The testimony of James R. Leavelle was taken at 9:30 a.m., on April 7,
1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office Building,
Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex., by Messrs. Joseph A. Ball and
Samuel A. Stern, assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Robert T. Davis, assistant attorney general, was present.
Mr. BALL. Mr. Leavelle, will you stand and raise your right hand?
[Witness complying.]
Mr. BALL. Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give
will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help
you God?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I do.
Mr. BALL. Will you state you name, please?
Mr. LEAVELLE. James R. Leavelle.
Mr. BALL. And your address?
Mr. LEAVELLE. 7703 R-i-l-l-a [spelling], Dallas, Tex.
Mr. BALL. And, what is your occupation?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Detective, Dallas Police Department.
Mr. BALL. How long have you been on the department?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Fourteen years.
Mr. BALL. How long have you been in the homicide squad?
Mr. LEAVELLE. A little over 5 years.
Mr. BALL. Tell me about where you were born and your education; what
you have done most of your life.
Mr. LEAVELLE. Well, I was born and raised mostly in Red River County in
east Texas and went into service. After leaving the service, coming out
of the service I worked for different companies here in Dallas until I
joined the department in 1950.
Mr. BALL. The purpose of our inquiry here is to find out facts
concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. That's the general
purpose of it.
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. BALL. You took part in the investigation, did you not, as a member
of the Dallas Police Department?
Mr. LEAVELLE. A minor part you might say. I didn't have much to do with
Oswald, myself.
Mr. BALL. Well, you talked to some of the witnesses, didn't you?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.
Mr. BALL. On November 22, 1963, were you on duty?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes; I was.
Mr. BALL. What time did you go to work?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I was working 8 to 4 I believe, that month and I
had--when I heard of the assassination. I had just come into the
homicide office with a Negro boy I had arrested for robbery.
Mr. BALL. Whereabouts did you go then after that?
Mr. LEAVELLE. We, along with Charlie Brown, went to the building, the
Texas Book Depository, and talked with the inspector there. I asked him
if the building had been secured and he said it was and Captain Fritz
was in the building.
Mr. BALL. Was that Inspector Sawyer?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes; he said they were sending all witnesses to the
sheriff's office and I might go over and check and see what was needed,
so I went to the sheriff's office and found them in a general uproar
more or less. They had several witnesses around and they wanted to
take affidavits from them; however, none of them had started. So, when
I walked in, they knew I was a homicide man and would be indirectly
responsible for some of the investigation, so I talked with Allen
Sweatt, chief deputy, and started to set up the procedure for the
taking of the affidavits from the witnesses when several of the--four,
five or six of the burglary and theft detectives walked in and told me
that they were sent down there to do whatever was needed to be done and
asked me what was needed, so I told them to work with Mr. Sweatt and
take those affidavits and they could do that as well as I and I would
go back to the Depository and see what might further be needed over
there. I went to the Depository and had been there just a short time
talking to some of the officers on duty there. I don't remember who
they were at this time and at that time I heard a radio broadcast of
the shooting in Oak Cliff which involved Officer Tippit and I called my
office and found that there was no one to answer the call in Oak Cliff
and since everything was under control there, I felt like some of us
should be in Oak Cliff, so I borrowed a car from Detective Red Edwards
of burglary----
(At this point, Mr. Robert T. Davis enters.)
Mr. BALL. Go ahead, Mr. Leavelle.
Mr. LEAVELLE. I borrowed an automobile from Detective Red Edwards, A.
L. Edwards, and proceeded to the Oak Cliff area. I went to the scene of
the shooting. They had removed Tippit's body at that time and I talked
with the sergeant and the officer.
Mr. BALL. What were their names?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I believe Sergeant Bud Owens was the sergeant there and
one of the uniformed officers was--I may be in error on this, but I
believe it was Poe.
Mr. BALL. J. M. Poe?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes; P-o-e [spelling].
Mr. BALL. At that time someone told you some empty .38 caliber hulls
had been picked up. Did Poe tell you that?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes; I believe he did.
Mr. BALL. Did he give you the hulls?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No; he did not give them to me. I think my instructions
to him were to turn them over to the crime lab.
Mr. BALL. Did he show them to you?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I don't think so; he may have but I do not recall. He
may have. He did say that there was an eyewitness to it but he didn't
know her name at the time. So, while I was talking to him was when
the call came out they seen the suspect go into the Texas Theatre,
so I proceeded to the Texas Theatre, but due to the heavy traffic, I
didn't get there until after the arrest was made and they had left, so
I returned to the scene and talked with the officer some more and I
believe that he also told me that a man in a carlot down there had seen
Oswald running from the scene.
Mr. BALL. Who told you?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Poe, I believe. Now, I could be in error on that but
someone told me anyway, so----
Mr. BALL. You went back to the police station and took some affidavits
from witnesses, didn't you?
Mr. LEAVELLE. That's right, I went on to the station at that time and
took affidavits from--talked with some of the witnesses that they
had brought in there because at the time I didn't realize there was
any connection between Oswald and the shooting of Tippit or the one
that they had arrested in the Texas Theatre for the killing of Tippit
and the Presidential assassination. I thought it was two different
things altogether. So, I proceeded back to the office to work on that
end of it, checking with the captain, and they was tied up with the
Presidential assassination, and not until we got there did I realize
some few minutes later on, when talking to some of the people of the
Texas Book Depository, did we realize Oswald could very well be the
same one who assassinated the President.
Mr. BALL. Well, did Captain Fritz instruct you to go out and pick up
the witness and come down to a showup, bring her down to a showup?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes; this Helen Markham, the witness, was in such a state
of shock she had been unable to view the lineup.
Mr. BALL. Where did you see her the first time?
Mr. LEAVELLE. She was in the emergency room, in the hospital emergency
room, first aid room, whatever you call it in the basement of the city
hall, and I went over and talked with her and kind of got her calmed
down where she thought she could stand to view the lineup, and when she
told me that she felt like she was able to stand it, why, I called the
captain and told him that we were ready for the showup, at which time
some of the other officers brought Oswald down. I took here into the
showup room myself and stood with her while she viewed the lineup.
Mr. BALL. Were you and Helen Markham the only two in what you call the
showup room?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No, Captain Fritz and Chief Curry was in there also and
possibly one or two others; I do not recall.
Mr. BALL. How about your partner, C. W. Brown?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I do not know whether he was there or not.
Mr. BALL. Any other witnesses?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Now Mr. Graves may have been in there.
Mr. BALL. Were there any other witnesses in there?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No.
Mr. BALL. Who picked the men for the showup?
Mr. LEAVELLE. I do not know.
Mr. BALL. Did you?
Mr. LEAVELLE. No; I had nothing to do with that.
Mr. BALL. Do you know who the men were in the showup?
Mr. LEAVELLE. That particular showup they had gotten two of the
officers, I believe, that work in the vice squad.
Mr. BALL. I have the names of the people in the showup; No. 1 was Bill
Perry; is he a Dallas Police Department officer?
Mr. LEAVELLE. Yes.