JFK Assassination Figure. Best recognized as the Resistol-wearing homicide detective handcuffed to accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald when Oswald was murdered on live television. As a young man Leavelle joined the U.S. Navy, and he was at one point assigned to a destroyer tender, the USS Whitney. Leavelle and the Whitney were at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base when it was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on December 7, 1941, which precipitated American entry into World War II. The Whitney escaped damage, and Leavelle continued to serve aboard the vessel until he sustained a non-combat injury in early 1942. In 1950 he joined the Dallas Police Department, becoming a detective in 1955. His second brush with history came in November 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Leavelle was the first law enforcement official to interrogate Lee Harvey Oswald, who was arrested and held initially as a suspect in the murder of Officer J.D. Tippit. When Leavelle's superiors subsequently connected Oswald with the president's assassination, Oswald was removed from his custody. Two days later, Leavelle was handcuffed to Oswald as he walked him to a vehicle to transfer the prisoner to the county jail. As millions watched live on television, night club owner Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd of media personnel and fatally shot Oswald. The scene was captured in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph. Leavelle's attire of a light-colored suit and Resistol made him stand out, and he was readily recognized by the public there on out whenever he wore a similar hat. Leavelle retired from the Dallas PD in 1975 and spent much of the rest of his life refuting and debunking the accusations and conspiracy theories that emerged following the deaths of Kennedy and Oswald. He also publicly spoke about the Pearl Harbor attack and Oswald's shooting, sitting for interviews for national news outlets and high school students alike.