Jean
Hill was born in 1931. She worked as a teacher in Oklahoma City before
moving to a Dallas school in 1962. On 22nd November, 1963, Hill, watched
the motorcade of President John F. Kennedy
from the grassy knoll facing the Texas School Depository Building.
Hill and her friend, Mary Moorman, who
was taking Polaroid pictures of the motorcade, were only a few feet
away from President John F. Kennedy
when
he was shot. Hill and Moorman thought the shots had come from behind
her on the grassy knoll and as soon as the firing stopped they ran
towards the wooden fence in an attempt to find the gunman. However,
they were detained by two secret service men. After searching the
two women they confiscated the picture of the assassination.
Hill
gave a statement to the police where she stated: "Mary Moorman
started to take a picture. We were looking at the president and Jackie
in the back seat... Just as the president looked up two shots rang
out and I saw the president grab his chest and fell forward across
Jackie's lap... There was an instant pause between two shots and the
motorcade seemingly halted for an instant. Three or four more shots
rang out and the motorcade sped away."
Hill
later gave evidence to the Warren Commission
that was highly controversial. She claimed that she heard between
four and six shots. Hill was also convinced that some of the shots
came the grassy knoll. In interviews on television after the assassination
Hill said she saw "a little white dog" in the rear seat
of the president's car. As there was no dog in the car, the reliability
of Hill's witness statement was undermined. However, 25 years later,
it was revealed that a small white stuffed animal was on the back
seat of the car. A child had presented it to Jackie
Kennedy
at
the beginning of the tour of Dallas. This information was suppressed
in order to discredit Hill as a reliable witness.
For
many years Hill refused to give interviews about the Kennedy assassination.
However, in 1990, Hill agreed to work as a technical adviser on Oliver
Stone's motion picture, JFK. Two
years later Jean Hill published her book on the case, The
Last Dissenting Witness.
Jean
Hill, who worked as a schoolteacher in Dallas for over twenty years,
died on 7th November, 2000.
The
Zapruder Film film shows the position
of Jean Hill (left)
and Mary Moorman when John
F. Kennedy was shot.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
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(1)
Jean Hill, statement made to the Dallas Police Department (22nd November,
1963)
Mary Moorman started to take a picture. We were looking
at the president and Jackie in the back seat... Just as the president
looked up two shots rang out and I saw the president grab his chest
and fell forward across Jackie's lap... There was an instant pause
between two shots and the motorcade seemingly halted for an instant.
Three or four more shots rang out and the motorcade sped away. I saw
some men in plain clothes shooting back but everything was a blur
and Mary was pulling on my leg saying "Get down their shooting".
(2)
Jean Hill was interviewed by Mark
Lane
in 1964.
The FBI was here
for days. They practically lived here. They just didn't like what
I told them I saw and heard when the President was assassinated. She
declined to permit a filmed interview, stating, for two years I have
told the truth, but I have two children to support and I am a public
school teacher.
My principal said it would
be best not to talk about the assassination, and I just can't go through
it all again. I can't believe the Warren Report. I know it's all a
lie, because I was there when it happened, but I can't talk about
it anymore because I don't want the FBI here constantly and I want
to continue to teach here. I hope you don't think I'm a coward, but
I cannot talk about the case anymore.
(3)
Jean Hill interviewed by Arlen Specter
for the Warren Commission (24th March,
1964)
Arlen Specter: Now, what had you done immediately before noontime,
Mrs. Hill?
Jean
Hill: We had been there for about an hour and a half and had been
walking up and down and back and forth.
Arlen
Specter: When you say "we" whom do you mean by that?
Jean
Hill: My friend, Mary Moorman, that took the picture.
Arlen
Specter: She had a camera with her?
Jean
Hill: Yes; a Polaroid. We had been taking pictures all morning.
Arlen
Specter: And did you have a camera with you?
Jean
Hill: No.
Arlen
Specter: And tell me what you observed as the President's motorcade
passed by?
Jean
Hill: You mean.
Arlen
Specter: Start any place that you find most convenient and just tell
me in your own way what happened.
