How Many Forum Members And Visitors actually watched Jack Ruby Shoot Oswald On Live National TV?

[Joe Bauer]

I was just sharing my doing so with another member who told me they also watched Ruby whacking Oswald on live TV the morning of 11, 24, 1963.

Although millions of Americans did watch that incident on live national TV ( with a far greater number seeing it replayed later )  I am sure at least half or more have passed on by now.

I am also sure that those who watched the killing on live TV had a visceral feeling and reaction that was much more powerful and powerfully effecting than those that didn't.

Oswald's murder was reshown a thousand times over in the days after.

Yet, still, seeing this murder live as it happened sets apart the viewers in interesting ways.

I suppose like those in Dealey Plaza who watched JFK's head explode right in front of them?

Not quite as powerfully shocking and effecting but still similar in instantaneously altering world reality perceptions. And in dark suspicion thought feeding ways.

Watching Ruby blow a hole into Oswald's gut was a great trauma to America, and especially those who viewed it live.

And like any violent action trauma, it caused much psychic and emotional distress. To millions in one second at the same time. Our entire society at that time.

I've described what I saw, felt and did watching Ruby shoot Oswald on live TV many times.

I was 12 years old.

My entire young body involuntarily leaped from a laying down position on my bed to a full standing one in one motion.

I couldn't believe what I had just seen.

I was by myself. 

And, again without conscious thought,  I just started shouting ... "NO WAY - NO WAY - NO WAY  " over and over !

The killing was so improbable right inside the DPD's own building I instantly felt great dark suspicion about it all. 

Still to this day, I consider my experience of watching Ruby kill Oswald live on national TV right in front of my own eyes that morning the most government power reality perception changing event in my life.

Could those forum members here ( and visitors as well ) who also watched the live broadcast of Ruby whacking Oswald on national TV on 11/24/1963 please state so?

One sentence would do. I'm just really curious what percentage of the forum had this unique experience. And your reaction when it happened?

Those of us who watched the event live on TV that day are part of a special yet ever shrinking club imo.

Maybe we should create an honorary medal or ribbon of some sort to wear to future JFKA events? 

I was there baby! 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Larry Hancock]

Yes, I watched in live with my parents..their reaction, I didn't have one, was "now we will never know for sure what happened".

[Chris Bristow]

My father and I were standing in the living room and watching the transfer. When Oswald was shot my father became stunned and took a few steps backward and plopped down on the couch. I remember him just staring into space for a while and I thought that was strange. He said nothing he just sat there and stared into space.

About 8 to 10 years later he explained that he immediately saw the parallel between Oswald claiming he was a patsy and then being murdered within 2 days. It was a well-known tactic to kill the Patsy before they could talk and that concerned him. I think you may have doubts about the assassination but was never a CT person.

 

[Gerry Down]

I didn't see it.

I heard recently that technically no one saw it live, that what was shown on TV was actually a video that was 1 or 2 minutes old. 

Any truth to that?

[Gerry Down]

For people that were watching it live, what was on directly before they showed LHO being brought out?

Was for example Walter Cronkite or some other news room personality talking and then they immediately cut to footage of LHO being led out, or was the camera looking at the doorway in the basement for say 5 minutes waiting for LHO to walk through it?

[Michael Crane]

I was only a month old.

[David Von Pein]

5 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

I heard recently that technically no one saw it live, that what was shown on TV was actually a video that was 1 or 2 minutes old. 

Any truth to that?

NBC-TV was the only network that actually managed to air the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald "live". The other television networks only showed replays. CBS missed it by just 5 seconds or so.

The CBS affiliate in Dallas—KRLD-TV—did videotape the shooting "live" as it was happening in the police basement, but whether or not anyone watching KRLD-TV actually saw this live footage of the exact moment of the shooting, I really do not know. It's quite possible that KRLD, like most other CBS affiliate stations at that time, was airing Roger Mudd's report from the steps of the U.S. Capitol at the precise moment when Ruby was killing Oswald. I'm just not sure.

Related links:

 

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Edited March 16, 2023 by David Von Pein

[Gerry Down]

25 minutes ago, Michael Crane said:

I was only a month old.

Same age as Rachel Oswald.

[Gerry Down]

32 minutes ago, David Von Pein said:

NBC-TV was the only network that actually managed to air the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald "live". The other television networks only showed replays. CBS missed it by just 5 seconds or so.

From that I take it that CBS only cut to the DPD basement as there was a scuffle on the floor trying to get the gun off Ruby.

[Dan Rice]

I was 10 years old at the time.  My parents and I were watching TV and I'm guessing it was CBS.  Oswald's murder was not shown real time as we were watching.  Only a screen crawl alerted us to Oswald's being shot and his eventual death.

[Gerry Down]

 

 

[Mark Knight]

I was 9 years old. My family was having a late Sunday lunch at our home in Indiana when we saw Ruby shoot Oswald live. NBC's Tom Pettit was incredulous. He couldn't believe what he just saw. [Dad preferred NBC News to CBS News. Our local ABC network station was on Channel 32, and we didn't have a UHF converter.]

My dad told us, "Remember this moment. You just saw history unfold in front of you." Later, Dad said, "It looks to me like somebody wanted this Oswald guy silenced. Wonder what he might have said in court that "somebody" didn't want to come out?"

And I have been a student of the JFK assassination since that weekend.

[Douglas Caddy]

I was living in New York City at the time and watched it live on TV.

[Paul Brancato]

i was 15. I’ll never forget it. My parents were shocked and outraged. It woke something up in me, caused me to read what coverage I could, early reports in I think the Guardian suggesting the Minutemen were behind the JFK hit. Started following Mark lane saw him speak at small NYC events a few times over the next year. Like Mark said, I’ve been here ever since.

[Benjamin Cole]

4 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

Same age as Rachel Oswald.

You know, that is rarely, very rarely, brought up.

LHO was very new father, again, on 11/22.  Perhaps deserves its own post.

No sane man would get involved in the JFKA as a new father.

Most people who knew him seem to regard LHO as highly intelligent, eccentric, but sane. 

Nothing dispositive here...but certainly, in the first years after the JFKA, the media did not remind everyone that LHO was a new father. Didn't fit the official-M$M narrative.

So...was LHO insane? Was he becoming less sane? His co-workers did not say so. 

Would have a working-class LHO been susceptible to financial inducements? Of course, the answer is yes, he was susceptible---who would not be, with a wife and two kids--- but that is different from proving he took cash to participate in an event that day. 

Perhaps LHO planned to die or exit the US that day, but leave a large wad of cash for family. 

Interesting topic, largely unexplored by both CT and LN camps. CT'ers do not like the idea of LHO being bribed, and LN'ers that LHO was subordinate to  confederates.