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