Joyce Wagner
In Motion Staff Writer
Nov. 22 marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. His wife, Jacqueline sat beside him in the back seat of an open Lincoln Continental convertible as it traveled 10 miles through the streets of Dallas.
The facts of what happened next have been disputed ever since.
Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and warehouse worker stood near an upstairs window of the Texas School Book Depository building. From his 6th floor vantage point, he fired three shots. JFK, mortally wounded, was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at Dallas Parkland Hospital.
From the first terrifying shot, Jackie realized something was wrong. When the bullet tore through JFK’s head, pieces of bone and brain matter flew onto the trunk as blood splattered the occupants of the car. Without thinking, Jackie clambered onto the trunk in an effort to retrieve those body parts and proceeded to put them back in place.
The street around them became a chaotic scene as uniformed and plain-clothes officers drew weapons while ordering everyone to the ground. Everyone was in a state of panic.
Oswald was stopped and questioned by a police officer about the assassination. Oswald shot and killed the officer. He was later arrested in a movie theater after reports of a suspicious person.
A crowd of reporters and curiosity seekers filled the basement of the Dallas police department two days later, when it was time to move Oswald to a more secure location. A concealed .38 revolver carried by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, brought Oswald down with one clear shot.
Ruby was charged with murder and sentenced to die. A few years later, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed the ruling. Ruby died from cancer while waiting for a new trial.
The Warren Commission determined that Oswald and Ruby acted upon their own intentions. There were no other people involved in the shootings that day.
And yet, conspiracy theories have run rampant ever since.
Were there other people involved? How many weapons and locations were there? Why didn’t the secret service stay with the Kennedy’s vehicle like they were supposed to?
According to author Hugh Aynesworth, a reporter at the time, who witnessed the assassination, the arrest of Oswald and Ruby shooting Oswald to death, “ The rifle shots had barely stopped echoing over Dealey Plaza that Friday afternoon a half century ago before untruths, both innocent and deliberate, began to distort the record and creep uncorrected in the world’s consciousness.”