Motorcade route from Trade Mart back to Love Field

[Sean Kneringer]

Had Kennedy lived, does anyone know the exact route they would have taken? Would it have been a slow motorcade like the first leg or would they have put the top on the limo for faster speeds? The fact that newspapers only published the "Love Field to Trade Mart" map tells me they would have taken an express route back to the airport. 

[Tom Graves]

Had Kennedy lived, does anyone know the exact route they would have taken? Would it have been a slow motorcade like the first leg or would they have put the top on the limo for faster speeds? The fact that newspapers only published the "Love Field to Trade Mart" map tells me they would have taken an express route back to the airport.

Do you think the bad guys might have had a "back up" patsy or two strategically placed to take out JFK on his way back to the airport in case Oswald failed?

[Charles Collins]

Had Kennedy lived, does anyone know the exact route they would have taken? Would it have been a slow motorcade like the first leg or would they have put the top on the limo for faster speeds? The fact that newspapers only published the "Love Field to Trade Mart" map tells me they would have taken an express route back to the airport.

For what it is worth, here is what Jerry Blaine wrote in his book “The Kennedy Detail” page 188:

“ Convinced that everything was under control at the Trade Mart, Agent Lawson left Dave Grant in charge and drove to Love Field along the same route the motorcade would take after the luncheon. He’d driven it half a dozen times in the past week. The politicians wanted the route to wind through the most populated sections of Dallas for maximum exposure and it was Win’s job to anticipate every possible security threat along the way. He’d arranged for police officers to be posted in the most congested areas; police motorcycles would lead and drive alongside the motorcade; and of course the Kennedy Detail agents would be riding in the Secret Service follow-up car. But still, as he drove the route for the last time, he was consciously aware of every building, every intersection, and every overpass. Lawson and Chief Curry would be in the lead car of the motorcade precisely because they knew the route so well. For the rest of the drivers—including Secret Service agent Bill Greer in the president’s limousine and Agent Sam Kinney in the Secret Service follow-up car—when they drove from Love Field to the Trade Mart and back it would be the first time on any of these roads. The lead car was their guide.”


Their schedule was very tight. I believe it would have been the most direct and fastest route back to Love Field from the Trade Mart. And the distance was much shorter than the one through downtown Dallas. But apparently the motorcade would have looked similar to how it looked earlier going from Love Field to the Trade Mart.