1. James William "Ike" Altgens was an American photojournalist, photo editor, and field reporter for the Associated Press based in Dallas, Texas, who became known for his photographic work during the assassination of United States President John F Kennedy.
When his service time ended, Ike Altgens returned to Dallas and got married.
Ike Altgens soon went back to work for the local AP bureau and eventually earned a position as a senior editor.
Ike Altgens was on assignment for the AP when he captured two historic images on November 22,1963.
Ike Altgens appeared briefly as a film actor and model during his 40-year career with the AP, which ended in 1979.
Ike Altgens spent his later years working in display advertising, and answering letters and other requests made by assassination researchers.
Ike Altgens was born James William Altgens on April 28,1919, in Dallas, Texas, to Willie May Altgens, a housewife, and J H Altgens, a machinist.
Ike Altgens was orphaned as a child and raised by a widowed aunt.
Ike Altgens was hired by the Associated Press in 1938 when he was 19, shortly after his graduation from North Dallas High School.
Ike Altgens began his career handling various assignments and writing some sports articles.
Ike Altgens showed a talent for photography and was assigned in 1940 to work in the wirephoto office.
Ike Altgens' career was interrupted by service in the United States Coast Guard during World War II; he moonlighted as a radio broadcaster during this time.
Ike Altgens went back to work for the AP in 1945 and was assigned to its news bureau.
Ike Altgens attended night classes at Southern Methodist University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech with a minor in journalism.
Ike Altgens' acting career included a role as a witness in Free, White and 21, and as a witness in The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Ike Altgens photographed President Kennedy for the AP in 1961 at Perrin Air Force Base.
On November 22,1963, Ike Altgens was scheduled to work in the AP offices in Dallas as the wirephoto editor.
Ike Altgens instead asked to go to the "triple overpass" to photograph the motorcade that was to take President Kennedy from Love Field to his scheduled appearance at the Dallas Trade Mart.
Ike Altgens was not assigned to work in the field that day, so he took his personal single-lens reflex camera as opposed to the motor-driven equipment normally used for news events.
Ike Altgens tried to find a good camera angle on the bridge, but uniformed police said it was private property and turned him away, and he moved to a location within the plaza.
Ike Altgens began photographing the motorcade on Main Street as the vehicles approached Houston Street, and got a close-up of the presidential limousine as it turned right onto Houston.
Ike Altgens then picked up his equipment bag and ran on the grass toward the south curb along Elm Street, stopping across from the Plaza's north colonnade.
Ike Altgens heard a loud noise at about the same time as his first photograph from that spot, but he did not recall having any reaction since he thought the noise came from a firecracker.
Ike Altgens recovered, and his next photograph showed the First Lady with her hand on the vehicle's trunk lid and Secret Service agent Clint Hill standing on the bumper behind her as the driver had begun to accelerate.
Ike Altgens telephoned the news office, leading to one of the first news bulletins of the shooting:.
Once his pictures had been distributed via the wirephoto network, Ike Altgens was sent to Parkland Memorial Hospital along with a second photographer.
Ike Altgens returned to Dealey Plaza to photograph the assassination site for diagramming purposes, then was sent to Dallas City Hall to retrieve the work of another AP photographer who had pictures of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in custody.
Ten days after Kennedy was assassinated, the Associated Press in Dallas reported that the first photograph Ike Altgens made along Elm Street had captured the attention of people who noticed that one of the men standing in the main doorway to the book depository appeared to resemble accused killer Lee Harvey Oswald.
Ike Altgens said there was nothing to share because he had not taken part in any assignments involving depository employees.
Ike Altgens later wrote that others were resisting any such acceptance.
Ike Altgens was featured in two AP dispatches issued on November 22,1963.
Ike Altgens initially reported hearing two shots, but thought someone had been setting off fireworks.
In 1964, Ike Altgens testified for the Warren Commission and was asked about the gunfire and whether he knew its source.
Ike Altgens said he had not been keeping track of the number of gunshots fired in Dealey Plaza because he believed them to be fireworks, but he was certain of at least two.
Ike Altgens believed Kennedy's wounds suggested a final shot that came from the vicinity of the book depository building, but he could not say with any certainty.
When CBS television interviewed him in 1967, Ike Altgens said it was obvious to him that the head shot came from behind Kennedy's limousine "because it caused him to bolt forward, dislodging him from this depression in the seat cushion".
Ike Altgens added that the commotion in "the knoll area" after the shooting struck him as odd, since he believed the assassin would have needed to move very quickly to get there.
District Attorney Jim Garrison subpoenaed Ike Altgens to appear in New Orleans, Louisiana for the 1969 trial of businessman Clay Shaw on charges of conspiring to kill Kennedy.
Ike Altgens later learned that they were not required to attend.
In 1979, after 40 years with the AP, Ike Altgens retired rather than accept a transfer to a different bureau.
Ike Altgens stayed in Dallas and took a job with the Ford Motor Company working on displays and exhibits.
Ike Altgens spent time answering requests by assassination researchers, and his reminiscences were included in several publications and discussions:.
Moderator Hugh Aynesworth introduced Ike Altgens and reminded attendees of the controversy over the man in his picture who resembled Oswald.
Ike Altgens described what he saw following the fatal shot to JFK.
Ike Altgens remembered seeing Jackie Kennedy on the trunk of the limousine, and thinking that she was frightened by the events and was trying to get away.
Ike Altgens shared a story about Billy Lovelady in Larry Sneed's 1998 oral history compendium No More Silence: An Oral History of the Assassination of President Kennedy.
Lovelady had contacted Ike Altgens and asked him to deliver a copy of the first photograph along Elm Street.
Ike Altgens was met instead by Lovelady's wife, who said her husband would never agree to be interviewed.
Ike Altgens said he had told FBI agents that he might have had better pictures for investigators if he had been allowed to stay on the overpass.
Ike Altgens was survived by three nephews, and his wife by two sisters.