Image of Dallas Police detectives carrying evidence out of the Book Depository

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Image of Dallas Police detectives carrying evidence out of the Book Depository

Original 35mm black and white negative taken by Dallas Times Herald staff photographer William Allen. This image shows Dallas Police Detectives Leslie Montgomery and Marvin Johnson on the steps of the Texas School Book Depository with a long paper bag and Dr. Pepper bottle that were found on the building's sixth floor on November 22, 1963. Dallas Times Herald reporter Darwin Payne is located on the right in the image.

Object Details
Object title:

Image of Dallas Police detectives carrying evidence out of the Book Depository

Date:

11/22/1963

Medium:

Film

Dimensions:

15/16 x 1 7/16 in. (2.4 x 3.6 cm)

Credit line:

William Allen, photographer, Dallas Times Herald Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Object number:

1989.100.0023.0004

Curatorial Note:

Found by investigators on the sixth floor of the Depository, this brown paper bag was a key piece of evidence in the Warren Commission investigation. Thirty-eight inches long, and bearing markings consistent with a rifle, the bag was -- according to the Warren Commission -- used by Lee Harvey Oswald to bring the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle into the building on November 22, 1963. For many researchers, questions remain about the paper bag. Two individuals who saw Oswald with a package that morning - Depository employee Buell Wesley Frazier and his sister, Linnie Randle - testified that the package they observed was between 24 and 27 inches in length, though the Carcano rifle, when disassembled, measures 34.8 inches. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

The Sixth Floor Museum’s education department makes ample use of this photograph in its “Conflicting Evidence? The First 24 Hours After the Kennedy Assassination” program, which is offered to schools at the Museum and via videoconference. The program challenges students to examine how evidence found on November 22, 1963 has been used to make cases both for and against Lee Harvey Oswald’s guilt. This image of the brown paper package found on the sixth floor is connected to the testimony of Buell Wesley Frazier, the co-worker who drove Lee Harvey Oswald to work the day of President Kennedy’s assassination. Although Frazier testified that Oswald had a brown package with him that morning, Oswald claimed that the package contained curtain rods for his Oak Cliff apartment. No curtain rods were found by investigators. Interestingly, Frazier’s description of the brown package was smaller than the rifle later found on the sixth floor of the Depository, leading some to question if the brown paper found by investigators was indeed the same brown paper that Oswald brought to work with him that day. – Sharron Wilkins Conrad, Director of Education and Public Programs

Image of Dallas Police detectives carrying evidence out of the Book Depository

Original 35mm black and white negative taken by Dallas Times Herald staff photographer William Allen. This image shows Dallas Police Detectives Leslie Montgomery and Marvin Johnson on the steps of the Texas School Book Depository with a long paper bag and Dr. Pepper bottle that were found on the building's sixth floor on November 22, 1963. Dallas Times Herald reporter Darwin Payne is located on the right in the image.

Object Details
Object title:

Image of Dallas Police detectives carrying evidence out of the Book Depository

Date:

11/22/1963

Terms:

Dr Pepper bottles

Reporter

Evidence

Paper bag

Investigations

Police

Photographs

Allen, William

Payne, Darwin

Johnson, Marvin

Montgomery, Leslie D.

Dallas Times Herald

Dallas Police Crime Scene Search Unit

Texas School Book Depository

Dallas

Medium:

Film

Dimensions:

15/16 x 1 7/16 in. (2.4 x 3.6 cm)

Credit line:

William Allen, photographer, Dallas Times Herald Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Object number:

1989.100.0023.0004

Curatorial Note:

Found by investigators on the sixth floor of the Depository, this brown paper bag was a key piece of evidence in the Warren Commission investigation. Thirty-eight inches long, and bearing markings consistent with a rifle, the bag was -- according to the Warren Commission -- used by Lee Harvey Oswald to bring the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle into the building on November 22, 1963. For many researchers, questions remain about the paper bag. Two individuals who saw Oswald with a package that morning - Depository employee Buell Wesley Frazier and his sister, Linnie Randle - testified that the package they observed was between 24 and 27 inches in length, though the Carcano rifle, when disassembled, measures 34.8 inches. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

The Sixth Floor Museum’s education department makes ample use of this photograph in its “Conflicting Evidence? The First 24 Hours After the Kennedy Assassination” program, which is offered to schools at the Museum and via videoconference. The program challenges students to examine how evidence found on November 22, 1963 has been used to make cases both for and against Lee Harvey Oswald’s guilt. This image of the brown paper package found on the sixth floor is connected to the testimony of Buell Wesley Frazier, the co-worker who drove Lee Harvey Oswald to work the day of President Kennedy’s assassination. Although Frazier testified that Oswald had a brown package with him that morning, Oswald claimed that the package contained curtain rods for his Oak Cliff apartment. No curtain rods were found by investigators. Interestingly, Frazier’s description of the brown package was smaller than the rifle later found on the sixth floor of the Depository, leading some to question if the brown paper found by investigators was indeed the same brown paper that Oswald brought to work with him that day. – Sharron Wilkins Conrad, Director of Education and Public Programs