to have used a mail-order rifle in order to shoot the president from the sixth story window of the Texas School Book Depository.

Oswald was a former Marine with a record of bizarre behavior. In 1959, he defected to Russia after years of obsessive interest in communism. He spent three years there before becoming disaffected and returning to the United States in 1962. Upon his return, he became involved with several political fringe groups and developed an intense interest in Cuba and Fidel Castro. On November 22, several people claimed to have seen Oswaldnear the sixth floor of theDepository, where he was employed. From the sixth floor window, atop cartons of books assembled to make a sniper’s perch, Oswald purportedly fired three shots, the last of which killed Kennedy as his motorcade passed by the building. A gun that was later located in the Depository had a palm print that matched Oswald’s. Forty-five minutes after the assassination, Oswald was seen hurrying through the Dallas streets by police officer J.D. Tippit, who identified him as matching the description of Kennedy’s killer. When Tippit attempted to apprehend him, Oswald shot him to death with a revolver and fled. In the early afternoon, police converged on the Texas Theater, where Oswald had been spotted.

Inside, Oswald punched an approaching officer and withdrew a pistol. The gun misfired and other police officers grabbed him. “I am not resisting arrest,” Oswald cried as he was dragged out in front of an angry crowd of onlookers. “Don’t hit me anymore! I want a lawyer!” In fact, Oswald would never require the services of an attorney because he was shot and killed by Dallas restaurant owner Jack Ruby as he was being transferred fromthe police station to the county jailtwo days later. Related Videos JFK Assassination: 50 Years Later – In Dealey Plaza, It Is Always Nov. 22, 1963 JFK Assassination: 50 Years Later – In Dealey Plaza, It Is Always Nov. 22, 1963 Analysis 11/01/13 AT 3:27 PM Close Prof. Josiah Thompson, an assassination researcher and author of “Six Seconds In Dallas,” said it best when he summarized the assassination of President John F.

Kennedy: “A president of the United States is shot down, at high noon, in a public square, with some 400 or 500 people looking on, with maybe at least 38 of them taking film and photos, and now over 40 years later, uh … we don’t know what happened,” Thompson said, in the 2007 documentary film “Oswald’s Ghost.” In September 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone on Nov. 22, 1963, when he assassinated President John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, and the only Roman Catholic elected to the office. [[nid:1451588]] The commission said that at about 12:30 p.m. Central Time, Oswald fired three shots from behind the presidential motorcade on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building, using a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle as the motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. The commission concluded the following: One shot struck Kennedy in the neck, exited through his throat and then hit Texas Gov.

John Connally, creating five wounds in Connally’s body. A shot after the aforementioned one struck Kennedy in the rear portion of his head, killing him. Another shot missed the motorcade, ricocheted and injured bystander James Tague in the cheek, 200 feet west of the motorcade at the Stemmons Freeway Overpass; the commission did not specify whether the missed shot was the first or third shot. Who Is Correct? However, rather than close the JFK assassination case, the Warren Commission’s work and conclusions did just the opposite. Questions about the commission’s failure to interview some Dealey Plaza witnesses; review the discrepancies between the conclusions of the Parkland Hospital physicians’ examination and the Bethesda [Maryland] Naval Hospital’s autopsy photos; investigate the destruction of the presidential limousine, a vital piece of forensic evidence; evaluate the Dallas Police Department’s interrogation of Oswald; and other concerns, have led many assassination researchers to reject the Warren Commission’s conclusions, either in whole or in part, and argue that more than one person fired gunshots at President Kennedy that day as part of a conspiracy. Lone-gunman supporters maintain that not enough hard evidence exists to undermine the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald acted alone.

Most assassination researchers argue that the hard evidence exists, and that the government lacks 100 percent transparency on the issue. As a result, they are seeking the full disclosure of all government records in the case. Who is correct? Of course, what you choose to believe is up to you, but consider this: For any argument to be valid for the events in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, it has to answer a lot of questions, including dozens of anomalies. Here are six anomalies, ranked from least to most important: The Anomalies 6) George de Mohrenschildt Befriends Lee Harvey Oswald Of all the anomalies in the assassination of President Kennedy -- and there are many anomalies in regard to the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald acted alone -- the friendship between George de Mohrenschildt and Lee Harvey Oswald is a glaring one, if not the most egregious. De Mohrenschildt, then age 52, was a conservative, sophisticated White Russian émigré and petroleum geologist/professor who settled in Dallas and established many contacts in the city’s oil, business and conservative circles, including the very conservative Texas Crusade for Freedom.

