Jim Leavelle, detective in historic photo of Lee Harvey Oswald's shooting, dies at 99

[mahatmakanejeeves]

RIP Jim Leavelle, first to interrogate Lee Oswald on 11/22/63, and next to Oswald as he was shot by Jack Ruby on 11/24/63. Jim was one of the most fascinating interviews I’ve ever had. Blunt, no nonsense. Lunched regularly with Marina Oswald in the’60s.

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A stranger-than-fiction fact about Jim Leavelle: Very few people are at the center of action in a disaster that is never forgotten by people alive at the time. Not only was Leavelle a key player in Dallas, 11/22-24/63, he was also a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, 12/7/41

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NEWS > OBITUARIES

Jim Leavelle, detective in historic photo of Lee Harvey Oswald's shooting, dies at 99
Leavelle died Thursday afternoon, his daughter Karla Leavelle confirmed.



Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald, who was handcuffed to Dallas police Detective Jim Leavelle (in the light suit) in Dallas, November 24, 1963. (Robert H. Jackson / digifal file)

By Joe Simnacher| and Marc Ramirez

9:39 PM on Aug 29, 2019

A fraction of a second stands out from all the other notable experiences in James Robert Leavelle's long, notable life.

He was among the first sailors at Pearl Harbor to see Japanese Zeros attacking the U.S. fleet. He was a Dallas detective who solved all but two of the multitude of cases he handled. (He was pretty sure what happened in the two unsolved ones.)

But on Nov. 24, 1963, he was the cowboy-hatted man in the light-colored suit handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald as Jack Ruby fired his fatal shot on live TV. That moment became one of the most recognizable images of the 20th century.

Leavelle died Thursday, his daughter Karla Leavelle confirmed. He was 99.
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For this thread, I got the picture from AL.com. It was not possible to link to the one in the article.

The photographer who shot this extraordinary photo, Bob Jackson, won the Pulitzer Prize. I've seen an original print of it...stunning.

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