What Were the Final Words JFK Heard Before He Was Assassinated?

The ironies, coincidences, and conspiracy theories — oh, the conspiracy theories — surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy have never been in short supply. But after 50 years of so many factoids and tidbits, there is little that compares to the tragic last words JFK heard before fatal bullets struck him in Dallas.

"Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you," Nellie Connally, wife of Texas Gov. John Connally, told JFK as they rode in the motorcade through Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Just seconds later, the shots rang out, and those words from the first lady of Texas would be the last ones the president heard.

"Dallas was a dangerous place. John F. Kennedy was warned, 'Don't go to Dallas,'" Lyndon Johnson had told JFK that Texas housewives had come out of their homes to spit at the vice president candidate during the 1960 campaign, and JFK had been told by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson that placard had been tossed at him earlier that year in Dallas.

"Danger seemed to be lurking for him in Dallas,"  "And yet … that day, Nov. 22, Dallas opened their arms to him."