Assassinated: Part II - Presidents Killed

What are your memories of the JFK assassination?

"I had my hands over my head, tears rolling down my cheeks and my heart was overwhelmed with grief" - Nabi Yaya Sesay, Sierra Leonean

"I recall that even at 6 years of age I understood that to many Texans it was a huge effort to show courtesy to this exotic fellow from the damnyankee north." - Keith Grantham, USA

"I was standing talking to my cousin Brian in the back yard of the school... Suddenly Jerry, one of the tougher young lads in the school, ran out from inside, halted next to Mr Desjardins and yelled, "Holy [f-word]! Kennedy's been shot!" - Jim Diamond, Canada

These are some reactions found on BBC's On This Day website. For many who were alive in 1963, most can say they remember where they were, what they were doing and how they reacted to such shocking and socially-ripping news. John F. Kennedy died 35 minutes after being shot during a Presidential parade down Elm St. in Dallas, Texas.

For those of you unaware of the events, here is a compilation video Dead Sea Media has put together, which includes available footage of the president before he was shot, the infamous Zapruder film of the bullets striking him and the chaos and confusion that occurred after. It can also be found on MetaCafe.



Abraham Zapruder's film was one of 14 known videos taken that day. The others are not as clear and as close to the action as Zapruder. All videos have been recovered except the one by a woman who can be seen in the Zapruder and Orville Nix films, nicknamed the "Babushka Lady" for the clothes she was wearing.

Lee Harvey Oswald was immediately accused of taking the fatal shots from his location in the Texas Schoolbook Depository, although there are a lot of evidence suggesting there were, in fact, two shooters. In any case, four separate US government investigations (including the Warren report) found him guilty of killing President Kennedy and officer J. D. Tippit.

However, five days before the Warren Report was issued by the United States government, and two days after JFK's assassination, Oswald himself was shot dead by a man named Jack Ruby (born Jacob Rubenstein) during a jail transfer. It was also caught on camera.



Rubentein was a Dallas Nightclub owner and had links to the mafia, but when he publicly shot and killed Oswald, Rubenstein claimed he was avenging President Kennedy's death.

The killing silenced Oswald and inspired much controversy and conspiracy theories into JFK's assassination.

President Reagan Assassination Attempt

On March 30, 1981 President Ronald Reagan had been president for a total of 70 days, when leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel was shot by John Hinckley Jr.

The last of Hinckley's six shots fired hit President Reagan under his left arm and barely missing his heart. He underwent emergency surgery and recovered quickly. Also injured was White House Press Secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delehanty and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy.

The events were captured by television network camera man and most recently CBS released the footage below showing the events during and after the shooting.



Death of a President

Do you remember where you were when President George W. Bush was killed?

The 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush was killed on October 19, 2007.

The fictional documentary Death of a President by British director and writer Gabriel Range created a movie based on this premise. Although criticized by media and the Texan Republican Party, it played off a true reality in any president may fear. Many US theatres refused to play it and the film was blasted by Senator Hilary Clinton.

Distributed in the US by Newmarket Films (who also distributed The Prestige and Monster) the film won the International Critics Prize at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival.

Below is the assassination sequence of President Bush, where the film used archive footage, CGI and and staged actors to complete the scene.



The scene lacks the impact an assassination attempt on a President should have. A sniper made the shot, and he died later in hospital. The film was more focused on the politics surrounding the killing than the moment Bush was killed. Surely, in today's online video age, there would be more video evidence of the shooting. More graphic and chaos is expected for the death of a president of Bush's stature. Even in 1963 there was 14 different films available used as evidence. Today, that number would at least double. There would be witnesses everywhere and footage would dominate television news all over the world.

Although we may never see another assassination so real and graphic as JFK's was, the web 2.0 video sharing age allows us access to the front-of-the-line and more frequently makes us witnesses to horrific violence and death everyday of our lives.