All language subtitles for The.Sixties.S01E03.720p.HMAX.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV_Subtitles01.ENG

Johnny Tackett:
In the average man's life

there are two or three

emotional experiences burned
into his heart and his brain.

And no matter what
happens to me,

I'll remember November 22
as long as I live.

There's been an attempt on
the life of President Kennedy.

They are combing
the floors of the

Texas Book Depository building
to find the assassin.

Did you
shoot the President?

Lee Harvey Oswald:
I'm just a patsy.

Tom Pettit:
Oswald has been shot

at point blank range,
fired into his stomach.

Police are working
on the assumption

that Oswald's murder
was to shut him up.

Elements of the
Central Intelligence Agency

killed John Kennedy.

The story
has been suppressed.

Witnesses have been killed.

We have a right to
know who killed our president

and why he died.

♪ (The Sixties theme,
Composer Blake Neely) ♪

In Dallas

preparations were already
under way for

extraordinary police protection

when the President
should arrive.

You anticipate any trouble
on the President's arrival?

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.

Here comes
Air Force Number One,

the President's plane
now touching down.

There's Mrs. Kennedy,
and the crowd yells,

and the President of
the United States.

And I can see his suntan
all the way from here.

Looking at how things
actually went

it wasn't just
a trip to Dallas,

it was a political trip

preparing for the 1964
elections.

Shaking hands now
with the Dallas people,

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 come together

before the election
the next year.

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.

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.

Thousands of children
now swarming,

trying 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.

Well, the trip had gone
terrifically well in Texas.

Pretty hard to write a script
for it going any better.

Thousands will be on
hand for that motorcade now,

which will be in
downtown Dallas.

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.

The speech of
President 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.

♪ (Elvis Presley singing
Big Boss Man) ♪

This bulletin

just in to the KILT
News terminal,

Dateline Dallas.
Three shots were fired

at the motorcade of
President Kennedy

today, in downtown Dallas.

Reporter:
Police radios are carrying

that the President
has been hit.

Parkland Hospital
has been advised

to stand by for a
severe gunshot wound.

This is Walter Cronkite
in our news room, and...

There has been an attempt

on the life of
President Kennedy.

(indistinct speech)

Just turn the mic on.

I can't hear you, Johnny.
What do you want?

You want me to
move back a little bit?

Is it all right now?

Is this all right?

Ladies and gentleman,
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?

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.

Matter of fact, they were going
70, 80 miles an hour past us.

And then
I jumped in a police car

and went to Parkland.

These
two men come running in,

one of them had a large,

what appeared
to be, a machine gun,

and they were yelling
for stretchers,

and cots and everything.

And the Governor,
they brought him in first.

Reporter:
What happened after this?

Rike:
Well, then the President

comes in near behind him and--

and they took them all--

both of them right to the
operating room.

Albert Thomas,
Democrat of Texas,

is standing
outside the corridor

of the emergency room,

said he's been told the
President was still alive,

but in
very critical condition.

The President
has not arrived here.

A group of
Secret Service men,

and other officials
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.

Reporter:
Now, here's an announcement

from the platform.

Mr. Eric Johnson
with an announcement.

Thank you.

A gentleman
just walked in our studio

that I am meeting for the
first time as well as you.

This is
WFAA TV Dallas, Texas.

May I have your name please,
sir?

My name is
Abraham Zapruder.

-Mr. Zapruder?
-Zapruder, yes, sir.

Zapruder. And would you tell us
your story please, sir?

I got out...
about a half hour earlier

to get myself a good spot to
shoot some pictures.

Five year old boy and myself

were by ourselves
on the grass there,

on Commerce Street,
and I asked Joe

to wave to him,
and Joe waved,

and I waved and the--

Reporter:
That's all right, sir.

As he--
As he was waving back,

he was, he was--
the shot rang out

and he slumped down
in his seat.

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 another one,
it was just all so fast,

and President Kennedy
reached up

and grabbed-- looked like
he grabbed

his ear and blood just
started gushing out.

Did you see
the person who fired these?

No, not-- I didn't see
any person fire the weapon.

You only heard it?

I only heard it.
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've been for
Lyndon Johnson?

Johnson's car pulls
into the emergency bay

at Parkland Hospital,
four agents reach in,

and they grab Johnson
and pull him out,

and start to run him down

one corridor, around,
looking for a safe place.

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:
It was a signal moment

in our cultural history,

suddenly, it occurred to us,
the right thing to do is

to turn on the television.

Reporter:
Reports continue to come in,

but in a confused
and fragmentary fashion.

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.

Cronkite:
Two priests have entered

the emergency room at Parkland
Hospital where he rests

after the assassination
attempt,

which now was
about a half hour ago.

What are your
feelings right now, ma'am?

I am absolutely
shocked, stunned.

We have the same birthday, and
I'm just crazy about him.

Who would
want to shoot the President?

What did he do?

I mean, he's been doing
so much for the country,

someone goes ahead and
shoots him?

Reporter:
A flash from Dallas.

Two priests who were with
President Kennedy say

he is dead of bullet wounds.

This is the latest information
we have from Dallas.

I will repeat,
with the greatest regret,

two priests who were with
President Kennedy

say he has died of
bullet wounds.

Bob Huffaker:
Malcolm Kilduff,

the assistant press
secretary,

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 secretary might
have ever had to give.

All the
cameras were rolling,

and I remember
he put his fingers

like this on the desk,
and pressed very hard

to stop his hands trembling.

John F. Kennedy died at
approximately one o'clock,

Central Standard Time...
today, here in Dallas.

