Jean Hill
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Norma Jean Lollis Hill (February 11, 1931, Oklahoma – November 7, 2000, Dallas, Texas) was a witness to the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. She was known as the "Lady in Red" because of the long red rain coat she wore that day, as seen in the Zapruder Film. She was portrayed in the film JFK by Ellen McElduff.
She was present along with her friend Mary Moorman across from the grassy knoll, and was one of the very closest witnesses to President Kennedy when the shots were fired at him. Moorman can be seen taking pictures in the Zapruder film, which Hill claims were taken and bleached out.
At Zapruder frame 313, when President Kennedy was shot in the head, Jean Hill was only 21 feet (6.4 m) away, leftward, and slightly behind President Kennedy.
She testified to the Warren Commission that after the assassination she watched a man running from near the Texas School Book Depository towards the picket fence area. After watching this man, Hill crossed the street and ran with many other witnesses and authorities who first ran towards the grassy knoll after the shots ended.
- Mrs. Jean L. Hill stated that after the firing stopped she saw a white man wearing a brown overcoat and a hat running west away from the Depository Building in the direction of the railroad tracks. There are no other witnesses who claim to have seen a man running toward the railroad tracks. Examination of all the available films of the area following the shooting, reexamination of the interviews with individuals in the vicinity of the shooting, and the interviews with members of the Dallas police department and the Dallas Country sheriff's office failed to corroborate Mrs. Hill's recollection or to reveal the identity of the man described by Mrs. Hill. (Warren Commission Report, p. 640)
In Jean Hill's Warren Commission testimony she stated that a Secret Service agent told her on November 22, right after the attack, that another Secret Service agent, watching from the court house, saw a bullet strike, "at my feet" and kick up debris.
Hill was also one of several witnesses who have stated that at the end of the assassination she saw smoke lingering near the grassy knoll picket fence corner, although she made no mention of this when discussing the grassy knoll in her Warren Commission testimony.
During her commission testimony she stated that as the limousine came abreast of her she saw what she thought was a small white dog between President Kennedy and his wife. As is documented in films and photos captured at Love Field, Mrs. Kennedy was also given a small bouquet of white chrysanthemums that she held together with a bouquet of red roses, and had laid upon the limousine seat during the motorcade. Another film also shows Jacqueline Kennedy receiving a Lamb Chop doll which she placed into the limousine shortly before the parade.
Many of her claims have been officially disputed. She claimed that Jack Ruby was in Dealey Plaza when witnesses placed him in the offices of The Dallas Morning News. She claims she crossed the street and ran up the grassy knoll so quickly that she failed to see Jacqueline Kennedy climbing out onto the trunk of the presidential limousine; but pictures taken of the scene show Hill standing in her original position for more than a minute after the shooting. To the Warren Commission and in a television interview an hour after the assassination, she said she did not see the shooter, but after 1978 claimed to have seen a shooter on the grassy knoll.
Hill always thought of herself as a survivor after some of the other witnesses to the assassination died shortly thereafter under supposedly mysterious circumstances. She has even claimed that there have been attempts on her life, though that has not been officially confirmed. She co-wrote a 1992 book entitled The Last Dissenting Witness.
