BW - EP145—010: November 1963 With Jean Shepherd And JFK—Mourning With The Boston Symphony Orchestra

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

On Saturday November 23rd, 1963, with the country in a state of shock and mourning, Music Director Erich Leinsdorf led the Boston Symphony orchestra in the compositions of Gluck, Wagner, and Beethoven. John Kennedy was the grandchild of former famous Boston mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald. The concert was given at Symphony Hall in honor of the slain son of Boston. Elsewhere, numerous famous people gave statements on the assassination. The next morning, Sunday November 24th, despite being surrounded by a crowd of police officers at the Dallas Police headquarters, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and mortally wounded by nightclub owner Jack Ruby on live TV while being transported to the Dallas County jail. Ruby shot Oswald in the abdomen, at point blank range, with a .38 caliber revolver. The shooting took place at 11:21 a.m. local time. Oswald was taken into surgery at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He died at 1:07 p.m., never to face trial. That Sunday, thousands of people around the world went to Sunday mass in memory of the fallen President. Later an LP called That Day With God was produced with excerpts from several of these inspirational expressions. It included Pope Paul VI, The Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Cardinal Cushing. I’ll let Henry Fonda read the last one.