He died of a gunshot wound
in the brain.

Close up.

I have no other details

regarding the assassination
of the President.

Reporter:
The people standing here

are stunned, just as all of us
are, beyond belief...

...that the President of the
United States is dead.

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.

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.

Unidentified male:
I just can't believe it.

I feel like

someone in my own family
has died,

and I just can't believe it.

Ma'am?

I can't...

Like a daze.

You don't know
what's going on.

Why? Why did it happen?

"Who would've done such
a thing?" is the question.

In the
first minutes and hours

chaos and confusion was

radiating out
from the scene itself.

It was very pervasive.

Secret Service agents
thought the gunfire was

from an automatic weapon,

fired possibly
from a grassy knoll.

I saw some police
run up this grassy--

I thought they're chasing
the gunman,

I ran with them.

The report is that
the attempted assassins,

we now hear, it was a man
and a woman.

MacNeil:
I got to the top,

looked around, a policeman
went over the fence

so I went
over the fence too.

There was nothing there.

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.

It was originally thought that
the shots came from in here,

and now it's believed
that the shots came

from this building here.

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.

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.

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.

Crime lab
lieutenant J. C. Day

just came out of
that building

with a British .303 rifle.

It was a 7.65 Mauser.

A high powered Army or Japanese
rifle of .25 caliber.

A 3030 rifle.

Much of the
first things you hear

are gonna be wrong.

And to some degree

you are constantly trying to
separate out

what seemed
to be a fact.

In Dallas
a Dallas Policeman,

just a short while ago,
was shot and killed

while chasing a suspect.

J.D. Tippit, a good
experienced police officer,

was shot three times
in the chest

in the Oak Cliff section of
Dallas.

Then the manager
of a shoe store saw

the suspect walk into
the Texas Theater.

Watson:
Someone has 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.

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 grab this man trying to run
with him.

They shouted '"murderer",

the officers hustled him
into the car

and ran away just as fast as
they could.

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.

Paul, Paul Bentley.

How did you approach
him? Tell us the story.

I approached him
and as he approached me

the man hit McDonald in
the face his left hand,

reached for the pistol
with his right hand,

and as he reached
for his pistol

I grabbed him along with
two or three other officers.

What did he say to you
after he was arrested?

He just said this is it.

It's all over with now.

This is a picture of him.

He probably does not look
exactly like this now

after he's been questioned.

That's Lee Oswald.

Caro:
The President was shot,

then a police officer was shot,
then someone named

Lee Harvey Oswald
is arrested.

Oswald may be a suspect in
the assassination. Who is he?

Lee Oswald of Dallas,
a former Marine

who spent some time
in Russia,

who at one time had applied
for Soviet citizenship.

The 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.

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.

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 book
binding firm in the building

from which the police and
secret servicemen believe

the President was
shot today.

Mrs. Kennedy

accompanied the body
in an ambulance

from the hospital
to the airport,

where it will be flown back
to Washington.

They got everyone out
of the emergency room,

and the hospital completely,
on the first floor there,

and they came out
and told us that

we would have to help move
the remains into a casket.

Huffaker:
Lyndon Johnson had ordered

that the body be
brought immediately

to Air Force One.

So, there was a little
tug of war,

it almost shook the crucifix
off of the top of the coffin

as they were trying to

get that coffin
out of the hospital.

Took him out
and put him into the...

...hearse, and one of the
secret serviceman,

well, about two or three
of them got into a hearse,

and just drove off
and left Mr. O'Neil

and the rest of us
just standing there.

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

that Johnson was already
the President

because he in fact had taken
the oath in January '61,

the same oath
the President takes.

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.

Cronkite:
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.

We think
November 22, 1963,

as a date
when a president was killed.

But it was also a day when
a president was created.

Is there any doubt
in your mind, Chief,

that Oswald is the man
who killed the President?

I think this is the man that
killed the President, yes.

Is there any
evidence that anyone else

may have been linked with
Oswald to this shooting?

At this time we don't
believe so.

Lee Harvey Oswald:
I-- I don't know

what this is all about.

Reporter:
You kill the President?

No, sir, I didn't.
People keep asking me that.

Reporter:
Did you shoot the President?

I work in that building.

Were you
in the building at the time?

Naturally, if I work in that
building, yes, sir.

Reporter:
Did you shoot the President?

Oswald:
No. They're taking me in

because of the fact that
I lived in the Soviet Union.

I'm just a patsy.

This is room 317,
Homicide Bureau,

here at the
Dallas Police Station.

As you see they are
bringing the weapon

allegedly used
in the assassination

of President John F. Kennedy,
this afternoon,

at 12:30, here in Dallas.

6.5 apparently made in
Italy in 1940.

Police
have traced 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 a price of $12.78,

the life of the President
of the United States,

apparently, was bought.

In the wake
of the Kennedy assassination

the Dallas Police,
on the one hand,

they were committing
all of their resources

to try and solve the crime.

Could you move him
in the doorway?

Would you get him
in the doorway?

On the other hand,

they were ill equipped
to handle

this tsunami of reporters.

Well, I was questioned
by Judge, however,

I protested at that time
that I was

not allowed
legal representation.

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.

Reporter:
Did you kill the President?

No, I have not been charged
with that. In fact nobody has

said that to me yet.

First thing
I heard about it was

when the newspaper
reporters in the hall...

...asked me that question.

You have been
charged with that.

-Sir?
-You have been...

Okay.
We can't hear you down here.

Reporter:
What did you do in Russia?

Mr. Oswald,
how did you hurt your eye?

A policeman hit me.

