"Killing Kennedy"

Ruby killing Oswald was always more interesting to me.

 

What are "cheek casts"?

 

I'm guessing "average" for a Marine is still in the upper 3% of all Americans.

 

I think it's entirely possible that he was at one time an asset for the CIA or Marines and proved to be too stupid and was pushed out. From there, it's not hard to believe he acted alone in trying to "show" his former bosses.

 

I know that the Oswald stuff gets all the attention, but I'm more fascinated by the assassination as a news story/historical event. Only 9/11, I feel like, compares in my lifetime. I would guess Pearl Harbor was comparable, too.

You just very rarely have these bolts from the blue that alter history in a flash like this. There was a show on PBS the other night, narrated by George Clooney, in which they discussed and dramatized how the news spread and broke. It was really interesting to see what the first reports were on the wire and how they were scrambling behind the scenes to get on the air with it.

As I understand it, reporters didn't see the assassination, because they were in press buses well behind in the motorcade. Everything was second-hand or further. Then, for the first hour, all the usual channels of official information were in disarray. So I guess a lot of the first-day reporting was from events at the hospital, because that's where reporters finally re-entered the scene and where the White House press people started to get things under control again, as far as getting information out.

 

Merriman smith's account:

http://www.downhold.org/lowry/kennedy.html

 

PBS's Dallas affiliate, KERA, produced an excellent show a few years ago about the reporters covering the event. It's called JFK: Breaking the News.

Bob Schieffer, who at the time was working for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, was prominently featured in it. He said he was the night cops reporter and came into the office when he heard about the shooting to answer phones -- everyone else had been sent to Dallas to cover the story. So he picks up the phone and a lady asks is anyone there can give her a ride to Dallas. He tells her, "Lady, we're not a taxi service," and she says, "I think the person they've arrested is my son." So he drops everything and winds up giving Lee Harvey Oswald's mother a ride to the Dallas police station.

Here's an interview with Schieffer about it: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/kennedy/schieffer.html

 

A book called 'Breach of Trust'. It used some of the files released in the 90's to add to the background I think. Really took the warren commission Apart.