Dealey Plaza Tourism Advice?

[Cory Santos]

Be careful of the people who are aggressive and call themselves "tourguides".  It is a problem do I ignore them or if they are to aggressive, warn them to get away from me.  Great restaurants one or two streets down.

[Pat Speer]

You might want to visit the Sixth Floor Museum reading room, which is open to the public. If there's a particular book, article, or oral history you've been looking for, they will try to track it down for you and give you a look.

There is also a public library 8 blocks or so east of the plaza with a huge selection available. They give you  a notebook listing their holdings, and will dig up whatever you'd like to look at. When I was there for the 22nd, a local researcher took me up there. They had a number of self-published books by early researcher Ray Marcus. Nothing eye-opening, but a lot of stuff I hadn't seen before.

[W. Niederhut]

Many thanks to everyone here for the advice.

I visited Dealey Plaza today at high noon.  It was almost surreal to observe Elm Street from the Grassy Knoll.

Does anyone know if the wooden pickets on the old fence by the parking lot behind the concrete wall on the Knoll are the originals from 1963?

The distances along Elm Street (from Houston Street to the overpass) were shorter than I imagined.

BTW, I noticed that the museum book store across Houston Street from the TSBD was selling only false history books-- Case Closed, Reclaiming History, etc.  Not a single copy of Rush to Judgment, Crossfire, Destiny Betrayed, or any of the good stuff.  It was irritating.

I resisted the urge to scold the store clerk for the terrible selection of JFKA "history" books offered to the local tourists.

[Pat Speer]

The picket fence has been torn apart by tourists and then replaced many times since 1963. 

As far as the book store...when Gary Mack was still alive, and a member of this forum, people used to attack him and claim NO conspiracy books were allowed in the book store. So I made a point of writing down what books were available in the store every time I went there, and report back on this forum. It was true that the books were mostly LN books. But there was usually one or two "safe" conspiracy books, e.g. Real Answers by Gary Cornwell, included in the mix. I was there again on the 23rd but forgot to check this time, in part because the current curator, Steve Fagin, appears to be a bit more open-minded than Gary (to the point even of having Cyril Wecht speak at the Museum), and had in fact made an appearance at the CAPA conference the day before. 

 

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, Pat Speer said:

The picket fence has been torn apart by tourists and then replaced many times since 1963. 

As far as the book store...when Gary Mack was still alive, and a member of this forum, people used to attack him and claim NO conspiracy books were allowed in the book store. So I made a point of writing down what books were available in the store every time I went there, and report back on this forum. It was true that the books were mostly LN books. But there was usually one or two "safe" conspiracy books, e.g. Real Answers by Gary Cornwell, included in the mix. I was there again on the 23rd but forgot to check this time, in part because the current curator, Steve Fagin, appears to be a bit more open-minded than Gary (to the point even of having Cyril Wecht speak at the Museum), and had in fact made an appearance at the CAPA conference the day before. 

 

I probably shouldn't admit this but I've still got a tiny, thumbnail size piece of it from an early 90's visit.  It was in bad shape, rotten, it crumbled off when I ran my thumb across the top of it, I wasn't trying to break a piece off.  But since it did I stuck it in my shirt pocket.  I know from visits since it's been replaced since then.  I was thinking the last time I went they had put up chain link on the back side trying to stop people from writing on it (which was once a thing if I remember right) and picking at it.

The Saturday before the 50th anniversary I took my daughter, 22 at the time, for her first and thus far only visit, along with my wife.  A sunny warm day, it was almost festive.  Looking back since I've wondered if it was kind of like 11/22/63, before the shots were fired.  The Vikings were playing the Cowboys at AT&T the next day, lots of purple around and in the long line to get into the museum.  People had chalked the sidewalk between the X's colorfully with captions.  Oswald?  Yeah, right.  They Lied to US, etc.  Then a line of protesters came skipping down from a block up Elm past Houston down the Elm street extension to about where Zapruder stood led by a guy with a megaphone.  They were chanting something about Down with the Corporate/Establishment...  weird but unique.

No chalk captions or megaphones two weeks later on 11/22/13.  Gated, guarded, advance ticketed (dob/dl/ssn to check you out first, for a drawing, for a chance for a ticket).  Democracy in action regarding public assembly in a publicly owned location.  "Have you ever seen Dallas from a DC9 at night?  Dallas is a jungle, Dallas gives a beautiful light, Dallas is a jewel, Dallas is a beautiful sight".

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=have+you+ever+seen+dallas+from+a+dc9+at+night&view=detail&mid=B353DC4B74B0E7301A83B353DC4B74B0E7301A83&FORM=VIRE

Full screen is best.

[Ron Bulman]

Latter 90's a autographed copy of Robert Groden' s  picture/magazine of the time purchased on the grassy knoll.  The question I asked him, which I don't remember, was brushed off to I believe Bobby Hargis off to the side.

I realize Bart has pointed out problems with his somewhat more recent actions (JVB, more).  But he did steal the copies of the z film prints and expose them on Geraldo.  High Treason was very informative for the time, pre internet.  I have to give him credit for hanging out on site for years in Dealy Plaza, drawing attention to it.  Getting arrested how many times, all dismissed?  Harassment by the DPD.  He could have led an easier life, he's not getting rich out of it.  Maybe why he's hanging with JVB these days?

[Pat Speer]

On 12/12/2019 at 7:16 PM, Ron Bulman said:

I probably shouldn't admit this but I've still got a tiny, thumbnail size piece of it from an early 90's visit.  It was in bad shape, rotten, it crumbled off when I ran my thumb across the top of it, I wasn't trying to break a piece off.  But since it did I stuck it in my shirt pocket.  I know from visits since it's been replaced since then.  I was thinking the last time I went they had put up chain link on the back side trying to stop people from writing on it (which was once a thing if I remember right) and picking at it.

The Saturday before the 50th anniversary I took my daughter, 22 at the time, for her first and thus far only visit, along with my wife.  A sunny warm day, it was almost festive.  Looking back since I've wondered if it was kind of like 11/22/63, before the shots were fired.  The Vikings were playing the Cowboys at AT&T the next day, lots of purple around and in the long line to get into the museum.  People had chalked the sidewalk between the X's colorfully with captions.  Oswald?  Yeah, right.  They Lied to US, etc.  Then a line of protesters came skipping down from a block up Elm past Houston down the Elm street extension to about where Zapruder stood led by a guy with a megaphone.  They were chanting something about Down with the Corporate/Establishment...  weird but unique.

No chalk captions or megaphones two weeks later on 11/22/13.  Gated, guarded, advance ticketed (dob/dl/ssn to check you out first, for a drawing, for a chance for a ticket).  Democracy in action regarding public assembly in a publicly owned location.  "Have you ever seen Dallas from a DC9 at night?  Dallas is a jungle, Dallas gives a beautiful light, Dallas is a jewel, Dallas is a beautiful sight".

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=have+you+ever+seen+dallas+from+a+dc9+at+night&view=detail&mid=B353DC4B74B0E7301A83B353DC4B74B0E7301A83&FORM=VIRE

Full screen is best.

The guy with the megaphone/bullhorn was Alex Jones.