Bill Lord:
At 1:35 this morning

a complaint was read,

a charge that, quote,
"Lee Harvey Oswald

did voluntarily and
with malice of forethought

kill John F. Kennedy by shooting
him with a gun." End quote.

Following the reading
of the complaint

Oswald said,
"That's ridiculous."

Within
hours of the assassination,

it was very obvious

to virtually everyone in
Dallas law enforcement

that Oswald had killed Kennedy.

Chief, can you tell us
in summary

what directly links Oswald

to the killing
of the President?

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...

When did he
bring that package?

Yesterday morning.

After the shooting in
Dealey Plaza, Oswald was the

only employee
at the book depository

that fled the building.

Forty-five minutes later,

he shoots and kills
Officer J. D. Tippit,

half hour later, at the Texas
Theater, he resisted arrest

by pulling his gun
on the arresting officer.

Reporter:
The door has just opened.

During
12 hours of interrogation

by the Dallas Police Department,
over the weekend,

he told one provable lie
after another.

Reporter:
Did you buy that rifle?

That's the facts
you people have been given,

but I emphatically deny
these charges.

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.

There's only one thing
that I can tell you,

without going
into the evidence,

that this case is cinched,

that this man
killed the President.

And there is no question
in my mind about it.

We plan to transfer this man,

not tonight,
the van will be here by

no later than ten o'clock
in the morning, where it will--

That will be early enough.

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?

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.

(indistinct speech)

Lee Oswald
is to be taken soon

to the county jail.

Chief Jesse Curry:
That's true.

And you are going
to take him there how, sir?

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 someone
must've overruled them

so that Lee could be
photographed by the press

during the transfer.

We are 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?

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.

It is through
this corridor 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.

Anticipation has built up here
in downtown Dallas

in front of the county jail.

They're waiting for a
glimpse of Lee Oswald.

Reporter:
There he is. Here he comes.

Now, the prisoner wearing the...

Let's go.

Let me have it, I want it.

Being led out by
Captain Fritz,

here is the prisoner.

There is Lee.

(gunshot)

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.

He is shot.

-Oswald is shot.
-It is Oswald.

Was that the man

who shot the man,
or do you know?

That is the man
that shot the man.

Immediately after the shooting
our only witnesses

that we could talk to were
other reporters.

Reporter:
Where did he go, Pierre?

Well, he was here, he just--
They just put the gun there,

I saw the flash
on the black sweater.

Had the gun right in his belly?

Oh yeah, right...

-Oh, did you see the gun?
-Point blank range?

Pierre: I saw him there, he was
in the group of men right here.

Masquerading as one of us
or what?

I thought he was
one of the detective,

you know, he had a hat.

The situation is now

that Lee Harvey 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 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 piling in.

The ambulance is leaving
Dallas Police Headquarters,

Where will he be taken?

I'm assuming
Parkland Hospital.

Parkland Hospital,

the irony of ironies,
the place

where John F. Kennedy died.

I believe the man--

No, don't take
the microphone.

Yeah keep your head up.
Let's start again.

What is your reaction to the
shooting of Oswald?

Well, I think
it's a deplorable situation.

The man is entitled
to a fair trial.

They should give him
a fair trial 'cause

killing him just like that
ain't nothing

'cause that ain't gonna bring
President Kennedy back to life.

And after you get a trial

they should let him out
on the street

and let the people kill him.

They should
not only shoot him,

but cut him up in pieces.

Put him every one hour
in the fire

and stood him up
for one day,

and then the next day
start again.

Thank you.

They got a man
that I believe,

I didn't see it,
I think it's the man.

What's that? You got him?
What's he look like?

Unidentified cop: I can't give
you a description now.

He is-- he is known locally.

Immediately
after the ambulance left,

somehow I'd begun to suspect
that maybe

the shooter was someone

who was known to the police.

Do you know this subject?

Do you know him?
Have you seen him before?

-Yes, I do.
-Is he from Dallas?

-Yes.
-He is?

I-- I couldn't tell you.

Do you know
what kind of business

he happens to be in?

Bob, I wouldn't want to say.

Right.

Dallas City Hall is normally
a public building,

but today it was really
under armed guard.

Jack. Jack Ruby. The Carousel.
The Carousel, shot...

We-- Is this
a confirmed report

as to who did the shooting?

As far as I know. I just
got it from Vic Robertson.

Vic Robertson,
from City Hall, reports that...

...Jack Ruby,
the owner of The Carousel,

which is a bar in Dallas,
did the shooting.

My statement will be
very brief.

Oswald expired at 1:07 PM.

He died?

He died at 1:07 PM.

We have arrested the man,

the man will be charged
with murder.

Who is he?

The man-- The suspect's name is
Jack Rubenstein, I believe...

...he goes by the name of
Jack Ruby.

And here in 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.

I know my own feelings were,

and I think they were
widely shared by many,

if not most Americans,
this can't be coincidental.

The assassin is assassinated
in the police station.

What in the hell
is going on?

Walker:
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 murder
was to shut him up.

Captain
Will Fitz 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.

In Jack Ruby's small mind

he thought he was gonna
become a big, big hero.

I mean, he killed the guy
who killed the President.

I commend what he did,
I think he ought to win

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.

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 U.S. Secret Service,

or the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.

Earl Warren:
Our nation is bereaved.

The whole world is
poorer because of his loss.

But we can all be
better Americans

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,
and his quiet courage

have enabled him
to chart a course for us...

...a safe course for us

through the shoals of
treacherous seas

that encompass the world.

And now that he is relieved

of the almost
super human burden

we imposed on him,
may he rest in peace.

