Who was Officer J.D. Tippit and what led to his patrol on November 22, 1963?
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Executive summary
J.D. Tippit was a Dallas police officer, a World War II Army veteran and Bronze Star recipient who served with the Dallas Police Department from 1952 until he was killed on November 22, 1963 [1]. He was patrolling Oak Cliff on beat 78 — his normal route — when, roughly 45 minutes after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, he stopped and confronted a man later identified as Lee Harvey Oswald; Tippit was shot and killed at 404 E. Tenth Street in Oak Cliff [1] [2] [3].
1. A career cut short: who J.D. Tippit was
J.D. Tippit was a 39‑year‑old Dallas patrolman appointed in 1952, a World War II U.S. Army veteran and Bronze Star recipient who worked his regular police beat in south Oak Cliff and held part‑time jobs outside his police work; his personnel record notes his termination as “killed in line of duty” on November 22, 1963 [1] [4]. Contemporary accounts and memorial pages describe him as an ordinary working father of three whose death quickly became part of the wider national tragedy that day [3].
2. Why he was on patrol that afternoon
Tippit was on duty in beat number 78 — his normal patrol area in south Oak Cliff — on Friday, November 22, 1963; available reporting describes this as his routine assignment and notes he was working his usual patrol rather than a special detail [1]. Local memorial and investigative timelines assembled after the fact emphasize that Tippit’s presence on that street was part of standard patrol patterns, not an extraordinary assignment [3] [5].
3. The sequence that put him at the shooting scene
Police radio and witness accounts broadcast a description of a suspect after the assassination. Roughly 45 minutes after President Kennedy was shot, Tippit stopped a man on foot who matched the broadcast description; the encounter ended with Tippit mortally wounded on a side street at 404 E. Tenth Street, about 2.5 miles southwest of downtown Dallas [6] [2]. Witness lists, maps, and case reports filed the same day document the location, the flight path reported for the suspect, and the chain of radio alerts that followed the shooting [7] [8] [2].
4. Who the suspect was and the immediate aftermath
Eyewitnesses at the scene and a discharged weapon found later led police to identify and arrest Lee Harvey Oswald in the Texas Theatre about 37–80 minutes later. Official inquiries, including the Warren Commission, treat the killing of Tippit as occurring within 45 minutes of Kennedy’s assassination and link the man later arrested — Oswald — to both crimes in their timeline [6] [9]. Contemporary case reports filed by Dallas police list witnesses and summarize the initial investigation into the murder of Tippit [7] [8].
5. Evidence preserved and public records
Extensive documentation exists in public archives: personnel files, autopsy records, case reports and mapped shooting locations have been digitized and cited in investigatory timelines and memorial sites [4] [10] [2] [5]. The National Archives’ Warren Commission report explicitly includes the killing of Tippit among the key pieces of evidence it reviewed in reconstructing the Kennedy assassination and its immediate aftermath [9].
6. Disputes, conspiracy questions, and how sources frame them
Centrist and official sources document the timeline and identify Oswald as the suspect [9] [6]. Independent compilations and dedicated Tippit sites preserve testimony and maps but also note that conspiracy theorists have questioned aspects of the shooting, Tippit’s role and various investigative steps, sometimes alleging alternate motives or coverups; those sites record both the mainstream findings and the continuing doubts among skeptics [3] [11]. Available sources do not mention definitive, new forensic evidence overturning the official link between Oswald and Tippit; questions persist mainly in secondary analyses and conspiracy literature [3] [11].
7. What the records do and do not settle
Police personnel records, autopsy reports and contemporaneous case filings establish Tippit’s identity, time and place of death and his routine patrol duty [4] [10] [2]. The Warren Commission and Dallas investigative files place Tippit’s murder within the post‑assassination manhunt that led to Oswald’s arrest [9] [7]. Available sources do not mention any official record that Tippit was on a special assignment tied to the presidential motorcade or a preplanned encounter with Oswald; they describe his presence as routine patrol activity [1] [3].
8. Why this matters now: context and recordkeeping
Tippit’s death is integral to the sequence that unfolded after President Kennedy was shot: it transformed the local homicide investigation into part of the national narrative and shaped how Oswald was processed by Dallas authorities [9] [6]. The breadth of publicly available documentation — personnel files, autopsy records, maps and witness lists — means researchers can trace the official record; at the same time, persistent alternative narratives underscore how gaps, uncertainties and competing agendas have kept questions alive in public debate [4] [3] [11].
Limitations: this account relies solely on the provided archival, memorial and government sources; available sources do not mention additional newly released forensic findings beyond those cited here [10] [9].