Ike Pappas Dead

Longtime news reporter, documentary filmmaker, and sometime actor Icarus N. "Ike" Pappas died of a heart ailment on September 1, 2008. Ike Pappas was a 30-year-old reporter for CBS News when he witnessed the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. Oswald was being transferred from the Dallas County Courthouse after being accused of the assassination of American president John F. Kennedy when restaurateur Ruby shot him. Pappas asked Oswald "Do you have anything to say in your defense?" just before the shooting.

Fast Facts

1. Born: April 16, 1933, Washington DC¹
2. Spouse: Carolyn Pappas
3. Children: Theodore Pappas, Alexander Pappas, Sarah Thomason
4. Joined CBS News as a radio writer in 1964¹
5. Became a correspondent in 1967¹
6. Covered: Vietnam War, 1967 Six Day War, the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the 1970 shootings at Kent State University, and political coups in Greece, Bolivia and Chile¹
7. Fired as part of CBS cutbacks in 1987²
8. Began own documentary film company in 1987 called Ike Inc.¹
9. Movies: Archival footage of several historical events³
10. Acted: Moon over Parador, The Package, Matinee³

Quotes

"Oswald has been shot! Mass confusion here, all the doors have been locked. Holy mackerel!"—Ike Pappas, reporting on the death of Lee Harvey Oswald⁴

Related Pages on Mahalo

CBS Evening News | John F. Kennedy | Kent State University | Vietnam War | Six Day War | Martin Luther King Jr.

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