While traveling in an open-top convertible on the roads of Dallas, Texas, the 35th American President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated by getting shot twice. It was the Friday of November 22nd, 1963, at 12:30 pm in the afternoon. Rarely did his wife, the first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, accompany her husband on his political outings and endeavors, however, that day she was sitting beside him as his motorcade was being taken on the roads of Texas. Accompanying them were the Texas governor, Governor John Connally, and his wife. Sitting in that convertible, the Kennedys and the Connallys waving at the large crowd of people that had gathered along the sides of the roads and were followed the entire parade. Just as the vehicle passed the Texas School Depository building right around 12:30 pm, two shots were fired at the convertible from the very building. The shooter was caught and was identified as Lee Harvey Oswald. At the same time, Kennedy was taken to Dallas’ Parkland Hospital. 30 minutes after the shooting, Kennedy was pronounced dead. He had been fatally wounded, and he was forty-six years of age when he died.
The news of Kennedy’s death came as a bomb blast for the American public. Kennedy was a loved President as he was a good man and he was always improving himself; he made mistakes but corrected himself, and there did not seem any such strong motive to take his life on the spot. However he was murdered in the light of day, and his assassinator was caught only to be killed in front of millions of people to prove he had committed a grave crime.
As it is reported in the historical records concerning Kennedy’s assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald was convicted of murdering the American President. Oswald was an ex-Marine. Born in 1939, in New Orleans, he had joined the Marines in 1956. After he was released from the Marines in 1959, he left after about nine days and went to the Soviet Union, and there he tried his best to become a citizen but in vain. He had worked in Minsk and also got married to a Soviet woman. In 1962, the USSR government allowed him to return to America, taking his wife and young daughter along with him. In 1963, Oswald bought a .38 revolver and a rifle which he had ordered by mail. It is alleged that Oswald is responsible for the failed shooting attempt on the 10th of April on the U.S Army General Edwin Walker which also took place in Dallas. Walker was a person who was noted for his extremist right-wing views and was held in scrutiny by many for them. A month after this incident, Oswald went to New Orleans, his hometown and he founded one branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which was a pro-Fidel Castro organization. Then, he went to Mexico City in the September of 1963. There, the investigators allegedly confirm that he had tried to get himself a visa to go to Cuba or make a return for the USSR. However, failing to do so, he returned to Dallas in the October of the same year and took up a job at the Texas School Book Depository Building.
Within an hour of Kennedy’s shooting Oswald shot a policeman who came up to him and inquired him about him being in the building when he was in the rooming house in Dallas. He ran from the spot after killing the officer and went into a movie theater. There, after thirty minutes, he was arrested by police who were looking for a suspect who murdered the president.
Oswald was then prosecuted on the 23rd of November for murdering President Kennedy and police officer J.D. Tippit.
On the 24th of November, Oswald was transferred to the basement of Dallas police headquarters when he was being taken to a more secure county jail for his trial and on remand. Since he had become a very famous convict, a huge crowd of the police and media had gathered to witness the criminal and his departure to the other jail. When Oswald was brought to the room, Jack Rubenstein came out from amidst the crowd, and he too carried a .38 revolver with which he fatally wounded Oswald with a single gunshot. However, Ruby was immediately detained by the place and the police and authorities claimed that he had done so with the motive of taking revenge for Kennedy’s assassination from the culprit. Some people claimed he was a hero, but he was still charged with first-degree murder.
Ruby came from a background of operating strip joints and organizing dance halls in Dallas. He had minor connections to small-ranged crimes and did operate in that circle. In many assassination theories and conspiracies, Jack Rubenstein is mentioned with acclaim, and there are many theories which portray that Jack was actually trying to prevent Oswald from revealing any other news about the murder before the jury and the press. When Jack’s trial was in progress, he denied all allegations of the crime and pleaded before the jury that his intentions were purely for the cause of the grief he was suffering from because of Kennedy’s murder. He said he had a case of psychomotor epilepsy which made him shoot Oswald without knowing. However, the jury did not see the truth in his words, and he was found guilty of charges of murder with malice, thus sentenced to death.
Meanwhile, political events were going to take a turn on their own. The motorcade which was progressing behind President Kennedy’s convertible also consisted of Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who was about three cars behind the President’s. However after the assassination, the same Vice President was sworn in as the 36th U.S President at 2:39 pm. He had to take the Presidential oath while he was on a flight on Air Force One while it was standing on the runway of Dallas Love Field Airport. The oath was witnessed by about 30 people, which include the widow of the unfortunately assassinated President while she was still dressed in the clothes stained with her husband’s blood. About 7 minutes after the oath-taking, the plane took off for Washington.
