Dallas detective handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald, dies at 99

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — You may not know his name but you have seen his face.

Jim Leavelle, the Dallas police detective in the tan suit who was handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when the accused killer was shot, has died.

Leavelle was transferring Oswald to the Dallas County Jail two days after President Kennedy was assassinated. That’s when Jack Ruby jumped out of a crowd and opened fire on Oswald.

Leavelle’s startled expression was caught on film. That picture is one of the iconic images of the events surrounding the assassination of President John Kennedy.

In past interviews, Leavelle had said that a few minutes before the transfer, he joked that if anybody was going to shoot at Oswald he hoped “they’re as good a shot as you are.”

Oswald replied that Leavelle was being melodramatic and said “nobody’s going to shoot at me.”

That wasn’t Leavelle’s only close call with death during a historical event.

He survived the Pearl Harbor attack as a 21-year-old Navy petty officer 3rd class.

His career as a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department began in 1950. He retired in 1975.

Leavelle was visiting his daughter in Colorado when he died on Thursday, 6 days after his 99th birthday.