¨ J.F.K’s assassination n6u22ux
On November 22, 1963, President and Mrs. Kennedy were in Dallas, Texas, trying
to win support in a state that Kennedy had barely carried in 1960. On his way
to a luncheon in downtown Dallas, Kennedy and his wife sat in an open convertible
at the head of a motorcade. Lyndon Johnson was two cars behind the president,
and Texas Governor John B. Connally and his wife were sitting with the Kennedys.
The large crowds were enthusiastic.
As the motorcade approached an underpass, three shots were fired in rapid succession.
One bullet passed through the president’s neck and struck Governor Connally
in the back. A second bullet struck the president in the head; a third one missed
the motorcade. Kennedy fell forward, and his car sped to Parkland Hospital.
At 1:00 pm, he was pronounced dead. He had never regained consciousness.
Assassination of President John F. Kennedy On November 22, 1963, President and
Mrs. John F. Kennedy made a campaign visit to Dallas, Texas. Enthusiastic crowds
greeted them as their motorcade made its way toward downtown Dallas. Near the
Texas School Book Depository three shots were fired, mortally injuring the president.
Later that day Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president. A
state funeral for President Kennedy was held on November 25, 1963. President
Kennedy’s young son, John F. Kennedy, Jr., saluted the carriage containing
his father’s casket as the funeral procession passed by.
The Assassin
The bullets that killed Kennedy were fired from a sixth-story window of a nearby
warehouse. That afternoon, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was employed in the warehouse,
was arrested in a Dallas movie theater and charged with the murder. Two days
later, as the suspect was being transferred from one jail to another, Dallas
nightclub owner Jack Ruby sprang out from a group of reporters and, as millions
watched on television, fired a revolver into Oswald’s left side. Oswald
died in the same hospital to which the President had been taken.
The Warren Commission
Five days after the funeral, President Johnson appointed Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court Earl Warren chairman of a committee to investigate Kennedy’s
death. The findings of the commission were announced on September 27, 1964.
The investigators had found no evidence of conspiracy in the assassination.
Their report concluded that “the shots which killed President Kennedy
and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.”
¨ Lady D’s death
Concluding a two-year investigation, two French judges ruled on September 3,
1999, that the August 1997 deaths of Diana, princess of Wales, and her companion,
Emad Mohamed al-Fayed, were caused solely by an intoxicated driver. The 32-page
ruling cleared nine photographers and a press motorcyclist of charges that they
provoked the accident in Paris, France, by chasing the couple in their chauffeur-driven
limousine.
The accident occurred in the early morning hours of August 31 after Diana and
al-Fayed, known as Dodi, left the Ritz Hotel. The limousine, traveling at high
speed, crashed into a concrete pillar in a tunnel near the Seine River. Diana,
al-Fayed, and Henri Paul, the vehicle's driver, were killed in the crash; a
bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, survived with severe injuries. The photographers
and press motorcyclist, who acknowledged following the couple through the streets
of Paris prior to the accident, were charged with manslaughter and failing to
come to the aid of the accident victims.
The judges blamed the accident on Paul, who had taken antidepressant medication
and was legally intoxicated. “The driver was in a state of drunkenness
and under the influence of medicines incompatible with alcohol, a state which
prevented him from keeping control of his vehicle while he was driving at high
speed on a difficult section of road,” the judges wrote.
The judges found no evidence that the photographers caused the accident or failed
to assist the victims at the accident scene. However, they criticized the conduct
of several photographers who snapped pictures of the wrecked vehicle and its
occupants before emergency personnel arrived. Although this behavior raised
moral and ethical concerns, the judges noted, it was “not a breach of
penal law.” The ruling affirmed the findings of a police investigation
that a mysterious white automobile, which apparently grazed the limousine immediately
prior to the accident and was never found, was traveling in the same direction
as the limousine and was not responsible for the accident.