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November 22nd, 1963: the day that changed America forever. Join us as we examine the JFK assassination, from the sunny streets of Dallas to the controversial investigations that followed. We'll explore Kennedy's presidency, the fateful motorcade, Lee Harvey Oswald's troubled life, and the enduring conspiracy theories that continue to captivate the world decades later.
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00:00Boss, the president's been shot in Dallas five minutes ago.
00:04Oh, no.
00:06On November 22nd, 1963, with his presidency deep into its third year,
00:11John F. Kennedy was one of the most recognizable and powerful people on the planet.
00:16He had steered his party and the country through variously testing unprecedented and controversial times at the height of the Cold War.
00:24He drew the line dramatically and forcefully.
00:27But at the dawn of that bright autumnal day, with an appointment in Dallas to meet,
00:33Kennedy may well have been looking ahead to the future with optimism.
00:36And yet history shows that Kennedy's time was that day to be cut tragically and brutally short.
00:42President Kennedy has been assassinated. It's official now. The president is dead.
00:48While traveling in the presidential motorcade in an unarmored convertible 1961 Lincoln Continental Limousine,
00:55Seated alongside his wife and First Lady Jackie, Kennedy was shot.
00:59I gotta save it.
01:05First confusion, and then panic erupted at the scene.
01:09Then, as still today, the question was, how on earth did this happen?
01:13This is WatchMojo. Today, we take a closer look at the JFK assassination,
01:18including the events leading up to that infamous moment,
01:21all that happened during the initial chaos and reaction.
01:24And we'll ask, what was the lasting legacy of a president's murder?
01:28The bullets were coming up over our heads,
01:31from that fence up on the mole.
01:35I seen his face when it hit. He just...
01:38His ear blew off.
01:40John Kennedy was 43 years old when he became the 35th president of the United States in January 1961.
01:48He was the youngest ever to be elected to the post.
01:51Born in 1917, he came from a politically prominent family.
01:55But his presidency was shaped not so much by his own past, but by a world in rapid motion.
02:00The Cold War, civil rights tensions, the space race,
02:03there was change, some turmoil, and undoubted energy coursing through the country at the beginning of the 1960s.
02:11John Fitzgerald Kennedy is elected president.
02:15Just over 100 years after arriving penniless in Boston,
02:19the Kennedys are now the most powerful family in the world.
02:24In his short time in office, Kennedy faced multiple major tests.
02:28Just a few months into his term, in April 1961, the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba
02:34underscored the perils of Cold War brinkmanship.
02:37Well, there never was my intention to invade Cuba anyway.
02:40But they put the missiles in there.
02:42He then witnessed rising tensions in Germany and the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961.
02:48In October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world perilously close to nuclear war.
02:54By most measures, it was the nearest humankind has ever come to atomic Armageddon.
02:59Kennedy did not know that the order to shoot had not come from Khrushchev.
03:03It was a Soviet unit acting independently, in fact, contrary to Khrushchev's orders.
03:08In that crisis, though, Kennedy and his advisers managed a diplomatic route that eventually prevented catastrophe.
03:15Nevertheless, events left both the president and the world well aware of just how close to the edge we had truly come.
03:21I was deeply shocked when he advised your son was lost on an operational mission on Saturday, October 27th, 1962.
03:30Leadership in the nuclear age meant navigating a complex global chessboard, all while, for Kennedy, ensuring that the U.S. continually retain the upper hand.
03:40Domestically, and with this in mind, Kennedy championed boldness and ambition.
03:46In his inaugural address, he famously said,
03:48Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
03:53He endlessly called for Americans to engage, innovate, and lead.
03:57And a major part of his vision was embodied in the new frontier of space travel.
04:01And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
04:13In another historic speech, Kennedy declared in May 1961 that the United States would commit to landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth before the decade was out.
04:24A goal that was eventually met, almost six years after Kennedy himself had died.
04:30It was a pledge that galvanized NASA, as well as all the nation's engineers and scientists, symbolizing, as it did, a broader and crucial rivalry with the Soviet Union.
04:41Kennedy's most famous line relating to the space race came in September 1962, when he doubled down on America's efforts,
04:48by insisting that the country had chosen to go to the moon, not because it was easy, but because it was hard.
04:54The great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it.
05:03He said, because it is there. Well, space is there. And we're going to climb it.
05:08By the autumn of 1963, Kennedy had more than settled into his role as leader.
