PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION
ON THE ASSASSINATION OF
PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, _ss_:
I, David F. Powers, make the following affidavit concerning my
knowledge of the events of November 21 and 22, 1963.
I traveled to Texas with the Presidential party on November 21, 1963,
on AF-1. After a stop in Houston, we spent the night in Fort Worth,
Texas. On the evening of November 21st, we were discussing the size of
the crowd in the Rice University Stadium at Houston, and the President
asked me how I thought it compared with the crowd the last time he was
there. I said that the crowd was about the same as the one which came
to see him before but there were 100,000 extra people on hand who came
to see Mrs. Kennedy. President Kennedy then made a comment to Mrs.
Kennedy to the effect that she was a great asset on the trip and that
seemed to make her happy, although at that particular moment she was
very tired, having spent many hours that day traveling in the plane and
on motorcades.
The next day we proceeded on to Dallas and arrived at Love Field at
approximately 11:30 a.m. The President and Mrs. Kennedy were in high
spirits and as they were leaving the plane I jokingly remarked to
the two of them that they looked like Mr. and Mrs. America and that
they should not both wave in the same direction as it would be too
much for anyone to receive all that attention at once. They were the
first to leave the Presidential plane (AF-1) and were greeted by Vice
President and Mrs. Johnson (whose plane had already arrived at Dallas),
along with other members of the Dallas reception committee. President
and Mrs. Kennedy then went over to greet the airport crowd which was
standing behind an iron fence. I was assigned to ride in the Secret
Service automobile which proceeded immediately behind the President's
car in the motorcade. That Secret Service follow-up automobile was an
open car with two Special Agents in the front seat, two Special Agents
in the rear seat and two Special agents on each of the two running
boards. I sat in the jump seat on the right side of the car and Kenneth
O'Donnell sat in the jump seat on the left side of the car.
The crowd in Dallas was very friendly and very enthusiastic. In my
opinion it was twice as large as the crowd that was present when Mr.
Kennedy campaigned in Dallas in 1960. Kenneth O'Donnell and I were
observing the size and disposition of the crowd in order to evaluate
the local political situation. President Kennedy was sitting on the
extreme right-hand side of his automobile, with his arm extending as
much as two feet beyond the right edge of the car, and Mrs. Kennedy was
seated on the extreme left of the back seat. They were seated at the
opposite ends of the back seat in order to give their full attention to
the crowds on each side.
As we proceeded through Dallas the motorcade slowed down on a number of
occasions, but I do not believe it ever stopped. When we passed through
the heart of Dallas, the crowds were about ten deep. We then turned off
of Main Street onto Houston and made the sharp swing to the left up Elm
Street.
At that time we were traveling very slowly, no more than 12 miles an
hour. In accordance with my custom, I was very much concerned about
our timing and at just about that point I looked at my watch and noted
that it was almost exactly 12:30 p.m., which was the time we were due
at the Trade Mart. I commented to Ken O'Donnell that it was 12:30
and we would only be about five minutes late when we arrived at the
Trade Mart. Shortly thereafter the first shot went off and it sounded
to me as if it were a firecracker. I noticed then that the President
moved quite far to his left after the shot from the extreme right hand
side where he had been sitting. There was a second shot and Governor
Connally disappeared from sight and then there was a third shot which
took off the top of the President's head and had the sickening sound
of a grapefruit splattering against the side of a wall. The total time
between the first and third shots was about 5 or 6 seconds. My first
impression was that the shots came from the right and overhead, but I
also had a fleeting impression that the noise appeared to come from the
front in the area of the triple overpass. This may have resulted from
my feeling, when I looked forward toward the overpass, that we might
have ridden into an ambush.
At about the time of the third shot, the President's car accelerated
sharply, with the follow-up car driving right behind it. Mrs. Kennedy
climbed onto the back of the car. Perhaps she may have been looking for
help and perhaps she really didn't know what she was doing. I think
Special Agent Clinton Hill saved her life by climbing up on the back of
the car and pushing her into the back seat because she probably would
have fallen off the rear end of the car and would have been right in
the path of the other cars proceeding in the motorcade.
We proceeded at a high rate of speed to Parkland Hospital. Upon
arriving at the emergency entrance, I raced over to where President
Kennedy lay and Special Agent Hill and I, along with Special Agent
Kellerman, placed him on a stretcher. The three of us and Special
Agent Greer pushed him into the emergency area. I stayed with Mrs.
Kennedy the entire time at the hospital. She went in and out of the
emergency room and when she wasn't in the emergency room, she sat on a
chair right outside the emergency room door. I believe Ken O'Donnell
went to call the Attorney General as soon as we arrived at the hospital.
I accompanied the President's body and Mrs. Kennedy on the trip from
the hospital to the airport. Some seats were removed from a rear
compartment of the President's plane and the casket was placed there.
On the trip back to Washington, Mrs. Kennedy refused to change her
clothes or eat, but did sip some coffee. Upon arriving at Andrews Air
Force Base, Mrs. Kennedy declined to take a helicopter to Bethesda
Naval Hospital but instead chose to ride with President Kennedy's body
in the hearse. Kenneth O'Donnell and I stayed with Mrs. Kennedy and the
other members of the President's family at Bethesda until the early
hours of the morning on November 23, 1963.
Signed the 18th day of May 1964 at Washington, D.C.
(S) David F. Powers,
DAVID F. POWERS.