Jim Leavelle

James Robert Leavelle (August 23, 1920 – August 29, 2019) was a Dallas Police Department homicide detective who, on November 24, 1963, was escorting Lee Harvey Oswald through the basement of Dallas Police headquarters when Oswald was fatally shot by Jack Ruby. Leavelle prominently appeared in films and photographs of the murder, including one that won a Pulitzer Prize—taken just as Ruby shot Oswald.

Early life and military service James Robert Leavelle was born on August 23, 1920, in Red River County, Texas. In 1937, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. Following his high school graduation, in 1939, Leavelle enlisted into the United States Navy. He briefly served on the destroyer as she did plane-guard duty with the carrier . In the spring of 1941, Leavelle reported to the destroyer tender as a storekeeper. When Ford Island was struck, Leavelle hurried to his battle station.

November 1963 and aftermath On the morning of November 22, 1963, Leavelle and another patrolman arrested a suspect for armed robbery in North Dallas. They transported the suspect to the city jail and when they reached the third floor, Leavelle had learned that U.S. President John F. Kennedy had been shot. Leavelle arrived at the Texas School Book Depository, where other detectives were investigating the crime scene. He then arrived at the crime scene in Oak Cliff, where Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit had been shot.

After Oswald had been identified, Leavelle was the first to interrogate him. Before Leavelle could continue his line of questioning, J. W. Fritz, the captain of the Dallas Police Homicide and Robbery Bureau, entered the interrogation room and identified Oswald was the prime suspect for the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Leavelle and Graves carried Oswald into the basement level jail office where Oswald was attended by Frederick Bieberdorf, a medical student on duty. Oswald was placed onto an ambulance to be driven to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where President Kennedy had died two days earlier. Leavelle and Graves, along with Bieberdorf, rode in the ambulance.

Robert N. McClelland, who treated Kennedy and Oswald at Parkland Hospital, said that while at Parkland, Leavelle, who was waiting outside the hospital room, told him that after Oswald was shot, he claimed to have "leaned over Oswald and said, 'Son, you're hurt real bad. Do you wanna say anything?' He looked at me for a second. He waited like he was thinking. Then he shook his head back and forth just as wide as he could. Then he closed his eyes." Leavelle refuted the claim. Oswald died at 1:07 p.m. at the Parkland Hospital. The morning after Oswald was shot, Leavelle transferred Ruby to the county jail on November 25.

Leavelle took a statement from Texas School Book Depository employee Victoria Adams on February 17, 1964. Adams had only moved into an apartment the day before Leavelle knocked on her door, and she had not yet notified anyone with a change of address. When asked why he needed to talk with her since she had already given her testimony to the Dallas Police, he responded, "Oh, the records were all burned in a fire we had and we have to interview everyone again." No evidence of a fire at the DPD has been uncovered. When asked by researcher Barry Ernest, Leavelle told him that it was during preparations for Ruby's trial.

On March 25, 1964, Leavelle provided testimony to Warren Commission assistant counsel Leon Hubert.

Leavelle testified that the first time he had ever sat in on an interrogation with Oswald was on November 24, 1963. When Ball asked Leavelle if he had ever spoken to Oswald before this interrogation, he stated, "No, I had never talked to him before". Leavelle then stated during his testimony that "the only time I had connections with Oswald was this Sunday morning [November 24, 1963]. I never had [the] occasion... to talk with him at any time..." He used "I do not recall" thirty times in two testimony sessions and "I don't remember" nine times, in regards to the events of November 1963.

Leavelle supported the official conclusion that Oswald acted alone and rejected conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination.

Later life and death In later interviews, Leavelle said that he interrogated Oswald regarding the Tippit murder on November 22. He said that he joked with Oswald before the transfer, saying "Lee, if anybody shoots at you, I hope they're as good a shot as you are," meaning that the person would hit Oswald instead of Leavelle. Oswald smiled and said, "You're being melodramatic. Nobody's going to shoot at me."

He was interviewed for the 1988 documentary The Men Who Killed Kennedy and also for the 1992 documentary The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes. In December 1992, while demonstrating at his home in Garland, Texas, The character of "Leavelle" in season 10 episode 9 of The Simpsons, "Mayored to the Mob" (1998), is based on Jim Leavelle, as he appeared when escorting Lee Harvey Oswald when Oswald was shot by Ruby. Leavelle trains the bodyguards by pretending to shoot their protectee from a grassy knoll on a cart. This is a reference to the grassy knoll at the site of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Dealey Plaza and a scene from the Kennedy assassination film Executive Action (1973).

In November 2011, Leavelle lost an eye after a serious fall, after which he wore a glass eye.

In 2013, the Dallas Police Department's Detective of the Year Award was named in Leavelle's honor.