Just thought I'd offer a few comments about your article. The Museum has changed significantly since your visit six years ago, so I would ask you to come through again. My thoughts are in bold:

Best regards,

Gary Mack
Archivist
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Note: The following is slightly adapted excerpt from a longer piece entitled "A Trip to Dallas," which describes the author's first visit to that city in 1993.

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Impressions:
The Sixth Floor Museum, circa 1993
by John Kelin

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For someone who has no doubt there was a conspiracy to murder JFK, there is a lot to dislike about The Sixth Floor museum, where I went the day after the bus tour.

The Museum does not take a position one way or the other on what happened. Nor does the Museum investigate the case. Our work is to preserve the site, relevant documents and artifacts, and make everything accessible.

For starters, there is the fact that such a place is housed in the Book Depository, the cradle of the great lie.

Isn't this the most appropriate place for a museum? The Depository name ended when they moved out, nearly 30 years ago. It has been the Dallas County Administration Building since 1981.

There is also the fact it is listed in the Dallas section of the AAA Tour Book for Texas, under the heading "What To See."

Where should it be listed, or would you not want it listed at all? This is, after all, the place where most visitors want to go when they visit Dallas and north Texas.

This gives The Sixth Floor the stamp of officialdom; the tour book states casually that it is "the site from which the shots that killed President Kennedy ... were fired."

That is the conclusion of the two major investigations into the crime. It does not preclude other shooters or a conspiracy.

The once-cavernous sixth floor is now partitioned, and crammed with exhibits recreating the Kennedy Administration years, as well as the assassination.

Films and photographs show the entire floor was filled with boxes in 1963, so in that sense, it is just as narrow and crowded today as it was then. There are more artifacts on exhibit than during your visit in 1993, featuring many of the original cameras, including Zapruder's. We also exhibit the Trade Mart place setting that Kennedy never reached.

Like rats in a maze,

Exactly, similar to what that floor was like on November 22, 1963.

visitors move from exhibit to exhibit, getting the official story.

What they get, in as simple terms as possible, is the story history has recorded, not any single person's personal theory. If there are any factual errors, please let me know what they are so we can make corrections (several minor changes were made when I arrived in 1994.)

Many carry Walkman-style tape players, rented for an extra two bucks, which provide a canned narration of events.

What is "canned" narration? The additional information gives visitors more than what the exhibits can include and, for foreigners who cannot read English, information about what they are seeing and hearing.

It is difficult to view The Sixth Floor as anything other than a monument to the Warren Commission.

The Museum does not endorse any findings or theories. We recount and explain them by putting them in the proper context, like all professional historical institutions do.

The few references that are made to the idea of conspiracy --- and admittedly, there are several --- amount to little more than lip service to the notion; the scales remain heavily weighted against Lee Harvey Oswald.

The significant conspiracy theories addressed by the two major investigations are represented. If the "scales" are tipped, it would be due to the evidence collected , and findings reached by, those investigators.

There are no museum officials on hand to answer questions at The Sixth Floor.

Our security people are on duty throughout the Museum every day and can answer general questions; however, subject matter questions are referred to me. I was not on staff in 1993. I'm sure you would prefer to have questions answered by someone who has studied the subject extensively.

Visitors are not allowed to take photographs. Virtually nothing remains as it was on November 22 1963;

The building has gone through four ownership changes since November 22, 1963. It was essentially vacant from 1970 until 1981. When a potential buyer tried to gain control and have the building torn down, mayor Wes Wise froze all demolition permits to prevent it. Eventually, Dallas County bought the building to preserve it. The bond money used to do that has been repaid from visitor and access fees.

even the so-called "sniper's nest" in the building's southeast corner window has been reconstructed.

Of course. The TSBD company got rid of all the boxes when they moved out in 1970. The new floor was installed by then and we've taken that out in the SN area. People did get access to the window over the years and chipped out several inches of bricks along the side, which we have since repaired and restored. The original overhead lights are still in place and as much of the "feel" of the room has been retained, consistent with reasonable traffic flow through and around the exhibit areas.

Security is strangely tight at this museum, like security at an airport. All bags are either checked at the door or run through an X-ray machine. Visitors must step through a metal detector before entering.

We've never had a significant security problem, and we attribute that to our being careful.

It is the sort of security one would associate with a live president --- not a museum for a dead one.

This is not a Kennedy museum - that's why his name is not part of our name.

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