Kennedy's Last Days: The Assassination That Defined a Generation (24 page)

Kennedy pushes into the crowd in Fort Worth, Texas, November 22, 1963.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

The energy in the Fort Worth parking lot fuels the president, who delivers a powerful and impassioned speech. “We are going forward!” he exclaims in closing, reminding his audience that he is keeping the promises he made in his inaugural address less than three years earlier.

The earsplitting cries of approval from those thousands of hardened union men is all the proof John Kennedy needs that Texas really isn’t such a bad place after all.

The president rides a wave of adrenaline off the stage and back into the hotel. Campaigning revitalizes him, even in an early-morning Texas drizzle.

But as good as he feels, the president knows that the rest of Friday, November 22, is not going to be easy. From both a political and a personal standpoint, he must be at the top of his game if he is going to win over the hardened people of Dallas.

President Kennedy and Jackie leave their Fort Worth hotel on the way to the airport for the short flight to Dallas.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

NOVEMBER 22, 1963

Dallas, Texas 7:55
A.M.

O
SWALD AND
W
ESLEY
F
RAZIER ARE PULLING UP
for work at the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald, leaping out of the car as Frazier cuts the engine, grabs his brown package and races inside the building before Frazier can catch up and ask him why he’s in such a hurry.

9:45
A.M.

Crowds of eager Dallas residents stand on the curb in front of the Texas School Book Depository. The president won’t pass by for three hours, but they’ve come early to get a good spot. Best of all, it looks like the sun might come out. Maybe they’ll get a good glimpse of John F. Kennedy and Jackie after all.

Lee Harvey Oswald peers out a first-floor window of the depository building, assessing the president’s route by where the crowds stand. He can clearly see the corner of Elm and Houston, where John Kennedy’s limousine will make a slow left turn. This is important to Oswald. He’s selected a spot on the depository’s sixth floor as his sniper’s roost. Stacks of book boxes near the window overlooking Elm and Houston form a natural hiding place, allowing Oswald to poke his rifle outside and sight the motorcade as it makes that deliberate turn. The marksman in Lee Harvey Oswald knows that he’ll have time for two shots, maybe even three if he works quickly enough.

A modern photograph looking out the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. The tall building in the background is Reunion Tower.
[LOC, HS 503-3330]

But one should be all he needs.

11:35
A.M.

Colonel Jim Swindal eases
Air Force One
down onto the runway at Love Field. John Kennedy is optimistic. Peering out the windows of his airplane, he sees that the weather has turned sunny and warm and another large Texas crowd is waiting to greet him. “This trip is turning out to be terrific,” he happily confides to Kenny O’Donnell. “Here we are in Dallas, and it looks like everything in Texas will turn out to be fine for us!”

Kennedy shakes hands with Colonel Jim Swindal at his promotion in 1962. Swindal is the pilot of
Air Force One
.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

Police cars circle the field, and officers are stationed on rooftops. But these are the only ominous sights at the airport. The welcoming party of about 2,000 are overjoyed to see
Air Force One
touch down, marking the first time a president has visited Dallas since 1948. Texans Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Claudia, who is called Lady Bird, wait on the tarmac to greet the president. Jackie emerges from the rear door of the plane, radiant in her pink Chanel suit with the matching pillbox hat. Two steps behind comes John Kennedy.

“I can see his suntan all the way from here!” the local TV reporter gushes.

President Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy arrive in Dallas, Texas.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

The official plan is for JFK to head straight for his limousine to join the motorcade, but instead he breaks off and heads into the crowd. Not content with merely shaking a few hands, the president pushes deep into the throng, dragging Jackie along with him. The two of them remain surrounded by this wall of people for more than a full minute, much to the crowd’s delight. Then the president and first lady reemerge, only to wade deep into another section of crowd.

A large crowd was waiting at Love Field. The president once again spent time shaking hands and signing autographs.
[JFK Presidential Library and Museum]

“Boy, this is something,” says the local reporter. “This is a bonus for the people who have waited out here!”

The president and first lady shake hands for what seems like an eternity to their very nervous Secret Service detail. “Kennedy is showing he is not afraid,” Ronnie Dugger of the
Texas Observer
writes in his notebook.

Finally, John and Jackie Kennedy make their way to the presidential limousine. Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, are waiting for them in the car. There are three rows of seats in the vehicle. Up front is the driver, 54-year-old Bill Greer. To his right sits Roy Kellerman—like Greer, a longtime Secret Service agent. Special Agent Kellerman has served on the White House detail since the early days of World War II and has protected presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and now Kennedy.

JFK sits in the back seat. Jackie sits to his left. The first lady was handed a bouquet of red roses upon landing in Dallas, and these now rest on the seat between her and the president.

Governor Connally sits directly in front of the president, in the middle row, known as jump seats. Connally takes off his 10-gallon hat so that the crowds can see him. Nellie sits in front of Jackie and right behind the driver.

The president with Jackie seated behind Texas governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie.
[LOC, USZ62-134844]

11:55
A.M.

As the motorcade leaves Love Field, the presidential limousine—Secret Service code name SS-100-X—is the second car in line, flanked on either side by four motorcycle escorts. Up front is an advance car with local police and Secret Service, among them Dallas police chief Jesse Curry and Secret Service special agent Winston Lawson.

Behind John Kennedy’s vehicle is a follow-up convertible code-named Halfback. Dave Powers and Kenny O’Donnell sit here, surrounded by Secret Service agents heavily armed with handguns and automatic weapons. Clint Hill, head of the first lady’s Secret Service detail, stands on the left running board of Halfback. Special agents Bill McIntyre, John Ready, and Paul Landis also man the running boards.

Car four is a convertible limousine that has been rented locally for the vice president. Bringing up the rear is car five, code-named Varsity and occupied by a Texas state policeman and four Secret Service agents.

Way up at the front of the motorcade, driving several car lengths in front of SS-100-X, Dallas police chief Jesse Curry is committed to making the president’s visit as incident-free as possible. Curry has been involved in almost every aspect of the planning for John Kennedy’s visit and is dedicating 350 men—a full third of his force—to lining the motorcade route, handling security for the president’s airport arrival, and policing the crowd at the Trade Mart speech.

Curry has ordered his men to face toward the street, rather than toward the crowd, thinking it wouldn’t hurt for them to see the man they’re protecting as a reward for the long hours they will be on their feet. But this means that the policemen won’t be helping the Secret Service protect the president by scanning the city’s many windows for signs of a sniper’s rifle. And Curry has chosen not to position any men in the vicinity of Dealey Plaza, thinking that most of the crowds will gather before that spot.