End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

411 Pages·2013·5.69 MB·English

by  James L. Swanson

DEDICATION
For my wife, Andrea.
And for my father, Lennart.
EPIGRAPH
I have a rendezvous with Death . . . And to my pledged word am true, I shall not
fail that rendezvous.
—ALAN SEEGER, HARVARD GRADUATE, AMERICAN WORLD WAR I POET KILLED AT THE
BATTLE OF THE SOMME ON JULY 4, 1916, AND AUTHOR OF ONE OF JOHN F. KENNEDY’S
FAVORITE POEMS.
We are all mortal.
—JOHN F. KENNEDY, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, JUNE 10, 1963.
If somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it,
so why worry about it?
—JOHN F. KENNEDY, FORT WORTH, TEXAS, ON THE MORNING OF NOVEMBER 22, 1963.
I should have known that he was magic all along. I did know—but I should have
guessed that it would be too much to ask to grow old with [him] and see our
children grow up together. So now, he is a legend when he would have preferred
to be a man.
—JACQUELINE KENNEDY, NOVEMBER 17, 1964.
CONTENTS
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A NOTE TO THE READER
Prologue
1. “Such Dangerous Toys”
2. “The Glow from That Fire”
3. “Show These Texans What Good Taste Really Is”
4. “A Bright Pink Suit”
5. “Someone Is Shooting at the President”
6. “They’ve Shot His Head Off”
7. “I Haven’t Shot Anybody”
8. “We Had a Hero for a Friend”
9. “Lee Oswald Has Been Shot!”
10. “One Brief Shining Moment”
Epilogue: “All His Bright Light Gone from the World”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SOURCE NOTES
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY JAMES L. SWANSON
CREDITS
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Lee Harvey Oswald, posing with his rifle
2. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Martin Luther King Jr.
3. President Kennedy in Berlin
4. Oswald as a high school student
5. President Kennedy, Caroline, and John Jr. in the Oval Office
6. Oswald’s rifle
7. Kennedy with Johnson and Governor Connally
8. Kennedy outside of the Hotel Texas
9. Kennedy speaking in front of the Hotel Texas
10. Jackie and JFK disembark Air Force One
11. Jackie with roses at Love Field
12. The Kennedys and Connally in the Dallas motorcade
13. The presidential motorcade proceeds through Dallas
14. Map of Dealey Plaza
15. Oswald’s view of the limousine
16. Zapruder’s camera
17. Side and rear view of bullet
18. Kennedy’s second wound
19. The sixth-floor Texas Book Depository window
20. The presidential limousine at Parkland Hospital
21. Carrying the casket aboard Air Force One
22. Lyndon Johnson being sworn in
23. The president’s casket at the U.S. Capitol
24. The funeral procession at the United States Capitol
25. Jacqueline Kennedy and children at the Capitol
26. The procession to St. Matthew’s Cathedral
27. The caisson leaves for St. Matthew’s
28. Carrying the casket to the grave site
29. Panoramic view of the funeral at Arlington
30. Folding the national colors
31. The Lee mansion at Arlington Cemetery
32. Mourning buttons
33. Memorial banner
34. Memorial banner
35. Dealey Plaza desk set
36. The electric Eternal Flame night-light
37. Jackie tribute magazine
38. Oswald magazine
39. The Warren Commission presents its Report to President Johnson
A NOTE TO THE READER
I
t is hard to believe it happened fifty years ago. Even in the current generation,
it remains a great dividing line in American history. It was the greatest national
trauma since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at the end of the Civil War in
April 1865.
Those who were alive in the fall of 1963 and were old enough then to
remember it today shudder at the mere mention of the date. Find anyone you
know over the age of sixty—a parent, grandparent, or friend—and speak one
phrase: “November 22, 1963.” At once they will tell you where they were and
what they were doing when they heard the news. “I remember,” they will say
and then tell you their story. Many still shed tears for him.
The drama could have been scripted by Shakespeare: The elevation of a
young hero scarred by war and haunted by death. This charismatic leader of his
people—beside his beautiful wife, whose natural poise captured the nation—is
struck down at the height of his power and fame, leaving behind a young widow
to conjure his legend. It is a tale filled with irony and foreshadowing, with
heroes and monsters.
This book attempts to re-create a moment when time stopped. It seeks to
recapture how Americans lived through this tragedy and to resurrect the mood
and emotions of those unforgettable days between President John F. Kennedy’s
murder and his funeral. To those of you who remember, I hope this book does
justice to your memories. To those who do not and who know—or think they
know—the story only through retellings in books or films, I hope this book
evokes the mood, the loss, and the emotional and historical truth of the fall of
1963.
Our misguided modern-day obsession with exotic, multiple, and
contradictory conspiracy theories involving tales of grassy knolls, umbrella men,