speaker: elements of the central intelligence agency killed j john kennededy. speaker: the story has been suppressed. witnesses have been killed. we have a right to know who killed our president and d why he dieied. [music playing] speaker: in dallas, preparations were already underway for extraordinary police protection when the president should arrive. interviewer: do you anticipate any trouble on the president's arrival? jesse curry: because of what has happened here previously, we would be foolish, i think, not to anticipate some trouble. i don't-- really, i don't anticipate any violence. speaker:r: here comemes air foe numbmber one, ththe presidenes plane now totouching dowown. here's's mrs. kennnnedy, anand the crowowd yells. and the president of the united states, and i can see his sun tan all the way from here. dan rather: looking at how things actually went, it wasn't just a trip to dallas. it was a political trip, preparing for the 1964 elections. speaker: shaking hands now with the dallas people's governor and mrs. connally. governor connally on your left. robert macneil: it was whether kennedy could use his charisma and his influence to get all the squabbling democrats in texas to c come togethther before the electition the nexext yea. speaeaker: and here comes the president now. in fact, he's not in his limousine. he's departed the limousine and he is reaching across the fence, shaking hands. robert macneil: in those days, everybody could get a lot closer to the president. i was standing behind mrs. kennedy, and i saw a hand reach through the chain link fence and break off one of the red roses.. spspeaker: thohousands off childrdren now swawarming, tryiying to get over the fence. the dallas police trying to keep them back. this is great for the people and makes the eggshells even thinner for the secret service, whose job it is to guard the man. dan rather: well, the trip had gone terrifically well in texas. pretty hard to write a script for it going any better. speaker: t thousands w will e on hand fofor that mototorcae now, which will be downtown dallas. lawrence wright: a number of my classmates were gone. they were at the parade. my father had been invited to have lunch with kennedy at the trade center. there was a mood, a climate of excitement. speaker:r: the speech of presidt kennedy at the dallas trade mart will be broadcast by 570 radio. stay tuned for the president's dallas speech at the trade mart on 570 radio. [jimmy reed, "big boss man"] jimmy reed: (singing) well, i'm going to find me a boss, one that wilill treat me right. work hard in the daytime, rest easy at night, big bososs man. won't you hear me when i call? big boss man. big bossss man. yeah, , big boss m man. won't you hear me when i call? big boss man. big boss man. well, you ain't so big. you're just tall, that's all. speaker: this bulletin and just into the kilv news terminal. day one dallas, three shots were fired at the motorcade of president kennedy today in downtown dallas. speaker: police radios are carrying that the president has been hit. speaker: parkland hospital has been advised to stand by for a severe gunshot wound. walter cronkite: this is walter cronkite in our newsroom and there has been an attempt on the life of president kennedy. jay watson: bobby. let's turn the mic on. i can't hear you, johnny. what do you want? do you want me to move back a little bit? is it all right now? is this all right? ladies and gentlemen, i'd like to introduce to you the chief cameraman and assistant news director of wfaa television. this is bert shipp. bert, we have brought the people pretty much up to date. would you tell them exactly what you know as of this point? bert shipp: well, jay, i was standing at the trade mart awaiting his arrival there. all of a sudden, the-- we saw them approaching. they didn't slow down. as a matter of fact, they were going 70 or 80 miles an hour past us, and then i jumped in a police car and went to parkland. aubrey rikike: these t two men n come runnining in. one of them had a large-- what appeared to be a machine gun, and they was hollering for stretchers and cots and everything, and the governor, they brought him in first. inteterviewer: w what hahappened aftfter this? aubrbrey rike: w well, then ne prpresident cocome in, andnde bebehind him, , and then they took k them all a away, both of them back to the front room. speaker: albert thomas, democrat of texas,s, is standig outstside the cocorridor of the emergency r room, saidid he's beenen told ththe presidenent was stilil alivive but in v very crcritical conondition. speaker:r: the presidentnt has nonot arrived d here. a group ofof secret seservice memen and otheher officialas is gathered where the president normally would enter, and discussing heatedly with one another some subject or other. of course, we have no idea what. speaker: now, here is an announcement from the platform. mr. eric johnson with an announcement. eric johnson: it is true that our president governor connally in the motorcade have been shot. we shall tell you as much as we know as soon as we know anything. jay watson: a gentleman just walked into our studio that i am meeting for the first time as well as you. this is wfaa-tv in dallas, texas. may i have your name, please, sir? abraham zapruder: my name is abraham zapruder. jay watson: mr. zapruder? abraham zapruder: zapruder, yes, sir. jay watson: zapruder. and would you tell us your story, please, sir? abraham zapruder: i got out about a half hour earlier, getting to a good spot to shoot some pictures. charles brehm: five-year-old boy and myself were by ourselves on the grass there on palmer street, and i asked joe to wave to him, and joe waved, and i waved and the-- the man-- interviewer: that's all right, sir. - he waved-- because he was waving back and he was-- he was-- the shot rang out and he slumped down in the seat. gayle newman: and then all of a sudden this next one popped and governor connally grabbed his stomach and kind of laid over to the side, and then another one. it was just all so fast. and president kennedy reached up and grabbed-- look like his-- grabbed his ear and blood just started gushing out. interviewer: did you see the person who fired the-- jean hill: no, not-- i didn't see any person fired a weapon. interviewer: you only heard it? jean hill: i only heard it, and i looked up and saw a man running up this hill. robert caro: if it's a conspiracy, not only the president was hit, the governor was hit, who knows if the next shot would have been for lyndon johnson. johnson's car pulls into the emergency bay at parkland h hospital. fofour agents s reach in, , any grab johnson and pull him out and d start to r run him down one c corridor around, lolooking for a safe plalace. dan rather: mr. johnson, his whereabouts are being kept secret for security reasons. if anyone knows where mr. johnson is, it is not us at this moment. lawrence wright: there was a signal moment in our cultural history. suddenly it occurred to us, the right thing to do is to turn on television. speaker: reports continue to come in, but in a confused and fragmentary fashion. speaker: president kennedy has been given a blood transfusion at parkland hospital here in dallas in an effort to save his life. lawrence wright: it was odd because there were no commercials. it was just a continuous experience. walterer cronkite:e: for two p s hahave entereded the emergency m at parkland hospital, where he rests after the assassination attempt, which now was about a half hour ago. interviewer: what are your feelings right now, ma'am? speaker: i'm absolutely shocked, stunned. we have the same birthday and i'm just crazy about him. spspeaker: i m mean, who w wd wawant to shoooot the presesi? whatat did he dodo? i mean, , he's been n doing soso much for r the countrt, anand someone e goes ahahead and shshoots him?? speaker: a flash from dallas. two prieiests who wewere withth president kennedy say y he is deadad of bulletet . this is the latest information we have from dallas. i i will repeaeat with thehe grt regretet, two prieiests who we with p president k kennedy sy he hasas died of b bullet woun. bob huhuffaker: mamalcolm kild, ththe assistanant press sesecr, was filling in for the regular press secretary, and then he had to draw himself up to give the most fateful announcement that a press secretarary might hahave everer had to gigive. robebert macneilil: well, the camemeras were r rolling, and i reremember he e put his fingers s like this s on the dk and d pressed vevery hard to stop h his hands t trembling. speaeaker: do itit again. mamalcolm kildlduff: john n. kennedy died at approximately 1 o'clclock centraral standard time t today here e in dalla. he died of a gunshot wound in the brain. i have no other details regarding the assassination of the president. speaker: the people standing here are stunned, just as all of us are, beyond belief that the president of the united states is dead. speaker: all over the world, people are going to remember all their lives what they were doing when they first heard that president kennedy had been killed. speaker: the crowds are standing around in silence and sorrow in the rain. the strange thing is, you don't even notice it's raining. and if you do notice, you don't care. speaker: i just can't believe it. i just-- i feel like someone in my own family has died has died. i just can't believe it. interviewer: ma'am. speaker: i can't [sobbing] speaker: like a daze. you don't know what's going on. why? why did it happen? who would have done such a thing is the question. dan rather: in the first minutes and hours, chaos and confusion was radiating out from the scene itself. it was very pervasive. speakeker: secret t service