Jean
Hill: Well, as they came toward us, we had been taking pictures with
this Polaroid camera and since it was a Polaroid we knew we had only
one chance to get a picture, and at the time she had taken a picture
just a few minutes before and I had grabbed it out of the camera and
wrapped it and put it in my pocket. Just about that time he drew even
with us. Jean Hill: The President's car. We were standing on the curb
and I jumped to the edge of the street and yelled, "Hey, we want
to take your picture," to him and he was looking down in the
seat - he and Mrs. Kennedy and their heads were turned toward the
middle of the car looking down at something in the seat, which later
turned out to be the roses, and I was so afraid he was going to look
the other way because there were a lot of people across the street
and we were, as far as I know, we were the only people down there
in that area, and just as I yelled, "Hey," to him, he started
to bring his head up to look at me and just as he did the shot rang
out. Mary took the picture and fell on the ground and of course there
were more shots.
Arlen
Specter: How many shots were there altogether?
Jean
Hill: I have always said there were some four to six shots. There
were three shots - one right after the other, and a distinct pause,
or just a moment's pause, and then I heard more.
Arlen
Specter: How long a time elapsed from the first to the third of what
you described as the first three shots?
Jean
Hill: They were rapidly - they were rather rapidly fired.
Arlen
Specter: Could you give me an estimate on the timespan on those three
shots?
Jean
Hill: No; I don't think I can.
Arlen
Specter: Now, how many shots followed what you described as the first
three shots?
Jean
Hill: I think there were at least four Or five shots and perhaps six,
but I know there were more than three.
Arlen
Specter: How much time elapsed from the very first shot until the
very last shot, will you estimate?
Jean
Hill: I don't think I could, properly, but my girl friend fell on
the ground after about - during the shooting - right, I would say,
just immediately after she had taken the picture - probably about
the third shot. She fell on the ground and grabbed my slacks and said,
"Get down, they're shooting." And, I knew they were but
I was too stunned to move, so I didn't get down. I just stood there
and gawked around.
(4)
Jean Hill interviewed by Arlen
Specter from the Warren
Commission (24th March, 1964)
Arlen Specter: Did you have any conscious impression of where the
second shot came from?
Jean
Hill: No.
Arlen
Specter: Any conscious impression of where this third shot came from?
Jean
Hill: Not any different from any of them. I thought it was just people
shooting from the knoll - I did think there was more than one person
shooting.
Arlen
Specter: You did think there was more than one person shooting?
Jean
Hill: Yes, sir.
Arlen
Specter: What made you think that?
Jean
Hill: The way the 'gun report sounded and the difference in the way
they were fired-the timing.
Arlen
Specter: What was your impression as to the source of the second group
of shots which you have described as the fourth, perhaps the fifth,
and perhaps the sixth shot?
Jean
Hill: Well, nothing, except that I thought that they were fired by
someone else.
Arlen
Specter: And did you have any idea where they were coming from?
Jean
Hill: No; as I said, I thought they were coming from the general direction
of that knoll.
(5)
Jean Hill interviewed by Arlen
Specter for the Warren
Commission (24th March, 1964)
Arlen Specter: Now, moving on to the question about Mark Lane, what
did you tell him other than that which you have told me here today?
Jean
Hill: He asked me where we were taken and I told him in the pressroom,
that we didn't know it was the pressroom at the time, and that we
didn't know we couldn't leave and because they kept standing across
the door and the first time we really - we were getting tired of it,
I mean, we had been down there quite a while and we were getting tired
of it and we wanted to leave and this is what I told him, and so some
man came in and offered Mary a sum, I think - say - $10,000 or something
like this for this picture.
We
realized that - they said, "Don't sell the picture." He
was a representative of either Post or Life, and they said, "Don't
sell that picture until our representatives have contacted you or
a lawyer or something." Anyway, we realized at that time we didn't
have that picture, that it had been taken from us. I mean, we had
let Featherstone look at it, you know, but we told no one they could
reproduce it. They said, "Would you let us look at it and see
if it could be reproduced?" We said, "Yes; you could look
at it," we thought it was - you know, it was fuzzy and everything,
but we were wanting to keep them and we suddenly realized we didn't
have that picture, and that was quite a bit of money and we were getting
pretty excited about it, and Mary was getting scared.
