After
spending the morning in Fort Worth, the
Presidential party arrived at Dallas's Lovefield
airport just before noon where they were welcomed
by an enthusiastic crowd .
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Even though several democratic politicians had been
threatened, spat upon and had almost been chased out of
Dallas just a month before, security for this trip was at
a minimum.
The special army intelligence group incharge of the
Dallas area had been ordered to stand down, while this
usually was the group that would secure the motorcade
route.
Also Sevarel pamphlets had been spead all over town
critisizing Kennedy's policies
in a threatening way.
 
See
the pamphlets here
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Even more unbelievable is that a large part of the Secret
Service agents assigned to the personal security of the
president during this trip had been out Drinking in a
Fort Worth watering hole owned by a friend of Jack Ruby
till the early morning of the 22nd. leaving the President
guarded by two unarmed Fort Worth fire-fighters.
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After a warm welcome at the airport the motorcade made it's
way to down-town Dallas to make a speech at a lunch
meeting in the Dallas trade-mart building.
For some unexplained reason, the order of the cars in the
motorcade had been change.
Normally the
order would be:
one lead car followed by the Presidents car ,
then the Presidents Secret Service detail
followed by the photo and film press car, then
the Vice-President's car followed by his security
detail, but this time the press had been moved
back to behind the vice Presidents security car. |
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Had the press
car been where it usually was in the motorcade, instead
of Nr.8,
they would have been first hand witnesses to the
assassination, and many more
photo's and film of the incident would have been
available.
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While the Motorcade made
it's way through
downtown Dallas it made several stops along
the way so the President could talk to
people along the route.
It was lunchtime and thouthands had come
out on the streets to watch the motorcade. |
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Lunch time had also started at the Texas School Book
Depository (TSBD) and
agroup of employees were to meet on the 6th floor to have
lunch and watch
the President drive by at 12:25 PM.
When Bonnie Ray Williams got up on the 6th. floor to meet
his colleges for lunch
shortly after noon nobody was there so he started eating
his lunch,
his paper lunch-bag contained chicken this day.
When he finished at about 12:20 PM he went to look for
his friends
and left the 6th. floor, nobody was there at that time.
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Just minutes before the President turned
onto Dealey Plaza Arnold Rowland,
standing on the corner of Main and Houston
street looked up at the 6th. floor window
of the TSBD.
In the window he saw a white man dressed in
light colored clothes with a rifle,
in the window next to it he saw a dark skinned
man. He thought it might be Secret Service
agents and nudged his wife to look up,
when she looked the men had moved back
into the shadows of the 6th floor.
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Mr. & Mrs. Rowland
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As one of the women working at the TSBD made her way
outside to watch the
motorcade she passed the 2nd. floor lunchroom at about 12:25
PM,
she saw Lee Harvey Oswald having lunch in the Lunchroom.
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DEALEY PLAZA
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As the Presidents car made the final turn onto
Elm street ,Bonnie Ray Williams found his friends
on th 5th. floor.
While looking out a window on the east cornor of
the 5th. floor of the TSBD they watched the
President drive by as they heard several loud
bangs.
At the same moment one of them felt small pieces
of cement and dust fall on his head and they felt
as if the shots had come from right over their
heads.
To the right you can see the 5th. and 6th.
floor window at the time of the shooting.
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the Altgens photo
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At this moment total terror and chaos to over in Dealey
Plaza.
Several shoots rang out, first wounding the President and
Governor Connaly and James Tague who was watching the
Motorcade come towards him, while standing under the
triple-overpass, and finally killing the President with
one well aimed headshot.
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For some unknown reason and against all the
training he had ever received, the driver of the
Presidents car slammed the brakes when the first
shots rang out, bringing the already slow moving
car almost to a stop. As the sound of gunfire
filled the air the driver turned his head to look
at the President only to accelerate after he saw
the President being hit in the head.
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Depending on their position in the plaza people pointed
out different places for the
source of the shots. Many thought the shots came from
somewhere close to
the corner of Elm and Houston street, the TSBD or maybe
the Daltex building
across the street from the TSBD.
But at least the same amount of people thought the shots
came from behind the fence,
up on grassy knoll and many of them started running up
the hill shortly after
the limousine with the mortally wounded President had
left the Plaza.
