The House of Kennedy(101)



18 Oswald takes off his wedding ring: Robert Wilonsky, “Jack Ruby’s Handwritten Version of What Happened on November 22, 1963, Goes to Auction,” Dallas News, November 2017.

19 “surprised to see”: Michael S. Rosenwald, “Oswald’s Chilling Final Hours Before Killing Kennedy: Speaking Russian, Playing with His Daughter, Sleeping In,” Washington Post, October 26, 2017.

20 “My, he’s in a mean mood”: Rosenwald, “Oswald’s Chilling Final Hours.”

21 “Curtain rods”: “The Assassin,” chapter 4 of the JFK Assassination Records, Warren Commission Report, National Archives.





Chapter 19




1 “began so beautifully”: Lady Bird Johnson, transcript of audio diary, National Archives, November 22, 1963, p. 1.

2 “everything in Texas”: “Howdy, Mr. President!”: A Fort Worth Perspective of JFK, University of Texas Arlington Libraries, Special Collections.

3 “American Fact-Finding Committee”: Dan Evon, “Did John F. Kennedy Predict His Own Assassination?” Snopes.com, November 25, 2016.

4 “profound perhaps disturbing”: Donald Spoto, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 75.

5 “nut country”: Edward Klein, The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America’s First Family for 150 Years (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003), 175.

6 Maps and routes: “The Assassin,” chapter 4 of the JFK Assassination Records, Warren Commission Report, National Archives.

7 “close the elevator”: “The Assassin.”

8 “happy foursome”: Mimi Swartz, “The Witness,” Texas Monthly, November 2003.

9 “so perfect”: Swartz, “The Witness.”

10 “can’t say Dallas”: James Wolcott, “Well, Mr. President, You Can’t Say Dallas Doesn’t Love You!” Vanity Fair, March 11, 2011.

11 “hot, wild”: Thomas Maier, The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings. (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 452.

12 “sharp loud report”: Johnson, transcript of audio diary, p. 1.

13 “the last faces”: Mary E. Woodward, “Witness from the News Describes Assassination,” Dallas Morning News, November 23, 1963.

14 “every conspiracy theorist”: Joe Simnacher, “Mary Pillsworth, ex-DMN Editor Who Witnessed Kennedy Assassination, Dies at 77,” Dallas News, April 17, 2017.

15 “What are they doing to you?”: John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection, Key Persons Files, Statements of Agents and Law Enforcement Officers in Presidential Motorcade on November 22, 1963, in Dallas: Roy H. Kellerman, National Archives.

16 “color movies”: Michael E. Ruane, “As He Filmed, Abraham Zapruder Knew Instantly That President Kennedy Was Dead,” Washington Post, November 21, 2013.

17 “killed him!”: Ruane, “As He Filmed.”

18 “nothing but heartbreak”: Steve Hendricks, “Zapruder Captured JFK’s Assassination in Riveting Detail, Fueling Decades of Conspiracy Theories,” Washington Post, October 26, 2017.

19 “Step on it!”: John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection, Key Persons Files, Statements of Agents and Law Enforcement Officers in Presidential Motorcade on November 22, 1963, in Dallas: Roy H. Kellerman, National Archives.

20 “yellow roses”: “Nellie Connally Dies; Rode with JFK on Fateful Day,” National Public Radio, September 2, 2006.

21 “drift of blossoms”: Johnson, transcript of audio diary, page 1.





Chapter 20




1 “My reporter instinct kicked in”: Hugh Aynesworth, “The Assassination of JFK: An Eyewitness Account,” BBC History Extra, HistoryExtra.com.

2 “sitting up there”: Howard Leslie Brennan, Records of the John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection: Key Persons Files, National Archives.

3 “saw this man”: Brennan, Records of the John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection.

4 “THREE SHOTS FIRED”: Bill Sanderson, “Merriman Smith’s Account of JFK’s Assassination,” Pulitzer Prizes Archives, Pulitzer.org.

5 “a babble of anxious, tense voices”: Merriman Smith, “Merriman Smith’s Account of JFK’s Assassination,” November 23, 1963, United Press International Archives.

6 “killed my husband”: Monica Hesse, “Four Shattering Days,” Washington Post, November 13, 2015.

7 “she had been cradling”: Beverly DeVoy, “Dallas Doctor Recalls Day He Tried to Save Dying JFK,” Deseret News, October 28, 1993.

8 “90 to 95 percent certain”: George Lardner Jr., “Archive Photos Not of JFK’s Brain, Concludes Aide to Review Board,” Washington Post, November 10, 1998.

9 “stolen the locker”: Gary Busio, “RFK May Have Swiped JFK’s Missing Brain,” New York Post, October 20, 2013.

10 “He was dying”: DeVoy, “Dallas Doctor Recalls.”

11 “fifteen feet away”: Aynesworth, “The Assassination of JFK.”

12 “all over now”: Associated Press, “Officer Who Arrested Oswald Dies at 76,” NBC News, January 27, 2005.

13 “made a fist”: Associated Press, “Officer Who Arrested.”

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