Warren Commission (04 of 26): Hearings Vol. IV (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (04 of 26): Hearings Vol. IV (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Governor CONNALLY. We have there a reception room that is open from
about 9:30 to 12 and from 2 to 4 every day, and depending on the time
of the year there are literally hundreds of people who come in there.
There would be as high as 80 at a time that come in groups, and a
tour--this is a very large reception room which, frankly, we can't
use for any other purpose because it is so useful for tourists, and
they literally come in by the hundreds, and some days we will have a
thousand people in that room on any given day. So for me to say he
never was in there, I couldn't do that; and he might well have been
there, and no record of it in the office.
We make no attempt to keep a record of all the people who come in. If
they come in small groups or if they have appointments with me, or one
of my assistants, yes, we do. We keep records of people who come in and
want to leave a card or leave word that they dropped by. But I have no
knowledge that he ever came by.
Mr. SPECTER. Governor Connally, on your recitation of the events on the
day of the assassination, you had come to the point where the shooting
was concluded and the automobile had started to accelerate toward the
hospital. What recollection do you have, if any, of the events on the
way to the hospital from the assassination scene?
Governor CONNALLY. None really. I think at that point I had lost
consciousness because I don't have any recollection, Mr. Specter, of
anything that occurred on the way to the hospital. It was a very short
period of time, but I don't remember it.
Mr. SPECTER. Do you have any recollection of your arrival at the
hospital itself, at the Parkland Hospital?
Governor CONNALLY. Yes. I think when the car stopped the driver was
obviously driving at a very rapid rate of speed, and apparently, as he
threw on the brakes of the car, it brought me back to consciousness.
Again, a strange thing--strange things run through your mind and,
perhaps, not so strange under the circumstances, but I immediately--the
only thought that occurred to me was that I was in the jump seat next
to the door, that everyone concerned, was going to be concerned with
the President; that I had to get out of the way so they could get to
the President. So although I was reclining, and again Mrs. Connally
holding me, I suddenly lurched out of her arms and tried to stand
upright to get myself out of the car.
I got--I don't really know how far I got. They tell me I got almost
upright, and then just collapsed again, and someone then picked me up
and put me on a stretcher. I again was very conscious because this was
the first time that I had any real sensation of pain, and at this point
the pain in the chest was excruciating, and I kept repeating just over
and over, "My God, it hurts, it hurts," and it was hurting, it was
excruciating at that point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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