While riding in the back seat of the presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 the 35th President of the United States was assassinated. The JFK assassination was tragic and shocking to the entire country, but it was not the first in American history. President John F. Kennedy was the fourth U.S. President killed by an assassination. Before him was Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881, and President William McKinley in 1901. This is not to say others have not been injured by assassination attempts as well, including Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
JFK was born in May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts as John Fitzgerald Kennedy. After graduating from Harvard University he signed up with the U.S. Navy Reserve and served in the Pacific War. After returning he went on to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate for the state of Massachusetts. Kennedy was also a Pulitzer Prize winning author for his work “Profiles in Courage”.
35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
The Assassination
President John F. Kennedy was riding in the back seat next to his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In the front of the vehicle Texas Governor John Connally sat alongside his wife Nellie. As the motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza at 12:30 pm shots rang out across the park. As Oswald took aim and fired upon the motorcade the President and his companions looked on and waved to the gleeful crowds on both sides of the road.
Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX where Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in the presidential motorcade on November 22, 1963.
From the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Lee Harvey Oswald fired his rifle hitting Kennedy in the back of the head and wounding Governor Connally. Using an Italian Carcano rifle that he had equipped with a Japanese telescopic lens Oswald carried out his attack and fled the building. Under the alias of A. Hidell he purchased the 6.5 mm Carcano rifle through a mail order for nearly twenty dollars in currency value at that time. Oswald also in using the name of A. Hidell, purchased a .38 caliber revolver which he later used to kill J.D. Tippit. Today the rifle resides in the National Archives. President John F. Kennedy was not the only death of that day. Nearly an hour after killing the President, Oswald shot and killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit. Tippit had responded to a police broadcast describing a possible shooter that fit Oswald’s physical description.
Carcano short rifle model 1891/38 used by Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.
Seventy minutes after JFK’s death Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested by Dallas police. He was charged with the deaths of the President and of J.D. Tippit. On November 24, 1963 two days after the assassination of JFK, Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald in the basement of the Dallas police department headquarters.
After the murder of President John F. Kennedy, the sitting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as U.S. President. By executive order Johnson established a committee to investigate the assassination, later to be known as the Warren Commission. In fulfilling its purpose to find out the members involved and their motivations and possible accomplices, the committee determined that the act was carried out solely by Lee Harvey Oswald. The commission also concluded that Dallas night club owner Jack Ruby acted alone as well in killing Oswald.
Lee Harvey Oswald
In his teenage years while living in the city of New Orleans Oswald considered himself to be an American Marxist. In fact he contacted the Socialist Party of America requesting information on how to join them. Later Oswald joined the Marine Corps where his military service was characterized by misconduct and his own dangerous negligence. After being honorably discharged he left America to live in the city of Minsk in Belarus.
Former U.S. Marine Lee and American Marxist Harvey Oswald.
Oswald was a student of the Russian language and dedicated himself to improving his fluency, supposedly to help him become a Soviet citizen as part of his defection from America. In April 1963 he returned to New Orleans where his wife he had married while living in the Soviet Union joined him. Oswald was once again living in America. Even having left Soviet Belarus Oswald’s love affair with communism was not yet over. While in New Orleans Oswald set up an office to support his commitment to the Pro-Fidel Castro movement, the Fair Play For Cuba Committee known as the FPFCC.
Oswald 1963 shown here handing out pamphlets in New Orleans that he purchased in support of the American communist and New York City based group the Fair Play For Cuba Committee.
The Fair Play For Cuba Committee appears to never have officially sanctioned Oswald’s actions in New Orleans on their behalf. In October of 1963 Oswald moved to Dallas, Texas where he found employment working in the Texas School Book Depository. This would be the setting for the assassination in November.
JFK Today
While the incident took place nearly 55 years ago today there is still much interest and intrigue surrounding the JFK Assassination. Visitors to the city can find dedicated tour guides such as those operated by Robin Brown of JFK Custom Tours in Dallas. It is a subject in American history that is bound to be discussed well into the future.
Attributions
Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. p. 378.
FBI Report of Investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Activities for Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans, Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 25, pp. 770, 773.
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