Anambra State Government Reiterates Directive On Tenant Documentation Fees

 

November 22, 1963, remains unforgettable in the annals of history, particularly to the Americans. It was the day that John Fitzgerald Kennedy, President of the United States of America, was assassinated. Kennedy's death was the first high-profile assassination of a modern leader. Five decades after, Kennedy’s assassination still puzzles the world.

 The assassination sparked a wave of theories about the motives and perpetrators, while the life of John F. Kennedy and his untimely ending provided rich material for the cinema.

Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 pm local time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dili Square, Dallas, Texas. The exact circumstances of the murder, which is one of the most talked about in the 20th century, remain largely unknown even today. There is only one credible witness to this fact: a 15-second amateur film by 58-year-old businessman Abraham Zapruder.

Earlier scheduled visit

President Kennedy's visit to the state of Texas was scheduled a year earlier, so that his public appearances there would bring some revenue to the Democratic Party, on the one hand, and more votes in the upcoming elections next year. It is noted that during the 1960 election, the state of Texas was one of the few in the United States where the Democrats (Kennedy) were defeated.

 Another important reason was to put an end to the rivalry between the democratic factions there, which threatened to split the local party organization. Thus, the official presidential visit to Texas was scheduled for November 21 and 22, 1963. The visit had no premonition of an engagement that would terminate the American president’s life. Kennedy’s assassination still puzzles with growing questions than answers. 

The night before

According to the schedule, the first day of the President's visit began on Thursday (November 21, 1963), accompanied by his wife Jackie and US Vice President Lydon Johnson, with San Antonio as the first stop, and followed by Houston and Fort Worth, where he spent the night. The next morning. After a public breakfast attended by many people, the second day of the visit started with a trip to Dallas, the capital of the State, and from there to Austin, where he would spend the night as a guest on the Vice President's farm, along the banks of the Penternal River.

 According to the programme, the president’s entourage would pass through the city in a motorcade to the mall, where a presidential speech and lunch would follow. The route (from airport to lunch point) had been determined by the secret services since November 8, when the convoy would cover a total distance of sixteen kilometres in 45 minutes at an average speed of 20 km per hour.

It is noted that three days before, on November 19, two local newspapers had published the route with detailed maps. The detail perhaps gave the assassin the space to snuff life out the President. Kennedy’s assassination still puzzles Americans who had hoped the culprit (culprits) languishing in jail or face death row.

 In fact, on the morning of his arrival, the Morning News (affiliated with the right-wing party) published an article with a mournful frame entitled "Welcome to Dallas, Mr. Kennedy", which was later revealed to have been paid for by a person from Bernard Weissman.

Death lurked around

Shortly after noon, in front of the police recruiting centre in Dallas, the killer struck. President Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, arrived in Dallas at 11:30 am as part of a Texas tour. They were welcomed by Texas Governor John Connolly and his wife. The procession was to cross almost the entire city to reach the exhibition centre, where the president would speak. Along the boulevards, more than 150,000 people had gathered to see and applaud the president.

 After passing through the city centre and the skyscrapers that the people were so afraid of, the procession entered the considered safe area of the level crossing at Elm Street. at 12:28 when the cars passed in front of the building of the State School Book Store. A minute later, Zapruder's film begins.

 The presidential car was moving slowly. It was later said that the president had asked for it, encouraged by the enthusiastic welcome of the people to a politically critical and traditionally hostile state to Democrats.

At 12:30, Kennedy, who was greeting the crowd, suddenly put his hands around his neck and began to bend over to the side of his wife, who was looking at him in awe. One attendee abruptly turned his head towards Dili Square, away from the Repository. A shot was heard, but few noticed it. A second later, Connal, who was sitting directly in front of Kennedy, fell abruptly forward, hit by the second bullet.

Four seconds later, a third bullet hit the president in the head, which was literally crushed. Jackie got up from the seat to help undercover agent Clinton Hill, who climbed into the limousine from behind and pushed the first lady back into the seat. Nobody can tell you the exact number of shots fired at Dealey Plaza. Shortly afterward, the car was lost under an uneven passage speeding to Parkland Memorial Hospital. An hour later, despite the efforts of doctors, it was officially announced that President Kennedy was dead.

Death on arrival

According to later and unofficial reports by Dr. Tom Sears, chief surgeon at the hospital and professor of surgery at the University of Texas, Kennedy's death was instantaneous: "Medically, it was clear that the president was not alive when he was brought in." There was no automatic breathing.

The pupils of his eyes were dilated and motionless. "It was obvious that the head injury he had received was fatal," said Dr. Sears. The death of President Kennedy was shocking and reverberated across the globe. Kennedy’s assassination still puzzles and remains a classic of how high-tech intelligence could disappoint sometimes.

Minutes after the murder, Dallas police cordoned off the Repository building and began searching it, ignoring a young black-clad clerk on the ground floor of the building. On the 6th floor, police discovered an obsolete Italian Mauser-Carcano rifle and a Japanese sniper rifle. At the other end of the floor, next to an open window overlooking Elm Street, they discovered three cups.

Minutes later, the manhunt began for Lee Harvey Oswald, the young man who had been downstairs a little earlier and who had been arrested after an adventurous chase inside a movie theatre. "That was it." Those were his words as soon as he was arrested, but he immediately asked a question: "Why are you handcuffing me?" All I did was bring a pistol to the cinema. However, for the police, who also charged him with the murder of one of their men a few minutes before his arrest, Lee Harvey Oswald was the "suspect no. 1."

Oswald, and conspiracy theories

After two days of gruelling inquiries, the outcome of which was never revealed, it was decided that Oswald, chairman of a Cuban support committee who had immigrated to the USSR in 1959 but returned to the United States in 1962, was generally considered a Marxist. Far-right former Marine to be arrested at Dallas Police Headquarters.

In the basement of the building, amidst a crowd of police, journalists, photographers, and television crews broadcasting Oswald's transfer live, two policemen were escorting Oswald when suddenly a man emerged from the crowd and shot Oswald with a.38 revolver.

Oswald was taken to Parkland Hospital where he died, a few steps from the ward where Kennedy was pronounced dead. The killer, Jack Ruby, a far-right man, owner of a notorious night club and a well-known police collaborator and informant, had already been arrested inside the building, so much so that he was allowed to move freely at any time in any area of the police building.

Ruby claimed that rage at Kennedy’s murder was his motive. But many people saw his action as a grand plan to conceal a larger conspiracy. Kennedy’s assassination still puzzles with conspiracy theories confusing the more. To date, nobody knew why President Kennedy was killed nor do the people involve in his assassination, which has generated conspiracy theories more than any high-profile killings.