On Friday, November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was in the vehicle with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting; Connally was also wounded in the attack but recovered. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was hastily sworn in as president two hours and eight minutes later aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field.

After the assassination, Oswald returned home to retrieve a pistol; he shot and killed a lone Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit shortly afterwards. Around 70 minutes after Kennedy and Connally were shot, Oswald was apprehended by the Dallas Police Department and charged under Texas state law with the murders of Kennedy and Tippit. Two days later, as live television cameras covered Oswald being moved through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters, he was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby. Like Kennedy, Oswald was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he soon died. Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder, though the decision was overturned on appeal, and Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial.

After a 10-month investigation, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, and that there was no evidence that either Oswald or Ruby was part of a conspiracy. In 1967, New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison brought the only trial for Kennedy's murder against businessman Clay Shaw; Shaw was acquitted. Subsequent federal investigations—such as the Rockefeller Commission and Church Committee—agreed with the Warren Commission's general findings. In its 1979 report, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that Kennedy was likely "assassinated as a result of a conspiracy". The HSCA did not identify possible conspirators, but concluded that there was "a high probability that two gunmen fired at [the] President". The HSCA's conclusions were largely based on a police Dictabelt recording, which was subsequently debunked by the U.S. Justice Department.

Kennedy's assassination is still the subject of widespread debate and has spawned many conspiracy theories and alternative scenarios; polls have found that a vast majority of Americans believe there was a conspiracy. The assassination left a profound impact and was the first of four major assassinations during the 1960s in the United States, coming two years before the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and five years before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Kennedy's brother Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Kennedy was the fourth U.S. president to be assassinated and is the most recent to have died in office.

Background Kennedy

In 1960, John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, was elected the 35th president of the United States with Lyndon B. Johnson as his vice president."John F. Kennedy". The White House."John F. Kennedy: A Featured Biography". United States Senate.Bugliosi (1998), p. xi."1960 Electoral College Results". National Archives. Kennedy's tenure saw the height of the Cold War, and much of his foreign policy was dedicated to countering the Soviet Union and communism."1960 The Cold War". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.Sabato (2013), pp. 422–423. As president, he authorized operations to overthrow Fidel Castro's communist government in Cuba,Hinckle & Turner (1981), pp. ix, 15, 18. which culminated in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, during which he declined to directly involve American troops.Jones (2008), pp. 41, 50, 94. The following year, Kennedy de-escalated the Cuban Missile Crisis, widely regarded as the closest that humanity has come to nuclear holocaust.Borger (2022)

In 1963, Kennedy decided to travel to Texas to smooth over frictions within the state's Democratic Party between liberal U.S. senator Ralph Yarborough and conservative governor John Connally.Bugliosi (2007), pp. 13–16.Bugliosi (2008), pp. 17–23. The visit was first agreed upon by Kennedy, Johnson, and Connally during a meeting in El Paso in June.Warren (1964), p. 28. The motorcade route was finalized on November 18 and announced soon thereafter. Kennedy also viewed the Texas trip as an informal launch of his 1964 reelection campaign.White (1965), p. 3.

Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald (born 1939)Pontchartrain (2019) was a former U.S. Marine who had served in Japan and the Philippines, and had espoused communist and socialist beliefs since reading Karl Marx aged 14.Warren (1964), p. 683.Posner (1993), p. 28.Posner (1993), pp. 17–19. After accidentally shooting his elbow with an unauthorized handgun and fighting an officer, Oswald was court-martialed twice and demoted. In September 1959, he received a dependency discharge after claiming his mother was disabled.Posner (1993), pp. 32–33. A 19-year-old Oswald sailed on a freighter from New Orleans to France and then traveled to Finland, where he was issued a Soviet visa.Posner (1993), pp. 32–33, 46.

Oswald defected to the Soviet Union,Posner (1993), pp. 46–53. and in January 1960 he was sent to work at a factory in Minsk, Belarus.Warren (1964), p. 697.Posner (1993), p. 53. In 1961, he met and married Marina Prusakova,McMillan (1977), pp. 64–65. with whom he had a child.Warren (1964), p. 712. In 1962, he returned to the United States with a repatriation loan from the U.S. embassy. He settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth area,Warren (1964), p. 714. where he socialized with Russian émigrés—notably George de Mohrenschildt, a CIA informant.Posner (1993), pp. 82–83, 85, 100.Summers (2013), pp. 152–160. In March 1963, a bullet narrowly missed General Edwin Walker at his Dallas residence; a witness observed two conspicuous men. Relying on Marina's testimony, a note left by Oswald, and ballistic evidence, the Warren Commission attributed this assassination attempt to Oswald.Warren (1964), p. 183.

