The Shootings of JFK & JR - Dallas, TX

Two historical news breaking shootings occurred in Dallas Texas in the second half of  the  20th century. Both events caused widespread disbelief and the world stopped in it's tracks, confused and shocked. Some  conspiracy theories continue today. 
Both  victims were very powerful men. One lead  the  greatest  nation on the planet, the other, one of the  wealthiest  Oil Companies. Both had many admirers , but also many enemies. Both men where known to  associate  with questionable characters. And both were loved by many beautiful and glamourous women.

The first shooting was the assassination of President John F Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The other was the attempted murder of the Head of Ewing Oil,  J R Ewing in March 1980.
We saw  the sites of both these crimes.

The Sixth Floor Museum.

This is a  must see for anyone who visits Dallas. A very thorough and interesting museum, it took us several hours to get through all the displays and movies. And there were several school  excursions there at the same time, as well as loads of other visitors. ( So this where everyone goes to in Dallas! ).

The creepiest part was the actual area and window from where Oswald fired his gun. There is a definite chilling and unnerving feeling about this very spot, which is set up exactly how it was  on that day.

And here I am, twice, on the famous grassy knoll... ( of course we thought about that episode of Seinfeld with Keith Hernandez..)

The building behind me is  the Book Depository.  

One of three remaining Polaroid photos taken by Mary Moorman at the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. (Photo: Mary Moorman)

"X" marks  the spot today - photo taken by me

 After our JFK experience,  we had a walk around the still very quiet and eerie downtown area where I found the building used as the offices of "Ewing Oil" in Seasons 2 - 10 of Dallas. It was here  that JR Ewing was shot in his office by the  crazed Kristin Shepard in 1980. " Streets had emptied on March 21st 1980, the night JR got shot. Fifty three countries tuned in to the shooting, the headline making news of which helped sell the series to another eleven countries by the time it came back on air again"

JR cops it in the cliff hanger to end all cliff hangers in Dallas, 1980.

This  building ( above ) is now  the "Renaissance Tower" and  located at 1201 Elm Street in downtown  Dallas. I went into the lobby, but there was nothing to commemorate this epic TV event, in fact nothing at all about  TV Dallas & Ewing Oil.

Here is  the gun used to shoot JR - on display at Southfork Ranch.  More on this  place coming up right here on this blog!! Stay tuned...

The gold building ( above ) in the background was used as Ewing Oil for season 1 and can be found at 2001 Bryan Street.

And this is the  offices of  Barnes Wentworth, a bit out of the central downtown area at what is now the Campbell Centre at the intersection of Central Expressway & Northwest Highway. We came across  this quite  by accident, but being a big  fan of  the TV show Dallas  ( in case you couldn't tell ) I recognised it immediately.