Arlen
Specter: Did she eventually sell the picture, by the way?
Jean
Hill: She sold the rights, the publishing rights of it, not the original
picture, but they had already - AP and UP had already picked it up
because Featherstone stole it.
Arlen
Specter: Do you know what she sold those rights for?
Jean
Hill: I think it was $600.
Arlen
Specter: What did you tell Mark Lane besides about the picture?
Jean
Hill: This is it.
Arlen
Specter: Fine, go ahead.
Jean
Hill: Anyway, when I realized we didn't have that picture and Mary
was getting upset about that - by that time I had realized we were
in a pressroom and that he had no right to be holding us and he had
no authority and that we could get out of there, and they kept standing
in front of the door, and I told him - I said, "Get out."
We kept asking him for our picture, and where it was, and he said,
We'll get it back - we'll get it back. And so I jerked away and ran
out of the door and as I did, there was a Secret Service man. Now,
this I was told - that he was a Secret Service man, and he said, "Do
you have a red raincoat?" And, I said, "Yes; it's in yonder.
Let me go." I was intent on finding someone to get that picture
back and I said as I walked out, "I can get someone big enough
to get it back for us." He said, "Does your friend have
a blue raincoat?" And I said, "Yes; she's in there."
He said, "Here they are," to somebody else and they told
us that they had been looking for us.
Arlen
Specter: Who told you that?
Jean
Hill: This man.
Arlen
Specter: All this you told Mr. Lane?
Jean
Hill: Yes.
Arlen
Specter: Go ahead.
Jean
Hill: And so, then they took us into the police station. Just about
that time Sheriff Decker came out and the man was with us and we were
telling him why we were in there, why we had been in the pressroom,
you know, and why they hadn't been able to find us, because they had
thought that Mary had been hit and they were looking for the two women
that were standing right by the car with the camera. At that time
they didn't know what we were doing down there and why we were right
at the car. So, there followed questioning all afternoon long, and
he asked me at one time - well, in fact he asked repeatedly if I was
held and I told him, "Yes."
Arlen
Specter: Who asked you that?
Jean
Hill: Mark Lane.
Arlen
Specter: If you were held?
Jean
Hill: Yes; you know if I were held, if I had to stay there and I told
him, "Yes," but I told him when we were in the pressroom
it was just our own ignorance, really, that was keeping us there and
letting the man intimidate us that had no authority.
Arlen
Specter: That was a newsman as opposed to the police official?
Jean
Hill: Yes; and I gave Mark Lane his name several times - clearly.
I remember clearly that I gave him his name.
Arlen
Specter: And what name did you give him?
Jean
Hill: Featherstone of the Times Herald, and so after we got out of
there and I talked with a man.
Arlen
Specter: Now, you are continuing to tell me everything you told Mark
Lane?
Jean
Hill: That's right, and I talked with this man, a Secret Service man,
and I said, "Am I a kook or what's wrong with me?" I said,
"They keep saying three shots - three shots," and I said,
"I know I heard more. I heard from four to six shots anyway."
He said, "Mrs. Hill, we were standing at the window and we heard
more shots also, but we have three wounds and we have three bullets,
three shots is all that we are willing to say right now."
(6)
Jim Featherston worked for the Dallas Times Herald in November,
1963. He later wrote about the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy in the book, Secrets
from the Sixth Floor Window (1994)
I ran to Dealey Plaza, a few yards away, and this is where I first
learned the president had been shot. I found two young women, Mary
Moorman and Jean Lollis Hill, near the curb on Dealey Plaza. Both
had been within a few feet of the spot where Kennedy was shot, and
Mary Moorman had taken a Polaroid picture of Jackie Kennedy cradling
the president's head in her arms. It was a poorly focused and snowy
picture, but, as far as I knew then, it was the only such picture
in existence. I wanted the picture and I also wanted the two women's
eyewitness accounts of the shooting.
