textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/art-06.xml

<xml><p>Volume : SIRS 1991 History, Article 02
Subject: Keyword(s) : KENNEDY and ASSASSINATION
Title : The Day <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>John</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent></ent> Died
Author : Bryan Woolley
Source : <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> Times Herald (<ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent>)
Publication Date : Nov. 20, 1983
Page Number(s) : Sec. Sec. 2-3
</p>
<p>
<ent type='GPE'>DALLAS</ent> <ent type='ORG'>TIMES HERALD</ent>
(<ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent>)
Nov. 20, 1983, Special Section, pp. 2-3
Reprinted with permission from the author.
</p>
<p>
THE DAY JOHN KENNEDY DIED
<ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent> cleared dawn's drizzle, but gloom clouded <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>
by Bryan Woolley
Staff Writer
</p>
<p>
The valet walked past the <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> guard and entered
Suite 850 of <ent type='GPE'>Fort Worth</ent>'s <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> Hotel. He knocked on the door of
the master bedroom. It was 7:30 a.m. "Mr. President," he said,
"it's raining out."
</p>
<p>
President <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent> F. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent>, coming out of sleep, replied,
"That's too bad."
</p>
<p>
While he was dressing, he heard the murmur of the crowd
outside and went to the window. Below him, 5000 people were
standing patiently in the soft drizzle, some wearing raincoats,
some holding umbrellas, most simply ignoring the weather. They
were office and factory workers. They had begun gathering before
dawn to hear the speech the President would make in the parking
lot where they stood. Mounted police officers wearing yellow
slickers moved among them. "Gosh, look at the crowd!" the
President said to his wife. "Just look! Isn't that terrific."
</p>
<p>
In the lobby, he was joined by Vice President <ent type='PERSON'>Lyndon</ent>
<ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son, Gov. <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent> Connally, Sen. <ent type='PERSON'>Ralph Yarborough</ent>, several
members of <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent> and the president of the <ent type='GPE'>Fort Worth</ent> Chamber
of Commerce. They crossed Eighth Street and plunged into the
crowd, shaking hands, smiling. They mounted the truck that was to
serve as the speaker's platform. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> grabbed the microphone
and shouted: "There are no faint hearts in <ent type='GPE'>Fort Worth</ent>!"
</p>
<p>
The crowd cheered. Somebody yelled, "Where's Jackie?"
</p>
<p>
<ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> pointed toward his eighth-floor window. "Mrs.
<ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> is organizing herself," he replied. "It takes her a
little longer, but, of course, she looks better than we do when
she does it."
</p>
<p>
<ent type='GPE'>Fort Worth</ent> was the third stop on the President's five-city
<ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> tour. He had ridden through <ent type='GPE'>Houston</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>San Antonio</ent> like a
triumphant emperor, and <ent type='GPE'>Fort Worth</ent> had stayed up past midnight to
welcome the handsome 46-year-old President and his beautiful
34-year-old wife, lining their route from <ent type='ORG'>Carswell Air Force</ent> base
to the hotel.
</p>
<p>
After an informal speech in the parking lot, he would go to
the hotel, deliver a breakfast speech, fly from <ent type='ORG'>Carswell</ent> to Love
Field, ride in a motorcade through <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>, deliver a speech at a
$100-a-plate luncheon at the <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> Trade Mart, fly to <ent type='GPE'>Austin</ent> for
a banquet and a reception at the Governor's Mansion, and then go
to the <ent type='ORG'>LBJ</ent> ranch for a weekend of rest.
</p>
<p>
Back inside the <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> Hotel, <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> accepted the ceremonial
cowboy hat from his hosts, but refused to wear it for
photographers and TV cameramen. He would model it later, he said,
at the <ent type='ORG'>White House</ent>. His breakfast speech was the standard
fence-mending one-- about the greatness of <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Fort Worth</ent>
and <ent type='ORG'>the Democratic Party</ent>--and it drew a thunderous ovation.
