Gordon Arnold Oral History

Object number1989.128.0001

Date06/05/1989

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Gordon Arnold

Oral history interviewer Conover Hunt

ObjectCassette, Standard

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

MediumPlastic, Magnetic tape

Dimensions45 Minutes

Terms

Collections

DescriptionAudio oral history interview with Gordon Arnold, a self-proclaimed eyewitness to the assassination whose story first appeared in 1978. Mr. Arnold claimed that he was standing on the grassy knoll and fell to the ground when a shot was fired from the fence behind him. He also claimed to have been confronted by two police officers who took the film from a movie camera he was holding. Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum on June 5, 1989 by Conover Hunt. The interview is forty-five minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

Arnold's story first came to public attention in 1978 when, based on a tip from local researcher Howard Upchurch, Dallas Morning News reporter Earl Golz wrote about him. In 1981, Fort Worth researcher Jack White noticed what looked like an unidentified person on the knoll in the shadows in a Polaroid photograph of the assassination taken by Mary Moorman. The person seemed to be in the same location where Arnold claimed to have been. Arnold told his controversial story on camera in the 1988 British TV documentary The Men Who Killed Kennedy. - Gary Mack, Curator

Curatorial Commentary

Gordon Arnold passed away on October 15, 1997. His widow and son, Mary and Les Arnold, participated in a joint videotaped oral history interview on January 13, 2006. They discussed Gordon Arnold's life and career and responded to criticisms of his controversial eyewitness account. Following this oral history, the Arnolds donated to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza related documents, correspondence, and the home movie camera that Mr. Arnold said he used on November 22, 1963. - Stephen Fagin, Curator