[[ posted on alt.conspiracy.jfk in August, '96 by: bhart@cyberramp.net (Michael Parks) ]] ======================================================================= FIRST REPORTS OUT OF DALLAS THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/23/63 The President died in a sixth-floor surgery room at Parkland Hospital at 1 p.m., about 40 minutes after the assassin had sent a Mauser 7.62 bullet smashing into his head....(** or two star edition paper). The President died in a sixth floor surgery room at Parkland Hospital at 1 p.m., about 40 minutes after the assassin had sent a Mauser 6.5 rifle bullet smashing into his head...(*** or three star edition paper). The assassin, firing from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building near the Triple Underpass sent a Mauser 6.5 rifle bullet smashing into the President's head...(**** or four star edition paper). He (the assassin) fired at least three carefully measured shots into the car. (**) The original plans for President Kennedy's visit called for a fast ride from Dallas Love Field to a Trade Mart luncheon. Then Democratic leaders urged the President to ride in motorcade through Fort Worth and Dallas to give more voters a chance to see him. Jack C. Cason, president of the depository, said the sixth floor was used soley as a "dead storage" area. It was stacked about eight feet high with books. Cason, who left the scene about 30 minutes before the president's caravan rode down Main Street, said the firm often had difficulty finding employes who had fallen asleep amidst the stacks of books. "Somethimes it will be three or four days without anybody going up to the sixth floor to get anything," Cason said. He said the "dead storage" area was used to keep books already stocked in the basement and on the second and fourth floors. Only when they ran out of copies there does anybody generally go to the sixth floor. Cason said the killer was apparently "well aware" of the building's layout because there was no elevator that goes up to the sixth floor from the front entrance. He would have had to get off the elevator on the fourth floor, walk to the back of the building and get the stairs or one of the two freight elevators on the sixth. They (the local police) arrested several persons, amoung them a Fort Worth man who was said to be driving a car linked with the slayer. Dealey Plaza and assassination witness Mary E. Woodward stated: "...After acknowledging our cheers, he (JFK) faced forward again and suddenly there was a horrible, ear-shattering noise coming from behind us and a little to the right. My first reaction, and also my friends', (Maggie Brown, Aurelia Alonzo and Ann Donaldson) was that it was a joke, someone had backfired their car. Apparently the driver and occupants of the President's car had the same impression, because instead of speeding up, the car came almost to a halt. Things are a little hazy from this point, but I don't believe anyone was hit with the first bullet. The President and Mrs. Kennedy turned and looked around, as if they, too, didn't believe the noise was really coming from a gun. Then after a moment's pause there was another shot and I saw the President start slumping in the car. This was followed rapidly by another shot. Mrs. Kennedy stood up in the car, turned half-way around, then fell on top of her husband's body.....Next to us were two Negro women. One collapsed in the other's arms, weeping and uttering what everyone was thinking: 'THEY shot him'." "THEY'VE shot him...THEY'VE shot the President," screamed a middle-aged man holding the hand of a small boy. Dozens of people thought the reports from the killer's muzzle were just firecrackers. A FEW pointed towards the textbook building. BUT MOST ran to the west side of the building thinking the shots came from behind the bushes and a fence dividing the street from a railroad yard. Deputy Police Chief George Lumpkin used scores of firemen and policemen in a systematic search of the building. An officer entered and told the lawmen that a policeman, J.D. Tippit, had just been killed. No details. An employe of the textbook firm walked up: "I don't know if you're interested in this...but one of the fellows who works here is gone. Can't find him anywhere." Mrs. John Connally told the governor's administrative aide Julian Read Friday she believes the assassin's first bullet struck President Kennedy." ------------------------------ end -------------------------------- .