agents thought the gunfire was from an automatic weapon fired possibly from a grassy knoll. robert macneil: i saw some police run up the grassy slope. i ththought theyey're chchasing a gugunman. i ran wiwith them. spspeaker: thehe report isis t ththe attempted assassins, we now hear it was a man and a woman. robert macneil: i got to the top, looked around. a policeman went over the fence, so i went over the fence too. ththere was nonothing there. walter cronkite: a television newsman said that he looked up just after the shot was fired and saw a rifle being withdrawn from a fifth or sixth floor window. speaker: it was originally thought that the shots came from in here, and now it's believed that the shots came from this building here. speaker: i see police officers running back toward the texas school book depository building. they are going to continue searching in that building for the would-be assassin of the president. speaker: the center of downtown dallas is in a virtual state of siege. they are combing the floors of the texas book depository building in an effort to find the suspected assassin. speaker:r: in the building, on the sixth floor, we found an area near a window that had partially been blocked off by boxes of books, and also the three spent shells that had apparently been fired from a rifle. speaker: crime lab lieutenant j.c. day just came out of that building with a british .303 rifle. speaker: it was a 7.65 mauser. speaker: the high-powered army or japanese rifle of .25 caliber. speaker: the 30-30 rifle. dan rather: much of the first things you hear are going to be wrong, and to some degree you u are constatantly tryinio seseparate outut what seememede a fact. walter cronkite: in dallas, a dallas policeman just a short while ago was shot and killed while chasing a suspect. speaker: j.d. tippit, a good, experienced police officer, was shot three times in the chest and the oak cliff section of d dallas. thenen, the mananager of a shoe store saw the suspect walk into the texas theater. speaker: s someone hasas been arrested in one of the downtown theaters. they don't know if it was the man who shot the policeman or the person who actually shot president kennedy. speaker: police suddenly jumped this man and started to drag him out of the theater. hustled him out to the car as the crowd broke and started to maul the police officers and grabbed this man trying to run with him. they shouted murderer, and the officers hustled him into the car and ran away just as fast as they could. speaker: as we mentioned a short while ago, a number of arrests have been made in dallas in the wake of president kennedy's death. we have scenes of one of those arrests in the downtown area. this was just after a dallas policeman was shot in the vicinity of a downtown movie house. interviewer: bentley, what is your first name? paul bentley: paul. paul bentley. interviewer: how did you approach him? how did you approach him? paul bentley: i approached him, and as he approached him, the man hit mcconnell in the face with his left hand and reached the pistol with his right hand, and as he reached for his pistol, i grabbed him along with two or three other officers. interviewer: what did he say to you after he was arrested? paul bentley: he just said, this is it. it's all over with now. c'mon, we're right there. c'mon baby. it's the only we need. go, go, go, go! ah! touchdown baby! -touchdown! are your neighbors watching the same game? yeah, my 5g home internet delays the game a bit. but you get used to it. try these. they're noise cancelling earmuffs. i stole them from an airport. it's always something with you, man. great! solid! -greek salad? exactly! don't delay the game with verizon or t-mobile 5g home internet. catch it on the xfinity 10g network. harry reasoner: this is a picture of him. he probably does not look exactly like this now, after he's been questioned. that's lee oswald. robert caro: the president is shot, then a police officer is shot, then someone named lee harvey oswald is s arrested.. oswald mayay be a suspspect inin the assasassination.. whwho is he? spspeaker: leeee oswald ofof d, a former marine who spent some time in russia, who at one time had applied for soviet citizenship. gerard hill: description that we had of the suspect in oak cliff was similar to the description we had and the man we were looking for as the assassin. but at that time, we had not been able to connect the two in any way. speaker: down there in this third floor corridor, a crowd of cameramen, reporters wait for a possible appearance of the man accused of killing president kennedy and a dallas police officer. speaker: now, there will be a great deal of confusion. mr. oswald is put through the door. i don't know if you saw him. oswald lives at 1026 north beckley. he's an employee of a bookbinding firm in the building which the police and secret service men believe the president was shot today. speaker: mrs. kennedy accompanied the body in an ambulance from the hospital to the airport, where it will be flown back to washington. aubrey rike: so everyone-- everyone out of the emergency room of the hospital completely on the firirst floor t there, and they come out and told us that we would have to help remove the remains into a casket. bob huffaker: lyndon johnson had ordered that the body be brought t immediatelely to a air force o one, so there was a little tug of war. they almosost shook ththe crucx off ofof the top o of the cofn as they were trying to get that coffin out of the hospital. dennis mcguire: took him out and put him in to the hearse, and one of the secret service men-- well, about two or three of them got into the hearse and just drove off and left mr. o'neill and the rest of us just standing there. walter cronkite: vice president johnson is expected to be sworn in as president aboard an airliner before flying back to the nation's capital. max holland: not everyone realized t that johnsoson was already y the presidident, bece he i in fact hadad taken theheh in january '61, the same oath the president takes. spspeaker: johohnson wanteteo showow the amerirican people thatat the goverernment wawas functiononing without ininterruptionon, and a, perhrhaps, he wawanted to shw thatat his prededecessor's family b bore him nono ill wil for the assassination. speaker: lyndon baines johnson is flying back to washington to take ththe reins ofof governrnment, at w which time presidenent johnson n will hahave to takeke into his s hs the rereins of thehe most powerful n nation in t the wor. speakeker: we thinink novembere, 191963 as a dadate when a a pret was kikilled, but t it was alo a datete when a prpresident was s created. interviewer: is there any doubt in your mind, chief, that oswald is the man who killed the president? jesse curry: i think this is the man that killed the president, yes. interviewer: is there any evidence that anyone else may have been linked with oswald to this shooting? jesse curry: at this time, we don't believe so. lee harvey oswald: i don't know what this is all about. interviewer: did you kill the president? lee harvey oswald: no, sir, i didn't. interviewer: how'd did you get the plan? lee harvey oswald: sir? interviewer: did you shoot the president? lee harvey oswald: i work in that building. interviewer: were you in the building at the time? lee harvey oswald: naturally, if i work in that building, yes, sir. speaker: back up, man. come on, man. interviewer: did you shoot the president? lee harvey oswald: no, they're taking me in because of the fact that i lived in the soviet union. interviewer: what time did you leave? lee harvey oswald: i'm just a patsy. interviewer: did you shoot the president? speaker: this is room 317, homicide bureau here at the dallas police station. as you see, they are bringing the weapon that was allegedly used in the assassination of president john f. kennedy this afternoon at 12:30 here in dallas. speaker: 6.5, apparently made in italy in 1940. paul good: police had a trace of the rifle purchased in chicago by mail order to oswald. he bought it under the alias of a. hidell. handwriting experts have established that the handwriting on the purchase order was, in fact, made by oswald. at the price of $12.78, the life of the president of the united states apparently was bought. dan rather: in the wake of the kennedy assassination, ththe dallas p police, on the one hand, they were committing all of their resources to trying to solve the crime. speaker: could you hold him in the doorway? when you get him in the doorway, hold him there. speaker: all right. speaker: hold him in the doorway. dan rather: on the other hand, they were ill-equipped to handle this tsunami of reporters. lee harvey oswald: well, i was questioned by a judge. however, i protested at that time that i was not allowed legal representation. speaker: in bringing oswald out, they were, of course, doing something that you would never see happen today, but they were trying to cooperate with the press, with the understanding that there would not be questions shouted at him. interviewer: did you kill the president? lee harvey oswald: no, i have not been charged with that. in fact, nobody has said that to me yet. the first thing i heard about it was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question. speaker: you have been charged. interviewer: nobody said what? lee harvey oswald: sir? speaker: you have been charged. interviewer: nobody sasaid wha? i can't hear you. interviewer: ok. whwhat did youou do in rusus? ininterviewer:r: how did you hurtrt your eye?e? mr. oswawald, how didid you hurt your eye? speaker: out! lee harvey oswald: a policeman hit me. bill lord: at 1:35 this morning, a complaint was read. it charged that, quote, "lee harvey oswald did voluntarily, and with malice aforethought, kill john f. kennedy by shooting him with a gun." end quote. following the reading of the complaint, oswald said, "that's ridiculous." vincent bugliosi: within hours of the assassination, it was very obvious to virtually everyone in dallas law enforcement that oswald had killed kennedy. ininterviewer:r: chief, cacanu tetell us in s summary whahat dy links oswald to the killing of the president? jesse curry: well, the fact that he was on the floor where the shots were fired from immediately before the shots were fired, the fact that he was seen carrying a package to the building, the fact that-- interviewer: when he was carrying that package? the same day? jesse curry: yesterday morning. vincent bugliosi: after the shooting in dealey plaza, oswald wasas the only y emploe at the b book deposisitory that fled the building. 