LESSON STRATER; Write down three questions about this
picture. You have 5 minutes.
John F. Kennedy 1960-1963
Who Killed JFK?
22nd November, 1963
The Assassination of Kennedy
To learn
• about the evidence about the assassination
• how this evidence is disputed
• how some sources contradict others
• how the historian’s job is to sift through
these sources to search to reach a sound
conclusion based on the evidence
You will be divided into small groups to assess the evidence surrounding
JFK’s assassination.
You need to identify
•What happened on that day?
•How JFK was assassinated?
•Who was to blame?
•Whether the findings of the Warren Commission were right or not?
The Assassination of John F Kennedy
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•
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John Kennedy, aged 43, was the youngest
president of the century. With his attractive wife,
Jackie, and lively young children, the Kennedy
family was a welcome change for the US media.
•
John Fitzgerald Kennedy became
the 35th president of the United
States in January 1961. He
promised to help America’s poor,
black people and improve
education. Taxes would have to go
up tp ay for these improvements.
This made him unpopular with
wealthy people who would have to
pay more taxes.
He was also unpopular with
Southern racists who were against
his equal treatment for blacks (or
civil rights) policy.
They also disliked him because he
came from a rich Northern,
Catholic family.
In short, Kennedy had plenty of
enemies.
An NDM Production
“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can
do for your country. Let the word go forth from this time and
place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed
to a new generation of Americans.”
Kennedy’s inaugeral speech, 22 January 1961.
Concerns at Home
‘Camelot’ – the
Kennedy brothers’
war on organised
crime
charm offensive
Kennedy’s domestic programmes did not advance
very far due to increasing problems abroad.
Black Civil
Rights
Foreign Policy Problems Facing Kennedy:
Cold War Rivalries with Russia
Vietnam?
Cuban Missile Crisis
1962
Bay of Pigs Fiasco 1961
Cuba
The Soviet Union
The Berlin
Wall 1961
US assisted invasion of Cuba by
Fidel
CubanCastro
exiles fails disastrously
East
Germany
The
Space
Race
Nikita
Khrushchev
The South was vital to Kennedy’s chances
of electoral success. But Kennedy was
distrusted by many southern whites,
partly because of his sympathy towards
the black civil rights movement and also
because of his failure to eliminate the
communist Fidel Castro in Cuba. Also,
Kennedy was a northern catholic.
Kennedy saw Texas as the key to his
success in the South and he decided to visit
the state in November. This was partly to be
a charm crusade but Kennedy was also
hoping to heal a damaging split which had
occurred within the Texan Democratic
Party , between the left-wing led by Senator
Ralph Yarborough and the right, led by the
State Governor, John Connally.
By the middle of 1963 Kennedy was
considering his chances of winning a
second term as President. He began
preparing for the 1964 presidential
election campaign. Kennedy faced a
difficult task. Many felt that his foreign
policy had been less than successful.
Texas
Fort
Worth
President Kennedy speaking to a crowd at
Fort Worth in the early morning of 22
November. Behind him [L – R] are Senator
Ralph Yarborough, Governor John Connally
and Vice-President Lyndon Johnson.
Dallas
Kennedy’s Texas visit
started first at Fort Worth.
Then, on the morning of the
22 November, Kennedy took
the short flight from Fort
Worth to Love Airfield,
Dallas.
12.00 am
Arrival at Love Field airport. President Kennedy
and the First Lady are in the rear seat. Governor
Connally and his wife are in the jump seat.
The Presidential limousine travelling through
the streets of Dallas on the way to a gathering at
the Wallmart Center.
12.28
Kennedy’s car turns into Dealey Plaza
12.30 – The limousine enters Elm Street and
shots are heard. President Kennedy is struck in
the throat and, then, the head.
1.00 pm –
The stricken Kennedy is taken to the nearby Parklands
Hospital where at 1.00 pm the President is declared dead.
2.00 pm –
One hour later Lyndon Johnson, on board Airforce
One, is sworn in as the 36th president of America.
Afternoon –
That afternoon police arrest Lee
Harvey Oswald for murdering
police officer Tippets. Later, he is
declared a suspect in the murder
of the president.
Saturday, 23 November, 1963 –
The next morning the Dallas Police announced that the case
had been solved: Oswald acting alone, had shot President
Kennedy from a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book
Depository Building, where a rifle and three cartidges were
found.
Oswald, however, maintained he was innocent. “I’m just a
patsy,” he said. The assassination of President Kennedy
provoked speculation: Was Oswald indeed a lone assassin?
Was he involved in a conspiracy to kill the president? Was
he a hired killer acting for someone else? Was he
innocent?
Lee Harvey Oswald
When considering LHO’s role in this event think about the
following:
• What was Oswald doing at the time of the assassination?
Was he at the sixth floor window of the TSBD?
• What were Oswald’s movements after the assassination of
Kennedy up to the shooting of Officer Tippets?
• Was Oswald a ‘crackshot’ with a rifle?
• Was Oswald “just the patsy” ie. the fall guy?
The Lone Gunman theory
When considering LHO’s role in this event
and the theory of a lone gunman, think about
the following:
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•
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How many shots were there?
Did all the shots come from high and behind?
Was there more than one gunman?
The Zapruder film - how reliable is it?
Sunday, 24 November, 1963 –
On Sunday morning, while millions watched on TV, Oswald was
murdered in the basement of a Dallas jail by Jack Ruby, the owner of
a Dallas strip-tease joint called the Carousel . Rumours spread
rapidly, and a shocked nation demanded answers.
