7. “This Is MY Body…”
Following the official news of Kennedy’s death, his security detail began transporting the coffin down the hall. But news travels fast, so the local officials were already there to stop JFK’s detail from taking the lifeless body to Washington.
What followed was among the dumbest “local vs. federal authority” standoffs in history. Confronting the president’s detail — some of whom were still wearing suits dipped in blood — Dallas County Coroner Earl Rose had the boldness to demand that, according to local law, an autopsy needed to be done before the president could leave the state.
When the Secret Service refused, Rose reportedly shouted: “This is my body!” In fact, he was taking advantage of an oversight: there was no law stating that murdering the US president was a federal crime (as a result of this incident, Congress made a rectification in late 1963).
However, Kennedy’s people pushed past the local officials and went to Dallas Love Field carrying JFK’s casket. The posthumous power struggle was recreated in the 2013 movie Parkland.
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6 Responses
It is so sad the first a Great President was assassinated , and that his would be killer killed, so that no one would really know who was responsible for this tragedy even after all these years
Regardless of circumstances these many years later, still the biggest travesty in our wonderful country’s history. Beyond sad…power politics greed and ultimately murder of one of the most caring and brilliant man in the world. Johnson really wanted that Presidency and look what he did. Despicable.
How can we believe any of this when you don’t even know the date that he was killed?
I was in class at St. Patrick elementary school when Sister Angela came in and told us of the horror!
Thank you for this information that i am pretty sure no one really knew That was a day that I REMEMBER WAS HORRIBLE. That was a day for History and it was History.
i REMEMBER THAT DAY LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY. The next 3 days were like everyone in the world was surrounded by fog. The TV proceedings were in Black and White because the colored TVs were very expensive. I really truly believe that it was the first time in my life that the TV stations were on all night. Back then most stations were only broadcasting until 1:00 am. It had just been a few months earlier that we had all as families gathered to watch the intervention of the US and Russia deal in Cuba. Tensions were high, and almost everybody we knew had thought that the assassination was directly related to the Cuba incident. Tensions were high and everyone thought we were going to go into a nuclear war with Russian. I had read a story later in life that in fact it had almost happened, but there was a senator from I believe North Dakota that had a cooler prevailing thought, and he along had saved the earth from nuclear devastation. Trying times for a man who loved by many, many Americans and still to this day.