Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?

This is one of the worlds most asked questions. Anyone who was alive at the time is almost certain to tell you.

So what happened and why has it become such a big story in history.

President Kennedy Minutes before being shot

Who shot Kennedy?

The problems raised by the assassination of President Kennedy on 22 November 1963 are typical  of the difficulties historians face in putting together the past Reconstructing  the past can be difficult enough but then conclusions and opinions have to be based on the evidence Sometimes that evidence is incomplete, sometimes it is inaccurate.  After Kennedy's murder a commission was set up under Chief justice Warren to examine the evidence.  This first extract is taken from the report in 1964:

Extract Four.  The Warren Commission

1) The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth floor window . of the Texas School Book Depository. This determination is based upon the following

a)           a) Witnesses at the scene of the assassination saw a rifle being fired from the sixth      

              floor window of the Depository Building

       b) The nearly whole bullet found on Governor Connilly's stretcher...and the two         

       bullet fragments found in the front seat . . were fired from the 6.5 Mannlicher rifle  

       found on  the sixth floor of the Depository building

       c) The three used cartridge cases found near the window of the sixth floor... were fired 

       from the title which fired the above described bullet

        d)  The, windshield in the Presidential limousine was struck by a bullet  fragmented on  

       the inside surface of the glass but was not penetrated.

The building from where Kennedy was shot

       e) The nature of the bullet wounds suffered by President Kennedy and Governor  

       Connally and the location of the car ... establish that the bullets were fired from above 

        and behind the presidential limousine, striking the President and the Governor as 

        follows:

1) President Kennedy was first struck by a bullet which entered at the back of the neck   and exited through the lower front portion of his neck, causing a wound which would not necessarily have been lethal. The President was struck a second time by a bullet which entered in, the right rear potion of his head, causing a massive, fatal wound

                   2)  Governor  Connally was struck by a  bullet which entered on the right side  

                 of his back- and traveled downward through  the right side of his chest exiting

                 below his right nipple.  This bullet then passed through. his right wrist and

                entered his left thigh

Extract Five: 1979 Select Committee Report

                 Congress set up another investigation into the assassination in 1976.  This is a                  summary of its key findings:

  Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at President . . . Kennedy.  The second and third shots he fired struck the President.  The third shot he fired killed the President, The shots that struck President Kennedy from behind were fired from the sixth floor window ... of the Texas School Book Depository

·         Building. [The Committee also stated that there was a 'high probability' that two gunmen fired at the President.  A newly-found tape recording of a policeman's motor-cycle radio transmission showed that there were four shots fired and not three.  Further analysis indicated that one of those shots was fired from a small grassy mound in front of the President's car.  The

I 0     report further stated:] The Committee believes ... that President Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.  The Committee is unable to identify the other gunmen or the extent of the conspiracy.

(Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, 1979)

Conspiracy?

Lee Harvey Oswald is a puzzling figure He claimed to be a Communist and, indeed, he did live in the USSR for some thirty months.  He married a Russian woman but decided to return to the USA in June 1962.  He was given back his United States passport without any difficulty - even though he had given up his American citizenship.  In the USA Oswald became involved in the 'Fair Play for Cuba Committee', an organisation which supported the left-wing leader and ally of the Soviet Union

  Fidel Castro.  Oswald had been a US Marine and was trained in radar electronics, serving in Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.  He left the Marines, of course, before leaving for the Soviet Union.  It is worth asking the question whether the CIA would have been keeping a close watch on a man who called himself a Communist, had lived in the Soviet Union and given them all the information he had about his work in the Marines and had now returned.  Would the CIA not have known that his wife was the niece of an officer in the

Oswald was never given an opportunity to defend himself.  He was shot dead by Jack Ruby on 24 November 1963 - just two days after Kennedy's assassination.  Oswald denied any involvement in the murder.  Ruby claimed he shot Oswald out of anger but Ruby was known to have connections with the Mafia and had been involved in criminal activities- Organised crime had good cause for complaint against the Kennedy Administration.  Kennedy had increased by eight times the number of convictions of members of organised crime gangs.  Ruby died in prison.  All he ever said was that the people 'who put me in the position I'm in, will never let the true facts come overboard to the world'. It is unlikely that we will ever know the true facts either.  The next time someone tells you that history is about a 'load of boring old facts', ask one question

tion:         'Who shot Kennedy - and why ?'