In 1957, De Mohrenschildt had been de-briefed by the Central Intelligence Agency after traveling to Yugoslavia to conduct a geological field survey for the U.S. State Department, a trip that had been sponsored by the International Cooperation Administration. During the trip, de Mohrenschildt had been accused by Yugoslav authorities of making drawings of military installations and fortifications. Upon returning to the U.S., the CIA debriefed him, both in Washington, D.C., and in Dallas. De Mohrenschildt, in a summary: He was a conservative, accomplished, oil sector-based, Russian émigré who had at least one interaction with the U.S. intelligence community. In the summer of 1962, after Oswald and his wife, Marina, moved to Dallas, de Mohrenschildt and his wife, Jeanne, befriended the couple, introduced them to the Russian community in Dallas and gave Lee assistance with his Dallas-area job search. Lee had previously been employed in Fort Worth, Texas.

The anomaly is glaring: De Mohrenschildt -- why would a conservative, business-oriented, sophisticated geologist in Texas’s prime oil sector, who was active in right-wing political circles, strike up a friendship with a pro-communist, non-middle-class, malcontent outsider earning slightly more than the minimum wage? And why would this occur in the conservative, freedom-rabid, commerce-oriented hotbed that was Dallas in the early 1960s? From one perspective, the de Mohrenschildt / Oswald relationship symbolizes the essence of the United States, a place where friendships can form regardless of politics, social status or income level. Similarly, the pair’s friendship can also be seen as an example of “opposites attract.” From another perspective, the notion that de Mohrenschildt -- a conservative -- would befriend Oswald -- a Marxist drifter and malcontent -- is a contradiction: There is something about their lives intersecting that suggests de Mohrenschildt was not just trying to help Lee and Marina integrate into Dallas’ Russian community.

In Dallas, a very class-based city in the early 1960s (as it still is today), it’s highly unlikely that a conservative, sophisticated White Russian would welcome with open arms Marina, whom he knew nothing about, nor Lee -- an inconsequential, low-income, low-social-status loner. To use a Facebook/social media analogy, given their differences, Lee Harvey Oswald was probably the least likely person George de Mohrenschildt would have listed as a “friend” on his Facebook page. The anomaly suggests that the interactions between de Mohrenschildt and Lee Harvey Oswald were more substantive; that those interactions dealt with an aspect of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life other than finding a job; or a combination of both. There had to be a reason the accomplished de Mohrenschildt associated with the low-achieving Oswald. 5) Oswald Didn’t Fire When The Presidential Motorcade Was Close Oswald, the alleged sixth floor sniper in the Texas School Book Depository’s east window, didn’t fire the rifle when the motorcade was close.

He waited, the Warren Commission concluded, and instead of firing when the president was at point-blank range just before and just after the presidential limousine turned onto Elm Street from Houston Street -- roughly 60 feet away, unobstructed by trees -- he withheld his first shot until the president was more than 100 feet away. To repeat: Oswald had a clear, close, point-blank opportunity to shoot at the presidential limousine just before -- as it approached Elm Street -- and just after it turned from Houston Street on to Elm Street -- a more than 90-degree turn that left the president, seated in his limousine’s right rear seat, totally exposed, but he didn’t fire. How many assassins give up an easier, clearer, close shot for a much harder, and longer, shot? It doesn’t make sense – that is, if Oswald was the only shooter. Waiting did make sense, however, if the goal was the triangulation of fire. After the first rifle shot, the motorcade was more likely -- but not guaranteed -- to immediately speed away to a presumed safer location.

