If you are coming to Dallas, you OWE YOURSELF a tour of the Assasination sites!
Please link to my Dallas TOUR INFORMATION SITE)
( If your interest is the JFK Assassination, my main slant on the event is
Dallas and Dealey Plaza HISTORY! You can check out excerpts from my book on the
subject at: D in the Heart of Texas) I have always been interested in the Assassination, and started gathering
anything I could find on it after moving back to Dallas in 1983. I am not what
you would consider a major researcher, and have not spent a small fortune
gathering assassination books and materials. I have attended a number of
November 22 ceremonies at Dealey Plaza, and have attended at least five
multi-day conference with many of the genuine researchers. But I do stay in
contact with some of the research groups, and even offer to play host and show
city sites to some of them from time to time. As I got in contact with the bonafide research groups, it was because my
interest was triggered by the existence and history of Dealey Plaza. As such,
my area of interest is more about the history of Dallas, George B. Dealey's
part in it, and Dealey Plaza itself. Below is an overhead shot of Dealey Plaza
taken in late 1963: For those of you who have never been to Dallas, and especially Dealey Plaza,
a tour of it is online at My Online trip to Dallas,
by Henry May I have been with many people when they have first seen Dealey Plaza, and
universally they mention one thing: "It looks so much smaller
than I thought it would!" It is about 2 small city blocks wide, by 2 small city blocks long. (Counting
to where it goes under the triple underpass.) If you look closely at the cars,
you can determine that you could only park about 20 of them along Main street
(center), and even less along Houston street (by the buildings on the top).
With this in mind, it is quite easy to understand how a person in any of the
buildings with a high-powered rifle, could turn this little area into a
"kill zone". This is even more acute when you consider that only the
North side of Dealey Plaza (to your left) was even involved. (Unless you count
some of the wilder theories.) Dealey Plaza is also very much on a hill. Houston street is the top of the
hill, but it is level with the train tracks on the Triple Overpass. The entire
Plaza was originally level with this, but was 'dug out' to create the Triple
Underpass. This means all 3 roads go downhill so that they can pass under the
overpass, within the span of the 400 feet or so of the plaza. The sides of the
plaza are also very sloped, with the walkway of the curved pergolas being about
10-12 feet above the road surfaces closest to them. The areas behind the curved
pergolas are another 3-4 feet above this, with steps going up behind the
pergolas. The picket fence (where the other shooter(s) is alleged to be) is
level with the train tracks, on this 3-4 feet higher area. The grassy area
leading to the pergolas and especially up the side of the road next to the
picket fence is the famous 'grassy knoll' that everyone talks about. The
buildings, the hills on both sides, and the embankment of the triple underpass
itself create a kind of amphitheater, where the echoes of rifle shots could
easily get very confusing. I can give you a little history of Dealey Plaza. To help out with some of
the details, some of the areas are marked out on this version of the picture: The RED line is the route. (Forgive my
unsteady hand...but the jagged part is about where the hits occurred, with the
fatal head shot(s?) in between Mary Mormon and the corner of the picket fence.) The street running up and down the middle is Main St., with the curved
street on the left being Elm St. and the one on the right being Commerce St.
The street across the top of the Plaza is Houston St. Elm, Main and Commerce
streets are one-way streets, with both Elm and Main heading toward the Triple
Underpass. Stemmons Freeway (Interstate 35) is just below the triple underpass,
out of view, and Elm hits the access ramp to go north on the freeway. In
November of 1963, Main St. was a two-way street, although the street was
cordoned off for the motorcade that day. Between Elm St. and Main St. is a concrete curb that runs past to the
Stemmons Freeway entrance (out of sight below the triple underpass), and a sign
prohibiting a turn to Stemmons. Many people question why the motorcade took
such a radical turn on Houston, to get over onto Elm St., instead of just
continuing on Main St. Dealey Plaza has not always looked like this. Before Dealey Plaza was built
(1936), the area contained 3 city blocks, full of buildings and businesses.
