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Friday, November 27, 2009

Only in Texas: Help save the room where Lee Harvey Oswald boarded


The granddaughter of the woman who owned the house where Lee Harvey Oswald boarded says the murderer's old room is in ill repair. Help Patricia Puckett Hall make the necessary repairs to the room -- take a tour of the Dallas home, and leave a donation.


Dallas Star-Telegram reports:
The 1930s-era home, two miles from Dealey Plaza, is showing signs of age.

Its red shingled roof leaks. The ceiling is peeling in places. The structure needs foundation work.

Even though two rent-paying tenants live in her basement, Hall says she doesn’t have money to make repairs. So she’s doing what neither her grandmother ("she was very embarrassed that Oswald lived here") nor Hall’s mother, Fay Puckett, who later lived in the home, would do.

At the urging of Ken Holmes Jr., a Dallas historian and historical tour guide, Hall agreed to permit the public into her home to view a room which will forever be linked with one of the most infamous crimes in history.

A donation box rests inside the front door of the dated living room.

The sign reads:

"Help Restore the Lee Harvey Oswald Room and Beckley Rooming House."
Wait ... it gets better:
Hall hopes to use donations to restore the room to appear as it did Nov. 22, 1963.

The bed and other original furnishings, she said, are stored at an undisclosed location.

Hall said that on that historic date 46 year ago, either the FBI or Dallas police searched Oswald’s belongings and left with the bedsheets, which upset her grandmother. Johnson, she said, had as many as 16 roomers living under her roof.

"She wanted those sheets," Hall said, "not because who slept on them. She was very pragmatic. She could have used them."

This month the gray fedora that strip club owner Jack Ruby wore when he fatally shot Oswald sold at a Dallas auction for $45,000.

What might Oswald’s bedsheets be worth?

"I dunno," Hall said. "But somebody has ’em somewhere."

With a laugh she made a public plea.

"If you have ’em, I’d like ’em back!"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll donate a bag of Scotts Turf Builder for the grassy knoll.

Dave Stevens said...

Screw the bed sheets... What about the curtain rods he brought to work with him that day.