Countdown to Dallas, Episode 5, Was the Parade Route changed?
One claim of conspiracy theorists is that the motorcade route was deliberately moved to ensure that the Presidents car went down Elm street (underneath the depository) instead of Main Street
Here, as you can see, that is not possible, because of the concrete abuttment between the two streets
This is Main Street here,. Over here is Elm Street
Today, as in 1963, it is physically impossible to do that.
The only way to get to Stemmons freeway to the Trade Mart again was to go down Elm Street.
And now you know the rest of the story.
More stories on the assassination, and the events leading up to it,
in my latest book,
Countdown to Dallas,
Available everywhere books are sold.
There is also a Countdown to Dallas Podcast produced by Evergreen Podcasting that is also available everywhere
One claim that conspiracists often make about the Kennedy Assassination is that a second person was spotted on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository minutes before the shooting proof, they claim, of a conspiracy
I’m Paul Brandus, author of Countdown to Dallas, and just minutes before the shooting there was indeed a second person on the sixth floor just steps from Lee Harvey Oswald and his sniper’s perch.
but this does not mean there was a conspiracy
Here now the rest of the story:
Around 5 minutes to 12 the Kennedy motorcade was underway headed for downtown Dallas.
At the depository, employees excited that the President would soon pass by, knocked off early for lunch.
as he was heading downstairs one employee Bonnie Ray Williams said he saw Oswald
at the depository employees excited that the president would soon pass by knocked off early for lunch as he was heading downstairs one employee Bonnie Ray Williams said he saw Oswald on the fifth or sixth floor he wasn’t sure which but moments later another employee Charles Given went to the sixth floor to get his cigarettes there he saw Oswald they had a brief conversation
Given said “Aren’t you going downstairs it’s near lunchtime.” Oswald “No sir.” Given left now minutes after that brief encounter Bonnie Ray Williams also returned to the sixth floor “why?” “To watch the presidential motorcade.”
At the time everyone was talking like they was going to watch from the sixth floor Williams testified and while he waited for his buddies Williams ate his lunch a chicken sandwich and bottle of Dr pepper he remembers sitting in front of the third or fourth window Williams recalled quote “I couldn’t see too much of the sixth floor because the books at this time were stacked so high if there was anyone else up there on the sixth floor,” Williams neither saw nor heard anyone now here’s where it gets interesting down on Houston Street a young man Arnold Roland was standing with his wife Barbara looking around his eyes drifted up to the sixth floor of the depository there in the corner window he saw a man holding a rifle with a telescopic site roland assumed that this was a Secret Service agent there to protect the president so it never occurred to him to point this man out to a nearby police officer but Oswald was not the only person Roland saw on the sixth floor his wandering eye also saw what he described as ” a colored man a few windows away” this was Bonnie Ray Williams eating his lunch now the other guys that he was going to watch the parade with James Garman and Harold Norman were their names had earlier been down on the sidewalk but decided the view would be better from the fifth floor of the depository why the fifth floor? because the sixth floor here shown that day was a jungle of boxes by now as Garman recalled it’s between 12:20 and 12:25 just minutes before the assassination they were soon joined by Williams who had finished his lunch leaving this greasy bag and empty soda bottle near the window bonnie Ray Williams had been so close to Oswald while he ate that police and the media later thought the garbage had been Oswald’s a month after the assassination this book published by United Press International and American Heritage repeated this mistake writing in the caption quote “The sniper had dined on fried chicken and pop while waiting patiently to shoot the president.” One report said “Wrong.” But it does show just how close how tantalizingly close Bonnie Ray Williams sat to the man who was about to murder the president this proximity helps explain why two other men on the street here at the southwest corner of Houston and Elm saw Oswald sitting perfectly still their names Bob Edwards and Ronald Fiser moments before the motorcade appeared Edwards spotting Oswald told Fiser quote “Look at that guy there in that window he looks like he’s uncomfortable.” Were words to that effect fischer chimed in quote “This man held my attention for 10 or 15 seconds all the time I watched him he never moved his head he never moved anything just was there transfixed he looked to be 22 or 24 years old.” It’s likely that Oswald who was 24 never moved because Bonnie Ray Williams as we’ve established was just feet away eating his lunch meanwhile Oswald was also seen by yet another man who sat here tantalizingly close to the window his name was Howard Brennan here’s Brennan at that spot in a recreation of November 22nd he saw Oswald in the sixth floor window right above James Gar Harold Norman and Bonnie Ray Williams who had by now joined his buddies on the fifth floor “I saw this man on the sixth floor,” Brennan later testified he added “There was no other person on that floor that ever came to the window that I noticed there were people on the next floor down which is the fifth floor colored guys.” The time frame here is about 12:22 which lines up with the Williams testimony Brennan could give exact times because from his vantage point he could see the big clock the famous Hertz sign that in 1963 stood on the roof of the depository now let’s go back to Ronald Fiser about 30 seconds before the shooting 30 seconds fischer looked up again an affidavit he gave to Dallas police that very day said “I looked up at the window and noticed that he seemed to be laying down or in a funny position anyway because all I could see was his head.” When the presidential car turned left onto Elm Street there was but one person on the sixth floor here in the southeast corner window not two as some conspirators have alleged and now you know the rest of the story more stories on the assassination and the events leading up to it in my latest book Countdown to Dallas available everywhere books are sold there’s also a Countdown to Dallas podcast produced by Evergreen Podcasting that is also available everywhere