05:14Economically, the United States was in a strong position.
05:17Socially, there were ongoing issues, but there was also a growing sense of determination for the future.
05:23The president himself had developed a celebrity-like public image.
05:27He and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy projected glamour.
05:30Kennedy's supporters, at least, may have felt as though the country was on the precipice of something significant, of better, brighter times.
05:38There does seem to be, about the Kennedy family that day when they moved into the White House, an incredible sense that they were still children,
05:45that they couldn't believe that this had happened, that they would be together there, somehow like it's the new vacation home, but it's real because it's the presidency.
05:53But beneath the seeming optimism, there was continued turbulence, and notably within Kennedy's own Democratic Party.
06:00Not everyone was on board, and in fact, it was this that had led Kennedy to that fateful spot along Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, on November 22nd, 1963.
06:11So I said, gee, I really hate to go to Texas. I got to go to Texas next week, and it's just a pain in the rear end, and I just don't want to go.
06:19I wish I could get out of it.
06:21The president had traveled south for a meeting between local party members in a bid to address growing animosity between them.
06:34He had arrived in Dallas the evening before, and at the time of his death, was on his way to sit with his colleagues,
06:40aiming to shore up support in Texas ahead of his 1964 re-election campaign.
06:45President and Mrs. Kennedy arrived in Fort Worth from Houston late last night to an enthusiastic reception from huge crowds
06:51and spent the night in Suite 850 at Hotel Texas downtown.
06:55But then, of course, the sound of gunfire pierced through the air, and history turned within an instant.
07:01November 22nd, 1963, Dallas, Texas, a beating heart of the American South.
07:07The sun was shining, the stock market was up, and the eyes of America and the world were on the young president riding through the city,
07:15in an open-top convertible.
07:17Kennedy's visit to Texas was carefully orchestrated.
07:20It was a planned, multi-city tour.
07:22The purpose? Political consolidation.
07:25Kennedy, in the fall of 1963, was looking forward to the campaign of 1964.
07:33He was beginning to travel in parts of the country where he knew he needed to shore up his popularity,
07:39which was sagging because of the civil rights legislation.
07:42Although America's next formal election was more than a year away, the 1964 race was now appearing on the horizon.
07:49For Kennedy, it may even be said that this was his first unofficial day of campaigning.
07:54Texas Democrats were split.
07:56On one side, liberal figures.
07:58On the other, conservative voices.
08:00Kennedy needed to unify his party and show strength in the South,
08:04all in a bid to build as strong a foundation as possible for a second run at the White House.
08:08The president's car is now turning on to Elm Street.
08:13Jam-packed with spectators waiting their chance to see the president.
08:16In the hours before arriving at Dealey Plaza,
08:19Kennedy had made multiple scheduled stops for photo ops and to deliver short speeches.
08:24And in Dallas itself, despite a reported lack of support for the president in the city at the time,
08:29welcoming and enthusiastic crowds lined the streets.
08:32In what transpired in his final moments, the president appeared relaxed and was smiling.
08:37The open-top limousine that carried him through Dallas offered visibility and connection with the public,
08:42but also increased risk.
08:44The motorcade entered Dealey Plaza at about 12.30 p.m., on time, as scheduled,
08:49with the route itself having been published in local newspapers in the days beforehand.
08:53I made it very clear to the Warren people that one of the shots came from behind that picket fence.
09:00I heard the report, saw the smoke come out six and eight feet above the ground, right out from under those trees.
09:06This was a well-known public place surrounded by historic buildings, including the Texas School Book Depository.
09:13Here, on the sixth floor, according to official lines, there was a sniper laying in wait.
09:18As the limousine rolled past the depository, along Elm Street, the atmosphere was upbeat, but then, gunfire.
09:32And all the good feeling evaporated into fear and pandemonium.
09:37The exact sequence of shots has long been debated and analyzed, as well as the precise number of shots taken,
09:42but the basic facts are clear.
09:44First, Kennedy was struck in the top of the back, with the bullet exiting through his throat.
09:48A second and fatal shot followed moments later, hitting him in the head.
09:53I should have known it was a gunshot. I should have shielded him.
09:56Amidst the chaos, Governor John Conley, seated in front of Kennedy,
10:00was non-fatally wounded in the chest, wrist, and thigh.
10:04The motorcade swerved. Spectators screamed.
10:07As the car accelerated away, immediately making for the nearest medical facility, Parkland Memorial Hospital.
