THE EVIDENCE PROVIDED BY THE WARREN COMMISSION GIVES US THE OBVIOUS
ANSWER TO THE ABOVE QUESTION......
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In the years since President John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963,
many conspiracy theorists have latched onto the
completely-unsupportable notion that the motorcade route was changed at
the eleventh hour just prior to President Kennedy's drive through
downtown Dallas on November 22, 1963.
The "Motorcade Route Was Changed" allegation is pure malarkey....and
provably so. (Unless the conspiracists who continually tout such an
unsupportable theory actually believe, and can prove, that the Warren
Commission somehow "faked" Commission Exhibits 1362 and 1363, which
consist of photographs of two Dallas newspapers, both from Tuesday,
November 19, 1963, which verify the finalized motorcade route,
including the turn from Houston Street onto Elm Street, which is a turn
that took JFK's car directly in front of the Texas School Book
Depository Building, from where Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed
President Kennedy.)
CE1362 and CE1363 were utilized as official exhibits by the Warren
Commission to demonstrate the fact that JFK's assassin, Lee Harvey
Oswald, could very easily have had ample foreknowledge as to the
precise motorcade route through Dallas that JFK would travel on
November 22nd.
Do conspiracy theorists think that both of those WC newspaper exhibits
were "fabricated" in some fashion (with the references to "Elm Street"
somehow added into the text of the two newspaper editions at a later
time by cover-up agents)?
Obviously, such crazy fakery and skullduggery never happened, which
means that the whole idea of the motorcade route being "altered" at the
last minute (in order to conveniently take the President close to the
building where the supposed "Patsy" was located) is a specious idea to
begin with.
The motorcade route was never "changed" from its original
configuration. To begin with, the route wasn't even finalized until
November 18th, just four days prior to Kennedy's visit to Dallas. The
route was then published in BOTH Dallas papers on November 19th.
On November 20 and November 22, the Dallas papers then mentioned the
general routing of the motorcade (but lacking specific street details).
But this lack of "Elm Street" detail in the two later papers on the
20th and the 22nd can't possibly be used by conspiracy buffs to promote
a "Route Was Changed" theory, unless these buffs actually want to
believe that the route was changed TWICE -- with the last "change"
mirroring the exact Houston-to-Elm route that was already published in
the November 19 papers, which is the EARLIEST of the Dallas newspaper
examples I mentioned above.
And, as an aside here, Oswald didn't even obtain his job at the Book
Depository until the middle of October '63, a full month prior to the
finalized motorcade route being decided upon. The timing of these
events, therefore, illustrates how utterly ridiculous the
largely-accepted theory of "Oswald Was An Innocent Patsy" really is.
Here's a direct passage from the Warren Commission Report (an
outstanding document, regardless of what any CTers believe):
"On November 19, the Times-Herald afternoon paper detailed the precise
route: 'From the airport, the President's party will proceed to
Mockingbird Lane to Lemmon and then to Turtle Creek, turning south to
Cedar Springs. The motorcade will then pass through downtown on Harwood
and then west on Main, turning back to Elm at Houston and then out
Stemmons Freeway to the Trade Mart'." -- WCR; Page 40*
* = Footnote attached, "54", which, per the Warren Report's footnotes
index, leads us to "CE1362", which is this Exhibit....
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/html/WH_Vol22_0322b.htm
....which positively PROVES that the "Elm St. turn" was being planned
as of the date of that paper (11/19/63).
Page 40 of the WR also tells us that the Dallas morning paper on
November 19th also mentions the specific turn onto Elm Street -- "Main
to Houston, Houston to Elm". With a footnote ("55"), taking us to
"CE1363", which is this Exhibit....
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh22/pages/WH_Vol22_0323a.jpg
Moreover, the turn onto Elm Street was essential in order to avoid the
concrete divider in the middle of Main Street that would have caused
even greater violation of standard Secret Service practice with respect
to the slowing down of the President's limousine. Sans the Elm St.
turn, JFK's car (as well as the three bulky press buses at the rear of
the motorcade) would have had to negotiate this obstruction on Main
Street....
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh24/html/WH_Vol24_0282b.htm
There are also these additional pertinent facts re. the motorcade
routing (taken directly from the Warren Report):
"To reach the Trade Mart {President Kennedy's destination on 11/22/63}
from Main Street the {Secret Service} agents decided to use the
Stemmons Freeway (Route No. 77), the most direct route. The only
practical way for westbound traffic on Main Street to reach the
northbound lanes of the Stemmons Freeway is via Elm Street, which Route
No. 77 traffic is instructed to follow in this part of the city." --
WCR; Page 32
"The Elm Street approach to the Stemmons Freeway is necessary in order
to avoid the traffic hazards which would otherwise exist if right turns
were permitted from both Main and Elm into the freeway. .... Traffic
proceeding west on Main is directed to turn right at Houston in order
to reach the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike, which has the same access road
from Elm Street as does the Stemmons Freeway." -- WCR; Page 39
The above section of WCR text from page 39 is followed by footnote
number "46", which takes the reader to a reference to "CE2967", which
is a photo showing a sign on Main Street (just east of Houston Street)
that specifically instructs traffic to turn right on Houston in order
to gain access to the Turnpike (and, hence, to the Stemmons Freeway
ramp as well).
CE2967......
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh26/html/WH_Vol26_0243a.htm
As can be easily seen from these WC exhibits, the motorcade needed the
Houston-to-Elm turn to gain access to Stemmons Freeway. And as the
exhibits further show, Oswald had ample time to read about the
motorcade route (including the specifics re. the Elm St. turn) prior to
his November 21 trip to Ruth Paine's home in Irving to retrieve his
rifle.
Given these facts about the published motorcade route, Lee Harvey
Oswald could (and obviously did) know about the President's planned
parade route through Dealey Plaza when he took his "package" to work
with him (and told a lie about its contents) on the morning of the
assassination on Friday, November 22nd, 1963.
Plus -- It's always been my opinion that Oswald would probably have
attempted the assassination even if JFK's car didn't proceed down Elm
Street. If the car had gone straight down Main Street, Oswald could
still have attempted the shooting. It would have been a longer, and
more difficult shot, true. But IMO he still probably would have
attempted it. Sadly, he had an even better chance to kill the President
via the much-easier "On Elm Street" target.
The people who continue to spout the crackpot "Motorcade Route Was
Changed" balderdash should not even be discussing any aspect of the
John F. Kennedy murder case in the first place...for it's obvious that
such a person has no idea what he/she is talking about in so
discussing.
David Von Pein
November 2006