It happened in a flash. One second, the sun was hitting the chrome of the 1961 Lincoln Continental, and the next, the world felt like it was breaking apart. Most people think they know the story of how john f kennedy killed the optimism of the early sixties, but when you really look at the mechanics of that day in Dallas, it’s messier than the history books usually let on.
Dealey Plaza wasn't just a crime scene. It was a chaotic theater.
The motorcade was running about five minutes late. It was a gorgeous Friday. People were leaning out of office windows. Then, at 12:30 p.m., the first shot rang out. Most witnesses actually thought it was a firecracker or a backfire from one of the police motorcycles. It wasn’t.
The Mechanics of November 22
You've probably heard about the "Sniper’s Nest." It was perched on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old former Marine who had once defected to the Soviet Union, was there. He had a 6.5mm Carcano rifle. Honestly, it wasn't even a top-tier weapon for the job—it was a cheap, bolt-action Italian surplus rifle he’d bought through a mail-order ad for about $19.95.
Three shots.
The first one missed. Recent forensic reconstructions, like the ones published in the AFTE Journal, suggest it likely hit the pavement or a traffic light arm, sending a fragment of lead to scar the cheek of a bystander named James Tague.
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The second shot is the one people argue about at bars. The "Single Bullet Theory." This round entered Kennedy's upper back, exited his throat, and somehow managed to hit Governor John Connally, who was sitting in the jump seat in front of the President. It broke Connally’s rib and shattered his wrist before lodging in his thigh.
It sounds impossible. It looks weird on camera. But ballistics experts and modern computer simulations, including a 2022 study in Forensic Science International, have shown that the alignment of the seats actually makes this "magic" bullet quite a straight shot.
Then came the third shot. The fatal one.
Why We Still Argue Over the Evidence
The Warren Commission, headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, spent ten months digging through the wreckage. Their conclusion was simple: Oswald did it. Alone. No help.
But then the 1970s happened.
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In 1976, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) took another look. They used "acoustical evidence"—a recording from a stuck police motorcycle microphone—and concluded there was a "high probability" of a second gunman on the Grassy Knoll. This changed everything. Suddenly, the official government stance was that john f kennedy killed in a conspiracy.
Later, the National Academy of Sciences debunked that audio. They found the "shots" on the tape happened a full minute after the actual assassination.
It’s this back-and-forth that keeps the fire alive. You have the physical evidence—the rifle, the fingerprints, the ballistics—pointing squarely at Oswald. Then you have the weirdness: Oswald being murdered by Jack Ruby in a police basement two days later. Ruby was a nightclub owner with mob ties. Why did he do it? He claimed he wanted to spare Jackie Kennedy the pain of a trial.
Nobody really bought that.
The Real Legacy of Dealey Plaza
The fallout wasn't just political; it was structural. Before 1963, the Secret Service was sort of a "gentleman’s guard." They didn't even check the buildings along the parade routes. That changed overnight.
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- The 25th Amendment was fast-tracked because the line of succession was a mess.
- Television became the primary source of news for Americans.
- The "Deep State" skepticism we see today basically started in the shadows of the Warren Report.
If you want to understand the modern American psyche, you have to look at that 8.8-second clip of 8mm film shot by Abraham Zapruder. It’s the moment the country lost its "can-do" spirit and replaced it with a permanent "wait, what really happened?"
Where to Look for the Truth
If you’re tired of the YouTube rabbit holes and want the actual data, you have to go to the National Archives. Since the 1992 JFK Records Collection Act, over 99% of the documents have been released.
- Read the Ballistics Reports: Specifically the 1970s HSCA forensic pathology findings. They are gruesome but clarify the entry and exit wounds.
- Study the Zapruder Film Frame by Frame: Look at frame 313. It’s the most famous frame in history for a reason.
- Examine Oswald’s Background: He wasn't a mastermind. He was a guy who couldn't keep a job, was failing at his marriage, and seemed desperate to be "someone" in the eyes of history.
The tragedy of john f kennedy killed isn't just that a man died. It's that the truth got buried under layers of classified folders and decades of pop-culture mythology. To get the real story, you have to look past the Oliver Stone movies and back at the cold, hard physics of Dealey Plaza.
Check out the digital collections at the JFK Library in Boston. They have scanned thousands of original documents from the investigation that let you see the raw evidence without the filter of a narrator. The answer isn't in a secret file; it's usually right there in the transcripts if you're willing to read the boring parts.