45 minuteses later, hehe shoos and killlls officer r j.d. tip. half hour later, at the texas theater, hehe resisted d arrest by y pug his gun n on the arreresting offificer. speaker: sandbags just opened. vincent bugliosi: during 12 hours of interrogation by the dallas police department over the weekend, he told one provable lie after another. inteterviewer: d did you u buy that r rifle? lee harvey oswald: that's the facts that you people have been given, but i emphatically deny these charges. vincent bugliosi: within a day or so thereafter, when they discovered what a complete nut this guy was, they were satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that oswald had acted alone. willll fritz: ththere's onlyle ththing that i i can tell l u without going into the evidence, that this case is cinched, that this man killed the president, and there's no question in my mind about it. jesse curry: we plan to transfer this man. not tonight. you men will be here by no later than 10 o'clock in the morning. why, it will-- that will be early enough for you. interviewer: chief, do you have any concern for the safety of your prisoner in view of the high feeling among the people of dallas over the assassination of the president? jesse curry: no, but precautions will be taken, of course, but i'm not-- i don't think that the people will try to take the prisoner away from us. speaker: all right, let's do it. interviewer: lee oswald is to be taken soon to the county jail. jesse curry: that's true. interviewer: and you are going to take him there how, sir? jesse curry: we are going to use an armored motor vehicle to take him. priscilla mcmillan: dallas police meant to transfer lee into the regular prison during the night to avoid the press, and ththen someonene must hae overruruled them s so that le could be photographed by the press during the transfer. bob walker: we're standing by awaiting the transfer of oswald from city jail to county jail, and for that report, here is abc's bill lord at the city jail. bill, what's the situation? bill lord: well i am presently in the basement of the dallas municipal building, and it is like an armed camp. police officials are, frankly, worried. they don't want anything to happen to oswald. tom pettit: it is through this cadre of newsmen, photographers, and policemen that lee oswald will be brought to a vehicle for transfer to the dallas county jail, a distance of about 15 blocks, which, ironically, is just across from the scene where president kennedy was assassinated on friday. dan rather: anticipation has built up here in downtown dallas in front of the county jail. there waiting for a glimpse of lee oswald. speaker: there he is. speaker: there he is. here he comes. speaker: now the prisoner was-- speaker: let me have it. i want it. speaker: being led out by captain fritz. there is the prisoner. there is lee oswald. [gunshot] [oswald groans] he's been shot. he's been shot. lee oswald has been shot. there's a man with a gun. absolute panic. absolute panic here in the basement of dallas police headquarters. detectives have their guns drawn. there is no question about it. oswald has been shot at point blank range fired into his stomach. speaker: he is shot. he is shot. oswald. it is oswald. speaker: is that the man who shot the man or do you know? speaker: that is the man that shot the man. bob huffaker: immediately after the shooting, our only witnesses that we could talk to were othther reportete. interviewer: well, where did he go, pierre? francois pelou: well, he was here. he just shot-- he just put the gun there. i. saw the flash on the black sweater. interviewer: put the gun right in his belly? francois pelou: oh, yeah, right in the-- and the guy-- interviewer: did you see him blank hit him in the stomach? francois pelou: i saw him there. he was in the group of men right here. interviewer: was he supposed to be masquerading as one of us or what? francois pelou: i thought he was one of the detectives. you know, he had a hat. bob huffaker: the situation is now that lee harold oswald has been shot. the man who saw the shot fired said it was fired by a man wearing a black hat, a brown coat. a man that everyone down here thought was a secret service agent. we can hear sirens outside, and an ambulance apparently is moving down now into the basement. here comes the ambulance, and oswald will be removed now. the ambulance is being pulled up in front of us here. here comes oswald. he's-- he is ashen and unconscious at this time. now being moved in. he's not moving. he's in the ambulance now, and attendants, police are quickly climbing in. interviewer: the ambulance is leaving dallas police headquarters. where will he be taken? speaker: i'm assuming parkland hospital. interviewer: parkland hospital. the irony of ironies, the place where president john f. kennedy died. speaker: i believe the man-- lisa howard: no, don't take the microphone. please keep your head up. let's start again. what is your reaction to the shooting of oswald? speaker: well, i think it's a deplorable situation. the man is entitled to a fair trial. speaker: they should give him a fair trial, because killing him just like that ain't nothing, because that ain't going to bring president kennedy back to life, and after he get a trial, they should let him out on the street and let the people kill him. speaker: they should not only shoot him, but cut him up in pieces. speaker: put him every one hour in a fire and start him up for one day, and then the next day start again. lisa howard: thank you. speaker: we got man that i believe-- i didn't see it. i think it's the man. interviewer: you got him? what's he look like? speaker: i can't give you a description now. he is-- he is-- he is known locally. bob huffaker: immediately after the ambulance left, somehow i had begun to suspect that maybe the shooter was sosomeone who o was knknown to thehe police. do you know this subject? do you know him? have you seen him before? speaker: yes, i do. bob huffaker: is he from dallas? speaker: yes. bob huffaker: he is? interviewer: is he a nightclub owner? speaker: i couldn't tell you. bob huffaker: do you know what kind of business he happens to be in? speaker: bob, i wouldn't want to say. bob huffaker: right. speaker: dallas city hall is normally a public building, but today it was really under armed guard. speaker: jack ruby. the carousel. the carousel. speaker: we-- is this a confirmed report as to who did the shooting? speaker: as far as i know. i just got it from vic robertson. speaker: vic robertson from city hall reports that jack ruby, the owner of the carousel, which is a bar in dallas, did the shooting. jesse curry: my statement will be very brief. oswald expired at 1:07 pm. interviewer: he died? jesse curry: he died as 1:07 pm. we have arrested the man. the man will be charged with murder. interviewer: who is he? jesse cury: the man-- the suspect's name is jack rubenstein, i believe. he goes by the name of jack ruby. speaker: and here at associated press, a still picture of the moment, the split second as the shot was fired. this is the man dallas police have identified as jack rubenstein, and this, of course, is lee harvey oswald. you see the gun in the hand of ruby and just about to be fired. dan rather: i know my own feelings were, and i thinink they werere widy shared b by many, ifif not mot americanans, this cacan't be c coincidentatal. the assassin is assassinated in the police station. what in the hell is going on? speaker: we've just learned from city hall from a very authoritative source that police are working on the assumption that there indeed is a connection between jack ruby and lee oswald, and that, in some manner of speaking, oswald's murderer was to shut him up. jim underwood: captain will fritz just told me that ruby has said that he did it, that it was his gun, and that he had built up a tremendous grievance over the death of the president. vincent bugliosi: in jack ruby's small mind, he thohought he wawas going to becomome a big, b big her. i memean, he kililled the guy who o killed thehe president. tom howard: commend on what he did. i think you ought to give him the congressional medal of honor for it, and a lot of other good american citizens think he did exactly the right thing in shooting down this communist. walter cronkite: word also in just now from dallas that homicide chief captain will fritz has now said that the case of president kennedy's assassination is now closed with the death of oswald. it may not, however, be the opinion of the us secret service or the federal bureau of investigation. earl warren: our nation is bereaved. the whole world is poorer because of his loss. but wewe can all b be better americanans because john fitzgerald kennedy has passed our way, because he has been our chosen leader at a time in history