MY DAY IN DEALEY PLAZA

[scottjfkmad]

My Day In Dealey PlazaI wanted to write this for my own personnel account, but on the plane back from Dallas/Forth Worth I decided that I would post it on the board for all to read. If you want to comment, feel free, only nice comments though…Since the age of about 8 I have always been interested in the Kennedy assassination, and then later the Presidency of JFK itself. Like many of my generation my own introduction to it was the 1991 film JFK, but reading more and more lead me away from the Hollywood version to the real version, and a lot of conspiracy theories. Taking note of Jim Garrison, Jim Marrs, Robert Groden and Mark Lane would take me to a new level in which I viewed the Kennedy assassination. Fast forward too 2009, and JFK plays a part in my life on a daily basis, from discussion, to the forum, to buying Kennedy memorabilia off eBay, to working on a Kennedy book I am writing and hope to someday get published even in the smallest of ways.It was Dealey Plaza that I needed to visit; I just needed to see it for myself. You can not be as interested/obsessed with Kennedy Assassination and not go to Dealey Plaza. So after working hard, and saving some cash, I would visit Dealey Plaza in July 2009, only for 1 day as I didn’t want to be there that long to be honest. There was so much I had read and seen about the Plaza, and tried so much to give it a far shake of the whip so to speak, but I just knew I had saved my cash for a trip to Texas that I simply was already convincing myself I wouldn’t enjoy.After landing at Dallas/Forth Worth, I asked the cab driver about Love Field and apparently it is only for smaller, local flights, ie: Forth Worth to Dallas, same route JFK used on November 22nd 1963. The cab driver on the way to the hotel was a nice guy, as we drove down George Bush Highway, he asked why I visited Dallas, and when I mentioned JFK, there seemed a sharp turn in the flow of the conversation, he suddenly turned into Arlen Spector with his magic bullshit story, in which I reminded him of the overwhelming evidence pointing to a gunman from the Knoll, we ended the conversation abruptly and resulted in a low tip for him and a piece of paper with the forums address on, as I pointed out sometimes things are not as black and white as the government likes you to believe. Would be interesting to see know if he ever logged on too the forum. I really couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I had been Dallas, TX for less than 10 minutes and I was already in a fierce conversation about John F.Kennedy, and this was 2009, picture the scene of 1963 if you will. It really did strike me as I have read and seen that a lot down south, even to this day, don’t like JFK. I understand some Dallas citizens, if not Texans, feel that they got a raw deal with there town/state being the source of such a terrible act, but this cab driver wasn’t defending his local area, he was endorsing the Warren Commission, and doing so with a completely straight face, which is worrying by anyone’s account.My hotel was actually in Irving, and I was thinking about Oswald living out there in that small room he rented. It was a weird feeling knowing that he had returned to Irving after the assassination and that I was going to be seeing Dealey Plaza very shortly.Heading to Dealey Plaza, well here I am on a another massive Texas highway heading into downtown Dallas, and my girlfriend is talking all about the sites around me, all I can think of is Nov 22nd 1963. The cab driver and me again don’t exactly see eye to eye on the assassination, in his eyes LBJ saved America when he took the reigns of power that horrible November Day, much to say after a look from my girlfriend my mouth is firmly shut…Why argue with someone who has no idea what he is talking about, and might charge me $1 more too. One argument with a taxi driver is more than enough for me. After walking around downtown Dallas, which if you ask me is very rough. The people seemed friendly, well friendlyish. After walking around for about 5 minutes, I asked an old white man the directions to Dealey Plaza, and he’s face just went to stone. I did feel as if the JFK subject was either a touchy one, or something that some people in Dallas were just not going to accept as a conspiracy. The sense of pure cover up and the mentality of ‘’I’m not going to comment’’ is still very much in the air in Dallas, Texas if you ask me.As I walked into Delaey Plaza, it was literally like walking back in time to November 1963. For obvious reasons nothing in the Plaza has changed since that Friday afternoon. I suddenly felt myself come over in like a trance; something so weird just came over me. I was literally walking around in a daze, reciting were Zapruder had stood, the Moorman picture, and were the Towner family had stood on the corner. For a second or so I actually expected too see the motorcade come down Main onto Elm. This is what happens when you study, and repeatedly study something and then one day you are literally there.All I can say is Jack Kennedy had no chance, literally of getting out of there alive. The Plaza is extremely small, and 3 guns, or however many there was, he had no chance of survival. I have heard and read that the Plaza was small but it was even smaller than I had imagined. As I was standing in the same spot were Mary Moorman was, some idiot guy came up trying to sell us some JFK books, my girlfriend was polite and tried to tell him that her boyfriend probably knew more than him, but it just angered me that some idiot was trying to make $5 off JFK… I know people make a living off the man everyday, but on this day I was in a very emotional place, heck, I was in Dealey Plaza.The whole experience was just eyrie, after taking some pictures I headed over to the Grassy Knoll. Someone had spray painted ‘’911 was an inside job’’ on the back of the grassy knoll. Just simply standing there, looking over the plaza anyone could see that a shot from the front was an obvious possibility, and studying video/photographic evidence easily supports this theory when standing looking out at Dealey Plaza.. People like Alan Dulles, Gerald Ford and obviously my 2 cab drivers didn’t think that people would workout that for a triangulation of crossfire there probably isn’t an area of land in the USA more perfectly laid out than Dealay Plaza.After another 10 minutes or so I wanted to leave, I have waited for nearly 15 years to come to Dallas, TX and Dealey Plaza and I couldn’t wait to leave, which to be honest did really shock me. I always felt I would want to study the Plaza more, but I didn’t. The sheer size of Delay Plaza is what shocked me, it is so dam small. Anyone entering it, is literally close to leaving it at the same time. Dallas was a hostile city in 1963, and you can still sense that today. I just couldn’t bring myself to actually going in the Sixth Floor Museum. I was already emotionally charged, and the site of a certain grey haired changing his mind government salary person may have tipped me over the edge. i:e Gary Mack may have ended up with a smack.Going and seeing the site of the assassination is a must for any JFK Fan, Researcher, and Historian, anyone… I believe the second you walk into Dealey Plaza your in the middle of Nov 22nd 1963 still, everything is so real, as so many witnesses have said, it is like looking at movie that you cant stop. Nothing has changed; you can feel and breathe the sadness of the assassination even today. It really is worth going too see for yourself….

