By Matija Šerić
On November 21, 1963, John F. Kennedy, accompanied by his wife Jacqueline and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, began a two-day trip through the state of Texas. According to the travel plan, the presidential delegation intended to visit five cities in order to raise funds for the upcoming presidential election campaign. The trip also aimed to reconcile the deeply divided Democratic Party in Texas, a key swing state in the forthcoming election. Although a month earlier Adlai Stevenson II, the U.S. ambassador to the UN and a liberal star, had faced protests during his visit to Dallas, the president was warmly welcomed in the cities of San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth, where he and his entourage spent the night.
Assassination
The following fateful morning of November 22, the president and the first lady arrived in Dallas with their entourage. Thousands of people gathered along the streets to greet the presidential couple, despite the city’s strong Republican leanings. Jacqueline, elegantly dressed in a pink Chanel suit with a unique pillbox hat, was admired by the crowd, while JFK, known for his charisma, waved warmly from the open Lincoln Continental limousine. The motorcade began its drive through the city center, headed for the Dallas Trade Mart, where Kennedy was scheduled to address local business leaders at a luncheon. Around 12:30 p.m., the motorcade entered Dealey Plaza, a historic square in downtown Dallas. The car carrying the president, the first lady, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie was the third vehicle in the procession, moving slowly past the surrounding buildings.
As the limousine passed the Texas School Book Depository, loud gunshots suddenly rang out. Witnesses reported three shots, though some claimed there were more. The first shot apparently missed, the second struck Kennedy in the neck, and the third, fatal shot hit him in the head, blowing out the back of his skull. Governor Connally was also wounded in the back, chest, wrist, and thigh, but ultimately survived. The limousine sped toward Parkland Memorial Hospital, while Jacqueline Kennedy tried to hold on to fragments of her husband’s skull blown out by the bullet. At the hospital, doctors made desperate attempts to save Kennedy, but his injuries were too severe. At exactly 1:00 p.m., the president was officially pronounced dead. Jacqueline, who never left her husband’s side, continued to wear her blood-stained pink suit, determined to “show the world what they had done to him.”
Chaos
Meanwhile, in the chaos that followed, Dallas police launched an investigation. Witnesses pointed officers to the Book Depository, where employee Lee Harvey Oswald was seen leaving shortly after the shots. Oswald was arrested a few hours later in a nearby theater on charges of killing police officer J.D. Tippit, whom he had shot during his escape—just 45 minutes after Kennedy’s assassination. Later that night, he was also charged with the president’s murder. At 2:38 p.m., only two hours and eight minutes after JFK’s death, Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One, which then took off for Washington, D.C., carrying Kennedy’s body and his widow. The news of the president’s death quickly spread across the world. Millions of Americans were glued to their televisions, overwhelmed with disbelief, grief, and fear. The shock was felt globally.
Footage of assassination
Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
The 24-year-old former Marine, Lee Harvey Oswald, became the subject of police investigation. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a working-class family. His father had died before he was born, and Oswald grew up in difficult conditions, frequently moving with his mother. At 17, he joined the Marines, where he received firearms training. His military record was mixed—though a competent marksman, he had problems with authority and discipline. In 1959, after leaving the Marines, Oswald shocked U.S. authorities by defecting to the USSR, where he requested political asylum. The Soviets were cautious at first but eventually allowed him to settle in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where he worked in an electronics factory and met his future wife, Marina. However, after a few years of disillusionment with the Soviet regime, Oswald returned to the U.S. in June 1962 with his wife and daughter. The FBI monitored him but found no indication he posed a serious threat. After returning, the Oswalds had a second daughter.
Oswald’s political views were extremely radical. He was sympathetic to communism, socialism, and the USSR, and openly admired Fidel Castro’s Cuba. He actively promoted Cuban communist propaganda and ran the “Fair Play for Cuba Committee” in New Orleans. His activities were often confusing and contradictory: while he advocated leftist ideas, he occasionally showed interest in right-wing groups as well.