</p>
<p>
The President and the first lady retired to Suite 850 to
prepare for the flight to <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> placed a call to former
Vice President <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent> Nance "<ent type='ORG'>Cactus Jack</ent>" Garner in <ent type='GPE'>Uvalde</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent>,
to wish him a happy 95th birthday, and an aide showed him a
black-bordered full-page ad with a sardonic headline in The
<ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> Morning News. "Welcome Mr. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>," it read. In
13 rhetorical questions, something called the "American
Fact-Finding Committee" accused the administration of selling out
the world to communism.
</p>
<p>
"Oh, you know, we're heading into nut country today," the
President said. Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> later told author <ent type='PERSON'>William Manchester</ent>
that he paced the floor and then stopped in front of her. "You
know, last night would have been a hell of a night to assassinate
a president," he said. "There was the rain and the night, and we
were all getting jostled. Suppose a man had a pistol in a
briefcase." He pointed a finger at the wall and pretended to fire
two shots.
</p>
<p>
Not many in the presidential party were looking forward to
<ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>. Several <ent type='NORP'>Texans</ent>--some from <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>--had warned the
President not to include <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> on his <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> tour, that an ugly
incident was likely to occur there. But <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> insisted that the
state's second-largest city be placed on the itinerary.
</p>
<p>
So the preparations had been made. <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> civic leaders had
launched a public relations campaign to try to ensure a friendly
turnout for the President.
</p>
<p>
Seven hundred law officers--city police officers and
firefighters, sheriff's deputies, <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> Rangers and state highway
patrol officers--had been assembled to keep order. About the time
that <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>John</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent></ent> was waking up, <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> Police Chief <ent type='PERSON'>Jesse Curry</ent>
had gone on TV to warn that his officers would take "immediate
action to block any improper conduct." If the police were
inadequate, he said, even citizen's arrests were authorized.
</p>
<p>
Others were preparing, too, in the early morning. Waiters
were setting the places for the Trade Mart luncheon. A warehouse
worker named <ent type='PERSON'>Lee Harvey Oswald</ent> sneaked a rifle and a telescopic
sight into the <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> School Book Depository. Because of forecasts
showing that the rain probably would be past <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> by the time
the presidential party arrived, a <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> aide told the Secret
Service not to put the bubble-top on the big blue limousine in
which the President and Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> would ride.
</p>
<p>
Air Force One had barely left the runway at <ent type='ORG'>Carswell</ent> before
it began its descent toward Love Field. The flight took only 13
minutes. The big plane touched down at 11:38 a.m. Police armed
with rifles stood along the roof of the terminal building. A
large crowd waited beyond a chain-link fence. Many in the crowd
were jumping, screaming, waving placards: "We Love Jack," "Hooray
for <ent type='PERSON'>JFK</ent>." Others were less friendly. They held placards, too:
"Help <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> Stamp Out Democracy," "In 1964 <ent type='PERSON'>Goldwater</ent> and
Freedom," "Yankees Go Home And Take Your Equals With You." They
booed and hissed when the President and first lady emerged from
the plane, smiled, waved and descended the stairs of Air Force
One.
</p>
<p>
For the fourth time in 24 hours, <ent type='PERSON'>Lyndon</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Lady Bird</ent>
<ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son were waiting to welcome the <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent>s to a <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> city. The
presidential couple was introduced to the 12-man official
welcoming committee. Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Earle Cabell</ent>, wife of the <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> mayor,
presented Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> with a bouquet of red roses. Then <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent>
broke from the official cluster and moved along the chain-link
fence, smiling, shaking hands; letting people touch him.
</p>
<p>
At 11:55, two motorcycle police officers led the motorcade
out of Love Field and turned left on <ent type='LOC'>Mockingbird</ent> Lane. Police
Chief <ent type='PERSON'>Curry</ent> drove the lead car. With him rode <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> County
Sheriff <ent type='PERSON'>Bill Decker</ent> and two <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agents. Then came
three more motorcycles. Then the blue limousine with two Secret
Service agents in the front, <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent> and Nellie Connally in the jump
seats and the <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent>s in the back seat. Two motorcycles flanked
the car on each side. Next was another convertible, full of
<ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> aides and <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agents, and four more agents
standing on its running boards.