10:12There were some of the crowd, 450 extra policemen called on duty.
10:17Everybody waited anxiously, and waited, and waited, and waited.
10:21Mrs. Kennedy, in shock, reached toward her husband.
10:25The president's body had slumped.
10:27Jackie, although she reportedly could not recall doing so afterwards,
10:31reached across the back of the limo,
10:32apparently in a desperate attempt to retrieve part of John Kennedy's skull.
10:37Governor Conley, wounded but conscious, called out from his seat,
10:40My God, they're going to kill us all.
10:43So I got up on top of the president's car,
10:45and I grabbed her and put her in the back seat.
10:48When they did that, his body fell farther to the left with his head in her lap.
10:52The next 30 minutes is a blur of frantic activity.
10:55The president was rushed to the emergency room at Parkland, arriving at 12.38.
10:59Hurried attempts were made by surgeons to save him,
11:01all while Kennedy's personal physicians oversaw.
11:04But at 1 p.m., he was officially declared dead.
11:07Politics moves quickly, and never more so than now.
11:10Is he really dead?
11:12I heard that he was just shot in the head and was in critical condition.
11:15The word we just received, it happened about an hour ago, is that he's dead.
11:19Oh, my God.
11:20By 1.30 p.m., Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson,
11:23Kennedy's successor, was being strongly advised
11:26to immediately leave Dallas for Washington.
11:28Those advising him initially feared that the president's second-in-command
11:32might also be targeted as part of a wider plot.
11:35Johnson, however, refused,
11:36reportedly saying that he wouldn't leave until he could do so with Kennedy's now-widow, Jackie,
11:41who herself wouldn't depart without Kennedy's body on the same flight.
11:46Over the following 60 minutes, this caused a huge amount of tension,
11:50with Texas state law requiring that an autopsy should be performed.
11:53It's said that Kennedy's team almost came to blows with the local lawmakers
11:57before officials backed down and allowed for the body to be taken onto Air Force One.
12:02And splayed on the bed, feet up on it, is this big Texan, Lyndon Johnson.
12:08And that moment made apparent to her, in a way that the Kennedys would tend to resent Johnson for forever,
12:14that he had already taken over and that Jackie was yesterday's first lady.
12:20Then, at 2.38 p.m., shortly before takeoff to Washington,
12:24Johnson was officially inaugurated while on board the presidential plane,
12:28and while standing next to Jacqueline Kennedy.
12:30In a famous photograph of the momentous event,
12:33the former first lady can be seen in the same blood-marked Chanel suit
12:37as she had been wearing at the time of the shooting,
12:40all while Johnson takes his oath.
12:42The transfer of power under such somber circumstances
12:44became one of the defining images of the day.
12:47And will, to the best of my ability,
12:49Preserve,
12:50Preserve,
12:51Protect,
12:51Protect,
12:52And defend,
12:53And defend,
12:55The Constitution of the United States.
12:57The Constitution of the United States.
12:59Meanwhile, the crowds on the ground in Dallas still reeling,
13:03the world received the news of Kennedy's fate almost immediately.
13:06Television audiences all over the country rushed to their nearest sets to get updates,
13:10with CBS's Walter Cronkite famously delivering the critical bulletin.
13:14From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official,
13:18President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.
13:23There was widespread disbelief.
13:25There were countless questions, but at the time, very few answers.
13:29And naturally, for many watching on,
13:31and for the entirety of the police and security services,
13:34the first matter at hand was to find and capture whoever it was behind the trigger.
13:39Lee Harvey Oswald was a 24-year-old veteran of the U.S. Marines.
13:43He was born in October 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana,
13:47and his unstable childhood was marked by frequent moves and emotional isolation from his mother.
13:53Oswald continually changed schools, but was often truant and had few friends,
13:57as from an early age he showed signs of social withdrawal and an inclination toward radical ideas.
14:03Psychologists who assessed him during his youth variously described Oswald as emotionally disturbed.
14:09He was a kid who had never developed a really trusting relationship with anybody.
14:16Around the age of 15, while he was otherwise failing in school,
14:19Oswald's mind turned to politics when it said he started reading socialist literature,
14:24a somewhat unusual pursuit for an American teenager at the time.
14:28And yet in 1956, at the age of 17,
14:31Oswald's political persuasion appeared to take a different direction as he enlisted in the U.S. Marines.
