The profound loss Rose felt at her son John’s death would be reflected by the shock and grief that would play out across the US, to the extent that a whole generation would be able to remember exactly where they were when they heard that he had been shot.
In the frantic police investigation following the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested as the prime suspect, but before he could stand trial, he was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, leaving many unanswered questions.
The circumstances of JFK’s death have captivated the public’s imagination, and new details about the assassination continue to come to light. In December 2022, US President Joe Biden ordered the release of thousands of unedited government files about the murder, and this year a book by a former Secret Service agent – who witnessed the president’s death at close range – cast doubt on the conclusion by the Warren Commission, the 1964 US government inquiry into the killing, that Lee Harvey Oswald had been the sole gunman.
Presidential hopes
Born in 1917, JFK was raised in a wealthy, politically-connected family of Irish Catholics in Boston, He was one of nine close-knit, boisterous children, and his father, Joe, fostered an atmosphere of intellectual and physical competition among his offspring. The second oldest son, John was pushed to excel from an early age.
After studying at Harvard, and writing a best-selling book while he was there, he volunteered his services to the US Armed Forces, and saw combat in the South Pacific during World War Two, winning a medal for heroism for leading his comrades to safety after their boat was sunk.