</p>
<p>
Then came the vice presidential convertible, carrying two
<ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agents, the <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>sons and <ent type='PERSON'>Yarborough</ent>. A <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent>
highway patrol officer and four <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agents rode in the
next car. A press pool car, a press bus, convertibles bearing
photographers, and cars carrying lesser dignitaries completed the
procession.
</p>
<p>
The motorcade would move through a sizable portion of
<ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>--along <ent type='LOC'>Mockingbird</ent> to <ent type='PERSON'>Lemmon Avenue</ent>, right on <ent type='PERSON'>Lemmon</ent> to
<ent type='LOC'>Turtle Creek</ent> Boulevard, along <ent type='LOC'>Turtle Creek</ent> and Cedar Springs Road
to <ent type='PERSON'>Harwood</ent> Street, down <ent type='PERSON'>Harwood</ent> to Main Street, where, at City
Hall, it would turn right and move westward along Main through
the downtown business district.
</p>
<p>
At the west end of downtown, it would turn right onto
<ent type='GPE'>Houston</ent> Street and then immediately left onto Elm Street and move
through the Triple Underpass. A few yards beyond the underpass,
it would turn right again onto <ent type='PERSON'>Stemmons</ent> Expressway and move to
the Trade Mart at the intersection of <ent type='PERSON'>Stemmons</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Harry Hines</ent>
Boulevard. After the President's speech, it would proceed out
<ent type='PERSON'>Harry Hines</ent> to <ent type='LOC'>Mockingbird</ent>, turn right, and return to Love Field.
The sidewalk crowds were sparse at first. A few people in
the factories and offices along <ent type='LOC'>Mockingbird</ent> came out to have a
look. The sun was bright now, and Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> was regretting
that she was wearing the pink wool suit. She had expected woolen
weather. It was, after all, late November. She put on sunglasses,
but her husband told her to take them off. The people wanted to
see her, he said.
</p>
<p>
At the corner of <ent type='PERSON'>Lemmon</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Lomo Alto</ent>, a group of children
held a long banner reading, "Please Stop and Shake Our Hands."
<ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> ordered his driver to stop. He got out and shook their
hands. Farther along, he ordered another stop and got out to
greet a group of nuns. At Lee Park on <ent type='LOC'>Turtle Creek</ent>, the crowd
began to thicken. And at <ent type='PERSON'>Harwood</ent> and Live Oak, still two blocks
from the turn onto Main, the people in the motorcade heard the
downtown crowd murmuring like a distant tide.
</p>
<p>
When the caravan made the turn, it faced pandemonium. People
were standing 10 and 12 deep on the sidewalks. Red, white and
blue bunting fluttered from the buildings. People leaned out
windows, waving and screaming. There were no picket signs, no
sour faces. The feared <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> crowd was friendly--even adoring.
The nuts had stayed home. It was 12:21 p.m.
</p>
<p>
At the Trade Mart, the luncheon guests were showing their
tickets to the door guards and filing to their seats. The huge
building was surrounded by <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> police, standing at
parade rest, holding riot sticks, glaring at a handful of
protesters. Inside the atrium hall, parakeets flew freely from
tree to tree. A fountain splashed. An organist was practicing
"Hail to the Chief." Dozens of yellow roses adorned the head
table. The presidential seal had been mounted on the rostrum.
</p>
<p>
As the motorcade neared <ent type='GPE'>Houston</ent> Street, the size of the
crowd diminished, but the cheers and applause were still hearty.
Nellie Connally turned in her seat and said, "You can't say
<ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> doesn't love you, Mr. President."
</p>
<p>
<ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> replied, "No, you can't."
</p>
<p>
Workers from the <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> School Book Depository, the Dal-Tex
Building and the <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> County buildings lined the sidewalks at
<ent type='GPE'>Houston</ent> and Elm as the head of the motorcade turned toward the
Triple Underpass. Others stood on the grass of Dealey Plaza. Many
had brought their children to see the President. Several
spectators noticed a man standing very still in a sixth-floor
corner window of the depository. One man saw the rifle he was
holding and assumed he was a <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agent.
