The Continuing Saga Of Lee Harvey Oswald & Nick Beef In Fort Worth's Shannon Rose Hill Cemetery

At some point in time, early in this century, I learned that the final resting place of the assassin of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, was in my neighborhood, in a place called Shannon Rose Hill Cemetery.

Soon after learning about my new neighbor I paid a visit. During that visit I noticed that next to Lee Harvey Oswald's headstone there was a headstone for someone named Nick Beef.

The Nick Beef headstone, just like Oswald's, has no details, no birth date, no death date, nothing but the name.

After my visit I webpaged Oswald's Gravesite on my Eyes on Texas website.

Soon after I webpaged Oswald's Gravesite I received info regarding Nick Beef and added that info.

Then yesterday I heard from Ed, via email and a blog comment, with the email's subject line being "The real 'Nick Beef' story."

Ed's real Nick Beef story was an article from August 9, 2013, in the New York Times, titled Mystery From the Grave Beside Oswald’s, Solved which elaborated on the explanation I already had regarding the Nick Beef headstone.

With the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination I am noticing an uptick in visits to my 3 webpages that deal with that subject, those being the Dealey Plaza page, the JFK Anniversary page and the Oswald's Gravesite page.

I am also noticing an uptick in visits to a blog post related to the JFK 50th subject titled You Need A Criminal Background Check To Get A Ticket To Dealey Plaza For The 50th JFK Assassination Event In Dallas.

I can not help but wonder how many people, so far, have subjected themselves to a criminal background check to get themselves a ticket allowing them to be at Dealey Plaza this coming November 22.

I am guessing the crowd in Dealey Plaza this coming November 22, will be quite a bit smaller than the throng that crowded into that location on November 22, 2003. At that point in time, just over 2 years after the 9/11 attacks, no criminal background check was needed, or a ticket, to be there that day.

I long for the simpler times of yesteryear.....

49 Years Plus One Day After The JFK Assassination The Nick Beef Mystery Continues To Mystify

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, November 22, was the 49th  Anniversary of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The assassin who murdered JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, is buried about a mile from my abode.

Way back early in this century, prior to attending the 40th Anniversary at Dealey Plaza I had visited the Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park and found Oswald's grave.

I made an entry about the Oswald gravesite on my Eyes on Texas website, a webpage titled Lee Harvey Oswald Gravesite.

For years search engines have had me be the world's go to boy for info about finding Oswald's gravesite.

Decades ago had you told me that in the next century I would be directing people to the location of the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald, my feeble imagination would not have been able to conjure a scenario where that would make sense.

Next to Oswald's headstone there is one for a non-existent person named Nick Beef. Nick Beef has confused people for years.

Yesterday I got email feedback from Rick Saunders regarding Nick Beef. This is what Rick had to say about Nick....

The story I have always heard regarding Nick Beef is that Oswald's grave stone had been stolen or vandalized several times. Finally they just didn't replace the stone. Two reporters split the cost and bought the grave next to Oswald's and put the marker there. There is actually no one buried there. It is simply a landmark for Oswald's grave.

I don't know how Rick missed the explanation about Nick that is on my website....

JFK Researcher Barb Junkkarinen offers the following explanation that first appeared in a newsgroup post:

"According to the folks in the black suits at the cemetery office, Nick Beef is the stage name of a comedian who bought the plot and had a headstone with that name installed. In his act, he apparently tells people that if they want to find Oswald's grave (which info the cemetery office will not give out)...just ask for Nick Beef instead and you will find Oswald. Only thing is...now they won't tell people where Nick Beef's grave is either! Once the cemetery folks realized a group of us (Arthur and Margaret Snyder, Bill Hamley, and myself) who were out there already knew where Oswald's grave was and were just curious about Nick Beef, they told us the story. Of additional note...Marguerite (Oswald's mother) is buried on the other side of Oswald.... sans headstone."

Saloon Hopping With Elsie Hotpepper To The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge With Her 12-Gauge Shotgun

More often than not, when I agree to go saloon hopping with Elsie Hotpepper, the saloon hopping starts off in Fort Worth's Handley neighborhood at the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge.

Sometimes the saloon hopping hops no further than the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge.

The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is a Lee Harvey Oswald themed bar. Ozzie Rabbit was Lee Harvey's nickname when he was in the marines, before he moved to the Soviet Union to become a communist.

