Mr. DULLES. To the right was into your arms more or less?
Mrs. CONNALLY. No, he turned away from me. I was pretending that I was
him. I never again looked in the back seat of the car after my husband
was shot. My concern was for him, and I remember that he turned to the
right and then just slumped down into the seat, so that I reached over
to pull him toward me. I was trying to get him down and me down. The
jump seats were not very roomy, so that there were reports that he slid
into the seat of the car, which he did not; that he fell over into my
lap, which he did not.
I just pulled him over into my arms because it would have been
impossible to get us really both down with me sitting and me holding
him. So that I looked out, I mean as he was in my arms, I put my head
down over his head so that his head and my head were right together,
and all I could see, too, were the people flashing by. I didn't look
back any more.
The third shot that I heard I felt, it felt like spent buckshot falling
all over us, and then, of course, I too could see that it was the
matter, brain tissue, or whatever, just human matter, all over the car
and both of us.
I thought John had been killed, and then there was some imperceptible
movement, just some little something that let me know that there was
still some life, and that is when I started saying to him, "It's all
right. Be still."
Now, I did hear the Secret Service man say, "Pull out of the motorcade.
Take us to the nearest hospital," and then we took out very rapidly to
the hospital.
Just before we got to Parkland, we made a right-hand turn, he must have
been going very fast, because as he turned the weight of my husband's
body almost toppled us both.
Mr. SPECTER. How fast do you think he was going?
Mrs. CONNALLY. I don't know; very rapidly. The people I could see going
by were just rushing. We were just rushing by very fast.
We arrived at the hospital and sat there what seemed to me like an
interminable time, and from what I know was just a few minutes, but
the thoughts that went through my mind were how long must I sit here
with this dying man in my arms while everybody is swarming over the
President whom I felt very sure was dead, and just when I thought I
could sit and wait no longer, John just sort of heaved himself up. He
did not rise up in the car, he just sort of heaved himself up, and then
collapsed down into the seat.
Mr. SPECTER. At that time you and Governor Connally were still on the
jump seats of the car?
Mrs. CONNALLY. Yes, and they had not--the President was still--and Mrs.
Kennedy were still in the back. I still had not ever looked back at
the back seat after the second shot. I could hear, you know, hear them
talking about how sad, and lamenting the fact that the President was
in such poor shape and, of course, they didn't know whether he was--I
guess they didn't know whether he was alive or dead.
Mr. SPECTER. Did President Kennedy say anything at all after the
shooting?
Mrs. CONNALLY. He did not say anything. Mrs. Kennedy said, the first
thing I recall her saying was, after the first shot, and I heard her
say, "Jack, they have killed my husband," and then there was the second
shot, and then after the third shot she said, "They have killed my
husband. I have his brains in my hand," and she repeated that several
times, and that was all the conversation.
Mr. SPECTER. From that point forward you say you had your eyes to the
front so you did not have a chance----
Mrs. CONNALLY. Yes, because I had him, and I really didn't think about
looking back anyway, but I could just see the car rushing along, and
people and things rushing past us. I remember thinking what a terrible
sight this must be to those people, to see these two shot-up men, and
it was a terribly horrifying thing, and I think that is about as I
remember it.
Mr. SPECTER. What happened then after you got to the hospital?
Mrs. CONNALLY. We got to the hospital and, like I said, John heaved
himself over. They still could not seem to get Mrs. Kennedy or the
President out of the back of the car, but someone scooped him up in
their arms and put him on a stretcher. There were two stretchers there,
and then they took him off immediately to the emergency room, and they
ran down the hall with the stretcher, and I just ran along with them.
They took him into the emergency room, and right behind us came the
President on a stretcher, and they took him and put him in a room to
the right. There was much commotion and confusion. There were lots of
what I assumed were Secret Service men rushing in with machine guns,
I guess, or tommyguns. I am not real sure, they were big arms of some
sort. There was no one--there were lots of people across the hall.
There was no one with me and, of course, my thoughts then were, I guess
like any other woman, I wondered if all the doctors were in the room on
the left, and they were not taking too good care of my husband on the
right. I shouldn't have worried about that, should I?
I knew no one in the hospital and I was alone. Twice I got up and
opened the door into the emergency room, and I could hear John and I
could see him moving, and I knew then that he was still alive.
I guess that time was short, too. It seemed endless. Somebody rushed
out, I thought it was a nurse, and handed me one cuff link. I later
read that it was a lady doctor.
They took him out of there very soon up to surgery, and I just left
with him and waited in an office. Do you know whose office I was in? It
was where you came to me.
Dr. GREGORY. Dr. Jenkins' office.
Dr. SHAW. Yes. You were either in the anesthesia office or in the room
that is part of the recovery room. Was it the same place where you
later stayed, Mrs. Connally?
Mrs. CONNALLY. No.
Dr. GREGORY. I think it was back in Dr. Jenkins' office. That is where
I believe I first saw you.
Mrs. CONNALLY. I believe that is right.
As soon as Dr. Shaw found that he had some encouraging news, that the
wounds were not as extensive as he had thought they could be or might
be, he sent that word to me from the operating room, and that was good
news.
I then asked if I couldn't go see Mrs. Kennedy, and they told me that
she had left the hospital.
Mr. SPECTER. Were you visited at the hospital by Mrs. Johnson?
Mrs. CONNALLY. Yes, I was. But I assume that was before, since they
left together, not much of a visit. She came by and we didn't have to
say much, and then they left.
Mr. SPECTER. Mrs. Connally, what was your impression, if any, as to the
source of the shots?
Mrs. CONNALLY. Well, I had no thought of whether they were high or low
or where. They just came from the right; sounded like they were to my
right.
Mr. SPECTER. How many did you hear in all?
Mrs. CONNALLY. I heard three.
Mr. SPECTER. What is your best estimate on the time that passed from
the first to the last shot?
Mrs. CONNALLY. Very short. It seemed to me that there was less time
between the first and the second than between the second and the third.
Mr. SPECTER. About how fast do you think the car was going then?
Mrs. CONNALLY. I don't really know. Not too fast. It was sort of a
letdown time for us. We could relax for, we thought we could, for just
a minute.
Mr. SPECTER. And you mean by that since the major part of the crowd had
been passed?
Mrs. CONNALLY. We had gone by them. The underpass was in sight, and I
knew that as soon as we passed through the underpass that then we would
be going straight to the Trade Mart for the luncheon, and I felt like
we would then be moving fast and not have people on all sides of us.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you see the films this morning here in the Commission
office?
Mrs. CONNALLY. Yes, I did.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you have an opinion as to which frame it was that
Governor Connally was shot?
Mrs. CONNALLY. Yes. I was in agreement with the Governor. I am not sure
I remember the numbers so correct me, but I thought at the time that it
was that 229--it could have been then through the next three or four
frames.