FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
CBS, Cronkite reads some news just handed to him. ‘From Dallas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at one o’clock Central Standard Time — some 38 minutes ago.’
1.50pm
Johnny Brewer is on the stage of the Texas Theater pointing out to four policemen the man he’d seen at his store. They leave the stage, pretending to be interested in two men across the aisle from oswald. officer nick McDonald suddenly turns and orders oswald to get to his feet, who replies: ‘well, it’s all over now!’
oswald lifts his hands in surrender but then punches McDonald between the eyes and pulls out his gun. McDonald grabs it and other cops join in the struggle.
They manage to handcuff oswald who shouts: ‘ Don’t hit me any more! I am not resisting arrest! I know my rights, I want a lawyer!’ As the assassin is led outside to a police car an old woman swats him with her umbrella.
2.14pm
There’S no space on Air Force one for the President’s casket, so four seats and a partition have been removed.
At the foot of the aircraft’s steps, Jackie Kennedy watches the Secret Service agents struggle to get the heavy casket inside. It won’t fit through the rear door, so they break off its handles.
news of the assassination has spread around the globe. Speaking on the BBC, Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-home says President Kennedy died ‘when he bore on his shoulders all the cares and hopes of the world’.
In the Soviet Union, radio and television programmes have been interrupted and solemn organ music is being played.
2.38pm
TWENTY-SIX people are squeezed in the small stateroom of Air Force one, where Lyndon B. Johnson is about to be sworn in as the 36th president of the United States by his old friend Judge Sarah T. hughes, who’s just been driven at high speed to the aircraft.
Johnson’s aides think he looks a different man — taller and more statesmanlike. Jackie joins them, her husband’s blood is still on her pink suit. Johnson takes her by the hand and guides her to stand next to him.
Photographer Cecil Stoughton arranges the rest of the witnesses for a historic photograph. The ceremony lasts just half a minute, then the new president yells: ‘now, let’s get airborne!’
2.47pm
POLICE officers are searching ruth Paine’s house, where Marina
oswald and her children are lodging. A policeman asks Marina if her husband owns a rifle.
She admits he does and leads the police to the garage where the oswalds store their belongings. She points to the blanket on the floor where he hides the gun.
A policeman picks up the blanket but there’s nothing in it. Marina gasps.
4.45pm
In The white house, Maud Shaw, the english nanny who looks after the Kennedys’ children, sixyearold Caroline and two-yearold John Jr, is speaking on the phone to Janet Auchincloss, Jackie’s mother, who says: ‘we feel you should be the one to break the news to the children, at least to Caroline.’
Maud replies: ‘ oh no, please don’t ask me to do that.’ Janet says: ‘ Please, Miss Shaw, it’s for the best. They trust you. It has to be you.’ Maud says that she will tell Caroline when she puts her to bed that night.
5.10pm
AIR Force one has landed at Andrews Air Force Base on the outskirts of washington. TV cameras are broadcasting live pictures of a chaotic scene.
A bright yellow truck, with a moveable platform designed to load meals onto military planes, is at the rear door of the 707.
The casket is being loaded on to it with difficulty by the Secret Service men, as the platform is two feet below the plane’s rear door. Jackie and JFK’s brother robert jump down onto it. The platform drops jerkily towards the ground and the official military casket team run towards it but are pushed away by Secret Service men and Kennedy aides who want to be the ones to carry the casket to the waiting ambulance.
The floodlights illuminating Air Force one and the crescent moon hanging in the dark sky make the scene look even more dramatic.
6pm
IN NEW YORK, department stores turn off the lights in their Christmas window displays. The illuminated advertisements in Times Square have been turned off and the cinemas and theatres are all closed. Broadway is dark.
one production due to open in four days, called The Plot To Assassinate The Chase Manhattan Bank will change its name to The Plot Against the Chase Manhattan Bank.
6.30pm
ABOUT 20 people are in the morgue of Bethesda naval hospital in washington as the autopsy of President Kennedy begins. The body is wrapped in sheets and the head is heavily bound with bloody bandages and gauze.
The hands are clenched in fists, the eyes and mouth open. In the Dallas Police Department, Lee harvey oswald is charged with the murder of officer Tippit.
7.50pm
A LINE-UP is about to take place in the basement of the police department. Construction worker howard Brennan, who had a good view of the gunman in the depository, is convinced that the assassination is part of a plot and that if he’s the only witness, he and his family are in great danger.
when oswald walks into the room Brennan recognises him but says to a Secret Service agent that although he looks most like the man he saw, he can’t make a positive identification.
Brennan, feeling guilty, reassures himself that oswald will be convicted for the murder of officer Tippit, so his evidence won’t matter. As oswald is led through a crowd of reporters, he yells: ‘They’re taking me in because of the fact I visited the Soviet Union. I’m just a patsy!’
10.15pm
DALLAS nightclub owner Jack ruby shut his two clubs this afternoon out of respect for the President. he’s now driving around Dallas to see whether his competitors have done the same.
ruby has been crying most of the afternoon over the loss of a man he thinks was the greatest that ever lived. In his pocket is a Colt pistol. Lee harvey oswald will never stand trial.
Two days later, as he is transferred to jail, ruby shoots and kills the President’s assassin.