Published at 10:20 p.m. ET -- Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the city of Irving, Texas, is restoring the home Lee Harvey Oswald slept in the night before the assassination and turning it into a museum.

In November 1963, Oswald and his wife Marina were separated. While he usually stayed in a rented room at a house on Beckley Avenue in Dallas during the week, Marina and their children stayed in a rented room in the Irving house owned by Ruth Paine. Oswald typically visited his family on the weekend, but on the night before the assassination he spent the night with his family at the Paine house.

City of Irving archivist Kevin Kendro said police believed the gun used in the assassination was stored inside the garage of the Paine home and that Oswald left his wedding ring and some money in Marina's room prior to leaving that Friday morning.

The city purchased the old Paine house and is in the process of restoring it to its 1963 look while simultaneously planning to transform the building into a museum ahead of the  50th anniversary.

"It gives you a feeling to be able to stand in a place, the very place where something historic occurred," said Kendro.

He said the city plans to spend more than $100,000 to restore the house and prepare for its opening as a museum.

Anthony Rucker, who lives across the street from the infamous house, said he didn't understand the city's efforts.

"It's odd. I don't get the gist of it, to turn it back into what it was, and what the city spent on it to purchase the property and do that," he said.

Rucker said he moved into the neighborhood in 1987. He said visitors have been coming by his street to get a closer look of the historic building for years.

"Every time the anniversary gets close, the rental cars pull up and everybody bails out with their cameras and takes pictures of it and that kind of thing," said Rucker.

After years of decay, the city of Dallas demolished the 88-year old building at Elsbeth and Davis infamous for being where Lee Harvey Oswald lived before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The demolition of the old apartment building started around 8:30 Monday morning.  By 8:40 the first level unit where the Oswald's are said to have lived was gone.

Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife Marina lived at the complex from November 1962 to March 1963, eight months before the JFK assassination.

About a half dozen curious people with a strong sense of history showed up across the street to watch and take pictures of the 88-year old building coming down.

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Jose Sorola told us he wished the Oswald unit could have been saved and perhaps been restored and part of historic tours. But since the city said it had to go, Sorola bought a small piece of it.

"Yesterday, I came by and actually bought a window from Lee Harvey Oswald's unit number two and what I plan on doing is try to restore it as best as possible, and make it a little display if anybody is interested in using that it'll be nice, perserve a little history, keep the building alive somehow," said Sorola who paid $125 for the window.

The crumbling building, located at 600 Elsbeth Street, had not been occupied for several years. 

Jane Bryant, the woman who owns the building, bought it with hopes of restoring the complex, but the City of Dallas condemned the building back in 2011.

On Sunday evening several people, including Bryant, local artists, and nearby residents showed up to take wood or bricks from the building.

Freda Dillard, who takes people on JFK assassination tours, said she’s sad to see the building go.

“People are interested in it," said Dillard. "I have people that come from all over the world to take these tours and they want to see everything, including this apartment building.”

Hulton Archive / Getty Images, file

Mugshot of Lee Harvey Oswald (1939 - 1963), alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, taken by the Dallas Police department, Dallas, Texas.

“It’s very sad," added Dillard. "Tomorrow [Monday] afternoon it’s going to be gone and that’s another piece of history.”

The city won a court order in May requiring Jane Bryant to tear down the uninhabited 10-unit, two-story apartment complex. It says Bryant failed to act in the allotted time and that allowed the structure to become a nuisance.
   
Dallas city spokesman Frank Librio says demolition and asbestos abatement of the building is estimated to cost about $52,000. The city may place a lien on the property to recover that money.

It's unclear what will become of the space, but the property owner, Jane Bryant, has suggested perhaps it could be a dog park.

RFK Jr.: 'Very convincing' evidence that JFK wasn't killed by lone gunman

Tony Gutierrez / AP

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, said that he didn't believe a lone gunman killed President John F. Kennedy in an interview with journalist Charlie Rose, right, and Rory Kennedy, center, in front of an audience at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas Friday.

DALLAS -- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced that a lone gunman wasn't solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and said his father believed the Warren Commission report was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship."

Kennedy and his sister, Rory, spoke about their family Friday night while being interviewed in front of an audience by Charlie Rose at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. The event comes as a year of observances begins for the 50th anniversary of the president's death.

Their uncle was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dallas. Five years later, their father was assassinated in a Los Angeles hotel while celebrating his win in the California Democratic presidential primary.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his father spent a year trying to come to grips with his brother's death, reading the work of Greek philosophers, Catholic scholars, Henry David Thoreau, poets and others "trying to figure out kind of the existential implications of why a just God would allow injustice to happen of the magnitude he was seeing."

He said his father thought the Warren Commission, which concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the president, was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship." He said that he, too, questioned the report.

"The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman," he said, but he didn't say what he believed may have happened.