Jack Ruby
When considering Jack Ruby’s role in this event think about
the following:
•
Why was Ruby allowed such easy access into the Dallas
Police station?
•
Did he know Lee Harvey Oswald?
•
What were his connections with the ‘Underworld’ –
gangsters, the Mafia?
•
Did Ruby die a natural death or was he silenced?
Friday, 29November, 1963 Lyndon Johnson calls into being the Warren Commission
charged with investigating the assassination of John
Kennedy. Its findings are published on 24 September, 1964.
The autopsy
• When looking at the following sides consider the autopsy
evidence i.e. Kennedy’s wounds. What does this evidence
reveal about the following:
• Were there only three shots?
• Did all the shots come from above and from the rear?
• Was there anything unusual in the way in which the autopsy
was conducted? If so, what can explain this?
The Warren Commission
An official drawing from the
Warren Commission. It was
drawn from written
descriptions – not photographs
– of the wounds. The neck
wound is much too high.
• The new president, Lyndon
Johnson, set up an investigation
into the assassination. The man
in charge was Chief Justice Earl
Warren. His report concluded
that
• that only three shots were fired
• that the second and third of
these hit Kennedy
• the third shot to JFK’s head was
fatal
• the shots were fired from the
Book Depository by Lee Harvey
Oswald, who worked there.
• there was only one gunman
and, therefore, no conspiracy.
The post mortem or autopsy photo on the right shows the actual location of the bullet
entry wound, as opposed to the official drawing on the left, which places it too high on
the neck.
This drawing is also clearly wrong. The entry wound to Kennedy’s neck on the
drawing on the left is both too high and too much to the side.
LESSON
STARTER;
Write
down five
questions
that you
would like
to ask this
source.
A drawing of the impact of the second shot fired – according
to the Warren Commission. This would not have been a fatal
wound.
Kennedy’s shirt.
LESSON STRATER; Write down three questions about this
picture. You have 5 minutes.
The Zapruder film head shot. The spray of ‘particulate matter’ (brain tissue) is clearly
moving forward – suggesting that it is reacting to the impact of a shot from the rear…
Zapruder film
When looking at the film consider the following:
•
What exactly does the Zapruder film show of Kennedy’s
death?
•
Does it contradict (go against) some of the judgments
made by the Warren Commission?
•
Is there any evidence that the film was it tampered with?
If so, how and who by? And why?
24 September, 1964 –
After ten months of secret hearings, Chief Justice Earl Warren
presented the Commission’s report to President Johnson. The
Commission found that Oswald, acting alone, had
assassinated President Kennedy. Mainstream media hailed it
as “the most massive, detailed and convincing piece of
detective work ever undertaken, unmatched in the annals of
fact finding.”
1. There were three shots fired and which struck Kennedy.
2. The shots came from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book
depository building.
3. One shot fired passed through Kennedy and struck Governor
Connally.
4. The shots were fired by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald.
5. The killing of Kennedy was due purely to a ‘lone-nut’
assassin.
Criticisms of the Warren Commission
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Many accused the Warren
Commission of a cover-up, claiming
that:
it ignored dozens of witnesses who
claimed they heard at least one shot
from the grassy knoll
Oswald could not have fired such a
poor quality weapon so accurately
in such a short time (8.5 secs)
‘the magic bullet’ could not have
caused such extensive wounds to
JFK and Connally and suffer so
little physical damage
there must, therefore, have been a
second gunman firing at Kennedy
from the grassy knoll.
two gunmen means there was a
conspiracy
LESSON
STARTER;
Write down
as the three
questions
you would
most like to
ask this man.
Who could have been involved in a
conspiracy to kill Kennedy?
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•
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Lee Harvey Oswald: was he, as he claimed,
set up by the real conspirators? Within two
days of the assassination, Oswald was also
shot dead, by Jack Ruby – a small time criminal
linked to the Mafia.
•
Top of the list of those who wanted
Kennedy dead is the Mafia.
Kennedy’s brother, Robert, had
started a very successful campaign
to destroy the Mafia in America.
With JFK dead, Robert would lose
all power.
Southern racists violently objected
to Kennedy’s support for Martin
Luther King and the civil rights
movement.
Top generals in the US army who
believed that Kennedy was ‘soft’
on Communism and should have
invaded Cuba in 1962.
Aliens involved in a failed attempt
to abduct Kennedy to put an
implant in his brain….
The 1979 Select Committee
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Assassinated by a lone gunman or by a
conspiracy, John Kennedy was still the father
of two young children. John Junior died in a
plane crash in 1999.
In 1977 the US Senate set up
another enquiry into the
assassination because so many
people believed that the Warren
Commission had done a bad job.
The Senate’s Select Committee
reported in 1979. It agreed with
Warren that Lee Harvey Oswald
fired the shots which killed
Kennedy.
However, it also said that it was
likely that another gunman had
fired and missed from the grassy
knoll and, therefore, there had been
a conspiracy.
The Report concluded that it did
know the identity of the second
gunman.
24 November, 1964
The US government releases
26 volumes of testimony and
exhibits which contained the
evidence on which the
Warren Report was
purportedly based.
The New York Times reported
that the 26 volumes
‘overwhelmingly supported
the conclusions [of the
Warren Commission’s Report]
that the assassination was no
conspiracy but the work of
one unhappy man, Lee Harvey
Oswald.’