President John F. Kennedy, his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Gov. John Connally and Connally’s wife, Nellie, ride in the presidential limousine minutes before Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Walt Cisco/Dallas Morning News
Sixty years ago Wednesday, Lewiston High School sophomore Richard Fortier walked into his living room to find his mother and an aunt watching television coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy during a trip to Texas.
“That’s how I heard,” the New Gloucester resident said Tuesday.
An extra edition of the Lewiston Evening Journal issued on the afternoon of November 22, 1963.
Soon after, Fortier drove to Montello Junior High School to pick up his younger brother. While there, on his own initiative, he lowered the American flag out front to half-staff to honor the slain president.
“I was only 16,” he said. “I was a Kennedy fan.”
Kennedy, 45, was gunned down while sitting beside his wife in an open-top car on the streets of Dallas. He died shortly afterward in a nearby hospital.
“It was shattering to the country to lose him,” Fortier said. Because Kennedy was so young, he said, people had felt “a lot of optimism about what he could do” for the country.
After collecting his brother, Fortier drove downtown and bought a Lewiston Evening Journal extra edition that carried a big, bold headline: PRESIDENT KENNEDY SLAIN BY ASSASSIN IN DALLAS.
After securing a copy, Fortier decided to go to the WCOU radio studio in the Le Messager building on Lisbon Street where his mother worked as a broadcaster. Down the hall from the little studio was the teletype room where news bulletins often clattered like a high-speed typewriter as they poured in.
“I wander up to have a look” at what the United Press International wire copy said that afternoon, Fortier said.
He’s hung on to the paperwork ever since.
The first “flash” bulletin said merely, “(DALLAS) 1—An unknown sniper fired three shots at POOUN.”
The next added “Kennedy seriously wounded.”
Richard Fortier of New Gloucester holds a teletype Tuesday morning in the conference room of the Sun Journal that he took from the radio station WCOU where his mother worked in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Then an editor somewhere piped in, warning everyone “Stay Off All Of You. Stay Off And Keep Off. Get Off.”
He repeated the warning moments later, “Will U Please Stay Off This Wire Till We Giv….”
By 12:40 p.m., less than 10 minutes after the shots rang out, the wire service indicated Kennedy may have been fatally shot.
The next bulletin said simply, “President Kennedy Is Dead.”
Subsequent wire copy from Merriman Smith detailed what transpired, from the president’s limp body cradled in his wife’s arms to the blood spattered over the car he had traveled in.
At the hospital, where a Roman Catholic priest had been called to deliver last rites, Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who leaped onto the back of the car, told Smith, “He’s dead.”
Smith’s work in Dallas, which trounced the competition, won him a Pulitzer Prize and the enduring respect of his profession.
Fortier said he framed the Lewiston paper from that afternoon and held on to the wire service copy.
“I thought it was a pretty significant historical event,” he said, one nearly everybody alive at the time could recall clearly for decades afterward.
On Nov. 22, 1963, moments after President John F. Kennedy was shot, United Press International started moving snippets of information by teletype to newsrooms and radio stations around the world. Below is a partial transcript of that teletype received by WCOU 1240 in Lewiston, starting just after three shots were reported fired at the White House touring car. The misspellings are true to the teletype.
Richard Fortier kept a piece of the teletype from the radio station WCOU where his mother worked in 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
• • • • • •
BULLETIN
PRECEDE KENEDY
(DALLAS)—THREE SHOTS WERE FIRED AT PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S MOTORCADE IN DOWNTOWN DALLAS
JJ139PES11/22
BULLETIN
(DALLAS)—AN UNKNOWN SNIPER FIRED THREE SHOTS AT POOUN
FLASH
KENNEDY SERIOUSLY WOUNDED —-
HR1238PCS
STAY OFF ALL OF YOU STAY OFF AND KEEP OFF GET OFF
HX
SPEAKING AT THE TT
WILL U U P L E A S E STAY OFF THIS WIRE TILL WE GIVBBB HX
STAY OFF STAY OFF
BULLETIN
(DALLAS)—A SNIPER SERIOUSLY WOUNDED LDJVBUENT KENNEDY IN DOWNTOWN DALLAS TODAY … PERHAPS FATALLY.
HR1240PCS11/22P
BULLETIN
(DALLAS)—ZA SNIPER SERIOUSLY WOUNDED PRESIDENT KENNEDY IN DOWNTOWN DALLAS TODAY … PERHAPS FATALLY
HR1240PCS11/22
BULLETIN
(DALLAS)—PRESIDENT KENNEDY IS DEAD
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MORE KENNEDY BULLETIN XXX IS DEAD.
