Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

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October 4, 2022
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Kennedy’s death floods city in confusion

“Kennedy was coming to Austin, and he was going to speak. I’ve forgotten the details of that aspect of it, but we were all set to cover his appearance in Austin.”

“Jim Seymour, who was a superb photographer for the Texan, and Richard Cole and I got a little plane at the Austin Airport and flew to Dallas … And, of course, Dallas was in total turmoil and chaos. It was just such an occurrence. We went to the School Book Depository, and security was so lax, Seymour took pictures of the part of the Book Depository where they thought Oswald had sat with his rifle and where he had put it on the windowsill. Richard Cole and I … flagged down a motorist and asked them if they would take us to the police station… We were in the police station most of the night. … Everybody, all the press, was looking for everything. I remember Tom Wicker of the New York Times was there, and it was just total confusion and chaos.”

“[Our adviser] encouraged us to rent the plane. We never would have been able to cover this if we hadn’t taken the initiative and got going. We would’ve been left behind because we were a student newspaper, but we didn’t let that stop us.”


“The noise in the police station, it was just unbelievable, and there was difficulty in hearing and people were trying to get what I was saying at the other end. There was no computer to just press ‘send.’ We had to see each other to stay in touch, or we had to be on the telephone.”

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Kennedy’s death floods city in confusion