This month will be the 60th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin, was linked to New Orleans. He was born here, briefly went to school here and visited here not long before the assassination. That visit got media coverage, but for a different reason. No one knew who he was, or what he would become, but on a slow Saturday this stranger was passing out flyers in front of what was the local World Trade Center on Camp Street. The flyers urged “Fair Play for Cuba” in defense of the Fidel Castro regime. This was not a popular cause in those days of Cold War anti-Communist tension. Nevertheless, one TV station, WDSU Channel 6, interviewed this lone activist. It was a minor story and would have quickly been forgotten, except for what resonated a few weeks later when a suspect for murdering the President had been named.
There are still people in the city who remember having been downtown that day and seeing the protester. Others saw the brief coverage on the news. After Nov. 22, 1963 that man on the street would be a global figure.
I was once able to take a private tour of what might be called “Oswald’s last day.” We visited the single-story home which had been divided into apartments where Oswald was living at the time of the crime. There was a common center room with a TV where residents could have heard about what had just happened in downtown Dallas. Other than the landlady, we do not know who was watching that afternoon, but we do know who was not there. A relative of the late landlady would later manage the house, which would be open only for private tours. She recalled during our visit that Oswald was friendly and remembered having tossed a ball on the front lawn with him. She added that the objects from Oswald’s room that the FBI would borrow still hadn’t been returned.
That home, in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood, was not far from were Oswald murdered police officer J.D. Tippit later on the afternoon of the assassination. With the whole Dallas police department on alert, Tippit stopped Oswald who he thought looked suspicious. Not far away was the Texas Theater where Oswald was soon captured.
What I remember most about that day was going to the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository on Elm Street where Oswald was employed and which was located right along the path of the presidential motorcade. I stood at the window from which the shots were fired. A marker indicated where the rifle had rested. Below, on Elm there is an “X” painted on the street right at the spot where Kennedy was hit. It is a subtle marking with no signage explaining the significance of the X, but people know. Dealey Plaza, where those who had gone to see their President pass by but then suddenly had to scramble for protection, is right across the street.
What surprised me the most, from my vantage point at the widow, was how close the President’s limousine was when it passed by. Most media pictures of the Depository were from the ground looking up and at that angle it seemed to be a taller building.
From the sixth floor window looking down, the distance, about 266 feet, did not seem implausible especially from a skilled Marine marksman. Oswald’s first of three shots missed the President before the other two hit the target.
With the commotion in the street from the shooting, it would not have been hard for Oswald to walk out of the building unnoticed that day.
Two days later, Sunday, Nov. 24, 1963, Oswald would be shot as he was being escorted from the Dallas jail. There was no doubt who the shooter was because the transfer had been covered nationwide on television. It was a local nightclub owner named Jack Ruby. Because Ruby would die in jail of cancer before he could stand trial, that shooting would forever muddy the history because so many questions were left unanswered. In the time since, there have many co-conspirator theories linking the assassination to the Mafia, Communists, the Teamsters Union, and a supposed unknown other shooter hiding in the bushes at Dealey Plaza. It is known that Ruby had connections to New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello, yet another link to the city as part of the saga.
What is certain is that Oswald, acting alone, shot Kennedy. Any other connections have yet to be proven.
From standing at that window on Elm Street looking down, the view earlier in the day that Nov. 22 would have been that of a peaceful setting where citizens gathered to cheer their President. Within moments, the view from that window would be a portal to a world in shock.
-30-
Have something to add to this story, or want to send a comment to Errol? Email him at errol@myneworleans.com. Note: All responses are subject to being published, as edited, in this article. Please include your name and location.
SOMETHING NEW: Listen to “Louisiana Insider,” a weekly podcast covering the people, places and culture of the state. LouisianaLife.com/LouisianaInsider, Apple Podcasts or Audible/Amazon Music.
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: Errol’s Laborde’s books, “New Orleans: The First 300 Years” and “Mardi Gras: Chronicles of the New Orleans Carnival” (Pelican Publishing Company, 2017 and 2013), are available at local bookstores and at book websites.
WATCH INFORMED SOURCES, FRIDAYS AT 7 P.M., REPEATED AT 9:30 A.M. SUNDAYS.WYES-TV, CH. 12.
