Did You Watch Oswald Get Shot By Jack Ruby On Live TV ???

[WillyT]

We were home, and glued to the TV from news of the assassination, to the end of the funeral.

You?

[ananda]

1. Yes, I saw it all.

We were glued to the TV for days.

It was mindboggling.

[Tx4obama]

2. I was four years old. All I remember is watching the funeral procession on live TV...

... with my grandmother.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

54. Five, and two memories:

1 - The neighbor bursting into our apt to say JFK'd been shot, and...
2 - Oswald getting shot on live tv.

[treestar]

102. I'm your age

I remember the black and white TV being on. Weird, because it could have been anything, yet I think it was the funeral. Maybe there was such shock in the air.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. It was 7 years before my birth. However, my father worked for the Milwaukee Journal...

...and everyone, from the lowest guy on the totem pole to the best-known writers was glued to the ticker tape that day.

[spartan61]

4. Yes, we saw it live on

our black and white TV while we lived at Camp LeJeune when my husband was in the Marine Corps. Hard to believe that it has been 50 years since all of this happened.

[oldhippie]

5. Yes. nt

[grasswire]

6. yes. nt

[babylonsister]

7. Yes-my parents were glued, too, and we didn't

have a choice. I never forgot it.

[scarletwoman]

8. Yes, I saw it on live TV. I was 14 years old.

Our whole family was sitting on the living room couch glued to the TV.

I'll never forget what my dad said as we sat there absolutely stunned after watching Ruby gun down Oswald - he said, "Well, I guess they've made sure we'll never know what really happened."

[ancianita]

63. That's exactly what my dad said, too.

[Major Hogwash]

65. My dad said the same thing.

Last edited Fri Nov 22, 2013, 12:52 AM - Edit history (1)

The calender for 2013 is the same calendar that was used for the year of 1963.
So, I know exactly where I was on November 21st, 1963 -- I was home sick from an abscessed molar.
I missed school that day.
So my mom called around to some dentists to see if they would have me as a patient since we didn't have a regular dentist.

The dentist I wound up going to told my mom that he didn't particularly specialize in working with children, but he would see me since he wasn't busy the next morning, and so he told her that he had an opening at 9 o'clock in the morning.
He told my mom that he was still building his patient base up, so he thought it would be a good idea to have me as one of his patients.

So, early the next morning, on Friday November 22nd, 1963, my mom took me to that new dentist that was located close to our house.
The dentist she picked to take me to had to be located close to our home since my mom didn't like to drive in Boise.
She told me that since Boise was so much bigger of a town than she was raised in that the volume of traffic here really bothered her.

I had to have that tooth pulled.
I distinctly remember that I bit the dentist.
I was in the 2nd grade, and I have been biting dentists ever since.

I missed school that day also, and I watched tv while I recuperated.
My mom turned on the tv so I could watch one of the soap operas, I think it was "As the World Turns".
But, as I was laying on the couch, moaning and groaning, and really regretting to have to watch that soap opera, that was when Walter Cronkite broke in with the terrible news of President Kennedy being shot.

In the meantime, my mom's parents were driving up from Colorado to stay with us for Thanksgiving that year.
But, no one told me they were coming.

So, when they arrived late on Friday evening, I was stunned.
I still had a little bit of fever, so I kept asking my grandfather why they were here.
For some reason, I thought they had driven clear from their farm in Colorado to our house in Boise because the President had been killed.

And then, of course, we all sat in the living room that weekend and watched the funeral for the President, and then we watched as Oswald was murdered, live on tv.

[WillyT]

70. Yep... Exactly...

!963: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html?year=1963&month=11&country=1

!913: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html?year=2013&month=11&country=1

[Hassin Bin Sober]

73. I'm by no means a conspiracy theorist but that Ruby hit still gnaws at me.

In Chicago, if the hitman fucks up and gets caught he ends up in a trunk at O'Hare Airport.

[Cleita]

9. Yes.

It was surprising.

[spin]

10. Yes. (n/t)

[2naSalit]

11. Sure did.

The whole several weeks following the assassination and all that came afterward was pretty hard on my father and his family having been neighbors, clients, constituents and military. I was young but I'll never forget that whole winter.

[frogmarch]

12. Yes

I was 19, and my mom and I couldn't pull ourselves away from the TV from the moment Walter Cronkite announced that JFK had been shot, until after his funeral.