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.

It 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 brother, Robert;

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.

George Herman:
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.

We know from history,

is,
how do they handle

the transfer of power
at the top?

Lyndon Johnson,
whatever you thought of him,

and a lot of people
disliked him greatly,

some even hated him,

would be the President
of the United States.

I think it shouted about
the strength of the country,

and that we swear
by the rule of law.

The President
of the United States.

My fellow Americans...

...all I have...

...I would have given gladly...

...not to be standing
here today.

Johnson knows

he has to show
the country

that the ship of state is
sailing on under a new captain.

But, at the same time,

he can't appear to be too
anxious to assume power,

and he has to keep
the Kennedy people

on board with him.

So that speech means
everything.

No words are strong enough...

...to express
our determination...

...to continue the forward
thrust of America that he began.

John Chancellor:
The people of Europe

just cannot believe
that a lone avenger

made his way into a
major police station

and killed,
without difficulty,

the most celebrated
and infamous criminal

in the United States.

One of the
most important things

that happened
after Oswald's murder...

...was that we, you know,
were forever denied the "why?"

And the people at the time
believed he did it.

The question was why.

There are
questions continually coming up

about the possibility
of an international plot.

There's still all this thought

that the Russians
might be behind it,

or Cuba might be behind it.

Johnson sees there's a
real danger in that.

You want to put
these rumors to rest.

Investigations
into all the facts

of these last four days
may not be limited

to the state of Texas
or the FBI.

Some Congressman
already have suggested

a congressional investigation.

Holland:
Killing a president wasn't

a federal crime at the time.

So you had
the federal government

intervening in still
what was a local murder.

There certainly
was a concern

of competing investigations.

There was the Dallas
criminal investigation,

there was the State of Texas
court of inquiry,

and there were committees
on both sides of Congress,

while, of course, the FBI had
been given the job to

conduct a full scale
investigation.

Johnson realizes
something has to be done.

He realizes that he has to
appoint a body,

that the public will respect,
to look into this.

I've got to have a

top, blue ribbon
Presidential Commission

to investigate
the assassination.

Now, I want to ask
McCloy and Dulles,

and Ford, and Boggs,
and Cooper, and Russell,

and Chief Justice Warren as
chairman.

Caro: If there's one
public governmental official

in the United States
universally respected

for his integrity,

it is the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court,

Earl Warren.

If there's one person
in Congress

that every one respects

it's Richard Russell of
Georgia.

He has to get them both
on the Commission.

There is, however, a problem.

Russell is a segregationist
through and through,

and despises Warren
for the decisions

that he's made on the Court.

Johnson thought if they
can agree on a verdict

then that'll be satisfying
90 percent of

American public opinion.

Unidentified female:
Senator Russell on 2191.

I'm highly
honored you would think

about me in connection with it,

but I couldn't serve there
with Chief Justice Warren.

I don't like that man.

President Johnson:
You can serve with anybody

for the good of America,
and you're gonna do it.

I can't arrest you,

and I'm not gonna
put the FBI on you,

but you goddamn sure are
gonna serve,

I'll tell you that.

Robert Caro:
Lyndon Johnson was known

as the greatest salesman
one-on-one who ever lived.

So, he meets first with
Warren, and he says,

"If I asked you to
put on your 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 now--

President Johnson:
No, it's already done.

It's been announced, hell.

Russell:
You mean you've given--

Yes, sir,
I've made the announcement,

it's already in the papers,
and you're on it.

Well, I think you
did wrong getting Warren,

I know damn well
you got it wrong getting me.

But I'll do
the best I can.

President Johnson:
I think that's what you do.

That's the kind of American
of both of you are.

Announcer: Produced by NBC News,

which is solely responsible
for its content.

The Warren Commission, appointed
Friday night, will investigate

and make a report
on the murder.

As yet, it has said
nothing about

how it will proceed,
or when.

In the meantime, again,

the FBI is investigating
every lead it can find,

and will turn its report
over to President Johnson

probably this week.

Willens:
It was the FBI's hope

that its report would be,

if not the final word
the semi-final word,

and that the Commission's
job would be to read it,

and then essentially endorse
the findings of the report.

Edward Jay Epstein:
The members of the

Warren Commission,

Earl Warren,
John Sherman Cooper,

Gerry Ford, Allen Dulles,

Hale Boggs, Richard Russell,

and John J. McCloy realized
at their initial meeting

that they had to do
an independent investigation.

They didn't want to be
a stamp for the

FBI, or the Secret Service.

Holland:
There are three issues

the Commission had to
grapple with.

You know, 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?

You had various branches
of the investigation traveling,

interviewing witnesses,
collecting evidence,

bringing it back
to the Commission.

Let's see,
the time of day was about--

well we're not very far,
two hours from it.

Epstein:
There were questions,

how would they deal
with the different stories

about shooters
from the grassy knoll,

and shooters from
different directions?

The lawyers
from the Commission

took 395 depositions
and there were 94 witnesses

that appeared
before the Commission.

Lyndon Johnson
wants the report out

so it doesn't interfere with
the election in November.

Jim Newton:
Warren left for Dallas

because he was a man
who had spent

his early career as a
courtroom prosecutor,

he understood a crime scene,

he wanted to stand
in that window,

and see
whether this was a shot

that a marksman could make.

While he was there Warren
felt he should talk to Ruby.

There were
all these suggestions

that Ruby had killed Oswald
to silence him.

So, Warren,
I think wanted to hear it

from Ruby himself.

The Warren
Commission realized

they were gonna
have to invest

a lot more time
than was anticipated.

