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Typed draft of a newspaper article about Bob Jackson's eyewitness account
Typed draft of a newspaper article about Bob Jackson's eyewitness account

Typed draft of a newspaper article about Bob Jackson's eyewitness account

Object number1996.003.0106
Date11/22/1963
ClassificationsDocuments
Author
Creator
ObjectDocument
Credit LineJohn Schoellkopf Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumPaper
Dimensions11 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (29.8 x 21.6 cm)
Collections
  • "On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963"
  • All Online Objects
DescriptionTwo-page typed in black on tan copy paper draft of an article of Dallas Times Herald staff photographer Bob Jackson's eyewitness account of the sniper's perch from the motorcade on November 22, 1963. The draft was typed by an editor in the Dallas Times Herald newsroom quoting Jackson's accounts, followed by a typed summary. The notes describe Jackson's position in the motorcade, his recollection of three shots being fired, and witness to a rifle receding into a window of the Texas School Book Depository Building. The full text reads: "Pi Replace Jackson HTK" written at top of page "Editor's note: This is an eyewitness account of the assassination of the President by a Dallas Times Herald photographer riding in a car close behind the presidential car Friday. By Bob Jackson Times Herald Staff Photographer "There were five of us in the car. When we heard the first shot, the President had already turned the corner. WE had not made the corner yet. Then we heard two more shots. "As far as I know, three shots were all I heard. I just instinctively looked that way. First, somebody joked about it being a firecracker. "Then, since I was facing the building where the shots were coming from, I just glanced up and saw two colored men in a window straining to look at a window up above them. "As I looked up to the window above, I saw a rifle being pulled back in the window. It might have been resting on the window sill. I didn't see a man. I didn't even see if it had a scope on it. MORE" Text of second page (in full): "insert Photographer Bob J- -mes Herald heard one shot and then two rapid bursts. From his vantage point in an open convertible, the eighth car in the procession, Jackson saw two men peering from the building window. They were looking directly above their heads. Jackson saw a rifle being drawn back into a sixth floor window. It disappeared quickly and he saw no more. The stock appeared to be a dark brown, Jackson said."
Curatorial Commentary
This object is featured in the Museum's special exhibit, "On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963," which opened on April 29, 2026.
The Museum's John Schoellkopf Collection includes a number of typed notes and draft stories from November 22, 1963, as well as newspaper proofs, a pencil mock-up of the intended front page and other Dallas Times Herald documents related to the weekend of the Kennedy assassination. John L. Schoellkopf (1938-2018) had a remarkable career at the Dallas Times Herald, starting out as an intern while attending Southern Methodist University in 1957. By the time he left journalism in 1970 for a career in business, farming and politics, he had risen to become the Dallas Times Herald vice president of administration. At the time of the Kennedy assassination in 1963, he was the paper's assistant city editor. Schoellkopf later ran for Dallas mayor and served on the board of a number of organizations including the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Theater Center and the Texas State Historical Association. Schoellkopf recorded an oral history with The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on June 11, 1996. - Stephen Fagin, Curator 
Bob Jackson was a staff photographer at the Dallas Times Herald in 1963. He covered the presidential party’s arrival at Dallas Love Field and, while riding in a motorcade press car, spotted a rifle in a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository. He was also at Parkland Memorial Hospital and Dallas police headquarters that day. On Sunday, November 24, 1963, Jackson captured an iconic photograph of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of Dallas police headquarters. His image won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in News Photography. Jackson later covered the 1964 Jack Ruby trial in Dallas. In 2025, Jackson donated to The Sixth Floor Museum more than 20,000 images from his Dallas photojournalism in the 1960s and 1970s.

As a longtime friend of the Museum, he recorded several oral history interviews and programs. His interview from March 2025 may be viewed on the Museum’s online collection database here: Bob Jackson Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

Other objects related to Bob Jackson, including several of his photographs, may be found here: Thesaurus – Vocabularies – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - Riley Harris, Collections Cataloger