</p>
<p>
As the blue limousine made the sharp left turn from <ent type='GPE'>Houston</ent>
onto Elm, the <ent type='ORG'>Hertz</ent> rental car time-and-temperature sign on the
roof of the depository red 12:30. A <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> man in the
motorcade radioed the Trade Mart: "Halfback to Base. Five minutes
to destination." He wrote in his shift log: "12:35 p.m. President
<ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> arrived at Trade Mart."
</p>
<p>
Some thought the noises were firecrackers. Others thought a
motorcycle was backfiring. Some recognized them as rifle shots.
<ent type='ORG'>Pigeons</ent> flew from the roof of the depository. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> lurched
forward and grabbed his neck.
</p>
<p>
Sen. <ent type='PERSON'>Yarborough</ent>, in the vice president's car, cried, "My
God! They've shot the President!" <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agent Rufus
Youngblood climbed from the front seat to the back, threw <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son
to the floorboard and covered him with his own body.
</p>
<p>
In the blue limousine, Gov. Connally had been hit, too. He
pitched forward and fell toward his wife. "No, no, no, no, no!"
he screamed.
</p>
<p>
Then another shot. The President's head exploded. Blood
spattered the occupants of the blue car. The first lady, in
shock, tried to climb out over the trunk. A <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agent
pushed her back. The car slowed and then lurched out of the
motorcade line and sped past the Triple Underpass, with Chief
Curry's car and the <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> car in pursuit.
</p>
<p>
UPI <ent type='ORG'>White House</ent> correspondent <ent type='PERSON'>Merriman Smith</ent> was sitting in
the middle of the front seat of the press pool car. He grabbed
the mobile phone. He called the wire service's <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> bureau and
dictated the first bulletin: "Three shots were fired at President
Kennedy's motorcade in downtown <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>."
</p>
<p>
The cheers of greeting in Dealey Plaza rose to screams of
horror and fear. "They killed him! They killed him! They killed
him!" Parents grabbed children and ran. Men and women lay
prostrate on the grass and sidewalks, as if dead. The motorcade
was disintegrating, the cars veering hither and yon, trying to
get through the crowd and follow the limousine. Helmeted police
officers leaped from motorcycles, pulled guns, looked wildly
about. The <ent type='ORG'>Hertz</ent> clock still read 12:30.
</p>
<p>
The staff at <ent type='ORG'>Parkland Memorial Hospital</ent> had only five
minutes notice of the massive emergency rushing upon them, and
many thought the message was a joke. When the blue car arrived,
they weren't ready. No one was waiting at the emergency entrance.
A <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agent dashed inside to order stretchers.
</p>
<p>
Connally--whose wounds were serious but not fatal--was
wheeled to Trauma Room No. 2, <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> to Trauma Room No. 1. Teams
of surgeons and nurses went to work. The <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> regrouped
around the <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>sons and hustled them to seclusion in another part
of the hospital. Reporters dashed around the halls and offices,
searching for phones. <ent type='ORG'>Parkland</ent> patients heard the news and rushed
to have a look.
</p>
<p>
"Gentlemen," a weeping <ent type='PERSON'>Yarborough</ent> told reporters, "this has
been a deed of horror. <ent type='ORG'>Excalibur</ent> has sunk beneath the waves."
Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> insisted on being in the trauma room with her
husband. A nurse protested, but she was admitted.
</p>
<p>
Outside, more of the motorcade vehicles were arriving. Their
passengers tumbled out and stared in horror at the blood-soaked
convertible.
</p>
<p>
At 1 p.m., Dr. <ent type='PERSON'>Kemp Clark</ent>, the senior physician working on
the President, pronounced him dead. A priest administered last
rites. At 1:13, the news was carried to the vice president. At
1:26, the <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent>, fearing the assassination was part of a
massive plot against the government, spirited the <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>sons away
to unmarked cars and sped to Love Field. They boarded Air Force
One at 1:33, while <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> press aide <ent type='PERSON'>Malcolm Kilduff</ent> was
announcing the President's death to the press.