[Tikki]

13. Yes, my mother and I saw it…we were stunned.

Tikki

[El Supremo]

14. No. I was at a memorial service for JFK at my school's chapel in Dallas.

It was the first time I received communion. But I wasn't supposed to because I wasn't even baptized.

[aristocles]

15. Yes, saw it live. I was 14.

Later...was at Chicago in '68, and Kent State in '70, then dropped out of 'The Movement" and spent four years in grad school studying Greek, Latin, and Greek philosophy.

[Hoyt]

16. Three days staring at TV in shock, even my Archie Bunker dad.

[RebelOne]

17. Yes, I saw it all. I was 24 at the time of the JFK's death.

And I saw the TV shots of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. Yup. Indelibly imprinted.

[Hangingon]

19. Yes

I was home in Dallas. came home from North Texas on Friday afternoon. That was a strange and tense weekend in Dallas.

[moondust]

20. Yes.

Same deal. Dark, dark days.

[spanone]

21. yes.

[Comrade Grumpy]

22. Yup. My father said that since I liked history so much, I better be watching all the coverage.

And blam, there it was.

[Gman]

23. I don't remember

But I saw JFK in San Antonio 50 years ago today.

[TuxedoKat]

24. Yes

My parents and I were watching -- I remember it vividly because of my dad's reaction mostly -- the shock of seeing that on live tv.

[CurtEastPoint]

25. Yes, Sunday morning. Watched it live.

[TeeYiYi]

26. Yes. I was 5 and I remember it clearly. ..nt

TYY

[TheCowsCameHome]

27. Yes, not believing what I was seeing.

[awoke_in_2003]

44. Too young for Kennedy...

but I felt the same feeling on 9/11. As you know, they second tower crash was filmed. As I watched it I thought "I thought they didn't have video of the crash"- it took a minute to really sink in that it was a second attack.

[MichiganVote]

28. Yes I saw it

[rurallib]

29. yep - 14 at the time

[Capt.Rocky300]

30. Sure did while watching with my dad......

whose exact words were, "What the Hell?".

[postulater]

31. yup.

black and white

[cliffordu]

32. Yes.

[Kahuna]

33. I did. nt

[stuckinodi]

34. yes n/t

[Trailrider1951]

35. Yes

I thought that I could not be more shocked by the events of that dreadful weekend. I was wrong.
On edit: I was eleven, it was a week before my 12th birthday.

[quaker bill]

36. will never forget it.

[stage left]

37. Yes.

I couldn't believe it.

[snappyturtle]

38. Yep. I couldn't believe my 16 yr. old eyes. nt

[duffyduff]

39. You bet. I was almost nine years old and watched the murder with my parents.

If you lived through that weekend and were old enough to understand it, you never forget it. It was just shocking.

No novelist could have come up with a story like this one.

I intend to watch the replay on CBS.com tomorrow of the entire weekend.

[Nay]

40. Yes. It was a shock to see such a thing on live TV. nt

[CherokeeDem]

41. Yes...

My parents and I had been glued to the TV, and we were shocked.

[ellenfl]

42. yup, saw it. i remember the caisson and john-john, too. eom

[Historic NY]

43. Yes..

[The Blue Flower]

45. Yes, I was watching

14 years old. It was utterly shocking, but even then I wondered why they let such a crowd be there surrounding him.

[Scuba]

46. I was 15. The minute I saw it I felt something was hinkey.

When I heard Ruby's motive (to spare Jackie the trauma of a trial) I knew it.

[RagAss]

47. Yes. I was five. That weekend was my first memory in life.

[truebluegreen]

48. Yes.

[XRubicon]

49. I missed it... I was -1 at the time.

[BootinUp]

50. 4 months old, I had already figured the whole thing out too.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

51. We sure were.

I was almost 10 years old.

[mulsh]

52. yes

n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

53. We were at church when Oswald was shot

around 11:30 a.m. By the time the service let out, someone had heard what had happened and had a TV on in one of the Sunday School rooms. We were all transfixed and in shock. I couldn't even believe what was happening. It was from then that I suspected a cover-up was taking place. No one will ever convince me that Oswald acted alone.


Ed. I was 17 in Pasadena, Texas.

[alfredo]

55. Yes. I was at a friend's house. I was the only one in the room at that time. When he got

shot I yelled for the other's to come in. When they found out, they cheered. I told them that it was not good, now we will never know why he did it.

