Image of bystanders in Dealey Plaza shortly after the assassination

Leaving his family at the corner of Main and Houston Streets, Jay Skaggs cut across the parade route on Houston Street, dodging cars to take photographs in the immediate aftermath of the assassination.  Amidst the confusion, he took a series of pictures of bystanders reacting to the shooting. 

Erma Skaggs recalled that she was standing with her daughter and her daughter's friend when, without a word, her husband suddenly abandoned them.  In a 2002 oral history, she remarked to her husband, "I said, 'That was a shot, wasn't it?'  And you took off, and Virginia Ann and her friend ran after you with me yelling at them to come back....  I'm sure they crossed the street, but they lost you because they came back." - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Some eyewitnesses thought at least one of the shots came from the fence atop what is now known as the "grassy knoll" and they advised police to search there.  They did, and some of the bystanders followed the officers behind the fence into the railroad yards.  Police found no one there, although there were some cigarette butts and footprints on the wet ground. - Gary Mack, Curator

The "Babushka Lady" is a term given by researchers to an unidentified woman who witnessed the assassination, so-called because of the scarf on her head.  She can be seen in the Zapruder film of the assassination standing on the grass near the south curb of Elm Street; the woman was close to the presidential limousine when the fatal shot was fired. She seems to have a camera to her face, but no such picture has been made public and her identity has never been confirmed by investigators. - Gary Mack, Curator