Oswald Kills the President
On November 22, 1963, Oswald was working as a temporary employee at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. According to the official version established by the Warren Commission (the investigative body created by President Johnson), Oswald fired three shots from a sixth-floor window using an Italian Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. One bullet missed, another struck Kennedy in the neck, and the third, fatal shot hit him in the head. One of the bullets also wounded Governor Connally.
Oswald left the building about ten minutes after the shooting and boarded a city bus. Likely due to traffic, he soon got off and took a taxi to his rooming house at 1026 North Beckley Avenue, arriving around 1:00 p.m. According to the landlady, Earlene Roberts, he went quickly to his room and picked up his revolver. She noted that he left again only minutes later, buttoning a jacket he hadn’t been wearing when he arrived. She last saw him standing at a bus stop on Beckley Avenue.
Attempted Escape
At about 1:15 p.m., Dallas patrol officer J.D. Tippit drove up alongside Oswald, likely because he resembled the description provided by witness Howard Brennan, who had seen the shooter at Dealey Plaza. They encountered each other near East 10th Street and North Patton Avenue, about 1.4 km southeast of Oswald’s residence. Tippit pulled up beside Oswald and spoke to him through the car window. Moments later, Tippit stepped out of his vehicle, and Oswald immediately fired, hitting him four times and killing him. Several witnesses heard the shots and saw Oswald flee with a revolver in his hand. Nine witnesses later identified him as Tippit’s killer.
Documentary about assassination
Arrest
A large police search was launched. Oswald was soon arrested in the “Texas Theatre,” where he had entered without paying, prompting staff to call the police. Officer Nick McDonald testified that he was the first to approach Oswald, who seemed ready to surrender, saying, “Well, it’s all over now.” But Oswald suddenly drew a revolver from his waistband and aimed it at the officer. McDonald claimed he managed to grab the gun as Oswald pulled the trigger, preventing it from firing. After a struggle, Oswald was subdued and disarmed. As police led him out of the theater, he shouted that he was a victim of police brutality. He was formally charged with Tippit’s murder at 7:10 p.m., and with Kennedy’s murder at 1:30 a.m. the next morning. During interrogation, Oswald denied any involvement, claiming he was “just a patsy.”
Mysterious Murder
Two days later, on November 24, 1963, at 11:21 a.m., as live television cameras broadcast his transfer through the Dallas police headquarters basement, Oswald was fatally shot by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. Like Kennedy, Oswald was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he soon died. Ruby was convicted of murder, but his conviction was later overturned on appeal. Before a new trial could be held, Ruby died in prison in 1967, leaving many questions unanswered. His motive remains unclear. Ruby claimed he acted out of grief and anger, wanting to spare Jacqueline Kennedy and the family from the ordeal of a trial. But many suspected he silenced Oswald as part of a broader conspiracy.
The Warren Commission Report
The Warren Commission’s report represents the official account of the assassination. Led by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, the commission spent ten months investigating, interviewing more than 500 witnesses, analyzing ballistic evidence, and reviewing hours of film footage, including the famous Zapruder film that captured the moment Kennedy was shot. The commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and that there was no broader conspiracy. Ballistic tests confirmed the bullets were fired from Oswald’s rifle found in the Book Depository. These conclusions became the official explanation of events.
However, the report immediately sparked skepticism. Many questions remained unanswered. A key point of contention was the so-called “magic bullet theory.” According to the commission, one bullet passed through Kennedy’s neck and then struck Governor Connally, causing multiple injuries. Critics argued that the bullet’s trajectory was implausible, while supporters insisted the seating arrangement in the car made it possible. Doubts also surrounded Oswald’s motives: why would an obscure individual with no clear political goal risk his life to assassinate the president? Theories emerged that Oswald was connected to Cuban or Soviet intelligence, or that he was a pawn in a conspiracy involving the CIA and/or the U.S. military-industrial complex.