[tom jeffers]

thank you for sharing that with us. i remember being there and also thinking how small the whole area is. on film it somehow looks much bigger. i also had this kind of solumn feeling the whole time i was there. the kind of feeling you get at a funeral home. did you walk a few blocks to the assasination conspiracy museum? they show you a little of the movie (court room scene) JFK from oliver stone and then they have various displays with different angles on it. they also have the james files story (the guy there said he didn't believe it). when i went to the 6th floor, they have the "snipers nest" enclosed in a locked glass partition and a bunch of eagle eyes there to make sure you cannot take a picture out any of the windows.Namaste'

[dankbaar]

J – Where did you get hold of a prototype weapon like the XP-100?JF – It was given to me by David Phillips. I had received this maybe a year prior or 8 months. A year prior to the assassination. The gun had been used twice before on assassinations, but nobody like a president or nothing. It was good for using … if you want to get into a close place area or somewhere …. somebody might say why use a pistol? Well, anybody that knows their weapons, this particular piece is very accurate. Very accurate up to a 100 yards. At a 100 feet I’m talking about , we’re shooting now from the grassy knoll down to the highway, to the street there, we’re talking roughly 30, 35 yards. We’re only talking a 100 feet, this is like shooting fish in a barrel. And especially with a 3 power scope on it. But the weapon had been used before, you could put it in a briefcase, you could walk anywhere with it, nobody would pay any attention to it. The case I had set up, I had a little loading press inside for it, in case I had to manufacture anything, I had a little holder for all the special rounds that were in it. Everything was packed, foam rubber inside, the case was watertight, waterproof. (Wim: Indeed, the XP-100 Fireball was introduced to the market in 1963, but prototypes were available well before that. It is not difficult to understand that the CIA would be highly interested in such a compact, yet such an accurate weapon. Interestingly, the weapon was originally chambered for a .222 caliber cartridge, which is the caliber that James Files used. That caliber was later changed to a .221 cartridge. http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/p ... Introduced in 1963, the .221 Fire Ball and its Experimental Pistol Number 100 were the brainchild of Remington's Wayne Leek. An abbreviated single shot version of Leek's Remington Model 600 Carbine, the pistol was introduced to the shooting world as the XP-100. During it development stages, the XP-100 was first chambered for the .222 Remington cartridge, but Leek eventually decided it burned a bit more powder then was necessary in a 10-3/4 inch barrel. Consequently, the .222 case was shortened to 1.40 inches and the new cartridge became known as the .221 Fire Ball. Muzzle velocity with a 50 grain bullet was advertised as 2650 fps.)

[Jsnow915]

cool story Scott....thanks for sharing.

[ChristophMessner]

Thanks a lot, Scott, for your detailed description of how you lived a visit at Dealey Plaza nowadays! It's very interesting to listen to your impression about the actual emotions of the Dallas people and the Dallas visitors about that place and it's very special history. One can refeel and understand why you wanted to leave the place early after having seen it, even from abroad and without having seen it by myself ever. But has it now become clearer to you, whether there were shots from behind the fence and from other buildings than the TSBD? Tom, how far is the assassination conpsiracy museum from the 6th floor museum? How many visitors does it have? Chris

[Bob]

Yes...excellent description of your day in Dallas, Scott. Thanks for posting that, as it gives everyone a feel for the atmosphere down there currently. Dallas is still trying to run from the events of 11/22/1963 in my opinion, but it's tough to put the event behind them due to all the corruption that occurred down there. Wim...thanks for the insight about how Jimmy obtained the fireball, why he used it, and who (David Atlee Phillips) gave it to him.

[katisha]

Thank you, Scott; that was a very evocative description. I'll probably never have the chance to go to Dealey Plaza myself, so it was a pleasure to read about your experience there.

[tom jeffers]

ChristophMessner wrote:Tom, how far is the assassination conpsiracy museum from the 6th floor museum? How many visitors does it have? Chrishttp://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn ... s.htmlmust be closed now, too bad, it had the kind of excitement like when traveling the old southwest and coming upon a road side amusement shack that had a giant aligator or a 3 headed snake. you paid the guy 10 bucks , got the 10 minute tour, watched the film and then looked at a lot of displays that the writing was done by a typewriter (just to give you an idea how old most of the material was) I had to come in the side door because there was a step in the fron door but it was located on an alley so i came in the alley door. it had the feelig that the FBI would just bust open the doors any minute... actually it was just another piece of history now gone.

[scottjfkmad]

Thank you kindly for all your responses, and yes once again I can not emphasis the sheer size of dealey plaza, it is extremely tiny.I didn’t get chance to get to the Conspiracy Museum Tom, I did hear that they ran a JFK Fatal Limo tour, were you can ride in the exact Motorcade route Jack did, how true it is I really don’t know.I did walk into the Old Red Museum/Courthouse, which is now an information point for tourists. From the low floor down this was the view of the Plaza…I did walk through the Red Museum, were there is a JFK Memorial, which is quite modern and a plaque which mentions the assasination and the life of John F Kennedy.

[Bob]

Scott...by chance did you see Robert Groden, as he is in the plaza most weekends.