I
told Mrs. Moorman I wanted the picture for the Times Herald
and she agreed. I then told both of them I would like for them to
come with me to the courthouse pressroom so I could get their stories
and both agreed... I called the city desk and told Tom LePere, an
assistant city editor, that the president had been shot. "Really?
Let me switch you to rewrite," LePere said, unruffled as if it
were a routine story. I briefly told the rewrite man what had happened
and then put Mary Moorman and Jean Lollis Hill on the phone so they
could tell what they had seen in their own words. Mrs. Moorman, in
effect, said was so busy taking the picture that she really didn't
see anything. Mrs. Hill, however, gave a graphic account of seeing
Kennedy shot a few feet in front of her eyes.
Before
long, the pressroom became filled with other newsmen. Mrs. Hill told
her story over and over again for television and radio. Each time,
she would embellish it a bit until her version began to sound like
Dodge City at high noon. She told of a man running up toward the now
famed grassy knoll pursued by other men she believed to be policemen.
In the meantime, I had talked to other witnesses and at one point
I told Mrs. Hill she shouldn't be saying some of the things she was
telling television and radio reporters. I was merely trying to save
her later embarrassment but she apparently attached intrigue to my
warning.
As
the afternoon wore on, a deputy sheriff found out that I had two eyewitnesses
in the pressroom, and he told me to ask them not to leave the courthouse
until they could be questioned by law enforcement people. I relayed
the information to Mrs. Moorman and Mrs. Hill.
All
this time, I was wearing a lapel card identifying myself as a member
of the press. It was also evident we were in the pressroom and the
room was so designated by a sign on the door.
I am mentioning all this because a few months later Mrs. Hill told
the Warren Commission bad things about me. She told the commission
that I had grabbed Mrs. Moorman and her camera down on Dealey Plaza
and that I wouldn't let her go even though she was crying. She added
that I "stole" the picture from Mrs. Moorman. Mrs. Hill
then said I had forced them to come with me to a strange room and
then wouldn't let them leave. She also said I had told her what she
could and couldn't say. Her testimony defaming me is all in Vol. VI
of the Hearings Before the President's Commission on the Assassination
of President Kennedy, the Warren Report.
Why
Mrs. Hill said all this has never been clear to me - I later theorized
she got swept up in the excitement of having the cameras and lights
on her and microphones shoved into her face. She was suffering from
a sort of star-is-born syndrome, I later figured
(7)
Mark
Lane,
Rush to Judgment (1966)
Mary Ann Moorman, an eyewitness to the assassination equipped
with a Polaroid camera, was positioned in a strategic location
in Dealey Plaza. She was standing with her friend, Jean Hill, across
the street from and southwest of the Depository. Consequently, as
she took a picture of the approaching motorcade the Book Depository
formed the backdrop. Her camera was aimed, providentially, a trifle
higher than the occasion demanded, and her photograph therefore contained
a view of the sixth-floor of the building, including the alleged assassination
window.
Mrs Moorman thus became
a most important witness and her photograph an essential part of the
evidence. Her presence at the scene and the fact that she did take
the picture were vouched for by Mrs Hill when she testified before
a Commission attorney. An FBI report filed by two agents discloses
that they both interviewed Mrs Moorman on November 22.15 On that same
day she signed an affidavit for the Dallas Sheriff's office. Deputy
Sheriff John Wiseman submitted a report in which he said that he talked
with Mrs Moorman that afternoon and that he took the picture from
her. Wiseman stated that in examining the picture he could see the
sixth-floor window from which the shots purportedly were fired."I
took this picture to Chief Criminal Deputy Sheriff, Allan Sweatt,
who later turned it over to Secret Service Officer Patterson,"
Wiseman said. A report submitted by Sweatt reveals that he also questioned
Mrs Moorman and Mrs Hill on November 22 and that he received and examined
the photograph. Sweatt said that "this picture was turned over
to Secret Service Agent Patterson".
