The President Has Been Shot!: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

The funeral procession to the Capital of Kennedy’s body was deliberately made to resemble that of Lincoln in 1865. Jackie’s favorite eulogy at the funeral was delivered by Senator Mike Mansfield. It called attention to how Jackie placed her wedding ring in Kennedy’s hands in his coffin.

Meanwhile, with Oswald given less security to allow the media more access to him, Swanson argues that he was vulnerable. While being transported to prison, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, described by Swanson as “a middle-aged club owner and a creature from a world of sleazy nightlife” (187). The killing of Oswald was “broadcast […] on live television to the entire nation” (187).

The public funeral of Kennedy was held with the public allowed to walk past the coffin. Jackie cried loudly during the ceremony and Kennedy’s son John Jr. “saluted his father’s coffin” (193). Oswald was buried the same day. Only his mother, brother, wife, and two young children attended.

Overwhelmed by public attention since she had become “an obsession” (204), Jackie moved away from Washington DC to try to have a private life. In a speech to Congress given two days after Kennedy’s funeral, President Johnson vowed to “carry on the dead president’s work” (203).