L. H. O. I. F. F.
Lee Harvey Oswald Innocence Fact Files.
Author: Aaron Paterson.
1st April, 2016
If Lee Harvey Oswald was guilty of shooting at President John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza,
Dallas, Texas at 12:30pm, on Friday, 22nd November, 1963. Then why didn't anyone
standing in front, beside and behind him at the Texas School Book Depository front door
entrance grab at his rifle, pistol, dart gun, peashooter,
bazooto or curtain rods? unlike Jack
Ruby who was grabbed two days later in the Dallas Police Department basement, Sunday
24th November?
How many unidentified Dallas night club owners were standing amongst the media circus
with Ruby that Sunday in the crowded basement.
Jack Ruby was said, by one of his strippers and a black piano player to have personally
known or be acquainted with half of the 1600 plus Dallas police department, now that's a lot
of Cops, staff. He was noted to have always tried to curry favour with the police, this was
probably a strategy to protect his nightclub interests. Perhaps insecurity, paranoia and
similar traits led Ruby into thinking, the more cops hanging round his club, the better
protection and status he had amongst fellow nightclub operators and their associates,
probably so?
What does the evidence whether hidden or obvious reveal about Oswald’s guilt.
Oswald was a loner, this does not make him a ‘nut’ nor guilty of the criminal offences laid
against him? Oswald was engaging enough to join the USMC, complete basic training, ask
for a discharge on the grounds of compassion to care for his mother, Marguerite Oswald,
apply for a passport, visa and live in a foreign country, get a job in Minsk, meet a Russian
girl, fall in love, get married, become a father, apply for visas for himself, wife and child to
return to the United States. If he was unhappy in the U.S.S.R. why return to the capitalist
society we are led to be believe he hated so much?
Upon returning to United States he simply goes back to live in the same haunts where he
grew up, New Orleans, Louisiana, Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas, which doesn't indicate Lee
Harvey is an international man of intrigue! Although his movements and activities were
certainly worth keeping constant surveillance on, and it is obvious that the cat was out of the
bag regarding intelligence agencies keeping discrete in their own activities on him.
Oswald, first received an honourable discharge from the Marine Corps, which was later
changed to a dishonourable discharge, it seems, as punishment for his defection to Russia.
From Louisiana the Oswald family relocated to Dallas with their belongings, storing them in
Mrs. Ruth Payne's garage, whilst Lee Harvey roomed at a boarding house closer to the city
to enable him to find employment, as indicated by the map found later that was marked out
with locations where he sought work, one of them interrogations.
Life before Buell WesleyFrazier,
what does history tell us about Oswald’s activities before
his employment at TSBD? Scanty information, some of it surmised, the police interrogations
reveal he was getting round the city looking for work, it is highly unlikely that Ruth Payne
drove him around looking for work so he would have had to rely on public transport, walk
and made no mention of friends driving him around when interrogated.
Five weeks employed at TSBD saving for a rental property to have his wife and children all
together in one home.
Oswald's biggest fault may have been engaging with local Dallas Russian immigrants to
enable his wife to feel at ease with other Russian families who spoke her language, the
social and community ties this encourages is not a common trait of a loner. Downside to
this? Oswald may have been unaware of the influence, Ruth Page was having on his wife,
Marina where the consequences of empowering Marina may have led to her eventually
leaving Lee Harvey, in the same way, Ruth Paine was separated from her husband.
Oswald could not drive? Or at least did not have a motor vehicle licence, he relied on
walking, public transport and pick ups. None of this makes for a good assassin’s resume to
make a quick getaway.
Employee, being only five weeks in a new job, one can assume such an employee might
keep to himself, carry out his daily duties and not become a nuisance to fellow workmates?
Three rifles found in the Texas School Book Depository on 22nd November, of which two
became unaccounted for, was Oswald trying to set himself up for a fall? Probably not.
Where is the evidence gone to find out who owned these rifles and why was the worst rifle, a
Mannlicher Carcano analysed by the F.B.I. as having an unsighted scope attached to it?
Was this rifle created by an agency as diversion from the real goings on up on the sixth
floor? What about the guys from the floorlaying
gang who worked that day on the sixth floor,
what were their names, were they local contractor employees or were they employed by
TSBD fulltime?
Were they interviewed? How many and what were their names. What can
their past histories shed light on? How many days or weeks had they been reflooring?
Why is it that several employees of TSBD saw Oswald on the first and second floors, but no
one actually saw him on the sixth or seventh floors, or heard him say he was going to fill
book orders on those floors? And an early morning worker said that he didn't see a package
the size of the copy of the one alleged seen by Buell WesleyFrazier.
When asked by a newspaper reporter if he was at the TSBD building he said, “... naturally, I
work in that building!”
Oswald couldn't be expected to know that several other TSBD employees decided to go
home early, knowing this is true, why hasn't an extensive report on these other employees
seen the light of day, or was a thorough analysis done that validates their similar reasons for
going home to their families on a Friday afternoon occasioned by the initial police inspection
of the TSBD?
So Oswald walked to a bus stop, caught a ride but found the bus was to head down Elm
street past his workplace, but was stopped because of the police activities along the route
and vicintity of his work, he gets off the bus, jumps into Bill Whaley’s taxi heads past his
house, walks three blocks back home, changes clothes in a hurry, walks off down the street
till he gets to Tenth and Patton, is motioned over to an already parked police car, squad car
ten, shoots officer John D. Tippet approx four times with a revolver which the FBI
scientifically analyse and report due to a faulty firing pin, the weapon could not have been
fired by the person found in possession of it, namely, Lee Harvey Oswald!
Mr. Oswald is accused of shooting Officer Tippet, walks calmly away is seen by witnesses,
one who described him as solidly built, walks off to a busy thoroughfare on Jefferson
Avenue, is seen entering a store looking nervous as police cars and sirens are screaming,
walks quickly out, goes a short distance and slips into the Texas Theatre where the cashier
sells him a movie ticket and later changes her story to, he didn't buy a ticket.
Witnesses in the theatre see police enter a forward side exit, go on stage and have a man
point Oswald out in the cinema sitting a few seats from the rear of the cinema.
Despite this identification, the police walk slowly up the aisles checking the identification of
moviegoers, and make no attempt at quickly proceeding to Oswald sitting there obviously
nervous, one can speculate, why? Because he is carrying a concealed weapon, probably
unlicensed.
At what time during Oswald’s arrest was he told by a newspaper or television reporter that
he in fact had been Charged with the President’s murder? Why does his face show a look of
defeat, immediately after. How was it that the media were made aware of Oswald being
Charged for a murder, before the accused Oswald found out? What process allows a police
investigation to divulge such information to be leaked before Charging somebody for any
offense?
Three police lineups,
why didn't any of the men and teenagers resemble Oswald in height or
appearance, why was Oswald dressed only in a white Tshirt
and some of the others were
actually wearing suits and ties
If there has been so much talk about Oswald’s coworker,
Billy Lovelady and he looking so
alike, then why wasn't Lovelady featured in any of the three police lineups?
How many police departments question suspects in a police lineup
and give that information
to witnesses prior to their picking out a suspect? William Whaley signed a sworn statement
that the man holding a certain number was definately the same man he picked up in his taxi,
why did he put his signature to it prior to being shown the police lineup?
The three tramps, Immediately after the assassination, members of the public and Dallas
police raced to the Grassy Knoll and railway traxks behind it, police arrested three
apparently homeless men and marched them single file towards the TSBD building, they
were photographed from different angles by one photographer and others, one of them,
smiling and all dressed well.
Why were they, when taken into custody, briefly interviewed and released, where are the
Dallas Police Department ‘transcripts’ from their interviews, they were dressed unlike tramps
with clean shoes and apparel and weren't candidates for the three police lineups
either?
What is going on with that?
We are led to believe that that were no voicerecording
equipment at the disposal of the
Dallas Police Department although they employed 1600 plus employees.
Wouldn't the murder of a significant figure such as the President of the United States at least
require the use of one Court clerk to sit in and take down Oswald's statements in Chief
Curry’s office? At least this would have been more reliable than merely accepting the
interviewer's notes which could later be altered?
Oswald interviewed for some 16 hours in total, no recording equipment in use, whilst only a
few feet away in the hallway, newspaper and tv crews are standing at the ready to film and
record audio of anything Oswald might tell them.
A TV camera filming down a hallway of DPD shows Jack Ruby with back to camera and
turns to his left, looking at a reporter who gives him an unusually knowing look, candidly
smiling at him when a police officer passes between them, Ruby looks away.