HE WAS SHOT TO DEATH BY AN ASSASSIN IN THE STREETS OF DALLAS.
HE WAS 45.
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MORE KENNEDY BULLETIN XXX WAS 45.
HE WAS FIRED AT BY A SNIPER, WHO ALSO HIT TEXAS GOVERNOR JOHN CONNALLY.
THE PRESIDENT HAD SPOKEN AT FORTH WORTH THIS MORNING. HE WAS TO DELIVER A SPEECH IN DALLAS THIS AFTERNOON
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MORE KENNEDY BULLETIN XXX THIS AFTERNOON.
RIDING IN THE MOTORCADE WITH HIM WHEN HE WAS SHOT WERE HIS WIFE AND MRS. CONNALLY, WIFE OF THE TEXAS GOVERNOR. VICE PRESIDENT JOHNSON . . .
(SUB KENNEDY)
(DALLAS)—PRESIDENT KENNEDY AND GOVERNOR JOHN CONNALLY OF TEXAS HAVE BEEN CUT DOWN BY ASSASSIN’S BULLETS. THEY WERE SHOT AS THEY TOURED DOWNTOWN DALLAS IN AN OPEN CAR.
THE PRESIDENT—HIS LIMP BODY IN THE ARMS OF HIS WIFE—WAS RUSHED TO PARKLAND HOSPHITAL. THE GOVERNOR ALSO WAS TAKEN TO THE SAME HOSPITAL.
CLINT HILL, A SECRET SERVICE AGENT ASSIGNED TO MRS. KENNEDY SAID “HE’S DEAD” AS THE PRESIDENT WAS LIFTED FROM THE REAR OF THE WHITE HOUSE TOURING CAR.
- KENNEDY WAS RUSHED TO AN EMERGENCY ROOM IN THE HOSPITAL. OTHER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS WERE IN DOUBT AS THE CORRIDORS OF THE HOSPITAL ERUPTED IN PANDEMONIUM.
THE INCIDENT OCCURRED JUST EAST OF THE TRIPLE UNDERPASS FACING A PARK IN DOWNTOWN DALLAS.
NEWSMEN IN THE MOTORCADE HEARD WHAT SOUNDED LIKE THREE BURSTS OF GUNFIRE.
THE PRESIDENT WAS SLUMPED OVER THE BACK SEAT OF THE CAR . . . FACE DOWN. CONNALLY LAY ON THE FLOOR OF THE REAR SEAT.
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL AT ONCE WHERE KENNEDY WAS HIT.
BULLET WOUNDS WERE PLAINLY VISIBLE IN CONNALLY’S CHEST.
IT WAS DIFFICULT TO TELL AT FIRST WHETHER THE FIRST LADY AND MRS. CONALLY WERE INJURED.
(SUB KENNEDY)
(DALLAS)—PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT. (DP HE IS PERHAPS FATALLY)
THE PRESIDENT AND TEXAS GOVERNOR JOHN CONNALLY WERE CUT DOWN BY ASSASSIN’S BULLETS AS THEY TOURED DOWNTOWN DALLAS IN AN OPEN CAR.
THE PRESIDENT’S BODY WAS LIMP . . . CRADLED IN THE ARMS OF HIS WIFE. HE WAS RUSHED TO PARKLAND HOSPITAL. THE GOVERNOR ALSO WAS TAKEN THERE.N
A CALL WENT OUT FOR TOP SURGICAL SPECIALISTS.
A ROMAN CAHTOLIC PRIEST WAS ALSO SENT FOR.
SHORTLY AFTER THE SHOOTING . . . CONGRESSMAN JIM WRIGHT OF FORT WORTH SAID BOTH THE PRESIDENT AND CONNALLY WERE SERIOUSLY WOUNDED BUT WERE ALIVE.
BLOOD WAS SPATTERED OVER THE WHITE HOUSE CAR. MR. KENNEDY WAS SLUMPED OVER THE BACK SEAT. CONNALLY LAY ON THE FLOOR OF THE REAR SEAT.
MRS. KENNEDY APPARENTLY WAS NOT HURT. MRS. CONNALLY ALSO WAS SAFE.
WITNESSES SAID THERE WERE THREE LOUD BURSTS OF GUNFIRE.
MOTORCYCLE POLICE ESCORTING THE PRESIDENT QUICKLY LEAPED FROM THEIR BIKES AND RACED UP A GRASSY HILL.
MORE FK111P11/22CST
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