Remembering President John. F. Kennedy
A tour of the Oak Cliff Sites
By the authors of Images of America: Oak Cliff and Legendary Locals of Oak Cliff Alan C. Elliott, Patricia K. Summey, and Gayla Brooks
This document downloaded from oakcliff.org © Alan C. Elliott, 2013
On Nov. 22, 1963, with many Oak Cliff citizens among the throngs on the streets of downtown Dallas for the welcoming parade, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy as the president's limousine passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository. Follow the information below for a self-guided tour of the Oak Cliff sites where Lee Harvey Oswald fled after the assassination, and where he was ultimately captured.
The starting point is at the 6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, at 411 Elm Street (corner of Houston and Elm).
This photograph shows Texas Governor John Connally and First Lady Nellie Connally with President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, during the Dallas motorcade, shortly before the gunshots.
Kennedy Motorcade in Dallas
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As the motorcade passed by the Texas School Book Depository...
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 sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, were from Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle which was recovered at the scene.
Lee Harvey Oswald, 1963
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STOP NUMBER 1. OSWALD BOARDING HOUSE: At the time of the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald rented a room at a boarding house located at 1026 North Beckley Avenue in Oak Cliff.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS TO THE BOARDING HOUSE: From the Sixth Floor Museum, travel south on Houston Street. (Of Note: Oswald took a bus, and then a cab, from the Texas School Book Depository to cross the Trinity River via the Houston Street Viaduct. The viaduct is currently closed due to construction.) Follow the detour signs to cross the Trinity River on the Jefferson Bridge, to Zang Boulevard. Pass "Founders Park" on the left, continue south to the intersection of Zang and Colorado Boulevards. Historic Lake Cliff Park is on the left. At the next traffic light, turn left onto North Beckley Boulevard. The Oswald boarding house is on the immediate left – the brick house with the red roof and the half-circle over the entrance.
The assassination occurred at 12:30 p.m. Oswald arrived at this house at 12:54 p.m. He retrieved a pistol, left the house, and walked south on Beckley.
House where Oswald rented a room
This is a private residence and can only be viewed from the street. (There is an old gas station across the street from where photographs can be taken.) A sign in front indicates the number to call to arrange a tour of the house. (469-261-7806.)
STOP NUMBER 2. OFFICER J. D. TIPPIT MURDER SCENE: Only 15 minutes after the assassination, with the Dallas Police on watch for suspects, Officer J.D. Tippit, was suddenly ordered to remove himself from his normal Beat 78 in South Oak Cliff and move into North Oak Cliff. Armed with a
3 description of the suspect (Oswald), Officer Tippit (at approximately 1:10- 1:14 p.m.,) slowly cruised by the intersection of Tenth Street and Patton Avenue.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS TO THE J.D. TIPPIT MURDER SCENE From the boarding house, continue south on Beckley Drive and turn left on Jefferson Boulevard. Travel four blocks to South Patton Street, turn left, and continue one block to the corner of 10th and Patton. The memorial sign is located on the northeast corner of this intersection.
About 1:15 p.m., Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit observed a man matching the description that headquarters had radioed to the field officers. Lee Harvey Oswald walked along Tenth Street, about 100 feet from the intersection with Patton, Officer Tippit pulled up beside Oswald and spoke to him through the squad car's open passenger's side window. When Officer Tippit opened his car door to step out of the squad car, Lee Harvey Oswald raised his handgun and shot Tippit three times in the chest. As Tippit fell to the ground, Oswald stood over him and fired a fourth bullet into Tippit's head. Oswald then fled the scene. Passing motorist Domingo Benavides, who had witnessed the shooting, stopped to assist the fallen officer. Benavides used the patrol car's radio to call for help.
At the time, this block was a residential area. Now the corner of Tenth and Patton is a part of the W.H. Adamson High School campus. At this location (near the school's tennis courts) a Texas historical marker was erected and a dedication program was held on November 20, 2012, in memory of Officer J. D. Tippit.
Memorial sign and the front cover of the program to dedicate it.
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STOP NUMBER 3. CAPTURE AT THE TEXAS Theatre: At 1:22 PM, a broadcast went out from police headquarters about the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit, thus the search for the killer was concentrated in that area of North Oak Cliff. Oswald traveled from the murder scene south to Jefferson Boulevard, where he walked into the Texas Theatre.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS TO THE TEXAS Theatre: Travel south on Patton, back to Jefferson Boulevard, and turn west (right). Continue 5 blocks down Jefferson (past Zang Boulevard) to the Texas Theatre (on the right), 231 West Jefferson Boulevard.