Rose asked if he believed his father, the U.S. attorney general at the time of his brother's death, felt "some sense of guilt because he thought there might have been a link between his very aggressive efforts against organized crime."

Kennedy replied: "I think that's true. He talked about that. He publicly supported the Warren Commission report but privately he was dismissive of it."

Oswald's mafia links
He said his father had investigators do research into the assassination and found that phone records of Oswald and nightclub owner Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald two days after the president's assassination, "were like an inventory" of mafia leaders the government had been investigating.

Slideshow: Kennedy’s legacy

Henry Burroughs / AP

John F. Kennedy was the youngest man ever to serve as U.S. president. Click on the gallery for photos detailing key moments in his campaign for the White House, his brief time in office, and his untimely death.

Launch slideshow

He said his father, later elected U.S. senator in New York, was "fairly convinced" that others were involved.

The attorney and well-known environmentalist also told the audience light-hearted stories Friday about memories of his uncle. As a young child with an interest in the environment, he said, he made an appointment with his uncle to speak with him in the Oval Office about pollution.

He'd even caught a salamander to present to the president, which unfortunately died before the meeting.

"He kept saying to me, 'It doesn't look well,'" he recalled.

Rory Kennedy, a documentary filmmaker whose recent film "Ethel" looks at the life of her mother, also focused on the happier memories. She said she and her siblings grew up in a culture where it was important to give back.

"In all of the tragedy and challenge, when you try to make sense of it and understand it, it's very difficult to fully make sense of it," she said. "But I do feel that in everything that I've experienced that has been difficult and that has been hard and that has been loss, that I've gained something in it."

"We were kind of lucky because we lost our members of our family when they were involved in a great endeavor," her brother added. "And that endeavor is to make this country live up to her ideals."

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Secret tapes of JFK's last days released

Audio tapes featuring Jackie Kennedy after JFK's death revealed

NEW YORK -- A Transportation Security Administration screener was arrested on charges he swiped iPads and other electronic devices from passengers' luggage at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, authorities said.

Port Authority spokesman Steven Coleman said Wednesday that 32-year-old Sean Henry, of Brooklyn, was nabbed in a sting operation using decoy bags in cooperation with the TSA.

Coleman said Henry was arrested after leaving work carrying in his backpack two planted iPads and other electronic devices. Coleman said stolen items were also found in Henry's home.

Read more news on NBCNewYork.com

The 10-year veteran of the federal agency was arrested on charges of grand larceny and official misconduct.

Information on his lawyer was not immediately available.

Dallas is planning a major public memorial ceremony in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination at Dealey Plaza, it was announced Tuesday.

"The tone is very important," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said. "We want to mark this day by remembering a great president with a sense of dignity and honor he deserves. The 50th will be a serious, respectful and understated public memorial."

Rawlings said public donations are being taken to cover the cost and no tax money will be used for the event, which will take place on Nov. 22, 2013.

Tickets will be issued for the Dealey Plaza event because organizers expect more people will want to attend than the plaza can safely hold.

Secret tapes of JFK's last days released

The service will include a moment of silence at 12:25 p.m., the time the shots rang out.

A committee appointed by Rawlings is planning the memorial, some details of which are already on an official website.

"I'll never forget the faces of all the weeping women and the men who were just stricken, I mean you can imagine how shocking this was," said Dallas Citizens Council leader Ruth Altshuler, the committee chairperson.

Another murder that same November 1963 day was the killing of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit who was on patrol in Oak Cliff looking for the president's killer.

Witnesses said Lee Harvey Oswald gunned Tippit down before Oswald was eventually arrested at the Texas Theater.

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Nearly 49 years later, a memorial to Officer Tippit was unveiled Tuesday at the corner where the shooting occurred.

Attending the dedication was former Dallas police detective Jim Leavelle, who was assigned to Tippit's case. "I think it’s a great honor to Tippit, and he deserves it, and I’m just glad I could be alive to see it," Leavelle said.

Tippit's widow Marie also attended the dedication ceremony. "I think it should be remembered," she said "The president was killed here and Jay was killed here trying to apprehend the killer of the president so I think it should be remembered."

UPDATED: 4:30 p.m. ET: An American Eagle flight out of Kennedy Airport was delayed nearly four hours after two flight attendants got into a verbal altercation on the plane, forcing the cockpit crew to turn the plane around and head back to the gate, passengers tell NBC 4 New York. 

American Eagle Flight 3823 to Washington, D.C., was scheduled to leave New York City at 3:10 p.m. Wednesday. The plane started to roll away from the gate when two female flight attendants began to argue, witnesses said.

Read more on this story at NBCNewYork.com

It got so heated the cockpit crew was alerted, and they ultimately made the decision to turn the plane around and head back to the gate. 

"We were informed we were going back to the gate because the flight attendants couldn't work with each other," said Dan Alexander, a passenger.