Ruby features in another tv film footage when Oswald was paraded, late at night before a
packed room of reporters. Ruby is elevated standing on something and leaning forward,
what for?
Why such an apparent lack of security measures with so many reporters.
Cheif Curry informs the media that his office had been receiving threatening calls about
killing Oswald yet still parades Oswald in front of and between dozens of media reporters
along the corridor between the police cells and his office.
What protocol existed in the DPD or any police department that allowed a murder suspect to
give a press conference? Any admissions he made here, would have raised pertinent
questions for his defence lawyer relating to his legal rights and, what could Jessie Curry tell
Oswald that would persuade him to volunteer information to the public before a full
investigation could take place?
why was Oswald’s request for legal assistance ignored on several occasions, in front of the
media and when interrogated?
From the various notes written down during his interrogation by police, Secret Service, F.B.I.
and Federal Post worker and later modified, ‘for clarity’, it appears that Oswald spoke openly
about his background, family, affiliations, political leanings and employment but resolved not
to be interviewed when interviewed by F.B.I. Agent, James Hosty as he knew him previous
and didn't like the way he and his wife, Marina, postassassination,
had been continually
pestered.
Oswald specifically requested a New York attorney named Abt, why? Because Oswald was
aware that Abt had represented the Civil Rights of a group of American Communists in a
Federal trial in 1949, Oswald wanted his Civil Rights protected.
Q. Was Oswald’s request for attorney Abt made before or after he was Charged with
President Kennedy's assassination? Oswald ultimately wanted any lawyer to represent him
when the enormity of the charges levelled against him sank in.
If it has since been revealed that Marina Oswald stated her husband was fond of the
Kennedys and had once found Lee crying to himself when he learnt Mrs. Kennedy lost her
third child, what does this say about about his ‘Loner’ persona, could he simply have been a
private person?
Did Oswald think his links or the apparent interests in him by others trick him into thinking he
was averting some greater outrage on humanity?
His Communist Marxist leanings would have led him to think that a greater good and equal
rights and working rights could be achieved by some means that didn't involve political
assassination.
When interviewed by Dallas police about his political leanings, Oswald declared that no
benefit could be derived in Killing Kennedy, as he would simply be replaced by Lyndon
Johnson as leader! The same policies would continue.
1. What are the coincidences?
2. John Connally, later Governor John Connally of Texas signed Lee Harvey Oswalds
discarge dishonourable discharge. Same John travelling in President Kennedy’s
Presidential limousine?
3. Senator Richard Nixon, owner of a Law Firm meeting with Pepsi Cola company
representatives in Dallas on Friday 22nd November, 1963 flew out of Dallas from
Love Field Airfield one hour before Air Force One arrived?
4. 194849,
Jack Rubenstein aka Ruby, was employed by Richard Nixon during a
campaign. How did they meet and how long were they in contact with each other?
5. Navy connections, President John F Kennedy, naval lieutenant aboard Patrol boat
PT109
during WW2, John Connally, Oswald USMC, ONI Office of Naval Intelligence
building in New Orleans. Oswald worked for a Coffee company in New Orleans on
the same block as OIC. He was head of the FPCC, Fair Play for Cuba Committee,
with no members, was asked to hand out leaflets on the street corner opposite ONI,
and several intelligence agencies all operated along this street and around the
corner, some coincidence, sounds like a set up. Was Oswald being set up under a
standard CIA plan to take a fall and divert attention away from a carefully planned,
organised plot to achieve a higher end?
Lee Harvey Oswald detective tells of how he tried to save him from Ruby as he is honored
for service
By James Nye
05:02 15 May 2013, updated 05:02 15 May 2013
Lee Harvey Oswald detective tells of how he tried to save him from Ruby as he is honored
for service
|
Photographed alongside a wincing Lee Harvey Oswald as he is shot by nightclub owner
Jack Ruby on November 24th, 1963, Detective Jim Leavelle has entered history as the 'man
in the cowboy hat'.
Immortalized in the iconic Pulitzer Prizewinning
photo taken two days after President
Kennedy's shocking assassination, Leavelle has now 50years
later received the police
commendation award for his years of service on Dallas' police force.
On Tuesday, Dallas Police Chief David Brown honored the man handcuffed to accused
presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald as he tried to save him and officially renamed the
department’s Detective of the Year Award after Leavelle.
Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy, reacts as Dallas night club
owner Jack Ruby, foreground, shoots at him from point blank range in a corridor of Dallas
police headquarters. At left is Detective Jim Leavelle
'To say I’m surprised is putting it mildly,' said Leavelle, 92, who joined the Dallas force in
1950 and retired in 1975. 'I can think of so many other officers who should be standing here,
receiving this award.'
On presenting him with the Police Commendation Award, Dallas Police Chief David Brown
was effusive with his praise.
'Being the chief and being able to recognize such an iconic figure is just special,' said Brown
who was threeyearsold
at the time of the president's death.
'This is an honor for me personally, being a Dallasite, knowing the rich history of Dallas.'
Dallas Police Chief David Brown (left) presents former Detective James Leavelle with the
Police Commendation Award
24 Nov 1963, Dallas, Texas, USA Jim
Leavelle (left) escorts Lee Harvey Oswald during a
press conference two days after his arrest in conjunction with the assassination of President
Kennedy
24 Nov 1963, Dallas, Texas, USA Jim
Leavelle (left) escorts Lee Harvey Oswald during a
press conference two days after his arrest in conjunction with the assassination of President
Kennedy
24 Nov 1963, Dallas, Texas, USA Jim
Leavelle (left) escorts Lee Harvey Oswald during a
press conference two days after his arrest in conjunction with the assassination of President
Kennedy
The accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, center in
handcuffs, is escorted to the Dallas city jail as nightclub owner Jack Ruby, foreground,
approaches Oswald with a pointed revolver
24 Nov 1963, Dallas, Texas, USA Lee
Harvey Oswald lies on a stretcher after being shot
by Jack Ruby during a press conference two days after his arrest in conjunction with the
assassination of President Kennedy
This recognition for Leavelle, just months before the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy
assassination follows on from the permanent commemoration of Dallas office J.D Tippit who
was the first officer to encounter Oswald and was shot dead 45 minutes after the
incident on Dealey Plaza.
A historical marker was erected at the Oak Cliff stree corner where he was shot and Leavelle
was there for that just
as Tippit's widow, Marie Tippit was in the audience for his
commendation on Tuesday.
Leavelle was the first man to interrogate Lee Harvey Oswald after his arrest in the Texas
theater in Oak Cliff and was handcuffed to Oswald as they exited Dallas police headquarters
that fateful evening.
'Lee, I hope that if anybody shoots at you, they are as good a shot as you were,' said
Leavelle to Oswald as they prepared to leave.
Asked what was going through his mind as Ruby approached Oswald and fired, Leavelle
told a story he has repeated hundreds if not thousands of times over the past halfcentury.
The body of Lee Harvey Oswald lies in a casket at Parkland Morgue in Dallas, Texas
The Dallas Police Department mug shots of Lee Harvey Oswald following his arrest for
possible involvement in the John F. Kennedy assassination and the murder of Officer J.D.
Tippit
'I’ve been asked that question many, many times,' Leavelle said to the Dallas Morning News.
'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.'
Recalling that he saw Ruby with the pistol in his right hand by his right leg he
said that no
one around appeared to notice what was about to occur.
Dallas, Texas, USA Prior
to the assassination, President John F. Kennedy, First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy, and Texas Governor John Connally ride through the streets of Dallas,
Texas on November 22, 1963
Dallas Police Department Lt. Bryan Cornish, left, looks on as Sr. Cpl. Rick Janich, right,
escorts retired detective James Leavelle to an awards ceremony Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at
the Jack Evans Police Headquarters building in Dallas
'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.
'Him being real close all I did was turn his body so instead of the bullet hitting him dead
center it hit about 3 or 4 inches to the left of the navel.' Oswald was rushed to Parkland
Memorial Hospital and died.
While Leavelle conceded that retelling the story can 'occasionally' get 'a little monotonous,'
he said he thinks it's been an important story to tell over the years from his firstperson
perspective. He said he started telling the story when schoolchildren would ask.
'I don't mind doing it because I know that the people asking it are interested,' said Leavelle,
who also survived the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Lee Harvey Oswald detective tells of how he tried to save him from Ruby as he is honored
for service
By James Nye05:02 15 May 2013, updated 05:02 15 May 2013
Lee Harvey Oswald detective tells of how he tried to save him from Ruby as he is honored
for service
|
Photographed alongside a wincing Lee Harvey Oswald as he is shot by nightclub owner
Jack Ruby on November 24th, 1963, Detective Jim Leavelle has entered history as the 'man
in the cowboy hat'.