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The Storming of the
Grassy Knoll
 
 
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Motorcycle Officer Marion Baker was escorting the
motorcade and was located several cars back from the
presidents limousine, still on Houston street as the
shots started ringing out. He felt that shots had come
from the building of the TSBD and cranked the gas on his
motorcycle almost racing up the stairs of the front
entrance to the building.
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As he entered the building on foot he ran into
the manager, Mr. Roy Trully.
Together they started on a floor by floor search
of the building, quickly scanning all the floors
for any people that did not belong there.
About 90 seconds after the final shot had rang
out Baker had made it to the 2nd. floor of the
TSBD, as he passed the lunchroom he saw a person
inside and pulled his gun.
He entered the lunchroom pointing the gun at the
man as he asked the building manager if he knew
the man. The manager identified the man as Oswald,
one of the employees there, and Baker and the
manager went on with their search of the building.
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In Officer Bakers first written statements he stated that
as he entered the lunchroom
Oswald was standing near the soda-machine drinking a
bottle of Coke.
It is believe that Officer Baker changed his statement
shortly before he appeared
before the Warren Commission several month after the
event.
This was also after the Warren Commission established
that 90 seconds would not
have been enough time for Oswald to:
Take the last shot.
Hide the RIFLE on the
other side of the 6th. floor.
Run down the stairs to
the 2nd. floor, (he would have had to pass two
women that were on the stairs at that moment ,
but they never saw anybody.)
Enter the 2nd. floor
lunchroom and put money into the Coke-machine get
the bottle out and open it. (it took about 20 sec.
just to get a bottle from the coke-machine)
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Because Officer Baker was alone he could hardly do a full
search of the building
there's no guarantee that no one could have left the
building at that time,
infact, as it turned out the building was not sealed off
until 15 to 25 minutes
after Baker entered the building.
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About 30 minutes after the shooting, after
locating the snipers nest on the 6th. floor
they found a riffle on the opposite side of the 6th.
floor behind a pile of boxes.
The first reports, made by several DPD Officers,
were the it was
a German Mauser.
The rifle later attributed to Lee Harvey Oswald
was an
Italian Mannlicher Carcanno.
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this is a testimony made by one of the Officers that
found the riflle
it clearly discribes the finding of a Mauser riffle.
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At the same time that Officer Baker ran into Oswald in
the 2nd. floor lunchroom, several other officers and a
large group of by standers ran up the Grassy Knoll, where
they thought the shots had come from. This was the
railroad yard where several people saw a puff of smoke
come from behind the fence, and where several people had
been send away shortly before, by men with Secret Service
I.D.'s.
in this photo the Presidential Limousin can be seen
driving under the underpass
while a cloud of smoke comes from under the trees on the
grassy knoll.
The first people that went behind the fence also ran into
these men.
Later the Secret Services stated that at no time before
during or shortly after
the shooting, were there any agents in the railroad yard.
Click here for an interview with
witness Ed Hofman,
who saw the shooters in the railroad yard.
REALPLAYER FILE
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Less then a second before
the fatal shot a women standing along the side
of Elm street took a Polaroid photo of the President as
he passed.
For decades people have been studying this photo for
evidence,
and over the last 15 years, using the most sophisticated
enhancement techniques
some shocking discoveries have been made.
In the shadows of the trees on the Knoll the figure of a
man in a police uniform
was found on the old instant photo.
(Click here to read more on the and Badgeman)
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As many people in Dealey
Plaza were deeply disturbed by what they had
just witnessed, police started looking for the shooter(s)
and witnesses.
Many people were taken into custody and even more were
heard as witnesses
it is amazing that of most of the people taken into
custody on Dealey Plaza
there is no record to be found anywhere.
Films and photos were taken by men with FBI and Sercet
Service I.D. and
were never heard of again while others were told the
testemony they were giving
was not correct or not important.
It just goes
on and on and on and on
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Here we end the report of the events in Dealey Plaza for
now,
in the Future we will ad more photo's and more info ad
links to this page and
soon we will be adding a page listing many of the
discrepancies in the accounts of that day
and in the investigation into the murder of the President.
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