0:00:07 > 0:00:14On November 8th 1960, John F Kennedy was elected President of the United States of America.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18At the core of his appeal was his image.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20Kennedy was highly photogenic.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24He also understood the power of the photograph
0:00:24 > 0:00:26and exploited it more effectively
0:00:26 > 0:00:29than any other politician before him.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Kennedy was a totally new kind of president, glamorous and informal,
0:00:33 > 0:00:37a patriot with a glittering war record,
0:00:37 > 0:00:39and a loving father and husband.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46But while he seemed to be exposing his whole life to the camera,
0:00:46 > 0:00:50in fact he was concealing two secrets -
0:00:50 > 0:00:55secrets so explosive they had the power to destroy his presidency.
0:01:27 > 0:01:34In the summer of 1937, John Kennedy went travelling in Europe with one of his best friends.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Their holiday snaps show the 20-year-old Kennedy relaxing
0:01:41 > 0:01:43and enjoying his first taste of independence.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50He's already emerging as a handsome playboy and a daring risk-taker,
0:01:50 > 0:01:55seen here scaling the walls of a French medieval town.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58But these pictures are deceptive.
0:01:58 > 0:02:04Away from the camera, Kennedy was fighting a daily battle against a debilitating mystery illness,
0:02:04 > 0:02:10an illness that would become one of the Kennedy family's most closely-guarded secrets.
0:02:22 > 0:02:29John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born into a family of Irish-Catholic immigrants in 1917.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32His father, Joe Kennedy, was a multimillionaire
0:02:32 > 0:02:39who made his fortune playing the stock market in the 1920s and from bootlegging during Prohibition.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43He had huge political ambitions for his family.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48He'd even made up his mind that his eldest son, Joe Junior, would one day be president.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56John, known to everyone as Jack, was his second son.
0:02:56 > 0:03:03From infancy he had suffered from extreme fatigue, weight loss and mysterious pains all over his body.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07Joe Kennedy hired the best doctors in America,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10but no-one could diagnose what was wrong with his son.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14Whatever it was, it was getting worse as the years went by.
0:03:19 > 0:03:25Jack's childhood battles against illness would have a huge impact on his personality.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Life for him became a kind of competition.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39He loved sport, you see, and overcoming these illnesses
0:03:39 > 0:03:45was a kind of sport, was a kind of a way...a means to prove himself,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48to be the best, be the first, be top dog.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55This competitive drive won Jack a place on the Harvard swimming team.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58He'd always been a keen swimmer, a skill which would one day
0:03:58 > 0:04:01help to establish him as a courageous leader.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07When the US joined the Second World War in 1941,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Jack Kennedy was desperate to fight for his country.
0:04:10 > 0:04:16But he was now suffering from chronic back pain and failed the army medical.
0:04:16 > 0:04:22He finally got into the navy through his father's influence and soon saw active service in the Pacific.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25In August 1943,
0:04:25 > 0:04:30Jack was commanding a patrol boat when it was hit by an enemy torpedo.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35He and his crew found themselves fighting for their lives in the middle of the ocean.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39A man who's badly burned, one of his uh...ship mates,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42one of the men under his command,
0:04:42 > 0:04:50Kennedy puts his teeth around the life preserver that the man is wearing and pulls him along.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53Kennedy was a strong swimmer, but remember he's got all these ailments,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55and he has these back problems,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58and what an act of courage to be able to carry this off.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06After his heroic rescue, Jack had to be invalided home.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11While he was recuperating, the Kennedys received tragic news.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16Jack's elder brother, Joe Junior, had been killed piloting a bomber over Europe.
0:05:18 > 0:05:24Now Jack would become the focus of his father's political ambitions.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28But there was a problem, Jack's health was deteriorating.
0:05:28 > 0:05:34His back pain was now almost constant, and doctors decided he must have an operation.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37In surgery, they made a shocking discovery.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41The cartilage in Jack's spine was disintegrating.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46After years of tests, doctors finally diagnosed him with Addison's Disease,
0:05:46 > 0:05:51an incurable condition which devastates the nervous system.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55But Jack refused to let his illness hold him back.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Undaunted, he threw himself into Washington politics.
0:06:03 > 0:06:10Kennedy soon began to establish himself as a dynamic and charismatic politician.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13But at the age of 36, he was still single,
0:06:13 > 0:06:18a handicap for anyone wanting to get ahead in politics.
0:06:18 > 0:06:24In 1951, he was introduced to a stylish young woman called Jacqueline Bouvier.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27He was immediately attracted to her
0:06:27 > 0:06:31and realised that she would be the perfect partner for a future president.
