If you are interested in the JFK assassination, and whatever your view, I hope you will find this feature interesting. In this post I want to leave you with a simple photo gallery. My personal contributing images were taken in September 2022 and November 2024. I have found that actually going to locations helps me to better understand what happened.
This first image above depicts Lee Harvey Oswald in one of the now famous back yard photos taken by his wife Marina in April 1963. This was taken behind 214, West Neely Street in Oak Cliff, Dallas. It was featured on the front cover of Life magazine, 21 February 1964. The image below is the same location and property in November 2024.
The Ruth Paine House Museum below, 2515 West 5th Street, Irving, Texas. Now owned by the City of Irving. The house has been re-created, decorated and furnished as it was in 1963. Some of the fittings are original. The oak tree in the front yard was there in 1963, Lee Oswald would play here with his own and neighbourhood children. The tree had just been trimmed. There is access to the garage where Oswald stored his rifle from within the house via the kitchen. The museum guide and curator is Kevin Kendro who I met, 21 Nov 2024. Kevin was kind enough to show me around the property.
In 1963 this yellow bricked house below on the right was the home of Bill and Linnie Mae Randle. It was just four doors east of Ruth Paine’s property. Linnie’s 19 year old brother, Buell Wesley Frazier was living with them at the time and working at the TSBD in Dallas. It was Buell who innocently drove Lee Oswald to their place of work on the morning of 22 November 1963. Buell was initially arrested after the assassination, he was a key witness. He has now written a book, ‘Steering Truth’. I had the fortune to meet him in Lewisville, Dallas, 19 Nov 24. He is now 80 and tells an interesting story.
Having driven the 15 miles to the TSBD in Dealey Plaza,- in downtown Dallas, Buell parked his car. Lee had got out and was ahead of him as they entered the building, he was carrying the infamous package of ‘stair rods’. Buell only had glimpses of Lee throughout the morning as they went about their work. When the motorcade was due just before midday, Buell was on the steps at the front entrance and saw the President’s motorcade pass. As JFK’s car disappeared behind the crowds down the gentle slope on Elm Street he heard the shots. The sixth floor window was directly above Buell. Across from the entrance was the reflecting pool. There stood Howard Brennan, facing the building. He clearly saw Lee Oswald with his rifle and he was able to accurately describe him to police. It was his description that was passed to patrolling Dallas Police Officers and that was how Officer JD Tippit came to stop Lee Oswald in south Oak Cliff. This was only 3 miles south of the Depository.
The two images below depict the TSBD front entrance steps with the 6th floor window directly above. The Reflecting Pool is to the right. Relevant distances are short, everything was close, a fact often overlooked and not appreciated.
After the assassination, Lee Oswald fled the TSBD building and reached his rooming house on N Beckley Ave just over 2 miles to the south: he travelled via bus and taxi. After quickly changing some clothes and taking his .38 revolver he wandered south on N Beckley Ave towards South Oak Cliff. In less than a mile in was on N Patton Ave and E 10th Street.
Lee Oswald was walking east on E 10th Street, a quiet residential area, it’s much the same now. He was on the sidewalk to the right. JD Tippit was patrolling in the same direction alone in car 10. He stopped Lee Oswald who initially he spoke to through the open passenger window. Oswald shot him dead in front of a number of witnesses when he got out of his car. Ironically now in 2024 there is a local ‘Crime Watch’ sign adjacent to where JD Tippit was murdered.
Looking west, the Honda saloon below is in the same position as JD Tippit’s car after Lee Oswald shot him. Note the white cross. The 1963 properties in this view above have now gone, the WH Adamson High School is situated here now.
E Jefferson Blvd looking west from the N Patton Ave intersection where Lee Oswald wandered after he shot and killed JD Tippit, just 8 minutes walking distance to the Texas Theatre Cinema. A witness followed him and saw him dart into the cinema, passing Julia Postal’s box office without purchasing a ticket. Lee Oswald was identified, disarmed, apprehended and arrested by police who surrounded the cinema while a film was showing.
Lee Harvey Oswald was taken into custody protesting his innocence and being a victim of police brutality. He was driven to the Dallas Police HQ in City Hall. Despite his actions, movements and a combined host of witnesses at all the events that day, he denied any knowledge of anything asked of him. He lied to the police officers and FBI agents questioning him; they found two forms of ID on his person. At this stage Oswald had absolutely no idea who had witnessed his actions. Two days later, 24 November 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald is shot to death during a jail transfer by a vigilante, Jack Ruby, a night club owner. Despite the weight of evidence and witness testimonies conspiracy theories still persist.
My thanks to Buell Wesley Frazier and Kevin Kendro in Dallas. Reference to ‘Four Days in November’ – Vincent Bugliosi.