The entire debacle played-out with assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 as a background. Hours before Kennedy was shot, NY Stock Exchange president G. Keith Funston attempted to avert a market crash as Ira Haupt's 20,700 customers, fearing financial ruin, scrambled to sell their oil holdings before they became worthless. Because of all the trades the brokerage firm did on De Angelis' behalf, various banks were left holding the bag with over $37 million in unrecoverable loans. As the Kennedy assassination threw the market into a panic, 2.6 million shares were sold and the Dow dropped 24 points (about 5%) in 27 minutes. The exchange was forced to close 83 minutes early.