I did not know it til I read it in the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge's ad in this week's FW Weekly that the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge has given away more 12-gauge shotguns than ANY bar in Tarrant County.

Is this how Elsie Hotpepper came to have that new shotgun she's been proudly packing lately?

How many 12-gauge shotguns has the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge given away to have it in the #1 spot for Tarrant County, I can't help but wonder?

The New Year's Eve Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man

You are looking at the long skinny shadow of the ever more skinny shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man, today around noon.

I thought we were scheduled for clouds and rain today. Apparently I thought wrong.

The Tandy Hills were still being a bit tacky, mud-wise, so I cut the hiking a little short. I was not liking mud sticking to my shoes. That and my right foot pain was paining me. It is getting better though.

Earlier today I blogged about the BIG Box I got from my mom and dad this morning. It was full of oranges.

That blogging rose Nick Beef from the dead to make a comment.

Nick Beef is the headstone next to Lee Harvey Oswald in Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park in my neighborhood of east Fort Worth.

I do not believe Nick Beef is actually buried next to Lee Harvey. I believe Nick Beef bought the plot as some sort of publicity stunt.

And now, on the day before 2011, Nick Beef is still doing the publicity stunt thing, commenting on my blog. I'm sure this will get Nick unprecedented publicity.

After I was done getting stuck in the Tandy Hills mud I headed to Town Talk. Not knowing if it was open. It was.

Even though I'd just gotten a shipment of citrus from Arizona, from my mom and dad, I got myself a big bag of Cuties for only a buck. Among other things.

I think MLK or MBK or both, may be right. My unfortunate weight gain might be traceable to Town Talk. I know having Town Talk in my life has amped up my access to a lot of different cheeses. And chips. Something I don't usually buy.

But.

For example, today, for 50 cents, Town Talk had All Natural Cheddar Tortilla Chips made with Cheddar Cheese, Quinoa, Soy, Flax, Sunflower, Sesame Seeds, Oat Fiber and Brown Rice. Made by some chip maker called Food Should Taste Good.

And I am sure it will. And be good for me. And not make me fat.

I will likely take a bag or two to my New Year's Eve Party. Due to start soon. See you there.

An 8.0 Earthquake Causing A Tsunami In Downtown Fort Worth With Lee Harvey Oswald's Mother Marguerite

Blog comments may be my favorite part of the blogging experience. Sometimes the comments can be informative, sometimes they can be funny, sometimes they can be inflammatory, sometimes they can just be downright stupid.

This morning's blog comments had a pair of good ones. Are they informative? Maybe. Funny? Sort of. Inflammatory? No. I don't think so, well, maybe.

The first of the 2 comments, that I'm talking about, came from Pat from Fort Worth, commenting on a blogging titled It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World In Fort Worth Texas.

Pat from Fort Worth is concerned about the upcoming 8.0 Earthquake that will wreak havoc in downtown Fort Worth and possibly cause a tsunami coming from the little lake that is part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Below is Pat's comment....

I believe the Texas earthquake forecast by Dr. Owour from Kenya is in downtown Ft.Worth, through the hospital district. I've been telling the City Council over 14 yrs. My council person Wendy Davis who crookedly obtained Sen. Kim Brimer's job, said "Whatever."

I identified with this article because they just bulldozed my 1928 brick house and cottage illegally because lawyers will not take on Ft.Worth. I felt if I'd resisted arrest to get me out, the earthquake would have come while I was in jail (if they did not "Waco" me) and I have not warned enough people. No house is worth an 8.0 earthquake at 1 a.m. after the mayor convinced people to move into downtown! . Warren Buffett, fraud that he is, is buying up Ft.Worth, and lately the BNSF railroad with passenger TCU Station one block behind my house. I guess the city feels they got FREE Development Property and made me pay to bulldoze it! They have big shopping center plans for this neighborhood and make sure developers know that most people here earn less than $30,000 a year! The earthquake is coming over greed of prosperity ministry brings BUT GOD has a soft spot for the poor.

The Trinity River Uptown will bring HEAVY WATER into the town area which an earthquake would spread all over and be a downtown tsunami.