0:06:31 > 0:06:38The nation was enthralled by photographs of their high-society wedding in September 1953.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45The following spring a young photographer called Orlando Suero
0:06:45 > 0:06:48was sent by a women's magazine
0:06:48 > 0:06:51to shoot a feature introducing the new Mrs Kennedy.
0:06:53 > 0:07:00Suero soon discovered that Jack Kennedy never missed an opportunity to be photographed.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02Jack's never seen a camera he doesn't like.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05Yes, he just kept sneaking in on the pictures!
0:07:05 > 0:07:07The story originally was about Jackie,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09but it turned out to be about THEM.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20Suero spent the next few days with the Kennedys.
0:07:20 > 0:07:26One morning, he caught the couple stepping out on to their balcony unprepared for a photo session.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40I thought they would object, because he had a T-shirt on, you know,
0:07:40 > 0:07:45the senator and all that sort of thing, but he didn't, I mean he...
0:07:45 > 0:07:52He was just plain Jack in a T-shirt, and he enjoyed being there, and there was no rigmarole about,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57"Oh, I'm a senator and I should be with a shirt and tie on." Nothing like that.
0:07:58 > 0:08:04Kennedy was already establishing the easy-going image for which he would become famous.
0:08:04 > 0:08:10His informality in front of the camera was unprecedented for a 1950s politician.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13When his younger brother Bobby and his wife came to visit,
0:08:13 > 0:08:18Suero was again surprised by how relaxed the Kennedys could be.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23I said, "Can we go and have a little walk?"
0:08:23 > 0:08:27and the walk turned into a touch-tackle football game!
0:08:30 > 0:08:35The future president threw himself into the game with his usual vigour.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38But two of Suero's photographs reveal that Kennedy
0:08:38 > 0:08:42was still struggling to keep his illness under control.
0:08:42 > 0:08:48Beneath his sweater, you can just detect the outline of something bulky and uneven.
0:08:48 > 0:08:54We now know that it was a back brace, a device he was forced to wear to support his crumbling spine.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58I never noticed Jack had a bad back.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Somebody said to me, "Do you know that Jack had a brace on?"
0:09:01 > 0:09:07I didn't even notice it, because it didn't appear to me while I was shooting the action shots.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Jack Kennedy was far from well.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15The condition of his spine had continued to deteriorate,
0:09:15 > 0:09:19and he was now often forced to rely on crutches to get around.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23But he was increasingly aware of the need to play down his illness.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28and wanted to present himself as an energetic and dynamic young man.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45In 1957, Jack's father Joe Kennedy
0:09:45 > 0:09:51was given some photos of his younger son Bobby and his children
0:09:51 > 0:09:54taken by photographer Jacques Lowe.
0:09:54 > 0:10:01Joe realised that spontaneous family photos like these could give Jack's image just the boost it needed.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06He arranged for Jacques Lowe to visit Jack Kennedy.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11But when Lowe turned up, Kennedy hadn't been informed that he was coming.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20Jack Kennedy was wearing a suit, he was really stiff,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23he was annoyed, he didn't really want to be doing this.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27The last person he wanted to see was a photographer, erm...
0:10:27 > 0:10:32and my father really did the best that he could but wasn't comfortable with the way the session had gone.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Lowe was convinced he'd never hear from the Kennedys again.
0:10:40 > 0:10:46But to his surprise, he got a call from the senator a few weeks later asking him to return.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50This time he had a very different reception.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52He was greeted at the door by a...
0:10:52 > 0:10:57by a scantily clad Jack Kennedy wearing a bath towel,
0:10:57 > 0:11:02and Jackie was in the bath with the door slightly ajar, and you could hear her splashing about.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06Jack Kennedy was very apologetic about his behaviour on that first meeting.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08He apologised for being in a bad mood
0:11:08 > 0:11:11and said, "You know, these photographs, Jacques,
0:11:11 > 0:11:17"are really wonderful and beautiful, and I'd like for us to select one for our Christmas card and..."
0:11:17 > 0:11:20And that was really the beginning of the trust
0:11:20 > 0:11:24and the working relationship that developed between... between these two men.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29Jacques Lowe became Kennedy's most trusted photographer.
0:11:29 > 0:11:35Over the next four years, his work would help to establish the trademark Kennedy image.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39His pictures portrayed the Kennedys as the perfect couple,
0:11:39 > 0:11:45and Jack as the ideal husband - healthy, happy and loyal.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50You could almost, by osmosis,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53sense that this was intelligence,
0:11:53 > 0:11:58this was propriety, this was grace,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01this was beauty, uh...
