November 15, 2016 - Dallas, Texas
JFK Assassination

On November 22, 1963, at 12:30 pm, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza.  Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, Nellie, when he was fatally shot.   Governor Connally was seriously wounded in the attack.  The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting.  About 70 minutes after Kennedy and Connally were shot, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested by the Dallas Police Department and charged under Texas state law with the murders of Kennedy and of J. D. Tippit, a Dallas police officer. At 11:21 a.m. on November 24, 1963, as live television cameras covered Oswald being moved through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters, he was fatally shot by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby. Like Kennedy, Oswald was also taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he soon died. Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder, though it was later overturned on appeal.  Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial.  After a 10-month investigation, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, that Oswald had acted entirely alone, and that Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald.  -- Wikipedia

The JFK assassination was one of those rare events that everybody remembers where they were when it happened.  For me, watching the funeral procession down Pennsylvania avenue on the continually-running black and white TV in our base-housing apartment at Moffett Field is one of my first memories.  (I was five). 

A few years ago I began reading some of the hundreds of books that have been written on the JFK Assassination.   After awhile, you get hooked.  Basically, there are two camps:  1) the Lone Nutters, who believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assasssination of JFK, firing three shots -- two of which hit -- of which one was the head shot from the rear that killed JFK, from the Texas School Book Depository where he worked.  The Warren Commission supported this view.  And 2) the Conspiracy Theorists:  those who believe that the Mob, CIA, Herbert Hoover and the FBI, the Vice-President LBJ, Cuba or the Soviet Union or some combination thereof killed JFK.  That Oswald was a patsy.  That there were multiple shooters.  To this day, January 1, 2023, the federal government is still withholding JFK assassination-related documents from the public domain.  Why?  Probably because the documents embarass the government in some way.  We will probably never know what really happened.  Still, it is a fascinating subject.

Lynnette and I were flying out to Texas to attend my youngest daughters graduation from Air Force boot camp in San Antonio.  As part of that trip we stopped in Dallas and checked out Dealey Plaza and took a tour of the JFK Assassination locations.  I was amazed at how unchanged everything was from November, 1963.

Here is Lynnette standing on Elm Street with the Texas School Book Depository in the background.  JFK's motorcade came down this road (towards the camera).  The "X" in the middle of Elm Street (far left) marks the spot of the head shot that killed President Kennedy.  Lee Harvey Oswald worked in this building and alledgely fired three shots with his $29.95 mail order Italian Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle from the top right corner window.
   
Looking across Elm Street at the "grassy knoll".   The "X" is Elm Street is now at the far right.
   
A closer look at the sixth floor, last window on the right, top floor of the Texas School Book Depository building.
   
Perched atop this marble platform, Abraham Zapruder took his famous home movie of the assassination.
   
A nice shot of Dealey Plaza, looking across Elm Street.  I was amazed at how nothing has really changed here since November 1963.
   
Looking south down Houston Street.  Later we went on a Trolley Tour -- see bus at left.
   
A tourist rides in the backseat of a Presidential limo replica.  Across Houston street from the Texas School Book Depository building is the Dal-Tex building with the JFK Assassination museum store.   Some Conspiracy Theorists believe shots came from this building.
   
The tourist presidential limo makes the 135-degree turn from Houston Street to Elm Street.  More than a 90 degree turn was against Secret Service protocol because the long limo would have to significantly slow down to make the turn.  But it was done anyways.
   
JFK only had to get under that railroad overpass to relatively safety followed by a speedy trip to his speaking destination at the Trade Center.  So close.
   
A block or so over to the east is the John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza and this cement block-like monument.
   
Supposedly Jackie Kennedy specifically ordered the monument to represent how she felt the day her husband died which was “empty, ugly, and hollow”.  They achieved it.
   
 
   
Another picture of the grassy knoll.  Behind that fence is a parking lot.  This was another spot conspiracy theorists believe shots came from.
   
A closer look of the fence and parking lot.  Probably not the same fence as back in 1963.
   
We went on the Trolley Tour which was worth doing because they took you along the actual motorcade route from the east along Main Street, and also to other sites important to the JFK assassination.
   
The futuristic looking Margaret McDermott Bridge over the Trinity River.  Although the river looks a little low today;  i.e., there is no river!
   
Lee Harvey Oswald rented a room in this very house.  His family -- wife Maria and two kids -- lived separately in Irving, with Ruth Paine.  Unknown to Mrs. Paine, Oswald's bundled up rifle was stored in her garage.
   
After JFK was assassinated, Oswald was walking down this street and was stopped by Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippet.  Alledgedly Oswald alledgedly killed Tippit.
   
A plaque memorializing Officer Tippit.
   
This is the movie theater where Lee Harvey Oswald was apprehended.
   
Returning back to downtown Dallas in the trolley.
   
The basement exit of the Dallas police station where Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald two days after JFK died.  Oswald died two hours after being shot.
   
 
   
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