11 Key Players From JFK's Assassination
The first lady, the judge who swore in the new president and others.
Nov. 8, 2013 — -- quicklist: 1title: John F. Kennedytext: President John F. Kennedy, known to many as JFK or Jack, was the 35th president of the United States.
Kennedy was the youngest man elected president and the youngest commander in chief to die. He was 46 years old when he was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald.
He was the husband of Jackie Kennedy and father to Caroline and John Jr.
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quicklist: 2title: Jacqueline Kennedytext: John F. Kennedy's wife Jacqueline Kennedy, known to most as Jackie, was the first lady of the United States from 1961 until her husband's assassination in 1963. She was the mother to Caroline and John Jr.
She was sitting next to her husband in the car in Dallas when he was shot. Video showed the first lady, in her pink suit, climbing over the car's back seat onto the trunk. She kept the blood-splattered, pink suit on for the rest of the day, including when Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One.
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quicklist: 3title: John Connally and Nellie Connallytext: John Connally, the 38th governor of Texas, was sitting directly in front of President Kennedy in the limousine and his wife, Nellie Connally, was sitting directly in front of the first lady.
John Connally was seriously wounded in the shooting. A bullet that passed through his body left him with scars on his chest, back, thigh and wrist.
Moments before the shooting, Nellie Connally said to President Kennedy, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you."
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quicklist: 4title: Abraham Zaprudertext: The Dallas dressmaker videotaped what many consider to be the most famous home movie in history. A fan of Kennedy's, Zapruder originally left his camera at home because of the overcast day, but went home to get it at his secretary's urging.
Zapruder filmed the motorcade from a concrete pedestal along Elm Street. His 26 seconds of film showed the president's assassination.
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quicklist: 5title: Lee Harvey Oswaldtext: Lee Harvey Oswald, 24, was accused of assassinating President Kennedy.
On the afternoon Kennedy was shot, Oswald was seen with a rifle on the sixth floor of the building where he worked. He was then spotted leaving the scene of the shooting and was confronted nearby by Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit, who he then allegedly shot and killed.
Oswald was later apprehended at the Texas Theater. Two days later, while in police custody and being transported to the county jail, Oswald was shot to death by club owner Jack Ruby.
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quicklist: 6title: Lyndon B. Johnson text: Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became the 36th president of the United States after President Kennedy's assassination.
Johnson was in the third car in Kennedy's motorcade on the day of the shooting. He was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field on the same day, just over two hours after Kennedy's assassination.
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quicklist: 7title: Lady Bird Johnson text: Lady Bird Johnson was in the third car of Kennedy's motorcade, beside her husband Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, on the day of the shooting.
In a diary printed later, Lady Bird Johnson described seeing Jackie Kennedy on Air Force One with her dress, glove and leg stained with her husband's blood.
"Somehow that was one of the most poignant sights -- that immaculate woman, exquisitely dressed, and caked in blood," she wrote.
"I tried to express how we felt," Johnson wrote. "I said, "Oh, Mrs. Kennedy, you know we never even wanted to be Vice President and now, dear God, it's come to this."
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quicklist: 8title: Sarah T. Hughestext: U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes of the Northern District of Texas swore Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in as president aboard Air Force One at Love Field.
Hughes, a longtime friend of the Johnsons, was the first and only woman to administer the presidential oath of office. It was also the first and only time a president took the oath on an airplane.
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quicklist: 9title: J.D. Tippittext: Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit was allegedly killed by Lee Harvey Oswald shortly after President Kennedy was shot. Tippit had stopped Oswald to question him.
Oswald's initial arrest was for Tippit's murder, not President Kennedy's.
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quicklist: 10title: Jack Ruby text: Strip club owner Jack Ruby famously shot accused Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live television on Nov. 24, 1963, two days after the president was killed.
Dallas police were going to transfer Oswald from the city jail to the county jail and reporters were crowded outside the police station to see Oswald. As a handcuffed Oswald was being led to a car, Ruby lunged out of the crowd and shot him in the abdomen. Millions of people saw the shooting live on television.
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