Another street, named Broadway, ran north-south (left-right from this view)
through the middle of it. West of Broadway was the railroad tracks. All three
streets were straight prior to the Plaza being built. Where the Triple Overpass
is was once the banks of the Trinity River, until the Trinity River Levee
project in the 1920's moved the Trinity about 1/2 a mile further west. The
train tracks were right beside the river, and most of this area was severely
flooded in the Trinity flood of 1908. Covering some of the other buildings around Dealey Plaza: The most famous of
which is the Texas School Book Depository, which was built in 1901 as the
"Southern Rock Island Plow Co." building. It used to have these words
around the top of the building, just below the roof decorations. I do not know
when it changed hands and started being used to store textbooks. Going clockwise from there, you have the DalTex building sitting directly
across Houston St. from the TSBD. Many assassination theories have snipers on
the roof, 2nd or 3rd floor of this building. Some theorize that this was done
to get into a crossfire, which was the reason for delaying until Kennedy had
turned onto Elm St. Continuing around, you have the two-part Criminal Courts Building. Part of
this building houses some holding cells for the criminals waiting to appear in
court. On the day of the shooting some of the people in the courthouse reported
seeing a man with a rifle in the TSBD, but could not get the guard's attention
in time. The red Courthouse is the oldest building here (completed in 1893), and used
to have a bell tower on the top of the center of it (there is still a flat area
in the center where a taller bell tower used to be). The bell tower was torn
down shortly after World War I, due to the fear of structural damage from the
loud toll of the bell. At least one witness took a film from a window in the
curved part of this building, which has recently surfaced. The other buildings, on the side of Dealey Plaza away from the TSBD had no
real major involvement in the event as, even though they had some witnesses who
saw smoke from the grassy knoll, they were too far away to discern anything of
detail. The big white one across from the Old Red Courthouse is the Dallas
County Courthouse, which was under construction in November 63. The white
building on the extreme right was, at that time, the Terminal Annex for the US
Postal Service. Some witnesses and Postal Inspectors were here, and both Oswald
and Ruby had PO Boxes here at the time of the assassination. Just as a point of interest, behind the Criminal Courts Building, is the
County Records Building (you can see its roof). Just beyond that street which
runs behind the County Records Building and the Old Red Courthouse in this view
(Record St.), is a block of scenic open space. On the County Records side of
that scenic open space, is the original log cabin of John Neely Bryan, who
founded Dallas on his claim of 640 acres, back in 1842. The original location
of his cabin was on the north (left) side of Commerce St. (the curved one to
the right), between Houston St. and the Trinity River (where the Triple
Underpass is now). This puts the first house of Dallas right in the middle of
what is now Dealey Plaza. On the block beyond the Old Red Courthouse is a memorial to John F. Kennedy
(you can see cars parked on that block in this picture, but the memorial was
built after this picture was taken). On November 22, 1993, on the 30th
anniversary of the event, at a ceremony I attended, they put a plaque on the
grassy knoll closest to where he got the fatal head wound. They have also
modified the arch area at the left top of this view to talk about the
Assassination. Although Dealey Plaza is mainly only remembered for that dreary day in
November, 1963, it is the initial site of Dallas, and remains one of the most
historic sites in the area. (More on the history of Dallas and George Bannerman
Dealey can be found on my Dallas
page.) Like everyone else who has followed the
Assassination, I also have an opinion.
It is a wimpy opinion, and certainly not one I can call my own, but I still
have it. Below are a number of links for information about JFK and the events of
November 22, 1963. I 'borrowed' most of these links from a JFK interested
friend of mine named Cheryl Overfield, so be sure to check out her JFK Resources Online
page. She has a lot more there than just these links...worth checking out. JFK sites I had checked to make sure all of
these links existed as of Aug 3, 2001. * * * JFK Resources Online
(Cheryl's site) ARRB 1995 Annual Report Vaughn Meader G. Winslow - Cuban Information
Archives The
Cuban Missile Crisis Q: "What is the most outlandish
theory you have ever heard about the assassination?" Send comments and suggestions to:
JFK Information and Assassination Area
John
Fitzgerald Kennedy
My interest in the JFK Assassination began in a very rude way...by being beaten
up!! I was born in the city of Dallas, as a remote relative to the
George Bannerman Dealey that "Dealey Plaza" was named in honor of.
