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(Editor's note: Nov. 11, 2011 marks the 48th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. The following report, by UPI's White House reporter at the time, is the same that was filed all those years ago as the nation was in the process of first hearing about the tragedy. This, and other stories, have been republished to commemorate President Kennedy's death.) By Merriman Smith, UPI White House Reporter
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DALLAS, Nov. 22, 1963 (UPI) - President Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper today in downtown Dallas. Texas Governor John B. Connally was gravely wounded.
Police seized as prime suspect Lee H. Oswald, 24, a 1959 defector to Russia, who shot and killed a pursuing patrolman. He denied any knowledge of the savage shootings. He was charged with the murder of a policeman cut down in a street less than four miles from the assassination scene.
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president and immediately flew to Washington in the White House jetliner with Mrs. Kennedy, his wife Lady Bird, a group of officials. The body of the slain president accompanied them in a bronze casket.
Kennedy, smiling and waving as his bubbletop limousine - its top down in the bright, mild air - rolled past a quarter million Texans on the streets. At 12:31 p.m. (CST) it was headed toward an underpass. At that moment, he was shot in the head.
Witnesses said there was one shot, then a pause and two more in swift succession, apparently from the 5rth or 6th floors of the Texas Schoolbook Depository building 100 yards away.
Twenty nine minutes later, the 35th president of the United States was pronounced dead in Parkland Memorial Hospital.
The two Secret Service men in the car with the Kennedy and Connallys streaked for the hospital with the bleeding president, his head cradled in his wife's arms.
At 2:39 p.m., in the forward compartment of the presidential plane that had brought the Kennedys yesterday to a triumphal reception in Texas, Johnson took the oath of office as chief executive. Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes weeping, administered the oath. The president had appointed her over vigorous opposition because of her age. She is 67.
For an hour and 39 minutes, technically, the country was without a duly sworn-in chief executive.
As the key figures in the tragedy moved on to Washington, efforts in Dallas centered on pinning down the slayer or slayers.
Dallas Times Herald photographer Bob Jackson said he saw two men peering from the window of a building and a rifle being drawn back into a sixth-floor window.
An Italian-made, bolt-action Mauser military rifle was found on the fifth floor stairwell of the Texas Schoolbook Depository building located on a rise about 100 yards from where the presidential car was passing as the three shots rang out.
Three empty shells were found near the rifle, along with chicken bones. The sniper had been waiting, apparently, and had eaten while waiting.
No fingerprints were found on the rifle. It was sent to Washington for further checking.