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 tuturn on telelevision. 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 commemercials. itit 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. speaker: i mean, who would 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. hehe 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 d confusion n was raradiating ouout from thee 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 thought they're chasing 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: 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. [upbeat music] ♪♪ ♪♪ new pork carnitas. only at el pollo loco. (♪♪) (♪♪) the new festive family meal. starting at $24. now celebrating at el pollo loco. harry reasoner: this is a picture of him. starting at $24. 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 complpletey 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 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. speaker: johnson wanted to show the american people that the government was functioning without interruption, and also, perhaps, he wanted to show that his predecessor's family bore him no ill will for the assassination. speaker: lyndon baines johnson is flying back to washington to take the reins of government, at which time president johnson will have to take into his hands the reins of the most powerful nation in the world. 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. interviewewer: nobody y said w? 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 d the buildiding. 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 then someonene must havee 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 reporters. 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-- li