Image of the Texas School Book Depository building

J. Waymon Rose (1922-2020) was selected as Juror No. 10 in the 1964 Jack Ruby trial. In 2002, Waymon and his wife, Ann, donated a remarkable collection of trial-related materials, including their personal diaries, three oversized scrapbooks, more than 150 letters and newspaper clippings and several amateur photographs such as this one.

When Waymon Rose passed away in 2020 at the age of 98, the Museum lost a treasured friend. In addition to two oral history interviews, Waymon joined us to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Jack Ruby trial in 2004 as part of a special panel discussion. He holds the distinction of being the very first guest speaker in the Museum's popular "Living History" public and educational program series, and he went on to participate in five more programs between 2009 and 2014. Two of these programs, recorded in 2013 and 2014, may be viewed in full on the Museum's YouTube channel. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

This photograph showing the Texas School Book Depository building was likely taken on Saturday, November 23, 1963. Note that the southeast corner "sniper's perch" window on the sixth floor remains partially open, just as it was found by investigators following the assassination. Unlike Waymon Rose's subsequent image (2002.052.0174), this particular photograph appears to show two figures wearing white shirts visible in the southeast corner of the sixth floor. These are likely investigators, although members of the news media as well as some Depository employees and regional representatives of the education publishers who had offices in the building also had access to this crime scene during the weekend of the assassination. Several of the brown cardboard schoolbook boxes often seen in black-and-white Dallas Police Department crime scene photographs can be seen through the sixth floor windows. - Stephen Fagin, Curator