Editor Makes Startling Discovery About Oswald

I attended Saturday’s “Oswald Has Been Shot!” panel discussion at the Sixth Floor Museum, where one of the panelists was James Leavell, the white-hatted police detective who was handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack Ruby shot him.

Although Saturday’s presentation focused on Nov. 24, 1963, moderator Gloria Campos asked Leavell and the others for their most vivid memories of the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Leavell started telling a story about investigating Dallas’ other high-profile murder that day, the killing of Officer JD Tippit. Like a dunce, I thought to myself, “Wow. What a coincidence. This guy was the primary detective on the Tippit case, and he was next to Oswald at the moment he got shot.”

Of course, I soon realized it wasn’t a coincidence at all. Leavell’s investigation of Tippit’s murder was the very reason he was handcuffed to Oswald for that ill-fated transfer to the county jail. As we all know, Oswald was the prime suspect for both murders on Nov. 22, 1963. “He was my prisoner,” Leavell told the crowd Saturday.

By the way, a historical marker will be unveiled at 1 p.m. on Nov. 20 at the corner of Tenth and Patton streets. That’s where Tippit was killed.