As you can imagine, not too many cemeteries were jumping at the chance to house the alleged assassin. But what is now Rose Hill Cemetery is the place you can visit the "lone gunman". Don't bother asking the front office for the location because they will not give it out. Luckily, the grave site is easily found due to a unique mausoleum located in front of his gravesite.
Famed photo of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald as he was being led through the DPD basement
On November 24, 1963 , as Oswald was being led through the Dallas Police Headquarters basement, Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner with ties to the mob walked up to him with a pistol and shot Oswald in the abdomen. He was rushed to Parkland Hospital where he died a few hours later. Jack Ruby's supposed motivation for the assassination was " to save Ms. Kennedy the discomfort of coming back to trial". Of coarse there is no individual more famous in conspiracy than Oswald and the JFK assassination.
Oswald being transported off to Parkland Hospital
It has been reported by those assigned to cover the Oswald funeral that there were so few people in attendance, the same members of the press were asked by officials to act as pallbearers. Oswald was buried on November 25th, 1963.
Newspapermen and members of the press asked to be pallbearers at Oswald's funeral
Oswald's grave is located at the Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park in Fort Worth, Texas. If you enter through the main front entrance you will want to take the left path into the park and follow it until you come across a mausoleum on a round foundation. The front of the mausoleum will have Shannon inscribed above the front doors. This is the only mausoleum in the park with a round foundation. If you happen to take another path around the park, you will eventually loop around to this mausoleum from behind. The back of the structure features a mosaic tile cross in the center.
Front of Mausoleum near grave
rear of mausoleum
The photo below shows the exact view you should see when standing near the grave. Oswald's is the one directly to the right of the flowers. You should see the Mausoleum on the round foundation on the left and the large shade tree to the right. e.
Oswald's marker is burgundy and is only inscribed with his last name. The original marker had his full name, birth date, and date of death but was stolen on the 4 year mark of JFK's death. It was recovered and Oswald's mother kept the stone at her house until her death and her house was sold off with the original grave stone hidden in the crawl space. The stone has gone through several legal battles over ownership and is currently in the possession of the Card family. The purchasers of the Ms. Oswald's home in the 1980's.
Oswald's grave marker today
Original Grave marker that was stolen
Another strange twist of events occurred on October 4th, 1981, Michael Eddowes claimed a conspiracy that the body that was buried at the Oswald grave site was not Lee Harvey Oswald but a Russian look-a-like agent. Eddowes claimed that Oswald never returned from Russia, but instead a Soviet imposter came back to the U.S. to assassinate President Kennedy. Eddowes successfully argued for the Texas courts to exhume Oswald's body for testing. The body was proven to be Oswald.
Oswald's body being exhumed for testing
Another event happened years later after Oswald's body was exhumed. He was not reburied in the original pine box since it was too water damaged, but a new coffin was buried along with Oswald. Oswald's family assumed the original coffin was thrown away, but that turned out not to be the case. The funeral home had stored the original coffin, death certificate, and embalming tools in a storage unit to sell off at auction at a later date. When Lee Harvey's brother Robert Oswald found out about this he sued the funeral home and won.
A interesting side stop after leaving the cemetery is a bar located just down the main road. The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge, it's named after Oswald's nickname in the army.
Dive bar named after Oswald
