Fifty years ago, on November 22, 1963, the nation and the world were shocked by the news that the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. To mark this historic anniversary, we have highlighted some of the materials available in the Library’s collection regarding this event and the president.
- JFK assassination files : newspaper clippings from 1963-68 (Collection). This collection of clippings from the The Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Nashville Tennessean, The Washington Post, and Life magazine were assembled following Kennedy’s assassination. They include editorials, photographs, news, and reports of the investigation of the Warren Commission as it occurred. These are assembled in two, three-ring binders in our Special Collections room. Just ask at Reference if you would like to view them.
- Post JFK assassination Air Force One flight deck recording (Online Audio). This audio recording is available online through the Government Printing Office website and consists of two hours of Air Force One flight deck recordings immediately following the assassination. The recording includes conversations between pilots, staff, and secret service agents regarding the incident and the disposition of the president’s body. The recording also includes the use of code names for some of the individuals involved.
- Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Online). Available online from the National Archives, this represents the results of the Warren Commission’s investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
- JFK (Videorecording). Directed by Oliver Stone, this is the story of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison whose investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy became an obsession.
- Profiles in courage (Book). John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, written when he was a junior senator from Massachusetts. It documents the true accounts of eight American patriots at different junctures in American History.
- JFK and the unspeakable (Audiobook). James W. Douglass sheds new light on the Kennedy assassination and its significance, taking listeners from the Oval Office to the fateful presidential motorcade in Dallas and exposing the “Unspeakable” forces behind it all.
- Four days in November : the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Book). Drawn from Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, this book is a historic account of the event and all the conspiracy theories it spawned. Written by Vincent Bugliosi, famed prosecutor of Charles Manson and author of Helter Skelter.
- The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection (Online Collection). Collection held at the National Archives and consists of the JFK Database, photographs, reports and other items. Some of the items included digitized images of bullet fragments and the windshield of the President’s limousine, the autopsy report, and eyewitness accounts, including Lady Bird Johnson’s diary on the assassination.