Immortalized in the iconic Pulitzer Prizewinning
photo taken two days after President
Kennedy's shocking assassination, Leavelle has now 50years
later received the police
commendation award for his years of service on Dallas' police force.
On Tuesday, Dallas Police Chief David Brown honored the man handcuffed to accused
presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald as he tried to save him and officially renamed the
department’s Detective of the Year Award after Leavelle.
Scroll Down for Video
Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy, reacts as Dallas night club
owner Jack Ruby, foreground, shoots at him from point blank range in a corridor of Dallas
police headquarters. At left is Detective Jim Leavelle
'To say I’m surprised is putting it mildly,' said Leavelle, 92, who joined the Dallas force in
1950 and retired in 1975. 'I can think of so many other officers who should be standing here,
receiving this award.'
On presenting him with the Police Commendation Award, Dallas Police Chief David Brown
was effusive with his praise.
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'Being the chief and being able to recognize such an iconic figure is just special,' said Brown
who was threeyearsold
at the time of the president's death.
'This is an honor for me personally, being a Dallasite, knowing the rich history of Dallas.'
Dallas Police Chief David Brown (left) presents former Detective James Leavelle with the
Police Commendation Award
24 Nov 1963, Dallas, Texas, USA Jim
Leavelle (left) escorts Lee Harvey Oswald during a
press conference two days after his arrest in conjunction with the assassination of President
Kennedy
24 Nov 1963, Dallas, Texas, USA Jim
Leavelle (left) escorts Lee Harvey Oswald during a
press conference two days after his arrest in conjunction with the assassination of President
Kennedy
24 Nov 1963, Dallas, Texas, USA Jim
Leavelle (left) escorts Lee Harvey Oswald during a
press conference two days after his arrest in conjunction with the assassination of President
Kennedy
The accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, center in
handcuffs, is escorted to the Dallas city jail as nightclub owner Jack Ruby, foreground,
approaches Oswald with a pointed revolver
24 Nov 1963, Dallas, Texas, USA Lee
Harvey Oswald lies on a stretcher after being shot
by Jack Ruby during a press conference two days after his arrest in conjunction with the
assassination of President Kennedy
This recognition for Leavelle, just months before the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy
assassination follows on from the permanent commemoration of Dallas office J.D Tippit who
was the first officer to encounter Oswald and was shot dead 45 minutes after the
incident on Dealey Plaza.
A historical marker was erected at the Oak Cliff stree corner where he was shot and Leavelle
was there for that just
as Tippit's widow, Marie Tippit was in the audience for his
commendation on Tuesday.
Leavelle was the first man to interrogate Lee Harvey Oswald after his arrest in the Texas
theater in Oak Cliff and was handcuffed to Oswald as they exited Dallas police headquarters
that fateful evening.
'Lee, I hope that if anybody shoots at you, they are as good a shot as you were,' said
Leavelle to Oswald as they prepared to leave.
Asked what was going through his mind as Ruby approached Oswald and fired, Leavelle
told a story he has repeated hundreds if not thousands of times over the past halfcentury.
The body of Lee Harvey Oswald lies in a casket at Parkland Morgue in Dallas, Texas
The Dallas Police Department mug shots of Lee Harvey Oswald following his arrest for
possible involvement in the John F. Kennedy assassination and the murder of Officer J.D.
Tippit
'I’ve been asked that question many, many times,' Leavelle said to the Dallas Morning News.
'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.'
Recalling that he saw Ruby with the pistol in his right hand by his right leg he
said that no
one around appeared to notice what was about to occur.
Dallas, Texas, USA Prior
to the assassination, President John F. Kennedy, First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy, and Texas Governor John Connally ride through the streets of Dallas,
Texas on November 22, 1963
Dallas Police Department Lt. Bryan Cornish, left, looks on as Sr. Cpl. Rick Janich, right,
escorts retired detective James Leavelle to an awards ceremony Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at
the Jack Evans Police Headquarters building in Dallas
'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.
'Him being real close all I did was turn his body so instead of the bullet hitting him dead
center it hit about 3 or 4 inches to the left of the navel.' Oswald was rushed to Parkland
Memorial Hospital and died.
While Leavelle conceded that retelling the story can 'occasionally' get 'a little monotonous,'
he said he thinks it's been an important story to tell over the years from his firstperson
perspective. He said he started telling the story when schoolchildren would ask.
'I don't mind doing it because I know that the people asking it are interested,' said Leavelle,
who also survived the attack on Pearl Harbor.
READ MORE
Legendary Dallas cop James Leavelle, who escorted Lee Harvey Oswald, honored at police
headquarters
TESTIMONY OF JAMES ROBERT LEAVELLE
The testimony of James Robert Leavelle was taken at 3:30 p.m., on March 25, 1964, in the
office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office Building, Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex.,
by Mr. Leon D. Hubert, Jr., assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Mr. HUBERT. This is the deposition of James R. Leavelle, with the Dallas Police
Department. Mr. Leavelle, my name is Leon Hubert. I am a member of the advisory staff of
the General Counsel on the President's Commission. Under the provisions of the Executive
Order 11130, dated November 29, 1963, and Joint Resolution of Congress No. 137 and the
rules of procedure adopted by the Commission in accordance with the Executive order and
the joint resolution, I have been authorized to take a sworn deposition from you, Mr.
Leavelle. I state to you now that the general nature of the Commission's inquiry is to
ascertain, evaluate and report upon the facts relevant to the assassination of President
Kennedy and subsequent violent death of Lee H. Oswald. In particular to you, Mr. Leavelle,
the nature of the inquiry today is to determine what facts you know about the death of
Oswald and any other pertinent facts you may know about the general inquiry.
Mr. Leavelle, you have appeared today by virtue of a general request made to Chief Curry
by Mr. J. Lee Rankin, the general counsel of the staff of the President's Commission, and
also, under the rules of the Commission, you are entitled to a 3day
written notice prior to the
taking of the deposition, but the rules also provide that a witness may waive this 3day
notice, if he wishes to do so. Now, you have not had that 3day
notice, and so, I wish to
know if you would like to waive the 3day
notice?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. All right, then, would youI
think you said you would waive that notice, didn't
you?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. Would you stand and raise your right hand so that I can swear you in?
Do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I do.
Mr. HUBERT. Will you please state your full name?
Mr. LEAVELLE. James Robert Leavelle.
Mr. HUBERT. Your age?
Mr. LEAVELLE. FortyMr.
HUBERT. Your residence?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Wait. Fortythree.
Mr. HUBERT. Your residence?
Mr. LEAVELLE. 7703 Rilla Avenue, Dallas, Tex.
Mr. HUBERT. What is your occupation, sir?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Police officer.
Mr. HUBERT. Dallas Police Department?
Mr. LEAVELLE. That's right.
Mr. HUBERT. How long have you been so occupied?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Fourteen years, approximately.
Mr. HUBERT. How long have you held the position you now hold?
Mr. LEAVELLE. About 8 years.
Mr. HUBERT. What is that position?
Mr. LEAVELLE. A detective.
Mr. HUBERT. Any particular part of the department?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I work at the present time in the homicide and robbery bureau.
Mr. HUBERT. Who is your immediate superior there?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Capt. Will Fritz.
Mr. HUBERT. And who is above him?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Chief Stevenson.
Mr. HUBERT. Who answers, in turn, to Chief Curry?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
14
Mr. HUBERT. Now I pass to you two documents which you have read, and which I now want
to identify, by marking them as follows: The first document, which purports to be a report by
FBI Agent Bookhout, of an interview with you on November 24, I am marking as follows:
"Dallas, Tex., March 25, 1964, Exhibit No. 5088. Deposition of J. R. Leavelle." I am signing
my name below that, and marking the second page with my initials, in the lower righthand
corner. The second document I am also marking, "Dallas, Tex., March 25, 1964. Exhibit
5089, deposition of J.R. Leavelle," and signing my name also and placing my initials in the
lower righthand
corner of the second page of that document. The second document, 5089,
purports to be an FBI report of an interview with you by Special Agents Bramblett and
Logan. Now, addressing myself first to the document which is marked 5088, I will ask you if
you have read that document?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. And whether or not it states substantially the truth?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Substantially so.
Mr. HUBERT. Now, did you find any errors in it?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No; I think that is all right.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you wish to delete or add anything to it?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No; let it stand.
