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Governor Connally Speaks about President Kennedy's Assassination, Part I (1965)
Gordon Wilkison
Sound
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1965
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B/W
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English
  • Map
  • Highlights
    Connally describes what he thinks about when the assassination is mentioned
    Connally talks about the lingering injury from the bullet wound he received the day Kennedy was killed
    Connally describes how the assassination has changed his life
  • Transcript
    INTERVIEWER: Governor Connally, when the assassination is mentioned to you now, what comes back to your mind?
    GOVERNOR CONNALLY: Charles, no one thing comes back to my mind, it's a moment of fleeting remembrance of all of the things that have happened: the prelude to it, the plans for the visit, the car ride, the expressions, the conversations that we had in the car, the little humorous things that occurred along the parade routes in the various cities of Texas, the moments of assassination itself, all of it passes through your mind with lightning speed, and I don't think I think of any one particular thing.
    I: Is there any physical pain now, two years after Oswald's bullet hit you?
    GC: Oh, no physical pain. There is a difficulty in the use of my right wrist. And there's also a weakness on the entire right side, which I notice. And I might say I found it necessary to start a few exercises because of the confinement of this office. And I have been trying to lift some weights and I find even though their lightweight weights when I try to lift them with my right arm, I can't raise it directly above my head as I can my left. But so far as any pain, I have none. So far as any great disability, I have none.
    I: In what other ways has the assassination changed your life?
    GC: Charles, I don't know that it's changed the course of our lives appreciably. I think the way it's changed it has been a very subtle way. I think it's given me more time to pause and reflect. I think it's made me perhaps intolerant of pettiness and petty things. I think it's made me impatient with unimportant details, I think it has forced me to lend my time and my efforts to—so far as the public affairs of this state are concerned—to matters that I think were of lasting importance and not of a political nature as such. In my own personal life, I think it has certainly made me more conscious—that I can't be sure how much time I have to enjoy my family, our association, our wonderful children. So even though I still travel a great bit and even though I'm gone more than I like to be gone, I take every opportunity I can to be with them and around them even for a meal and to enjoy their moments of joy and exhilaration, and I think this had much greater and deeper meaning for me than ever before. 
    I: Well, Governor Connally, in the past two years, have Dallas Police or Department of Public Safety officials turned up anything that strengthens or weakens the case?