Hence, to ensure the maximum probability of killing the target, the initial shot would have had to have been delayed until the spot where two, three … even four gunmen from different angles could site and kill the target. And the reason triangulation makes it more likely to kill the target is obvious enough: Assuming a motorcade sped away after a first rifle shot, a target strike is more likely with three or more shooters firing at a target, as opposed to just one shooter. If the target can be killed in several spots within a zone by triangulated shooters, it’s called a kill zone. The first rifle shot occurred when the motorcade was on Elm Street, where the triangulation of fire potential was very strong: It was at the beginning of the kill zone. 4) Texas Gov. John Connally Never Heard The Shot That Injured Him Three spent cartridges -- or bullet shells -- were found in the Texas School Book Depository’s sixth floor east corner window area that the Warren Commission concluded was the sniper’s nest. The commission concluded Oswald fired three gunshots from a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, which was purchased by Oswald, and which he brought to work at the TSBD that Friday.

Most Kennedy assassination researchers, but not the Warren Commission, concluded that the first shot missed the presidential motorcade (but it ricocheted and injured spectator James Tague); the second shot struck Kennedy, passed through the president’s neck and throat and also struck Texas Gov. John Connally, seated in front of him, injuring the governor in five places; the third shot struck the president in the head, killing him. In the interpretation of the commission, the three spent cartridges from the rifle, located within 10 feet of the window where the shots were fired, represented hard evidence that the shots came from the TSBD’s sixth floor and from Oswald’s Mannlicher-Carcano. Three cartridges found: from one perspective, it’s strong evidence. Three rifle shots were fired, three shells from a rifle used that day were found, and the trajectory of the bullets, the commission concluded, fit with angle of attack in the assassination. From another perspective, the three cartridges found look like an anomaly -- too neat -- like they were planted there.

However, the biggest reason the shells are an anomaly is that although Connally reacted to a first rifle shot as the motorcade was near the beginning of Elm Street in Dealey Plaza, Connally said he never heard the shot that hit him as the motorcade was in the middle of Elm Street in Dealey Plaza. (Source: Warren Commission testimony by Gov. Connally.) That’s an anomaly of the most egregious sort because it was impossible for Connally not to hear and react to the gunshot that hit him. Connally, like Kennedy, was less than 300 feet away when the rifle shots were fired, traveling in an open-top limousine, which means he would have heard the bullet’s shock wave (130 decibels) or muzzle blast (115-135 decibels), according to the House Select Committee on Assassinations’ calculation of the decibel levels for the rifle shots. Rifle shots at those decibel levels would have been heard above any car/motorcycle engine and crowd noise. But if Connally’s recollection that he never heard the shot that injured him is accurate, that suggests at least one shot was fired with a gun that used a suppresser/silencer.

And because the Warren Commission’s conclusion does not allow for “unheard shots,” but only for shots that were heard, that suggests there was a second gunman during the attack. That anomaly -- the failure to react to a loud noise when the Warren Commission concluded a rifle was fired -- technically, in ballistics/acoustics it's called an involuntary startle reaction -- is significant, according to assassination researcher Bob Harris. Connally’s statement that he never heard the shot that hit him suggests, contrary to the Warren Commission, that something in addition to a rifle shot occurred at the outset of the attack -- suggesting that at least one shot was fired by another shooter with a silencer-enhanced gun. Moreover, although it's physically possible for the Texas School Book Depository sniper to have fired a silencer-enhanced gun after the first rifle shot, no such silencer gun or silencer apparatus was found on the sixth floor by investigators. 3) Authorities Arrested Oswald In About 90 Minutes In about 90 minutes -- not, say, three days, the amount of time it took authorities to identify the April 2013 Boston Marathon terrorist bombing suspects -- the police already knew who did it.

In 90 minutes they arrested Oswald in the Texas Theatre in Dallas. Ninety minutes. The president of the United States is gunned down in broad daylight in a public square and 90 minutes later the authorities have their suspect. Ninety minutes -- that’s less time than it takes to see a typical American movie. Further, although Oswald did work in the Texas School Book Depository, his arrest occurred despite these facts: - Not one witness in Dealey Plaza or in the TSBD could accurately identify Oswald as the man in the sixth floor’s east corner window with a rifle. A man was seen in the sixth floor’s east corner window with a rifle, but not one witness could specifically attest that it was Oswald. - Not one witness could confirm that Oswald was on the sixth floor at 12:30 p.m. - Despite the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Oswald left the sixth floor of the TSBD immediately after the 12:30 p.m. shooting and descended the stairs to reach a second floor room, TSBD employee Victoria Adams, "the girl on the stairs,” said she never saw Oswald when she descended the stairs at the same time.