Mr. HUBERT. With that, would you, please, sign your name below mine, if you wish, and
initial the second page below my initials. Now, I hand you the document that I have marked
for identification as Exhibit 5089, and ask you the same questions with respect to that
document.
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes; I think this is the one that had the article in there about the short
interview, if it makes any difference.
Mr. HUBERT. Well, would you point out what paragraph you are talking about?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Let me see if I can find it here. I am sure it was on this one rather than the
other one. There was one right here on theon
the one Bookhout took. Now, let me see that
again.
Mr. HUBERT. Here.
Mr. LEAVELLE. It is the contents of the last paragraph on the second page, Mr. Hubert.
Mr. HUBERT. I think you are speaking of the third sentence of the last paragraph on the
second page, a sentence which reads as follows, to wit: "He was never present while
Oswald was being interviewed, nor was he present while Ruby was being interviewed by the
Dallas Police officers." I think you wish to comment upon that, do you not?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Correct that to read, "With the exception of possibly 15 minutes prior to the
actual transfer began on the 24th."
Mr. HUBERT. That is to say, after you had been selected as an officer to whomMr.
LEAVELLE. Would handle the transfer.
Mr. HUBERT. You were directed to go to Captain Fritz' office, and you did so, is that right?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Of course, I was directed to go there early in the morning. I have that. What
I am referring to, of course, once I got Oswald out of jail I stayed with him up to the end.
Mr. HUBERT. When did you get him out of jail?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I got him out of jail at, oh, I don't remember the exact time, but it wasit
was
between 9:30 that morning that I was instructed to go get him by Captain Fritz from the jail,
and bring him to his office, which I did, and I went into his cell and put the handcuffs on him
inside the cell.
Mr. HUBERT. And you brought him down toMr.
LEAVELLE. Brought him down, and I remained with him, or in the office from then on up
until the actual transfer took place.
Mr. HUBERT. Well, during that period, was there interviewing going on only 15 minutes?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Well, I made a note here, "at 9:30," but I could be in error on that time. They
may have talkedI
am sure that my note is in error
15
here. It would probably be between 10:30 and 11, probably an hour off of that. However,
there is a transfer sign out which would show the correct time.
Mr. HUBERT. That is what you call a"
tempo"?
Mr. LEAVELLE. The "tempo," yes, which shows the correct time.
Mr. HUBERT. Anyway, you were with Oswald at all times from the time of the "tempo," until
he was actually shot?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. And any interviewing that happened in that period you were present at?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. So that you want to modify Exhibit 5089, in the sentence that I read in that
respect?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know Jack Ruby, sir?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes, I had known him. I haveI
had previously stated I met him back in
1951, or thereabouts, when I was working the area that his Silver Spur was located in on
South Ervay, and became acquainted with him.
Mr. HUBERT. I understand that some time in 1963, you received an anonymous call that
there was going to be a hijacking of his club. What does that mean, a "hijacking"?
Mr. LEAVELLE. That means that someone is going to use a pistol and take the money from
the cashier, or whoever had custody of it.
Mr. HUBERT. In other words, a robbery, or burglary?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Armed robbery is what it amounts to.
Mr. HUBERT. So, in order to guard against that, you and a fellow officer went down toMr.
LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. Down to the club and stayed there watching for it?
Mr. LEAVELLE. We stayed there until closing time. I think they stopped the people from
coming in, I believe.
Mr. HUBERT. You did not tell Ruby what was going on?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes; we toldof
course, Ruby was not there. This was the Carousel Club on
Oak Lawn, which was operated by his sister, Eva Grant, and we told her what the situation
was, and she gave us ause
of a booth near the door where we could get there in the booth
and observe anyone coming in or out.
Mr. HUBERT. That was the Vegas Club on Ervay?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No, sir; on Oak Lawn. That is the Carousel on Commerce Street.
Mr. HUBERT. The Silver Spur?
Mr. LEAVELLE. The Silver Spur, it has long since been out of existence.
Mr. HUBERT. So, you told his sister what the situation was?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. And Ruby came in later?
Mr. LEAVELLE. He came in just about closing time, and she probably had called him,
because he already knew that we were out here. Of course, I just am assuming she had
probably already called him. He didn't seem particular perturbed about it at that time.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you recognize Ruby right away when he came out of the crowd?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I recognized him as someone that I knew, but I was unable to call his name.
Mr. HUBERT. Just describe in your own words how the whole thing happened, what you
saw from the time you left the jail door?
Mr. LEAVELLE. From the time we left the jail door?
Mr. HUBERT. Yes; push it back a little further. From the time you left the jail cell.
Mr. LEAVELLE. All right, when we left the jail cell, we proceeded down to the booking desk
there, up to the door leading out into the basement, and I purposely told Mr. Graves to hold it
a minute while Captain Fritz checked the area outside. I don't know why I did that, because
we had not made any plans to do so, but I said, "Let's hold it a minute and let him see if
everything
16
is in order." Because we had been given to understand that the car would be across the
passageway.
Mr. HUBERT. Of the jail corridor?
Mr. LEAVELLE. And thatand
we would have nothing to do but walk straight from the door,
approximately 13 or 14 feet to the car and then Captain Fritzwhen
we asked him to give us
the high sign on it he said, "Everything is all set."
Mr. HUBERT. Did you notice what time it was?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No; I did not. That is the only error that I can see. The captain should have
known that the car was not in the position it should be, and I was surprised when I walked to
the door and the car was not in the spot it should have been, but I could see it was in back,
and backing into position, but had it been in position where we were told it would be, that
would have eliminated a lot of the area in which anyone would have access to him, because
it would have been blocked by the car. In fact, if the car had been sitting where we were told
it was going to be, seeit
would have been sitting directly upon the spot where Ruby was
standing when he fired the shot.
Mr. HUBERT. Of course, in that case the television cameras would have been blocked out?
Mr. LEAVELLE. That's true.
Mr. HUBERT. The car was not pulled back because pulling it back would block theMr.
LEAVELLE. That, I don't know. Of course, you areaccording
to one of my previous
reports I earlier suggested to Captain Fritz that we make the suggestion to the chief that we
take him out to the first floor and put him out at Main Street to a car and proceed to the
county jail that way and leave them waiting in the basement and on Commerce Street, and
we could be to the county jail before anyone knew what was taking place.
Mr. HUBERT. What time did you make that suggestion, sir?
Mr. LEAVELLE. That was either just before or just afterprobably
just after I had gone there
and got Oswald and we were talking about the transfer.
Mr. HUBERT. Who did you make that suggestion to?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I made it to Captain Fritz.
Mr. HUBERT. What answer did you receive from him?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Said he didn't think the chief would go for it.
Mr. HUBERT. Did he say why?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Because, he said, the chief had given his word to the press that they would
transfer him at a time when they could make pictures.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you convey that same idea to the chief, himself, or to anyone other than
Fritz?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Other than to Mr. Beck and Brown, Mr. Clardy that was thereMr.
Graves
rather. They probably heard me make the suggestion. In fact, Mr. Beck made the suggestion
at the same time that we couldI
know that he was there, because he made the suggestion
at the time, same time, said well, that we could eitherinstead
of going out the Commerce
Street, in front of all the people lined up, go out the basement in the opposite direction.
Mr. HUBERT. You mean even if you are going to use the basement, use the Main Street
instead of Commerce Street?
Mr. LEAVELLE. That's right; and he made that suggestion. Of course, Chief Curry had
already given his word to the newsmen that they would transfer him and let them get the
pictures, and I have just assumed since that the reason that the car wasn't in position like it
was supposed to be was so that they could get the pictures, and the reason for not holding
to the schedule previously outlined.
Mr. HUBERT. Have you spoken to the chief about that since?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No; I have not.
Mr. HUBERT. Have you spoken to anybody about it, sir?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No; I haven't spoke to anyone other than possibly just some of the officers
making a remark, "If he had used my suggestion, that we would probably have made it."
Mr. HUBERT. You said that you had reported making that suggestion in one of the reports
that you made?
17
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes; I think it is in this one right here, I believe.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you have a copy of that?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yesthat
is another one.
Mr. HUBERT. Off the record.
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. HUBERT. Well, now, you have made reference to another report which appears on page
63, Commission's Document No. 81A,
entitled "Investigation of the operational security
involving the transfer of Lee Harvey Oswald, November 24, 1963," prepared by the Dallas
Police Department. I am not going to take that page 63, which is in two parts of the bound
Commission Document 81A,
but I am going to identify it by marking on it, towit,
as follows:
"Dallas, Texas, March 25, 1964. Exhibit 5090, deposition of J. R. Leavelle," signing my name
below that endorsement, and placing my initial on the second page in the lower righthand
corner. Who prepared this document, 5090?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I prepared it. It was typed by our secretary up here.
