Staring down from the sixth-floor window of the former Texas School Book Depository,it would be next to impossible to accurately fire two shots into a moving car on the roadway at Dealey Plaza below. In 2022,a flourishing elm tree obscures the view as the road sweeps around and down towards the rail underpass. But the third shot? Well,the line of sight for that one remains as clear as it would have been that day,back in November 1963.
The view is halfway through the exhibit,known as the Sixth Floor Museum. It's a moment re-created to appear as if the assassination of a president caused time to stand still. Boxes of books,stacked carefully in the corner to create a sniper's nest,with a single box angled at the corner window to be the resting point for the Carcano Model 38 rifle,complete with telescopic sight,that Lee-Harvey Oswald used to fire those three shots.
Clear glass encases the spot from where Oswald took aim,but visitors can stand at the window immediately adjacent to it and gaze past that burgeoning elm tree which has,for 60 years,seen countless others contemplate how Oswald changed history.
Like the view,the red brick,seven-storey building sitting on the northern side of the plaza remains almost the same,other than the missing Hertz sign on top,and a new name:the Dallas County Administration Building. Inside,the low ceiling marked by large wooden beams preserves the look and feel of the dimly-lit space. The path of the museum snakes through exhibits chronicling all aspects of the assassination of JFK on November 22,1963,but also the political landscape that led up to it.
One display names at least nine groups believed to have wanted President John F Kennedy dead,but anyone looking for definitive proof that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone won't find it here. In terms of who exactly planned the killing,how and why,the museum leaves visitors guessing.
Apart from the conspiracy theories,the museum also allows for the consideration of"what if?". Surveys of Americans even into the mid-90s still ranked JFK as one of the greatest US Presidents,despite just 22 months in office.
After the assassination,President Lyndon B. Johnson shepherded more than 30 Kennedy bills through the House and Senate to become law,including civil rights legislation and the Mass Transportation Act. Books,movies and essays have all speculated on a future if Oswald had missed.