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1963: A Third‚ Very Different Funeral
It has been 60 years since an assassin’s bullet cut down President John F. Kennedy in Dallas‚ Texas. The horrific event for America was immediately probed from all angles for any signs of a conspiracy right after the event outside the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. Michael Thomas Leibrandt explains.
Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Photograph by Robert H. Jackson. The photograph won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.
Three days following John F. Kennedy’s assassination‚ on November 25‚ the country mourned his death. We have all seen the incredible images of JFK’s funeral. The Horseless Rider in the procession‚ Jackie Kennedy walking with RFK and Ted behind the casket. John John saluting his father one last time.Just over 1‚300 miles away also on November 25‚ the Dallas Police Department was on display in their Dress Uniforms to honor Officer J.D. Tippit’s at his funeral. Tippit was gunned down in a Dallas residential area not long after the assassination of President Kennedy.Across town in Fort Worth‚ a very different type of funeral was taking place. Twenty-four-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald‚ the killer of J.D. Tippit and suspected killer of JFK was being laid to rest in Rose Hill Cemetery. The logistics of this funeral turned out to be the most difficult.When Oswald’s body was collected in the middle of the night from Parkland Hospital‚ Miller Funeral Home was surrounded by authorities. Next was the obstacle of getting a clergyman to provide a sermon for Oswald. With a possible concern of sniper fire during the outdoor service‚ several clergy members backed out.The 4:00 P.M. funeral had no mourners except for Oswald’s immediate family‚ who attended as well as authorities and the press. When the time came to carry Oswald from the hearse to the gravesite‚ local reporters were the only pallbearers who were available to carry the casket.Then suspicions arose that Oswald was not actually in the casket‚ that it was instead a spy who was hired to assassinate Kennedy. The casket was opened briefly so that the family could see the body. ExhumationWith suspicions continuing about a spy in Oswald’s casket for years after the funeral‚ the body was exhumed in 1981 despite Robert Oswald’s objections. When the casket was damaged during the exhumation‚ and a Texas Funeral Home attempted to sell the original for more than $87‚000‚ Robert Oswald did sue and was able to stop the transaction as well as winning a court ruling.Shannon Funerals Chapels was originally founded in 1906. The 84-acre cemetery was founded in 1928 and the two united in 1986.If you visit Oswald’s grave today at Shannon Rose Hill‚ you’ll no doubt notice the headstone in the next plot that simply reads NICK BEEF.Since 1996‚ the headstone has occupied the plot next to Oswald’s. The plot is owned by writer Patric Abedin‚ who traveled to Fort Worth to see the Kennedys during the 1963 visit. He was propped up on the shoulders of a marine serviceman to see the Kennedys‚ and this made an impression on Abedin as did his visits to Oswald’s grave as a child.In 1975‚ he bought the plot for a $17.50 deposit‚ and then made monthly payments of $10. In 1996‚ the headstone appeared with Abedin’s alias.In November 1967‚ two teenagers stole Lee Harvey Oswald’s headstone from the cemetery. When it was recovered by authorities‚ it was returned to Oswald’s mother and stored in a crawlspace under her home‚ where it remained and changed ownership after Mrs. Oswald’s home was sold after her 1981 death and was finally sold to the Historic Auto Attractions Museum.Perhaps ending all of the sad‚ strange events around the final arrangements for Lee Harvey Oswald. Find that piece interesting? If so‚ join us for free by clicking here. Michael Thomas Leibrandt lives and works in Abington‚ PA.
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