The Warren Commission also concluded that Oswald reached the second floor room in 90 seconds after firing the final rifle shot, where he was spotted by a witness. - Not one witness who was not exposed to Oswald’s picture on a television news report was able to identify him as the man in the TSBD’s sixth floor east corner window with a rifle. From one perspective, Oswald’s presence in the TSBD and the fact he left the building is very relevant, if not hard evidence. From another perspective, the fact that no witnesses could accurately identify Oswald as the man with a rifle in the sixth floor’s east corner window, along with the fact that none could confirm that Oswald was on the sixth floor at 12:30 p.m. or even confirm that Oswald descended the stairs immediately after the shooting to reach the second floor, as the Warren Commission concluded – together, these facts comprise an anomaly. There was a man in the sixth floor’s east corner window at 12:30 p.m., but to-date there’s no hard, incontrovertible evidence that it was Oswald, and if it wasn’t, it suggests someone else may have been there. 2) After An Earlier Arrest In April 1963, Who Did Oswald Call?

After being arrested for an incident involving the Fair Play For Cuba Committee in April 1963 -- anti-Fidel Castro demonstrators had interfered with Oswald’s handing out pro-Castro leaflets in New Orleans -- Oswald was arrested and placed in jail. After being jailed, Oswald was allowed to make a phone call. Who did he call? His wife, Marina Oswald? His lawyer? No. He called none of them. Instead, he called a specific person at the FBI. The anomaly here is obvious: How many arrested individuals placed in jail would, with their free call from jail, call the Federal Bureau of Investigation? From one perspective, Oswald’s arrest amid an altercation at a pro-Castro leaflet distribution event that he led is another sign of his pro-communist beliefs. From another perspective, Oswald’s decision to call the FBI from a New Orleans jail is an anomaly of the very worst sort. Why would Lee Harvey Oswald call the FBI from jail? Did Oswald have prior contact and/or a relationship with the FBI that the Warren Commission did not thoroughly investigate or reveal in its report? 1) Two Days After Kennedy Is Killed, Jack Ruby Kills Oswald Two days after Oswald was arrested, on Sunday, Nov.

24, 1963, at 11:21 a.m. Central Time, Jacob Rubenstein, known as Jack Ruby , a Dallas nightclub/strip club operator and a person who had a significant number of direct/indirect contacts with underworld figures, broke past police lines and shot Oswald in the abdomen with a .38 revolver as Oswald was being transferred from Dallas police headquarters to a county jail. Oswald was pronounced dead from the gunshot wound about an hour later at Parkland Hospital, the same hospital that attempted to save President Kennedy’s life two days earlier. Known as “Sparky” for his impulsive behavior and violent outbursts, after his arrest, Ruby said his murder of Oswald would spare, “[President Kennedy’s wife Jacqueline] Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial” and that his act helped the city of Dallas “redeem” itself in the eyes of the public. Again, the anomaly here is obvious, and it’s even more conspicuous when one considers the Warren Commission’s subsequent action.

From one perspective, the murder of Oswald by Ruby, a person with a history of violent outbursts and physical altercations with various individuals (club patrons, strippers) at his Dallas nightclub / strip club, the Carousel Club, is just another violent act by a man prone to them, and to erratic, unpredictable, impulsive behavior. From another perspective, Ruby’s originally stated motive for the murder is an anomaly: Ruby’s murder was not spontaneous, but involved some premeditation. (Ruby’s association with many Dallas police officers -- some of whom visited Ruby’s nightclub / strip club -- meant that he could slip through police lines without drawing their concern or their knowing about his intentions.) And Ruby’s underworld ties suggest that he was told by some person or organization to murder Oswald / see that he was killed, in a classic witness elimination act of a person who was a ‘loose end’ in a conspiracy. Ruby’s elimination of Oswald suggests Oswald knew information that others did not want publicized. Moreover, Ruby’s initial statement that he murdered Oswald because he was “morally” distressed by Oswald’s alleged killing of President Kennedy strains credulity, to say the least.