[mercymechap]

56. Yep! I saw it.

[texanwitch]

57. Yep.

I talked to the cop that was walking with Oswald, the one wearing the big cowboy hat.

Got his autograph.

[Lifelong Protester]

58. Yes. We held 'vigil' by the TV for the entire 4 days.

[SteveG]

59. Yes

Something that is indelibly burned into my memory.

[Lint Head]

60. Yes. I remember it well. I was 13.

[Ms. Toad]

61. Yes. n/t

[ancianita]

62. Yes. Same. Glued. Brain cells got rearranged about everything.

[99Forever]

64. Yes.

A very sad, unforgeable time.

[G_j]

66. Yes

[redwitch]

67. Yup.

7 years old, sitting next to my dad on the living room couch. He yelled Oh my God, jumped up and turned up the volume.

[starroute]

68. No - the TV in my dormitory living room had died

I went over to the neighboring dorm to watch the funeral, but I missed all the other coverage.

[FarCenter]

69. No - was in college and didn't have a TV

[kwassa]

71. yes, and the whole family saw it.

Everyone wanted to see what Lee Harvey Oswald looked like .... and we saw the end of him.

[legcramp]

72. Nope, and as weird as this might seem

The NFL played their football games that Sunday.

I was 17 and some buddies and I went to the Vikings and Lions game that day at the old Metropolitan stadium in Bloomington Mn.

To say it was a strange day is an understatement. I remember it was about 20 degrees and just gloomy as hell. The teams seemed to be moving in slow motion. There was a moment of silence before the kickoff and I think we were trying to sing Amazing grace at halftime but I was too drunk to remember that for sure. As I recall there were about 30,000 people at the game.

Anyway the Vikings won 34 to 31 and I still have the ticket stubs and the program from that game.

[lpbk2713]

74. I saw it live.

I couldn't believe what I saw. I couldn't believe what I saw happened inside
a police station. It took a while before I accepted it as the real thing.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

75. No, because it was Sunday, my father was a Lutheran pastor, and

there was no question of not going to church.

However, my 10-year-old brother was home sick with the flu, and he saw it.

[JVS]

76. Nope. I had plans, so I asked Mr. Bush down the street if he'd tape it for me.

[Beausoir]

77. Yep. I was parked in front of the tv.

My mother was horrified at what happened...live. It was yet another new milestone in television, after so many that weekend.

[raging moderate]

78. Yes! Horrible memory!

The gunshot sound still echoes in my head. And that look on Oswald's face! And the mournful drums that went on and on forever!!

[raging moderate]

79. Every day! Glued to TV in total shock!

We got up every day and turned on the TV. And sat there in stunned silence, trying to take in the new reality! We had all been so happy! Even my (moderate) Republican mother! Everyone around us had just fallen in love with this President, his wife, and their two darling little children! So many hopeful signs, not just with this family but with many others around them, Vice President Johnson from Texas, and from other places, seemingly many different people from many different parts of our country coming together, reaching agreements that could lead to so much good for everyone! Friends of mine from high school reported walking around in Black neighborhoods and finding many friendly people who said things were getting better for them. A wonderful new era seemed to be starting for us all. And now it was all suddenly blasted away! Somebody on TV said, "We'll never be happy again!" And somebody answered, "Oh, yes, we will be happy again, someday. We will just never be young again."

[virgdem]

80. Yes, saw the whole horrible thing on TV that Sunday morning.

I was 11. I remember the day of the assassination and Ruby shooting Oswald very clearly. I can't believe it's been 50 years-I remember it as if it was yesterday-a day that was indelibly etched in my mind.

[stopbush]

81. Yes. I was 9 years old at the time. I remember watching that with my mom.

I wonder how freaked out she actually was that her kids just saw a person gunned down on live TV.

[Kablooie]

82. Damn. I don't remember if I saw it live or saw a replay.

[mountain grammy]

83. Yes, 15 years old, watching with my mom.

[tularetom]

84. No, my daughter was 3 days old and I was visiting her & her mother in the hospital

[Tumbulu]

85. Yes I saw it and it traumatized me

I was 7 yrs old and saw it when it happened.

[Trajan]

86. Yes, and I'll never forget it ...

I was 7, and glued to the TV for a week from the moment we got home from school .... My mom, who loved JFK, allowed us to watch throughout the whole ordeal ...