The Texas Theatre
Shortly after 1:40 p.m., a police radio broadcast indicated that a suspicious person had entered the Texas Theatre without purchasing a ticket. At roughly 1:45 p.m., fifteen Dallas police officers entered the Texas Theatre.
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They found Oswald seated in a row toward the back center of the Theatre, and arrested him.
Inside the Texas Theatre
The Texas Theatre is currently undergoing renovation but is actively showing movies and hosting other events. It may or may not be available for interior viewing.
STOP NUMBER 4. THE TELEPHONE: Top Ten Records (338 West Jefferson) is one of the few stores still in business on Jefferson Boulevard from the time of the assassination. Current owner Mike Polk maintains the store's vintage ambiance, which includes the rotary-dial telephone used by Officer J.D. Tippit when the officer stopped by the store on November 22, 1963. It would be Tippit's last telephone call before being murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald. The phone remains attached to the front counter and can be seen during business hours.
WALKING DIRECTIONS TO TOP TEN RECORDS: Top Ten Records is only one block from the Texas Theatre. Walk west on Jefferson and cross to 338 West Jefferson (near the southeast corner of Jefferson and Bishop Avenue).
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The phone used by J.D. Tippit
At 2:00 p.m., the arresting officers took Oswald to Dallas Police headquarters. After questioning, they charged him with the murder of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Two days later, on Sunday, November 24, 1963, Jack Ruby (shown in this photograph) shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of the Dallas Police headquarters.
Oswald is shot and killed by Jack Ruby
STOP NUMBER 5. (Follow up.) DRIVING DIRECTIONS TO BISHOP ARTS DISTRICT: For more information about the assassination and Oak Cliff's history, travel north on Bishop Avenue, from the Top Ten Records store, seven blocks to Seventh Street and Bishop Avenue. On the southwest
7 corner, enter Bishop Street Market and look for two books about Oak Cliff: Images of America: Oak Cliff, and Legendary Locals of Oak Cliff. The first book contains information about Lee Harvey Oswald and the events of November 22, 1963, and the second contains photographs and information about Officer J.D. Tippit. These books are also available at most local bookstores and on Amazon.com, etc.
Information in this tour is based, in part, on the stories from these books:
Oak Cliff Books
Legendary Locals of Oak Cliff
Since its earliest days, Oak Cliff, a rolling, tree-covered section of Dallas, has generated outstanding personalities in all fields of American society and business and continues to do so today. In a high school history class, future US Speaker of the House Jim Wright caught his political vision; two years later, future Olympic champion and LPGA founder Babe Didrikson began her training at Lake Cliff Park. The legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan, along with contemporaries Michael Martin Murphy and Ray Wylie Hubbard, began his music career in Oak Cliff, while sports legends like Jerry Rhome and Harvey Martin paid their dues on local fields of play. Hollywood successes Belita Moreno and Stephen Tobolowsky first trained in their high school drama classes, decades after pioneer Oak Cliff girl Sarah Horton Cockrell became Dallas's first millionaire. Although a presidential assassin once lived in the community, two of America's largest mega-churches now call Oak Cliff home, as did the Father of the Texas Sesquicentennial. (Arcadia Publishing)
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Images of America: Oak Cliff
This volume tells a visual story of people and places that made Oak Cliff special to hundreds of thousands for more than a century. Over 200 vintage and recent photographs were donated by families, businesses, and organizations. The authors of this walk down "Oak Cliff's memory lane," spent much of their lives in Oak Cliff. To secure information and pictures for this book, the authors sent out a call for historic photographs of Oak Cliff. The results were overwhelming. Cliffites from all over the United States rummaged through their closets and attics and sent their cherished memories and photographs, family stories and anecdotes. The authors sifted through an overwhelming 600 donated photographs to select the 200 that tell the story of Oak Cliff from the 1830s to the present. (Arcadia Publishing)
These books are available at the Bishop Street Market in the Bishop Arts District as well as at many other local stores, Barnes & Noble bookstores, and on Amazon.com.
This document was downloaded from
www.oakcliff.org
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© Alan C. Elliott, 2013
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