Mr. HUBERT. Was it signed by you?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No; it was notwell,
wait a minute now. I believe there was one copy which
was, but probably the original thatnow,
this looks like a mimeographedMr.
HUBERT. Mimeographed or photographedone
of those. Have you read it?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes, sir; I have read it. In fact, here is a copy of it.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you have a copy in your possession right now?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. Is it correct?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. Now, I notice the fourth paragraph on the first page, when you state that you
had suggested the transfer be via the first floor of the Main Street door, and that is a
recordation of that thought made when was this dictated?
Mr. LEAVELLE. When was this dictated?
Mr. HUBERT. Yes.
Mr. LEAVELLE. It was, what you might say, some 2 or 3 days after that, after the shooting. I
don't recall the exact date.
Mr. HUBERT. Well, would youMr.
LEAVELLE. In from 2 or 3 days afterward.
Mr. HUBERT. Would you complete the identification of this document by placing your
signature directly below mine on the first page and your initials below mine on the second
page? Did you state that fact to the FBI, sir?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I don't recall whether I did or not.
Mr. HUBERT. I don't believe it is in either of the other two documents of the FBI that I have
here, 5088, or 5089. Is there any reason why you didn't?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Well, to the best of my knowledge it seems as though I might have made
that suggestion, made the reference to that, but whether whoever was taking it said that they
didn't need it in their report. I'm sure that'snow,
of course, I can't swear to this, but I think
that is correct because I know II
am not able to recall at this time exactly what the
conversation was between myself and the agentIin
this, in its entirety, I do know there
was one or two things that I told them about, which they did say that they didn't think was
necessary for their report, so, they did not put it in there. Now, whether that was one of them
or not, I do not recall.
Mr. HUBERT. On the occasion that you think that you might have stated that to the FBI
agent, was there one agent interviewing you, or two?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I believe at one time the two were interviewing me.
Mr. HUBERT. How many interviews have you had with the FBI?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Twice. Mr. Bookhout was out, and then Mr. Bookhout interviewed me on the
morning after the shooting, I believe. Is that correct?
Mr. HUBERT. Dated November 24.
Mr. LEAVELLE. Twentyfourth.
Mr. HUBERT. That would be the day of the shooting?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes, that is what I mean, and then the other one was sometime after or with
the two agents?
18
Mr. HUBERT. And you think it was during the interrogation by the two agents on December
10, 1963, that you mentioned about your suggestion that the route should be through the
first floor of the Main Street entrance of the municipal building coming out the Main Street
door?
Mr. LEAVELLE. That's right.
Mr. HUBERT. But, that those agents told you that that was not important?
Mr. LEAVELLE. They didn't need it for that particular form.
Mr. HUBERT. I see.
Mr. LEAVELLE. To the best of my knowledge, of course, my reason for doublecrossingmy
reasons for wanting to handle it the other way, I thought it would be done quicker and easier
and I was fed up to my chin, in a way, with these news people, and theyas
soon as we
could get rid of them the better, was my sentiments, and I didn't have any desire to parade
through them with the prisoner in tow. However, I can understand why the chief wanted to let
them take the pictures.
Mr. HUBERT. Had it been your decision you wouldn't have done it that way, is that it?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Either as I suggested, or at a different hour.
Mr. HUBERT. Say move him in the morning early?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes, I brought Ruby down in safety and I don't think there was anyas
long
as it was successful, I don't think you can argue with success.
Mr. HUBERT. Did yon transfer Ruby?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes, I did.
Mr. HUBERT. It was done at an unannounced hour?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Well, sir; it was so unannounced that the chief didn't know about it and
neither did Sheriff Decker. I don't know whether they will admit that or not, but no one knew it
but Captain Fritz and myself and three or four officers directly involved.
Mr. HUBERT. You all just decided to do it, and that was it?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Well, the captain called me and asked me about it and told me what he was
thinking about doing and he wanted to know if I thought it would work and I said, "Yes, I think
it will the way it has been set up," and he said, "I haven't asked the chief about it," and I said,
"All you can do is get a bawling out, but a bawling out is better than losing a prisoner."
Mr. HUBERT. Did you get bawled out about it?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I didn't. I did not know whether he did or not. I doubt it. Because I am sure
the chief was relieved to be rid of the responsibility.
Mr. HUBERT. How was Ruby removed, then, just for the record?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Well, this would be on Monday morning, I guess, the next Monday morning
around 11, around the same hour that Oswald was transferred. The captain had not showed
up and Ihe
called on the telephone and asked for me and his secretary called me to the
phone, and I was in the squad room where several officers were, and asked me if I was in a
position where I could talk, and I said, "No, not really," and he said, "Well"
told me to go
into his office and take the phone in there, which I did, and he said, "I am down at the
Greyhound Bus Station, and I have Officers Graves and Montgomery with me."
He had run into them on the street. Said, "We have cased the jail and it looks clear. I am
going to make a suggestion to you, and if you don't think it will work I want you to tell me."
Saidhe
said, "We'll pull through the basement of the city hall," said, "You go get Ruby out
of the jail anyway you want to, on a "tempo" or whatever you think best, and bring him down
to me, down in the elevator and we'll pull through the basement at some given time, and
we'll load him up and whisk him right on down and let another squad follow us and we will
take him right on down to the county jail."
Said, "The sheriffI
haven't called Decker or the chief about it, either." Said, "Do you think it
will work?"
I said, "Yes." Said, "How many mengot
enough there to help you with him?"
I said, "Yes, there is three or four here I can get."
"Don't tell anybody where you are going. Just get them like you are going
19
after coffee and get downstairs or somewhere and tell them what you are going to do."
So, I went into the squad room (Captain Fritz had called) Lieutenant Wells, and told him not
to let the officers out of the office because he wanted us when he got in there so I just
walked out and motioned to Mr. Brown and Dhority and Mr. Beck and told them to follow me,
and didn't say a word to anyone, and walked downstairs, and, of course, they are curious,
and when I got downstairs I outlined the deal to them and told Beck and Brown to get the
carget
the other car in the basement and have it in position to go out, and Dhority and I
went up and got the prisoner and brought him down.
Mr. HUBERT. Brought him down the jail elevator?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Down the jail elevator.
Mr. HUBERT. Were any newsmen down in the station?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Beg your pardon?
Mr. HUBERT. Were there any newsmen down in the basement?
Mr. LEAVELLE. In fact, when I walked out one of the newspapermen asked me when we
were going to transfer Ruby and I said, "Oh, I don't know." And just like that, and walked on.
Mr. HUBERT. You had Ruby with you?
Mr. LEAVELLE. You meanoh,
no; the officers and I walking down. When we brought Ruby
down in the jail elevator, that elevator is never in view of the public. It is an inside elevator.
Never in view of the public, so, anyway, after talking to the captain, I set my watch with his
and said, "Be there at exactly 11:15."
So, he set his watch with mine and we brought Ruby down. That is the reasonI
got down
there about a minute and a half, 2 minutes early to the basement and told the lieutenant on
duty, told everybody not to ring for the elevator that we would have it tied up, just held him in
the elevator.
Mr. HUBERT. Kept Ruby in the elevator?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Kept Ruby in the elevator. Mr. Brown standing outside of the jail office, Mr.
Beck had his car, his motor running in the parking basement, and Mr. Brown was standing
there talking to one of the men in the jail office just as though he was passing the time of
day, and he was to give me the nod as soon as the captain's car pulled in on the ramp,
which he did.
Mr. HUBERT. Which side did he pull in on?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Just came off the Main Street ramp and parked across the opening and
when he saw him pull in, gave me the high sign and we took Ruby and told him, I said, "I
don't want to have to push you or shove you. I want you to move." Of course, Ruby was
scared, so, he almost outran me to the car. He ran and got in the back seat of the car with
Graves, who was already in the back seat, and Montgomery was driving and Mr. Beck,
Dhority, and Brown got to the other car and followed us. We proceeded directly to the county
jail.
Mr. HUBERT. Up Commerce?
Mr. LEAVELLE. We went up Commerce to the expressway and cut back on the expressway
to Main Street, and came down Main Street to Houston Street where the jail is located, and
around the corner on Houston Street, to the entrance of the county jail.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you have any trouble with the traffic going down Main Street?
