The Shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald
Photographer: Robert Jackson
Date: November 24, 1963
Location: Dallas Police Headquarters, Dallas, Texas, USA
Robert Jackson of the Dallas Times Herald photographed Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald had been arrested for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The shooting occurred as Oswald was being transferred to the county jail and was captured live on national television. Jackson, who had already exposed his film covering Oswald's press appearances, grabbed a borrowed camera with a fresh roll for the transfer. His photograph — showing Ruby pressing a revolver into Oswald's side as Oswald grimaced — won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1964. Oswald died at Parkland Memorial Hospital — the same hospital where Kennedy had died — about two hours later. Ruby was convicted of murder; his conviction was overturned on appeal, but he died of cancer in January 1967 before a retrial could occur. His motive for shooting Oswald was never definitively established.
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