Killing Of President John Kennedy example essay topic

"In a few days people will forget and there will be a new President". Lee Harvey Oswald It was a hot day in Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy sat in the rear seat on the right side of the car. His wife, Jacqueline, sat on his left.

Texas Governor John B. Connally sat in a 'jump's eat in front of the president, and Mrs. Connally sat to her husband's left. They were in a motorcade when an unimaginable sound was heard. It was 12: 30 p. m., the cars approached an expressway for the last leg of the trip. Suddenly, three shots rang out and the president slumped down, hit in the neck and head. Connally received a bullet in the back.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot. Mrs. Kennedy didn't know what to do, "I was looking to the left and I heard these terrible noises... and my husband never made a sound... I could see a piece of his skull... and then I remember falling on him saying, 'Oh, no, no, no,'. .. it just seemed an eternity". The limousine raced to nearby Parkland Hospital. Doctors worked desperately to save the president, but he died at 1: 00 p.m. without regaining consciousness. Doctors said that Kennedy had no chance to survive when brought into the hospital.

Governor Connally, although seriously wounded, later recovered. President Kennedy, A.K.A. JFK, was in Texas to gain support for his re-election. Kennedy came to Texas accompanied by his wife and Vice President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson. The purpose of his trip was to heal a split in the Texas Democratic Party before the 1964 presidential campaign in which Kennedy planned to run for a second term. Dallas had a reputation as a center for people who strongly opposed Kennedy. The assumed assassin was a 24-year-old ex-U.S. Marine, who from the beginning had emotional problems and difficulties.

His father died had before he was born and his mother was not much support. He was discharged from the Marines in September 1959 and went to the Soviet Union a month later. He tried to become a Soviet citizen but was turned down. He also had been active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a group that supported Cuba's Communist dictator Fidel Castro. He returned to the U.S. with his wife Marina, and baby daughter. No one saw Oswald shoot the President.

The high-powered Italian rifle said to have killed the President was traced to Oswald through a Chicago mail-order firm. Oswald worked in the Texas School Book Depository, the building where the shots were fired. A worker recalled seeing Oswald carry a long narrow package into the building the morning of the assassination. Police captured Oswald, who was armed with a revolver.

He was arrested in a Dallas motion picture theater about 90 minutes after the assassination. About 1: 15 p. m., Oswald was said to have shot and killed a Dallas policeman, J.D. Tippit, while resisting arrest. Oswald was charged with killing Police Officer Tippit. Oswald denied killing either Tippit or the President.

The police questioned Oswald for two days, but he denied both murders. Dallas police claimed that the evidence against Oswald was overwhelming. The murder weapon, an Italian rifle with a telescopic sight, was found hidden in the School Book Depository. The rifle had been purchased by Oswald from a mail-order firm for $12.78. Oswald's prints were found on the weapon.

On Sunday, November 24, two days after the assassination, Oswald was scheduled to be taken from the Dallas city jail to the county jail. As he was being led to the car for the trip, a Dallas nightclub owner, named Jack Ruby, stepped out of the crowd and shot Oswald to death. A nationwide television audience witnessed the shooting. Oswald was taken to the same hospital where the president died. He died at 1: 07 p. m., 48 hours after Kennedy's death. Jack Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder in 1964, but the conviction as overturned in 1966.

Ruby died in 1967, awaiting a new trial. JKF was a loved and respected president. He was born in Massachusetts in 1917. He was the youngest ever elected, the first born in the 1900's, and the first Roman Catholic. He married Jacqueline Bouvier in 1956.

Left behind were his two small children, Caroline and John Jr. He was moved into politics after his older brother Joseph Jr. died in WWII. Then became senator of Massachusetts in 1952. In 1960, he was nominated for Presidency along with Lyndon B. Johnson. He became President January 20, 1961. On November 25, 1963, John Jr's birthday, Kennedy was buried.

Representatives from over 90 countries attended the funeral on November 25. Among them were Irish President Eamon de Valera, French President Charles de Gaulle, Belgian King Baudouin, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, Philippine President Dios dado Macapagal, and West German President Heinrich Luebke. "Black Jack", the horse JFK rode, strolled behind him with an empty saddle. Some said, 'The leader has fallen and will never ride again. ' Ninety-Nine minutes after the Presidents death, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into office on Air Force One. He became the 36th President.

With him were his wife, Mrs. Kennedy, and the body of JKF. Everyone was still in shock and disbelief. Not even Johnson knew what was going to happen. Until this day, no one knows why Kennedy was shot or if Lee Harvey Oswald was the real assassin. In 1964, the commission reported that Oswald had acted alone.

But critics disputed the findings. Many believed Oswald was part of a group that had planned to murder Kennedy. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSC A) came to a verdict that Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at Kennedy, one of which killed the president. They concluded that Kennedy was killed because of conspiracy, that the FBI or the CIA was involved.

The CIA's motive could have been blaming Kennedy for not throwing the full weight of his air force behind the Bay of Pigs affair and he came to an agreement with the Soviets over Cuba. The Dallas police were also widely investigated. Concluding they were at fault for Oswald's death. In 1982, the National Research Council, a scientific research organization, disagreed with the House committee's finding.

There was also a "single bullet theory" in which only one shot was fired killing Kennedy, leaving his neck and entering Governor Connelly's back. Though Connelly disagrees saying, "the bullet that entered Kennedy wasn't the same as the one for my wounds". Others say there were four or five bullets. No one knows for sure how many bullets there were or how many actual people were involved with the killing of President John Kennedy. "Clearly there was an attempt by Federal and local authorities to conceal the facts as contained in the evidence. The cover up is all to obvious".

The world is still in mourning because of the loss of a beloved President. Those who witnessed the killing of Oswald were forever changed as well. Seeing two deaths in two days was shocking. But who really knows who really killed John Fitzgerald Kennedy?