Mr. LEAVELLE. We caught every light green going down. Didn't have to stop.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you have the sirens going?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No, we did not. We drove through there at a good little step faster than
normal, but so happened we caught every light. I don't think we even missed a light. When
we reached the jail, the officers in the car behind us bailed out and covered the entrance to
the jail, and we werehad
him inside in a matter of 20 seconds, from the time the car
stopped.
Mr. HUBERT. All right, sir. Is there anything else you want to add about anything we have
talked about?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I can't think of anything else that would be pertinent to it.
Mr. HUBERT. All right. Thank you. One more thing on this. You have
20
not been previously interviewed by me, or any other members of the Commission's staff,
have you, sir?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No, sir; I have not.
Mr. HUBERT. Okay. That's all.
Home .. Alphabetical list of witnesses
Paul Bentley, 87, Dies; Detective Arrested Oswald
By DENNIS HEVESI
JULY 25, 2008
Paul Bentley, the Dallas police detective who helped arrest Lee Harvey Oswald 80 minutes
after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died Monday at his home in Dallas.
He was 87.
His death was confirmed by Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza,
the exhibit that occupies the floor in the former Texas School Book Depository from which
Oswald fired his 6.5millimeter
MannlicherCarcano
rifle at the 35th president.
When Detective Bentley hurtled over several rows in the Texas Theater that day, Nov. 22,
1963, to get to the slim man pointing a pistol at another police officer, he had no idea that the
man was Kennedy’s killer.
“At the time of the arrest, I had no knowledge whatsoever that this might possibly be our
suspect in regards to the assassination of the president,” Detective Bentley told WFAATV
in
Dallas in a 1963 interview.
But he did know that the man might be a suspect in the shooting of Officer J. D. Tippit, who
had been killed half an hour earlier when he confronted Oswald on a nearby street some 45
minutes after Kennedy was shot.
The assistant manager of a shoe store near the theater, in the Oak Cliff section southwest of
downtown, had told the ticket taker that a man acting suspiciously had sneaked into the
theater.
“The person who saw him suggested that she call the police, because he might be
connected to either the shooting of the president or of Officer Tippit,” Mr. Mack said in an
interview on Thursday.
PLACE PHOTO OF OSWALD ARREST OUTSIDE THEATER
Paul Bentley, right, with Lee Harvey Oswald in custody outside the Texas Theater in Dallas.
JIM MACCAMMON, COURTESY OF HOWARD UPCHURCH
Detective Bentley was at a police station when reports arrived that someone had fired on the
president’s motorcade and, soon afterward, that an officer had been shot. He went to the site
of the Tippit shooting, then to the theater.
“Bentley and several other officers went up to the balcony,” Mr. Mack said. “Officer Nick
McDonald went through the back door, behind the screen, and stood on the stage. The shoe
store manager was with him and pointed out the guy who had been acting suspiciously. As
McDonald approached, Oswald stood up and said, ‘Well, it’s all over now.’ ”
When Officer McDonald came close, Oswald punched him and drew a pistol. Detective
Bentley raced down from the balcony.
“That’s when I tried to get as close to him as possible, trying to grab the weapon,” he said in
an oral history given to the museum in 1994. “I came over the backs of seats,” twisting his
right ankle between two of them, and, along with other officers, subdued Oswald.
Photographs of Oswald in custody show a cut over his eye. It was caused by the Masonic
ring Detective Bentley was wearing during the scuffle, about 20 rows back from the movie
screen.
Seated in the patrol car to the left of Oswald during the ride downtown, Detective Bentley
heard a dispatcher say Oswald was the prime suspect in the Kennedy shooting. “I turned to
him, and I said, ‘Did you shoot President Kennedy?’ ” Detective Bentley recalled. “He said,
‘You find out for yourself.’ ” (Detective Bentley's recollection is unsupported by other existing
historical records.)
Paul Lester Bentley was born in Dallas on June 29, 1921. He served in the Army Air Forces
in World War II and joined the Dallas police in 1947. He retired from the department in 1968,
then became security director for First National Bank in Dallas.
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, the former Mozelle Robertson; a sister, Mildred
Waldroop; a son, James; and one grandson.
Two days after the Kennedy assassination, while being escorted through the basement of
the Dallas city jail, Oswald was shot to death by Jack Ruby. At Ruby’s left at that moment,
memorably captured by cameras, was Detective Jim Leavelle, wearing a lightcolored
Resistol. Clutching Ruby’s right arm, trying to wrench away his pistol, was Detective L. C.
Graves — Detective Bentley’s brotherinlaw.
Correction: July 26, 2008
An obituary on Friday about Paul Bentley, a Dallas detective who helped capture the
presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, included an incorrect identification from a
museum curator, in some editions, for the brand of hat worn two days later by Jim Leavelle,
a Dallas police detective photographed escorting Oswald when he was killed. It was a
Resistol, not a Stetson.
Correction: August 6, 2008
An obituary on July 25 about Paul Bentley, the Dallas police detective who helped arrest Lee
Harvey Oswald after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, included incorrectly,
without qualifying its source, a remark Mr. Bentley remembered hearing after the arrest.
Many years later, Mr. Bentley told oral history interviewers that on the road to police
headquarters with Oswald, after hearing police dispatchers say the man in custody was a
prime suspect in the assassination of Kennedy, he asked Oswald, “Did you shoot President
Kennedy?” and that Oswald replied, “You find out for yourself.” Mr. Bentley’s recollection is
unsupported by other existing historical records.
The obituary also described Mr. Bentley’s role in the arrest imprecisely. Mr. Bentley adjusted
the handcuffs after Oswald complained they were too tight; he did not snap the handcuffs
on. (Another officer had placed his handcuffs on Oswald moments earlier.)
JFK: Investigating Lee Harvey Oswald
LARRY MCSHANE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 11/17/2013 12:01 AM ET facebook
Tweet
HO/REUTERS
Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested and taken out of the Texas Theater in Dallas,Tex., in this file
photo from November 22, 1963.
Dallas homicide Det. Jim Leavelle, entrusted with moving the nation’s most notorious killer,
secured his infamous suspect with a set of handcuffs.
The police veteran then took a second pair, snapping one manacle around his left wrist and
the other on the right wrist of Lee Harvey Oswald — the assassin just 48 hours removed
from murdering President Kennedy.
As the pair prepared to walk through the basement of the Dallas police headquarters to a
waiting vehicle, Leavelle mentioned the dozens of death threats against Oswald.
“I said, ‘Lee, if anybody shoots at you, I hope they’re as good a shot as you are’ — I meant
that they would hit him and not me,” recounts Leavelle in a soft Texas twang.
“And he said, ‘Nobody’s gonna shoot at me.’ Famous last words.’”
Leavelle, now 92, is never far removed from those final seconds with Oswald — and his
recollections remain razorsharp
a halfcentury
after Jack Ruby’s gunshot nearly killed him,
too.
“Oswald’s rib is what saved me,” he said. “That bullet hit one of the ribs in there, and
ricocheted.”
Speaking to the Daily News from his home in Garland, Texas, Leavelle provided a
blowbyblow
account of Oswald’s shocking slaying as the nation watched on live television.
HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Police mugshots of Lee Harvey Oswald taken after assassination of President John F.
Kennedy.
Leavelle, a World War II veteran who survived Pearl Harbor, joined the Dallas police 13
years earlier. He wore a lightcolored
suit, a tie and a cowboy hat as he arrived for work on
the hectic morning of Nov. 24, 1963.
As usual, he carried a .45caliber
handgun on one hip; on this day, he packed a second on
the other for extra firepower.
The investigator and the assassin first met two days earlier, when Leavelle was leading the
murder investigation of fellow Officer J.D. Tippit.
Oswald had gunned down the Dallas cop shortly after the assassination as he tried to dodge
a horde of law enforcement pursuers.
The killer, after his arrest inside a movie theater, was returned to police headquarters and
placed inside a small, spartan interrogation room.
It held a desk, two chairs, no phone and Jim Leavelle.
The detective was unaware he shared a room with JFK’s killer when he began questioning
his copkiller
suspect.
BOB JACKSON/AP
Lee Harvey Oswald, suspected assassin of President John F. Kennedy, grimaces as he is
shot to death at pointblank
range by nightclub owner Jack Ruby in the basement of the
Dallas police headquarters Nov. 24, 1963. Plainclothes officer at left is Jim Leavelle.
“He was very polite, calm and collected,” Leavelle said during an hourlong
conversation with
the News. “I said later that I wouldn’t want to be that cool and calm after shooting two
people.”