0:12:01 > 0:12:05in that family. And it showed in the pictures,
0:12:05 > 0:12:09and Jacques was able to capture that, get those right moments,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12and of course the Kennedys, at least in front of HIM,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16didn't do anything that really was that bad.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24But away from the cameras, it was a very different story.
0:12:24 > 0:12:30Kennedy was notorious in Washington circles for his countless infidelities.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35So far he'd always managed to keep his promiscuity out of the press.
0:12:39 > 0:12:46Then in the early hours of an autumn morning in 1958, Kennedy was ambushed by a woman with a camera.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Florence Kater, a Washington landlady,
0:12:51 > 0:12:56had discovered that he was having an affair with one of her tenants.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01Outraged, she was trying to gather photographic evidence of his scandalous behaviour.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Kater turned the shadowy image into a placard
0:13:06 > 0:13:11and brandished it at the 1960 West Virginia Primary,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13a crucial stage in the bid to become
0:13:13 > 0:13:17the Democratic candidate for the presidency.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21Jack Kennedy's political future was in the balance.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26A photograph of her protest was even published in the Washington Evening Star.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29But no-one took her story seriously.
0:13:29 > 0:13:35John F Kennedy, one of the most popular presidential candidates in history,
0:13:35 > 0:13:37was untouchable.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42PERKY MUSIC
0:13:42 > 0:13:46# Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy Kennedy, Kennedy, Kenn-edy... #
0:13:46 > 0:13:48Confident that his secrets were safe,
0:13:48 > 0:13:54Kennedy won the Democratic nomination and began his battle for the presidency.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Dynamic, informal and spontaneous, he let the American public
0:13:58 > 0:14:03get closer to him than any other presidential candidate in history.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Kennedy decided that Jacques Lowe was the only photographer
0:14:10 > 0:14:16who could capture the spirit of his new style of politics and asked him to join his campaign.
0:14:22 > 0:14:28No photographer had ever had such unrestricted access to a presidential candidate.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37Up until Jacques took over, I'm unaware that there was any...
0:14:37 > 0:14:44presidential candidate who allowed a photographer this close in, uh...
0:14:44 > 0:14:49All of the pictures that I remember in my years before that, were kind of set shots,
0:14:49 > 0:14:53and they had these big bulky Speed Graphic cameras,
0:14:53 > 0:14:57and the candidate would say, "Well, all right, we'll have a..."
0:14:57 > 0:15:01They didn't call them photo opportunities back then,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05said, "We'll just... We'll meet at so and so and you can take your pictures."
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Lowe's trailblazing style of photography
0:15:11 > 0:15:15was the perfect mirror for Kennedy's new style of campaigning.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19His lightweight 35mm camera allowed him
0:15:19 > 0:15:24to respond quickly to any situation and get close to the action.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30One of my favourites is one of those motorcade pictures,
0:15:30 > 0:15:35in which Kennedy is in the back of this open car, grinning, wonderful,
0:15:35 > 0:15:40with just a sea of people pressing in around him
0:15:40 > 0:15:45and lapping over the back of the car, and he's shaking hands.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50One of the great pictures of political campaigning of all time.
0:15:59 > 0:16:05But there was one story about the campaign trail that Lowe's camera would never tell.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11A dangerous cocktail of drugs had become an essential part of Kennedy's daily routine.
0:16:11 > 0:16:17He was on penicillin for infection, cortisone for Addison's, Paregoric for colitis,
0:16:17 > 0:16:22testosterone to counter weight loss, and Ritalin to help him sleep.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26He was also regularly injected with steroid-based painkillers
0:16:26 > 0:16:30and amphetamines which enabled him to stay off his crutches.
0:16:30 > 0:16:37Without them, he would never have been able to put himself through his punishing schedule.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Those around him knew he was taking painkillers,
0:16:39 > 0:16:44but the extent of his dependency remained a closely guarded secret.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55During the campaign of 1960, the medical kit was misplaced,
0:16:55 > 0:16:58and he called up the Governor of Connecticut,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01a man named Abraham Ribicoff, and he said, "Abe,
0:17:01 > 0:17:04"there's a medical kit that's been misplaced.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07"It'll be murder if we don't find it."
0:17:07 > 0:17:10They did indeed find it and return it to Kennedy,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14but what he feared was that if this were...
