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The Documentary: JFK - Dallas Remembers

The Documentary: JFK - Dallas Remembers: JFK: Dallas Remembers

John F Kennedy (Getty Images)

16/11/2013 GMT

JFK: Dallas Remembers

JFK - Dallas Remembers

BBC World Service - The Documentary, JFK - Dallas Remembers, JFK: Dallas Remembers

Five people who witnessed an aspect of the death of John F Kennedy share their stories

Sue MacGregor brings together five people with a perspective on the assassination of JFK in Dallas: Clint Hill, Gayle Newman, Hugh Aynesworth, Kenneth Salyer and James Leavelle.

On 22 November 1963, President John F Kennedy was campaigning in Texas. That morning, Air Force One touched down at Dallas Love Field Airport. The president and first lady waved to jubilant crowds that watched the motorcade move through downtown Dallas.
 
As the presidential limousine passed through Dealey Plaza, Kennedy was shot in the head by an assassin’s bullet. Within a half hour, 75 million Americans had heard the news. President Kennedy was declared dead at 1pm, Dallas time.
 
Over three days, three murders rocked the city of Dallas. After President Kennedy, police officer JD Tippit was shot and killed by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, who himself was later fatally shot on live television. 
 
Sue MacGregor brings together five people who were intimately connected to the events surrounding the Kennedy assassination: Clint Hill, the former Secret Service agent who frantically climbed up the back of the presidential limousine as the shots rang out; Gayle Newman, who stood with her young family in Dealey Plaza and became one of the closest eyewitnesses; Hugh Aynesworth, then of the Dallas Morning News who reported the events in November 1963, Kenneth Salyer, who was part of the medical team at Parkland Hospital, desperately trying to revive the president; and James Leavelle, retired Dallas homicide detective who was famously handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot by Jack Ruby.

Picture: John F Kennedy, Credit: Getty Images

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Sue MacGregor brings together five people intimately connected to the assassination of John F Kennedy in Dallas.

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