Legendary Dallas cop James Leavelle, who escorted Lee Harvey Oswald, honored at police headquarters

Legendary Dallas cop James Leavelle, who escorted Lee Harvey Oswald, honored at police headquarters
Scott Goldstein
Dallas Morning News
11:10 am on May 14, 2013
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013/05/legendary-dallas-cop-james-leavelle-who-escorted-lee-harvey-oswald-honored-at-police-headquarters.html/

Several among the current generation of Dallas police officers have
earned celebrity status with appearances on reality television programs that glamorize their profession.

But when it comes to their place in history, none of them will ever
touch the legendary retired homicide Det. James Leavelle. That’s why,
this morning, Dallas Police Chief David Brown honored the man who was
handcuffed to accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack Ruby shot him in the basement of Dallas police headquarters on Nov. 24, 1963.

Brown presented Leavelle with the Police Commendation Award and
officially renamed the department’s Detective of the Year Award after
Leavelle.

“This is an honor for me personally, being a Dallasite, knowing the rich history of Dallas,” said Brown, who was 3 years old at the time of the Kennedy assassination. “Being able to recognize such an iconic figure is just special.”

The moment of the Oswald shooting two days after President John F.
Kennedy was gunned down was captured in an iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photo in The Dallas Times Herald.

“To say I’m surprised is putting it mildly,” said Leavelle, who joined the force in 1950 and retired in 1975. “I can think of so many other officers who should be standing here, receiving this award.”

The honor for Leavelle, 92, months before the 50th anniversary of the
Kennedy assassination follows a long overdue permanent commemoration of another legendary Dallas police officer. In November, a state historical marker was unveiled at the Oak Cliff street corner where Oswald fatally shot Officer J.D. Tippit 45 minutes after the Kennedy assassination.

Leavelle was there for that commemoration and Tippit’s widow, Marie
Tippit, was among those in attendance on Tuesday morning at Jack Evans Police Headquarters.

Following the ceremony, Leavelle met briefly with reporters and signed autographs.

He was asked what was going through his mind as Ruby fired on Oswald.

“I’ve been asked that question many, many times,” Leavelle said. “And
I’ve often wondered — maybe you can answer it for me — what goes through your mind when you ask me that?”

“You don’t have time to let things go through your mind, you react,” he said. “You do what you got to do. You don’t stop to think.”

He recalled spotting Ruby with the pistol by his leg and said none of
the news reporters or other officers appeared to see it.

“I looked down and I saw that,” Leavelle said. “I tried to jerk back on him and put him behind me,” he said of Oswald.

But the men were too close together and all Leavelle managed to do was turn Oswald’s body. He died at Parkland Memorial Hospital.

In the decades that have followed, Leavelle has granted countless
interviews. He started telling his story, he said, because
schoolchildren inquired about it and he wanted them to know what really happened.

“It’s like starting a wildfire,” he said. “It kept going and now you
can’t stop it. But I don’t mind doing it because I know that the people asking are interested.”