14:36To him, the Marine Corps was a vehicle for escaping from all the things that were holding him down in his life.
14:45Look what he got as a Marine.
14:47He learned to use a rifle, he learned to travel, and he got away from his family.
14:52This decision may have been influenced by a desire of Oswald's for stability and purpose,
14:57but whatever the reasoning, in the Marines, he received training as a radar operator,
15:02a position that gave him access to classified information.
15:05He also learned to shoot, although his marksmanship scores were only average.
15:09And at one stage, he was even court-martialed after accidentally shooting himself in the elbow with an unauthorized weapon.
15:16In September 1959, claiming that he needed to care for his mother,
15:21Oswald was granted a hardship discharge, excusing him from service.
15:25He applied for an early discharge and a passport.
15:27He was secretly planning to go to Russia.
15:32In reality, after months of reading and research, this was his first step toward defecting to the Soviet Union,
15:39just days before his 20th birthday in October 1959.
15:43And having pooled his savings and learned Russian to a competent level,
15:47Oswald left the U.S., traveled to France, the U.K., and Finland,
15:52before finally arriving in Moscow on October 16th.
15:55There, he immediately sought to denounce America and join the USSR, but was initially unsuccessful.
16:16In response to the rejection, Oswald apparently attempted to take his own life,
16:20which in turn meant that he was allowed to remain in the Soviet Union for a few more days to recover.
16:26During this period, Oswald's bid for Soviet citizenship improved,
16:30with officials eventually allowing him to stay indefinitely.
16:33In January 1960, Oswald moved to Minsk.
16:38He now had the chance to become what he had always wanted to be, a model young Marxist.
16:43He was sent to the industrial city of Minsk, where he worked as a lathe operator in a radio factory.
16:49And despite his initial enthusiasm for communism,
16:52Oswald soon became disillusioned with his life in the Soviet Union.
16:56He found the bureaucratic system oppressive, the surveillance constant,
16:59and the society less ideal than what he had imagined.
17:03He had become disillusioned with life here.
17:06He came here after reading a lot of Marx and Lenin, thinking that it was something good.
17:11But living here, he realized it was not so good.
17:15In his diary, just three months into his new life,
17:18Oswald bemoaned that there was nowhere to spend the money he'd earn.
17:21Around the same time, in early January 1961, he also experienced another rejection,
17:27this time from one Ella German, a Belarusian colleague of his, who he had dated.
17:33Oswald asked her to marry him, but she declined.
17:35Weeks later, in March 1961, Oswald struck up another romantic relationship,
17:41this time with Marina Prusakova.
17:43And they were promptly married, after less than two months together.
17:46The couple had a daughter, June, in February 1962,
17:50with his life having taken another different direction.
17:53It was now that Oswald applied to return to the United States,
17:56this time bringing his wife and daughter with him.
17:59The U.S. government allowed him back, and he settled in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,
18:14close to his mother and brother.
18:15As he had done with schools, Oswald moved through jobs,
18:19never truly holding anything down.
18:21Meanwhile, he reportedly retained a general interest in communist politics,
18:25fostering links with the Russian emigres who had also settled nearby.
18:29Oswald was never truly accepted into the Russian community,
18:32but his political sympathies remained.
18:34Oswald turned his energy back to radical politics.
18:38He wrote letters to fringe left-wing organizations,
18:41including one called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
18:44And when he purchased a rifle for $21.45 in March 1963,
18:49his story took a violent turn.
18:51On April 10, 1963, a shot was fired at the former U.S. Major General Edwin Walker
18:57as he sat at his desk at home.
19:00Walker is in his study doing his taxes.
19:02Oswald, about 65 feet away near a fence, sets up,
19:06aims with his four-power scope and the Mandurker Carcano,
19:09takes one shot at Walker's head.
19:11Although Oswald was not a suspect at the time,
19:14in the days following the Kennedy assassination later that same year,
19:17analysis reportedly showed that he almost certainly had been the would-be assassin of Walker as well.
19:22Given that Walker was prominently anti-communist,
19:25it's said that Oswald viewed him with disdain as a fascist leader.
19:29He took his shot, Walker survived, but Oswald escaped any further consequences.
19:34In the weeks between then and November 22nd at Dealey Plaza,
19:46it's known that Oswald visited Mexico City,
19:49seemingly in a bid to travel from there to Cuba and again to the Soviet Union.