Ruby’s decades-long involvement with organized crime figures and management of strippers is hard to reconcile with a personal sense of morality. Further, Ruby certainly later wanted to tell the Warren Commission more. Ruby asked Commission Chairman / U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren several times to take him to Washington, D.C., saying his life was in danger in Dallas and that he wanted to tell the truth. The Warren Commission refused to bring Ruby to Washington, D.C. to testify. Anomalies Require The Making Public Of More Classified Documents -The conservative, accomplished George de Mohrenschildt befriends the communist-favoring, blue collar Lee Harvey Oswald. -Oswald didn’t fire when the presidential motorcade was close. -Three spent cartridges from rifle shots were found in the Texas School Book Depository’s sixth floor east corner window, to account for three shots fired, but Texas Gov. John Connally didn’t hear the shot that hit him, despite the fact that the bullet’s muzzle blast would have been about 130 decibels unmuzzled and the shockwave 115-135 decibels. -Authorities arrested Lee Harvey Oswald in about 90 minutes.

-After an earlier arrest in April 1963, Oswald’s first phone call from jail was to the FBI. -Two days after President Kennedy is killed, Jack Ruby kills Oswald. The Warren Commission concluded that the disgruntled, low-achieving, communist-favoring Oswald, a member of the social fringe, acted on his own, firing three shots with a rifle and murdered President John F. Kennedy to achieve historical significance and notoriety. But the aforementioned anomalies contradict that conclusion. Further, the anomalies described here and others suggest Oswald was not the person portrayed by the Warren Commission. For the above reasons, and others, the case of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy cannot be considered closed, and much more information, including all JFK assassination documents -- as well as all documents on Lee Harvey Oswald -- must be released and made public, un-redacted. These documents must include the making public of a handful of long-suppressed CIA records related to the assassination of President Kennedy: These CIA records are not scheduled to be released until 2017 at the earliest, and perhaps not even then, according to the Mary Ferrell Foundation, an assassination research center.

In other words, there must be a 100 percent transparent and honest investigation of the assassination and its aftermath -- something many argue the American people have not received to date. All documents must be made public. For the good of the democratic process. And for the good of the nation. -- The Museum - The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey PlazaThe Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza The Museum > The Museum Share The Museum, located within the former Texas School Book Depository building, chronicles the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The main exhibit, John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation , is on the sixth floor. Special exhibits and public programs are presented on the seventh floor. While visiting, stop by the Museum Stores + Café . About The Museum Mission Statement + Vision Statement MISSION STATEMENT The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza chronicles the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy; interprets the Dealey Plaza National Historic Landmark District and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza; and presents contemporary culture within the context of presidential history.

VISION STATEMENT To be an impartial, multi-generational destination and forum for exploring the memory and effects of the events surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy, through sharing his legacy and its impact on an ever-changing global society. American Alliance of Museums In June 2014, The Sixth Floor Museum achieved re-accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition possible for a museum. The Institute of Museum and Library Services estimates there are about 35,000 museums in the U.S., of which 1,033 are accredited. The Sixth Floor Museum is part of an elite group of only four accredited institutions in Dallas. Dallas Faces Race Dallas Faces Race is the beginning of a sustainable forum on race in Dallas. The forum brings together organizations to actively build their capacity to address racial equity and make change. The Sixth Floor Museum is proud to be a partner. Texas Society of Architects On November 8, 2014, The Sixth Floor Museum was awarded a citation of honor from the Texas Society of Architects in recognition of extraordinary dedication to preserving the memory of history and collaborating with others to preserve historic spaces for future generations.

Extremists in Dallas created volatile atmosphere before JFK’s 1963 visit | Dallas Morning News October 12, 2013 11:49 PM CDT October 13, 2013 09:26 AM CDT Extremists in Dallas created volatile atmosphere before JFK’s 1963 visit Extremists in Dallas created volatile atmosphere before JFK’s 1963 visit 1/3 File/The Associated Press U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson was struck on the head by a sign wielded by a woman protesting outside Memorial Auditorium in Dallas in October 1963, one month before President John F. Kennedy's assassination. 12 October 2013 11:49 PM Updated: 13 October 2013 09:26 AM The image of Dallas as a bulwark of right-wing extremism lodged in the American mind during the early 1960s. The reality was more complicated. Most people, here as elsewhere, were more interested in orbiting astronauts, James Bond movies and Elvis than they were in attending meetings of the ultra-conservative John Birch Society.