Since Mrs Moorman had
used a Polaroid camera, the consequences were twofold: she was able
to see the picture before it was taken from her by the police; she
was not able to retain a negative. She told the FBI that the picture
showed the Book Depository in the background, a fact confirmed by
the two deputy sheriffs who also saw it.
Mrs Moorman was a witness
with inordinately pertinent evidence to offer. Pictures of her in
the act of photographing the motorcade appear in the volumes of evidence
published by the Commission and in the Warren Commission Report itself.
Yet the Report makes no mention of her or of her photograph; her name
does not appear in the index to the Report. Although the Commission
published many photographs, some of doubtful petinency it refused
to publish the picture that possibility constituted the single most
important item of evidence in establishing Oswald's innocence or guilt.
(8)
John
Costella,
Mary Moorman and Her Polaroids, included in The
Great Zapruder Film Hoax (edited
by James
H. Fetzer).
Jean (Hill) calls
to JFK - looking down into the middle of the seat - as he approaches
them. He turns, and perhaps starts to wave. Mary (Moorman) snaps a
photo and then the first shot hits him. He jumps, and starts to slump
forward. Jackie then responds, and cries out, as Jean and Mary reported.
The limo stops somewhere down past the steps. There are then anywhere
from two to seven further shots, that inflict the remaining wounds
to JFK and Connally Jean sees the hair on the back of JFK's head flap
up as his skull is blasted out. The limo speeds off. Mary is quickly
intercepted and asked for her photos. She and Jean undergo hours of
interrogation, after which they finally turn over the Polaroids. And
the cover-up begins.
(9)
Jean Hill, speech (November, 1991)
That area (of the Dealey Plaza) is sloping so when Mary reached
up to take the picture, we did get a picture of the School Book Depository.
We knew that, because we had
a Polaroid camera, we were going to have to be quick if we wanted
to take more than one picture. So what we planned was, Mary would
take the picture, I would pull it out of the camera, coat it with
fixative and put it in my pocket. That way we could keep shooting.
When the head shot came, Mary fell down and the film (i.e., the famous
photograph) was still in the camera. When the motorcade came around,
there were so many voters on the other side (of Elm Street) that I
knew the President was never going to look at me, so I yelled, "Hey
Mr. President, I want to take your picture!" Just then his hands
came up and the shots started ringing out. Then, in half the time
it takes for me to tell it, I looked across the street and I saw them
shooting from the knoll. I did get the impression that day that there
was more than one shooter, but I had the idea that the good guys and
the bad guys were shooting at each other. I guess I was a victim of
too much television, because I assumed that the good guys always shot
at the bad guys. Mary was on the grass shouting, "Get down! Get
down! They're shooting! They're shooting!" Nobody was moving
and I looked up and saw this man, moving rather quickly in front of
the School Book Depository toward the railroad tracks, heading west,
toward the area where I had seen the man shooting on the knoll. So,
I thought to myself, "This man is getting away. I've got to do
something. I've got to catch him." I jumped out into the street.
One of the motorcyclists was turning his motor, looking up and all
around for the shooter, and he almost ran me over. It scared me so
bad, I went back to get Mary to go with me. She was still down on
the ground. I couldn't get her to go, so I left her. I ran across
and went up the hill. When I got there a hand came down on my shoulder,
and it was a firm grip. This man said, "You're coming with me."
And I said, "No, I can't come with you, I have to get this man."
I'm not very good at doing what I'm told. He showed me I.D. It said
Secret Service. It looked official to me. I tried to turn away from
him and he said a second time, "You're going with me." At
this point, a second man came and grabbed me from the other side,
and they ran their hands through my pockets. They didn't say, "Do
you have the picture? Which pocket?" They just ran their hands through my pockets and took it. They both held me up here (at the
shoulder near the neck) someplace, where you could hurt somebody badly
- and they told me, "Smile. Act like you're with your boyfriends."