I watched the entire prelude to Oswald's assassination that morning ... The most shocking moment of television
I have ever seen ....

[hedda_foil]

87. Yes.

I was a freshman at the University of Illinois. I had worked for Kennedy as a 15 year old volunteer in 1960, and all of us Chicago area volunteers got to see him speak at the old International Amphitheater the night before election day. When I heard the president had been shot, I couldn't take it in. I thought the girl who ran into our dorm room meant the president of the university. It simply didn't occur to me that it was JFK. After that, we all ran down to the lounge in our residence hall to watch the television there, and stayed glued to the set for days.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

88. No, but my dad saw it.

I was probably doing my usual late sleeping on Sunday Morning. I was eight and in the fourth grade.

I remember being glued to the TV all weekend and also for the funeral. We were good Democrats and had three portraits of JFK on the wall in our house. The whole nation was stunned, but I think Democrats were especially stunned.

[Hekate]

89. I was glued to the tv -- I think I did. But like all images played 1,000 times, it's hard to know

It took me years and years to mentally untangle the fact that I did not see the Twin Towers fall in real time. I was wakened by a frantic phone call about 9:30 am California time and staggered out of bed to turn on CNN. It was after 12 noon in NYC, but CNN was looping the tapes and kept saying it was 9:30, you know? It was all so stunning I simply couldn't compute.

Hawai'i, where my family lived in 1963, was so far away from the Mainland that my mother complained for years that news broadcasts reached us the next day (Pan Am flew newspapers in from the Mainland). 1962 heralded the first satellite tv broadcasts, and early the next year they improved (I looked it up) but were we getting them? We were glued to the tv for 4 days in November, like everyone else. It felt like it was in real time, the impact was as if it were, but we were so many time zones away from Washington DC....

And it was all 50 years ago, lifetimes and lifetimes from when I was 16.

[Lugnut]

90. I didn't.

It was a Sunday morning so I was helping my mother in the kitchen. My dad was watching and saw it all live right in front of him. He started yelling for us to hurry and come watch TV. We did and were glued to the TV all day.

[Raksha]

91. Yes I did, and it has haunted me ever since. n/t

[montana_hazeleyes]

92. Yes.

I saw it live as it happened. I was 14, with a friend my age. We thought the world had gone mad.

[MADem]

93. No. I was in Europe and we did not have a television.

I did see a bit of news on a neighbor's set, but it was mostly still pictures.

I did see some footage of the funeral as well--that may have been in a movie theater, it's been a long time...

Much of the footage surrounding those days was news to me--it still catches my eye when they show it around this time of year, as they do.

[CFLDem]

94. Nope

My view was blocked by my father's bell bottom jeans.

[WinkyDink]

95. Yes.

[OwnedByCats]

96. I was not alive

but my mother was telling me that even though she hasn't seen that footage since that time, she can still remember the expression on his face just before he was shot. They played it quite a fair bit in the days that followed, so she did see it enough times for it to be forever etched in her memory.

[MineralMan]

97. Yes. In the lounge of my dorm.

It was packed. There was a sharp intake of breath from everyone.

[Elwood P Dowd]

98. Yes, on an old Zenith black and white TV.

I was 16 at the time.

[dembotoz]

99. i think so but i was only 10 and it might have been a repeat

i do remember it was the only thing on the damn tube and i was upset because my shows were not on

[Autumn]

100. Yes. I remember those days. Vividly.

[DonViejo]

103. Ditto, I remember them all too vividly...I was 15

I remember being in a state of shock the entire time

[kentuck]

101. Yes, and I remember thinking that he shot him to shut him up....

But, I was only a kid so what did I know...?

[tsuki]

104. Yes. nt

[DesertFlower]

105. yes. nt

[Neutrino_603]

106. Yes

I was at the time a ten year old Boston, Massachusetts area Catholic boy, son of a WWII Navy PT boat sailor. We, I think, suffice it to say worshiped President Kennedy. With horrified fascination, sitting on the livingroom floor three feet from the TV screen, I saw it all. The momentarily almost comical look of complete shock on the face of that cop in the little cowboy hat next to Oswald was all it took for me to realize that something horrible had just happened again. That expression is what registered in my ten year old brain and caused me to realize that what l had just watched happen was horribly real.

[madrchsod]

107. i don't remember watching it live.

[Carolina]

108. yes