But complexity surrendered to the image when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963. Dallas became known to the world as the city of hate, the city that killed Kennedy. The negative narrative had taken root three years earlier, when U.S. Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, visited Dallas shortly before the 1960 presidential election. Johnson was a moderate Democrat and by far the state’s most powerful politician. More important, he was JFK’s running mate. A gaggle of disagreeable Kennedy detractors, mostly well-dressed women, confronted the Johnsons upon their arrival at the Adolphus Hotel. They surrounded the startled couple on the street, screaming and spitting at them. The greeting party had been organized by U.S. Rep. Bruce Alger, an archconservative Dallas Republican and a supporter of Kennedy’s election opponent, Richard Nixon. As the Johnsons were accosted, Alger stood nearby holding a sign that said, “LBJ Sold Out to Yankee Socialists.” The confrontation drew national attention. Conservatives in other cities voiced concerns about JFK. But in Dallas they screamed them with a venom that frightened many.

“You could feel it in the air,” recalled historian Darwin Payne, who was a Dallas newspaper reporter in the early 1960s. “When I hear some people express hatred for [President Barack] Obama, it feels the same. But I never have felt we are on the verge of anything like the events I witnessed back then.” John Birch Society HQ In the 1950s and early ’60s, fear of communism and of nuclear war with the Soviet Union spread across America like a political flu. The John Birch Society designated Dallas a regional headquarters and opened a bookstore here. The society preached that Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower — among many others — were willing dupes of the Communist Party. Robert Welch, the retired candy manufacturer who founded the John Birch Society, was convinced that communists controlled American labor unions, the leaders of the civil rights movement — and John F. Kennedy. Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis, authors of a new book, Dallas 1963, said extremists in Dallas didn’t just criticize Kennedy; they painted him as a traitor.

“There was something in Dallas that seemed to be summoning people to a raw, hard-edged resistance to JFK,” said Minutaglio, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a former staff writer at The Dallas Morning News. “We believe it was a distinct minority, but pretty powerful at the top.” And none wielded more power than H.L. Hunt. The oil titan was reputed to be the richest man in America. He wasn’t shy about spending his money to advance his political beliefs. On Feb. 15, 1960, eight months before the assault on LBJ and Lady Bird outside the Adolphus, Hunt appeared at a downtown bookstore to autograph copies of his utopian novel, Alpaca. Despite the frosty weather, hundreds of Dallas residents lined up outside the bookstore. The book, a thinly veiled political manifesto, told the story of Juan Achala, a citizen of “Alpaca” who traveled the world in search of the perfect constitution for his small nation. Hunt the novelist revealed that Hunt the oil baron had little use for the ideal of political equality. In his perfect world, the wealthiest citizens — those paying the most taxes — would be given extra votes.

Political discussion would be prohibited on television and radio, and at any meeting of more than 200 people. This was to prevent demagogues from influencing the masses. The speech restrictions were odd, given that Hunt spent the previous decade using TV and radio to push his political views through Facts Forum, a propaganda outlet masquerading as a “public service” program. Hunt was baldly pro-business and anti-regulation. He despised communism, the United Nations and John F. Kennedy. As Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, was pursing the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960, Hunt secretly financed the printing of 200,000 copies of an anti-Catholic sermon by the Rev. W.A. Criswell, the influential pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas. Criswell argued that if a Catholic became president, the pope would dictate American policy. Clint Murchison, another prominent Dallas oil man, opposed Kennedy’s plans for expanded federal aid to the poor. More important, Kennedy seemed sympathetic to rolling back the oil depletion allowance, a tax break that helped men like Hunt and Murchison grow even wealthier.

