1. A MORNING IN DALLAS
Essential Questions:
1. Why did President Kennedy go to Dallas?
2. How did the events before the assassination
unfold?
3. How did Oswald behave after the
assassination?
4. What happened to Lee Harvey Oswald?
5. What was the Warren Commission report and
what did it say?

2. A Trip To Texas
 Kennedy went to Texas with three
goals:
 Raise money for Democratic
Party;
 Begin his quest for reelection;
 Kennedy-Johnson ticket had
barely won Texas in 1960
 Kennedy wanted to mend fences
 Kennedy's trip to Dallas was
announced to the public in
September 1963
 Motorcade route was announced
a few days before November 22
 October 1963, when on a visit to
Dallas U.N. Ambassador Adlai
Stevenson was harassed, hit by a
sign, and spat upon
 Several people, including Stevenson,
warned JFK against coming to Dallas

3. Arrival in Dallas
 Friday, November 22, 1963
 11:40am, the President, the
First Lady, and the
presidential entourage arrive
at Love Field in Dallas, Texas
 Schedule was for the
president to proceed along a
motorcade route through
downtown Dallas
 Went from Love Field through
downtown Dallas and end at
the Dallas Business and
Trade Mart

4. Presidential Motorcade
 Motorcade began its route
without incident
 At 12:29pm, the presidential
limousine entered Dealey
Plaza
 President Kennedy slowly
approached the Texas
School Book Depository
 Over two dozen amateur
and professional
photographers captured the
last living images of
Kennedy

5. Death in Dallas
 Shooting began shortly after the
limousine made the turn from
Houston onto Elm Street
 Most witnesses recalled
hearing 3 shots
 Not known when each shot was
fired
 Most experts agree the first
shot missed
 President was hit with the
second shot
 Second shot entered his upper
back
 Went through his neck and

6. Death in Dallas
 Seconds later, the third shot hit
Kennedy point-blank in the
throat/head
 The limousine began speeding up
as Mrs. Kennedy terrified and
confused climbed out of the back
seat
 Agent Hill climbed on top of the
speeding car and pushed Mrs.
Kennedy down in the back seat
 Laid on top of her as the car
sped to Parkland Memorial
Hospital

7. Oswald: The Timeline
 Oswald was confronted by a
Dallas policeman in the
depository second floor
lunchroom
 Only 74 to 90 seconds after
the last shot
 Oswald was identified by the
superintendent of the building
and he was released
 Oswald was next seen by a
depository secretary on the 1st
floor carrying a soda bottle
 He left the Texas School Book
Depository through the front
door at 12:30pm

8. Oswald: The Timeline
 At 1:00pm Oswald arrived at his room after
a bus ride and a taxi ride
 Oswald was witnessed offering the taxi
ride first to an elderly woman
 At 1:15pm police officer J. D. Tippit was
shot dead less than a mile from Oswald's
home
 13 people witnessed Oswald either
shooting Tippit or fleeing the scene
 After the Tippit murder, Oswald was
witnessed traveling on foot toward a movie
theatre
 Almost two dozen police officers
arrived at the Texas Theatre
 Believed Tippit's killer was inside
 Oswald resisted and according to the
police, attempted to shoot a patrolman

9. Immediate Aftermath: Kennedy
 Meanwhile, the situation at Parkland
Hospital had deteriorated
 Doctors worked frantically to save his
life, but his wounds were too great
 1:00pm Kennedy was dead
 A Roman Catholic priest had been
summoned to perform the last rites
for President Kennedy
 The new president of the United
States, Lyndon Johnson, ordered the
announcement of Kennedy’s death
be made only after he left the
hospital
 Official announcement would not
come until 1:30pm

10. Lee Harvey Oswald
 According to the U.S.
government he was the lone
assassin of President John F.
Kennedy
 Former United States Marine
who defected to Soviet Union
 He was charged with the
murders of Tippit and
Kennedy later the night of
November 22nd
 Oswald denied it all
 Oswald never went on trial

11. Oswald Silenced
 At 11:36pm Oswald was charged
with the murder of Kennedy
 There was no crime for
assassination of the President
at the time
 Two days later Oswald was
escorted to an armored van for
transfer
 He was shot and killed by
nightclub owner Jack Ruby
 Ruby was a nightclub operator in
Dallas
 Ruby said he did it to spare
Jackie the ordeal of appearing at
Oswald's trial

12. Return to Washington
 Once on Air Force One Lyndon
Johnson was sworn in as the 36th
President
 Jackie never left her husband’s side
 Exception being when Johnson
was sworn in
 Robert Kennedy boarded the plane
and his brother's casket was
removed
 Jackie left the plane with Bobby
 Her pink suit was still stained with
her husband's blood
 Refused to change out of her blood-
stained suit
 quot;I want them to see what they have
done to Jack.quot;

13. Warren Commission
 First official investigation of the
assassination
 Headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren
 Known as the Warren Commission
 Concluded it could not find any
evidence of a domestic or foreign
conspiracy
 Commission found Lee Harvey
Oswald acted alone in the murder of
Kennedy
 Informally called the Lone gunman
theory
 Commission concluded that only
three bullets were fired during the
assassination
 They said all three shots were fired in
a time period ranging from 4.8 to
7 seconds

14. Warren Commission
 The commission said that:
 One shot likely missed the
motorcade (could not determine
which of the 3)
 The first shot to hit anyone struck
Kennedy in the upper back
 It exited near the front of his
neck and continued on to
cause all of Connally's injuries
 The last shot to hit anyone struck
Kennedy in the head (the kill
shot)
 Commission offered the same bullet
that wounded Kennedy also caused
all of Governor Connally's wounds
 Became known as the quot;single
bullet theoryquot; or the quot;magicquot; bullet
theory
 Nation changed after the
assassination