J.D. Tippit (September 18, 1924 - November 22, 1963)

J. D. Tippit was born in Clarksville, Texas, in 1924. During the Second World War Tippit served in the Seventeenth Airborne Division of the United States Army from July 1944, to June 1946. Soon after leaving the army Tippit married Marie Frances Gasaway. The couple had three children. Over the next few years Tippit worked for Sears, Roebuck and Company (1948-1949) and as a farmer (1949-1950). The family eventually moved to Dallas and he joined the Dallas Police Department in July 1952. He was a successful officer and in 1956 he was cited for bravery for his role in disarming a criminal. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy arrived in Dallas. It was decided that Kennedy and his party, including his wife, Jacqueline , Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor John Connally and Senator Ralph Yarborough, would travel in a procession of cars through the business district of Dallas. At about 12.30 p.m. the presidential limousine entered Elm Street. Soon afterward shots rang out. President Kennedy was hit by bullets that struck him in the head and the left shoulder. He had a massive wound to the head and at 1 p.m. the president was declared dead. Witnesses at the scene of the assassination claimed they had seen shots being fired from behind a wooden fence on the Grassy Knoll and from the Texas School Book Depository. The police investigated these claims and during a search of the Texas School Book Depository they discovered three empty cartridge cases on the floor by one of the sixth floor windows. They also found a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle hidden beneath some boxes. Employee Lee Harvey Oswald was seen in the Texas School Book Depository before and just after the shooting. At 12.33 Oswald was seen leaving the building and by 1.00 p.m arrived at his rooming house. His landlady, Earlene Roberts, later reported that soon afterward a police car drew up outside the house and sounded the horn twice and moved on. Roberts claimed that Oswald then left the house. Officer Tippit was one of the few officers in the Dallas Police Force not to be called to Dealey Plaza to help investigate the assassination. Instead, at 12.45 p.m. he was sent to the Oak Cliff section of Dallas.
At 1.16 p.m. Tippit approached a man, later identified as Lee Harvey Oswald, walking along East 10th Street. Witness Domingo Benavides later testified that after a short conversation Oswald pulled out a hand gun and fired four shots point blank at Tippit. He died instantly.