James Thomas Tague (October 17, 1936 – February 28, 2014) was an American car salesman who received minor injuries during the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Tague received a minor cut to his right cheek caused by tiny pieces of concrete debris from a street curb that was struck by fragments from a bullet that was fired at Kennedy. Aside from Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally, Tague was the only other person known to have been wounded as a result of gunfire in Dealey Plaza that day.

Life

Tague was born on a farm near Plainfield, Indiana. Tague testified to the Warren Commission that because of the traffic, he parked his car on the north curb of Commerce Street, where he then "got out of his car and stood by the bridge abutment."

According to the Warren Commission's final report, forensic tests by the FBI revealed that the chipped bullet mark impact location contained no embedded copper metal residue, which indicated that it was not created by "an unmutilated military full metal-jacketed bullet such as the bullet from Governor Connally's stretcher." In Tague's Truth Withheld, he published pictures of the wound that were taken on November 23, 1963.

Books and events

He was interviewed for the 1967 Mark Lane documentary Rush to Judgment. In 1988 he made an appearance in the documentary The Men Who Killed Kennedy. In the 1991 film JFK he is portrayed by Michael Skipper.

In 2003, forty years after the assassination, Tague published a book called Truth Withheld (), detailing his experiences during and after the assassination. He wrote that he was injured after the second shot.

In 2011, Tague revisited the scene of his injury for the researcher Max Holland's investigation into the first shot for the documentary JFK: The Lost Bullet.

In 2013, Tague published his second book, LBJ and the Kennedy Killing (), which claimed that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and his associates were involved in the assassination.

Later life and death

Tague became a car salesman in Bonham, Texas where he retired. He died there on February 28, 2014 at the age of 77.

See also

  • Single-bullet theory

Authored works

References

  • William M. Goggins, James Tague: Unintended Victim in Dealey Plaza.