Bill R. Cannon Oral History

Object number2003.001.0003

Date01/10/2003

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Bill R. Cannon

Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin

ObjectOral history

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

MediumHi-8 videotape

DimensionsDuration: 37 Minutes

Terms

Collections

Oral History Collection

DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Bill Cannon. As a Dallas County deputy sheriff from 1954 to 1956, Cannon was acquainted with Jack Ruby. He later visited Ruby in jail in 1965 and made detailed notes of the experience. Cannon was in Houston, Texas at the time of the Kennedy assassination. After retiring, he wrote a series of books on Texas history and trivia. Interview conducted at Christian Care Center in Mesquite, Texas on January 10, 2003 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is thirty-seven minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

Donated at the time of this oral history, the Museum's Bill R. Cannon Collection (2003.003) includes two sets of documents, dated June 21, 1965, that detail his immediate impressions after interviewing Jack Ruby at the Dallas County Jail. Cannon also donated the room service menu that he retreived from the presidential suite at the Rice Hotel in Houston on Friday, November 22, 1963. Eleven years after this initial oral history, Bill Cannon recorded a more detailed interview with the Museum on August 29, 2014. That recording may be accessed here: Bill Cannon Oral History – Works – Oral History Collection – Collections – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Curatorial Commentary

Bill Ray Cannon passed away on January 12, 2021, at the age of 90. The Museum's Library Collection includes two of his books, A Treasury of Texas Trivia (1997) and A Treasury of Texas Trivia II (2000). Both may be found here: Bibliovation | Catalog Search Results. - Stephen Fagin, Curator