So, maybe two to three month
operation

to the conception that

it would probably
take six months.

The hourglass of time
was running out on them.

Can you say if you
still think it was one man?

I think we better not get
into that area, you know?

The report will cover
all of that in great detail.

This committee
labored ten months,

then brought forth a document
close to a thousand pages.

President Johnson received
that report today.

Epstein:
What the public understood

and what I understood,

is: these were
very honorable men.

They thought that the
Commission had done a good job,

and they would come up
with an answer.

When the
Warren Commission Report

came out, I believed it.
We were still in a time when...

...you tended to believe
what officials told you.

It is now 15 seconds
after 6:30 PM,

Eastern Daylight Time,
Sunday, September 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.

We knew most people
were not going to read

all of the Warren
Commission Report,

so CBS News wanted to
be able to bring to air

in understandable form
for the public at large,

what the Warren Commission
itself has found.

There was nothing to
support the speculation

that Oswald was an
agent, employee

or informant of the
FBI, or the CIA,

or any other
governmental agency.

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.

The media
had all concluded that

this was the most exhaustive
investigation.

Case closed.
Oswald did it alone.

The Commission concludes
that three shots were fired,

all of them
from the sixth floor window

in the Texas School
Book Depository.

Cronkite:
The cumulative evidence
of eyewitness,

firearms and ballistic experts,
and medical authorities

demonstrated that
the shots were fired

from above and behind
President Kennedy

and Governor Connally.

Bugliosi:
When the Warren Commission

came out with their report,
the majority of Americans...

...accepted the findings of
the Warren Commission.

Cronkite:
The bullet entered here,

came out just below the
President's Adam's apple.

The Commission believes that
the same bullet

then entered the right shoulder
of Governor Connally,

passed on through his chest,

continued through
his right wrist

and on into his left thigh.

Governor John Connally:
The report has been

generally accepted
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,

this very tragic event.

I'm quite satisfied that

it has been very
well covered entirely.

It leaves no
doubt in my mind

that Lee actually did

assassinate the President
of the United States

and kill Officer Tippit.

Cronkite:
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 perhaps therefore

there will forever
be questions

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.

Willens:
The reaction to the report

initially was very positive,

but that
didn't last very long.

This book is
the number one bestseller

on the non-fiction
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.

We did not envision the breadth

and the scope
of the criticism.

The author has
some highly provocative

and controversial
things to say.

So, please greet Mr. Mark Lane.

No matter how
illustrious the members were,

we were not going to be
reassured by a Commission.

We're already having
a little disagreement here

while the commercials were on.

What were you saying, David?

Well, I think I disagree
almost totally with Mark Lane,

on several counts.
I don't know where to begin.

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 Schoolbook
Depository Building.

The Commission said
Ruby was not there.

This is picture showing how
the Commission published it.

He wasn't there when they

published the picture because
they cropped him out.

You're accusing Chief Justice
Warren and that Commission--

Tell me something
about some facts

instead of your deep faith
in the Chief Justice!

You're accusing them of
deliberate malfeasance.

You are part of the media

which prevented the American
people from finding out

-what happened until now.
-You are alarming

the American people.

I say the American people
should be alarmed.

The public had been kept

in the dark
for so long about this,

but had an undying thirst...

...which could only be
quenched by getting facts.

We have a right to
know who killed

our President and
why he died!

And we can't get that from
reading the Warren Report.

The critics
of the Warren Commission

have three different
points of view.

One, where we were
simply incompetent.

Two, we were
thoroughly corrupt.

And then there's those
that say, "Both of the above".

I want someone to
tell me that to my face.

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 news stands,

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.

When you
have a great number of people

devoting their lives to looking
at every word, every comma...

...they can create
a lot of mischief.

I believe, very firmly, that

Ruby and Oswald knew
each other, and certainly

Tippit and Ruby
knew each other.

Before we proceed with that

kind of questioning,
let me ask you,

what kind of conspiracy
do you think?

Was it communist, left wing
or right wing conspiracy?

I am convinced
that there were two riflemen.

The Warren
Commission was set up,

as you know, at the request

and urging of the
Communist Party.

It is obvious that
he was working for

somebody else
at that moment,

and that somebody else
could not be anyone else

than Fidel Castro.

There's no possibility of

Oswald having been
in the sixth floor window

of the
Texas School Book Depository.

It might have been the servant

of the Castro-Mao Tse Tung
communist school of violence.

There was an entire
world of assassination buffs.

Some raised valid questions.

Could a bullet,
which had done as much,

have come out looking like
bullet 399?

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.

Some
had completely mad theories.

Cody was killed by
a karate chop to the throat

in September,
I believe, of 1964.

But everyone, I believed,

had a right
to give their views.

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.

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, on 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.

The decreasing trust

by Americans
in their government

all started with
the Kennedy Assassination.

By 1966, there's this

cultural revolution in the
United States.

I mean, we're deeply
enmeshed in Vietnam.

There's a lot of protests,
there have been riots,

and there's a sense that

things have seriously
gone wrong.

We've gone off the rails
since November '63.

And the Warren Report
is a very important part

of that loss of confidence
in the government.

Unidentified male:
I don't think that all

the facts were brought out.

I think something was
held back.

I think there were more

involved in it
than just Oswald.

I don't know how

in the world they could
ever reach a conclusion that

one person assassinated him.
That's 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.

Why doesn't America believe
the Warren Report?

Because
of the conspiracy theorists

who have put this case under
a high powered microscope,

splitting hairs
and then proceeding to

split the split hairs.

The Kennedy case is now the
most complex murder case,

by far, in world history.

