Thread: The 49th anniversary of the JFK assassination.

November 22nd, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. I was in 8th grade and it was during the time we had finished with one class and were walking down the halls to our next one. A friend and I were going along when another student came running up and excitedly told us the president had been shot. We both pushed him and punched him in his arms. What he was saying to us was unbelievable and blasphemous. He started to cry swearing it was true. He had just been in the office and heard it on the radio.

I was in class when the announcement came over the loudspeaker that the president had been shot by an assassin and had died. In the classroom some of the kids burst into tears. JFK was revered by us and it seemed impossible that it could have happened. I was watching the coverage when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. My mother immediately thought there was a conspiracy and he had been murdered surrounded by the Dallas police too conveniently. I thought that was ridiculous. It took a few years for me to see it but IMHO there is no doubt it was a conspiracy. A coup d'etat in the United States of America.

As with everything else in this country the population, those who care one way or another, is split on whether it was a lone assassin or a conspiracy. I've read voluminously on the subject and there is no doubt in my mind that it was a coup. Looks like my generation will be dead and gone when and if the whole truth is ever known.

In 1976 the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded there was at least a 2nd gunmen, if not more. That the CiA and other federal and state LEO agencies withheld information and obfuscated what info they gave. A sad day in American history.

Thanks for sharing. That's a day no one will ever forget. I was in jr. high school, seventh grade, and in a geography class taught, ironically, by a teacher who had been a secret service agent. He announced it to the class and the reactions of the students were similar to those you describe.

Later that day I had band practice; the teacher had us play "Hail to the Chief." When we finished, he told us we could keep the sheet music and that practice was over that day. It was sorrowful.

I too saw the Ruby/Oswald shooting live on T.V.

Over the years, I too have become convinced that there were more players than ever publicly disclosed.

Nevertheless, a dark day indeed.

I had an after school job in an auto body and repair shop. My boss was primering a car in the spray booth and I was repairing a front fender with lead and a torch when the news came over the radio that always played in the shop. We both stopped
what we were doing and the boss grabbed a couple of cold beers out of the fridge and we went into his office and sat around
his desk. We did not move for about 4 hours. We were frightened and my boss kept saying no good will come of this.
I cannot and never will subscribe to the lone assassin theory.

Calculus class when I found out. It was a very different time we went into after it happened.

Thanks for the reminder Jimmy. If it is any comfort, the US was not the only place badly effected by the sad events of that day. I was in Grade 5 when it was announced by the teacher and we were dismissed for the day. It certainly cast a pall over us here then.

Like you, the older I got and the more I read about the assassination I cannot believe it was the work of a lone deranged gunman. It is sad that our generation, who lived through that momentous event, will likely not live to see the entire truth eventually emerge.

Bob

In world history class,freshman in H.S. Am convinced that L.H.O had nothing to do with the killing,was not even in the building at the time.

I don't remember it, (Only because I had yet to be born) but I have read a lot on it. I was always fascinated by the fact that some people held such strong beliefs over L.H.O. "having" to be the shooter. One of my highschool teachers was nice enough to share his research on it with me. My teacher's notes may not be the truth, but Karl Popper wouldn't have a problem with this theory. I have tried repeatedly to debunk it and always came back to the same spot.

Anyways, unfortunate times.

I was only 2 years at the time, no memory of anything. I did visit the book depository in Dallas in 2008 & was able to stand close to the famous window. I don't know if there was a second shooter, we probably never will. My research of the incident is almost zero; so my opinion, as to a conspiracy, is worth zero also.

I do remember having a confident feeling that the shot from the window, on the moving, open vehicle, could have been made by any number of avid hunters in this country; even with the rifle he used.

A sad day, yes it was.

A photo of the building I took that day. The 6th floor open window.

I remember that day well. I was in the fifth grade. The teacher from across the hall barged into our room and announced in a loud voice "The President has been shot!" Then a few minutes later, she opened the door again and said "The President is dead!" Our teacher left the room for a long time and we all just sat there looking at each other. When she came back, she just told us to go home. The other classes were being let out at the same time.

When I got home, my mother was sitting in front of the TV crying. She didn't move from that chair for the rest of the day. I don't think she stopped crying, either. That as the end of innocence for me.

I was too young to pay much attention to President Eisenhower, but Jack Kennedy got my attention because of the effect he had on my mother and on my friends' parents. I liked his Boston accent and how he mispronounced certain words like "Cuber" and "Africer" when he gave his speeches. His body language when he wasn't standing behind a podium also showed he was pretty self-conscious. This ten-year-old found that facet of Kennedy rather endearing.

There's no doubt in my mind that someday when folks no longer care, the truth about Kennedy's assassination will come out. Walter Cronkite or one of the other big names in TV news interviewed some kind of weapons specialist the day after the assassination or maybe two days after. They were at a rifle range and the guy had the same model Mauser bolt action rifle that Lee Harvey Oswald had allegedly used. He attempted to fire the same number of rounds that Oswald fired at a fixed target in the same time frame as the shots fired at President Kennedy and Governor Conally. The guy was firing from a seated position with his left elbow supported by a shelf and he was barely able to hit the target. The way he struggled with that bolt action clearly demonstrated that model of Mauser was pretty much useless for accurate rapid fire at a fixed target, let alone a moving target that was several floors below the shooter. IIRC, the guy did mention Oswald had been a marine and Marines did receive extensive firearms training, but he didn't think that Oswald could have made all those shots himself using that Mauser.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. . . .

Oswald had great training (and that's just the training that we know about, remember...), the will to shoot & his weapon of choice. I don't see a problem with him scoring at least 1 of those hits, don't get me wrong Morty, it's just a discussion among friends, but the "expert" in that case did not have LHO's training, mindset, nor did he have that exact rifle, he had a model like it. JMO