James Tague

James "Jim" Thomas Tague (October 17, 1936 – February 28, 2014) was a tertiary victim during the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Tague received a minor wound to his right cheek immediately prior to the assassination, caused by tiny pieces of concrete debris from a street curb that was struck by a bullet presumably intended for Kennedy. Besides Kennedy and Texas Governor John B. Connally, Tague was the only person known to have been wounded by gunfire in Dallas's Dealey Plaza that day.

Tague was born in Plainfield, Indiana. He served in the United States Air Force and subsequently became a car salesman in Dallas.

Tague had been driving to downtown Dallas to have lunch with his girlfriend (and future wife) when he came upon a traffic jam due to the presidential motorcade which was traveling west on Elm Street. Tague testified to the Warren Commission that the traffic jam caused him to park his car on the north curb of Elm Street, where he then "got out of his car and stood by the bridge abutment". Tague was a few feet east of the eastern edge of the triple underpass railroad bridge, when he saw the presidential limousine and heard the first shot.

Like many other witnesses, Tague remembered hearing this first shot and likened it to a firecracker. He later testified that the first shot he recalled hearing occurred after the presidential limousine had already completed the 120-degree slow turn from Houston Street onto Elm Street and then straightened out. The motorcade then proceeded towards him.

Soon after the shots were fired, Tague was approached by Dallas Sheriff's detective Buddy Walthers, who had noticed that Tague had specks of blood on his right facial cheek. (Tague also had a small left facial scab, caused by an unrelated event that occurred a week prior to the assassination). The detective asked Tague where he had been standing. The two men then examined the area and discovered — on the upper, curved part of the Elm Street north curb – a "very fresh scar" impact that, to each of them, looked like a bullet had struck there and taken a small chip out of the curb's concrete. They came to the conclusion that one bullet ricocheted off the curb and the debris hit Tague. This curb surrounding the scar chip was not cut out until August 1964 after Tague repeatedly reminded authorities that he had also been wounded during the shots, and it is now in the National Archives. The scar chip was 23 feet 6 inches (7.16 m) east of the east edge of the triple underpass railroad bridge, about 20 feet (6 m) from where Tague stood during the attack. The detective told Tague it looked like a bullet had been fired from either the Texas School Book Depository or the Dal-Tex Building.

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