We arrive early afternoon, so plenty of time to get to our
hotel. The plan is to see something of Dallas before picking up the camper on
Monday: we have 3 days. First day out is a sobering one, to a museum on the
site of the momentous events of JFK’s visit to Dallas in 1963.
November 22nd 1963, 12:29pm. Lee Harvey Oswald is
sighting his rifle through this window on the 6th floor of the Book
Depository, using the book cartons to steady his aim. The positions of the
boxes have been exactly recreated.
This is the view Oswald sees as the President’s motorcade
turns into Elm Street, the road running diagonally through Dealy Plaza. There
was a lot less tree foliage than now.
12:30 pm. Oswald fires 3 shots. The first one misses, the
other two hit and mortally wound President Kennedy. The assassination is caught
on film as there are thousands of people lining the route, many with cameras,
but the definitive record is Abraham Zapruder’s home movie taken from the
grassy knoll overlooking the cavalcade’s path. This is Zapruder’s spot, and the
white cross, just visible on the road surface, is where the fatal shot struck.
Although the original investigation attributed the assassination
to Oswald working alone, there is significant evidence that a fourth shot was
fired from behind the white wall on the extreme left of the picture below behind
where Zapruder was filming. The red arrow indicates the window in the Book Depository
from which Oswald’s shots were fired.
There is no consensus on who else was involved, if anyone, in
addition to Oswald. He was a communist sympathiser, particularly of Fidel Castro
whom Kennedy had tried unsuccessfully to overthrow, and belonged to a left-wing
organisation. Perhaps the extra shot came from a left-wing accomplice with
Oswald as the main gunman as he was an ex-military crack-shot.
Oswald was apprehended almost immediately at a nearby cinema
although not without killing a police officer first. Oswald himself was assassinated
while in police custody by night club owner Jack Ruby only two days later and
never stated his motives. Ruby also cannot be fathomed as his professed reasons
for killing Oswald were blatantly transparent. He had connections with the mob,
but investigations here were inconclusive and he died of cancer before his final
conviction was secured.
JFK was in office for less than 3 years but seems to have
left a legacy far outweighing that short term. Many of his social and racial
reforms started a momentum that carries forward today. He initiated the moon
landing programme. He appears to have been an inspiration for achievement and public
good particularly amongst young people at that time, and indeed his influence appears
relevant now to many.
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