The Crime Book

319

Classic footage from the Zapruder

home movie of the killing, shows

Jackie Kennedy, in pink, tending to her

mortally wounded husband in the back

of the presidential limousine.

minutes after the roll call,

investigators discovered three

empty cartridge cases near the

southeast window on the sixth

floor. At 1:22pm, Carl Day noticed

a Mannlicher-Carcano bolt-action

rifle hidden among some boxes.

In the meantime, at 1:15pm,

Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit

was shot dead on East 10th Street

in the Oak Cliff neighbourhood.

Witnesses observed the gunman

fleeing the crime scene and

ducking into the Texas Theater

without stopping to buy a ticket.

Acting on a tip, police entered

the theatre, where they found a

man who fitted the suspect’s

description sitting in one of the

back rows. When Officer McDonald

drew near, the suspect leapt up and

struck him, then attempted to draw

a pistol. He was unsuccessful:

Officer Bentley grappled him from

behind and the police officers

managed to restrain and handcuff

the suspect. The contents of his

wallet identified him as Lee Harvey

Oswald – the employee who had

been conspicuously absent from

the Schoolbook Depository a

little earlier that day.

Fatal ambush

Oswald was immediately arrested

and formally charged at 7:10pm

for the murder of Officer Tippit.

By 1am the following day, he was

also charged with killing President

John F. Kennedy. On the morning

of 24 November, Oswald was

ambushed in the underground

parking lot of the Dallas Police

Department headquarters, as he

was being transferred to the ❯❯

See also: Daniel M’Naghten 204–05 ■ The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln 306–09 ■ The Assassination of Rasputin

312–15 ■ The Abduction of Aldo Moro 322–23

ASSASSINATIONS AND POLITICAL PLOTS

They’ve killed Jack!

They’ve killed my

husband!

Jackie Kennedy

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