In April 1963, Oswald returned to his birthplace, New Orleans,Warren (1964), p. 403. and established an independent chapter of the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee, of which he was the sole member.Posner (1993), pp. 125–127.Warren (1964), pp. 728–729. While passing out pro-Castro literature alongside unknown compatriots, Oswald was arrested after scuffling with anti-Castro Cuban exiles.Summers (2013), p. 211.Posner (1993), pp. 151–152. In late September 1963, Oswald traveled to Mexico City, where, according to the Warren Commission, he visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies.Posner (1993), pp. 172–190. On October 3, Oswald returned to Dallas and found work at the Texas School Book Depository on Dealey Plaza.Warren (1964), pp. 14–15. During the workweek he lived separately from Marina at a Dallas rooming house.Bagdikian (1963), p. 26. On the morning of the assassination, he carried a long package (which he told coworkers contained curtain rods) into the depository;Bugliosi (2007), pp. 6, 165. the Warren Commission concluded that this package contained Oswald's disassembled rifle.Warren (1964), pp. 130–135.

November 22

Kennedy's arrival in Dallas and route to Dealey Plaza

On the evening of November 21, Air Force One touched down in Fort Worth, Texas at 11:07 pm. The President and First Lady arrived at the Hotel Texas in downtown Fort Worth at 11:35 pm.Bugliosi (2007), pp. 23–24. The following morning, November 22, President Kennedy and the First Lady boarded a 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible limousine to travel to a luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart.Testimony of Kenneth P. O'Donnell, Warren Commission Hearings.Warren (1964), p. 40. Other occupants of this vehiclethe second in the motorcadewere Secret Service Agent Bill Greer, who drove, Special Agent Roy Kellerman in the front passenger seat, and Governor Connally and his wife Nellie, who sat just forward of the Kennedys.Blaine (2011), p. 196.Bugliosi (2008), pp. 25, 41. Four Dallas police motorcycle officers accompanied the Kennedy limousine.Bugliosi (2007), pp. 29. Vice President Johnson, his wife Lady Bird, and Senator Yarborough rode in another convertible.Bugliosi (2008), p. 30.

The motorcade's meandering route through Dallas was designed to give Kennedy maximum exposure to crowds by passing through a suburban section of Dallas, and Main Street in Downtown Dallas, before turning right on Houston Street. After another block, the motorcade was to turn left onto Elm Street, pass through Dealey Plaza, and travel a short segment of the Stemmons Freeway to the Trade Mart. The planned route had been reported in newspapers several days in advance. Despite concerns about hostile protestorsKennedy's UN ambassador Adlai Stevenson had been spat on in Dallas a month earlierKennedy was greeted warmly by enthusiastic crowds.Bugliosi (2007), pp. 19–20, 30–38, 49."November 22, 1963: Death of the President". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.Bugliosi (2008), p. 51.

Shooting

Kennedy's limousine entered Dealey Plaza at . Nellie Connally turned and commented to Kennedy, who was sitting behind her, "Mr. President, they can't make you believe now that there are not some in Dallas who love and appreciate you, can they?" Kennedy's reply"No, they sure can't"⁠were his last words.Bugliosi (2008), pp. 56–57.

From Houston Street, the limousine made the planned left turn onto Elm, passing the Texas School Book Depository.Bugliosi (2008), pp. 56, 58. As it continued down Elm Street, multiple shots were fired: about 80% of the witnesses recalled hearing three shots.McAdams (2012) The Warren Commission concluded that three shots were fired and noted that most witnesses recalled that the second and third shots were bunched together.Warren (1964), p. 110. Shortly after Kennedy began waving, some witnesses heard the first gunshot, but few in the crowd or motorcade reacted, many interpreting the sound as a firecracker or backfire.Warren (1964), p. 49.Bugliosi (2008), pp. 58–60.

Within one second of each other, Governor Connally and Mrs. Kennedy turned abruptly from their left to their right.HSCA Appendix to Hearings, Vol VI. p. 29. Connallyan experienced hunterimmediately recognized the sound as that of a rifle and turned his head and torso rightward, noting nothing unusual behind him. He testified that he could not see Kennedy, so he started to turn forward again (turning from his right to his left), and that when his head was facing about 20 degrees left of center,Testimony of Gov. John Bowden Connally, Jr, Warren Commission Hearings. he was struck in his upper right back by a shot he did not hear,Bugliosi (2008), p. 61. then shouted, "My God. They're going to kill us all!"Bugliosi (2008), p. 62.

According to the Warren Commission and the HSCA, Kennedy was waving to the crowds on his right when a shot entered his upper back and exited his throat just beneath his larynx.Warren (1964), pp. 18–19.Stokes (1979), pp. 41–46. He raised his elbows and clenched his fists in front of his face and neck, then leaned forward and leftward. Mrs. Kennedy, facing him, put her arms around him.Testimony of Dr. Robert Roeder Shaw, Warren Commission Hearings.Bugliosi (2008), pp. 61–62. Although a serious wound, it likely would have been survivable.Sabato (2013), p. 216.