Assassination of John F. Kennedy in popular culture

The John F. Kennedy assassination and the subsequent conspiracy theories surrounding it have been discussed, referenced, or recreated in popular culture numerous times.

The assassination has also been the subject of many time travel and alternate history stories in science fiction film, television and literature, many with Kennedy and/or Oswald surviving or other people in the Presidential limousine dead. Some of these have Governor John Connally or Jacqueline Kennedy killed in place of President Kennedy.

Literature

Novels

''Gideon's March'' (Hodder & Stoughton) by J. J. Marric is fictional novel published in 1962, the year ''before'' the Kennedy assassination. In the book, Inspector George Gideon learns of a plot to assassinate President Kennedy during a state visit to London. The assassination is to take place during a parade, by means of a bomb; the assassin, called O'Hara, is a Southern bigot who hates the President for his Roman-Catholic faith and his civil-rights initiatives.

J. G. Ballard wrote a 1967 short-short story titled " The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy considered as a downhill motor race."

''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' (1975) by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson depicts the assassination scene, with several would-be assassins trying to kill Kennedy simultaneously.

''Sherlock Holmes in Dallas'' ( Dodd, Mead, & Co. 1980) by Edmund Aubrey, brings the renowned consulting detective out of his Sussex retirement to investigate the Kennedy assassination.

''Libra'' (1988) by Don DeLillo is a fictional imagining of the assassination, with Lee Harvey Oswald as the protagonist.

The ''Underworld USA'' Trilogy (1995-2009) by James Ellroy, particularly the 1995 novel ''American Tabloid'', constructs a fictional narrative involving several characters who have part in the Kennedy assassination.

In '' Columbo: The Grassy Knoll'' (1994) by William Harrington, the titular lieutenant solves the Kennedy Assassination after a talk-show host is murdered before an exposé.

The 1996 ''Doctor Who'' spin-off novel ''Who Killed Kennedy'' features the Doctor's enemy the Master attempting to kill Oswald before the assassination as Kennedy's survival would trigger a chain reaction in history that could wipe the Doctor from existence, requiring journalist James Stevens to go back in time and kill Kennedy himself (acting as both gunmen at different points in his life, as Oswald's rifle had a misaligned targeting scope that prevented him delivering the fatal shot from the Book Depository on the first trip). It should also be noted that coincidentally, the TV show this book is based on started the day after the assassination with the first episode delayed by eighty seconds due to news coverage of the killing.

''The Star Spangled Contract'' (1976) by District Attorney Jim Garrison, and '' Captains and the Kings'' by Taylor Caldwell, are both based, in part, on a conspiratorial view of the Kennedy assassination.

In ''The Amnesia Desk'' by Jim Sullivan, the son of Kennedy's 'real' killer - a CIA assassin - has to flee from the Amnesia Desk, a CIA clean-up team.

Comic books

In the first album of Jean van Hamme and William Vance's comic book series ''XIII'', the title character is shown to be the alleged assassin of fictional U.S. President William B. Sheridan, who was murdered in his car during an official presidential visit to a city. The events are clearly based on JFK's assassination.

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Kennedy's true assassin is Red Skull, the son of Captain America. Nick Fury muses that the assassination of Kennedy was the Skull's way of showing that he would no longer take orders from America.

In the 2008–2009 series '' The Umbrella Academy: Dallas'' by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, the Kennedy assassination is a central plot element. The series initially takes place in a timeline where the assassination never happened, until an organisation of time-travelling assassins go back to 1963 to kill Kennedy. When the Umbrella Academy intercept the gunmen, The Rumour, disguised as Jacqueline Kennedy, uses her powers to make Kennedy's head explode.

In '' Superman: Red Son'', Superman's space pod crash lands in the Soviet Union instead of the United States. Richard Nixon wins the 1960 Presidential Election, and he is the one who is assassinated in Dallas instead of Kennedy, who in this timeline marries Marilyn Monroe, and does not become president until decades later in 1998. In 2004 he is succeeded by Lex Luthor, who with Jimmy Olsen as his vice president, finally wins this extended version of the Cold War.

Alternative history in literature

In the 1980 novel ''Timescape'' by Gregory Benford, Kennedy's assassination was averted by a high school student who interrupted Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas School Book Depository, attacking the shooter and sending the would-be fatal third shot awry. Although seriously injured, Kennedy survived. This interference created an alternate timeline in which William Scranton was the US president in 1974, having defeated Robert F. Kennedy due to a telephone tapping scandal.

In the 1992 anthology ''Alternate Kennedys'', edited by Mike Resnick, 25 science fiction authors imagine alternate histories involving the Kennedys, including speculating upon different outcomes of November 22, 1963.

In the 1994 alternate history novel ''Bubba Ho-Tep'' and the 2002 film of the same name by Joe R. Lansdale, one of the main characters is an African-American man who claims that he is John F. Kennedy and that following his failed assassination attempt, his death was faked, his skin was dyed black and was abandoned by Lyndon B. Johnson in that same nursing home Elvis Presley was staying in.

