How Many Forum Members And Visitors actually watched Jack Ruby Shoot Oswald On Live National TV?

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Denny Zartman said:

Thanks to @Joe Bauer and everyone for sharing their memories with us here.

Thank you Denny Z.

And yes;

Thank you all for contributing your stories.

It's been 60 years and to hear these personal recountings of the actual event by those of us that saw it happening right in front of our eyes brings the emotional power impact of it to others who may want to know what if felt like.

It keeps the event and it's importance alive in our later generation societal thoughts as well.

[Paul Brancato]

On 3/16/2023 at 10:49 AM, Pat Speer said:

Although I was two on 11-22-63 and remember the assassination weekend as a confusing blur, I had a similarly life-changing reaction during the 2000 election coverage. Florida had just been called for Gore. Someone asked Bush for a response. He smirked and said something about his having a feeling it was gonna go his way--I think he even mentioned his brother. 

I'd been a professional buyer and had learned how to read faces--it was clear to me the fix was in. I was rather blasé about politics at the time. But not after that. In no short order Bush handed out billions in tax cuts to the wealthy, spent billions fighting a country that didn't attack us, or anybody, and pushed the economy into economic collapse. 

 I've never been the same. 

Me neither. My dear departed dad talked or wrote to every relative and friend of his, and letters to the editor of all major newspapers and his own local rag claiming we had just witnessed a Coup and we should all get out on the streets and try to stop it. 

[Steve Roe]

I have some selective memories of the weekend of the assassination as a kid. We did not see the Ruby shooting live on TV because we were at church. Service was breaking up and of course the Kennedy Assassination was the big topic among people. One of the members went out to smoke a cigarette in the parking lot and was in his car listening to the radio of the coverage. He then rushed in and told everybody Oswald got shot. Naturally in those days, folks went out to their cars and listened in to the radio to hear the news. I was standing outside my uncle's Chrysler while he dialed in the radio listening to the breaking news. Everyone of course was shocked by the news. 

I did see a couple of Dallas Police cars racing up Industrial Blvd towards Parkland while milling around the parking lot, sirens on. Just not sure where we went after church, probably back to my uncle's house in South Oak Cliff to have Sunday lunch and watch TV. Later that afternoon, early evening around dusk, we jumped into my uncle's car and went downtown to view the TSBD. My uncle went down Pacific Avenue and got as far as Pacific/Houston (rear of the TSBD). We couldn't get onto Elm Street and drive in front of the TSBD due to a Police blockade. The traffic around whole area around the TSBD was bad, almost to a standstill with cops directing traffic. My uncle gave up and drove home. 

Pretty surreal weekend. 

[Joe Bauer]

43 minutes ago, Steve Roe said:

I have some selective memories of the weekend of the assassination as a kid. We did not see the Ruby shooting live on TV because we were at church. Service was breaking up and of course the Kennedy Assassination was the big topic among people. One of the members went out to smoke a cigarette in the parking lot and was in his car listening to the radio of the coverage. He then rushed in and told everybody Oswald got shot. Naturally in those days, folks went out to their cars and listened in to the radio to hear the news. I was standing outside my uncle's Chrysler while he dialed in the radio listening to the breaking news. Everyone of course was shocked by the news. 

I did see a couple of Dallas Police cars racing up Industrial Blvd towards Parkland while milling around the parking lot, sirens on. Just not sure where we went after church, probably back to my uncle's house in South Oak Cliff to have Sunday lunch and watch TV. Later that afternoon, early evening around dusk, we jumped into my uncle's car and went downtown to view the TSBD. My uncle went down Pacific Avenue and got as far as Pacific/Houston (rear of the TSBD). We couldn't get onto Elm Street and drive in front of the TSBD due to a Police blockade. The traffic around whole area around the TSBD was bad, almost to a standstill with cops directing traffic. My uncle gave up and drove home. 

Pretty surreal weekend. 

Your personal experience story Mr. Steve Roe is exactly the kind of fascinating and important "right there - on that morning" sharing that adds so much to the fuller historical perspective, especially regards the true full emotional impact the Ruby/Oswald and JFK events had on our entire society at that time.

An impact that included deep mistrust and suspicion ( nation wide ) of everything. Unlike any we had seen up to that time and which has lasted 6 decades since.

To this day, even with a third generation, polls show that a majority of Americans still don't fully believe the Warren Commission findings.

SR...you were right there in Dallas on that day!

Fascinating to read the sharings of those who were.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Steve Roe]

1 hour ago, Joe Bauer said:

Fascinating to read the sharings of those who were.

Joe, the TSBD building was familiar to us. About 2 times a week we would go down Stemmons and pass by the building and see the Hertz sign on top with the time displayed as well as the Cabana Club Hotel off Stemmons. Couldn't miss them.

