It wasn’ t long after the Pearl Harbor attack that I was hurt at sea during a typhoon. The doctor told me I’ d done all I could do at that point, and in the middle of December, I ended up back stateside. Despite my arguments, the doctors refused to allow me to go back out to sea. Fortunately, I soon received an opportunity to contribute to the war effort in another way, when I was approached by the Army Air Forces to manage supplies at a huge new warehouse that was being built. I took the job, joined by a young nurse I’ d become friendly with during my recovery. We became engaged, and were married for more than 72 years until she passed away.
After the war, I moved on to Dallas, where I took up a job working for the Federal government as an auditor. It wasn’ t long after that I saw an ad from the Dallas Police Department. After several years, I became a police detective and moved to the homicide division, where I stayed for just about the remainder of my career.
The most famous – or more accurately infamous – incident to happen during my time in the homicide division was the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy. After that, the suspected sniper, Lee Harvey Oswald, made his way to Oak Cliff until he was stopped on the street for questioning. Officer J. D. Tippit stopped him because he was walking along at a pretty fast clip and looked suspicious. But this wasn’ t anything irregular- ninety-nine times out of a hundred you sent someone on their way because they weren’ t who you were looking for. Tippit was given a general description of what Oswald looked like from the people who had seen him in
the window after the shots were fired. So he stopped him, merely to question him about his name and so forth. Oswald, in return, shot Tippit, before storming off, which was corroborated by at least four witnesses on the scene.
When he pulled up, Tippit called Oswald over to the door to talk for a few
THE MOMENT OF ATTACK. JACK RUBY LUNGES AT OSWALD AS JIM LEAVELLE ESCORTS HIM THROUGH THE BASEMENT OF THE DALLAS POLICE HEADQUARTERS.
seconds. He then got out of the car and started walking around the front to get to Oswald, who had stepped back a few feet. Suddenly, Oswald pulled out a pistol and went into a firing stance he’ d been taught in the Marines and shot four times.
When Oswald finished shooting, he turned and ran past several witnesses, including a cab driver who heard him say something along the lines of“ The poor damn cop,” or“ The poor dumb cop,” which suggested he had no intention of shooting Tippit – he had simply panicked.
After the shooting, a thrilling chase ensued. Oswald took off and continued running before coming across a used car lot down on the corner where he was spotted. He had a tan jacket on and was smart enough to know that he would probably be described wearing the jacket, so he took it off and tried to throw it underneath a car. Of course, later with that information, we found the jacket and identified it as his. When he saw two policemen near him, he popped into a shoe store and pretended to look at shoes. There were no customers, though, and the owner had been listening to news of everything transpiring on the radio. When Oswald left and looked both ways before moving on, the owner got suspicious and followed him.
When Oswald reached the Texas Theatre, rather than buying a ticket he just darted in and went to sit down. The shoe store clerk saw this, and told the ticket seller that the man he thought had shot the police officer had gone inside and they should call the police. When they arrived, they swarmed him and took him into custody.
When Oswald was brought in, he was only considered a suspect in the killing of Tippit. He wasn’ t brought in on suspicion of killing the President at that point. I had tried to be at the Texas Theatre when Oswald was arrested, but the traffic made it impossible for me to get there on time. I called the dispatcher and told him to take Oswald to my office and I’ d meet them there, but they were driving a marked car and I was in a plain car so they arrived ahead
SPRING 2016 9