A network television pool camera was there to cover the transfer and was broadcasting live while Oswald was being escorted by detectives through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters toward an armored car that was to take him to the nearby county jail.

Millions of people who were watching on NBC witnessed the shooting as it happened  and on other networks within minutes afterward.

At 11:21 a.m. CST, Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby stepped from the crowd and shot Oswald once in the abdomen at close range.

Oswald was taken unconscious by ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital – the same hospital where doctors tried to save President Kennedy’s life two days earlier.

Oswald died at 1:07 p.m. Ruby later said that his motive for killing Oswald was saving Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial. Others have hypothesized that Ruby was part of a conspiracy.