(WBAP/KLIF) – Former Dallas Police Detective Jim Leavelle, who was handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack Ruby jumped from a crowd of reporters and shot Oswald, has died. He was 99.
Leavelle described the incident in the old Dallas Police Headquarters basement at Harwood and Main Streets countless times over the past 56 years.
Leavelle was leading Oswald to an awaiting car that was to transfer the prisoner to the Dallas County Jail. Oswald had been charged with assassinating President John F. Kennedy and killing Dallas Police Officer J D Tippitt.
In recent years, Leavelle spoke to WBAP’s Eric Bushman.
“All the flood lights came on and I looked down and I saw Ruby standing there and he had the pistol in his hand against his leg,” Leavelle told Bushman in 2011. “I jerked back on him to try and pull him behind me but I was right against him and I didn’t have any leverage.”
Leavelle just recently celebrated his 99th birthday.
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