Nov. 23, 1964 - President and Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy described the numbing plunge from high spirits to the depths of realization that President Kennedy was dead in Warren Commission testimony made public today.
The 26 volumes of testimony and exhibits detailed the commission’s finding that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated the late President in Dallas a year ago yesterday.
The commission, headed by the Chief Justice of the United States, released a report of its conclusions in the 10-month investigation on September 28. The many thousands of words released today filled in details of the slaying and the reactions of shocked individuals around Kennedy.
Scheduled for publication next Monday, the testimony was prematurely published by one agency. The White House then cleared it for immediate publication by all media today.
Besides Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Kennedy, they included the testimony of Gov. John Connally of Texas, who was also wounded; Mrs. Connally; Kenneth O’Donnell and Lawrence O’Brien, Presidential assistants; the Secret Service agents involved, and hundreds of other witnesses.
President Johnson told the commission that he heard the shots that struck his predecessor in the limousine two cars ahead of him in the motorcade, but that Rufus Youngblood, a Secret Service agent, pushed him to the floor and shielded him before he could even guess what the firing meant.
Later, when he was told that Kennedy had died, “I found it hard to believe that this had happened. The whole thing seemed unreal — unbelievable. A few hours earlier, I had breakfast with John Kennedy. He was alive, strong, vigorous. I could not believe now that he was dead. I was shocked and sickened,” Johnson said.
Mrs. Johnson remembered: “At the hospital, suddenly I found myself face to face with Jackie in a small hall. I think it was right outside the operating room.
“You always think of her — or someone like her — as being insulated, protected. She was quite alone. I don’t think I ever saw anyone so much alone in my life.
“I went up to her, put my arms around her, and said something to her. I’m sure it was something like, ‘God, help us all,’ because my feelings for her were too tumultuous to put into words.”
Mrs. Johnson told of the flight back to Washington:
“I looked at her. Mrs. Kennedy’s dress was stained with blood. Her right glove was caked — that immaculate woman — it was caked with blood, her husband’s blood. She always wore gloves like she was used to them. I never could. Somehow that was one of the most poignant sights — exquisitely dressed and caked in blood.”
Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s
Comments