"I find it hard to believe the flight attendants couldn't work with each other for an hour," he added, noting the approximate flight time from New York to Washington.

Passengers had to wait approximately four hours while the airline searched for a replacement flight crew. When they finally landed in D.C., passengers were still annoyed.

"It was incredible, totally unbelievable that there was such little professionalism between these women," said Marge Lopez. 

Karen Grantham said it was "ridiculous" that the flight attendants became upset.

"Doesn't anyone teach good customer service anymore?" she asked. "You have to be thick-skinned to be in customer service. It just happens, you can't let this get the best of you."

An airline spokesperson told NBC News that the two flight attendants would be meeting with their manager on Thursday to determine what will happen next.

A statement from the company, sent to NBC News, said: "There was a disagreement between two flight attendants Wednesday afternoon prior to the departure of American Eagle flight 3823 from New York JFK to Washington Reagan. The aircraft returned to the gate to switch flight attendant crews, and the flight departed a short while later. We're looking into the matter."

The airline has already been dealing with scheduling problems and delays. It said it was forced to cancel 300 flights this week because a high number of pilots were calling out sick and crews were filing more maintenance reports.

AMR Corp., which owns American Airlines and American Eagle, said Wednesday that it canceled the flights in advance to avoid inconveniencing passengers.

Earlier this week, American said it would cut its schedule through the end of October by up to 2 percent.

American Airlines flight attendants accept contract offer

The Wall Street Journal's veteran travel reporter, Scott McCartney, on Tuesday told travelers to avoid the carrier because "American's operation is in shambles."

McCartney said American Airlines is too unreliable because of trouble with the pilots union.

Denny Kelly, an aviation expert and former pilot, told NBC DFW he agreed that travelers should avoid the Fort Worth-based airline.

"If you're going to fly a trip from Dallas to someplace and you have a choice, and you have to be there on time or within a reasonable amount of time ... why take a chance on American?" he said. "Why take a chance on [if] a flight's going to be delayed or canceled? Go on somebody else that doesn't have that problem."

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• Flight cancellations surge at American Airlines
• American Airlines sends thousands of layoff notices
• The best — and worst — seats for economy fliers

An 85-year-old New York grandmother said Saturday she was injured and humiliated when she was strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner.

Lenore Zimmerman said she was whisked away to a private room and made to take off her pants and other clothes after she asked to forgo the screening because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator. She missed her flight and had to take one two-and-a-half hours later, she said.

“I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,” she told The New York Daily News. “I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.”

“I was outraged,” said Zimmerman, a retired receptionist.

As she tried to lift a lightweight walker off her lap, she said the metal bars hit her leg, causing blood to flow from her a gash, the newspaper reported.

“My sock was soaked with blood,” she said. “I was bleeding like a pig."

But the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Saturday no strip search was conducted.

"While we regret that the passenger feels she had an unpleasant screening experience, TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols and one was not conducted in this case," the statement read.

Zimmerman was dropped off by her son at Kennedy Airport for a 1 p.m. flight Tuesday to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on JetBlue, she said. She arrived to the ticket counter around 12:20 p.m. and headed for security in a wheelchair, her small, metal walker in her lap.

She's been traveling to Florida for at least a decade and has never had a problem being patted down until now, she said. "I worry about my heart, so I don't want to go through those things," she said referring to the advanced image technology screening machines now in place at the airport.

Related: Too old to travel alone? Companies provide escorts

Private screening
As a result, she said she was taken into the private screening room by one agent and made to strip.

A review of closed-circuit television at the airport showed proper procedures were followed, Jonathan Allen, a TSA spokesman, said in a statement.

"Private screening was requested by the passenger, it was granted and lasted approximately 11 minutes," the statement read. "TSA screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance."

The private screening was not recorded.

Zimmerman, who spends half the year in Long Beach, N.Y., said she banged her shin during the process and it bled "like a pig," partly because she is on blood-thinning medication. She said an emergency medical technician patched her up, but she was told to see a doctor when she arrived in Florida to make sure the wound didn't get infected. There are no records indicating medical attention was called on her behalf.

"I don't know what triggered this. I don't know why they singled me out," she said.

Her son Bruce Zimmerman said he'd like to see someone fired, and screeners re-trained after his mother's ordeal.

"My mother is a little old woman. She's not disruptive or uncooperative," he said Saturday. "I don't understand how this happened."

He said she's had an increasingly difficult time traveling, especially since her husband died a few years ago. She has two grandchildren, and her older son, a doctor, died in 2007.

Meanwhile, Lenore Zimmerman said she was healing, planned to go to the grocery store on Saturday and take it easy. Weather was about 76 and sunny, and she's not headed back to an airport until April when she returns to New York.

"Thank goodness," she said. "It will give me some time to brace myself for the return flight."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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