The assassination of John F. Kennedy caused a rupture in the psyche of many Americans. The History Channel documentary “JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America” (out on DVD) allows pictures from the event to speak for themselves with the aid of editorial choices that arrange them in an intriguing order.
Comprised of home movies and television footage, “3 Shots” begins on the last morning of the President’s life and proceeds into the long aftermath, which consists of the assassination of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., along with a raft of improvable theories concerning that memorable day in November 1963. Some of the footage is ironic in light of what happened. Answering questions about JFK’s forthcoming visit, prompted by the rude reception the city’s right-wingers gave UN ambassador Adlai Stevenson only a month earlier, Dallas’ mayor told a TV reporter, “We anticipate no trouble”; the police chief insisted, “Nothing can occur which will be disrespectful” and promised to “do everything in our power to insure that no untoward incident occurs.”
On the morning of Nov. 22, JFK addressed the Forth Worth Chamber of Commerce before continuing on to Dallas. As LBJ smirked, a children’s choir greeted the President with an eerie lyric, “The eyes of Texas are upon you, you cannot get away.” Excerpts from JFK’s talk that morning show a charismatic figure with a sense of humor, more movie star than politician.
The crowds that lined the Dallas streets to watch the passing motorcade seemed to love their President. The crack of a rifle caused sudden panic as people scattered and policemen drew their guns. The documentary cuts to a broadcast of the popular TV soap opera, “As the World Turns.” The voice of Walter Cronkite interrupts the melodrama to announce that “three shots were fired” in Dallas and the President was “seriously wounded.” Some of the documentary’s most startling footage was shot on the streets of New York where a crowd gathered around a radio for news. The word that Kennedy was dead jolted some bystanders. Most fell into sullen reflection.
The killing of the suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald (“Lee Harold Oswald” as many reporters mistakenly called him), live on television, was the second shock of the week. The stalwart Dallas police chief replied “no” when asked if he was concerned that Oswald might be murdered before he could be taken to the courthouse. After all, police headquarters was ringed by hundreds of officers. And yet, striptease club owner Jack Ruby (initially described by the media as “a man in a black hat”) shot Oswald point blank. Television crews camped out at the police station for over a day and caught Oswald being dragged back and forth, professing innocence and demanding a lawyer and a shower.
As for Ruby, he gave contradictory statements through the end of his life, dying of cancer while waiting on death row. Within hours Cronkite wondered whether a “conspiracy” existed, and the public hasn’t stopped wondering. The Warren Commission’s report, which identified Oswald as the lone gunman, was at odds with the common sense of most Americans. What followed was the beginning of the pervasive distrust of government that continues today, the proliferation of conflicting conspiracy theories and the mainstreaming of an X-Files mentality that sees sinister forces hiding behind every cover-up at every turn.