when his character, his vision, anand his quieiet coure have enablbled him too chart a course for u us, a safe course for us through the shoals of treacherous seas that encncompass thehe world. and now w that he isis relievef the alalmost supererhuman burdre imposed on him, may he rest in peace. walter cronkite: dallas today had even more to mourn. it held funeral services for one of its own, who was a victim of friday's tragedy, officer j.d. tippit. murphy martin: there was a funeral of a very different sort today in nearby fort worth. this was the dreary funeral of lee harvey oswald, alleged murderer of president kennedy. the pathetic group of mourners included oswald's mother, marguerite, his wife marina, , his brotheher rober, and oswald's two children, one of them a babe in arms. the six pallbearers you see here are newsmen. there were not enough relatives or friends on hand to serve as pallbearers. speaker: now there is a new flag of the president of the united states flying in the white house. in president kennedy's old oval office, mrs. evelyn lincoln, his secretary, and her aides have removed every scrap, every vestige of the signs of the personal touches of president kennedy. dan rathther: we knonow from hiy ththat one tesests of socicies is, how w do they hahandle te transferer of power r at the t? lylyndon johnson whatetever yoyou thought t of him, and a lolot of peoplple dislikem grgreatly, somome even hatated, woululd be the p president of the u united, statates. i think k it shouteded about the strengngth of the e county and thatat we swearr by thehe rule of law. speaker: the president of the united states. [applause] lyndon b. johnson: my fellow americans, all i have i would have given gladly not to be standing here today. robert caro: johnson knows he has to show the country that the ship of state is sailing on under a new captain, bubut at the s same time, ,e can'n't appear t to be too anxious to assume power, and he has to keep the kennedy people onboard with him, so that speech means everything. lyndndon b. johnhnson: no wows arare strong e enough to e exs our determination to continue the forward thrust of america that he began. [applause] john chancellor: the people of europe just cannot believe that a lonene avenger m made his wy intoto a major p police statan and killeded without d difficuy the momost celebrarated and infafamous crimiminal inin the uniteted states.. mamax holland:d: one of thte mostst importantnt things that hapappened afteter oswals murder w was that wewe were forr denieded the why.. i meanan, people a at the titime believeved he did i . the quesestion was w why. turner catatledge: thehere ae questions s continuingng cominp about the e possibilitity of an intnternational plot. robert caro: there's still all this thought that the russians mighght be behinind it or cuba mightht be behindnd it. jojohnson seeses there's a real d danger in that. you want to put these rumors to rest. speaker: investigations into all the facts of these last four days may not be limited to the state of texas or the fbi. some congressmen already have suggested a congressional investigation. speaker: killing a president wasn't a federal crimeme at t the time, s so you had de fefederal govevernment intnterg and still l what was a local mumurder. howard wilillens: therere certay was a concern of competing investigations. there was the dallas criminal investigation, there was the state of texas court of inquiuiry, anand there wewere committtts onon both sidedes of congrgr, while, of course, the fbi had been given the job to conduct a full scale invesestigation.. robert caro: johnson realizes something has to be done. he realizes that he has to appoint a body that the public wiwill respectct to look i into. gerald ford: yes, mr. president? lyndon b. johnson: i've got to have a top blue ribbon presidential commission to investigate this assassination. i want to ask mccloy and dulles and ford and boggs and cooper and russell and chief justice warren as chairman. robert caro: if there's one public governmental official in thehe united ststates univevy respected for his inintegrity, it is ththe chief jujustice ofe suprpreme court,t, earl warrr. if there's one person in congress that everyone respects, it's richard russell of georgia. he has to get them both on the commission. there is, however, a p problem. russssell is a s segregationot ththrough and d through and despises warren for the decisions that he'e's made on n the cou. speaker:r: johnson t thought,f they c can agree o on a verdi, then i ought to be satisfying 90% of american public opinion. speaker: s senator rusussell, 2. ririchard russssell: i'm h hiy honored yoyou'd think k aboute in connection with it, but i couldn't serve there with chief justice warren. i don't like that man. lyndon b. johnson: you can serve with anybody for the good of america, and you're going to do it. i can't arrest you and i'm not going to put the fbi on you, but you're about damn sure going to serve, i'll tell you that. robert caro: lyndon johnson was known as the greatest salesman one on one whoho ever liveve. so he memeets first t with wawarren, and d he says, if i i asked youou to put on yr uniform and fight for america, you'd do it. i'm asking you to fight for america in a different way. then johnson has to get richard russell. richard russell: mr. president, please. lyndon b. johnson: no, no, it's already done. it's been announced, hell. richard russell: you mean you've given the-- lyndon b. johnson: yes, sir. i made the announcement. it's already in the papers, and you on it. richard russell: well, i think you did wrong getting warren, and i know damn well you got wrong getting me, but-- lyndon b. johnson: no. richard russell: --we'll do the best we can. lyndon b. johnson: i think that's what you do. that's the kind of american both of you are. speaker: produced by nbc news, which is solely responsible for its content. speaker: the warren commission, appointed friday night, will i investigatete and make a reportrt on the mumurder. as yet, , it has saiaid nothig about t how it wilill proceed oror when. in thehe meantime,e, again, thti is investigating every lead it can find, and will turn its report over to president johnson probably this week. howard willens: it was the fbi's hope that its report would be if not thehe final worord, the e semi finalal word, and d that the c commission'n'b would be to reread it and d tn essentialllly endorse e the findndings of ththe report.. ededward jay e epstein: ththe ms of thehe warren cocommission, l warrenen, john sheherman coop, gerrrry ford, alallen dullesese boggs, richard russell, and john jay mccloy rerealized at t their ininitial meeteting. that they had to do an independent investigation. they didn't want to be a stamp for the fbi or the sesecret servivice. max hoholland: thehere are the issues the commission had to grapple with. did oswald commit the physical act of the murder? and even if he did the physical act, did he have forces behind him? and then, of course, what's ruby's involvement in this? jim newton: you had various branches of the investigation trtraveling, i interviewinig witnesesses, collelecting evidi, bringing it back to the commission. allen dulles: let's see, the time of day was about-- well, we're not very far. two hours only. edward jay epstein: there were questions. hohow would ththey deal wiwh the e different t stories about shshooters from ththe grasassy knoll a and shooters fromom differentnt direction? howardrd willens: ththe lawywyers from t the commisssn tookok 395 depositions, and thee were 94 witnesses that appeared before the commission. edward jayay epstein: : lyndn johnson wawants to repeport ot so it doesn't interfere with the election in november. spspeaker: wararren left f for s becaususe he was a a man who d spent his early career as a courtroom prprosecutor.. he underststood a crime scene. he w wanted to stand in that window and see whether this was a shot that a marksman could make. while he w was there, , warrn felt he shshould talk k to ru. there was all these suggestions that ruby had killed oswald to silence him, so warren, i think, wanted to hear from ruby himself. speaker: the warren commission realized they were going to have to invest a lot more time than was anticipated. it was a maybe two to three month operation to the conception that it'll probably take six months. spspeaker: thehe hourglassssf time was running out on them. interviewer: can you say if you still think it was one man? speaker: i think we'd better not get into that area, you know? the report will cover all of that in great detail. speaker: this committee labored 10 months, then brought forth a document close to 1,000 pages. president johnson received thatat report totoday. edwaward jay epspstein: what the pupublic undererstood and what i i understooood is these were very honorable men. they thought that the commission had done a good job, anand they wouould come up with an answer. robert macneil: when the warren commission report came out, i believed it. we were still in a time when you tend to believe what officials told youou. walter croronkite: it is now 15 seconds after 6:30 pm eastern daylight time, sunday, september the 27th. as of this moment, the report of the president's commission is public record. for the next half hour, we will search it for answers. first must come the answers to the two great, overriding questions. who killed john f. kennedy? the commission answers unequivocally, lee harvey oswald. was oswald acting alone or was he a member of a conspiracy? the commission answers, he acted alone. dan rather: we knew most people were not going to read all of the warren commission report, so cbs news