Fred Anklam Jr. Oral History

For the team developing The Sixth Floor exhibit, the 1984 Republican National Convention was seen as a major opportunity to generate national interest in and spur fundraising for the project. The convention was held at the Dallas Convention Center just a few blocks from Dealey Plaza, and a Kennedy assassination bus tour was one of the local activities promoted for convention delegates and members of the news media (though it was outsold five to one by a tour of Southfork Ranch where the then-popular television series Dallas was partially filmed).

Unfortunately, the Texas School Book Depository made national news during the Republican National Convention for all the wrong reasons. On the morning of the last day of the convention, an arson attempt on the building brought one hundred firefighters from twenty-three companies to battle the five-alarm blaze. While the building thankfully survived, damage to the basement and the first two floors caused approximately $250,000 worth of damage (nearly $3 million, adjusted for inflation in 2025). Perhaps more significantly, the Texas School Book Depository once again proved to be a source of embarrassment for a city only twenty years removed from the tragedy of 1963. News stories about the arson attempt ran nationwide, with The Washington Post noting that "it was as if fate, or something, conspired in the end to keep Dallas from escaping its long association with Kennedy's murder." - Stephen Fagin, Curator