On November 14, both men attended a meeting at Love Field and drove over the route that Sorrels believed was best suited for the motorcade. Sorrels, special agent in charge of the Dallas office, were the most active in planning the actual motorcade route.
Lawson, a member of the White House detail who acted as the advance Secret Service Agent, and Secret Service Agent Forrest V. The itinerary was designed to serve as a meandering 10-mile (16-km) route between the two places, and the motorcade vehicles could be driven slowly within the allotted time. Leaving from Dallas Love Field, the motorcade had been allotted 45 minutes to reach the Trade Mart at a planned arrival time of 12:15 p.m. Kenneth O'Donnell, Kennedy's friend and appointments secretary, had selected the Trade Mart (one of the buildings of Dallas Market Center) as the destination for the motorcade and location of the luncheon. The motorcade route through Dallas – with Kennedy, Connally, and their wives together in a single limousine, and Johnson and his wife two cars behind – was intended to give Kennedy maximum exposure to local crowds before his arrival for a luncheon at Dallas Market Center, where he would meet with civic and business leaders. Kennedy's itinerary called for him to arrive at Dallas Love Field via a short flight from Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth. ĭealey Plaza showing the route of Kennedy's motorcade.
The assassination was the first of four major assassinations of the 1960s in the United States, coming two years before the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and five years before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. Polls conducted from 1966 to 2004 found that up to 80 percent of Americans suspected that there was a plot or cover-up. However, Kennedy's assassination is still the subject of widespread debate and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories and alternative scenarios. Justice Department concluded active investigations and stated "that no persuasive evidence can be identified to support the theory of a conspiracy" in the assassination. The committee could not identify a second gunman or group involved in the possible conspiracy, although the HSCA concluded that analysis pointed to the existence of an additional gunshot and "a high probability that two gunmen fired at President". After analysis of a dictabelt audio recording the HSCA concluded that Kennedy was likely " assassinated as a result of a conspiracy". In its 1979 report, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) agreed with the Warren Commission that Oswald's three rifle shots caused the injuries that Kennedy and Connally sustained. Johnson automatically became president upon Kennedy's death. Kennedy was the eighth and most recent US president to die in office, and the fourth (following Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) to be assassinated. Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder, though it was later overturned on appeal, and Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial.Īfter a 10-month investigation, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, that Oswald had acted entirely alone, and that Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald. Like Kennedy, Oswald was also taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he soon died. November 24, 1963, as live television cameras were covering his transfer from the city jail to the county jail, Oswald was fatally shot in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters (then in the Dallas Municipal Building) by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby. He was charged under Texas state law with the murder of Kennedy and that of J. Oswald, a former US Marine, was arrested by the Dallas Police Department 70 minutes after the initial shooting. The motorcade was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting Connally recovered. Governor Connally was seriously wounded in the attack. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by Lee Harvey Oswald. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m.