Occasionally we would drive down Lemon Avenue and go past Oak Lawn. I remember seeing Ruby's Vegas Club on Oak Lawn. It had some sort of Marquee out front, either a pair of dice or cards. Been looking for a photo of it to refresh my memory. Haven't found one yet. 

My mother was a part time RN at Parkland. She was not on duty during that weekend. She knew a bunch of those doctors and nurses as she would occasionally get pulled from her area to work Emergency at times. 

[Joe Bauer]

13 minutes ago, Steve Roe said:

My mother was a part time RN at Parkland. She was not on duty during that weekend. She knew a bunch of those doctors and nurses as she would occasionally get pulled from her area to work Emergency at times. 

Really!

Surprised you never posted this before.

Did your mom ever share with you things she may have heard from those she knew and worked with at Parkland regarding their experience and thoughts and views about that day?

[Steve Roe]

4 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

Really!

Surprised you never posted this before.

Did your mom ever share with you things she may have heard from those she knew and worked with at Parkland regarding their experience and thoughts and views about that day?

The only thing I can remember her saying was the President had the best doctors attending him. She knew them. Of course, there was nothing to they could do with the nature of his wounds. Parkland was a County Hospital, and many trauma victims (car crashes, stabbings, shootings) were transported there. I remember seeing many ambulances pull off Harry Hines into the Emergency bays, as we would pick her up from work at 11:00 at night. 

There was another thing she told me, some or one of the nurses working there tending to Governor Connolly after the assassination didn't like him or his attitude.

This is all trivial stuff, on my recollections as a kid during that time. It's really not all that important that's why I was reluctant to share it here. I don't have any conspiracy related stories to offer. 

I do have an original Dallas Times Herald first edition of the assassination that I picked up off our driveway after being released from school around 2:00 on that Friday.  

The 6FM has my oral history with Stephen Fagin (telephone interview during Covid). 

[Kirk Gallaway]

I have here on the forum, very elaborately gone into my reactions about first hearing of the assassination in the 7th grade.

I had,  maybe the only teacher in the 7 half day home room class rooms, who had a radio and was listening to coverage in class to the announcement of JFK's death.

The story on that Sunday, was a little more commonplace. I saw it live , having just got back from church. Everyone in my family was just stunned. My Mother was the only woman left in the house with 3 boys, of which I was the youngest, and she was very upset the entire weekend.

My Dad was a socially liberal fiscally conservative Republican who voted for Nixon in 1960.. I know it shocked him. But he said nothing. But that was the way he was. He didn't offer much unless you asked him. I don't think it was for another 10 years that I really brought the issue up with him. But by that time, we had had a lot of disagreements about the Vietnam War.

It might have been just the age I was going through. But it was almost as if, such a whirlwind of events happened over those next years , there never seemed to be that much time  for anyone to reflect.

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by Kirk Gallaway

[Joe Bauer]

4 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

I have here on the forum, very elaborately gone into my reactions about first hearing of the assassination in the 7th grade.

I had,  maybe the only teacher in the 7 half day home room class rooms, who had a radio and was listening to coverage in class to the announcement of JFK's death.

The story on that Sunday, was a little more commonplace. I saw it live , having just got back from church. Everyone in my family was just stunned. My Mother was the only woman left in the house with 3 boys, of which I was the youngest, and she was very upset the entire weekend.

My Dad was a socially liberal fiscally conservative Republican who voted for Nixon in 1960.. I know it shocked him. But he said nothing. But that was the way he was. He didn't offer much unless you asked him. I don't think it was for another 10 years that I really brought the issue up with him. But by that time, we had had a lot of disagreements about the Vietnam War.

It might have been just the age I was going through. But it was almost as if, such a whirlwind of events happened over those next years , there never seemed to be that much time  for anyone to reflect.

 

 

 

True...seemed almost everyone just didn't know what to make of Ruby whacking Oswald right inside the DPD building parking garage. What could you say to others?

It was just too unbelievable, even surreal.

Yet, I "know" most people were very disturbed by Oswald being shot right inside the DPD building.

The event caused unprecedented suspicion nationwide. Tens of millions of Americans feeling this.

[Pamela Brown]

My family of Methodists stayed at home from church that day. We were transfixed by the assassination, and had the TV on Sunday morning. We were, in fact, eating Swanson chicken TV dinners in front of the TV.

The channel switched from coverage of Jackie and the children to the Dallas jail. When I first saw Lee Oswald that morning I thought, "thank goodness, he's been allowed to change his clothes." I thought he looked like a college student, instead of a scruffy n'er-do-well. In the next moments I remember the officer (Lavelle) seeming to pull at him,  scuffle and then he was down.  It was surreal. It was more powerful emotionally to me even than the assassination of JFK, at that moment. 

