I never saw him go for a gun.
But I did see Johnson staring at Kennedy the entire route until they turned into Dealy Plaza and then look up towards the Texas School Book Depository building right before the shots.
I never saw him go for a gun.
But I did see Johnson staring at Kennedy the entire route until they turned into Dealy Plaza and then look up towards the Texas School Book Depository building right before the shots.
You're thinking of John Connally, the nervous fella who kept glancing behind him while waving his hat around. He'd been named as Secretary of the Navy by JFK in 1961 at Johnson's request, but then resigned eleven months later in order to run for the Texas governorship and was elected Governor of Texas in 1962. Oh, as United States Secretary of the Treasury in 1971, by President Richard Nixon. In January 1979 Connally announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for President in 1980... but Ronald Reagan got it instead, and himself suffered an assassination attempt about a month after his election.
It was Nellie Connally's wife Nellie who said the last words that President Kennedy probably heard during the motorcade: "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you."
Behind the JFK presidential limo was a 1955 Cadillac that carried eight armed agents—four inside, four on the running boards. Kenneth O'Donnell, special assistant to the president and another aide rode in that car, as well. The agents on the running boards were assigned to hurry up to the presidential car any time it slowed to a stop or a walking pace.
Next in line was the vice president's car, a four-door Lincoln convertible that carried LBJ and Mrs. Johnson, Sen. Yarborough and a Secret Service agent. A Texas highway patrolman drove.
Behind Johnson's Lincoln was a car driven by a Dallas cop that carried three more agents and Clifton Garter, assistant to Johnson.
And this was followed by the rest of the motorcade, including five cars with the Dallas mayor and other Texas politicians; Jack Valenti, an aide to Vice President Lyndon Johnson riding six cars back motorcade, the president's physician, Admiral George Burkley; telephone and Western Union vehicles; a White House communications car; three cars of press photographers; a bus for White House staffers, and two press buses.
A Dallas police car and three more motorcycles brought up the rear.