Jean Hill - Assassination Witness

Assassination Witness

She was present along with her friend Mary Moorman across from the grassy knoll, and was one of the very closest witnesses to President Kennedy when the shots were fired at him. Moorman can be seen taking pictures in the Zapruder film, which Hill claims were taken and bleached out.

At Zapruder frame 313, when President Kennedy was shot in the head, Jean Hill was only 21 feet (6.4 m) away, leftward, and slightly behind President Kennedy.

She testified to the Warren Commission that after the assassination she watched a man running from near the Texas School Book Depository towards the picket fence area. After watching this man, Hill crossed the street and ran with many other witnesses and authorities who first ran towards the grassy knoll after the shots ended.

Mrs. Jean L. Hill stated that after the firing stopped she saw a white man wearing a brown overcoat and a hat running west away from the Depository Building in the direction of the railroad tracks. She has since stated when she saw a photo of Jack Ruby after his killing of Lee Harvey Oswald she now believes he was the man she saw running. You can see in the Zapruder film that she was clearly looking into the direction of the Texas School Book Depository while the president is right in front of her which appears to support her story of looking at someone running just after the assassination. There are no other witnesses who claim to have seen a man running toward the railroad tracks. Examination of all the available films of the area following the shooting, reexamination of the interviews with individuals in the vicinity of the shooting, and the interviews with members of the Dallas police department and the Dallas Country sheriff's office failed to corroborate Mrs. Hill's recollection or to reveal the identity of the man described by Mrs. Hill. (Warren Commission Report, p. 640)

In Jean Hill's Warren Commission testimony she stated that a Secret Service agent told her on November 22, right after the attack, that another Secret Service agent, watching from the court house, saw a bullet strike, "at my feet" and kick up debris.

Hill was also one of several witnesses who have stated that at the end of the assassination she saw smoke lingering near the grassy knoll picket fence corner, although she made no mention of this when discussing the grassy knoll in her Warren Commission testimony (testimony that she has since stated was fabricated by the commission in her book "The Last Dissenting Witness").

During her commission testimony she stated that as the limousine came abreast of her she saw what she thought was a small white dog between President Kennedy and his wife. As is documented in films and photos captured at Love Field, Mrs. Kennedy was also given a small bouquet of white chrysanthemums that she held, and had laid upon the limousine seat during the motorcade.

Many of her claims have been officially disputed (though some researchers that doubt the Warren commission consider her a reliable witness). She claimed that Jack Ruby was in Dealey Plaza when witnesses placed him in the offices of The Dallas Morning News.

Perhaps her most explosive claim, made in her book and in the video "Beyond JFK" (and other places) was that she actually saw a shooter on the grassy knoll. However, that was not part of her original testimony. On the day of the assassination, she was interviewed by Jimmy Darnell of WBAP-TV and asked "Did you see the person who fired the . . .?" Hill replied "No, I didn't see any person fired the weapon, I only heard it."

Hill always thought of herself as a survivor after some of the other witnesses to the assassination died shortly thereafter under supposedly mysterious circumstances. She has even claimed that she received death threats and that her brakes were cut shortly after the assassination. She co-wrote a 1992 book entitled The Last Dissenting Witness. In a June, 2000 interview with Len Osanic, Hill discussed her plans to publish another book in the near future. Hill died in November of that year, and the second book was not published.