But I couldn't smile because it hurt too badly. And they said, "Here
we go," each one holding me by a shoulder. They took me to the
Records Building and we went up to a room on the fourth floor. There
were two guys sitting there on the other side of a table looking out
a window that overlooked "the killing zone," where you could
see all of the goings on. You got the impression that they had been
sitting there for a long time. They asked me what I had seen, and
it became clear that they knew what I had seen. They asked me how
many shots I had heard and I told them four to six. And they said,
"No, you didn't. There were three shots. We have three bullets
and that's all we're going to commit to now." I said, "Well,
I know what I heard," and they told me, "What you heard
were echoes. You would be very wise to keep your mouth shut."
Well, I guess I've never been that wise. I know the difference between
firecrackers, echoes, and gunshots. I'm the daughter of a game ranger,
and my father took me shooting all my life.
(10)
Dallas Morning News (November,
2000)
Jean Hill was the woman standing nearest to the car of President
Kennedy at the moment of his assassination. In the famous Zapruder
film and in Oliver Stone's motion picture "JFK", she appears
in a bright red raincoat, stepping out to get the President's attention
so her friend could snap his picture. The picture taken became one
of the most well known photographs of the assassination...
She
was the last living witness to the assassination whose testimony conflicted
with the conclusions drawn by the Warren Commission. Her conflict
with the findings of the Warren Commission led her to co-author an
autobiography, which she titled "The Last Dissenting Witness".
She
was featured prominently in the movie "JFK" and served as
technical advisor to the director. Oliver Stone. Mr. Stone wrote the
Forward to her book, and his film featured a character that portrayed
Mrs. Hill. Her brave and interesting account of running up the "grassy
knoll" (a term she coined in her testimony) to chase the man
she believed was shooting at the President was riveting and controversial,
and she was often in demand as a speaker.
(11)
Washington Post (11th November,
2000)
"She loved the fact that she was a witness to history,"
Mrs. Hill's daughter Jeanne Poorman told the Reuters news service.
"With
the inordinate number of people connected with witnessing the assassination
who died in suspicious circumstances, she was proud that she was a
survivor," Poorman said of her mother.
Poorman
said her mother thought the shots came from the grassy knoll nearby,
not the book depository across the street, and ran to the area thinking
she would be able to spot the gunman.
Instead
of catching up with the gunman, Mrs. Hill said, she was seized by
two men in police uniforms and briefly taken into custody despite
telling them she thought the assassin was running from the knoll.
(12)
Bill Sloan, interviewed
by the Sixth
Floor Museum (31st July,
2001)
I met Jean, I
guess, for the first time in probably 1990, and I didn’t think
much about it... And you know, she said, “Well, I was an eyewitness
to the assassination,” and that was where it laid. Then, it was
in early ’91, I guess… Oliver Stone brought his film production
crew to Dallas to film JFK… I mean, Jean reveled in this. She
loved to be in the limelight, and Oliver came to her house for dinner
and brought his whole entourage, and it was just, you know, it was
the biggest moment of her life. And he made her a consultant to the
picture, and you know, she had carte blanche… And one day, early
in, like, February of ’91, my wife, Lana, came home from school
and said, “Jean wants to know if you would have any interest
at all in writing her book.” And I said, “No.” But
she talked me into meeting with Jean, and Jean came over to the house
and we sat down together… and we talked for a long time. And
after meeting her on several occasions, I finally said, “OK,
I’ll, you know, I’ll give it a shot. I’ll try to write
the book...
I will mention that I’m
the only journalist that was working in Dallas that day that I have
ever heard of that believes that there was a conspiracy in the assassination,
and I do believe that. I mean, I’ve never been able to subscribe
to any of the major theories. I don’t know whodunit. I don’t
know whether it was the Russians or the pro-Castro Cubans or the anti-Castro
Cubans or the Republicans or who it was, you know. But I just simply
believe that it was too enormous a thing for Lee Harvey Oswald to
have carried the whole thing out himself. And to that extent, I believe
it was a conspiracy, but I believe that there was a great, great conspiracy
in the cover-up that followed the assassination, and I think that
many, many government officials and agencies were involved in that
aspect of it.
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