American Lives

Dallas is the city in which President John F Kennedy, thirty-fifth president of the United States, was assassinated on 22 November 1963.

Shown here is the famous grassy knoll, behind which conspiracy theorists claim that another shooter was stationed. In front of the structure with all the columns, and circled here in red, is the pedestal on which Abraham Zapruder stood when he shot his famous film of the assassination.

The film actually shows the horrifying moment at which a bullet struck the president's head. The scene shows a red flash. The frames which actually captured that scene were never shown to the public until about forty years later, and even then they were very rarely shown at all.

Someone has painted a crude 'x' at the spot in the road at which point the president was shot. In the news films of the time, the area above the street is where people dived for cover when they heard the shots.

This mark, plus three tiny plaques along the grassy knoll, are the only indications that anything momentous happened in Dealey Plaza. It is as if the city is still trying to hide what occurred here.

This is the triple underpass through which the presidential motorcade sped on its way to Parkland Memorial Hospital after the president was shot.

The Dallas County Administration Building (which, at the time of the assassination, was known as the Texas School Book Depository).

The circled window is where Oswald fired his weapon. The oval ion the street marks where the president's car was positioned when Oswald fired.

A museum called the 'Sixth Floor Museum' commemorates the event and the funeral. The museum is located on the same floor of the book depository from which Lee Harvey Oswald fired his shots at the president.

It is a thorough, well-organized, and well exhibited museum. For those old enough to have experienced that powerful weekend, so much of the video will be quite familiar. Yet there is still an enormous amount of new or forgotten material as well.

The spot from which Lee Harvey Oswald chose to fire his weapon at President Kennedy is shown here.

He piled boxes of books around his location to obscure any observance of his activity. He stationed himself at the window with the arched head, in the center of the photo. To the right is a modern video screen which depicts his line of vision to Elm Street, below.