19:53He was denied passage to Cuba, however, and so returned to the U.S. and to Dallas.
19:58His wife, Marina, was pregnant at the time and in late October gave birth to the couple's second daughter, Audrey.
20:04A job had opened up at the Texas School Book Depository, which Oswald took,
20:09and for the next few weeks, his life might even have begun to appear settled.
20:13The motorcade route, which would take the president right under the windows of the book depository,
20:18was published in the local newspapers.
20:20And suddenly this newspaper is challenging him by saying,
20:23you have an opportunity to make it Kennedy.
20:25But then came Kennedy's visit to the city.
20:28And the published route of his motorcade, set to pass right by Oswald's new place of work.
20:34On that morning, Oswald waited by a window on the sixth floor.
20:37Propped up by packed boxes, he set his sights,
20:40and the 1961 Lincoln Continental promptly rolled into view.
20:44And the crowd is absolutely going wild.
20:47This is a friendly crowd in downtown Dallas,
20:50as the president and the first lady pass driving.
20:52Within hours of Kennedy's death, police had identified Lee Harvey Oswald as the prime suspect.
20:57Largely because he worked at the book depository,
21:00which was where early intel suggested the shots had been fired from.
21:04And Oswald's actions before and after the assassination only served to deepen suspicion.
21:09In the wake of the Kennedy assassination,
21:11the Dallas police, on the one hand, they were committing all of their resources to trying to solve the crime.
21:16But you're holding him in the doorway.
21:17When you get him in the doorway, hold him in the doorway.
21:20Near the hand, they were ill-equipped to handle this tsunami of reporters.
21:26He was reportedly seen entering the building that day, carrying a long, thin package,
21:31which Oswald is said to have claimed contained curtain rods.
21:34Really, it's thought that those rods were actually his disassembled rifle.
21:38Oswald was also last seen on the sixth floor of the book depository,
21:42around 35 minutes before the shooting took place.
21:44And he was seen leaving the building shortly afterwards.
21:48From there, he boarded a bus, returned to a nearby room he rented, and left again on foot.
21:53At around 1.15 p.m., 45 minutes after Kennedy was shot,
21:57a patrolling Dallas police officer, J.D. Tippett, passed Oswald and stops to question him,
22:02realizing that Oswald matched the profile of the Kennedy suspect,
22:07based on early descriptions that had already been broadcast.
22:10When Tippett exited his police car, Oswald shot and killed him with a concealed revolver.
22:15Oswald was arrested in a movie theater later that afternoon, and charged with both murders.
22:20He had snuck into the Texas theater without paying,
22:23and was reportedly watching the 1961 film War is Hell at the time of his capture.
22:28Under interrogation, Oswald denied all charges,
22:31famously proclaiming, quote,
22:33I'm just a patsy.
22:35He insisted that he had not shot anyone,
22:37and claimed he was being set up, due to his links to communism and the Soviet Union.
22:41I really don't know what this situation is about,
22:44nobody has told me anything except that I am accused of murdering a policeman.
22:49I know nothing more than that.
22:51Despite extensive questioning,
22:53no definitive confession was ever obtained from Oswald.
22:56And, as history shows, just two days after Kennedy died,
23:00Oswald was also killed.
23:02While he was being transferred between jails,
23:04an event that was broadcast on live television,
23:07he was shot in the stomach at point-blank range by the nightclub owner, Jack Ruby.
23:12Oswald was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital,
23:14the same hospital where Kennedy had himself been pronounced dead.
23:18Oswald, his face contorted, slumped to the floor.
23:21He was fed to the same hospital where President Kennedy died.
23:24But he succumbed to his injuries within an hour.
23:26Ruby, a local figure with ties to both law enforcement and organized crime,
23:31claimed that he had acted out of grief and rage,
23:34wanting to spare Mrs. Kennedy the extra ordeal of a trial.
23:38Nevertheless, his actions fueled countless conspiracy theories,
23:42as many believe that Oswald's death was meant to silence him
23:45before he could reveal more about the assassination.
23:48Of course, many of those theories are still debated today.
23:51Oswald appears on a local TV debate.
23:53You are a communist, are you not?
23:56No, Mr. Bringer, I am not a communist, I'm Marxist-Leninist.
24:01There was an official investigation, in a bid to determine the truth.
24:05The Warren Commission was established by the incoming President Johnson,
24:09and in 1964 it concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was responsible for killing Kennedy,
24:14and that he had acted alone.
