The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963.
On Nov. 22, 1963, with many Oak Cliff citizens on the streets of downtown Dallas for the welcoming parade, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy as the President’s car passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository.
This photo shows Texas Governor and First Lady John and Nellie Connally with President and Mrs. Kennedy, during the Dallas motorcade, shortly before the gunshots.
As the motorcade passed by the Texas School Book Depository...
... shots rang out and the people along the streets, who had come to welcome the President were horrified. Most history scholars agree that the shots, fired from the Depository, were the work of Lee Harvey Oswald, shown here in the backyard of his boarding room house (located at 1026 North Beckley) holding the rifle he used in the assassination.
After the assassination, Oswald took a bus into Oak Cliff. His next known move was his walk to Jefferson Boulevard. In route, near the corner of Tenth and Patton Streets, he was approached by Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit (of Oak Cliff). Oswald shot and killed Officer Tippit. Some students at nearby Adamson High School remember hearing the gunshots. (Officer Tippit is buried at Laurel Land Cemetery in Oak Cliff.) Shortly afterwards, Dallas police officers heard that a suspicious person had entered the Texas Theater.
At roughly 1:45 p.m., fifteen Dallas police officers entered the Texas Theater.
They found Oswald seated in the theater and arrested him.
Lonnie and Claude Goodman Jr., from the Pianos by Goodman store, witnessed Oswald walking in handcuffs to the police car. Oddly, the Goodman Company had furnished the organ and organist for the now cancelled presidential luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart. This is a mid- 1960s photograph of Goodman’s store on Jefferson (several block from the theater.) (Photo courtesy of the Goodman family grandchildren.)
Oswald never made it to trial. He was killed by Jack Ruby (shown in this photo) while being transferred by the Dallas Police.
Discuss this page