“I could’ve made that shot,” said the burly, bearded man in the Roll Tide t-shirt.
The shot he’s referring to is the one taken by Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy.
Big Bama Man is among the dozens of tourists gathered around the edge of the Grassy Knoll in Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas. He looks up to the 6th floor of the Book Depository and over to Elm Street where “X’s” on the street mark the spots where the bullets struck JFK as he rode in his open top limo.
“I’m not even that good a shot, and I could have hit him,” repeated Big Bama Man.
He doesn’t get a lot of support from Marshal Evans, a local JFK assassination expert.
”It’s not a great rifle,” he says of Oswald's Italian-made Mannlicher-Carcano weapon. “It’s slow, sluggish, heavy. I fired one for a Japanese documentary about a decade ago - it was a horrible rifle. The shots that killed Kennedy came 2.3 seconds apart. The fastest guy in the world to try that was able to match that speed but only if he didn’t aim.”
The debate over the single bullet theory continues to rage 60 years later.
Evans holds up a binder filled with autopsy pictures of the late president. Disturbing images of JFK’s wounded head, of Kennedy lying on the autopsy table with his eyes still open. Families with small children approach Evans as he continues his patter.
He’s hawking copies of his book: JFK The Reckoning, which focuses on mistakes he says were made during the autopsy.
Such is life on Dealey Plaza where the curious, the reverent and the plain crazy gather daily.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of that shocking day in Dallas. And it seems that the fascination with the Kennedy assassination is hardly ebbing given the number of visitors in Dealey Plaza and the 6th Floor Museum today.
In fact, the folks at the museum are displaying “JFK Was Here” banners all around downtown Dallas. And a new exhibition - “Two Days in Texas” is now open at the 6th Floor Museum which traces the president’s Texas trek from San Antonio to Houston to Fort Worth and finally to Dallas.
Tourists are lined up deep to get into the 6th Floor Museum this Saturday morning as the doors opened at 10 a.m.. Most of the crowd would not have been alive in 1963, which speaks to the enduring fascination with the life and death of Kennedy.
Little, if anything, has changed in the 6th Floor Museum since I first visited six years ago. The static, text-heavy signs lead you through the early 1960s when the social fabric of America was beginning to change as the Civil Rights movement, Rock n’ Roll and the youth movement blossomed.
More visually striking are the poignant artifacts - like the never-used china service for a lunch to celebrate Kennedy’s visit. Lee Harvey Oswald’s Russian wedding ring. The famous off-white suit worn by Dallas lawman Jim Leavell, forever embedded in our memories through one of the most famous photographs in U.S. history capturing the moment when nightclub owner Jack Ruby killed Oswald.
And of course, there’s the exact spot while Oswald pulled the trigger, wisely sealed behind plexiglass with stacks of book boxes providing a close recreation of the original crime scene.
“Two Days in Texas” Exhibition
To mark the 60th anniversary of the assassination, the museum has created a special exhibition on the 7th floor of the old School Book Depository. I found it largely disappointing. Even the signage and marketing for the exhibition seemed lacking, and most people walked straight past the entrance. My friend and I found ourselves almost alone on the 7th floor, although the floor below was buzzing with people.
The exhibits themselves were somewhat underwhelming. Manifests of the people who were aboard Air Force One. A trombone that was played by a high school musician at Kennedy's Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce speech. Laminated copies of JFK’s speeches in a binder sitting atop a podium with the presidential seal.
More interesting was the bloodied shirt of Dr. Robert McClelland - one of the physicians who treated Kennedy at old Parkland Hospital. However, the “newly produced sequential video” of the presidential motorcade rolling through Dealey Plaza felt disorganized and poorly curated.
Downstairs, back on the main floor of the museum, was a totally different vibe as tourists were in rapt attention learning about the Oswald’s troubled life story, the Warren Commission, Congressional investigations, conspiracy theories and the media coverage of the assassination.
As I was leaving, I asked a family from Georgia what they thought.
“It was so moving,” the mom said. “I wasn’t alive when any of this happened, but I found myself in tears.”
411 Elm Street, Dallas
Adults $18
Seniors $16
Youth 6-18 - $14
Children 5 and under are free
Note: Prices increase on Jan. 1, 2024. Check website for details
I highly recommend buying tickets online and securing a time slot to avoid queues - and possible disappointment. The $1 “convenience fee” for online tickets is worth the price!
The “Two Days in Dallas” exhibition runs through June 16, 2024 and is included in the price of admission.
Parking
Available onsite for $12.
TOT TIP: Other lots within walking distance as well as ample street parking are available for less, especially on weekends. If you’re staying in a downtown hotel, consider using a ride share service or hotel shuttle.