24:16The report was met with skepticism at the time, however,
24:18and has been severely questioned ever since.
24:21Now must be when the first shot was fired.
24:24At exactly this point, the investigators halted the car.
24:28Chalk was used to mark the spots where the bullet struck.
24:30Counter theories involving CIA cover-ups have always dogged the findings of the Warren Commission.
24:36It's alleged that the CIA only partially cooperated with the investigation,
24:40offering very little information about its own ongoing anti-communist activities,
24:45which many believe may have led all the way back to the Kennedy assassination itself.
24:49They waged non-stop war against Castro, industrial sabotage, crop burning, the works.
24:55And all of this came under the control of General Watt.
24:58Arguably, the two most infamous and contentious issues revolve around,
25:02first, the grassy knoll, and second, the magic bullet.
25:05Despite the Warren Commission finding that Oswald acted alone,
25:08firing three shots from the book depository building,
25:11there has always been interest in a nearby grassy knoll.
25:14I don't know exactly when it was christened the grassy knoll,
25:20but sometime during the interchange.
25:22Because multiple witnesses and researchers have suggested
25:25that there was actually a second gunman positioned that day
25:28on a small sloping hill set just back from the road.
25:32What is obviously in the original film,
25:36a movement like this, is made to look like a forward movement.
25:40A forward movement that would support the lone gunman theory.
25:43Located to the right front of the motorcade as it passed through,
25:47many argue that it was from here that the final fatal shot was fired at Kennedy,
25:51and not from the book depository behind.
25:53And I thought that those shots could have been coming right across the top of our heads,
26:00and that we could have been actually in the line of fire
26:03and could have been injured or killed ourselves.
26:06In fact, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting,
26:09many bystanders rushed to the knoll.
26:11So certain were they that the shooter would be positioned there.
26:15More broadly, the theory posits that this second shooter
26:18was part of a broader conspiracy to kill Kennedy,
26:21potentially involving, again, the CIA, organized crime, or other political enemies.
26:26I thought maybe our guys had shot back,
26:29and maybe we got one of them.
26:30When I got up to the parking lot,
26:32all I saw were railroad workers and Dallas's funds.
26:36Meanwhile, the magic bullet, or single bullet theory,
26:40represents another critical and controversial component
26:43of the Warren Commission's official explanation.
26:45According to the commission, a single bullet,
26:47designated Commission Exhibit 399,
26:50caused seven entry and exit wounds in both Kennedy and Governor Conley,
26:55passing through the back of Kennedy's neck,
26:57before striking Conley in the chest, wrist, and thigh,
27:00and all the while remaining intact enough
27:03for the bullet to be easily identifiable later that day,
27:06when it was found on the side of a gurney
27:08that had carried the stricken Conley to Parkland.
27:10The commission isn't sure which of the three missed,
27:13but it believes that the first one to take effect
27:16struck President Kennedy in the back of the neck,
27:18passed through the throat,
27:20then went completely through Governor Conley's upper body and wrist.
27:24The bizarre and, for many, unlikely trajectory of the bullet
27:27is crucial to the idea that Oswald acted alone,
27:30that only he was responsible for the death and injury of that day.
27:33But for critics, the bullet's journey is just too implausible.
27:37They argue that it would have required impossible mid-air changes in direction.
27:41And so, along with the mystery surrounding the grassy knoll,
27:45the magic bullet is also used by some as proof
27:48that with the Kennedy assassination,
27:50all is not as it was reported to be,
27:52that there has always been a conspiracy and a cover-up afoot.
27:55But rather than admit to a conspiracy or investigate further,
27:59the Warren Commission chose to endorse the theory put forth
28:02by an ambitious junior counselor, Arlen Spector,
28:05one of the grossest lies ever forced on the American people.
28:10We've come to know it as the magic bullet theory.
28:13Other prominent investigations were launched alongside the Warren Commission.
28:16The FBI conducted its own search into the assassination,
28:19reportedly staging upwards of 25,000 interviews,
28:22before reaching a conclusion that matched a preliminary report
28:26delivered by the FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover,
28:29within 24 hours of Kennedy's death,
28:31that Oswald had acted alone.
28:33Of course, we had a photographer from the field office there.
28:38They had their photographer there.
28:40And we examined that car very thoroughly that same night.
28:44On the other hand, a later investigation, running from 1976 to 1978,
28:50and conducted by the then-newly formed
28:52United States House Select Committee on Assassinations,
28:56found differently.
