Kennedy Assassination

Friday, November 22, 1963
Page Two

In the car of Vice-President Lyndon Johnson, Secret Service agent Rufus Youngblood sensed the danger and yelled "get down." He would hop from the front seat and shove the Vice-President toward Mrs. Johnson, covering LBJ with his body as his duty required.

Now President Kennedy is shot, the bullet exiting through the neck while Governor Connally is shot through his back, his raised right hand, with the bullet traveling into his left thigh. He later said that it felt like being punched in the back. Connally leans toward the door but his wife pulls him toward her.

Zapruder picture

Zapruder Frame 246

Kennedy gets his hands up to neck level and begins to lean toward his wife. Kennedy's first wound would probably have been non-lethal.

Agent Kellerman yells, "we are hit." Curiously, Greer hits the brakes. In the follow up car, Agent Hickey searches for a target but finds none while Agent Clint Hill springs from the running board of the car behind and moves toward the President.

There has been criticism of the performance of Agents Kellerman and Greer. Clearly, they were slow to react.

Spectators are beginning to scatter. At some point, concrete splatter from the pavement sprays onlookers and injures bystander James Tague.

Now Greer accelerates, but it is too late. The killing shot has already been fired.

With Jackie Kennedy looking on, the shot literally blows off the right side of President Kennedy's head. Two big chunks of skull were later found; one on the pavement, one in the limo. A huge mist of brain matter and blood spews forth, covering everything nearby, including Mrs. Kennedy.

Zapruder 313 - This shows the head shot to John F. Kennedy
This frame was originally withheld by editors at Life.

Zapruder 335 - Connally is slumped into his wife's lap. Kennedy, now mortally wounded leans toward Jackie.
Yes, that blob on the side of his head is his skull and scalp peeling outward and down.
This frame was originally withheld by editors at Life.

John Connally was sure he had been murdered. "My God, they're going to kill us all, " he said from the safety of his wife's lap. Later, Nellie Connally would observe, "It was a car full of yellow roses, red roses and blood and it was all over us."

Jackie Kennedy crawls onto the trunk of the limo. In his Warren Commission testimony Agent Hill said he believed that she was reaching for something coming off the right rear bumper of the car. And indeed, a piece of the President's skull was later found on the pavement. She cries, "I have a piece of his brain in my hand." Agent Hill manages to get onto the trunk and shove her back into the car, placing his body over hers and the Presidents. Hill reported that Mrs. Kennedy said, "My God, they have shot his head off."

About Abraham Zapruder

An amateur photographer, he is the only one to capture the entire assassination. He used a Bell and Howell Model 414PD with a Zoomatic Director.

Life Magazine purchased the rights, but editors decided that some of the photos were too gruesome to publish.

Zapruder died in 1970.

In 1975 Time Inc (parent of Life) returns copyright to the Zapruder family, which asks the National Archives (NARA) to store it.

Under the JFK Act of 1992, NARA decides to confiscate the film. Eventually they are forced to pay the Zapruder family 16 million dollars.

In 1998 Kodak scientists restore the film and it is released to the public.

Zapruder 375 - Agent Hill struggles to get onboard to help Jackie Kennedy.

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Image Of An Assassination:
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