Jane Wolfe, author of The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty, said Murchison and other Texas oil magnates were shocked when LBJ agreed to become JFK’s running mate. “Johnson had enormous clout in the Senate,” Wolfe wrote. “And much of this power was due to these Texas oilmen.” Extreme-right general One of the right-wing, anti-communist zealots drawn to Dallas in the early 1960s was U.S. Army Gen. Edwin Walker. A veteran of World War II and the Korean conflict, Walker resigned his Army commission in November 1961, after civilian superiors in Washington admonished him for pressing John Birch Society literature on his troops. Walker openly called prominent politicians “pink,” a term for those suspected of being communist sympathizers. He even embraced the John Birch Society’s view that Eisenhower, a World War II hero before becoming president, was a communist. Most people, of course, found that notion absurd. Nonetheless, the extreme right worshiped Walker as a super-patriot.

When he moved to Dallas in December 1961, Mayor Earle Cabell greeted him with a welcoming proclamation, presented before a crowd of 5,000 well-wishers. Within days, Walker began a campaign for governor of Texas, filing as a candidate in the Democratic primary. Dallas was his campaign headquarters. With the backing of H.L. Hunt, he ran as a states’ rights segregationist dedicated to exposing communists in every walk of life. In a primary field of six Democrats, he finished sixth. Walker, however, wasn’t nearly finished carving his name into Dallas’ political history. In a bizarre twist of history, Walker would become the victim of an assassination attempt April 10, 1963, seven months before Kennedy was killed. His would-be assassin? Lee Harvey Oswald, a troubled ex-Marine and self-described communist who had defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959 before returning to the United States and settling in Dallas in the summer of 1962.

After Oswald’s arrest in connection with the Kennedy assassination, his wife, Marina, testified that her husband told her he had taken a bus to Walker’s home on Turtle Creek Boulevard and, from outside the home, fired one rifle shot at the former general, who was seated at a desk and visible through a window. The bullet struck the window frame, and Walker sustained only minor injuries. Marina Oswald said her husband told her Walker was the leader of a “fascist organization.” She could offer no logical explanation for why Lee Oswald, an avowed leftist, would target the right-wing extremist Walker and the president, who was despised by so many on the far right. Attack on U.N. envoy At his home, Walker flew an American flag upside down — a symbol of distress. Later, he would plant a billboard in his yard calling for the impeachment of Earl Warren, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who was viewed by the far right as the evil architect of school integration and the outlawing of officially sanctioned prayers in the classroom. But those symbols were mere smudges on the national snapshot of Dallas, compared with the attack on U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson II on Oct.

24, 1963, a month before Kennedy’s assassination. The story goes like this: When Walker heard that Stevenson was coming to Dallas to deliver a speech at Memorial Auditorium commemorating U.N. Day, he scheduled a “U.S. Day” celebration one day earlier at the same downtown locale. Walker, speaking to 1,000 people, called his gathering a “symbol of our sovereignty,” then added: “Tomorrow night, there will stand here a symbol of the communist conspiracy and its United Nations.” During Stevenson’s U.N. Day address, a heckler stood up in the audience and began shouting into a bullhorn. He was later identified as a founder of the National Indignation Convention, another right-wing Dallas group that had supported Walker in his failed run for governor. Police escorted the heckler from the auditorium, but the trouble had just begun. After the speech, a hostile crowd of about 100 protesters surrounded the ambassador outside the auditorium. Many carried signs denouncing the U.N. — signs that had been stored at Walker’s home, according to Payne, the Dallas historian. Stevenson tried to reason with the protesters. Suddenly, one woman conked him on the head with her sign.

A man spat on him. After police broke through the crowd to rescue him, Stevenson was heard to say, “Are these human beings or are these animals?” Once again, the spotlight shone on Dallas. “A City Disgraced,” read the headline in Time magazine. The Dallas Morning News, in an editorial headlined “Our Apologies,” defended the ambassador’s right to deliver his speech and admonished demonstrators for their crude manners. The editorial ended with words that, read today, are chilling: “The President of the United States will be here in November. We trust he will be welcomed and accorded the respect and dignity that go with the office he represents.” Newspaper’s editorials In the early 1960s, the opinion pages of The Dallas Morning News reflected the anti-Kennedy views of the newspaper’s publisher, E.M. “Ted” Dealey. Day after day, editorials and opinion columns criticized the president. He was soft on communism. He was deceitful. He was expanding the reach of the federal government at the expense of individual liberty. One of the newspaper’s prominent columnists was Robert Morris. Like Walker, he had moved to Dallas in the early 1960s.

