My trip to the Sixth Floor Museum

Or: How I became a JFK assassination obsessive

My in-laws have lived in Dallas for a bunch of years. But, not until this year did I become obsessed with the city’s unique role in American history.

I am talking, of course, about Dealey Plaza, the Texas Book Depository, the Grassy Knoll. In short: The assassination — on November 22, 1963 — of the country’s 35th president: John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

I’m not sure why I wasn’t into maybe the most famous event in American political history until this year. Maybe because it was too famous. Like, too many people were into it so I decided I didn’t care that much. Or that I knew what I needed to know about it.

Then, on a lark, I decided to listen to the 7-part “The Rest Is History” podcast on the rise — and death — of JFK.

And, well, I was hooked. I learned SO much from that pod. I didn’t know, for example, that Lee Harvey Oswald killed another man that day — Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit. Or that seven months earlier, Oswald had tried to kill Major General Edwin Walker at his home in Dallas. Or that so few people attended Oswald’s funeral that the reporters covering the event had to serve as pallbearers. Or that Jack Ruby was a common face at the Dallas Police Department long before he killed Oswald. Or that SO many people still believe that Oswald was part of a broader, unearthed conspiracy.

So, when I got to Dallas last week, I immediately looked up the Sixth Floor Museum — the site of the Texas Book Depository where Oswald fired the shots.

The museum is a single floor — the 6th, duh — and you can go through it in an hour. (Or you can take three.) Despite being small, it is mighty. You can see the exact spot from where Oswald fired. Which is an amazing bit of history. But you can also see a reenactment of the motorcade. And stills of Abraham Zapruder’s famous film of the moments before and after the assassination. And explanations of many — but not all! — of the conspiracies surrounding JFK’s death.

(Sidebar: Two disappointments for me — the actual camera Zapruder used is not in the museum and neither is the gun that Oswald fired. Both are at the National Archives in DC.)

What I was shocked by was the size of the whole thing — not just the museum but Dealey Plaza itself. It’s all so, well, small. If you knew nothing about American history — or the JFK assassination — you could walk right past the Grassy Knoll and never think twice. The spot on the Elm Street where the fatal shots hits JFK are marked by a simple, small X on the road.

For something that may well have been the turning point of the entire 20th century in America — or at least a turning point — there’s just not that much to it. You could walk the entire site in 10 minutes, tops.

I left with more questions than I came with — notably: I never realized what an extreme angle Oswald was firing from when he hit Kennedy. It seems like a plausible shot but not a super-likely one? Am I now a conspiracy theorist too?

I decided on the way back from Dallas that rather than read more nonfiction about the assassination, I would dive into a bit of fiction about it: “11/22/63” by Stephen King. So far, so good.

What’s your favorite book/podcast/whatever on the JFK assassination? Throw it in the comments so we can all check the recommendations out!