However, I moved to Denver, Colorado, with my mother and stepfamily during July
of 1963, and was attending the beginning of 3rd grade at the time of the
assassination. Being from Dallas, and being named Dealey, was
apparently all the excuse that ferocious 4th and 5th graders required to
beat up on a 3rd grader, so I spent the next couple of months fighting on a
weekly basis. 
1. DalTex Building (some theories have a shooter on the roof)
2. Old Red Courthouse (the oldest and most impressive building)
3. George B. Dealey statue (in the center of curved archway above number)
4. Triple Underpass (railroad tracks cross the 3 streets)
5. Picket Fence Area (above these parked cars - below curved archway)
6. Mary Mormon (a witness that took a famed photograph)
7. (in)famous Texas School Book Depository
They say
it was so they could take the detour to 'the kill zone'. However, it is almost
impossible to turn from Main St. to Stemmons Freeway (you would have to run
over the sign, jump the curb and other things a long limousine does not do
easily). It is only logical to take Elm St. (Now the entire trip to Dealey
Plaza may have been, in itself, a detour to the Kill Zone, as it is quite
logical to travel straight from Love Field to the Trade Mart. Unless you are
campaigning for re-election, and WANT the opportunity for the downtown citizens
of Dallas to see you in a parade!)
JFK Assassination -- ATD BBS
JFK Lancer
John F. Kennedy
Assassination
Dealey Plaza UK
The Last Hurrah Bookshop
The Kennedy Assassination
Michael
Griffith's JFK Page
JFK Place
Jack White, JFK educational research
Stretcher Bullet Photos
JFK Link
Noel Twyman - Bloody Treason
Bob Vernon's JFK site
JFK/Deep Politics
Quarterly
Kennedy Presidential
Library
JFK Assassination Book
Review
Robert Morningstar
The Paper
Trail
JFK Memorial Page
Robert Groden site
Rich DellaRosa Research Photos
JFK Files - "With Malice"
Nov. 22...The Worse Crime...
JFK Assassination Page
Feature articles on JFK
Assassination
Secrets of a Homicide
35th
Anniversary
The Men on the Sixth Floor
The Truth is Redacted
Larry's JFK Page
Col. L. Fletcher Prouty Reference
Site
My Online trip to
Dallas; Henry May
Les Duffy's Homepage
The 6th Floor Museum
Oswald - A brother's burden
Grolier -- The
American Presidency
John F. Kennedy
Miscellany
John F. Kennedy
JFK,
35th President...Lucidcafe
Dave Perry's JFK Assassination Page
Time
and Again - JFK
Probable Cause
The Bay of Pigs
JFK Scholars -- Art Kevin
JFK: Murder in the
Streets
Ian Craney's JFK Page
Palamara WebPages
Zapruder Film
Chronology
Texas
Monthly; Dealey Plaza revisited
JFK and Lincoln;
similarities
Life Magazine -
Jack & Jackie
The Kennedys
Presidential Limousines
Real Answers
Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis Auction
The
Assassination of RFK
Kennedy Collection of Robert L. White
Oswald's Tax Records
RFK Memorial site
The
Warren Report
Real History Archives
Probe
Feature articles on JFK
Assassination
Secrets of a Homicide
The Sniper's Perspective
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th
President
The History Place --
President Kennedy Photo Gallery
* * *
A: "The one put forward by the Warren Commission in 1964."
Q: "I'm trying to ask you a serious question!"
A: "Yes, and I'm trying to give you a serious answer!"
(Exchange between Fort Worth Star-Telegram senior reporter Barry Schlacter
and Kennedy researcher Ian Griggs -- Dealey Plaza, November 22, 1994.)
MickeyD@ev1.net
Last edited March 30, 2005
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