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Though Marina was staying at the Paine house in nearby Irving, Oswald himself took a small $8-a-week room on North Beckley in Dallas, under the name of O. H. Lee—a play on his real name. He visited his wife on weekends. Once Marina found a carbine wrapped in a blanket and hidden in the Paines' garage. It was Oswald's. He had bought it from a Chicago mail-order house on March 20, along with a four-power telescopic sight. He had paid $19.95 for gun and sight and had instructed a gunsmith, located near the Paine home, not only to mount the scope but to sight the weapon in for him (cost: $6). Marina wanted Oswald to get rid of the weapon, but he refused. He also got furious because Marina tried to telephone him at his Dallas rooming house; she had been told that there was no roomer there by the name of Lee H. Oswald, and she was puzzled. He did not try to explain why he was using a phony name.
The Murder. Meanwhile Oswald continued working at the warehouse. On Nov. 6 Pierre Salinger disclosed Kennedy's Dallas date: Nov. 22. On the night of Thursday, Nov. 21, Oswald stayed at the Paine house in Irving—a departure from his routine of weekend visits. He went to bed early. Next morning the Dallas Morning News published a map showing the route of the presidential motorcade. On the same morning, Oswald got a ride to work with a neighbor, Wesley Frazier. Oswald was carrying a long package, wrapped in brown paper, told Frazier that it contained window shades.
At about noon a Negro employee said to Oswald: "Let's go down and watch the President go by." Oswald declined.
At 12:31 the President's Lincoln limousine passed by at a speed of 12 to 15 m.p.h. In the car, Texas Governor John Connally, who was seated directly in front of Kennedy, heard a shot. "I turned to my right," he recalled later, from his own hospital bed. "The President had slumped . . . Then I was hit, and I knew I'd been hit badly. I thought, my God, they're going to kill us all."
What actually happened was made horrifyingly clear in color films taken by Abraham Zapruder, a Dallas clothing manufacturer and an amateur movieman. The strip runs for about 20 seconds—an eternity of history. Kennedy was waving to a friendly crowd. Then came the first shot, and he clutched at his throat with both hands. Connally turned around, raised his right hand toward the President, then fell backward into his wife's lap as the second shot struck him. The third shot, all too literally, exploded in Kennedy's head. In less than an instant, Jackie was up, climbing back over the trunk of the car, seeking help. She reached out her right hand, caught the hand of a Secret Service man who was running to catch up, and in one desperate tug pulled him aboard. Then, in less time than it takes to tell it, she was back cradling her husband's head in her lap.