As the President, Johnson issued his very first proclamation where he declared November 25th as the national day for mourning the assassination of President Kennedy. That Monday, about thousands of people in bulging crowds, lined up along the streets of Washington to watch the horse-drawn carriage bring the body of the dead president from the Capitol Rotunda where it had been kept to St. Matthews catholic Cathedral for the requiem Mass. He was then carried to the Arlington National Cemetery where about 99 leaders of nations had gathered to witness the funeral, and his body laid to rest. Buried with all military honors and respect, Kennedy was buried on a slope below Arlington House. An everlasting flame was lit by Jacqueline to mark his grave which was to be remembered for the coming ages.
About 48 hours after the assassination, Oswald was executed in front of millions, broadcasted on national television. On Sunday, the case was closed by the officials, since the captive had been caught and justice had been served.
According to many Americans, Kennedy’s death is taken as a conspiracy, and he had been a target that needed to be eliminated as soon as possible. Many connections have been made to the assailant and the motive he carried in order to shoot the president. In American history, four Presidents have been killed in office namely, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S President, James A. Garfield, the 20th President, William McKinley, the 25th President and John F. Kennedy, the 35th President. Many other Presidents have been targeted as well, where they survived the shootings or were somehow saved. For instance, Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt were shot, but they survived the shooting.
Kennedy was a man of influence who was working towards improving the conditions of the American society as he saw the 1960s as a progressive time in American society. His rhetoric boomed in the heads of the supporters who clung on to their TV sets and wanted to see their President and his family. Many people were unable to believe he was assassinated there and then because of the reputation he had acclaimed since he was in office. He was a vivacious young leader, as he died at the age of 46 which was too young and his work had just begun. According to the beliefs held by many Americans, it was not the kind of thing that happened in America and Kennedy’s death was an incident that was completely uncalled for. Undoubtedly it was true that violence against national leaders had happened in the country, but it was not something that was expected in America anymore since the 20th century saw a more developed nation and American disbelief rose more than ever. This meant that Kennedy was not the kind of President, who was liable to be killed unless a conspiracy against his accession had arisen in hearts and he was supposed to be overruled.
Thus, fingers rose on a man who was an ex-Marine and had lived in the USSR. The connections between the man and his relation to the dead President and the condition in the bipolar world made everyone question who might be involved. It was, firstly suspicious as to why an American would want to leave their country and move to the USSR and then return to the States again and wish to return again. His violent streak became a dilemma as to why he bought a revolver and began to assassinate people that held power in the country. He had tried to aim the U.S General and then killed the President. Thus, the official verdict on his death submitted by the Warren Commission in the year 1964 shows that he was assassinated by the man, but the reasons behind the man’s motive were never truly uncovered.
Moreover, the shooting by Jack Rubenstein is something that created a stir amongst the people that he was probably trying to cover up something which Oswald might try to reveal if he would be pressured by the police officials. In a country like America, a person would always consider twice before going ahead and shooting a person who is a public figure moreover after killing him; he would try and aim for a policeman. It is a crime to kill in the first place, and Oswald was guilty of the murder of two men, and his charges might be alleged, but his crime had been proven. The speculation, therefore, that the Commission raised at that time was based on Oswald’s mental health because that was the only plausible reason they could find. There was no solid evidence against him, and the shooting aimed at him also proved nothing. Yet, conspiracy theories followed. It is interesting how Oswald was involved with pro-Castro forces when he formed that organization and then he also sympathized with the USSR regime.
These also raised suspicions that the President was being targeted by the Cuban and Soviet forces who wanted him removed from his position. The perfect candidate for the job was Oswald, who had these two motives in hand. Oswald was linked to every group that was anti-American, and his overt dislike for the American society or the President could be seen from the way he left the country and desperately wanted the citizenship for USSR.
However, there are also conspiracy theories that claim that Kennedy’s assassination was all propaganda and Oswald was actually a CIA agent who was overtly joining hands with the KBG and Soviet forces but internally he was linked to the CIA. Moreover, had he been with the Soviet forces, then why would Jack Rubenstein, a man who was an alleged supporter of the American President, then why would he kill a man who would probably reveal everything he knew about who was supporting him and forcing him to do all this. The revelation was probably prevented by Rubenstein and Oswald was prohibited from telling the truth to the world.
Fingers were also raised at Lyndon Johnson because he was the one next in line for Presidency. There are reports which reveal that Johnson had ducked in his car seconds before the assassination and protected himself. The entire incident, the death, the funeral, the burial and the oath-taking ceremony took place within a day, and it seemed as if nothing so grave had happened. There do not remain many films and evidence from the event, and many of the records gathered for the historical records have been taken from people’s memory. Accounts were gathered from witnesses who recalled the event. Therefore, Kennedy’s assassination might be another conspiracy against the American leadership; it might come from within or from external forces. However, it was a sad event that traumatized the American society.
Works cited
George, L. Alice. The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Political Trauma and American
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