The JFK Assassination

The JFK AssassinationReading/Writing 5TLCCrearyJohn Fitzgerald Kennedy

35th President of the United StatesMay 29, 1917 November 22, 1963In Office January 20, 1961 November 22, 1963

The Kennedy Family

The JFK AssassinationEvery November 22, people worldwide remember and ponder the assassination in 1963 of President John F. Kennedy. He was sitting in the back seat of a convertible (the top was down) when bullets fired from a rifle tore into him and a fellow passenger.

The JFK Assassination Cont.The assassination was caught on 8mm film by Abraham Zapruder. Digital enhancement of that famous film shows part of Kennedy's skull getting blown off. JFK was barely alive as the convertible sped to the nearest hospital; he died shortly after arriving there. The damage to his brain was so great that even today's medical techniques couldn't have saved JFK.

The JFK Assassination Cont.Conspiracy theories have persisted since the time of the assassination: the Mafia did it, the Teamsters did it, the CIA, or FBI, or Secret Service did it, Congress did it, the Federal Reserve did it, LBJ (the vice president) did it, the Communists did it, the Cubans who hated Castro did it, and the two guys behind the grassy knoll did it.

The JFK Assassination Cont.Conspiracy theorists do not believe that a lone gunman did it. The lone gunman was Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald didn't get to say much in his defense except, "I'm a patsy," implying that he knew who really did it. Two days after Oswald shot Kennedy, Jack Ruby put a fatal bullet into Oswald.

The JFK Assassination Cont.The Warren Commission conducted the federal government's official investigation of JFK's assassination. Its 27-volume report said that Oswald, a former Marine, acted alone in shooting JFK from a sixth floor window of a book storage building. But to this day, and probably far into the future, many people dispute this "lone gunman" theory.

The JFK Assassination Cont.They believe JFK's death was a result of a conspiracy by one or more groups of people who felt threatened or deserted by JFK. President Kennedy was murdered at the height of the Cold War, just a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. The Kennedy era was marked by a variety of tensions and crises. The fact that Oswald was murdered while accompanied by a dozen Dallas policemen only strengthens the suspicions of the conspiracy theorists. The Warren report, they say, is merely a government whitewash of the "true" facts.

The Car

The Car

The Car

Jackie reaching for her husband

The Bullet Trajectory

The School Book Depository

The Snipers Window

The Rifle

Lee Harvey Oswald

Oswald Murder

The 8mm Film

Walter Cronkite

Oswald Assassination

The Eternal Flame

SourcesCBS Announces JFKs Death, Walter Cronkite, CBS News, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CjWbemTNcw JFK Eternal Flame, Washington, http://www.worldsiteguides.com/north-america/us/washington/jfk-eternal-flame/

Assassin Killed: Presidents Slayer Shot in Dallas Jail, Universal-International News, Ed Herlihy, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xU7Lhd7Wwo

The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Spartacus Educational, Slide Imageshttp://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKindex.htm

U.S. President John F. Kennedy Assassinated, Fold 3, Slide Images, http://www.fold3.com/page/83001112_us_president_john_f_kennedy/

The John F. Kennedy Assassination, Abraham Zapruder 8mm Film, Zapruder Film Slow Motion, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU83R7rpXQY

JFK Assassination Records, The National Archives, http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, 411 Elm Street, Dallas, Texas,75202, www.jfk.org

160: JFK Assassination, Rong-Chang, Short Stories for ESL Learners,http://www.rong-chang.com/eslread/eslread/ss/s160.htm