Leavelle said he was struck by one thing that came from Oswald’s mouth: “I didn’t shoot
anybody.”
“Most suspects would say ‘I didn’t shoot that cop,’ or ‘I didn’t shoot that guy,’” he recalled.
“Then I got to thinking, well, he knew what happened, and he was getting his denial in early.”
After 15 minutes of chitchat,
a Dallas police captain opened the door and came inside. He
asked where Oswald worked, and the killer mentioned the Texas Book Depository.
“You’re the man I want,” said the captain.
Leavelle was finished speaking with Oswald — until their reunion two days later when Dallas
police prepared to transfer Oswald from headquarters to a nearby county jail.
By then, the nation knew much more about Oswald.
TONY GUTIERREZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Retired Dallas Police Department Det. Jim Leavelle poses in the former book depository
building, now known as The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, from which Lee Harvey
Oswald fired the fatal shots killing President John F. Kennedy, in Dallas.
The killer was born Oct. 18, 1939, and named Lee after his late dad and Harvey for his
maternal grandmother — it was her maiden name.
Oswald’s childhood was erratic, with time spent in an orphanage. By age 17, he’d attended a
dozen schools and lived at 20 different addresses.
He joined the Marines and qualified as a sharpshooter, only to wind up courtmartialed
not
once but twice. Oswald had links to Russia and Cuba; he met his wife Marina while working
in Minsk.
A neighbor once claimed that Lee was a tiny terror who tossed his toy gun at her. Oswald,
now 24, stood accused of using a rifle to take out the president.
The decision to move Oswald through a media horde in the basement was prompted in part
to show the suspect wasn’t beaten in police custody, Leavelle recalled.
An initial plan to load him inside a waiting armored police vehicle was scratched when it
wouldn’t fit through the entrance because of lowhanging
air conditioners.
Before their exit, Oswald asked if he could wear a black sweater. “I let him put that on,” said
Leavelle.
Jack Ruby shot presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
The lawman and the welldressed
killer began the last walk of Oswald’s life.
They hadn’t gone far when Leavelle spotted Ruby, in a fedora and suit, with a .38caliber
revolver tucked tight against his leg.
The detective spied the gun as Ruby leveled the weapon at Oswald’s midsection.
“I jerked back on Oswald to pull him behind me,” Leavelle said. “But I didn’t have any
leverage. So all I did was turn his body, and the bullet hit him 3 or 4 inches to the left of his
navel.”
An iconic photo captured Oswald twisting as he grimaced in agony. Leavelle, his eyes
growing wide, stared directly at the gunman.
As the bullet deflected off Oswald’s rib, Leavelle’s partner L.C. Graves grabbed Ruby’s wrist
with one hand and the killer’s weapon with the other.
“I could see Ruby’s finger on the pistol, twitching,” Leavelle recalled. “But I knew he wasn’t
gonna fire any more. He couldn’t with Graves’ hand wrapped around the cylinder.”
DONALD UHRBROCK/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGE
Young Lee Harvey Oswald stands outside his home, with weapon used to kill President John
F. Kennedy.
The whole episode ended in the blink of an eye. Ruby was buried in a crush of law
enforcement.
“I reached over and grabbed him by the shoulder,” said Leavelle. “The other officers piled in,
and just crushed him to the floor. Your eyes took it in just like a camera.”
Oswald was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital — where Kennedy died two days earlier.
Leavelle rode shotgun in the ambulance with the mortally wounded man.
“I held onto his wrist on the way out, trying to feel for a pulse,” the detective said. “I never did
hear one.”
Oswald — who never uttered a word after taking the bullet — was pronounced dead at 1:17
p.m.
The assassin was buried on the same day as JFK, his remains going into the ground at the
Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth. There were few mourners, and finding a minister to
preside proved difficult.
HANDOUT
Although there were dozens of police officers on hand for security at the funeral of Lee
Harvey Oswald, there weren't enough mourners to carry Oswald's casket to the gravesite.
Reporters, including members of UPI and Associated Press, became footnotes in history
when they grudgingly agreed to be pallbearers.
A reverend was finally located, and members of the media served as pallbearers for the
notorious assassin.
Leavelle has little time for the conspiracy theorists of the world.
“You know, we knew we were gonna get a lot of questions — ‘Was there anybody working
with him?’” he said.
“We investigated the conspiracy for months, until it proved out there wasn’t anybody helped
him out with it.”
One day after Oswald’s death, Leavelle was part of the team that transferred Ruby to the
county lockup. The killer told the cop that he feared somebody might pop a shot at him, too.
“I said, ‘Jack, ain’t nobody gonna shoot you,’” Leavelle recalled.
This time, nobody did.
lmcshane@nydailynews.com
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JFK: Investigating Lee Harvey Oswald
LARRY MCSHANENEW YORK DAILY NEWS 11/17/2013 12:01 AM ET
Tweet email
HO/REUTERS
Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested and taken out of the Texas Theater in Dallas,Tex., in this file
photo from November 22, 1963.
Dallas homicide Det. Jim Leavelle, entrusted with moving the nation’s most notorious killer,
secured his infamous suspect with a set of handcuffs.
The police veteran then took a second pair, snapping one manacle around his left wrist and
the other on the right wrist of Lee Harvey Oswald— the assassin just 48 hours removed from
murdering President Kennedy.
As the pair prepared to walk through the basement of the Dallas police headquarters to a
waiting vehicle, Leavelle mentioned the dozens of death threats against Oswald.
“I said, ‘Lee, if anybody shoots at you, I hope they’re as good a shot as you are’ — I meant
that they would hit him and not me,” recounts Leavelle in a soft Texas twang.
“And he said, ‘Nobody’s gonna shoot at me.’ Famous last words.’”
Leavelle, now 92, is never far removed from those final seconds with Oswald — and his
recollections remain razorsharp
a halfcentury
after Jack Ruby’s gunshot nearly killed him,
too.
“Oswald’s rib is what saved me,” he said. “That bullet hit one of the ribs in there, and
ricocheted.”
Speaking to the Daily News from his home in Garland, Texas, Leavelle provided a
blowbyblow
account of Oswald’s shocking slaying as the nation watched on live television.
HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Police mugshots of Lee Harvey Oswald taken after assassination of President John F.
Kennedy.
Leavelle, a World War II veteran who survived Pearl Harbor, joined the Dallas police 13
years earlier. He wore a lightcolored
suit, a tie and a cowboy hat as he arrived for work on
the hectic morning of Nov. 24, 1963.
As usual, he carried a .45caliber
handgun on one hip; on this day, he packed a second on
the other for extra firepower.
The investigator and the assassin first met two days earlier, when Leavelle was leading the
murder investigation of fellow Officer J.D. Tippit.
Oswald had gunned down the Dallas cop shortly after the assassination as he tried to dodge
a horde of law enforcement pursuers.
The killer, after his arrest inside a movie theater, was returned to police headquarters and
placed inside a small, spartan interrogation room.
It held a desk, two chairs, no phone and Jim Leavelle.
The detective was unaware he shared a room with JFK’s killer when he began questioning
his copkiller
suspect.
BOB JACKSON/AP
Lee Harvey Oswald, suspected assassin of President John F. Kennedy, grimaces as he is
shot to death at pointblank
range by nightclub owner Jack Ruby in the basement of the
Dallas police headquarters Nov. 24, 1963. Plainclothes officer at left is Jim Leavelle.
“He was very polite, calm and collected,” Leavelle said during an hourlong
conversation with
the News. “I said later that I wouldn’t want to be that cool and calm after shooting two
people.”
Leavelle said he was struck by one thing that came from Oswald’s mouth: “I didn’t shoot
anybody.”
“Most suspects would say ‘I didn’t shoot that cop,’ or ‘I didn’t shoot that guy,’” he recalled.
“Then I got to thinking, well, he knew what happened, and he was getting his denial in early.”
After 15 minutes of chitchat,
a Dallas police captain opened the door and came inside. He
asked where Oswald worked, and the killer mentioned the Texas Book Depository.
“You’re the man I want,” said the captain.
Leavelle was finished speaking with Oswald — until their reunion two days later when Dallas
police prepared to transfer Oswald from headquarters to a nearby county jail.
By then, the nation knew much more about Oswald.
TONY GUTIERREZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Retired Dallas Police Department Det. Jim Leavelle poses in the former book depository
building, now known as The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, from which Lee Harvey
Oswald fired the fatal shots killing President John F. Kennedy, in Dallas.
