Kennedy Assassination

As a nation remained stunned by the assassination of President Kennedy, riveted to their TVs on the day the slain Kennedy's body would be moved to the Capitol rotunda, it was unthinkable that another horror remained.

On Sunday Lee Harvey Oswald was to be transferred to custody of the sheriff at the county jail.

Putting things in some context, the press was desperate for news, particularly visuals. TV was nonstop assassination coverage but there was little to report and less to look at. Glimpses of the accused assassin were at a premium. So it was decided to accommodate them.

Dallas police were aware that Oswald was widely hated. They knew he was a target. All of which makes what happened impossible to understand. There is no kindness which may be shown them. Their plans and preparations were beyond inadequate, they were just plain stupid.

Lee Harvey Oswald is shot

Lee Harvey Oswald exits elevator to garage

(Hear it as we did in 1963 Oswald shot NBC TV Oswald shot CBS TV) Oswald is being transferred to the County Jail and will pick up the ride in the garage. While we watched the coverage live on TV, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot. Ameria was astonished. Oswald was handcuffed to policeman James Leavelle and never had a chance. In the three pictures below you can see the dark figure of Jack Ruby approach from the right and shoot him at point blank range.

Associated Press
Lee Harvey Oswald shot by Jack Ruby

"You killed the President, you rat," Ruby exclaimed as pandemonium broke out in the garage.

The whole weekend had been surreal. John F. Kennedy gunned down in Dallas. We thought the worst was over, that the shocking moments were behind. Yet, now a nation watched while the alleged assassin was also gunned down. In Dallas. Only this murder we didn't have to imagine, we watched.

TV was a fairly new thing in 1963 and many people hadn't owned a set for more than a few years. Live coverage of events was a novelty. Soon enough we would see body bags in Viet Nam, but this was 1963. We were already numb from Kennedy's killing and this violence in our homes was unprecedented.

Lee Harvey Oswald was taken to Parkland Hospital where he died at 1:07 p.m. CST. He died 48 hours and 7 minutes after John F. Kennedy in exactly the same hospital.

Oswald was buried at Rose Hill cemetery in Fort Worth. He was exhumed in 1981 to verify that the body was really Oswalds. Naturally, there is controversy about this, but apparently, it was him.

Jack Ruby

Jack Ruby's club

About Jack Ruby

Jack Ruby shouldn't have been there. Yet he had also been in the building Firday night when Oswald gave his impromtu press conference.

Politely said, he was a nightclub owner. Back in the day, it would have been called a strip joint, and a seedy one at that. Ruby was always cultivating cops, encouraging friendship.

Jack Ruby, 52 years old, claimed he killed Oswald to spare Jackie Kennedy having to come to Dallas to testify. Called Oswald a "creep."

Although he had showboat attorney Melvin Belli, Jack Ruby was found guilty of murder on March 14, 1964, and sentenced to death. He appealed and won a retrial on the basis that procedural errors had occurred during the trial.

Jack Ruby never got his retrial as he died in 1967 of cancer. Where did he die? Parkland Hospital.

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