Image of Dallas Police officer M. N. "Nick" McDonald at Dallas Police Department
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Image of Dallas Police officer M. N. "Nick" McDonald at Dallas Police Department
Original black and white negative by a Dallas Morning News photographer. The image shows uniformed Dallas police officer M. N. "Nick" McDonald, who arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, at Dallas police headquarters on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. McDonald is speaking to Dallas Morning News reporter Jim Ewell while two other men listen in.
Image of Dallas Police officer M. N. "Nick" McDonald at Dallas Police Department
11/22/1963
Film
2 3/16 × 2 3/16 in. (5.6 × 5.6 cm)
Tom C. Dillard Collection, The Dallas Morning News/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
1994.003.0026.0002
It is not clear which Dallas Morning News photographer took this image. Jack Beers, Tom Dillard and Bill Winfrey are the photographers who were present when the photograph was taken. It could have been any of them. - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager
Dallas police officer M. "Nick" McDonald is speaking here with Jim Ewell (with cigarette and notepad), a police reporter at The Dallas Morning News. Ewell had been at Dallas Love Field that morning. Following the assassination, he was in Dealey Plaza, at the Tippit shooting scene and inside the Texas Theatre during Oswald's arrest. The scratch clearly visible on Officer McDonald's face occurred during the arrest of Oswald. McDonald was the first to confront Oswald inside the theater, and he later recalled that Oswald punched him in the face before aiming a gun at McDonald. Several officers quickly came to McDonald's aid, and a scuffle took place. As McDonald described in his 2003 oral history, after Oswald was subdued and handcuffed, McDonald noticed that he "was bloody all over." He recalled: "My lip was bloody. My nose was bloody. And this gash here--well, that gash was caused when I jerked the pistol away from him. The hammer scratched me about four inches down the face." Close-up photographs, often reprinted in assassination literature, showing McDonald's face were taken that afternoon at Dallas police headquarters to provide "photographic evidence that [Oswald] resisted arrest." Police officials were rightfully concerned since Oswald had immediately started shouting "police brutality" while being led out of the Texas Theatre, and he frequently bemoaned his treatment before the news media that weekend. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator
Image of Dallas Police officer M. N. "Nick" McDonald at Dallas Police Department
Original black and white negative by a Dallas Morning News photographer. The image shows uniformed Dallas police officer M. N. "Nick" McDonald, who arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, at Dallas police headquarters on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. McDonald is speaking to Dallas Morning News reporter Jim Ewell while two other men listen in.
Image of Dallas Police officer M. N. "Nick" McDonald at Dallas Police Department
11/22/1963
Wounds
Photographs
Police
Beers, Jack
Dillard, Tom C.
Winfrey, Bill
McDonald, M. N. "Nick"
The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Police Department
Dallas Police Headquarters
Dallas Municipal Building
Dallas
Film
2 3/16 × 2 3/16 in. (5.6 × 5.6 cm)
Tom C. Dillard Collection, The Dallas Morning News/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
1994.003.0026.0002
It is not clear which Dallas Morning News photographer took this image. Jack Beers, Tom Dillard and Bill Winfrey are the photographers who were present when the photograph was taken. It could have been any of them. - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager
Dallas police officer M. "Nick" McDonald is speaking here with Jim Ewell (with cigarette and notepad), a police reporter at The Dallas Morning News. Ewell had been at Dallas Love Field that morning. Following the assassination, he was in Dealey Plaza, at the Tippit shooting scene and inside the Texas Theatre during Oswald's arrest. The scratch clearly visible on Officer McDonald's face occurred during the arrest of Oswald. McDonald was the first to confront Oswald inside the theater, and he later recalled that Oswald punched him in the face before aiming a gun at McDonald. Several officers quickly came to McDonald's aid, and a scuffle took place. As McDonald described in his 2003 oral history, after Oswald was subdued and handcuffed, McDonald noticed that he "was bloody all over." He recalled: "My lip was bloody. My nose was bloody. And this gash here--well, that gash was caused when I jerked the pistol away from him. The hammer scratched me about four inches down the face." Close-up photographs, often reprinted in assassination literature, showing McDonald's face were taken that afternoon at Dallas police headquarters to provide "photographic evidence that [Oswald] resisted arrest." Police officials were rightfully concerned since Oswald had immediately started shouting "police brutality" while being led out of the Texas Theatre, and he frequently bemoaned his treatment before the news media that weekend. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator
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