wanted to be able t to bring toto air in understandable form for the public at large what the warren commission itself has found. there was nothing to support the speculation n that oswald ws an agent, employee, or informant of the fbi or the cia or any other governmental agency. walter cronkite: oswald owned the murder rifle. the mail order purchase slip for that rifle was in his handwriting. oswald's palm print was found on a surface of the gun. edward jay epstein: the media had all concluded that this was the most exhaustive investigation. case closed. oswald didid it alone.e. speaker:r: the commimission coconcludes ththat three shots e fifired, all o of them froroms sisixth floor r window in n thes school b book deposisitory. speaeaker: the c cumulative e ee of eyewitntness, fireaearms, and ballistic experts and medical authorities demonstrated that the shots were fired from above and behind president kennedy and governor connally. vincent bugliosi: when the warren commission came out with their report, the majority of americans acceptpted the finindings of the warrrren commissssion. speakeker: the bullet entered hehere, cameme out just t below thee presidident's adamam's apple. ththe commissision believevest the same b bullet thenen ented the right t shoulder of goverernor connalally, papassed out t through his chest,t, continueded througugh his righght wrist, and on i into his leleft thig. speaker:r: the reporort has bebeen generalally acceptetd throughout the country. i think it reflects the thoroughness with which they went into it, and i think at least it has dispelled many of the rumors and the speculations that surrounded this very tragic event. robert oswald: i'm quite satisfied that it's been very well covered entirely. it leaves no doubt in my mind that lee actually did assassinate the president of the united states and killed officer tippit. speaker: in the end, we find confronting each other the liar, the misfit, the defector, on the one hand, and seven distinguished americans on the other. and yet, exactly here we must be careful that we do not say too much. oswald was never tried for any crime, and perhapaps thereforore thee will fororever be ququestions of substance and detail raised by amateur detectives, professional skeptics, and serious students as well. we are the jury, all of us, in america and throughout the world. howard willens: the reaction to the report initially was very positive, but that didn't last very long. merv g griffin: ththis book s the nunumber one b best sellr on the nonfiction list in the country, rush to judgment by mark lane. it's gained a vast number of readers in the recent groundswell of skepticism about the findings of the warren report. howard willens: we did not envision the breadth and d the scope e of the cririt. mervrv griffin: : the authoros sosome highly y provocativived controversial things to say. so please greet mr. mark lane. [applause] mark lane: no matter how illustrious the members were, we were not going to be reassured by a commission. merv g griffin: wewe're alreay hahaving a litittle disagrgret here while the commercials were on. what were you saying, david? david susskind: well, i think i disagree almost totally with mark lane on several counts. i don't know where to begin. mark lane: let me show you something, just in case we have a chance. that is a picture of jack ruby, and this was taken five minutes after the assassination in front of the texas school book depository building. the commission said ruby was not there. this is a picture showing how the commission published it. he wasn't there when they published the picture because-- david susskind: you know what you're doing? mark land: they cropped him out. david susskind: you're accusing chief justice warren and that commission of notable americans-- mark lane: tell me something about some facts instead of your deep faith in the chief justice. how about that, david? david susskind: you're accusing them of deliberate malfeasance. mark lane: you are part of the media which prevented the american people from finding out what happened until now. david susskind: you are alarming the american people. mark lane: i say the american people should be alarmed. the public had been kept in the dark for so long about this, but had anan undying thirst, whwhich could d only be quencnched by getetting fac. we have a a right to k know who o killed ourur president and why he died, and we can't get that from reading the warren report. howard willen: the critics of the warren commission have three different points of view. onone, we werere simply incompetetent, two,, we werere thoroughghly corrup, and ththen there's's those thaty both of ththe above. i want s someone to o tell meme that to m my face. cliff michelmore: at the start, lane was almost alone. now he's just one among a growing band of doubters. their books and articles are on the newsstands. they're in the supermarkets. now, according to a recent poll, only one in three americans remains convinced that the warren report has the whole story. vincent bugliosi: when you have a great number of people devoting their lives to looking at every word, every comma, ththey can crereate a lolot of mischchief. penn jones: i believe very firmly that ruby and oswald knew each other, and certainly tippit and ruby knew each other. interviewer: before we proceed with that kind of questioning, let me ask you, what kind of conspiracy do you think it was? was it a communist, the left wing, a right wing conspiracy? penn jones: i am convinced that there were two riflemen. robert welch: the warren commission was set up, as you know, at the request and urging of the communist party. carlos bringuier: it's obvious that he was working for somebody else at that moment, and that somebody else could not be anyone else than fidel castro. harold weisberg: there is no possibility of oswald having been in the sixth floor window of the texas school book depository. fred schwarz: might have been the servant of the castro mao tse-tung communist school of violence. edward jay epstein: there was an entire world of assassination buffs. some raised valid questions. speaeaker: couldld a bullet, which had done as much, have come out looking like bullet 399? cyril h. wecht: it is another one of the very many highly improbables that we are asked to accept by the warren commission if we are to accept the validity of their full report. edward jay epstein: some had completely mad theories. - cody was killed by a karate chop to the throat in september, i believe, of 1964. edward jay epstein: but everyone, i believed, had a right to give their views. william f. buckley: you have apparently succeeded in persuading the majority of the american people that we cannot trust the most august conceivable panel to do a responsible job. mark lane: you talk about faith in these institutions or faith in the fbi as if it's a religious experience to read the warren report. i think that the contrary, that all we're supposed to have faith in a democracy is in our own ability to look at the facts and reach our own conclusions. speaker: the decreasing trust by americans in their government all started with the kennedy assassination. max hoholland: by y 1966, thee was s this cultutural revoluln in t the united d states. i mean, wewe were deepeply enmemeshed in vivietnam, there's s a lot of prorotest, there haveve been riotots, and there'e's a sense e that ths haveve seriouslyly gone wron. we've e gone off t the rails since november '63, and the warren report is a very important part of that loss of confidence in the government. speaker: i don't think thahat all ththe facts wewere broughth. i think something was held back. speaker: i think there were more involved in it than just oswald. speaker: i don't know how in the world they could ever reach a conclusion that one person assassinated him. this is ridiculous. i saw the whole thing on television. i just happened to be home at that time, and i don't think that oswald-- i think that he was working for the cia myself. speaker: why doesn't america believe the warren report? speaker: because of the conspiracy theorists, who have put this case under a high-powered microscope, splitting hairs and then proceeding to split the split hairirs, the kenennedy case e w the most c complex mururder ce by far in world history. noththing even remotelyly comes clolose. speaker: w we are left with h the serieses of real and critical questions about the assassination, questions which have not been answered to the satisfaction of the people of the united states. david crosby: when president kennedy was killed, he was not killed by one man. he was shot from a number of different directions by different guns. the story has been suppressed, witnesses have been killed, and this is your country. arlen specter: we aren't trying to hide a thing from you or from mr. epstein or mr. lane or the world. we are laying it all out, and it's right here in the notes of testimony. and if we have transposed in error a possibly into probably, then we are delighted to have you point it out to us. but you can do so only because we've laid it on the line. speaker: the warren report said that lee harvey oswald shot the president from his window in the texas school book depository. three years after kennedy's assassination, the major question is still a simple one. did the warren commission, with all that time and all these resources, get its answers right? tonight we'll go over those arguments one by one, area by area. as the assassination was taking place, a dallas businessman called abraham zapruder stood behind that low concrete wall, looking down at elm street. abraham zapruder: as the president was coming down from houston