Assassination Vacation

[William Kelly]

I'm currently listening to Sarah Vowell's book on tape Assassination Vacation, in which she travels to various historical sites related to assassinations in the USA, notably Lincoln and McKinley, etc., but scrupulously avoids JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X or Medgar Evers.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=A...G=Google+Search

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_Vacation

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id...5&ct=result

As a National Public Broadcasting journalist who reports on whimiscal things, she has an interesting approach and brings herself into the story, but apparently she can only deal with what's history and not what's really the cutting edge of crimes and mysteries.

She gave me the idea, and having left it out of her own book, to approach the JFK and other recent assassinations from the perspective of boots on the ground, visiting cities and sites of relevance, and see if there's anything left of evidential value or anyone left who was there at the time.

The recent issue of Dealey Plaza Echo (which has a number of interesting articles -cheers to those across the pond who put it together) as posted at Mary Ferrell (Thanks Rex), including a guided tour of the New Orleans neighborhoods frequented by Oswald and other suspects, though they don't include the Magazine St. Apartment, Jim Braden's apartment, the Pierre Marquette office building, or a number of significant sites.

Cruising About the Cresent City by Terry Moore:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...sPageId=1191695

Dealey Plaza is the second most visited tourist site in Texas, after the Alamo, which was saved by a bunch of old ladies who got together and preserved it), and Histoiric Tourism is now a niche that's figured into the tourists economy.

Besides, New Orleans and Dallas, I also thought that DC, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, Miami and other cities are on the Assassin's Tour.

Of course I would need a native guide to places I'm not familiar with, and I would need input from those who live there or know an area intimately, and feedback from people who can add tidbits of information that gives better insight into the sites of assassinations.

While I am primarily interested in the JFK assassination, the approach can also be used to visit other assassination sites, like Memphis, where they have a museum.

Before embarking on this trip and wasting a lot of time on it, I thought I'd see if there was any interest in this approach among other forum members.

Thanks for your opinions,

BK

Edited June 28, 2008 by William Kelly

[Ron Ecker]

Bill,

I've only been to Dealey Plaza once. If I could go back, the first thing I would do is try to get the visual perspectives of a possible south knoll shooter. While it was once possible to walk all the way across the overpass to the south end, I recall reading that access to the south end has now been blocked off. Is there an innocent explanation for this?

The second thing I would do is check out what was then called the DalTex building. Is there still access into the building? I would love to look out that window by the fire escape on the second floor. Who is in that building now? If there is no public access, is there an innocent explanation for this?

[William Kelly]

Bill,

I've only been to Dealey Plaza once. If I could go back, the first thing I would do is try to get the visual perspectives of a possible south knoll shooter. While it was once possible to walk all the way across the overpass to the south end, I recall reading that access to the south end has now been blocked off. Is there an innocent explanation for this?

The second thing I would do is check out what was then called the DalTex building. Is there still access into the building? I would love to look out that window by the fire escape on the second floor. Who is in that building now? If there is no public access, is there an innocent explanation for this?

Hey Ron,

That's exactly the idea, go the various scenes and try to answer some of the questions about what happened.

Robert Howard recently sent me a link to a guy who has a great web site concerned with Oswald's return trip home from the Soviet Union, most of which was by train. He goes to the apartment the Oswald's stayed at and takes pix of it and tries to locate people and places mentioned in his notebook.

I'm a little disapointed in the response, as it doesn't seem like anybody else thinks this is such a great idea.

Here's a link to Oswald on the Orient Express and In Holland:

http://oswaldinholland.web-log.nl/

Thanks to Robert Howard for this link.

BK

Edited July 16, 2008 by William Kelly