It’s said that most people old enough to remember the day United States president John F. Kennedy was assassinated can recall what they were doing when they heard the news.
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Ed DeLong certainly can.
The former Mudgee Guardian editor was a 21-year-old journalism student assigned to cover the President’s visit to Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.
The shooting catapulted Mr DeLong into the one of the biggest stories of his career and changed the direction of his career and life.
Mr DeLong was tipped off that he should go to Parkland Hospital, where the corridors of the hospital were erupting in pandemonium.
In the days that followed, he was on the scene as the teary eyed press pack was told the President had died and at the Dallas police station as Lee Harvey Oswald’s rifle was carried through a crowd of reporters and photographers.
As to whether Oswald was the shooter, Mr DeLong says he has no idea.
“Maybe he acted alone, maybe there was another shooter as well, but I believe most fervently that he acted on someone else’s behalf,” he said.
However, Mr DeLong believes that someone could have influenced Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald before he could go to trial for the assassination.
Mr DeLong knew Ruby as a fiercely patriotic man who could be irrationally violent when riled.
“Given Ruby’s Chicago background, his temperament and his relationship with the underworld, I feel certain someone could have suggested to Jack that if Oswald went to trial he’d get off lightly (‘You know how those liberal judges are, Jack.’) whereas Ruby would be hailed as a hero if he took Oswald out,” he said.
“The Jack Ruby I knew would have bought that without a second thought.”
