Tom Turner Oral History

Object number2007.001.0065

Date07/18/2007

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Tom Turner

Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file)

DimensionsDuration: 53 Minutes

Terms

Collections

DescriptionOral History with Tom Turner. Turner's wife was employed at the Old Red Courthouse in 1963, and as a result, he was able to watch the presidential motorcade from the courthouse's second-floor balcony overlooking Main Street. Turner heard shots fired in Dealey Plaza and observed part of the assassination. In the aftermath, he walked to the plaza to speak with eyewitnesses. Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on July 18, 2007 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is fifty-three minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

I met Tom Turner in June 2007 when he and his grandson visited the Museum for the first time. Tom was more than willing to share his memories of the assassination, and we recorded this interview less than a month later. The next day, Tom sent me an e-mail indicating that he "omitted...a very important observation regarding the assassination." Tom wrote: "Prior to leaving the balcony where I was standing, I saw two policemen take down a guy on top of the triple overpass. I have wondered about this for all these years and though hundreds witnessed the assassination, few would have had a sufficient vantage point to have observed the top of the overpass." Tom expressed an interest in sharing this recollection on camera, so we recorded a follow-up interview on August 3, 2007.

Mr. Turner passed away on August 1, 2014. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator