Day 30 - 14th November

Today we would be visiting the scene of one of the most famous crimes in history, Dealey plaza and where the assassination of JFK took place. We had also booked tickets to the Sixth Floor Book Depository museum, but the tickets are usually sold on a timed basis so as the museum didn’t open till 12pm on Mondays (usually it’s earlier) we picked 12pm and went into town early to find a park and spend some time on the plaza itself.

Getting into town was pretty straightforward; we’d hit morning rush hour so no whizzing cars and getting to the Elm St off-ramp was also no drama, phew. We managed to find a parking lot on Elm close to Dealey Plaza where we paid $15 for up to 24hrs parking (not bad we thought).

The plaza itself is all quite accessible and it’s a lot more compact that either of us imagined it would be. The street’s length between the Elm St turn to the triple underpass, where the shooting took place, would be no more than a couple of hundred meters, and the plaza itself is only several dozen meters wide at the top point.  The other thing of note is that the infamous “grassy knoll” where the ‘other’ shooters are supposed to have been, is almost right next to where Abraham Zapruder was filming the motorcade. We’d always envisaged it to be in another location, eg across from the motorcade’s street. So the grassy knoll, Abraham Zapruder’s spot, and the Book depository all occupy the same side of the street.

As we were looking around, a number of touts came up to sell glossy magazines about the shooting (complete with gory autopsy pictures) as well as newspaper reprints but we shooed them away.

There were also two “x” marks in the street to indicate where JFK’s car was at when each shot was fired, though I understand these were placed by members of the public and are not any ‘official’ marking. 

So we first went to the spot where Abraham Zapruder was filming, and could see that he had a prime location for filming the motorcade after it turned onto Elm and went down towards the underpass.  We then went to the grassy knoll, really a small slope up towards a wooden fence that bordered a carpark and was also next to the railyards.  This was where some people thought the shots had come from initially.

On the ground, the window on the sixth floor of the book depository is kept open and from there you can see that Oswald had a prime spot to take his shots as the motorcade moved away from him in the same line of sight. I’d always though he had to move his rifle from one side to the other, but now I can see that he just had to move it upwards to keep tracking the car. That to me makes the concept of the lone shooter more plausible now.

We spent an hour or so going over the ground and went to the other side of the plaza to see the whole length of the street and take some photos. With still time in hand before the museum opened we went to the Museum store and café for a bite & coffee. We have found that a latte with an extra shot of espresso makes for a pretty decent flat white alternative.

At 11:45 we duly took our place in the queue at the museum, showed our ticket and picked up our audio tour device, and then went up to the 6^th Floor. The 6th Floor area has been designed to lead you around the room following a timeline of the day’s events and aftermath. It starts with a small background as to the reason for the visit and why JFK was unpopular to some Americans (he was not the uniting force that some myth would have us believe). The tour then takes you through the shooting timeline. The corner of the 6^th floor where Oswald positioned himself has been walled off by a glass wall, but the boxes he used to hide and provide a support for his arms have all been arranged as best they can determine. There’s also a large model of the plaza and building with string used to show the bullets trajectory to the car at each time that he fired.

The tour then goes through the aftermath & funeral, and also touches on the many conspiracy theories that have sprung up about the assassination.  There’s also a replica of the rifle used, and the tour of the floor finishes with the legacy of Kennedy and some of the things he tried to start during his thousand days in office.

There are no photo’s allowed on the 6^th Floor, but the 7^th floor is open and we were able to position ourselves in the corner above where Oswald was hiding, and take some photos of the street down below. There are more trees now covering the line of sight than there were in ’63, but it’s still easy to see the track of the motorcade away from the hiding place.

It was an amazing experience to see this ground, and to finally see how the land lies despite having seen it in various documentaries and films. I think being able to walk the street enabled us to get a better sense of the perspective from all angles.

We’ve also come away with two differing viewpoints; Deb is leaning towards the theory that there was a conspiracy of some kind in that Oswald did not act alone, but I have begun to believe the lone gunman theory as I can now see how he could have got three shots off in the space & Time he had. I purchased a book from the store that claims to put those theories to bed, so now I have to read and retain the information so that I can confidently argue my point.

Following our time at the museum, we decided to go over to the “Geo-Deck” tower a few blocks away. The tower, which looks like a large singer’s Microphone stood on end, contains an observation deck that allows great views of Dallas. The entry fee was $16 (almost everything needs an entry fee) and we got escorted into the tower where our “ambassador” spouted a few facts & figures on the way up. The observation deck was pretty amazing, and we could walk the circumference of the tower for some amazing views. We could also see the whole of Dealey Plaza from the perch so took a number of photos for the record. After a few pictures, including one of a very spaghetti-like interchange we headed back down and went back to the 6^th floor museum café for lunch. Two rolls, two coffees and a couple of ‘cakes’ came to $40! Yikes.

Once we finished, it was getting late so we walked a few blocks but couldn’t see any signs of interesting retail activity, so jumped in the car and headed back to the motel. We happen to be directed through the spaghetti-junction we’d photographed earlier, and the GPS had a hard time figuring out where we were. Fortunately the traffic was moving very slowly due to road works closing a lane and a breakdown further along also causing a jam, but once we got past that we sped up and were back at the hotel in a short time.

We decided to cut our Dallas time short and head to Houston tomorrow, a day early, so that we have enough time at the Space Center as well as get all our last packing sorted before we leave on Friday.

Over the last couple of days we have been watching event in NZ from afar. The news has also made it over here with some segments on CNN & Fox, and making to the “ticker tape” news ribbon. Amusingly, this morning the segment showed the three cows stranded on an island and we couldn’t help but be amused that this may be the most lasting image of the disaster that Americans may have! We have also been keeping an eye on Wellington as that has been getting flooded out due to the torrential rain, our poor lovely city is being hammered!