Warren Commission (06 of 26): Hearings Vol. VI (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (06 of 26): Hearings Vol. VI (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. UNDERWOOD. I was born in Oklahoma City, Okla., in 1922; I served in
the Marine Corps from 1940 until 1943, almost 4 years, and after that
I attended the University of Tulsa and after that I worked--I began
working in radio as an announcer while I was going to college. When I
got out of college, I went to Corpus Christi, Tex. That was about 1947
and I became program director and news director of a radio station in
Corpus Christi and I stayed there until 1950 when I went to a station
in Jacksonville, Fla., where I was also program director and news
director, and in 1953, I came to Dallas, and I worked for a year and
a half for WFAA-TV as an announcer, then I freelanced in television
and radio from September of 1954 until November--and I have to count
for a minute--6 years this November that would be until November 1958
when I went to work for KRLD-TV and Radio News and shortly thereafter
I became assistant news director but I earned part of my living, I
still freelance in television which is all freelance in television and
I have a regular job which entails every type of reporting, including
photography which I enjoy doing.
Mr. BALL. On the day of the assassination, you were in the motorcade
with these men you mentioned and you think your car was third behind
the Presidential car?
Mr. UNDERWOOD. Yes; and I thought it was six or seven. I shot sound
on film of the President's arrival and Vice President's arrival at
Dallas Love Field the morning he came in on the 22d and then I took off
the rather cumbersome sound on film equipment and took my hand camera
because I had an assigned place in the motorcade and I could not tell
out there because of the many people I could not tell what position
we were in. I could not see that far ahead to determine exactly where
we were in the motorcade, although I knew we were in the front of it.
The motorcade stopped once on the way downtown, this was briefly, and
I jumped over this side--we were in a convertible--and ran toward
the President's car and I was aware of the crowd and the motorcade
immediately started and I ran back to the convertible, not wanting
to be left, and looking afterward at the films that I took there,
I could then count the cars there. I realized we were three behind
him, according to my movies we took. When we turned onto Main Street
downtown and headed west toward the scene of where the assassination
took place, either the regulator or the mainspring in my camera broke
and I was without a camera. I knew that we had two men, at least two
men on the parade route who were on the street and would be filming
the motorcade as we came by and I hoped to exchange my broken camera
for one of theirs because I knew I could make more use of the one that
would operate. The only problem was we went down Main Street so rapidly
it would have been impossible to get anything from someone standing on
the street and at Main and Record one of our men was stationed and I
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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