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| John F. Kennedy |
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| JFK and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, arriving at Love Field, Dallas, on Nov. 22, 1963, met well-wishers. |
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| Fateful moment: Texas Gov. John Connally in front of President Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy |
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| View from an ABC computer simulation of the assassination. |
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| Bearer of bad news: A grim-faced Walter Cronkite told Americans their President had been shot and killed. |
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To mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, ABC, Court TV and Fox News Channel will air new investigations into whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
The networks will use modern forensic science techniques to examine what really happened in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, when shots rang out and hit Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally as they traveled in a motorcade with their wives.
All of the shows will focus on the controversial "single bullet theory," which says that one shot from the rifle of Oswald could have passed through Kennedy and caused multiple wounds to Connally.
Skepticism about this theory — which had been ridiculed in everything from the Oliver Stone movie "JFK" to an episode of "Seinfeld" — has long been the main source of speculation that Oswald did not act alone.
Adding to the mystery are the mistakes made in Kennedy's autopsy and careless handling of evidence.
The Fox show points out, for instance, how Connally's wife sent the suit he was wearing on the day of the assassination to the dry cleaners, making it useless in later investigations.
To deal with the lingering doubts, the networks have brought in their own experts to look at the 40-year-old murder.
ABC hired Dale Myers, a computer animator and assassination authority, for a digital model of the murder scene based on the Zapruder film, the home movie that is the only visual documentation of the shooting.
The network had it analyzed by forensics experts who also investigated the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Fox and Court TV used similar re-creations.
"It's not just a computer animation based on a guess," said ABC News executive producer Tom Yellin. "It's a very precisely drawn piece of work that has the power of evidence that you can use in court."
Based on exhaustive looks at the trajectories of the bullets that hit Kennedy and Connally, Oswald's status as the lone gunman appears to be safe, according to the findings.
The programs also have acoustic experts examining the police audiotape that produced theories about a fourth shot, fired from the infamous grassy knoll, in addition to the three that came from the Texas School Book Depository, where police found a weapon with Oswald's prints.
"Somebody may have fired from the grassy knoll who missed," said Ed Hersh, senior vice president for Court TV. "But there is no evidence to prove that."
ABC's special investigates the conspiracy theories as well.
Anchor Peter Jennings' team has interviewed 70 people, ranging from the rabbi of Oswald's killer, Jack Ruby, to the KGB agent who watched Oswald during his stay in the Soviet Union.
Was the Mafia involved? Fidel Castro? The CIA?
Jennings, who was in Dallas as a young Canadian TV reporter that weekend, promises that every scenario raised over the years will be addressed.
"Unless you are an absolutely unre-quited conspiracist, our program will answer all of the conspiracy theories," he said.
But no one believes the anniversary will close the book on that tragic weekend.
"It's hard to recognize that a guy like Oswald, whose life is filled with failure, shot him," said ABC's Yellin. "It's too insubstantial a reason for this to happen."
Viewers will also be able to immerse themselves in hours of Kennedy programming on CNN, PBS, Bravo, MSNBC and the History Channel.
Among the sights: the now-eerie scenes of crowds cheering the Kennedys as they arrived in Dallas, the live footage of Ruby killing Oswald, tiny John-John saluting his father's horse-drawn casket and more.
When MSNBC's Chris Matthews sat down with more than two dozen public figures, including Sen. Hillary Clinton, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Jay Leno, for his special, "JFK: The Day That Changed America," he found that every one of them could offer personal recollections of that day.
"It's the first time that everyone sat at their television set and watched a real-life, real-time tragedy play out," says Tamara Haddad, executive producer of Matthews' special.
"It's not just that JFK was killed. It's that his murderer was killed right on TV, followed by a dramatic and heart-wrenching funeral with a young widow and young children.
"You sat there and watched because you didn't know what was going to happen next."
The men the story made
A President died, but TV news stars were born on Nov. 22, 1963.
"I think it's kind of like at the rodeo — you can't win the bronco-riding unless the horse bucks," said Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News and host of "Face the Nation."
"One thing a reporter needs is a good story."
Schieffer was a police reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when a woman called the news desk asking for a ride to Dallas. He told her she wasn't calling a taxi service.
Then the woman said she was Lee Harvey Oswald's mother. Schieffer picked her up himself and scored an exclusive interview.
He joined CBS four years later.
Others whose careers took off after covering the tragedy:
- Dan Rather, the New Orleans bureau chief for CBS, covered JFK's Dallas visit. He went on to succeed "CBS Evening News" anchor Walter Cronkite, who had tearfully informed the nation that Kennedy was dead.
- Robert MacNeil was an NBC correspondent covering the President. He became founding anchor of "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour" for PBS.
- Jim Lehrer, a reporter for the Dallas Morning News in 1963, is now lead anchor of the "NewsHour."
- Ike Pappas was a WNEW radio reporter who witnessed Jack Ruby shooting Oswald. He joined CBS News, where he was a high-profile correspondent for 25 years.
- Peter Jennings was in a Toronto airport when he heard the news. He hopped on a plane to Dallas, against the wishes of his bosses at a Canadian TV station. Two years later, he joined ABC, where he has anchored "World News Tonight" for the last 20 years.
Stephen Battaglio
Profiles in coverage: TV's week of JFK
- "President Kennedy Has Been Shot" Sunday, 8 p.m., CNN. Journalists reflect on how they covered the assassination.
- "A Presidency Revealed" Sunday, 8 p.m., History Channel. A three-hour documentary that analyzes Kennedy's thousand days in office with new interviews of many participants.
- "JFK: Case Not Closed" Sunday, 9 p.m., Fox News Channel. This investigation, with Greta Van Susteren, is not for the squeamish — it shows gruesome autopsy photos of Kennedy.
- "JFK: The Day That Changed America" Monday,9 p.m., MSNBC. Chris Matthews interviews figures from business, entertainment, sports and politics about where they were when they heard the news.
- "The JFK Assassination: Investigation Reopened" Wednesday, 9 p.m., Court TV. The network's popular "Forensic Files" series uses state-of-the-art crime-solving techniques to support the single-bullet theory.
- "JFK: Breaking the News" Wednesday, 10 p.m., Ch. 13. Using little-seen footage from Dallas TV stations, Jane Pauley narrates this look at how coverage of the assassination changed the way Americans got their news.
- "Peter Jennings Reporting: The Kennedy Assassination — Beyond Conspiracy" Nov. 20, 9 p.m., Ch. 7. ABC News promises an exhaustive examination of the assassination and the many conspiracy theories.
- "The Kennedy Tapes Revealed" Nov. 21, 8 p.m., Bravo. For the first time, viewers will hear audiotapes of Robert F. Kennedy reflecting on his brother's administration made in the years after the assassination.
- "Unrivaled Access: The JFK Films by Robert Drew" Nov. 22, 8:30 a.m., History Channel. Four classic documentaries from Drew, a pioneer in cinéma vérité, that include behind-the-scenes looks at the Kennedy White House and "Faces of November," which captured reactions to JFK's funeral.