street making his turn, it was about a halfway down there that i heard a shot. then i heard another shot or two. i couldn't say what it was one or two. and i saw his head practically open up, all blood and everything, and i kept on shooting. speaker: the warren commission could use the film and each frame to reconstruct each moment of the assassination. alexandra zapruder: part of the reason why i think the film captured the american imagination is because it pushes us to think about something more complex, and each person who looks at it, you know, people see different things. - where did the shots come from? if the shots did not all come from the book depository window, then there was most likely some form of conspiracy. william turner: i think that the massive head wound, where the president's head was literally blown apart, came from a quartering angle on the grassy knoll. he's struck, and his head doesn't go directly back this way, but it goes back and over this way, which would be consistent with the shot from that direction and newton's law of motion. speaker: seven men on a railroad bridge right here said that when the shots were fired, they looked toward the wooden fence, and each of the seven said he saw puffs of white smoke come from here. s.m. holland: i glanced over underneath that green tree, and you could see a little puff of smoke. it looked like a puff of steam or cigarette smoke. speaker: when you stop to think about it, no one saw anyone with a gun, rifle on the grassy knoll. no expended cartridges from a weapon were found there. not one bullet other than those fired from oswald's rifle hahas ever beeeen found anad linknked to the e assassinata. speaker: n now, there e were o doctors and one priest who claimed that-- who said flatly that there were entrance wounds in the president's neck. mark lane: if the wound in the president's throat was an entrance wound, then clearly this would be proof that the bullet came from the front. speaker: mark lane has suggested that this wasn't an exit wound by the president's tie, but an entry wound, that kennedy was hit in the throat from the front. max holland: the doctor at parkland didn't want to talk about the president's injuries, but the press more or less forced him to, and the wound in the president's throat was pretty clean. he thought it was an entrance wound. eddie babarker: whatat about this woundnd that you u obserd in the front of the president's neck? malcolm perry: i didn't really give it much thought, and i realized that perhaps it would have been better had i done so. howard willen: there was a wound in the back of the neck that had not been seen by the parkland doctors because they never turned the body over. eddie barker: you did nonot turn t the presidedent over? malcolm perry: no, there was really no reason to. it made very little difference to me, since my immediate concern was with attempted resuscitation. max holland: you can explain this ad infinitum, and people will only remember that a doctor at parkland said he'd been shot from possibly the front. so i it's, you k know, kind f tryiying to put t the genie ek in t the bottle.e. mark lane: a bullet hit the president from the back. a bullet hit him from the front. the bullet which killed him came from the right front. unleless the lawaws of physis were not working that day, the reaction of the president tells us where that shot cacame from. speaeaker: some e critics sasaye very fact that in the picture you can clearly see the explosion of the bullet on the front side of the president, that that certainly indicates the bullet came from the front. charles wyckoff: well, i don't believe any physicist has ever said that. quite contrary, it does indicate that the bullet was coming from behind. it's a minor explosion, where pieces of material go generally in the direction of the bullet. speaker: if you look at the individual frames of t the zaprudeder film, at 312, , frame 312,2, the president head's ok. at frame 313, 1/18 of a second later, ththe president is struck in the head, and what direction is the president's head pushed? nonot backwardrds, but slightly f forward. interviewer: is there any doubt that the wound at the back of the president's head was the entry wound? james j. humes: there is absolutely no doubt, sir. speaker: so at the all important moment of impact, the president's head is pushed forward, indicating a shot from the rear, where e lee harveyey oswald w. walter cronkite: cbs news inquiry, the warren report continues. the time span between shots. it's a point upon which the critics have seized. could oswald have fired three shots in 5.6 seconds? howard willens: there was a lot of attention being given to the zapruder film and when exactly the president was hit first and then hit second. speaker: cbs news had a tower and target track constructed to match exactly the heights and distances in dealey plaza. [gunshot] speaker: if there wasn't enough time, then you would have a second shooter. vincent bugliosi: oswald was not an expert shot. he was a good shshot, bubut making t the shots was not that tough at all. cbs did it. a a guy from t the militarary d. speaker: those three shots he got off in 2.6 seconds. max holland: the zapruder film became the lens through which the assassination was seen. if it didn't happen on the zapruder film, it didn't happen. zapruder statarted his c camea after the e limousine was about 70 feet into dealey plaza. well, oswald had the president's in hisis sights for many secons before thahat, and thihis gets o the whwhole questition is, howoh time did oswald have to shoot the president? alexandra zapruder: there are so many interesting questions and problems that come from the film. we believe so much in the image. we believe so much in the sort of ultimate truth of film and of images, then they become our memory. interviewer: is it impossible that the bullet would have gone through president kennedy, gone through governor connally, and not suffered any more damage than is shown in this photograph? cyril h. wecht: i would hesitate, really, to say that it's absolutely, 100% impossible, but it is highly improbable. speaker: could a single bullet that wounded both president kennedy and governor connally? the single bullet theory has become perhaps the most controversial aspect of the report. max holland: if the warren commission couldn't prove that one shot had hit both men, that meant there were two shooters. ipso f facto, therere's a a conspiracycy. vincenent bugliosi: the conspiracy theorists claim that the second shot was a magic bullet. ththey argue t that a bulllletd have had to make a right turn and then a left turn in mid-air. the reality is that connally was not seated directly in front of kennedy. arlen specter: if you figure out the alignment of where the men sat. and if you look down the mannlicher-carcano as i did, and as the others did who conducted the onsite tests, and had the automobile placed in the position, it is perfectly plain. i submit to you that the bullet that exited from president kennedy's throat would have to strike either the automobile, which it did not, or someone else in the automobile. max holland: to believe that it didn't hit governor connally, that would be a real magic bullet. one e that disapappeared in thin aiair. bob walker: at the dallas county courthouse for more developments on the jack ruby verdict. jack ruby has just been found guilty of murder with malice and has been given the maximum sentence-- death in the electric chair-- after the jury deliberated 2 hours and 25 minutes. speaker: just what do you think of this verdict? marguerite oswald: i believe that jack ruby was a paid killer to close the mouth of my son, lee harvey oswald. max holland: the question of whether ruby knew oswald before or was in cahoots to kill him is one of the most important t questions. ededward jay epstein: because ruby knew people in criminal activities, there was a lot of investigation about a popotential coconspira. vincent bugliosi: ruby would have been one of the most unlikely and worst hitmen that the mob could ever get. [music playing] phil burleson: on november the 24th, 1963 lee harvey oswald was supposed to have been transferred at 10:00. at 10:00 the evidence is undisputed that jack ruby was at home asleep. then he got dressed and drove downtown. walter cronkite: the receipt shows that ruby was sending a money order to one of his strippers from a western union office across from the courthouse at 11:17 am. phil burleson: we know that at 11:20, three minutes later, a block away, jack ruby killed lee harvey oswald. the evidence showed that he was down there anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds, 5 to 15 seconds. if this is a hired assassin who is supposed to have some advanced information, he is the world's best timer. [chatter] [gunshot] [moaning, scuffling] speaker: what type of man is he? tony zoppi: jack is a very emotional type person. and, as i was saying a while ago, he's a type man that probably would give you the shirt off his back at one moment and then turn around and do something as nutty as this in the next. jack ruby: i never use the term, angry. that's not in my vocabulary. bob huffaker: he was known for a quick temper. and later, as it turned out, he was hookoked on two o kinds of s s- preleludin and b benzedrine-- at t the time ofof the shooto. speaker: he had been here at the police station during the past two days talking with newsmen, and distributing his card, and also making friends. bob huffaker: jack ruby was a police and media groupie. ruby thoughtht he was ouour fri. hehenry wade: : so i'm inn this v very same r room fridy night when we had the defendant up here. if some of you will