The Silent JFK Witness SPEAKS

1960s is really the era I am most familiar with. I'm not sure why, it's just fascinating. There is so much history with the Space Race, Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, rock 'n' roll music, the rising of hippies, the John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination, the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination and so much more!

On May 24th, 2011 my Mom and I went to a special talk on JFK's assassination. It was filmed and viewed live on a website called iAntique.com. The special guest who was interviewed was a lady by the name of Mary Ann Moorman. Mary Ann Moorman is famous for taking a picture of John F. Kennedy the moment he was assassinated. Ms. Moorman has kept silent these 48 years on what happened the day of the assassination and finally she has come out to tell the world what she saw and heard and experienced on that fateful day.

Mary Ann Moorman

It was November 22, 1963. President Kennedy was in Dallas. Mary Ann and her friend Jean Hill decided they wanted to be there to see the President drive by and, if they could, get a picture of him. It was an exciting day! Mary Ann had a Polaroid camera with her. It had two pictures left in the roll. One she took of Jean and the other Jean took of her. They ran to a department store to get more film for their camera and hurried to what is now known as "The Grassy Knoll". They wanted to be away from the crowds and get the best shot of the President as he drove by as possible.

They waited for several hours taking pictures of police that were ahead of the procession. Mary Ann had known some of these police officers during high school. It was around 12:30 (Central Time) when the car Kennedy was in finally showed up.



Mary Ann put the camera to her face and "focused" her shot. She followed the car the President was in with her eye to her camera, waiting to get the perfect angle in which to snap her picture. Jean called out, "Hey Mr. President! Look over here! We want to take a picture of you." A moment later Mary Ann clicked to take the picture, at the same moment she heard what she thought was a firecracker. She pulled the camera away from her face and heard the sound again two more times. The Presidential motorcade almost halted to a complete stop. Mary Ann heard Jackie Kennedy, who was at that time sitting next to her husband in the back of the limousine they were riding, yell "Oh my gawd! He's been shot." And watched as the first lady attempted to jump off the back of the car. The next moment the limousine went shooting forward at a much high speed.

Puzzled Mary Ann noticed her friend running up the Grassy Knoll. She was gone for several minutes when a man approached her and asked her if she had just taken a picture? She said she had but had not looked at it yet. She pulled it out and together the two looked at what she had captured in a single moment.



It was in fact an image of President Kennedy the moment after he had been hit by a bullet. Whether it was the first bullet to hit him (this bullet went through him and hit the governor of Texas who was sitting in front of him) or the fatal bullet that killed him remains a mystery to this day. Nonetheless she had captured at close range what no one else had.

Jean Hill (in red) and Mary Ann Moorman (in blue) on the grassy knoll during the shooting

The following hours were confusing as Mary Ann and Jean were rushed to the Sheriff's office and the press room there. She told and retold her story. Within 30 minutes of the declaration of Kennedy's death Mary Ann's photo appeared across the country on television sets in every home. By 6 o'clock that night Mary Ann was home. At around 12:30 that night the FBI showed up on her doorstep asking to see the picture she took. In the following months the CIA, Secret Service and FBI again, took the picture to examine and study it.

Mary Ann Moorman explained she didn't feel like her life had all changed because of what had happened and what she had experience. She did tell the interviewer that she has remained silent for all these years because of her friend Jean Hill. Jean and Mary Ann had had such different remembrances of what happened on that day and she didn't want to speak up because she realized it was cause a lot of controversy. Several years ago Jean Hill died and with the upcoming 50th anniversary of the assassination people's interests were rising as to what happened that day, for these reasons Mary Ann felt she should come forward with her story. Even if it was no new information it is a new story and an addition to a fascinating history.