Nothing even remotely
comes close.

We are left with a series 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.

Specter: We aren't trying
to hide a thing from you,

or from Mr Epstein and
Mr Lane, or the world.

We are laying it all out.

It's right here in
the notes of testimony.

And if we have transposed
in error a "possibly"

into a "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.

Anchor: 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.

As the
President was coming down from

Houston Street,
making its turn,

it was about
halfway down there,

I heard a shot,

then I heard another
shot or two,

I couldn't tell you if it
was one or two.

And then I saw his
head practically open up,

all blood and everything,
and I kept on shooting.

The Warren Commission
could use the film

and each frame
to reconstruct

each moment of the
assassination.

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.

I think that the,

that the massive
head wound,

where the President's head
was literally blown apart,

came from a cornering
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.

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.

The grass knoll
underneath that green tree,

and you could see a little
puff of smoke,

it looked like a puff of
steam or cigarette smoke.

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

has ever been found and
linked to the assassination.

Now, there were two
doctors and one priest

who claim that-- who said
flatly that there were...

...entrance wounds in
the President's neck.

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.

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.

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.

What about this

wound that you
observed in the,

in the front of the
President's neck?

Actually, I didn't really
give it much thought.

And I realize that perhaps
it would've been better

had I done so.

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.

You did
not turn the President over?

No, there
was really no reason to,

it made very little
difference to me,

since my immediate
concern was

with an attempted
resuscitation.

You can
ad infinitum,

and people will
only remember

that a doctor at Parkland
said he had been shot,

you know,
from possibly the front.

So it's, you know, kind of

trying to put the
genie back in the bottle.

A bullet hit
the President from the back,

bullet hit him
from the front.

The bullet which killed him
came from the right front.

Unless the laws of physics
were not working that day,

the reaction
of the President...

...tells us where
that shot came from.

Some critics say

by the 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.

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.

Bugliosi: If you
look at the individual frames

of the Zapruder film,

at 312, frame 312,
the President's head's okay.

At frame 313,
1/18th of a second later,

the President is
struck in the head.

In what direction is
the President's head pushed?

Not backwards, but
slightly forward.

Is there any doubt
that the wound

at the back of the
President's head

was the entry wound?

There is absolutely
no doubt, sir.

Bugliosi:
So at the all-important

moment of impact,

the President's head is
pushed forward,

indicating a shot
from the rear,

where Lee Harvey Oswald was.

CBS News Inquiry

'The Warren Report'
continues.

Cronkite:
The time span between shots,

is a point upon which
the critics have seized.

Could Oswald have fired
three shots in 5.6 seconds?

There was a
lot of attention being given

to the Zapruder film,
and when exactly

the President was hit first,
and then hit second.

Cronkite:
CBS News had a

tower and target track
constructed to match exactly

the heights and distances
in Dealey Plaza.

Willens:
If there wasn't enough time,

then you would have
a second shooter.

Bugliosi: Oswald
was not an expert shot.

He was a good shot.

But making the shots
was not that tough at all.

CBS did it. A guy
from the military did it.

Those three shots he
got off in 2.6 seconds.

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 started his camera

after the limousine
was about 70 feet

into Dealey Plaza.

Well, Oswald had the President

in his sights for many
seconds before that.

And this gets
into the whole question,

is how much time did Oswald
have to shoot the President?

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,
in the sort of

ultimate truth of film
and of images.

Then they become our
memory.

Reporter: 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?

Dr. Cyril H. Wecht:
I, I would hesitate

really to say it is absolutely,
100 percent impossible.

But it is highly improbable.

Could a single bullet

have wounded both
President Kennedy

and Governor Connally?

The single bullet
theory has become

perhaps the most controversial
aspect of the report.

Holland:
If the Warren Commission

couldn't prove that one shot
had hit both men,

that meant
there were two shooters,

ipso facto
there's a conspiracy.

Bugliosi:
The conspiracy theorists

claim that the second shot
was a magic bullet.

They argue that a bullet

would 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.

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 test,

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.

To believe that it
didn't hit Governor Connally,

that would be
a real magic bullet,

one that
disappeared in thin air.

Reporter:
To 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
two hours and 25 minutes.

Just what do
you think of this verdict?

I believe that Jack Ruby
was a paid killer,

to close the mouth of
my son, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Holland:
The question of whether Ruby

knew Oswald before or was in
cahoots to kill him is

one of the most
important questions.

Willens:
Because Ruby knew people in

criminal activities, there was
a lot of investigation

about a
potential conspiracy.

Ruby would've been
one of the most

unlikely and worst hit men
that the Mob could ever get.

Phil Burleson:
On November 24, 1963,

Lee Harvey Oswald
is supposed to

have been
transferred at 10:00.

At 10:00 the
evidence is undisputed that

Jack Ruby
as at home asleep.

Then he got dressed
and drove downtown.

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.

We know that at 11:20,

three minutes later,
a block away,

Jack Ruby killed
Lee Harvey Oswald.

And the evidence showed
that he was down there

anywhere from
five to 15 seconds.

Five to 15 seconds!

If this is a hired assassin

who is supposed to have
some advanced information,

he is the
world's best timer.

What type of man is he?

Uh, Jack is a
very emotional type person,

and um, as I was saying a
while ago,

he is the type of man that
probably would give you

the shirt off
his back one moment,

and then turn
around and do something

as nutty as this in the next.

Jack Ruby:
I never used the term angry,

that's not in my vocabulary.

He was
known for a quick temper.

And later, as it turned out,

he was hooked on
two kinds of speed,

Preludin and Benzedrine at
the time of the shooting.

