Image of Dallas Police detectives outside of the Texas School Book Depository

The paper bag in the officer's hand was found to contain chicken bones.  Along with a package of Viceroy cigarettes and a Dr. Pepper bottle, the bag was found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository near where investigators found the sniper’s perch and three spent rifle shells.  Early news reports suggested the assassin ate lunch there while waiting for Kennedy to arrive.  Once Oswald was arrested, Dallas Police received suggestions from the public to pump his stomach to see if he had recently eaten chicken.  But investigators soon learned that the lunch had belonged to Texas School Book Depository employee Bonnie Ray Williams, who left the area around 12:15 pm and joined two coworkers on the fifth floor to watch the president's motorcade. - Gary Mack, Curator

Dr. Darwin Payne was a reporter at the Dallas Times Herald in 1963. Shortly after the assassination, he interviewed Abraham Zapruder and visited the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository and Oswald's rooming house in Oak Cliff. A prominent Dallas historian and author, Payne is professor emeritus of communications at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

As a longtime friend of the Museum, he recorded several oral history interviews and programs. His interview from July 2012 may be viewed on the Museum’s online collection database here: Dr. Darwin Payne Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

Other objects in the Museum's Collection related to Dr. Payne may be found here: Thesaurus – Vocabularies – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. - Riley Harris, Collections Cataloger

This object is featured in the Museum's special exhibit, "On Assignment: Dallas Times Herald 1963," which opened on April 29, 2026.