Four Days in November

[Antti Hynonen]

Four Days In November, The original coverage of the John F. Kennedy assassination by the staff of the New York Times. Introduction by Tom Wicker, edited by Robert B. Semple Jr.

St. Martin's Press, New York.

Copyright © 2003 by The New York Times.

I have recently obtained this book. I suppose it contains just about all the articles published Nov. 22 - Nov. 25th 1963 in the New York Times, pertaining to the JFK assassination case.

Here are some interesting quotes from the book:

Page 28. "Later in the afternoon, Dr. Malcolm Perry, an attending surgeon, and Dr. Kemp Clark, chief of neurosurgery at Parkland Hospital, gave more details. Mr. Kennedy was hit by a bullet in the throat, just below the Adam's apple, they said. This had the appearance of a bullet's entry. Mr. Kennedy also had a massive, gaping wound in the back and one on the right side of the head. However, the doctors said it was impossible to determine immediately whether the wounds had been caused by one bullet or two."

.... same page later..... Dr. Kemp Clark:

" A missile had gone in and out the back of his head causing external lacerations and loss of brain tissue."

Page 29.

"The details of what happened when the shots rang out, as the president's car moved along at about 25 miles an hour are sketchy."

Page 31.

"There they encountered Senator Yarborough, white, shaken and horrified. The shots, he said, seemed to have come from the right and the rear of the car."

Page 32.

"By the time reporters arrived at the hospital, the police were guarding the presidential car closely. They would allow no one to approach it. A bucket of water stood by the car, suggesting that the back seat had been scrubbed out."

Page 47-48. "Ten Feet From President"

TORONTO, Nov. 22 (Canadian Press) - A man from suburban Willowdale who was only 10 feet away when President Kennedy was assassinated today said he first thought gunfire was the sound of firecrackers. Norman Similas, 34 years old, told The Star in a telephone conversation that he had been in Dallas on business. He was taking pictures of the motorcade when he saw the president slump to the floor, he said.

Here is his story: "I was in Dallas on a convention and I decided to snap a picture of the president as the motorcade rolled by. The crowds had thinned out just past an overpass near the Trade Mart, so I had a good position when the motorcade came by at about 8 miles an hour. Then I suddenly heard a sharp crack. The first thing that came to my mind was that someone was setting off firecrackers. I turned away from the president's car and looked back to where the noise seemed to come from. Then somebody - I don't know who it was - yelled: ' The president's been shot.' I swung back to look at the car. A secret Service man ran up with his gun drawn. A policeman beside me drew his revolver and his eyes searched the crowd. Then another shot rang out and a third almost immediately on top of it. I was still staring at the car. The secret service man opened the car door and I saw the president slumped down to the floor and falling toward the pavement. Jackie Kennedy was sitting on the left side of the car and Governor Connally on the president's right. I could see a hole in the president's left temple and his head and hair were bathed in blood. The agent looked and gasped: 'Oh my God, he's dead.' "

Page 48 - 49. "Boy described Shooting"

"Chicago, Nov. 22 - The Chicago Tribune published today an eyewitness report by a 14-year-old boy who was standing 10 feet away and looking directly at President Kennedy at the time of the assassination. The boy, Alan Smith, a Boy Scout and ninth-grade pupil at the Stockyard Junior High School, gave the following description:

'It made me weak. I felt like sitting down. It was horrible. I was standing on the curb watching the parade along Main Street. We were permitted to skip school, if we had a note from our parents, to watch it. The crowds were cheering, but all at once they changed to screaming. The car was about 10 feet from me when a bullet hit the president in his forehead. The bullets came from a window right over my head in the building in front of which my friends and I were standing. Mr. Kennedy had a big wide smile. But when he was hit, his face turned blank. There was no smile, no frown - nothing. He fell down over Jackie's knees and didn't say anything. She stood up screaming, 'God, oh God, no.' There was blood over her and everything. She tried to raise him up but he fell back over her."