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Detective James Leavelle

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Photo of James Leavelle (1964)

The Life of Detective Jim Leavelle 

On November 24, 1963, the face of Detective James "Jim" Robert Leavelle would be burned into the American Zeitgeist. The "Tall Man in a Tan Suit" was forever immortalized in the famous picture of Jack Ruby emerging from the crowd and firing the fatal shot that would kill Lee Harvey Oswald. But the story of how he would ultimately end up as the Officer escorting Oswald is just as fascinating as those two days in Texas in the winter of 1963.  

Born on August 23, 1920, on one of the countless, small farmsteads that dotted the River County of northeast Texas, Leavelle dropped out of high school and took advantage of FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps where he worked on public work projects in New Mexico during 1937. After finishing his stint with the CCC, he finished his high school degree in 1939 before joining the Navy in April of 1940. Leavelle served on the USS Whitney, a Destroyer Tender, for over a year. One day, while working on the ship, Leavelle seriously injured both of his knees while hauling supplies. He could barely walk and struggled with most tasks. Unfortunately for him, this injury occurred mere days before returning to the Whitney's home port of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred only a few days later. 

"My legs were injured but I only needed my arms to load."

Leavelle fought valiantly that day and through the first half of 1942. However, his knees never properly healed, and the doctor's aboard the Whitney became concerned that the injury would only worsen and harm his ability to serve effectively. He was medically discharged in June of 1942 and sent back home. He spent the next 8 years working various jobs until he finally began his career with the Dallas Police Department in 1950. He spent the next 12 years steadily advancing his career, ultimately ending up as a homicide detective sometime before November 23, 1963.

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Location of Officer Tippit's murder

November 22nd, 1963

November 22, 1963, began as a normal day when Detective Leavelle walked into his office at 7 in the morning. Admittedly, the President was due to arrive in town and tensions were high, but Leavelle had not been assigned to work the security detail. His day proceeded normally, working with Detective C.W. Brown to arrest a suspected hijacker at 12:15 pm. It was only after his return to the station that he received the news- President Kennedy had been shot. Leavelle was immediately sent to the Texas School Book Depository, already a suspected location, to canvas for witnesses. He found some and steadily escorted them to the nearby Dallas County Sheriff's office to be interviewed. This process was cut short when another call came through; Police Officer J.D. Tippit had been murdered and many suspected it was connected to Kennedy's assassination. He arrived at the location of the shooting, 400 East 10th St, and began searching for witnesses. He found many that fit the description of a 5'8 white male wearing a white baggy T-shirt. This canvassing, while effective, was cut short as news came in about a suspect located at the Oak Cliff movie theatre. Leavelle raced to the scene, but traffic prevented him from arriving in time. Upon hearing the news that Lee Harvey Oswald had been arrested, he returned to the station to take affidavits and conduct a police lineup of Oswald. The witnesses identified Oswald as Tippit's killer. Leavelle, along with Chief Curry, Detective L.C. Graves, and Captain Fritz interviewed Oswald, who emphatically denied any involvement in either murder. Leavelle spent the rest of the day taking affidavits, leading witness lineups (all of whom confirmed the earlier guess of Oswald), and managing the volume of paperwork needed to address the double homicides. 

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Leavelle on November 23

November 23rd 

The 23rd was a (relatively) uneventful day for Detective Leavelle. He continued to canvas witnesses, take statements, and organize the data that was pouring-in regarding Oswald, Tippit, and JFK. In his own words, he spent the day "doing general office work." As he prepared to leave for the day, he was informed by Captain Fritz to return to the office by 8:30 the next morning because a decision had been made: Oswald could not be kept in central Dallas and was to be transferred to a more secure jail at 10 o'clock the next morning.

"If I had been runnin' it [The Police Department] wouldn’t have been nobody up there."

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Leavelle's famous tan suit. Now on display at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas.

November 24th

The following day, Leavelle began to prepare for the transfer. Throngs of reporters lined the hallway as an unidentified person had publicized the time and route of Oswald's transfer. Leavelle looked on in worry, noting that it would be far safer to simply escort Oswald out the back while all the reporters (and potential assassins) waited for the escort to emerge on the pre-published path. Nevertheless, the eyes of the world were on the Dallas Police Force, and as such they decided that the world needed to see Oswald led out. Detective Leavelle entered Oswald's cell, handcuffed himself to Oswald, and began to escort Oswald out of the cell. As they moved through the crowd of reporters, Leavelle leaned over to Oswald and whispered "If anyone tries to shoot you, I hope they're as good of a shot as you are." Oswald turned back, and replied with a half chuckle "Don't worry nobody is gonna try and kill me."

Moments later a man clad in a black suit and fedora jumped from the crowd, brandishing a pistol, and fired.

"Jack, you son of a bitch!" 

Leavelle attempted to protect Oswald by jerking him back, but it was too late. The bullet hit Oswald in the stomach before bouncing off of his rib and embedding itself within him (something that Leavelle would later call the "miracle bullet" as had it hit anywhere else the bullet would have penetrated through Oswald and hit Leavelle). As other officers swarmed Ruby, Leavelle attempted to perform triage on Oswald. Leavelle asked Oswald if he had anything to say; Oswald paused for a moment as if he was thinking before promptly passing out.

"It was my job to protect him, and I failed."

Leavelle escorted the dying Oswald to nearby Parkland Hospital where doctors rushed to save his life. Curiously, Leavelle waited outside the surgical wing until Oswald was pronounced dead.

Aftermath and the Warren Commission

Despite Leavelle's involvement in nearly every step of the investigation into Oswald, Leavelle played little role in the fallout concerning Oswald's death. Larger issues dominated the narrative, with public scrutiny turning on Chief Curry and the Secret Service for their perceived failures in protecting both President Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald. Leavelle would not play a significant role until he was called to testify in front of the Warren Commission on March 25, 1964. In his testimony, Leavelle publicly criticized Chief Curry in his handling of Oswald's security, going so far as to note that when he later participated in transferring Ruby to a more secure location it was done at an unannounced time that "even the chief didn't know about." He also said that he did not believe that there was any conspiracy theory surrounding Kennedy's assassination.

Today, Leavelle continues to live in Dallas. Whereas many of the people involved with the JFK assassination were profoundly changed by the experience, either retiring into anonymity or by trying to profit off of the experience, Leavelle has not. He continues to speak openly about his involvement in this flashpoint of time and, until recently, frequently volunteered to speak at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. Leavelle is one of the last remaining witnesses to the event and has played a key role in maintaining the narrative of the event. 

Social Network

Leavelle's social network offers a glimpse into the interactions he had over the 48 hours. As can be seen from the cluster on the right side of the network, Leavelle was in constant contact with his fellow officers who are separated from each other by two degrees at most. Likewise, both Oswald and Ruby play a prominent role in this network as nearly every officer interacts with them at some point or another. The outlying nodes are the witnesses who Leavelle interviewed.

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Bibliography

Dolan, Michael. "First Person: James Leavelle's Extrraordinary Timing" November 24, 2015. HistoryNet http://www.historynet.com/first-person-james-leavelles-extraordinary-timing.htm. April 2018

James R. Leavelle AFC/2001/001/105952, Audio recording (SR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.105952/transcript?ID=mv0001. April 2018

National Archives. “Leavelle, James R.”, National Archives. November 1963-September 1964. Record Group 272: Records of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. File Unit Text Record. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7460681. April 2018.

Silva, Daniella "'I failed': Cop handcuffed to JFK killer descries Oswald's death." November 2, 2015. NBCnews.  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/i-failed-cop-handcuffed-jfk-killer-describes-oswalds-death-flna2D11571782. April 2018