</p>
<p>
Police were still combing the Dealey Plaza area for
Kennedy's murderer. Indeed, only a minute after the fatal shot
was fired, <ent type='PERSON'>Marrion Baker</ent>, a <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> motorcycle officer, had
pointed his pistol at <ent type='PERSON'>Lee Harvey Oswald</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Baker</ent> had been riding by
the <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> School Book Depository when the killing occurred, and
he jumped off his motorcycle and dashed inside with <ent type='PERSON'>Roy Truly</ent>,
the building's superintendent. They encountered <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> in the
second-floor lunchroom. <ent type='PERSON'>Baker</ent> drew his gun. "Do you know this
man?" he asked Truly. "Does he work here?" Truly said he did, and
<ent type='PERSON'>Baker</ent> let him go. A minute later, <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> walked out the front
door of the depository, where he encountered <ent type='ORG'>NBC</ent> reporter <ent type='PERSON'>Robert</ent>
MacNeil, who was looking for a phone. <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> told him he could
find one inside. Five minutes later, police sealed off the door.
</p>
<p>
At 12:44, <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> boarded a bus at Elm and <ent type='PERSON'>Murphy</ent> streets,
seven blocks from the depository, but got off a few minutes later
when the bus was caught in a traffic snarl. By 12:45, <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>
police had questioned the witness who had seen the man standing
in the depository window with the rifle and had broadcast his
description from a radio car in front of the depository. Two
minutes later, <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> caught a taxicab at the Greyhound bus
station and rode to <ent type='GPE'>Beckley</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Neely</ent>, a corner near his Oak
Cliff rooming house. He went to his room, got a pistol and left
again.
</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, <ent type='PERSON'>Roy Truly</ent> had drawn up a list of depository
employees and told police that <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> was missing. At 1:12,
sheriff's deputies found three empty cartridge cases near the
sixth floor corner window. Ten minutes later, they would find the
rifle, hidden between boxes of textbooks in the room.
</p>
<p>
At 1:15, <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> officer J.D. <ent type='PERSON'>Tippett</ent> was cruising by a drug
store at 10th and <ent type='PERSON'>Patton</ent>, less than a mile from the <ent type='GPE'>Oak Cliff</ent>
rooming house, and spotted <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> walking along the sidewalk.
<ent type='PERSON'>Tippett</ent>, for reasons never determined, pulled over and stopped
him. <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> jerked his pistol from under his jacket, shot four
times and ran away. Nine people saw the shooting. A pickup truck
driver took the dead officer's radio mike and said, "Hello,
police operator. We've had a shooting out here."
</p>
<p>
On Air Force One, stewards were removing some of the seats
in the tail compartment to make room for President Kennedy's
coffin. In the plane's stateroom, <ent type='PERSON'>Lyndon</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son was watching
<ent type='PERSON'>Walter Cronkite</ent> on television and was asking aides and
congressmen whether he should be sworn in immediately or wait
until they had returned to <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent>. Some thought he should
wait. Others thought it might be dangerous for the country to be
without a President while he was en route. <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son decided he
would assume the office in <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent>. "Now," he said, "What about
the oath?"
</p>
<p>
The aides and congressmen were embarrassed. They could
remember neither the words nor where to find them. They couldn't
remember who, besides <ent type='ORG'>Supreme Court</ent> justices, was authorized to
administer the oath. Everyone was in such shock and confusion
that phone calls were made to several Justice Department
officials in <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> before someone remembered that
a President may be sworn in by any judge and that the oath is in
the Constitution. Deputy Attorney General <ent type='PERSON'>Nicholas Katzenbach</ent>
dictated it by phone from <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent>, and U.S. District Judge
<ent type='PERSON'>Sarah Hughes</ent>, an old friend of <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son who had been appointed to
the <ent type='PERSON'>North</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> federal bench by <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent>, was dispatched to Love
Field.