The President’s car is now turning on to Elm Street and it will be only a matter of minutes before he arrives at the trademark
[Music] On October 14th, 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald applied and got a job at a place called the Texas School Book Depository
Here’s how it looked at the time A nondescript red brick building perched on the southeast corner of Houston and Elm Streets It offered a magnificent view of a place called Daily Plaza. Here’s the building today Now the question of just how Oswald got the job just 5 weeks before President Kennedy’s motorcade drove right by has been a longstanding question for those studying the assassination Some think it’s fishy Surely they say proof of a conspiracy I’m Paul Brandus a longtime White House-based journalist speaker at seven presidential libraries My latest is Countdown to Dallas. In Countdown to Dallas I tell the rest of the story about Oswald and the depository And for one surprising twist you might not know about stick around to the end of this short video That mid-October 1963 story starts here in the Dallas suburb of Irving where Oswald’s wife Marina and their 21-month-old daughter June were living with a woman named Ruth Payne. Marina was also days away from giving birth to her second daughter Marina the young Soviet
Immigrants a woman she met through the local immigrants
Marina was the victim of spousal abuse Lee was a wifebeater hitting Marina on a regular basis Ruth who wanted to improve her Russian took Marina in
That’s the backdrop Oswald living on his own was also unemployed He had just gotten back from Mexico City after a futile effort to get a visa to travel to Cuba He needed a job badly On the 14th Ruth Marina and some other women in the neighborhood were having coffee and the subject of Lee’s unemployment came up Oswald had several job prospects One was at a bakery the other driving a truck but Lee didn’t know how to drive One woman at that coffee Lenny May Randall mentioned that her brother Wesley Bule Frasier had just gotten a job at the Depository in downtown Dallas She thought they might need an extra man Now Marina Oswald’s English was poor Lee did not allow her to learn it So Ruth Payne called the depository and spoke with a boss there His name Roy Truly Truly said yes he could use another man to fill orders for school books Tell Oswald to come down and apply Now you have to remember what a pathetic work record Oswald had. He’d been fired from two jobs in just the past 6 months And a potential third employer checked on a reference who said Oswald was not a good employee Oswald was unwanted His skills were minimal but a menial job filling boxes with books Oswald filled out this job application His address was a lie Said he’d lived in Dallas continuously That was a lie he had just gotten out of the Marines and was honorably discharged Two more lies that he had been on his last job for three years Another lie Five lies on one page It’s a reflection of Lee Harvey Oswald’s habit of lying about well just about everything But unlike other potential employers Roy Truly did not check on any of this It was just a menial job after all So Oswald lucked out So that’s how Oswald got his job at the Depository A group of suburban women having coffee lacking the skills to work in a bakery or drive a truck having poor references that might have resulted in work elsewhere on and on It took a series of small things for this job to work out Now I mentioned one final twist to this story that may surprise you I’ll get to that in a second But it’s also important to remember this When Oswald got the job President Kennedy’s visit to Texas had not been finalized A trip had been announced but the final decision on Dallas would not be made until a month later November 14th when the location for Kennedy speech at the Trademart was set That decision that location was made by none other than Ken O’Donnell the president’s top White House aid The Secret Service had recommended other locations Other parts of town which would have meant different motorcade routes Conspiracy theorists who are sure that Oswald’s job was some kind of setup that he was somehow placed in the depository can never explain how all of these little things unconnected ranging from suburban women having coffee to President Kennedy’s own right-hand man picking that final location occurred And here’s the final twist to this story You might not know that in 1963 the Texas School Book Depository had another location at 1917 North Houston Street. Roy Truly the boss nearly assigned Oswald to that location. Had he done so Lee Harvey Oswald would have been nowhere near Dealey Plaza on the day of the president’s visit. Great tragedies often take a series of small and seemingly unconnected events to occur This was one of them There are other stories to tell about Oswald his life that very different era decades of presidential security and the attitude of numerous presidents towards it And also the science of cognitive dissonance why humans are wired to think and process information and data the way they do and why this fuels the beliefs that so many people have in assorted conspiracy theories Not just the Kennedy assassination but everything from Pearl Harbor to the moon landing to 9/11 even Princess Diana’s car crash The science behind our beliefs that’s also explored All of this and much more can be found in my latest book Countdown to Dallas and in a podcast of the same name Both are available everywhere
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