'The Woman in the Blue Raincoat' speaks out: Bystander who took Polaroid of JFK being shot recalls fateful day and says she thinks there's 'more to the story'

Mary Ann Moorman took her Polaroid camera to the parade route and took a photo the moment before John F Kennedy was fatally shot in the head

She was so close enough to the convertible that she heard Jackie scream: 'My God, he's been shot!'



The day will be forever etched into her memory - the moment America's youngest ever president was assassinated on the streets of Dallas, Texas.



Mary Ann Moorman and her friend had gone to the parade route with her new Polaroid camera, eager to take a snapshot when the President and First Lady passed them in the motorcade.

Little did she know that she would capture the moment immediately before Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shot that killed John F Kennedy.

Tragic moment: Mary Ann Moorman took this Polaroid photograph, showing the President and the First Lady reacting after Kennedy had been hit in the throat. Almost the instant after this photo was taken, Kennedy was hit in the head

Up close: Mary Ann Moorman is seen in the Zapruder film, as she is in the blue raincoat taking a picture of the President and First Lady in the foreground just as he was shot

At first she did not know what was going on, thinking that the snap she heard was that of a firecracker.

'That was my thought: "I saw his hair jump!" But it wasn't just his hair, it was part of his head,' she told Matt Lauer on The Today Show.

'I heard Jackie yell, "My God, he’s been shot".’



Ms Moorman was a 31-year-old housewife at the time of the assassination.



The Zapruder film - named after Abraham Zapruder, the man who captured Kennedy's assassination on a home camera - shows Moorman standing in a blue raincoat next to her friend in a red raincoat on the grass between Elm Street and Main Street as the President's convertible drives by.

What Moorman didn't realize when she chose to wait for the motorcade was that her location was in line with the Texas Book Depository, where shooter Lee Harvey Oswald was waiting on the sixth floor.

Then: Mary Ann Moorman was rushed to a local newspaper office after a reporter saw she had taken a picture

Now: Mrs Moorman, 81, sat down for an interview with the Today Show and said that she believes there is 'more' to be discovered about the true nature of the Kennedy assassination

On their way: Mrs Moorman (left) and her friend (right) went to the parade together in matching raincoats

'I heard the shot, took the camera down, and I heard two more shots,' she told the Today Show.

'Just pow, pow, pow.'

In the hectic aftermath immediately following the shots, a local reporter approached Ms Moorman and accompanied her to his newspaper office so that they could take a look at the photo together as it developed.



It shows Jacqueline leaning in towards her husband as he appears to be falling back into the seat.

'The though always comes back to me: I saw a man murdered right in front of my eyes. That thought is still present in my mind right now,' she said.



Different angle: From where she was standing, Ms Moorman was closest to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and said that she could here her scream 'My God, he's been shot!'

Orientation: Ms Moorman and her friend were standing on the grass between the point of impact and the location of Orville Nix (noted on this aerial photo as 'Cameraman Nix'). Other points marked are the Texas Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald was positioned, and th infamous 'grassy knoll'

She agreed to sell the original Polaroid through an auction house but it failed to meet its expected price of $50,000 to $75,000.

Ms Mooman, who is now 81-years-old, said she does not subscribe to any of the major conspiracy theories but many others actually used her photograph as part of their justification for their own versions of events - specifically the 'grassy knoll theory' that suggests there was a second shooter.

She said that she never 'delved' into any of the different theories but continued to remain wary of the final conclusion that was drawn by the Warren Commission, which in 1964 ruled that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone.

'I don’t think that I heard any more shots than three but so many of the things that I have heard makes me think that there's a lot more to the story,' she said.

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