When the Tarrant Count Justice Center was finished it begam to shake until desk drawers opened, evoking an engineer's study. Maybe a message from God or already shaky ground? Now, in June, Chesapeake will drill where I saw the earthquake. I surely would like to spiritualize this but I can't. God have mercy.
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And then I heard from Alex Hidell in response to yesterday's blogging titled A Gray Drippy Sunday In Texas Swimming In The Rain. That blogging blogged about the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge and Lee Harvey Oswald's Gravesite, which prompted Alex to share his Lee Harvey Oswald memories...

There is a bar in Dallas called Lee Harvey's.

I saw the JFK motorcade.

A friend and I went looking for Oswald's grave one night on our bicycles. He lived in Handley and I was visiting. We were scared off by a night watchman or caretaker.

I saw Oswald's mother once at a Safeway on Camp Bowie Blvd. She was yelling at the butcher. My dad and I heard her yelling as we walked in the door and he said to me I bet that is old lady Oswald.
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I can see where pedaling bikes, after dark, into Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park, where Lee Harvey Oswald is currently underground, would be a bit on the spooky side. If you read any of the many books about Lee Harvey Oswald's strange life, you get to meet his mother, Marguerite, in detail. She was a real piece of work. She is currently sharing space, nearby, underground, with her son, Lee, at Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park.

Looking At Ads While Drinking Heavily & Stripping

A few days ago I think I mentioned I wised up regarding my search for the world's biggest of one specific subject.

This morning I was looking through this week's Fort Worth Weekly and saw an ad for the Mule Pub. In the ad there is a person who might have been a candidate for my search, if I were still searching.

The caption under the potential biggest candidate says, "Screw working out...drink instead!"

I know that has always been my philosophy. Lately I've been pretty much drinking all day long.

You have to in this heat. Since we've hit the 100 zone I've been taking 3 bottles of water with me when I go take a hike. All day long I'm wandering into the kitchen to get yet one more glass of water with ice cubes floating in it. It's not quite as bad as being in Death Valley when it's 124 where you pretty much have to be constantly sucking on liquid, but it's close to that. I think I'd be shocked if I figured out how many gallons I drink a day.

It's supposed to be around 100 by noon, so I'm thinking since it Saturday and I'm a creature of repetitive habit, I'll likely go do some heavy duty sweating and drinking on the Tandy Hills today. Due to issues previously discussed, I no longer make mention of my hiking attire.

Speaking of water, we've got a lot of Watering Holes here in my zone of Texas. Right in my neighborhood there is the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge. Ozzie Rabbit was Lee Harvey Oswald's nickname. Lee Harvey is buried near the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge. Apparently the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is the east side's hippest watering hole.

The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex also has a lot of restaurants, so many that they add up to being the world's highest number of restaurants per capita. Why is such information always stated as "per capita" I typed and wondered? I believe "capita" means head. Maybe it's Latin.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex we are also very proud of having the world's highest number per capita of women working in the stripping industry. Over 4,000 are gainfully employed doing that hard job. There are a lot of strip clubs here. In Washington there were very few such establishments, and none as elaborate and big as those here.

In FW Weekly the listings for strip joints is coyly under the heading "Cabaret." The Fort Worth Gentleman's Club was this year's FW Weekly critic's choice as Best Strip Club 2008. You have to wear proper dress to enter this club. I have no idea what proper dress in Texas might be. The Gentleman's Club has a real good seafood buffet on Wednesdays. Not that I will admit to knowing this from personal experience.

Rick's Cabaret was FW Weekly's reader's choice for Best Strip Club and FW Weekly's critic's choice for Best Exotic Dancer (China) and Best Place to Nurse a Hangover in 2008.

Both Illusions and Main Stage make reference to sleeves being required, with Illusions insisting that sleeves are required after 6 p.m. Does this mean long sleeves? Is it tank tops they are trying to ban?

The Texas Cabaret gives us a better idea of what proper attire must be with their rule of "No cut-off shirts or cut-off pants." So, I'm thinking if you wear a nice pair of cargo pants shorts and a shirt you'll be properly attired. To play it totally safe I suppose one would wear regular pants, as in slacks, not jeans, and a long-sleeved shirt, buttoned to the max. I wonder if I still own such things? And why are they so picky about what men wear while the women have very little or nothing on? That's perplexing.

Lee Harvey Oswald Is My Neighbor

This coming November it will be 46 years since Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby. The JFK Assassination remains controversial with way too many unanswered questions. Or things that don't make sense.