I felt right from the start that Lee Oswald was being silenced. And I began to distrust anything the gov't/news was telling us...

Edited March 19, 2023 by Pamela Brown

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Pamela Brown said:

My family of Methodists stayed at home from church that day. We were transfixed by the assassination, and had the TV on Sunday morning. We were, in fact, eating Swanson chicken TV dinners in front of the TV.

The channel switched from coverage of Jackie and the children to the Dallas jail. When I first saw Lee Oswald that morning I thought, "thank goodness, he's been allowed to change his clothes." I thought he looked like a college student, instead of a scruffy n'er-do-well. In the next moments I remember the officer (Lavelle) seeming to pull at him,  scuffle and then he was down.  It was surreal. It was more powerful emotionally to me even than the assassination of JFK, at that moment. 

I felt right from the start that Lee Oswald was being silenced. And I began to distrust anything the gov't/news was telling us...

Millions of Americans felt exactly as you did Pamela after watching that scene happen right in front of their eyes.

We all felt that Oswald had been silenced.

[Pamela Brown]

1 hour ago, Joe Bauer said:

Millions of Americans felt exactly as you did Pamela after watching that scene happen right in front of their eyes.

We all felt that Oswald had been silenced.

And that's why we all, to one extent or another, have worked to prove him innocent...

In my case, of course, it is the limo...as in, how could one person be killed, another almost killed, and a third (Jackie) nearly killed with a M/C with a misaligned site, leaving so little damage to the limo...

Edited March 19, 2023 by Pamela Brown

[Pamela Brown]

On 3/18/2023 at 9:14 AM, Paul Brancato said:

Me neither. My dear departed dad talked or wrote to every relative and friend of his, and letters to the editor of all major newspapers and his own local rag claiming we had just witnessed a Coup and we should all get out on the streets and try to stop it. 

It is amazing to me that nobody, including the Democrats, mentioned this in the ruckus over the 2020 election. 

[Joe Bauer]

On 3/16/2023 at 4:56 PM, Douglas Caddy said:

On the night before Oswald was shot, I attended a long-scheduled Republican Party dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria. I was seated next to a lawyer who would soon be elevated to the New York Supreme Court. Of course, the dinner conversation was about JFK's assassination. The soon-to-be-judge remarked to me, "That fellow Oswald will be killed. He knows too much. The criminal conspirators who killed Kennedy won't let him live long." I was shocked at his bold, cold-blooded prediction and remembered it the next day when I witnessed on TV Ruby shooting Oswald. 

Fascinating!

[Joe Bauer]

On 3/19/2023 at 10:13 AM, Pamela Brown said:

My family of Methodists stayed at home from church that day. We were transfixed by the assassination, and had the TV on Sunday morning. We were, in fact, eating Swanson chicken TV dinners in front of the TV.

I felt right from the start that Lee Oswald was being silenced. And I began to distrust anything the gov't/news was telling us...

Pamela, you and your family were eating Swanson TV dinners in front of the TV at that hour?

Early lunch?

Must say your family had class. Swanson had some real gourmet selections back then.

I've been eating foil tray ( and now plastic ) TV dinners all my life. 

I consider myself somewhat a microwave meal gourmand now at the ripe old age of 72.

Stouffers is consistently good.

Their meat lasagna is a favorite.

Marie Callender is fairly good.

Banquet? Hard to pass on their 10 dishes for $10 specials.

I've pondered having a JFK assassination anniversary talk event here in Monterey/Carmel, CA. from time to time.

We have an older age and fairly well off demographic here. I am sure many lived through the event.

I would think the State Theater on Alvarado would be a good venue for this?

Or the lecture forum or drama theater at our Monterey Peninsula Junior College?

The Sunset Center in Carmel is nice but very expensive.

Our local Hyatt Regency hotel has great convention meeting rooms.

I know several regular members here live in Calif. Kirk, Jim Di, Joseph McBride.

Wouldn't be hard for them to get here.

I wouldn't speak. Just coordinate others to do so.

Wish I had the big bucks. Enough to pay our members to speak and arrange and pay for their transportation and lodging and meals.

I think our speakers would love dining at such fine Carmel restaurants as "Casanovas", Clint Eastwood's "Mission Ranch" with a view of Carmel Bay, or "Terry's Lounge" in Doris Day's ( now passed on ) hotel..."The Cypress Inn."

Monterey has a fine restaurant called "Tarpys" as well.

Oh well...maybe I'll win the Lotto soon and we could make this happen.

 

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by Joe Bauer