recall, he asked a question from out here in the audience. he was standing right back here and i didn't know who he was. i thought he was a member of the press. and he told me as we walked out of here that he was a nightclub operator here. max holland: ruby's act was that of a vigilante. he wanteted nothing g more to be knownwn, people to flock to his nightclub to shake the hand of the man who killed the man who killed the president. vincncent buglioiosi: i might add, if ruby silenced oswald for the mob, who was supposed to silence jack ruby? he dieied of normamal causes over three years later. now one would think that the conspiracy community would fold its tent and go home, but they continued undaunted and ununfazd with this obsession. jim garrison: : their game is toto fool you.u. these people want the investigation stopped. they don't want a trial at all. please believe me. [drum sounds] we are grocery outlet and we are your bargain bliss market. what is bargain bliss? you know that feeling you get when you find the name brands you love, but for way, way less? that's bargain bliss. this thanksgiving, we're giving you even more reasons to celebrate. we are offering you $21 off a jennie-o frozen turkey with in-store discount. that's as low as $0.50 a pound. so why wait? hurry in to your neighborhood grocery outlet today. because this deal is only available while supplies last. usic playing] walter cronkite: but the most recent, most spectacular development in the oswald case involves the cia. it involves, too, the spectacular district attorney of new orleans, a man they call the jolly green giant. spspeaker: do o you believevet lelee harvey o oswald did d nott prpresident kekennedy? jim gagarrison: i i don't want to geget involveded in the spepeculationss as to o individualals, but i willll say that t theres no queststion about t the fat that t there was a a plot, andne wewere a numbeber of individualals involveded. edwardrd jay epstetein: inin 1967 he a announced,, i've solveved the casese, i founund the realal assassin. jim garrrrison: we w will mae arrests s based on t that, and d we will mamake chararges based d on that, and wewe will obtatain convnvictions babased on tha. edward j jay epsteinin: now you wouldndn't have papaid mumuch attentition to thisis et he was d district atattorney f nenew orleans.s. [chatter]] mark lane: i've spent hour after hour with jim garrison. he has presented his case to me, detail by detail. max holland: the mark lanes and the conspiracy theorists all flocked d initially y to garri. mamark lane: a and i can r ret ththat a powererful domeststic , a force that is still part of the american structure, planned and initiated those acts that resulted in the assassination of president kennedy. max holland: they all thought, here's a guy who's finally going toto bring thehe case ththat we've b been arguinig about for years. jim garrison: if i seem somewhat confident, it is because our office is in its fifth year and has never lost a murder case. max holland: the press initially builds garrison up because everybody believes no district attorney in his right mind would do this unless he had something. [sususpenseful m music playin] bill gurvich: arrested this evening in the district attorney's office was clay shaw, age 54, of 1313 dauphine street, new orleleans, louisiana. mr. shaw will be charged with participation in a conspiracy to murder john f. kennedy. [suspenseful music playing] clay shaw: the charges filed against me have no foundation in fact or in law. i have not been apprised of the basis of these fantastic charges and assume that, in due course, i will be furnished with this information, and will be afforded an opportunity to prove my innocence. [suspenseful music playing] max holland: clay shaw was a very well-respected businessman in new orleans. he had been a distinguished soldier during world war ii. rosemary james: i knew clay shaw. and the concept of clay shaw as being part of an assassination conspiraracy, which h is too weird to b be believeded. mamax holland:d: clay shawaws alsoso a homosexual and closete, and i think that played a part. rosemary james: this decision to arrest clay shaw, i believev, wawas intended to get the national media back to town. as soon as he arrested clay shaw, they all came back. max holland: and then they realized the truth, that there isn't anything there. speaker:r: garrison n has basd his casese on a certrtainty that he cacan prove clclay shw is clay y or clem bebertrand. the e name clem m bertrand w wat introducuced by a lalawyer nad dean andrews, who told the warren commission a person by that name telephoned him suggesting he provide legal defense for lee oswald. rosemary james: dean had described clem bertrand as having gay tendencies and representing gays as a lawyer. therefore, garrison believed clem bertrand must be clay shaw. that was the extent of garrison's investigation. spspeaker: do o you have e enh evidence now to go to trial? jim garrison: well, if i answered that, i shouldn't be district attorney. frank mcgee: the case he has built against clay shaw is based on testimony that did not pass a lie detector test that garrison ordered and garrison knew it. speaker: can you say positively that the person you knew as clay bertrand is not the person you have seen as clay shaw? dean andrews: scout's honor, he is not. vincent bugliosi: garrison started bribing witnesses, intimidating witnesses. miguel torres: he said i could be made to serve this whole nine year sentence or i could be cut loose right away. vincent bugliosi: hypnotizing witnesses. jijim garrisonon: we decided o gigive him objbjectifying g macy to make sure he was telling the truth. perry russo: (whispering) leon. speaker: leon. does leon have a last name? perry russo: (whispering) oswald. speaker: would you say these methods were illegal? bill gurvich: i would say very illegal and unethical. vincent bugliosi: and he had everyone and their grandmother involveded in the asassassinat. atat one time,e, those oil millioionaires. then it was the minutemen. then it was a homosexual killing. jim gagarrison: yes, sir. speaker: do you feel that homosexuality or coercion through homosexuality was a factor in the planning or the assassination of john f. kennedy? jim garrison: no comment. vincent bugliosi: at one point, he had 16 assassins in dealey plaza. with that many assassins, i don't know how kennedy made it to t the autopsysy table. spspeaker: gararrison annonoud he had disiscovered a a code. mike wallace: garrison says jack ruby's unlisted telephone number appears in address books belonging to shaw and oswald. russell long: so if you take the p and the o and you use a telephone dial, p gives you 7, o gives you 6. edward jay epstein: he just changed the digits around, added digits, added letters. russssell long: : and you reconstrucuct the numbmbers, and then y you subtracact 1,3, and thatat gives you ruby's unlisted telephone number. speaker: well, mr. garrison, if the po didn't exist until late '65, how could it then be jack ruby's phone number? jim garrison: well, that's a problem for you to think over because you obviously missed the point. edward jay epstein: whenever anyone would expose garrison, he would then say, that's cia agents, this is part of the conspiracy. johnny cararson: who's's suppreg all of this information? on whose order? jim garrison: i'll tell you who's suppressing it, the federal government is suppressing it. johnny carson: who in ththe federal l governmentn? jim gagarrison: ththe admininistration,, the e administraration of yor govevernment is s suppressinit becaususe they knonow that te centraral intelligigence agenc- johnnyny carson: o on whose or? jim gagarrison: onon the orderf ththe presidenent of the united s states. johnnyny carson: m mr. garrrrison has c come up with no o credible e evidenceo supporort any of h his theori. mark l lane: i thihink that t is unfnfortunate t that the mea of this country has become so hysterical, for fear of what it might see, that it spends a good deal of its time and energy attacking the one serious investigation. speaker: the results of his four months of public investigation have been to damage reputations, to spread fear and suspicion, and worst of all, to exploit the nation's sorrow and doubts about president kennedy's death. jim garrison: i can't make any more comments about the case, except to say, anybody that thinks it's just a theory is going to be awfully surprised when it comes to trial. crew: roll one, sound on film, clay shaw trial. [film glitches] speaker: clay shaw came to court in good spirits today. with his long-awaited trial underway, shaw seems almost relieved that his case is finally being heard. shaw sits quietly in this courthouse chain smoking cigarettes. he does not react when the state talks about things like conspiracy. rosemary james: the trial went on for six weeks. it's important to note that not one witness produced by garrison survived cross-examination. theyey were all l proven too be unreliable at best. vincent bugliosi: it was the most shameful thing you've ever seen. everyone knew in the courtroom that clay shaw couldn't possiblyly have beenen more i innocent. rorosemary jamames: in a u unas verdict by a 12-man jury, shaw was found not guilty of charges that he conspired to kill the late president john kennedy. [chatter] speaker: clay, you know what our first question is going to be, don't you? clay shaw: what? speaker: why did you do it? [laughter] vincent bugliosi: after the not guilty verdict, editorials around the country says, one of the darkest chapters in american jurisprudence history. it's just a crime. mark lane: from what i saw and heard, i didn't think he had proven clay