Play time was certainly over as I set on the reason I wanted to visit Dallas in the first place, that was Dealey Plaza, the site where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The area has been preserved as a landmark and looks almost identical to the pictures and images from that day on November 22, 1963. The sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository Building from where Lee Harvey Oswald allgedly fired from has been transformed into a museum dedicated towards the Kennedy assassination. The name for this museum is cleverly, The Sixth Floor Museum. To the left of the museum still remains the infamous grassy knoll area with picket fence that many conspiracy theorist believe a second shooter fired shots from. The JFK assassination has been a facination of mine for quite some time, and it was time I get my boots on the ground and inspect the scene of the crime for myself before making any assertions.
The museum price was $13.50 and an elevator takes you up to the sixth floor. On the ground floor there is a gift shop with millions of different book available on the subject. The museum provides a headset and the design of the place is for you to walk around and see the exhibits along the wall while the headset narrates. No photographs are allowed inside. The only problem with that is the narration goes painfully slow, plus if there's people in front of you and you go on to skip to other sections, everything gets thrown off. There were quite a number people inside the museum which was going to cause some bouncing around, so I decided to turn off the headet and just read the facts off the walls. The timeline goes from Kennedy campaigning for the 1960 election, his achievements, the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald's death, Ruby's arrest, the Warren Commission, the panel investigations afterwards, and lastly a wall for the conspiracy theories. What I needed to see for myself was the window they say Oswald fired the shots from to get a sense if the shots were makable from that position.
The museum actually has that window and the corner part of the floor closed off and preserved in glass. Everything is supposedly the same as is was found on that day, including the original boxes that were stacked up to block anybody's else view from the floor, plus a few boxes lined up near the window to serve as a perch for the rifle. The second best solution is the window to the right of that which I took a look at. On Elm St. itself where Kennedy's limo was traveling on when it got shot at, there are two giant X-marks in the middle of the street for when the first shot was said to be fired and the last. I'm not sure what the tree situation was in November 1963, but in March 2012, looking at the tree out front of the window's view, it seemed it would have been almost impossible to make that first shot through the branches and leaves. If someone was going to make a shot, the better choice would've been as the target comes straight down Houston St and heading in closer, not moving away on a right-handed curve on Elm St. The shot selection and the feeling I got from the tree outside was causing me to lean to the skeptic side that Oswald all fired the shots from there. The other side of the floor also has a preserved section englassed, and that is the area where Oswald was said to have stashed his gun after the shooting, which police found an hour later.
The museum is not very big since its only one floor and there was still more stuff to look at, but the crowd kept growing and it was getting more difficult to study things in peace, so I decided to head down to the grassy knoll area to inspect the conspiracy theory half of the assassination. I was looking forward to the grassy knoll more than The Sixth Floor Museum simply because the image of Kennedy's limo strolling down Elm St. and the picket fence on the hill have become such iconic images in American culture that I felt I was taking a time machine back to 1963. Other visitors were down there as well, racing to take pictures of themselves on those X-marks in the middle of the street before oncoming traffic comes. There was a black bird on the grass that might know a little more than it was letting on. Everything out there is easily accessable and the public is allowed to walk behind the picket fence as they please. I checked out the fence and stood where conspiracy theorist believe a second shooter was positioned at and I felt that a much more logical cause of the fatal head shot than the sixth floor of the depository building. The fence had plenty of messages written on it from those claiming a cover-up in JFK's murder, to boyfriend-girlfriend annoucements, to even a funny reference from the cartoon show "South Park". I turned around and saw a train signal tower where one witness saw two men standing behind the fence back on that day.
There were two outdoor items I was yearning to check out for myself. One was a storm drain along side the curb on Elm St. that I've read could've possibly been a spot for a shooter that delivered the fatal head shot. I stood on both X-marks and faced the opening in the curb, and it did seem quite plausible to hit Kennedy at that angle. The second item was what is on the other side of the triple-bypass railroad bridge where Commerce St., Main St., and Elm St. seem to merge. My belief had always been why bother turning from Main, to Houston, to Elm and be near the Depository building, when the parade could have just remained on Main St. and stayed straight to reach the Stemmons Freeway. This parade detail always made me feel something was fishy. Once I got on the other side I found my answer, there's a low concrete divider curb that seperate Elm and Main Streets, so the only way to get around that curb and reach the freeway entrace is by switching to Elm via Houston. I wasn't too sure if that curb was there in 1963, but in 2012 terms it made sense. The walkway under the bridge smelled like urine and it was good to know that one of the world's most infamous moments was secured with the scent of urine nearby. I also found humorous that the everyday locals of the area just drive by or walk by as if its just any ol' regular street. Perhaps its the same as being in Manhattan and wondering by goofy people from Finland and looking up at the skyscrapers.
My last look was a block down from the former depository building on Houston to get sense of how a frontal shot of the motorcade would've looked like, and I was still left puzzled why Oswald didn't take that shot instead. Perhaps he was still debating in his head to do it or not and then decided 'yes' when the car was on Elm. Other than that building, there is another building across the street listed as 501 Elm place which was also behind the limo and didn't have any pesky trees in its way, a conspiracy theorist could make a case one or more shots came from there as well. I had most of my questions answered, although the day's experience put some new questions on my plate. It was now time to start the second half on my research with all the facts and conspiracy theories regarding JFK's assassination, which will be released at a later date.
