Steven Otfinoski - Tragedy in Dallas: The Story of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy

On Thursday, November 21, 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, said good-bye to their two children and left Washington, D.C. The Kennedys were flying to San Antonio at the start of a three-day tour through Texas. Before leaving, the president promised his son, John (known to the public as John John), that he would be back to celebrate Johns third birthday on Monday.

The Texas trip was an important one for Kennedy. He hoped to improve relationships between conservative and liberal Democrats in the state while gaining support for the upcoming 1964 election. Kennedy planned to run for a second term, and Texas held a large number of electoral votes he needed to win. Even though his vice president, Lyndon Johnson, was from Texas, there were strong anti-Kennedy feelings in the state, especially in the conservative city of Dallas. Kennedy hoped that he and Jackie could charm Texans on this trip and win some of them over.

Air Force One landed in San Antonio at 1:30 p.m. Vice President Johnson had also just arrived, but he waited with Texas Governor John Connally to greet the president. Afterward the Kennedys attended the dedication of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base. Then they flew to Houston and the president spoke to the League of United Latin American Citizens at the Rice Hotel. Next the presidential party attended a dinner at the Sam Houston Coliseum. That night the Kennedys flew to Fort Worth, where a third motorcade took them to the Texas Hotel for a well-earned nights rest. The first day of the Texas tour had gone extremely well. So far the crowds had been enthusiastic and there was every reason to hope that people in Dallas would be just as friendly and welcoming when they met them the next day.

Marina and Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald dressed quietly, preparing for the day. Turning around, he saw that his wife, Marina, was awake and looking at him. He continued dressing in silence, knowing they had little to say to one another. Although he still spent time in Marinas home, their marriage, for all practical purposes, was over.

The house belonged to Ruth Paine, a good friend of Marinas. Oswald stayed at the house some nights to visit with his two daughters, but yesterday he had found himself an unwelcome guest. He usually came on a Friday night, but this time showed up on a Thursday instead. Marina was not pleased, and all his pleading with her to get back together only seemed to harden her resolve to keep him away.

At 24 years of age, Oswald had felt like a misfit for as long as he could remember. Now he seemed to be facing nothing but dead ends in his life. A former Marine, he to the Soviet Union in 1959, hoping to find a better life there under Communism. But the government gave him a boring factory job in Minsk, and he quickly became disillusioned with the Communist system.

When Oswald met Marina at a dance in 1961, it seemed like the best thing to happen to him during his time in Russia. They were married six weeks later. He returned to the United States with Marina in 1962. By then they had a daughter, June, but their marriage was falling apart. Oswald was disappointed by how quickly Marina fell in love with America and its materialism. He knew that she could not forgive his inability to support her and June financially. Marina soon began living with Paine, a Quaker who wanted Marina to teach her Russian.

Oswald had reached a crossroads in his life. He was stuck in a poor-paying job packing textbooks at the Texas School Book Depositorya job Paine helped him get. He had little hope of earning enough money to support his family, which now included a second daughter, one-month-old Audrey. He was reaching the end of his rope.

Oswald finished dressing as Marina fed the baby. He went out into the garage to retrieve the rifle he had left there, wrapped in a blanket. He put the weapon into a long, brown paper package he had fashioned at work. Then, stepping back into the house, he removed his wedding ring, placed it in a china cup, and left $187 on the bureau. With the package under his arm, Oswald left the house and walked the half block to the home of his coworker, Buell Frazier.

As they climbed into Fraziers beat-up Chevy, Frazier glanced over his shoulder. Whats in the package, Lee? he asked.

Curtain rods, replied Oswald, hoping the rifles disguise would fool Frazier.

Frazier nodded. How come you arent bringing a lunch to work? he asked.

Im going to buy it, Oswald said.

His real plan for the lunch hour did not involve eating, but that was no one elses business. As the two men headed for downtown Dallas, the mornings light rain began to fall more steadily from the cold, gray sky.

Twenty-six-year-old Bob Schieffer pulled his two-seat Triumph sports car into his mothers driveway and wearily went inside the house. He was used to keeping late hours as the night police reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but this had been an especially long night. He had left the office in the early morning and arrived at the Press Club around 2:00 a.m. The club was open to accommodate the White House press corps. They were part of the presidential that had just come to town. Kennedys visit to Fort Worth was a big story, but Schieffer was just a police reporter and wouldnt be assigned to the presidential beat. If he couldnt cover the president, he decided, at least he could mix with the big-name reporters who were on the story.

Bob Schieffer

Sometime in the wee hours, the reporters decided to leave the Press Club for an after-hours club called the Cellar. Schieffer and one of his editors became their guides. They were soon joined at the Cellar by several off-duty Secret Service agents looking for some relaxation.

By the time the group left the club, the sun was coming up. Schieffers mother and younger brother, Tom, were planning to go to the Texas Hotel that morning to catch a glimpse of Kennedy as he left for the airport and his flight to Dallas. But Schieffer had no intention of joining them. Hed enjoy a good sleep, and by the time he awoke the president would be long gone.

The day was not getting off to a good start for the vice president. Yesterday he had been publicly humiliated by a fellow Texan, liberal Senator Ralph Yarborough. On two separate occasions Johnson had invited the senator to ride with him in his car in the motorcade, and twice Yarborough had ignored the invitation and ridden with someone else. He was no friend of the conservative Johnson. Now Johnson sat staring at the front page of the