The Presumption of Innocence: LHO

[Derek Thibeault]

On 10/20/2021 at 4:18 AM, Joseph McBride said:

Jim Leavelle, the lead detective in the Tippit case, 

indicated to me that Captain Fritz wanted him to work up

a case on Oswald for the Tippit murder since they didn't have

a sufficient case on Oswald for killing Kennedy. I asked Leavelle

why he thought they had a better case for the Tippit murder, and

he said they had witnesses (ignoring the chaotic state of the

witness reports). It's a little-known fact that Oswald was arraigned

only for the Tippit murder and not for the presidential assassination.

Henry Wade and J. Edgar Hoover also expressed doubts about

whether there was a sufficient case against Oswald in the assassination.

I need to read your book on the Tippet killing, it's been tough to find for a reasonable price. I did read your book on the last days of Orson Welles, and it was very good. Is Leavelle a sympathetic person, can his words be trusted?

[Joseph McBride]

Derek, I am glad you enjoyed my book WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO

ORSON WELLES?: A PORTRAIT OF AN INDEPENDENT CAREER; an

updated edition will be published in paperback in January by the University Press

of Kentucky. As for your question about Detective Leavelle, no one involved in the investigation/coverup of the Kennedy and Tippit murders should

be taken at face value, of course; their comments

need to be weighed against all the other evidence. Leavelle made some significant

admissions to me that are revealing about some aspects of the case. He seemed

unusually candid on many points but cagey or withholding on others, as did DA Henry Wade, but together their comments, when viewed with the other evidence, were important insights into how flimsy/nonexistent the cases were against

Oswald for both murders, and how they both quickly recognized the problem (as did Captain Fritz at least to some extent). (FYI, J. D. Tippit's name

is still being misspelled here and elsewhere after all these years.) I write about Leavelle and Wade at length in

INTO THE NIGHTMARE, which I hope you will read to find more detailed answers to your questions.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Joseph McBride