What It Was Really Like Witnessing JFK's Assassination

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Ricky Moorman, age 11, wanted to see the presidential motorcade wind through downtown Dallas, but he would have to miss it. Friday, November 22, was, after all, a school day. As a consolation, his mother, Mary Ann Moorman, promised to snap a photo of the president.

Mary Ann Moorman and her friend Jean Hill found the perfect vantage point to watch the procession pass through Dealey Plaza. Standing just feet from the curb directly opposite of the grassy knoll, Moorman and Hill would have an unobstructed view of the presidential limousine. The friends were excited to finally see the handsome, young president up close. As the motorcade drew closer, Moorman heard the cheering crowd get louder. Anxiously, she readied her camera. In a 2013 interview with The New York Post, Moorman recalled what happened next. "As the car turned the corner and came down past us, Jean hollered, 'Mr. President, look this way, we want to take your picture.' And I put the camera up and snapped the picture when I thought he was looking at me."

An unwitting witness to history, Moorman captured the moment Kennedy was struck by the fatal bullet. Years later, Moorman would tell documentary filmmaker Alan Govenar that, at first, she thought there had been a gust of wind because she saw Kennedy's hair lift. However, the First Lady's screams revealed the gravity of what she had seen. "Jackie hollered, 'My God! He's been shot!'," Moorman tells PBS. "We heard that so plain."

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