No More Silence: An Oral History of the Assassination of President Kennedy

James R. Leavelle

JAMES R. LEAVELLE Homicide Detecti ve Dallas Police Department "When he stepped up and pulled the trigger, I reached over and grabbed Ruby by the shoulder and shoved back and down on him. At the same time, I could see that Graves had the hammer of that pistol locked with his thumb while Ruby was stillflexing his fingers trying to pull the trigger... " Born and raised in Red River County in Northeast Texas, James Leavelle joined the Navy in 1939 and served on board the USS Whitney in the Pacific Theater. After his discharge, Leavelle then joined the Dallas Police Department in 1950. Serving as a detective in the Homicide and Robbery Bureau under Captain Will Fritz, he is best known as the man who was handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald at the time when Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby on November 24, 1963. My assignment on November 22nd was to cover anything that came in to the office along with another officer, Charlie Brown. The rest of the officers in the bureau, including Captain Fritz, were going to cover the parade and the luncheon. I was at City Hall when I received information that there was an armed robbery suspect in the North Dallas area. Charlie Brown and I went out and made the arrest, brought him in, and were listening to the progress of the parade as we drove into JAMES R. LEA VELLE, HOMICIDE 387 the basement of City Hall. The parade was approaching Houston Street at the time we turned the radio off and got out of the car. By the time I reached my office on the third floor, the assassination had already taken place. Lieutenant Wells was in charge of the office up there, and when I walked in, he told me that the President had been shot. I said, "Oh, yeah, I'm sure they did." I thought he was just kidding me because earlier that morning, before we all went out, when we were sitting around talking about our different assignments, I said, "Well, I wish you good luck. But you can't put enough people around to keep him from getting shot if somebody really wants to shoot him." So I thought he was just making reference to that remark that I'd made that morning. But he was serious about it. Then he suggested, as soon as I got the prisoner upstairs, to go to the Book Depository and see how I could help with what they needed down there. When I got to the Depository, I saw one of the police inspectors, Sawyer, on the front steps, and asked him if the building had been secured. He said, "Yes, we're taking all the witnesses over to the sheriffs office." I said, "Well, I'd better go over there and check and see what's happening." So when I got there, the chief deputy, Allen Sweatt, who was wringing his hands, came over to me and said, "Oh, I'm glad you're here! I've got all the witnesses here. What do you want me to do with them?" Right away, they became our witnesses. So I said, "We've got to have statements from them, that's the main thing we've got to have." At the time, he had five or six people in there. About that time Detectives Edwards, Maberry, and four or five others from the Burglary and Theft Division walked in and asked, "We were sent down here to give you a hand, so what can we do?" I told them, "You're just what I need. Take one of those witnesses, scatter out on one of these desks here, and take down whatever they tell you. I don't care how insignificant it might be, just take down everything and I'll get to you later and we'll assimilate it altogether. But take down whatever they tell you." So it worked out just fine, and I started back to 388 NO MORE SILENCE the Book Depository. At that time, I heard the radio mention that some officer had been shot in Oak Cliff. As a result, I picked up the phone, called Lieutenant Wells and asked him who was covering the shooting of the officer. He said nobody. So I said, "I'll make it because, to me, that's part of the family. I'd rather cover...