Until then, a certain black bird better keep its nose clean...
The museum price was $13.50 and an elevator takes you up to the sixth floor. On the ground floor there is a gift shop with millions of different book available on the subject. The museum provides a headset and the design of the place is for you to walk around and see the exhibits along the wall while the headset narrates. No photographs are allowed inside. The only problem with that is the narration goes painfully slow, plus if there's people in front of you and you go on to skip to other sections, everything gets thrown off. There were quite a number people inside the museum which was going to cause some bouncing around, so I decided to turn off the headet and just read the facts off the walls. The timeline goes from Kennedy campaigning for the 1960 election, his achievements, the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald's death, Ruby's arrest, the Warren Commission, the panel investigations afterwards, and lastly a wall for the conspiracy theories. What I needed to see for myself was the window they say Oswald fired the shots from to get a sense if the shots were makable from that position.
The museum actually has that window and the corner part of the floor closed off and preserved in glass. Everything is supposedly the same as is was found on that day, including the original boxes that were stacked up to block anybody's else view from the floor, plus a few boxes lined up near the window to serve as a perch for the rifle. The second best solution is the window to the right of that which I took a look at. On Elm St. itself where Kennedy's limo was traveling on when it got shot at, there are two giant X-marks in the middle of the street for when the first shot was said to be fired and the last. I'm not sure what the tree situation was in November 1963, but in March 2012, looking at the tree out front of the window's view, it seemed it would have been almost impossible to make that first shot through the branches and leaves. If someone was going to make a shot, the better choice would've been as the target comes straight down Houston St and heading in closer, not moving away on a right-handed curve on Elm St. The shot selection and the feeling I got from the tree outside was causing me to lean to the skeptic side that Oswald all fired the shots from there. The other side of the floor also has a preserved section englassed, and that is the area where Oswald was said to have stashed his gun after the shooting, which police found an hour later.
The museum is not very big since its only one floor and there was still more stuff to look at, but the crowd kept growing and it was getting more difficult to study things in peace, so I decided to head down to the grassy knoll area to inspect the conspiracy theory half of the assassination. I was looking forward to the grassy knoll more than The Sixth Floor Museum simply because the image of Kennedy's limo strolling down Elm St. and the picket fence on the hill have become such iconic images in American culture that I felt I was taking a time machine back to 1963. Other visitors were down there as well, racing to take pictures of themselves on those X-marks in the middle of the street before oncoming traffic comes. There was a black bird on the grass that might know a little more than it was letting on. Everything out there is easily accessable and the public is allowed to walk behind the picket fence as they please. I checked out the fence and stood where conspiracy theorist believe a second shooter was positioned at and I felt that a much more logical cause of the fatal head shot than the sixth floor of the depository building. The fence had plenty of messages written on it from those claiming a cover-up in JFK's murder, to boyfriend-girlfriend annoucements, to even a funny reference from the cartoon show "South Park". I turned around and saw a train signal tower where one witness saw two men standing behind the fence back on that day.
There were two outdoor items I was yearning to check out for myself. One was a storm drain along side the curb on Elm St. that I've read could've possibly been a spot for a shooter that delivered the fatal head shot. I stood on both X-marks and faced the opening in the curb, and it did seem quite plausible to hit Kennedy at that angle. The second item was what is on the other side of the triple-bypass railroad bridge where Commerce St., Main St., and Elm St. seem to merge. My belief had always been why bother turning from Main, to Houston, to Elm and be near the Depository building, when the parade could have just remained on Main St. and stayed straight to reach the Stemmons Freeway. This parade detail always made me feel something was fishy. Once I got on the other side I found my answer, there's a low concrete divider curb that seperate Elm and Main Streets, so the only way to get around that curb and reach the freeway entrace is by switching to Elm via Houston. I wasn't too sure if that curb was there in 1963, but in 2012 terms it made sense. The walkway under the bridge smelled like urine and it was good to know that one of the world's most infamous moments was secured with the scent of urine nearby. I also found humorous that the everyday locals of the area just drive by or walk by as if its just any ol' regular street. Perhaps its the same as being in Manhattan and wondering by goofy people from Finland and looking up at the skyscrapers.
My last look was a block down from the former depository building on Houston to get sense of how a frontal shot of the motorcade would've looked like, and I was still left puzzled why Oswald didn't take that shot instead. Perhaps he was still debating in his head to do it or not and then decided 'yes' when the car was on Elm. Other than that building, there is another building across the street listed as 501 Elm place which was also behind the limo and didn't have any pesky trees in its way, a conspiracy theorist could make a case one or more shots came from there as well. I had most of my questions answered, although the day's experience put some new questions on my plate. It was now time to start the second half on my research with all the facts and conspiracy theories regarding JFK's assassination, which will be released at a later date.
Until then, a certain black bird better keep its nose clean...
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