I have mentioned before that had you told me 15 years ago that in 2009 I would be living within walking distance of the gravesite of Lee Harvey Oswald I would not have been able to imagine a scenario where that would make sense.

But, here I am.

Last week I finished a book titled Oswald Talked by Ray and Mary La Fontaine. It was a rather difficult read, hard to follow the minute details at times. This was no conspiracy nutjob book, it was more of a looking back at investigations and conclusions and running them through the filter of new information released in the 1990s.

Reading this book, now that I'm living in Fort Worth, I recognize the places mentioned, like Ridglea West Elementary or Arlington Heights High School or Montgomery Ward.

When Oswald made it back to America after trying out the Soviet Union and finding it not to his liking, he returned to Fort Worth, with his Russian wife, Marina. They moved to a little house near Montgomery Ward, just west of downtown Fort Worth, near what Fort Worth calls "The Cultural District." I believe that house was destroyed in the 2000 Fort Worth tornado.

One of the key characters in the Oswald saga, one who later contradicted the "official" FBI version of the assassination and Lee Harvey Oswald, was this well-off Russian emigre' named George DeMorenschildt. Years later George DeMorenschildt committed suicide, but not before writing down his opinion about Oswald. George DeMorenschildt felt guilty about betraying Oswald by sort of throwing him under the bus to the Warren Commission. So he wrote "I am a Patsy."

There is an amusingly descriptive paragragh in I am a Patsy that describes DeMorenschildt's first trip from Dallas to Fort Worth to meet the Oswalds.

"Someone gave me Lee's address and one afternoon a friend of mine, Colonel Lawrence Orloff and I drove to Fort Worth, about 30 miles from Dallas. We drove over the dreary, sewage-smelling miles separating the two cities. Texas does have lovely open spaces, but here they were degraded and polluted. After some searching, we found a shack on Mercedes Street in a semi-industrial, slummy area, near Montgomery Ward."

So, in 1962 the drive between Dallas and Forth was like he describes it? Dreary, stinking of sewage? Polluted open spaces? I first set eyes on Dallas and Fort Worth in 1981. On that visit I drove between the two towns. By that point in time I would not have described it like DeMorenschildt does, so there must have been a lot of improvement over the 2 decades that separated my drive and DeMorenschildt's.

Who wants to meet me for a beer at the Ozzy Rabbit Lodge? That's a cozy little bar down by Lee Harvey's gravesite. When my mom was here she was appalled that someone would open a bar and name it after Lee Harvey Oswald.

Was anyone reading this blog, there at Dealey Plaza, that infamous November day? Anyone see JFK and Jackie in Fort Worth that morning?

The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge

I am never a good judge of what is in good taste or tacky or not. For the most part. In my neighborhood there is this bar, well, they call it a lodge. The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge. The East Side's (of Fort Worth) hippest new watering hole.

I saw an ad for The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge this morning in our local alternative news source called FW Weekly, a much more reliable source of information than the local propaganda rag that calls itself the Star-Telegram. In the Ozzie Rabbit ad, at the top, it says "CLASSIC COUNTRY WITHOUT ALL THAT PESKY INCEST!" What does that mean? There is classic country music that does have a lot of pesky incest?

And then another part of the ad says "Don't blame us for the Whiskey Dick!". Again, what does that mean? Whiskey Dick?

Now, maybe I should tell you what the theme of The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is and why it is named The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge. Ozzie Rabbit was the nickname of Lee Harvey Oswald when he was in the army. Inside The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge there are a lot of iconic images, some huge giant poster size, of well known images from the JFK Assassination and aftermath, including the famous photo of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald.

Why, you might ask, would someone decide on this theme for their hip watering hole? Well, The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is located in the urban village known as Handley. In the urban village of Handley there is a cemetery named Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park. Located in Rose Hill Memorial Burial park is the Gravesite of Lee Harvey Oswald. Yes, I live in the neighborhood where one of the world's most notorious criminals is buried.

And so you can have a few drinks at The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge ($1.50 Domestic Can Beer, $2.00 Lone Star, The Wagon Wheel spins all night with $2.50 shots) and then after you are suitably fortified you can walk out of Ozzie Rabbit's and head east on Lancaster in search of Lee Harvey Oswald's Gravesite. You can't really have a more hip nightlife experience than that!