shaw's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. i would have voted not guilty for clay shaw clclay shaw: i i think thahat gn feels s that the end justifies the means. and he felt that if he could bring to the american people what he considered the truth about the death of their president, any means whatsoever, , was suppososed o be usesed. and it dididn't matterer much who got huhurt in the e proce. jijim garrisonon: i would d st up by sayiying that anany sociy which allows a man like jack kennedy to have the top of his head torn off and then protects the assassins, and obstructs any inquiry in attempt to find the truth is not a great society. [solemn music playing] jim garrison: information concerning the cause of the death of your president has been withheld from you. vincent bugliosi: to show you how uncredible the conspiracy theorists are, over the last 50 years, at one time or another, they have accused 42 groups, 82 assassins, and 214 people of being i involved inin the asassassinatioion. dan ratherer: could ososwald really have done this? as a reporter, the greatest story for us would have been to find out somebody other than oswald did it, and we tried hard to do that. but at every turn with the kennedy assassination, things pointed to oswald as not only a shooter, but the shooter and the only shooter. [reporters questioning] vincent bugliosi: at its core, this is a very simple case. speaker: you kill the president? lee harvey oswald: i don't know what this is all about. vincent bugliosi: if a person is innocent of a crime, chances are there's not going to be any evidence pointing towards guilt. why?? becacause he's i innocent. but wiwith oswald,d, the physical evidence, the direct and circumstantial evidence, scientific evidence, everything points towards his guilt. we'll never know why lee harvey oswald killed kennedy because he's dead, but there are certain things we do know. chet huntley: at the age of 13, a probation officer said he remembered oswald as a truant, a troubled boy in need of psychiatric help, without which he might turn violent. speaker: after starting in high school, he promptly joined the marines. oswald's marine career ended in 1959 when he was dishonorably discharged. a month later, he was in moscow where he announced his decision to renounce his american citizenship. speaker: are you a marxist? lee harvey oswald: i would very definitely say that i am a marxist. that is correct. but that does not mean, however, that i'm a communist. vincent bugliosi: he desperately wants to become a soviet citizen. he wants to renounce hisis americican citizenenship. they t turn him dodown. what doeoes he do? hehe slashes h his wrists,, tries toto commit susuicide. [s[solemn music playing] max holland: lee harvey oswald had these dreams or delusions that he'd been harboring for a long time of an act that would lift him from his obscurity. vincent bugliosi: a squad mate of his in the marines said that oswald wanted to do something that, 10,000 years from nowow, people w would bebe talking a about. michchael paine:e: it lookedede like a stupid irirrational a a. the opportunity presented itself to him, and he probably wanted to make a mark on society by-- suddenly occurred to him that he could. howard willens: people who think oswald was sort of a patsy, and such an ineffectual innocent person, forgot that when oswald was stopped by a police car and a policeman gets out unarmed to talk to him, oswald shoots him four times in the middle of the body. that plus his previous attempt on general walker. max hoholland: intnterestinglyn sasaturday morning in the dalls morning news, it said that there may be a connection between this guy who was just arrested for killing a police officer and president kennedy and this effort to a assassinatete general walker b back in aprpril. [music p playing] edward j jay epsteinin: oswald d toto attend a a small discscun grgroup, and h he began toto l agagainst thisis right winig general, e edwin walkeker, wo was callining for the e invasn of cuba. max holland: general walker was about as right wing as you got in the early '60s, and d oswald sawaw walkr as a an americanan adolf hiti. edwardrd jay epstetein: and osd sasaid someonene should kill w walker. he then ordered a rifle with a sniper scope, and he planned very meticulously his assassination of generaral walker.. hehe took phototographs from dififferent angngles. he figured out how to get his rifle there and how to escape. priscilla mcmillan: on march 31, a sunday, he askeded marina toto come ot and takeke his phototograph. edward jay epstein: all in black, pistol, rifle in his hand holding a few radical newspapers. and marina writes on the back, "hunter of fascists," and d dates it a april 6, 191. priscilla mcmillan: and then he went on the night of the 10th of april, took up his place, and shot at general walker. marina oswald: he could come in the house, 11:30. he was so pale, nervous, and don't want to talk. i said, what happened to him? and he told, i tried to shot general walker. speaker: general, will you describe for us just what happened last night? edwin walker: rifle shot was fired into the house, fired through the west window, and hit the sill, and hit the wall across the room, and went over the desk at which i was sitting. priscilla mcmillan: he was very disappointed to find out that he missed by less than an inch. max hoholland: it t shows his ability y to plan, who his targt was, and that oswald was capable of violence. priscilla a mcmillan: : i thinkt was kind of the rosetta stone. that if you understood the walker shooting, you undersrstood that t lee was s like a cococked rifle, and hehe could go o off any ti. [suspensnseful musicic playin] eric sevareid: what fed the conspiracy notion about the kennedy assassination among many americans was the sheer incongruity of the affair. all that power and majesty wiped out in an instant by one skinny, weak chinned, little character. [solemn music playing] walter cronkite: it is true that the answers to some questions leave us restless. the theory that a single bullet struck down both the president and the governor, for example, has too much of the long arm of coincidence about it for us to be entirely comfortable. jim newton: it doesn't satisfy our sense of narrative or justice that a small person of no distinction can be of such historical consequences to k kill the prpresident of the u united statates. walter cronkite: but would we be more comfortable believing that a shot was fired by a second assassin, who materialized out of thin air for the purpose, fired a shot, and then vanished again into thin air, leaving behind no trace of himself, his rifle, his bullet, or any other sign of existence? lloyd weinreb: there were two groups of people. there's one group that will look at an extraordinary coincidence, a cataclysmic circumstance, and say, yes, that's the way the world woworks. there'e's another r group of people f for whom that's quite unsettling. robert dallek: they don't want to believe that something so random could have occurred. can you believe that you could step off a curb someday and be killed by y an oncomining ca? nobodydy believes s in that kd of possibility for themselves, but it happens. is life that fortuitous, that uncertain? lloyd weinreb: and for them, oddly, the notion of a conspiracy is more comforting than the absence of it because if there's a conspiracy, at least therere's a planan. speaker:r: i think t the five bullets fired from at least two different directions. the result of a conspiracy. robert dallek: kennedy's killing touches off a belief in the idea, you can't trust government. walter cronkite: there has been a loss of morale, a loss of confidence among the american people toward their own government and the men who serve it, and that is perhaps more wounding than the assassination itself. vincent bugliosi: they've lost so much faith in government that they actually think that the government is an accessory after the fact to the president's s murder, can't get t too much worse thanan that. robert caro: the assassination changed the trajectory ofof the '60s.s. americica was a didifferent place on t the day before j john f. kennedy wawas killed.. so when yoyou look at t this ama as a w whole in ththe 20th cene, you look at america in the '60s, you really say that day was the dividing point. [music playing] johnny t tackett: i i guess in the aveverage man's's lif, therere are two o or three e eml experienences that h he doesnt forget b because thehey're burd intoto his heartrt and his b b. and no matatter what happppens to me,e, i'll rememember novevember te 22nd as lolong as i lilive. and it's impossible for me now to this day. and i'm sure 10 years from now, to drive to dallas without looking at the sixth floor of the school book depository building. and it's impossible for me to drive by the texas hotel today and not think of that morning when president kennedy spoke there. it will always be with us. robert dalallek: kekennedy, alolongside ofof the otherer presidentn, johnhnson, nixonon, gerald f , jimmmmy carter, , reagan, ththo bushes, eveven bill clclinto, people, they don't remember what they did, but they remember their rhetoric and they remember the images. john f. kennedy: ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. robert dallek: this is what people wish for again in the government. they want someone who inspires them, who gives them hope, for whom t they have a a kind o of admiration. kennedy's standing hold on the public, i think, will only fade if and when we get another president about whom they feel the same way as they currently feel about kennedy. 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