Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The Assassination of President Kennedy and Oswald’s Arrest

The Assassination of President Kennedy and Oswald’s Arrest On the morning of November 22, Marina watched President Kennedy’s motorcade on television, and cried when she learned he had been shot. When news reported the shots likely came from the Depository where Oswald worked, she recalled the Walker incident and checked the garage for the rifle, finding the blanket that had held it was empty (the rifle was missing). At 3 p.m., police arrived at the Paine home, and Marina directed them to the blanket, confirming the rifle was gone. Meanwhile, Oswald was interrogated at Dallas police headquarters by Captain Fritz, with FBI and Secret Service agents present. He denied any role in the Kennedy assassination or the murder of Patrolman J.D. Tippit, claimed he was eating lunch and speaking to his foreman at the time of the assassination, denied owning a rifle, and claimed his face had been superimposed on a photo of another man holding a rifle and pistol. He refused to answer questions about a selective service card in his wallet bearing the name “Alek J. Hidell”. Over three days, Oswald was brought before a crowd of more than 100 press representatives in the police hallway at least 16 times for questioning; he attempted to hire his own attorney but had not secured representation by Sunday morning. At 7:10 p.m. on November 22, Oswald was formally charged with Tippit’s murder, as multiple witnesses had identified him in lineups, and the revolver he carried at arrest was compatible with the weapon used in Tippit’s killing. The formal assassination charge was filed after 1:30 a.m. on November 23. By 10 p.m. on November 22, the FBI had traced the rifle found on the Depository’s sixth floor to a Chicago mail-order house, which confirmed it had been ordered in March 1963 by “A. Hidel” for shipment to Oswald’s Dallas post office box, paid for with a money order signed “A. Hidell”; handwriting analysis confirmed Oswald placed the order. Dallas police released many case details to the public, often erroneously, during impromptu press conferences, and brought Oswald to a midnight press conference where Jack Ruby, a 52-year-old Dallas nightclub operator, was present in the press pool.

Jack Ruby’s Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald

Jack Ruby’s Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald On the morning of November 24, 1963, arrangements were made to transfer Oswald from the Dallas city jail to the Dallas County jail, with press told the transfer would not occur before 10 a.m. Between 2:30 and 3 a.m. that day, anonymous death threats against Oswald had been received by the FBI and county sheriff’s office, but press crowded the jail basement to film the transfer, which was moved up to use an unmarked police car for speed. At approximately 11:20 a.m., Oswald emerged from the jail office flanked by detectives and walked toward the car in the glare of television camera lights. Jack Ruby stepped out from the press area to the right of the cameras, walked to within a few feet of Oswald, and fired a single shot from a Colt .38 revolver into Oswald’s abdomen. Oswald was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital at 1:07 p.m. without regaining consciousness. Ruby was arrested immediately, denied any conspiracy connection to the Kennedy assassination, and claimed he killed Oswald in a spontaneous fit of rage and grief over the President’s death. He was indicted for Oswald’s murder on November 26, 1963, found guilty on March 14, 1964, sentenced to death, and his appeal was pending as of September 1964.

Commission Conclusions on the Kennedy Assassination

Commission Conclusions on the Kennedy Assassination The Warren Commission, created to investigate the facts surrounding the Kennedy assassination and related events, conducted a full independent investigation with complete cooperation from all government agencies, and presented its reasoned, unanimous conclusions after a thorough search for the truth. Its first conclusion was that the shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor John Connally were fired from the sixth floor southeast corner window of the Texas School Book Depository, based on four supporting findings: (a) multiple witnesses saw a rifle being fired from the window, and some saw a rifle there immediately after the shots; (b) the nearly intact bullet found on Governor Connally’s stretcher at Parkland Memorial Hospital and two bullet fragments found in the presidential limousine were fired from the 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found on the Depository’s sixth floor, to the exclusion of all other weapons; (c) the three spent cartridge cases found near the sixth floor window were fired from the same rifle, to the exclusion of all other weapons; and (d) the presidential limousine’s windshield was struck by a bullet fragment on its interior surface but was not penetrated.