Video: Lubbock Has a Connection to the JFK Assassination Most People Don’t Know About
As we look back 55 years to the November 22nd, 1963 assassination of JFK in Dallas, Texas, I discovered a connection to Lubbock that most people probably don't know about.
Marlin G. Hall is the man in the glasses standing next to Lee Harvey Oswald, and his family from Lubbock told me his story.
I've had a dear friend from Lubbock since at least high school named Jenny Dollar, now Jenny Dollar Cox. Not too long ago, I saw her post about her "uncle" and something about the JFK assassination. What I found out was that Marlin G. "Guy" Hall was her mother's uncle. He's also one of the Dallas detectives that led Lee Harvey Oswald around immediately after the assassination.
Obviously, he had a lot more of a story to tell than many people have ever heard. Anytime you see video of a tall Dallas detective wearing glasses leading Lee Harvey Oswald around, that's Uncle Guy. So I asked Jenny to share her stories with me, and she got her mom, Alisa, to recall everything she could from her Uncle Guy.
This is that story, in her own words. This is her best recollection of events told to her from 55 years ago, and a side of one of America's biggest stories ever than very few people have ever heard, and how its connected to Lubbock.
"Marlin Guy Hall was a homicide detective in Dallas. In 1963 President Kennedy came to Texas at the behest of his VP Lyndon Johnson, a Texan, and the Governor John Connally. Connally knew that Texas Democrats were at odds at that moment in time and he thought he could raise money and reconcile them while getting ahead for re-election in 1964. (Alisa says this is fuzzy history since her uncle wasn't allowed to talk about those events for a very long time.)
First, Kennedy's people were told in advance the route he was taking and especially the location where he was eventually shot and killed, could not be guaranteed safety for the President if he rode in a convertible instead of the usual Presidential bubble top car. He chose to ride in the city convertible after all because he had won being a man of the people, and he would have Dallas Police along with Secret Service protection. And well, the rest of that story is history.
As far as Lee Harvey Oswald is concerned however, the story continues as does the story of Uncle Guy. Oswald was apprehended after gunning down another Dallas officer J.D. Tippitt. Guy and his partner at the time had Oswald for his first round of questioning and is prominently featured standing next to Oswald at the now infamous midnight press conference where Oswald denied shooting Kennedy. What Alisa remembers her uncle saying is that Oswald was a swarthy looking little guy who was very wily and they'd suspected him of being a double agent. He said he would not eat or drink anything unless one of the detectives ate or drank first, because he was making sure the police weren't trying to poison him. He was very intelligent. He didn't say anything the police didn't already know. When Guy and his partner were taking Oswald to the next set of interviews for questioning is when Jack Ruby shot him.
Jack Ruby was already known at the time. Alisa compares Ruby to the mafia nut those are her words, not Guy's.
When the police were finally allowed to talk about the events of that fateful day, Alisa recalls her uncle making tapes for every member of the family. On those tapes Guy states that he firmly believes that Oswald acted alone as did Jack Ruby because by this time all kinds of conspiracy theories were already starting to spread like wildfire. Everything from LBJ planned it to the Russians."
That is the majority of Alisa's memories of her Uncle Guy, and his recollection of one of the most infamous days in America. Jenny describes him as a gentle giant who "would shoot your head off if he had to". He also taught her to play a mean game of pool at an early age.
So now you know one of the few, if not only, stories that connect Lubbock to the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Thank you Jenny, Alisa, and, of course, Uncle Guy for sharing such an amazing story with us.