President Kennedy was murdered at an ideal site for an ambush in Dallas.

On Nov. 22, 1963, the president’s open-roof limousine was moving slowly on Elm Street at a spot now marked by a “+,” and shown here framed between the fence’s pickets.

This eighth installment of our “JFK Murder Readers Guide” series portrays the scene from a perspective you may find novel. It is based on photos I took while attending conferences and ceremonies timed for the shooting’s 50th anniversary last week.

The picket fence was at the right front as the president’s limo proceeded toward the end of its ceremonial motorcade through downtown streets.

I measured 40 paces, a little more than 100 feet, from the picket fence to the spot of the fatality.

That distance is far shorter than the sixth floor of the red-brick Texas Book Depository building at the rear of my photo at right.

The white “+” is faintly visible on the roadway just at the front of the silver car in the center lane of the photo at right.

The Warren Commission and its defenders insist that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in shooting the president. They say he fired three shots during a six-second period from the square, far-right window on the sixth floor of the book warehouse, which is the lighter-colored red brick building at the center of the photo at right.

Yet more than half of the witnesses at the scene reported gunfire from the car’s front or side at Dealey Plaza. Witnesses reporting at least one shot from the front included Texas Gov. John Connally, a World War II combat veteran wounded in the Dallas shooting while riding with the president.

Witnesses reported gunfire from behind the picket fence and elsewhere at the side or front. Sounds reportedly came from the slope (the “Grassy Knoll”) at the left of the photo at right.

I shot my photos from a railroad overpass, another possible sniper site, in front of the limo’s route.

Please click to see the picket fence. The fence is just to the left of the trees in the photo, and thus not visible.