The Assassination of JFK - Part 2

Episode Notes

AI True Crime: The JFK Assassination — Show Notes

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. He was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital at 1:00 p.m.; later that afternoon Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office aboard Air Force One. The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, while the House Select Committee on Assassinations later concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy. The National Archives’ JFK Assassination Records Collection now contains more than six million pages of assassination-related records, photographs, films, sound recordings, and artifacts.

This episode follows the killing of JFK from Dealey Plaza to Parkland, from Oswald’s arrest to Ruby’s murder of Oswald, and from the Warren Commission to the long afterlife of suspicion. We look at the motorcade, the shots, the rifle, the “magic bullet,” the death of Officer J. D. Tippit, Oswald’s impossible two-day fame, the birth of the conspiracy era, and the strange way the government’s attempt to settle the case only made the mystery feel larger.

Content warning: assassination, gun violence, autopsy discussion, historical trauma, conspiracy claims, and political violence.

Primary Archives and Official Records

National Archives: President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collectionhttps://www.archives.gov/research/jfk

National Archives: JFK Assassination Records, 2025 Documents Releasehttps://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/release-2025

National Archives: Background on the JFK Assassination Records Collectionhttps://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/background

National Archives: Frequently Asked Questions about JFK Assassination Recordshttps://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/faqs

National Archives: Warren Commission Report, Table of Contentshttps://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/toc

National Archives: Warren Commission Report, Introductionhttps://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/intro