28:57In its report, the HSCA determined that the events of November 22, 1963,
29:03likely were the result of a conspiracy,
29:05and that there likely was a second shooter in attendance that day,
29:09most probably positioned on or near the grassy knoll.
29:12Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
29:15and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
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29:29Ultimately, while the official line is still
29:31that Kennedy was killed by one man acting alone,
29:34the truth, for many, remains disturbingly blurred.
29:37I think we've got to review our history now
29:42in seeing that this was a professional hit.
29:45What is clear is that Kennedy's murder
29:47was a major turning point in 20th century history.
29:50It shattered any sense of invulnerability
29:52that may have previously accompanied the position of U.S. president.
29:56In general, it conjured a dark and uncertain vision of the future
29:59for an entire generation of Americans.
30:01And, of course, what happened that day
30:03directly changed the shape of U.S. politics from that point,
30:07as well as with Kennedy's Vice President Johnson
30:09stepping into the helm.
30:10It was a terribly bitter experience for Bobby
30:14to see this man he hated
30:17come in and replace his brother
30:19in the Oval Office in the White House.
30:22Johnson, during his term,
30:24will have made decisions that Kennedy
30:25perhaps wouldn't have done.
30:27And so the timeline of history constantly evolves.
30:30We live in peace.
30:32The goodwill of the world pours out for us.
30:38But more than these blessings,
30:39we know tonight that our system is strong.
30:43But perhaps more than anything else,
30:45the assassination brought into light
30:47urgent questions about secrecy,
30:49the role of intelligence agencies at home and abroad,
30:51and of government conspiracy.
30:53It accelerated geopolitical concerns at the time
30:56and contributed to a growing distrust
30:59in institutions and world leaders.
31:01It's certainly going to create an unstable
31:02effect on the economy.
31:05I understand the stock markets have already closed down.
31:09Is that right?
31:10That was the word.
31:11Suspicion, doubt, and unease
31:13all became part of the cultural fabric
31:15of the late 1960s and beyond.
31:18Lee Harvey Oswald's unsettling story
31:20highlights the fraught and fragile nature
31:22of the Cold War era.
31:23There were deep and dangerous ideological divides at the time.
31:27And whether Oswald is viewed as a lone, disturbed gunman,
31:30as a pawn in a larger hidden plot,
31:32or as a political defector unfairly framed,
31:35he became a major part in one of America's
31:38darkest ever chapters.
31:40The prosecution case against Oswald is open and shut.
31:43If he'd shot his brother-in-law in the backseat
31:45of a convertible and not the President of the United States,
31:49he would have been tried, convicted,
31:51and forgotten in three days.
31:52For John Kennedy, his was a life suddenly ended
31:56just as he was preparing to hit the campaign trail again.
31:59His killing transpired to be the first
32:01of four major assassinations in the 1960s.
32:04Malcolm X was shot and killed in 1965.
32:08Martin Luther King Jr. and John Kennedy's brother Robert
32:10were both slain in 1968.
32:13This was a decade of unprecedented political violence.
32:16We ran down the end of the hall.
32:20It looked really bad.
32:25It started on that notorious November day
32:29in the early afternoon sun
32:31as a smiling, waving president
32:33was greeted by the waiting crowds.
32:35At Parkland Hospital here in Dallas,
32:38a priest has been ordered.
32:39Women here in shock.
32:41Some fainted.
32:43Tears streaming down their face.
32:45All right.
32:45All right.
32:46All right.
32:47All right.
32:48All right.
32:49Let's go to the next section,
32:50the feedbacks in seigne letture.
32:50All right.
32:50All right.
32:50We'll see you next time.
32:51You there.
32:52Yeah.
32:52All right.
32:52I went to the next section here now.
32:53Stop.
32:54— We'll see you next time.
32:54All right.
32:55All right.
32:56Club 19.
32:57Sort of is the second section inÐ°Ñ€Ð¾Ð²é€ .
32:58Oh, well, we'll see that.
32:59All right.
33:00Youma what?
33:00All right.
33:01All right.
33:01All right.
33:02All right.
33:02Bye.
33:02Bye.
33:03Bye.
33:03Bye.
33:03Bye.
33:04Bye.
33:05Bye.
33:05Bye.
33:05Bye.
33:07Bye.
33:08Bye.
33:10Bye.
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