Ike Pappas Oral History

Mr. Pappas passed away on August 31, 2008. 

In exploring the Museum's hours of Kennedy assassination news coverage and its archive of news photographs, I am always amazed that Pappas appeared to be everywhere at once. In addition to his presence in the basement of Dallas police headquarters during the Oswald shooting, Pappas can be seen speaking to D.A. Henry Wade after Lee Harvey Oswald's midnight press showing, interviewing other law enforcement officials including Captain Will Fritz and Captain Glen King, moving up and down the third floor hallway of police headquarters, and then later in and around the Dallas County Criminal Courts building during the 1964 Jack Ruby trial. 

In his oral history, Pappas explained that he managed to get to where he needed to go by using his "big New York City elbows" to push his way through. - Stephen Fagin, Curator 

Pappas, reporting for WNEW-AM Radio (now WBBR) in New York City, made one of the classic recordings of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of the Dallas Police Department.

Holding a large, portable reel-to-reel tape recorder and a long "shotgun" microphone, Pappas spotted Oswald between his detective escorts and asked, "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

As Oswald turned to his left at the question, Jack Ruby stepped from among other reporters and fired his revolver into Oswald's stomach. Pappas blurted, "Oswald has been shot! Oswald has been shot!"

Minutes later, after Oswald had been taken by ambulance to Parkland Hospital and Ruby was dragged into custody, Pappas ran down a hallway to find where the incredible story was going next. With tape still rolling he exclaimed, "Holy Mackerel!"

Weeks later, Colpix issued a record album of radio news coverage from the assassination weekend titled, "Four Days that Shocked the World." An editor used Pappas' tape but took the "Holy Mackerel" remark out of context by moving it earlier in the recording to suggest it was said seconds after the shooting. On a visit to The Sixth Floor Museum years later, Pappas told me he was really angry about that but could do nothing about it. - Gary Mack, Curator