Morris made his reputation as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on internal security. Morris had been a close associate of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican who became infamous for his witch hunts against imagined communists in the State Department, the Truman White House, the U.S. Army, even the Voice of America. In a ceremonial 1961 visit to the White House, Ted Dealey decided to let the president know just what he thought of him. The occasion was a luncheon for Texas publishers. When Kennedy asked them if they had any questions, Dealey rose. Reading from a prepared text, he told Kennedy, “The general opinion of the grassroots thinking in this country is that you and your administration are weak sisters.” It got worse. “We need a man on horseback to lead this nation,” Dealey said, “and many people in Texas and the Southwest think that you are riding Caroline’s tricycle.” The other publishers were aghast at the rude display. Kennedy kept his cool, but later expressed anger that Dealey had derided him with a reference to his 3-year-old daughter. On Nov.

22, 1963, The News greeted the first couple with a print version of “good cop, bad cop.” The newspaper’s lead editorial expressed hope that JFK’s visit to Dallas might help “Democrats, Republicans and Independents unite today in a genuineness of welcome and cordiality.” However, a full-page advertisement on Page 14, framed by a funereal black border, carried a sarcastic headline: “Welcome Mr. Kennedy to Dallas.” It asked a series of 12 biting questions, each starting with “WHY” in bold capital letters. “WHY has Gus Hall, head of the U.S. Communist Party praised almost every one of your policies and announced that the party will endorse and support your re-election?” “WHY have you scrapped the Monroe Doctrine in favor of the ‘Spirit of Moscow?’” And so forth. The ad was signed by “The American Fact-Finding Committee,” which listed a “Bernard Weissman” as its chairman. But these were fronts. Warren Commission investigators later determined that Joseph P.

Grinnan, an oil broker and local leader of the John Birch Society, had paid for the ad with “around $1,500” donated by three men: H. R. “Bum” Bright, an oil man who later became owner of the Dallas Cowboys; Nelson Bunker Hunt, a son of H.L. Hunt; and Edgar Crissey, an insurance company executive. Ted Dealey acknowledged approving the ad in advance because it lined up with the editorial opinions of The News. Stanley Marcus, the head of Neiman Marcus and a Kennedy supporter, reflecting on those times, later said: “The News, in my opinion, was almost single-handedly responsible for the prevailing state of mind in Dallas at the time of the assassination.” Police chief’s fears The news that JFK would visit Dallas broke on Sept. 25, 1963. The attack on Stevenson came a month later. Civic leaders and Dallas police were determined to prevent anything similar from happening when the president and the first lady were in town. The city had been embarrassed enough.

“As the tension mounted, the small and violent minority were in danger of upsetting the stability of the entire city,” Jesse Curry, the police chief at the time of the assassination, wrote in a 1969 memoir. Curry was riding in the presidential motorcade on Nov. 22. Cheering crowds lined the route between Love Field and downtown. People waved and strained to catch a glimpse of the president and his wife in their big Lincoln limousine. The atmosphere contradicted the image of Dallas as a city that hated the president. “The people of Dallas had turned out in overwhelming numbers and had given the President a vibrant and warm welcome,” Curry recalled. “For a brief moment, I almost started to relax.” COMMEMORATING JFK Nov. 2 symposium Tickets are on sale for the Nov. 2 symposium, “Understanding Tragedy: The Impact of the JFK Assassination on Dallas,” presented by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture in partnership withThe Dallas Morning News and other organizations. The symposium will take place from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

at The South Side Ballroom in Dallas and will feature more than a dozen high-profile speakers, including Jim Lehrer, Stephen Carter, Nikky Finney, Richard Rodriguez and Lawrence Wright. The event will explore how President John F. Kennedy’s death affected Dallas from four perspectives: Journalism, Politics, Art & the Humanities, and Religion. Tickets range from $25 to $300 and are available at . More information is also available at JFK50.com. editor picks

Question: In 1963 President Kennedy was shot in which square in Dallas?
Answer: Dealey Plaza