0:17:14 > 0:17:20found by some hostile political...operatives,
0:17:20 > 0:17:22it could have sunk his campaign.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26Lowe's photographs show a healthy, vigorous man
0:17:26 > 0:17:30with nothing to betray his secret illness.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34This was mainly due to the side-effects of his medication.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38The steroids had bulked him up, and other drugs gave his complexion
0:17:38 > 0:17:42the appearance of a healthy all-year tan.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45He looked every inch a future president.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53This image would now prove to be a more crucial asset than ever.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56For the first time in US history, the presidential candidates
0:17:56 > 0:17:59were invited to battle it out
0:17:59 > 0:18:02in a series of debates on live television.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07Nearly 60 million people, over a third of the American population,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11sat down to watch the first of four confrontations
0:18:11 > 0:18:14between Richard Nixon and Kennedy.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Nixon was exhausted from the campaign
0:18:18 > 0:18:20and recovering from an operation.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23He'd refused professional help with his make-up.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28Kennedy was much sicker but had primed himself on drugs
0:18:28 > 0:18:31and let the studio experts make him up.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35Now the opening statement by Vice President Richard M Nixon.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Nixon, of course, his make-up ran, he was sweating.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42He had gone through an illness and he was gaunt, very thin.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46Somebody said with his five o'clock shadow that he looked like a sinister chipmunk,
0:18:46 > 0:18:51and Kennedy, by contrast, didn't look at Nixon.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55He looked at the camera and spoke to the public out there, you see?
0:18:55 > 0:19:01Hugh Sidey was in the press room listening to the debate on the radio.
0:19:01 > 0:19:07There were four or five of us in there, and we, to a man, thought Nixon had bested Kennedy,
0:19:07 > 0:19:12and yet it was just a matter of a few minutes when it was over with
0:19:12 > 0:19:16and we got with the other reporters who had watched it, and they said,
0:19:16 > 0:19:18"No, no, it's the other way around," and it was.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20The margin of victory was visual,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24that Kennedy appeared more confident, and it was judged his victory.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36A month later, on November 8th 1960,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40after one of the closest elections in American history,
0:19:40 > 0:19:44John F Kennedy was declared President of the United States.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46So help you God.
0:19:46 > 0:19:47So help me God.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51WILD CHEERING
0:19:53 > 0:19:58Kennedy was the youngest, most glamorous American president ever.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04The public's appetite for pictures of their handsome young leader and his family was insatiable.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09The Kennedys swept away the grey political formalities of the past
0:20:09 > 0:20:14and seemed to create a new age of equality, openness and progress.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Kennedy wanted the public to feel that they were in touch with the intimate workings of government.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30He decided to appoint the first official White House photographer
0:20:30 > 0:20:34and was eager to give Jacques Lowe the job.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38But Lowe had already tired of taking endless shots of dignitaries
0:20:38 > 0:20:42shaking hands with the new president and turned the job down.
0:20:42 > 0:20:48The position went to a senior army photographer, Captain Cecil Stoughton.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54I had an office underneath the President's office.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57If he wanted to, he could stomp on his floor and call me,
0:20:57 > 0:20:59but we got a little more sophisticated than that,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02and we had a buzzer arrangement with Mrs Lincoln,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04the President's secretary's office.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08She would buzz me, and when I heard the buzzer on my desk,
0:21:08 > 0:21:13it meant in words, "He is waiting for you in the middle of the office."
0:21:16 > 0:21:21Stoughton was also encouraged to photograph the President's young family.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27One day and I hear this god-awful noise coming out of the Oval Office,
0:21:27 > 0:21:32and I looked in at Evelyn and I went, you know, querulously, "What's happening in there?"
0:21:32 > 0:21:34And she said "Come on in and make some pictures."
0:21:34 > 0:21:39So she invited me in with my super-wide Hasselblad,
0:21:39 > 0:21:44black and white film, available light, and here's the children bouncing around the Oval Office,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48trying to outdo each other while the President is sitting by his desk
0:21:48 > 0:21:51clapping and doing what he laughingly called singing.
0:21:51 > 0:21:56And the following morning it was four or five or six columns wide
0:21:56 > 0:22:02in nearly every metropolitan daily around the country and eventually around the world.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07The Oval Office, traditionally the hidden heart of presidential power,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11had now been thrown open to the press for the first time in history.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19When New York Times photographer George Tames
0:22:19 > 0:22:26was invited into the Oval Office, he captured a haunting image of Kennedy standing at his desk.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30The shot seemed to define the overwhelming responsibility
0:22:30 > 0:22:35of the presidency and was captioned, "The loneliest job in the world."
0:22:35 > 0:22:37Kennedy loved it.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40But once again the photo was deceptive.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44The truth is the President was now in such pain
0:22:44 > 0:22:48that he found it difficult to sit down for any length of time.
0:22:48 > 0:22:55Whenever he was reading, Kennedy felt more comfortable standing up, relying on his arms for support.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01In October 1962, it became more important than ever
0:23:01 > 0:23:06for the President to project the image of a powerful and commanding leader.