</p>
<p>
At 1:40, Lee <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> ran into the <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> Theater on West
Jefferson--eight blocks from officer Tippit's body--without
buying a ticket. The box office attendant called the police.
<ent type='ORG'>Cruisers</ent> began converging on the theater. At 1:50, the house
lights went up, and officers moved up and down the aisles, looked
into the faces of the few patrons. Officer M.N. <ent type='PERSON'>McDonald</ent> stopped
at the 10th row and said to a man sitting alone: "Get up."
</p>
<p>
"Well, it's all over now," <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> said, according to
witnesses and he stood up. But when <ent type='PERSON'>McDonald</ent> moved closer, <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent>
struck him in the face and went for his pistol. <ent type='PERSON'>McDonald</ent> struck
back and grabbed for the gun. <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> pulled the trigger, but the
web of skin between McDonald's thumb and forefinger was caught
under the hammer. The gun didn't fire. Other officers joined the
fight. They subdued <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> and hustled him out of the theater. "I
protest this police brutality!" <ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> shouted.
</p>
<p>
Twenty-five minutes later, Capt. <ent type='PERSON'>Will Fritz</ent>, chief of
homicide, returned to <ent type='ORG'>the Police Department</ent> and ordered that the
missing <ent type='GPE'>Texas</ent> School Book Depository worker named Lee Harvey
<ent type='PERSON'>Oswald</ent> be arrested as a suspect in the presidential killing. An
officer pointed to a small young man with a bruised eye who was
sitting in a chair. "There he sits," he said.
</p>
<p>
At <ent type='ORG'>Parkland</ent>, a <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agent called Oneal's Funeral
Home in Oak Lawn to order a casket. The funeral director, Vernon
Oneal, arrived with it at 1:30. After the President's body had
been placed in the casket, Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> entered Trauma Room No.
1, took off her wedding ring and placed it on her husband's
finger. The casket was closed and placed on a funeral home cart
to be moved to the hearse.
</p>
<p>
Dr. <ent type='PERSON'>Earl Rose</ent>, the <ent type='GPE'>Dallas</ent> County medical <ent type='ORG'>examiner</ent>,
protested. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> was a homicide victim, he said, and the body
couldn't be released legally until after an autopsy had been
performed. A quarrel developed between him and the Secret
Service. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> aides and the <ent type='ORG'>Secret Service</ent> agents forced the
casket through the crowd that had gathered at the hospital door
and loaded it into the hearse. Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> rode in the back with
it. At 2:20, the dead President was carried up the stairs into
Air Force One. Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> retired to the bedroom.
</p>
<p>
Judge <ent type='PERSON'>Hughes</ent> boarded the plane at 2:35 and was handed a
small white card with the oath scrawled on it. Capt. Cecil
Stoughton, an <ent type='ORG'>Army Signal Corps</ent> photographer, tried to arrange
the crowd in the cramped stateroom so that he could take a
picture of the ceremony. "We'll wait for Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent>," <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son
said. "I want her here."
</p>
<p>
Mrs. <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> came out of the bedroom still wearing the
blood-soaked pink suit. <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son pressed her hand and said, "This
is the saddest moment of my life." The photographer placed her on
<ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son's left, <ent type='PERSON'>Lady Bird</ent> on his right. Judge <ent type='PERSON'>Hughes</ent>, the first
woman to administer the presidential oath, was shaking.
</p>
<p>
"What about a Bible?" asked one of the witnesses. Someone
remembered that President <ent type='PERSON'>Kennedy</ent> had kept a Bible in the bedroom
and went to get it.
</p>
<p>
"I do solemnly swear..."
</p>
<p>
The oath lasted 28 seconds. At 2:38 p.m., <ent type='PERSON'>Lyndon</ent> B. <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent>son
became the 36th President of <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States. The big jet's
engines already were screaming. "Now, let's get airborne," he
said.
</p>
<div>
</div></xml>