Nation: Kenny O’Donnell

One of Kennedy’s most devoted aides, Kenny O’Donnell, who had arranged the Dallas trip to straighten out “a party problem in Texas,” was riding in the car behind the President when he heard Oswald’s shots. “I saw the third shot hit. It was such a perfect shot—I remember I blessed myself. I was rather convinced that it was a fatal blow.” Outside the emergency room, O’Donnell talked with Jackie. “I tried to in some way imply that she might leave and come with us, at least to get her out of that room. She was covered with blood. Her response to me was that she would not leave her husband’s body. I realized that she was going to stay with her husband, no matter what anybody did, and there was no possible way of getting her to leave.” O’Donnell ordered a casket, then tried to take Jackie out so she would not see it. “But she knew what was going on,” said O’Donnell.

“She came out and said, ‘No, I want to watch it all.’ And she stood in the doorway. And then they took it in, and put the body in the casket.” ‘The Law Must Be Met.” At that point came a harrowing incident. “The casket was brought out about halfway,” said O’Donnell, “and a gentleman arrived who said that we would not be allowed to remove the body from the hospital until the necessary papers had been signed.” O’Donnell agreed, assuming it would be done on the instant, but about ten minutes passed. “I was getting more concerned about Mrs. Kennedy’s state all the time—although she appeared composed, as she had from the beginning. Then a gentleman did arrive who has later been identified for me as a judge. The gentleman was very calm and cool and collected. If my recollection is clear, he said something to the effect that as of now this was just a homicide case, and there were certain things that had to be carried out, one of which I interpreted as an autopsy.

“My recollection is it was indicated to us that the President is dead, the hospital has to perform certain functions, and the law must be met, no matter who it is, at this moment. In my own mind, when they said autopsy, I realized we were talking not about hours, but perhaps even days, which was an impossible situation for Mrs. Kennedy.” “You Can’t Do That!” Angered O’DonHeH decided to ignore the demands of the Dallas officials. “We went in and took the body out,” said O’Donnell. “Mrs. Kennedy stood right behind it, I think totally unaware of the problems that were then existing. We pushed the casket out through the hall. This first gentleman that had come in, who, I presume, was from the coroner’s office, shouted very loudly, ‘You can’t do that! You can’t leave here now!’ Nobody paid any attention to him. We pushed out through another set of swinging doors. I remember a Catholic priest was between this and the doorway, and was praying. It was most disconcerting because we were concerned at all times that some moment they would say stop, and I hated to think what might happen to Mrs. Kennedy if she had to go back and go through this all over again. So we brushed them all aside and came out the same way we had come in, through the same doors.” In the presidential plane, O’Donnell urged the crew to take off quickly because “all of us were under the assumption or apprehension that at some moment we either might not be granted clearance to take off, or that the hospital may have in some way gotten the police to intercept us—the difficulty of that to Mrs. Kennedy was incalculable.

I was in a highly desperate strait to get that airplane in the air and back to Washington.”