0:23:06 > 0:23:13The Cuban Missile Crisis, a tense military stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16brought the superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21Kennedy's reputation was enhanced by his handling of the crisis.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26But if the extent of his illness and dependence on drugs had been revealed,
0:23:26 > 0:23:31the public's confidence in his presidency would've been destroyed.
0:23:31 > 0:23:37Well, it was just something that was not only hidden from the public, but even from close aides.
0:23:37 > 0:23:43I don't think that Pierre Salinger, who was the press secretary, had a clue as to how many problems he had.
0:23:43 > 0:23:49Certainly, Lyndon Johnson didn't know, who was the Vice President, so it was a well guarded secret
0:23:49 > 0:23:54that was kept very close to the vest, as they say, or the chest, uh...and
0:23:54 > 0:23:57held in camera, held in secret by the family.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05Despite his fragile state of health,
0:24:05 > 0:24:09entering the White House had done nothing to curb Kennedy's promiscuity.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12He continued to have countless casual affairs.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19He was, I think, extraordinarily promiscuous.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23The man was...
0:24:23 > 0:24:26so compulsive in his womanising.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29He once said to the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan,
0:24:29 > 0:24:34when they met in Bermuda, "If I don't have a woman every three days, I get a headache."
0:24:38 > 0:24:43Americans would have been appalled if they'd known the truth about the President's secret sex life.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47But they loved his charismatic, youthful, playboy image,
0:24:47 > 0:24:51and Kennedy was happy to play up to their expectations.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55That summer, Bill Beebe, an LA Times photographer,
0:24:55 > 0:24:59heard that Kennedy was staying by the beach in Santa Monica.
0:24:59 > 0:25:05He staked out the house, hoping to get some candid shots of the President.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10One afternoon, he saw Kennedy go down for a swim in the sea.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14As he began to emerge from the water,
0:25:14 > 0:25:20the largest contingent of beachgoers recognised who he was, mostly women.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23And they went out clothes and all, as I had.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33For a man with a weak back, he sure didn't look like he had a weak back to me.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Broad chest and flat belly and, uh...
0:25:36 > 0:25:38he looked like a picture of health.
0:25:38 > 0:25:45And I'm sure the ladies who went out there wanted to take advantage of that, too!
0:25:45 > 0:25:50Bill Beebe's shot captures Jack Kennedy at the height of his popularity and power.
0:25:50 > 0:25:55If details of his sex life and the truth about his illness could be kept secret,
0:25:55 > 0:25:59he had every chance of winning a second term in the White House.
0:25:59 > 0:26:06But the idyllic days of the Kennedy era were about to be brought to a sudden and violent end.
0:26:10 > 0:26:16On November 22nd 1963, Jacque Lowe was in Manhattan
0:26:16 > 0:26:19when he noticed the city had come to a standstill.
0:26:20 > 0:26:25People looked incredibly solemn, and he knew something very, very serious had happened.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29So he stopped someone and he said, "What's going on? What's happened?"
0:26:29 > 0:26:32And someone shouted out, "The President's been shot!"
0:26:32 > 0:26:38He said, "What president?" never fathoming for a moment that Jack Kennedy could've been assassinated.
0:26:45 > 0:26:51As Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dallas, Lee Harvey Oswald had fired three shots.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54The first shot missed the President.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57The second struck him in the back of the neck.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01The third, fatal bullet entered the back of his head.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Kennedy was gone.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23Waves of shock and grief went round the world.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27Jacques Lowe attended the state funeral with his camera.
0:27:27 > 0:27:34He followed Jackie from the White House to Arlington Cemetery and recorded the Kennedy family's grief.
0:27:35 > 0:27:41Lowe took one last picture of Kennedy's casket before it was lowered into the ground,
0:27:41 > 0:27:47the final image in his chronicle of the most popular president of the 20th century.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56The official investigation into John F Kennedy's assassination
0:27:56 > 0:28:03failed to stop the explosion of conspiracy theories and speculation after his death.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06But it did clear up one puzzling detail.
0:28:06 > 0:28:12When Kennedy was struck in the back of the neck by the second bullet, he had remained upright.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15Anyone else would have slumped forward.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20Kennedy had been held in place by his back brace.
0:28:20 > 0:28:27Without it, he would have been propelled forward, out of range of the third, fatal bullet.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30The back brace which had helped Jack Kennedy
0:28:30 > 0:28:33to conceal his secret illness for so long
0:28:33 > 0:28:36was now implicated in his violent death.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00Subtitles by BBC Broadcast 2005
0:29:00 > 0:29:03E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk