Fifty Years Ago

Today is Friday, November 22, 2013.  Exactly fifty years ago, on the morning of Friday, November 22, 1963, most of us were probably getting ready to go to our 7th grade first period class at the old junior-senior high near the courthouse.  Little did we know that when we went to our first class after lunch, we would have a new president.  During the noon hour, President Kennedy had been assassinated.

Our class was going to English with Mrs. Alcott.  I believe she was part-time, teaching only in the afternoon.  When we came in, she told us of the newscasts that the president had been shot.  My family's house was only one block away, so she let me run home and get a radio.  Upon my return, a radio had already been procured, so we did not need the use of another one.  Mr. Bell may have even put the radio broadcast on the PA system.  The time of death was officially listed as 1:00 PM Central standard time, although it is likely that he died immediately when he was struck by the second bullet.  If you have seen the Zapruder film, you would understand.  It is too gruesome and horrifying to describe.

If memory serves correctly, Mrs. Alcott had us write a something about the shooting.  The president had been taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, but I though the reporter on the radio said something like "Procton."  There was also a mention on the newscast about the shooting of officer J.D Tippitt.  The rest of the day was rather bleak around the school.  We went to our other two classes, but there was not much done.  Very little was said in those classes.  What was there to say?  Many students were teary-eyed.  Even the halls were rather quiet in between classes; everyone understandably seemed to be in a state of shock.  Feel free to add your own comments about your remembrance of that fateful and tragic day.

A number of theories arose concerning the assassination.  Did the shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, act alone, as the Warren Commission stated?  Why did Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner, shoot him in full view of a nationwide television audience two days later?  Were they part of a conspiracy?  Were the Soviets behind this?  The Mafia? The CIA?  Were shots fired from the "grassy knoll"?  How many shots were actually fired?  One lady insisted that she heard four to six shots, rather than the three the Warren Commission assserted.  Some theorists have even suspected that vice-president Lyndon Johnson masterminded this tragedy.  An internet search leads to a number of theories and arguments.  I seem to recall Jim Kessler and Alan Leibel debating these theories a few years later.  Some books had been published claiming that there was a coverup,and these two, perhaps displaying their aptitude for future careers as lawyers, would have friendly debates over the veracity of the contents of these books.

One theory that was recently highlighted was that there was a coverup, not by any of the above-mentioned organizations, but by the Secret Service.   According to this theory, Oswald fired only two shots.  Three spent casings were found in the room from which the shots were fired (the 6th floor of the Texas school book depository).  So why not three shots?  The Italian bolt-action rifle that Oswald used had a tendency to jam.  Using a blank seemed, for some reason, to alleviate this problem.  Two of the casings were found near the window, but the other one was found some distance away in a corner nowhere near a window.  My knowledge of guns is virtually non-existent, but according to some sources, it would be rather difficult, but not impossible, to fire the three shots so quickly and accurately suing this type of rifle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolt_action).  From where, then, did the third shot come?

The authors of this theory claim that Oswald's first shot hit the road near the president's limousine.  A number of bystanders that were interviewed shortly after the shooting said that saw a spark on the pavement, somewhat like sparks coming from a muffler or tailpipe that is dragging on the road surface.  This would have been the first shot.  The second shot hit the president in the back of the neck, exited, and then struck Governor Connally, who was riding in the seat just ahead of the president.  This is plausible, according to the authors; the trajectory of the bullet would be in a straight line from the depository window according to the way the president and the governor were seated.  The entrance and exit wounds were quite small and very clearly defined.  These wounds are characteristic of the full metal jacket bullet used by the Oswald rifle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_metal_jacket_bullet). 

These authors claim that the third bullet actually came from a rifle fired accidentally fired by a secret-service agent in a car behind the president.  When he heard the shots, the agent grabbed a rifle from the seat or the floor of the car, and then looked up in the direction of the sixth floor of the depository.  When the car sped up after the president had been hit in the neck, the agent reacted to keep his balance by squeezing his fingers on whatever he was holding.  His right hand was on the seatback, but his left was on the rifle.  There is even a picture of him with the rifle in the air in some photos.  When he squeezed the trigger on the rifle, the rifle happened to be perfectly aligned to shoot the president in the head. This shot must have instantly killed him.  The time was 12:30 PM. It was well-known that the president had lower-back problems.  One program said he was wearing a back brace that prevented him from slumping over.  Ironically, a supposed benefit for his health may have led to his death.  Had he not been outfitted with that back brace, perhaps he may have been able to slump over, thus avoiding this senseless tragedy. 

The plot becomes even stranger when the president was taken to the hospital.  Efforts to save him were in vain.  There was no possible way to revive him.  A couple of priests were called to administer last rites.  They arrived about 12:45.  Technically, last rites cannot be administered to the dead; the individual has to be alive.  If the president's time of death truly was 1:00 PM, then the last rites would have been efficacious (having the desired effect).  Some say that this was done at the insistence of Mrs. Kennedy.  We probably will never know.

According to Texas law at that time (and perhaps still today), the body could not leave the state without being autopsied.  When the doctors insisted on performing the autopsy, the secret service denied permission.  There were also allegations that the secret service ordered the x-ray technician to alter the x-rays of the president's head.  The reason is that the bullet that killed him, according to this argument, could not have come from Oswald's rifle.  The bullet that struck the president in the head was a hollow-point.  These bullets expand upon impact (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow-point_bullet).  In the television program, melons were shot using the two different types of bullets.  The full-metal jacket went relatively straight through, leaving a small entrance and exit hole.  It was similar to drilling a hole through a piece of wood.  The melon hit with a hollow-point, however, seemed to explode, as if a cherry-bomb went off inside it.  The back half was completely blown away.  This is similar to what one sees on the Zapruder film.  The x-rays needed to be altered to cover-up this effect.

Another point that the authors discussed during the program was that many people, including  Senator Ralph Yarborough, a member of the presidential motorcade, insisted that they smelled a smoking gun.  It would be virtually impossible for anyone on the ground to smell a smoking gun if it was fired from the sixth floor of a building.  One has to be relatively close to the source in order to detect the odor of a fired rifle. 

This was one of the many intriguing programs focusing on the life of President Kennedy and his assassination.  We will likely never know who really killed him.  We will, however, remember where we were, and the shock and disbelief we experienced, when we first heard that he had been shot.