Color slide transparency of Dealey Plaza eyewitnesses - Towner 4
Object number2015.009.0005
Date11/22/1963
ClassificationsPhotographs
Photographer
Jim Towner
ObjectTransparency (color)
Credit LineTowner Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumFilm
Dimensions1 15/16 × 1 15/16 in. (4.9 × 4.9 cm)
DescriptionOne color slide transparency taken by Jim Towner on Friday, November 22, 1963, within minutes of the assassination, showing a group of people crowded around assassination eyewitness Charles Brehm. This image, known as Towner 4, is the last of four pictures Towner took in Dealey Plaza that day. The image is a close-up of a crowd - none of whom have been identified - gathered on the north side of Elm Street in Dealey Plaza as Brehm described what he had just witnessed. The top of the triple underpass is in the background. Part of the "Fort Worth/Turnpike Keep Right" sign can be seen in the upper right corner.
This image was taken with a Yashica 44-LM twin-lens still camera (2015.009.0001), and is on 35mm 127 format Kodak film. The original cardboard slide mount has been removed, revealing the full image and a black border. The top and bottom edges are unevenly cut.
Curatorial CommentaryYears later, Jim Towner told me that Brehm was crying almost uncontrollably as he spoke and that's what drew his attention. Brehm was standing with his five-year-old son, Joe, on the south side of Elm Street only a few feet from the Kennedy limousine when the fatal shot was fired.
Brehm was soon taken to the nearby Sheriff's office where he was interviewed on sound film shown on NBC later that day. In later interviews Brehm maintained the shots came from one of the two buildings at the Elm-Houston intersection (the Book Depository and the Dal-Tex). - Gary Mack, Curator