In Stephen Baxter's novel ''Voyage'' (1996), the Dallas assassination attempt only succeeds in crippling Kennedy, but Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy is killed. Kennedy is re-elected in 1964 and commits the United States to landing a crewed vessel on Mars, which occurs in 1986. The novel uses the assassination attempt only as the impetus for an alternate history US space program.

Jeff Golden's 2008 novel ''Unafraid: A Novel of the Possible'' speculates on what would have happened had the assassination attempt been unsuccessful, with Kennedy serving two full terms as president. () Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle jams during the assassination attempt, leaving Kennedy wounded and Governor Connally dead.

In the 2010 book, ''TimeRiders'', a training mission involves going back to November 22, 1963, to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing JFK. This results in a new timeline in which a large space program sends a mission to Mars on September 10, 2001. The trainees learn that history corrects itself, and Oswald, who was originally a lone gunman, was no longer alone when he shot the President but was part of a conspiracy, thanks to their interference with the timestream.

Stephen King's novel '' 11/22/63'', published in 2011, tells about a time traveler trying to stop the assassination. The novel was adapted into a TV series, '' 11.22.63'', in 2016. In both versions, the protagonist succeeds in saving Kennedy and kills Oswald with his own rifle in the Texas Schoolbook Depository after distracting him on the day of the would-be assassination after Oswald fired the first shot at the motorcade, but returns to a dystopian future brought about by his actions, prompting him to return to the past to "reset" the results of his intervention. The protagonist also attempts to prove Oswald was assisted by a Soviet agent when he attempted to kill Kennedy and General Edwin Walker.

In the 2012 book ''The Man from 2063'', a lawyer living in 2063 travels back in time prior to November 22, 1963, to prevent the assassination. Unlike Stephen King's novel which has Lee Harvey Oswald killing JFK acting alone, ''The Man from 2063'' portrays the assassination as a conspiracy.

In the '' Space: 1999'' graphic novel, ''Aftershock and Awe'' (2013), the events of the television series are set within an alternate history. That history diverged from our own when Kennedy escaped assassination by visiting Cape Canaveral instead of Dallas. His survival led to an accelerated space race and diminished Cold War tensions, although a limited nuclear exchange occurred between the United States and North Korea in 1987. During the 1970s, when the TV show was made, 1999 was the future. Placing the show in an alternate timeline allows the graphic novel to ignore the events of real life history as the series has spacefaring technology advanced beyond that of the real 1999 (or indeed the late 2010s).

In Ken Davenport's 2017 novel '' The Two Gates'', Kennedy survives the Dallas shooting with the back-to-throat wound he actually received, but First Lady Jackie is killed by the fatal third shot. The novel deals with speculation as to how Kennedy would have dealt with the Vietnam War had he lived.

In the SCP Foundation collaborative writing project, the assassination of Kennedy is featured in the 2017 short story ''SCP-3780 - Who Shot JFK?''. SCP-3780 is a series of attempts by time travelers to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald. The Temporal Anomalies Department, a division of the SCP Foundation, is tasked with intercepting the attempts to assure or reinstate the proper series of historical events. ''SCP-3780 - Who Shot JFK?'' was inspired by the amount of conspiracy theories and the release of the assassination files by order of President Donald Trump.

Film, television, and stage

Film

* The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1964 film)
* The 1966 Emile de Antonio documentary ''Rush to Judgment'', based on Mark Lane's book of the same name, shows Lane interviewing witnesses who claim the shots came from the grassy knoll instead of the Texas School Book Depository.
* Andy Warhol's 1966 film '' Since'' recreated the assassination from multiple perspectives with participants from The Factory. ''Since'' is heavily improvised and explores the media portrayal of the assassination.
* Tonino Valerii's 1969 Spaghetti Western film ''The Price of Power'', starring Giuliano Gemma and Van Johnson, was the first filmed drama to present a critical perspective on the Kennedy assassination; although it dramatises the assassination of James A. Garfield, it reflects the events and conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy's death.
* David Miller's 1973 film '' Executive Action'' is the first conspiracy theory-based Hollywood-made dramatization of the Kennedy assassination.
* The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1977 film)
* The 1978 made-for-television movie, ''Ruby and Oswald'', generally followed the official record as presented by the Warren Commission of the actions of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby on the weekend of the assassination.
* French director Henri Verneuil's 1979 movie ''I as in Icarus'' (the story is based in a fictional country with fictional characters but the events are clearly linked with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, including amateur footage similar to the Zapruder film)
* In the 1984 movie '' Flashpoint'', a United States Border Patrol agent finds a car containing the body of a man he believed participated in a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy and was murdered and robbed of the money he received for doing so.
*In the 1987 Kubrick movie '' Full Metal Jacket'' the Marines discuss Oswald. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman comments "Oswald got off three rounds with an old Italian bolt action rifle in only six seconds and scored two hits, including a head shot! Do any of you people know where (Oswald) learned to shoot?" (In the Marines)
*The 1990 film ''Captain America'' credits the Red Skull and his organization with Kennedy's and his brother Robert's assassinations.
* Oliver Stone's 1991 dramatic film ''JFK'', based in part upon the book ''On the Trail of the Assassins'' by former Orleans Parish

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