FATAL BULLET HITS OSWALD. Jack Ruby fires bullet point blank into the body of Lee Harvey Oswald at Dallas Police Station. Oswald grimaces in agony,
Before today’s fast-paced twenty-four hour news cycle, an eager American public followed the development of criminal investigations through the gray tones of press photographs. News outlets used a wire service to send images via in-house or portable transmitters, converting black-and-white tones into electrical pulses that were instantaneously received and printed using the same technology. Mundane courtroom proceedings, such as arraignments and evidence display, became newsworthy through the immediacy of reportage. Every small detail was devoured by a public impatient for news about notorious bank robbers and murderers—some of whom, like John Dillinger, were elevated to the status of folk heroes. In other instances, such as the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, newspapers and television brought the drama and intensity of firsthand observation into people’s homes.
Artwork Details
- Title: FATAL BULLET HITS OSWALD. Jack Ruby fires bullet point blank into the body of Lee Harvey Oswald at Dallas Police Station. Oswald grimaces in agony,
- Artist: Robert H. Jackson (American, born 1934)
- Date: November 24, 1963
- Medium: Gelatin silver print with applied color
- Dimensions: Image: 16.8 x 19.5 cm (6 5/8 x 7 11/16 in.)
Sheet: 20.5 x 20.1 cm (8 1/16 x 7 15/16 in.) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2011
- Object Number: 2011.198
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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