He had been here
at the police station

during the past two days,
talking with newsmen

and distributing his card
and also making friends.

Jack Ruby was a police
and media groupie.

Ruby thought
he was our friend.

So, I'm in this very
same room Friday 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.

Ruby's
act was that of a vigilante.

He wanted nothing
more to be known,

you know, people to
flock to his nightclub,

to shake the hand of the
man who killed,

the man who killed
the president.

I might add, if Ruby
silenced Oswald for the mob,

who was supposed to
silence Jack Ruby?

He died of normal 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 unfazed with this obsession.

Their game is to fool you.

These people want the
investigations stopped.

They don't want
a trial at all.

Please believe me.

Now, 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."

Do you believe
that Lee Harvey Oswald

did not shoot
President Kennedy?

Jim Garrison: I don't
want to get involved in the

speculations as to
individuals,

but I will say that it,
there's no question

about the fact that there,

there was a plot
and there were

a number of
individuals involved.

In 1967, he announced,
"I've solved the case,

I've found the real assassin."

We will make arrests

based on that,
and we will make charges

based on that,

and we will obtain
convictions based on that.

Now, you wouldn't
pay much attention to this

to this except he was District
Attorney of New Orleans.

I've spent hour after hour
with Jim Garrison.

He has presented his
case to me, detail by detail.

The Mark Lanes and the
conspiracy theorists

all flocked, initially,
to Garrison.

And I can report that a
powerful domestic force,

a force that is still part
of the American structure

planned and
initiated those acts

that resulted in
the assassination

of President Kennedy.

They all thought,
"Here's a guy

who is finally going
to bring the case

that we've been, you know,
arguing about for years."

If I seem
somewhat confident,

it is because our office
is in its fifth year

and it has never
lost a murder case.

The press
initially builds Garrison up

because everybody believes

no District Attorney
in his right mind

would do this unless
he had something.

Bill Gurvich:
Arrested this evening

in the District Attorney's
office

was Clay Shaw, age 54,

of 1313 Darbeen Street
of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Mr Shaw will be
charged with participation

in the conspiracy to murder
John F. Kennedy.

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'll be furnished
with this information

and will be afforded
an opportunity

to prove my innocence.

Holland:
Clay Shaw was a very well

respected businessman
in New Orleans.

He had been a distinguished
soldier during WWII.

Rosemary James:
I knew Clay Shaw.

And the concept
of Clay Shaw

as being part of an
assassination conspiracy

was just too weird
to be believed.

Clay Shaw
was also homosexual,

and closeted, and I
think that played a part.

This decision
to arrest Clay Shaw

I believe, was intended to get
the national media back to town.

As soon as he
arrested Clay Shaw,

they all came back.

Holland:
And then they realized

the truth that
there isn't anything there.

Reporter:
Garrison has based his case

on the certainty
that he can prove

Clay Shaw is
Clay or Clem Bertrand.

The name "Clem Bertrand"
was first

introduced by a lawyer,
named Dean Andrews,

who told the
Warren Commission a person

by that name
telephoned him,

suggesting he
provide legal defense

for Lee Oswald.

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.

Do you have enough
evidence now to go to trial?

Well if, if I answered that,

I shouldn't be
District Attorney.

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.

Reporter:
Can you say positively that

the person you
knew as Clay Bertrand

is not the person you
are seeing as Clay Shaw?

Scout's honor, he is not.

Garrison started
bribing witnesses,

intimidating witnesses.

He said, I could be
made to serve this

whole nine-year sentence...

...or I could be
cut loose right away.

Hypnotizing witnesses.

We decided to give him

objectifying machinery
to make sure

he was telling the truth.

Leon

Leon, does Leon
have a last name?

Oswald.

Would you say these,
the methods were illegal?

I would say very illegal
and unethical.

And he had everyone and

their grandmother involved
in the assassination.

At one time it was
oil millionaires.

Then it was the Minutemen.

Then it was a
homosexual killing.

Yes, sir?

Do you feel that
homosexuality

or coercion
through homosexuality

was a factor in the finding

or the assassination
of John F. Kennedy?

No comment.

At one
point he had 16 assassins

in Dealey Plaza.

With that many assassins,
I don't know how Kennedy

made it to the
autopsy table.

Garrison announced
he had discovered a code.

Garrison says Jack Ruby's
unlisted telephone number

appears in address books

belonging to
Shaw and Oswald.

So, if you take the P and the O,

and you use a
telephone dial,

P gives you seven,
O gives you six.

He just changed
the digits around,

added digits, added letters.

And you
reconstruct the numbers,

and, and that, and then you
subtract 1300,

and that gives you Ruby's
unlisted telephone number.

Reporter:
Well, Mr. Garrison,

if the P-O didn't exist
until late '65,

how could it then
be Jack Ruby's phone number?

Well that's a problem
for you to think over

because you obviously
missed the point.

Whenever anyone
would expose Garrison,

he would then say they're
CIA agents

because he's part of the
conspiracy.

Who's suppressing all of this
information, on whose order?

I'll tell
you who's suppressing it,

the Federal Government
is suppressing it--

Who in the
Federal Government?

The administration,

the administration
of your government

is suppressing
it because they know

that the Central
Intelligence Agency--

On whose order?

On the order of the President
of the United States.

Mr. Garrison
has come up with

no credible evidence
to support

any of his theories.

I think it is unfortunate

that the media
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.

The results of this
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.

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.

Roll one, sound on film,
Clay Shaw trial.

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.

The
trial went on for six weeks.

It's important to note that

not one witness
produced by Garrison

survived cross examination.

