JFK files: A north Texas thrift store, a music CD and a new 59-year-old Kennedy mystery

JFK shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963

ByKevin Reece, WFAA
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
A North Texas thrift store, a CD and a new 59-year-old JFK mystery
A man found a photo of JFK, president during the 1960s, inside a Ferris, Texas CD case he purchased at a thrift store.

FERRIS, Texas -- At a small house near Ferris, Texas, George Rebeles has quite a story to tell.

"I was shocked. I was shocked. And that's putting it mildly," Rebeles told WFAA.

That story is about his trip to downtown Ferris and the Souls Harbor Thrift Store, about 20 miles outside Dallas, to dig through their collection of cassettes and CDs.

There, he found the 1970s treasure Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

"Oh yeah, they're consistently good," he said.

But, when he opened it, a photo was inside.

"It wasn't until I turned it over that I noticed what it was," Rebeles said.

The photo was an original black-and-white Polaroid, with the date "11-22-63" handwritten on the back. It was of the Kennedy motorcade on that fateful day.

"Of course realized immediately that this was an unpublished photograph. So I was excited," Rebeles said. "It just struck me as odd to find it in a CD case. How this could have ended up in a small town thrift store fascinates me."

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It also fascinated Farris Rookstool III, a former FBI agent and JFK historian.

Rookstool is responsible for the bronze plaques and the beacon on the Dallas Love Field runway marking where, after the assassination, Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office onboard Air Force One.

"To me it's the most historical landmark in Dallas," Rookstool said.

But as for Rebeles' historical picture, he said it might not be that valuable of a mystery.

The picture was likely taken as the president was leaving Love Field.

"I would say that if someone thinks this is of high monetary value, prepare yourself to be underwhelmed or disappointed," Rookstool said. "The assessment is while you have a nice photo, it's a nice keepsake; it's a nice heirloom. It's something that meant something to someone in someone's family."

That's not news that Rebeles would be all that happy to hear.

But he'd still like to know who took the picture, and how it ended up in a CD case in a small town thrift store.

"I'm not a huge conspiracy nut or anything like that, but sometimes things don't quite add up," Rebeles said.

It adds up at least to one more grainy lingering question after nearly 60 years and counting.