Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot

FBI agent James Hosty Jr. arrives at Ruth Paine’s home in search of Lee Harvey Oswald. Paine informs Hosty that Oswald works at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. Marina, who still lives with Paine, at first assumes that the agent must belong to some kind of Soviet-style secret police, but Paine assures her that everything is fine. Special Agent Hosty sees no cause for alarm in the Oswald case. The Secret Service likewise identifies no known threats to the president from anyone residing in the Dallas area.

President Kennedy attends a Veterans’ Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. He remarks on the beauty of the place and tells Congressman Hale Boggs, “I could stay here forever” (235).

Actress Greta Garbo relaxes in the Lincoln Bedroom. The president has had a long day full of meetings and events, but tonight Garbo will be the guest of honor at a dinner party. Kennedy’s best friend from teenage years, Lem Billings, met Garbo over the summer and could not stop talking about it, so the president urged Garbo to play a good-natured practical joke on Billings this evening by pretending not to recognize him. Kennedy then takes Garbo on a tour of the White House before the slightly intoxicated actress declares that she must retire to her hotel for the night. O’Reilly and Dugard note the significance of the moment: “Thus ends the last dinner party ever held in Camelot” (239).

Lee Harvey Oswald practices target shooting at a local rifle range. The Dallas Morning News projects the president’s possible motorcade route. Two days later, Secret Service agents, in conjunction with the Dallas police, map the actual motorcade route from Love Field. As one of the agents remarks while driving through downtown Dallas, “Hell, we’d be sitting ducks” (242). Notwithstanding the tall buildings, many windows, narrow streets, tight turns, and lack of alternate roads should trouble materialize, the agents settle on the fateful motorcade route only four days before the president arrives.

The president reviews intelligence documents while the first lady practices speaking Spanish for a speech later that evening in Houston. In the morning, the Kennedys said goodbye to their children, Caroline and John Jr. The president feels anxious, hoping Jackie will have a good experience and then decide to campaign with him in 1964.

At the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, employee Lee Harvey Oswald examines the front page of a newspaper, which features a map of the presidential motorcade route. Although he has never expressed any animosity toward Kennedy, Oswald now plans to shoot the president. He asks coworker Wesley Frazier for a ride to Irving later this afternoon, and Frazier agrees. Oswald plans to beg Marina to take him back. Otherwise, he will have to do something drastic.

After spending the night with his wife, Oswald removes his wedding ring and leaves cash on the dresser in their bedroom. Oswald gets his rifle from Ruth Paine’s garage and wraps it in brown paper, having told Wesley Frazier, his ride into work, that it’s curtain rods.

Kennedy awakens in his Fort Worth hotel room at 7:30 and reads newspapers filled with glowing reports about how much the people of Texas love the first lady. At 9:00, the president gives a speech to a group of union workers from the back of a pickup truck. Several of the men inquire as to the whereabouts of the first lady; they want to see Jackie. The president good-naturedly assures them that his wife is still in their hotel room, that it takes her a while to get ready, and that this is fine because “she looks a little bit better than we do when she does it” (254), at which the union men erupt in laughter. At the end of his speech, during which the president seems to imply that the Cold War is over, the crowd responds with enthusiastic cheers.

After periods of rain, the sun has come out in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald has chosen a sixth-floor window from which to shoot the president.

Air Force One touches down at Love Field. Vice President Johnson and his wife, Claudia, welcome the Kennedys. The president pauses to shake hands with onlookers. Bill Greer drives the presidential limousine, which has three rows of seats and will be the second car in the motorcade. The president sits in the back, behind Texas Governor John Connally. The first lady sits to the president’s left, behind Mrs. Connally. The vice president, “angry and pouting” (259), occupies the fourth car in line. At 11:55 a.m., the motorcade departs Love Field for downtown Dallas. Nearly half an hour later, FBI agent James Hosty, the man who interviewed Ruth Paine and Marina Oswald three weeks earlier, watches the president’s car pass him on Main Street. At 12:29, the motorcade enters Dealey Plaza. Oswald gets his first look at the president. One minute later, Greer turns left onto Elm Street.