They were all proven
to be unreliable at best.

It was the most
shameful thing you've ever seen.

Everyone knew in the courtroom

that Clay Shaw
couldn't possibly

have been more innocent.

In a unanimous verdict
by a 12-man jury,

Shaw was found not guilty of

charges that he
conspired to kill

the late President
John Kennedy.

Reporter:
Clay, you know what our

first question is gonna be,
don't you?

What?

Reporter:
Well, why did you do it?

(laughter)

After
the not guilty verdict,

editorials
around the country

said it's one of the
darkest chapters

in American
jurisprudence history.

It's just a crime.

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.

Clay Shaw:
I think that Garrison feels

that the end
justifies the means.

And he felt that
if he could bring to the

American people what
he considers the truth

about the death
of their President,

any means whatsoever
was, was to be used.

It didn't matter much
who got hurt in the process.

I would sum it up by saying,
that any society

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 an attempt to
find the truth

is not a great society.

Information
concerning the cause

of the death of
your President

has been withheld from you.

Bugliosi:
To show you how un-credible

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 involved
in the assassination.

Could Oswald 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 in the
Kennedy Assassination,

things pointed to
Oswald as

not only a shooter,
but the shooter,

and the only shooter.

(commotion)

Bugliosi:
At its core,

this is a very simple case.

I don't know what
this is all about.

If a person is
innocent of a crime,

chances are there's
not gonna be any,

any evidence pointing
towards his guilt. Why?

Because he's innocent.

But with Oswald,
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 says

he remembers Oswald
as a truant,

a troubled boy in need of
psychiatric help

without which he
might turn violent.

Brinkley:
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.

Reporter:
Are you a Marxist?

Oh, I would very
definitely say that

I, I am a Marxist,
that is correct.

But I, that does not mean,
however, that I am a communist.

He desperately wants to
become a Soviet citizen,

he wants to renounce his
American citizenship.

They turn him down.
What does he do?

He slashes his wrists,
tries to commit suicide.

Lee Harvey Oswald

had these dreams or
delusions that he had been

harboring for a long time

of an act that would
lift him from his obscurity.

A squad mate of his
in the Marines...

...said that Oswald
wanted to do something

that 10,000 years from now
people would be talking about.

It looked to me like...

...an irrat--
a stupid, irrational act,

the opportunity
presented itself to him

and he probably wanted to
make a mark on

society and suddenly occurred
to him that he could.

Willens:
People who think Oswald was

sort of a patsy and,

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, his previous
attempt on General Walker.

Interestingly,
on Saturday morning

in the
Dallas 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 assassinate

General Walker back in April.

Oswald used to attend
a small discussion group,

and he began to rail against
this right wing general,

Edwin Walker, who was calling
for the invasion of Cuba.

General Walker

was about as right wing
as you got in the early '60s.

And Oswald saw Walker as a
American Adolf Hitler.

And Oswald said someone
should kill Walker.

He then ordered a rifle
with a sniper scope,

and he planned,
very meticulously

his assassination
of General Walker.

He took photographs
from different angles,

he figured out how to get his
rifle there, and how to escape.

On March 31, a Sunday,

he asked Marina to come out
and take his photograph.

All in black,
pistol, rifle in his hand,

holding a few
radical newspapers,

and Marina writes on the
back, "Hunter of fascists"

and dates it April 6, 1963.

McMillan:
And then he went,

on the night of the
10th of April,

took up his place
and shot at General Walker.

He 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 said-- he told,

"I tried to
shot General Walker."

General, will you
describe for us

just what happened
last night?

Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker: Rifle
shot was fired into the house,

fired thorough
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'd missed

by less than an inch.

It shows his ability
to plan who his target was,

and that Oswald was
capable of violence.

I think that was
kind of the Rosetta Stone,

that if you understood
the Walker shooting,

you understood that Lee
was like a cocked rifle,

and he could
go off any time.

What set 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.

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 kill the President
of the United States.

But what
would 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.

There
are two groups of people.

There's one group

that will look at
an extraordinary coincidence

of cataclysmic circumstance
and say,

"Yes, that's the
way the world works."

There's another group
of people

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 an oncoming car?

Nobody believes
in that kind of possibility

for themselves,
but it happens.

Is life that fortuitous,
that uncertain?

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 there's a plan.

Mark Lane:
I think the five bullets

fired from at least
two different directions,

are the result of a conspiracy.

Kennedy's killing

touches off
a belief in the idea...

...you can't trust government.

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.

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 murder.

Can't get too much worse
than that.

The assassination changed
the trajectory of the '60s.

America was a
different place

on the day before
John F. Kennedy was killed.

So when you look at this,

America as a whole
in the 20th Century,

you look
at America in the '60s,

you really say, that day
was the dividing point.

I guess
in the average man's life

there are two or three
emotional experiences that he,

he doesn't forget because
they're burned into his,

his heart and his brain.

And no matter
what happens to me,

I'll remember November 22
as long as I live.

And it's impossible
for me now

to this day, and I'm sure

ten years from now
to drive to Dallas

without looking
at the 6th floor of the

School Book Depository
Building.

And it's impossible
for me to drive

by the
Texas Hotel every day

and not think
of that morning

when President
Kennedy spoke there.

It will always be with us.

Kennedy, alongside
of the other presidents,

Johnson, Nixon, Gerald Ford,

Jimmy Carter, Reagan,

the two Bushes,
even Bill Clinton,

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.

This is what people
wish for again,

in the government.

They want someone who inspires
them, who gives them hope,

for whom they have
a kind 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.