In the footsteps of Lee Harvey Oswald

Oak Cliff forever will be associated with the presumed assassin

Story by Rachel Stone | Photos by David Leeson

Even 50 years after the JFK assassination, Oak Cliff is a tightknit community where neighbors know each other’s names and few suspicious behaviors go unnoticed. Is it any wonder that in 1963, a sweaty, nervous guy darting around Jefferson Boulevard would raise alarm? On Nov. 22, 1963, our city and our nation changed forever, and our neighborhood was at the center of it. Here is where it happened.

1 Houston Street Viaduct

When this bridge was built in 1912, at a cost of $600,000, it created the first permanent crossing between Oak Cliff and Dallas. Now, with many highways and bridges connecting Oak Cliff, it is the site of the future Oak Cliff Streetcar, which begins running next year. In 1963, the bridge was still the main connection. Following the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald caught a city bus at the Greyhound station Downtown and traveled across the bridge.

This is the rooming house where Oswald was staying at the time of the assassination. His wife, Marina, and daughters, June and Audrey, were living with a friend in Irving. Oswald stopped into his room about 30 minutes after the assassination and then left in a hurry, a housekeeper later told police. Police searched Oswald’s tiny room on the day of the assassination, taking most of its contents as evidence. The home’s second-generation owner, Pat Hall, put it on the market earlier this year for $500,000, and she is offering tours of the house for $20 per person.

Tenth and Patton

Oswald was seen running past this former Texaco station on Jefferson. Police later found his dark jacket there.

J.D. Tippit was an Oak Cliff beat cop and part-time security officer at Austin’s Barbecue. The decorated officer was well known in our neighborhood. Tippit noticed Oswald walking on 10th Street and, presumably, recognized that he fit the description of the assassin, which had been broadcast over police radio. Tippit pulled up alongside the presumed assassin and spoke to him, and when he got out of his patrol car, Oswald shot him three times in the chest. When the officer fell, Oswald shot him point-blank in the right temple. A memorial marker dedicated to Tippit was placed last year at the site of the murder, 49 years after it occurred.

5 213 W. Jefferson

This is now a quinceañera and bridal shop, but in 1963 it was Hardy Shoe Store. Manager John Calvin Brewer was working at the shop that day when he saw Oswald rush by the store and duck into the Texas Theatre without buying a ticket. In 2011 Dallas Police gave Brewer, who now lives in Austin, its Citizen’s Certificate of Merit for aiding Oswald’s capture after he called to report Oswald’s suspicious behavior.

6 The Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson

“War Is Hell” was playing on the screen when Oswald slipped in without paying and sat in the third row from the back (see page 11). Police arrived around 1:45 p.m. and raised the house lights. Brewer pointed out Oswald, who was then arrested. Witnesses told reporters at the time that Oswald had shouted, “I protest this police brutality!”

7 Top Ten Records, 338 W. Jefferson

This is the only site in Oak Cliff associated with the assassination that continually has been in business since then. Both Oswald and Tippit were known to have shopped there, although the Warren Commission determined the two had not known each other. That morning, Tippit had purchased tickets to Dick Clark’s “Caravan of Stars” at the record shop.

8 1221 N. Beckley

This is the former Dobbs House Restaurant where both Oswald and Tippit were regulars. Waitress Mary Ada Dowling recalled that Oswald had been unpleasant and used foul language on his last visit, according to “John F. Kennedy Sites in Dallas-Fort Worth” by Mark Doty and John H. Slate.

This house is the site of the infamous “backyard photos” of Oswald holding his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and copies of communist newspapers. Marina Oswald took the photos, one of which ended up on the cover of Life magazine.

Jack Ruby, the Dallas club owner who assassinated the assassin, lived in room 207 of the bygone Marsala Place apartments with his little dogs, Sheba and Clipper.