The trip had been under discussion for almost a year. On 5 June 1963 Kennedy, Vice President Johnson and Governor John Connally met in El Paso and agreed on late November. The aims were fundraising and smoothing a bitter feud between Connally’s conservative Democrats and Senator Ralph Yarborough’s liberals. [1]
The Dallas lunch was set for the Trade Mart. To get there the motorcade had to reach the Stemmons Freeway, and the agreed route turned off Main Street onto Houston and then onto Elm, passing the Texas School Book Depository at about 11 miles an hour. Secret Service agents and Dallas police drove the route on 18 November, and the local papers printed it on 19 November. [1]
The limousine was a 1961 Lincoln convertible with a clear plastic bubble top. The top was neither bulletproof nor bullet resistant. Kennedy aide Kenneth O’Donnell’s instruction was that if the weather was clear the top should be off; it had rained in the morning, then cleared. [1]
So Oswald, who had started work at the Depository in October, could have read where the president would pass several days in advance. [1]
Approved reader comments and ratings appear here when JavaScript is on.