(EDITOR'S NOTE: On the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, ECM Online Managing Editor Howard Lestrud visited with one of the more visible personalities from the events of those Four Days, James R. Leavelle, Dallas police detective. The interview proves that these events changed the lives of many of us.)Howard Lestrud
ECM Online Editor
Ten years ago on the 30th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, James R. Leavelle said he was going ìto get awayî from talking about his involvement. Just who is James R. Leavelle anyway?
Heís the Dallas, Texas police detective, dressed in a light tan suit and Stetson hat, most recognizable for his stunned look when alleged presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby on Nov. 24, 1963.
This all happened 40 years ago, an event that still sits in the memory bank of Leavelle and of many people who recalled the events as if they had happened yesterday.
Forty years later, Leavelle, 83, said he still plans on ìcutting backî on his appearances to schools and other organizations. He is an in-demand speaker since he is such a recognizable figure in photos of the assassination.
Just days before the actual anniversary, Leavelle was doing a television interview with a Swedish news service and he was also doing a piece for a Dallas TV station.
Asked if his recollections of those four days in November were just as clear today as they were then, Leavelle remarked: ìTime moves on but nobody has let me forget what happened; it stays with me.î
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Leavelleís wife Tymie says she fields many of his calls from reporters.
ìI just wish this would go away. Some day Iím going to say that Jim ran away and I don't know where he went," she laughs.
The Leavelles met soon after another unforgettable world happening, the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Leavelle had been stationed in Hawaii since 1940 and when injured in the bombing, was sent to a Naval hospital in California. There, he met his wife, a nurse.
She is a graduate of Aitkin High School in Minnesota.
Leavelle logged 26 years with the Dallas Police Department and was on duty on Nov. 22, 1963. He was dispatched to the police station where he interrogated Oswald for the shooting of policeman J.D. Tippit.
Leavelle, who said he is recognized both with his hat on and off because of his world acclaim, is in the minority of those who believe that Oswald was the lone gunman who shot President Kennedy and former Texas Gov. John Connally.
Not refusing to field a reporter's question or one from a grade schooler, Leavelle is a man of the long-held opinion that Oswald, a non-descript 24-year-old, wanted to be someone important and thus decided to ìdo something spectacular.î
ìOswald didnít kill John F. Kennedy; he killed the President of the United States,î Leavelle says in explaining that he went after the office. ìHe didnít live long enough to enjoy it,î he said.
Leavelle compared Oswald to Paul Hill, the man who killed an abortion doctor and his bodyguard in Florida in 1994. Hill said he felt better after doing what he did because people now would know who he was. Hill was executed Sept. 3, 2003.
Rubyís role
Jack Ruby, Oswald's assassin, was the same type of individual, Leavelle believes.
ìWhen we wrestled him to the ground after he shot Oswald, he said he did it to be a hero. He also said, ëI guess I messed it up.îí
Ruby was previously known by many Dallas police officers including Leavelle. Leavelle recalls meeting him 13 years earlier at a dance hall he ran in South Irving, TX.
Ruby told Leavelle then he was always ready to protect police officers who came to his establishment and said that some day he might save the life of an officer.
Leavelle personally doesn't believe Oswald and Ruby knew one another and doesnít think Oswald believed he might be shot when he was being transferred from the Dallas PD to a county jail down the street.
ìSome people have said that they could tell by the expression on Oswald's face that he knew Ruby when Ruby lunged forward at him with a gun.î Leavelle said Oswald didnít recognize Ruby, he recognized the sight of a gun and showed fear of that.î
Ruby was transferred to the same county jail a few days later and he was fearful he would be shot, Leavelle said.
ìHe wanted to wear my hat and suit during the transfer,î Leavelle said. ìI told him he wasnít worth killing.î
Personal items
Leavelleís famous hat, suit, tie and handcuffs are currently on loan to the Sixth Floor Museum located in the former Texas School Book Depository building, believed to have been Oswaldís shooting perch.
When speaking to groups about the events of 1963, Leavelle says his greatest satisfaction is possibly changing the conspiracy theories held by some people. ìTheyíve read the bad stuff and have formed bad opinions,î Leavelle said.
ìHad we gone to trial, based on the evidence, we would have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Oswald was the single gunman,î Leavelle said.
ìI try to show the evidence, track it to the truth and get the conspiracy thing out of peopleís minds,î Leavelle said.
FBI agent James Hosty supposedly had interviewed Oswald weeks before the assassination and many believe he should have waved a ìred flagî about Oswaldís impending danger. Leavelle says he believes these contentions are ìblown out of proportionî and says Oswald had no history of violence in his record at that time.
ìHindsight is always better than foresight,î Leavelle said.
Leavelle dismisses the conspiracy theories, marvelling at how sharp memories become as time goes by. Many of the authors of these conspiracy books were not even born at the time of the assassination, he says.
Of all the books written on the assassination, Leavelleís could be one of the most interesting. He has written one chapter and that chapter is the one he graciously tells to media types, to school children and to other civic groups who wish to touch American history.
Jim Leavelle will always be remembered as that man in the Oswald photo, the Dallas police detective wearing the light suit.
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