Wanting to share this JFK GeoTour of some iconic places in Dallas, Texas surrounding the JFK assassination almost 60 years ago. I hope you enjoy the tour.
#1) The Neely House - Oswald’s first Dallas residence
214 W Neely St, Dallas, TX 75208
Lee Harvey Oswald was given a need-based honorable discharge from the U.S. Marines in October 1959. To obtain this discharge, Oswald dishonestly told the Marines that his mother had become ill and needed his assistance. It was later changed to a “Section 8” discharge when he immediately defected to the Soviet Union and attempted to become a Soviet citizen.
In the Soviet Union, Oswald threatened to renounce his U.S. citizenship and obtain Soviet citizenship. Even with the promise of disclosing military secrets, which he was privy to as a radar operator with classified security clearance, the Soviets denied his request. The day before his visa was to expire requiring him to leave the country, he slashed his left wrist in his bathtub, just before his intourist escort came to take him to the airport to leave Russia. After hospitalization and psychiatric monitoring, he was given a job and allowed to stay longer in Russia.
Oswald met and married Marina, a Russian student at the time, and they soon had a daughter together. In June 1962, they approached the U.S. Embassy and borrowed more than $400 so that Oswald could return to the U.S. with his new family. Upon their return, the couple and their daughter settled into a home on Neely Street in Oak Cliff. It was in the back yard of this house where Marina made the famous photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald proudly displaying his new rifle and a handful of Cuban communist literature, with his handgun on his hip.
After just a few months at the Neely Street house, they moved around the corner to a 10-unit apartment complex at 604 Elsbeth Street. They lived in apartment #2 on Elsbeth from November 1962 until March 1963. This apartment complex was recently torn down.
Here is a picture that I took of the house that still stands with the infamous picture of Oswald taken in the back.