The killer was born Oct. 18, 1939, and named Lee after his late dad and Harvey for his
maternal grandmother — it was her maiden name.
Oswald’s childhood was erratic, with time spent in an orphanage. By age 17, he’d attended a
dozen schools and lived at 20 different addresses.
He joined the Marines and qualified as a sharpshooter, only to wind up courtmartialed
not
once but twice. Oswald had links to Russia and Cuba; he met his wife Marina while working
in Minsk.
A neighbor once claimed that Lee was a tiny terror who tossed his toy gun at her. Oswald,
now 24, stood accused of using a rifle to take out the president.
The decision to move Oswald through a media horde in the basement was prompted in part
to show the suspect wasn’t beaten in police custody, Leavelle recalled.
An initial plan to load him inside a waiting armored police vehicle was scratched when it
wouldn’t fit through the entrance because of lowhanging
air conditioners.
Before their exit, Oswald asked if he could wear a black sweater. “I let him put that on,” said
Leavelle.
Jack Ruby shot presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
The lawman and the welldressed
killer began the last walk of Oswald’s life.
They hadn’t gone far when Leavelle spotted Ruby, in a fedora and suit, with a .38caliber
revolver tucked tight against his leg.
The detective spied the gun as Ruby leveled the weapon at Oswald’s midsection.
“I jerked back on Oswald to pull him behind me,” Leavelle said. “But I didn’t have any
leverage. So all I did was turn his body, and the bullet hit him 3 or 4 inches to the left of his
navel.”
An iconic photo captured Oswald twisting as he grimaced in agony. Leavelle, his eyes
growing wide, stared directly at the gunman.
As the bullet deflected off Oswald’s rib, Leavelle’s partner L.C. Graves grabbed Ruby’s wrist
with one hand and the killer’s weapon with the other.
“I could see Ruby’s finger on the pistol, twitching,” Leavelle recalled. “But I knew he wasn’t
gonna fire any more. He couldn’t with Graves’ hand wrapped around the cylinder.”
DONALD UHRBROCK/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGE
Young Lee Harvey Oswald stands outside his home, with weapon used to kill President John
F. Kennedy.
The whole episode ended in the blink of an eye. Ruby was buried in a crush of law
enforcement.
“I reached over and grabbed him by the shoulder,” said Leavelle. “The other officers piled in,
and just crushed him to the floor. Your eyes took it in just like a camera.”
Oswald was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital — where Kennedy died two days earlier.
Leavelle rode shotgun in the ambulance with the mortally wounded man.
“I held onto his wrist on the way out, trying to feel for a pulse,” the detective said. “I never did
hear one.”
Oswald — who never uttered a word after taking the bullet — was pronounced dead at 1:17
p.m.
The assassin was buried on the same day as JFK, his remains going into the ground at the
Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth. There were few mourners, and finding a minister to
preside proved difficult.
HANDOUT
Although there were dozens of police officers on hand for security at the funeral of Lee
Harvey Oswald, there weren't enough mourners to carry Oswald's casket to the gravesite.
Reporters, including members of UPI and Associated Press, became footnotes in history
when they grudgingly agreed to be pallbearers.
A reverend was finally located, and members of the media served as pallbearers for the
notorious assassin.
Leavelle has little time for the conspiracy theorists of the world.
“You know, we knew we were gonna get a lot of questions — ‘Was there anybody working
with him?’” he said.
“We investigated the conspiracy for months, until it proved out there wasn’t anybody helped
him out with it.”
One day after Oswald’s death, Leavelle was part of the team that transferred Ruby to the
county lockup. The killer told the cop that he feared somebody might pop a shot at him, too.
“I said, ‘Jack, ain’t nobody gonna shoot you,’” Leavelle recalled.
This time, nobody did.
lmcshane@nydailynews.com
DELETE ALL BELOW DUPLICATE
TO ABOVE.
By DENNIS HEVESI
JULY 25, 2008
Paul Bentley, the Dallas police detective who helped arrest Lee Harvey Oswald 80 minutes
after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died Monday at his home in Dallas.
He was 87.
His death was confirmed by Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza,
the exhibit that occupies the floor in the former Texas School Book Depository from which
Oswald fired his 6.5millimeter
MannlicherCarcano
rifle at the 35th president.
When Detective Bentley hurtled over several rows in the Texas Theater that day, Nov. 22,
1963, to get to the slim man pointing a pistol at another police officer, he had no idea that the
man was Kennedy’s killer.
“At the time of the arrest, I had no knowledge whatsoever that this might possibly be our
suspect in regards to the assassination of the president,” Detective Bentley told WFAATV
in
Dallas in a 1963 interview.
But he did know that the man might be a suspect in the shooting of Officer J. D. Tippit, who
had been killed half an hour earlier when he confronted Oswald on a nearby street some 45
minutes after Kennedy was shot.
The assistant manager of a shoe store near the theater, in the Oak Cliff section southwest of
downtown, had told the ticket taker that a man acting suspiciously had sneaked into the
theater.
“The person who saw him suggested that she call the police, because he might be
connected to either the shooting of the president or of Officer Tippit,” Mr. Mack said in an
interview on Thursday.
Paul Bentley, right, with Lee Harvey Oswald in custody outside the Texas Theater in Dallas.
JIM MACCAMMON, COURTESY OF HOWARD UPCHURCH
Detective Bentley was at a police station when reports arrived that someone had fired on the
president’s motorcade and, soon afterward, that an officer had been shot. He went to the site
of the Tippit shooting, then to the theater.
“Bentley and several other officers went up to the balcony,” Mr. Mack said. “Officer Nick
McDonald went through the back door, behind the screen, and stood on the stage. The shoe
store manager was with him and pointed out the guy who had been acting suspiciously. As
McDonald approached, Oswald stood up and said, ‘Well, it’s all over now.’ ”
When Officer McDonald came close, Oswald punched him and drew a pistol. Detective
Bentley raced down from the balcony.
“That’s when I tried to get as close to him as possible, trying to grab the weapon,” he said in
an oral history given to the museum in 1994. “I came over the backs of seats,” twisting his
right ankle between two of them, and, along with other officers, subdued Oswald.
Photographs of Oswald in custody show a cut over his eye. It was caused by the Masonic
ring Detective Bentley was wearing during the scuffle, about 20 rows back from the movie
screen.
Seated in the patrol car to the left of Oswald during the ride downtown, Detective Bentley
heard a dispatcher say Oswald was the prime suspect in the Kennedy shooting. “I turned to
him, and I said, ‘Did you shoot President Kennedy?’ ” Detective Bentley recalled. “He said,
‘You find out for yourself.’ ” (Detective Bentley's recollection is unsupported by other existing
historical records.)
Paul Lester Bentley was born in Dallas on June 29, 1921. He served in the Army Air Forces
in World War II and joined the Dallas police in 1947. He retired from the department in 1968,
then became security director for First National Bank in Dallas.
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, the former Mozelle Robertson; a sister, Mildred
Waldroop; a son, James; and one grandson.
Two days after the Kennedy assassination, while being escorted through the basement of
the Dallas city jail, Oswald was shot to death by Jack Ruby. At Ruby’s left at that moment,
memorably captured by cameras, was Detective Jim Leavelle, wearing a lightcolored
Resistol. Clutching Ruby’s right arm, trying to wrench away his pistol, was Detective L. C.
Graves — Detective Bentley’s brotherinlaw.
Correction: July 26, 2008
An obituary on Friday about Paul Bentley, a Dallas detective who helped capture the
presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, included an incorrect identification from a
museum curator, in some editions, for the brand of hat worn two days later by Jim Leavelle,
a Dallas police detective photographed escorting Oswald when he was killed. It was a
Resistol, not a Stetson.
Correction: August 6, 2008
An obituary on July 25 about Paul Bentley, the Dallas police detective who helped arrest Lee
Harvey Oswald after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, included incorrectly,
without qualifying its source, a remark Mr. Bentley remembered hearing after the arrest.
Many years later, Mr. Bentley told oral history interviewers that on the road to police
headquarters with Oswald, after hearing police dispatchers say the man in custody was a
prime suspect in the assassination of Kennedy, he asked Oswald, “Did you shoot President
Kennedy?” and that Oswald replied, “You find out for yourself.” Mr. Bentley’s recollection is
unsupported by other existing historical records.
The obituary also described Mr. Bentley’s role in the arrest imprecisely. Mr. Bentley adjusted
the handcuffs after Oswald complained they were too tight; he did not snap the handcuffs
on. (Another officer had placed his handcuffs on Oswald moments earlier.)
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