The Man Who Captured Lee Oswald Lloyd Shearer
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Oakland Tribune,Parade: March 8 1964 8 March, 1964 P. - The man who captured Lee Oswald Lloyd Shearer A native of Camden, Ark., happily married, father of two girls, McDonald is a big, broad (5-feet-11, 200 pounds), balding man with an almost perpetual smile. THE MAN WHO CAPTURED "I'm just glad to be alive," he says. "If Oswald's gun hadn't misfired, I'd be a dead goose today. Maybe," he reflects, "Sally and the kids would have then got- LEE OSWALD by LLOYD SHEARER ten more money than I'll ever make—no doubt about that—but I'd be dead, and what good is a dead hus- band? Marie Tippit—she lives just a few houses DALIALSOWL from bere—she'd gladly give up the $600,000 if only t is an ironical fact of life that the death of she had her husband back. President John F. Kennedy has brought fortune "Money can buy almost anything, but it sure can't to many. bring back the dead. And brother! Let me tell you, I A few days after the President was assassinated, came that close to getting id" a 21-year-old Denver student ordered 5 million NICK TELLS HIS STORY key chains stamped with the Kennedy impres- I sion. Today that student is worth $250,000. A few weeks ago in Oak Cliff, sitting in the living In New York a jeweler came out with Kennedy tie room of 111cDonald's one-story, 3-bedroom brick home (cost $12,850—mortgage $11,900), I asked the clips, a china-maker with Kennedy beer mugs, a sil- versmith with Kennedy memorial platters. police officer to tape-record greedy what had hap- pened to him on November 22, 1963. Newsstands are still cluttered with special Kennedy Here are the words he spoke: magazines. Music shops and supermarkets have sold "On the day President John F. Kennedy was as- Kennedy record albums and paperback books by the million, and at least half a dozen publishers are print- sassinated I reported for duty at my normal hour of ing books this spring of the late President's speeches, 7 A.M. During November I was assigned a trainee who had graduated from the previous recruit class. most of which were largely written by Kennedy's "With this recruit beside me, I went on routine speechwriter, Ted Sorensen. The bonanza has also spread to persons connected patrol of my district, which is the western part of with Lee Harvey Oswald, the suspected Kennedy as- South Oak Cliff, approximately 3 miles west of the sassin. Texas Theatre, where Oswald was finally captured. The family of the Dallas police officer allegedly "That morning was a routine day until we heard gunned down by Oswald, J. D. Tippit, has to date on the police radio that the President of the United received more than $600,000 from 40,000 different States had been shot. At that time we were patrolling people. The largest single donation was made by on Westmoreland Avenue, which is approximately 8 Abraham Zapruder, a Dallas garment manufacturer miles from Elm and Houston in downtown Dallas, who contributed the $25,000 paid him by Life for where the assassination occurred. his motion pictures of the assassination. The second- "The police dispatcher ordered all police units to largest donation, $12,000, was made by Walter H. report to the vicinity of Elm and Houston to cordon Annenberg, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer. off the district and try to find the assassin. This paid off the mortgage on the Tippit home. "We proceeded on Code 3 [the emergency pro- Oswald's mother, Marguerite, has sold interviews cedure—siren blaring, red lights flashing] to Elm and to foreign publications, has announced a lecture tour Houston. We got out of the car and ran over to a and is reportedly working on a book. police sergeant, who told us to stand by. Meanwhile, Oswald's 23-year-old widow, Marina, has already the Texas Book Depository Building from which the received more than $35,000 from the public. She shots had been fired was cordoned off and completely has hired as her business manager (for 10 per cent surrounded, and the crowd was being controlled. of the take) James Herbert Martin, formerly manager AN UNFAMILIAR VOICE of the 6 Flags Inn at Arlington, Tex. He reports that Mrs. Oswald has been offered a $50,000 advance to r "At 1:15 we went back to the car, and suddenly I write a book of memoirs on a 50-50 royalty basis in heard over the police radio an unfamiliar voice, a collaboration with Isaac Don Levine or James Burke. voice not acquainted with police procedure, obviously The Saturday Evening Post has also offered a large a civilian. 'A policeman has just been shot!' the voice announced. 'A policeman has just been shot! He was sum, provided Mrs. Oswald has information to divulge driving police car No. 10 from where I am now that she did not reveal to the Warren Commission in talking.' Washington. Hollywood is also interested in filming "When I heard that announcement," McDonald Marina's life story. continued, "I knew at once that officer J. D. Tippit One of the few principals involved in the Presi- had been shot. I knew Tippit had been assigned Patrol dential assassination overlooked both by fame and Car No. 10 in District 78. fortune is Maurice "Nick" McDonald, 36, the Dallas "The voice then continuea: 'It looks as if the patrolman who captured Lee Harvey Oswald in the officer is dead.' When I heard that, I ordered my part- Oak Cliff movie theater 90 minutes after Oswald al- ner into the car. 'Let's get over to Oak Cliff,' I said. legedly killed the President. 'We're standing around here doing nothing. Let's see McDonald is the forgotten man of the assassina- if we can find the guy who shot Tippit.' tion. No one has offered him anything for a magazine "We raced to the 400 block of East Jefferson Blvd. article, a lecture tour or even a TV appearance. All where a sergeant and a few reporters and policemen McDonald received was a $10 donation, which he were trying to shake a house down, to search it to see turned over to the Dallas police fund. if they could find the suspect. It had been reported that a possible suspect had made his way into that house. "I let my partner out at this location and drove my F squad car around the alley, then drove up and down every single person in the orchestra so that I would and I pulled the gun out of Oswald's hand. I handed near-by alleys. That's the last time I saw my partner miss no one. I walked first to these two men. I had it to another officer, Detective Bob Carroll, who was that day- them stand on their feet, and I searched them. in plain clothes. Officer T. A. Hudson then came up "As I was patrolling the alleys, another report came "While I was frisking them I kept glancing over from the row behind and threw his arm around Os- over the radio that a suspect with Oswald's general their shoulders at Oswald, just in case he should wald's neck. Officer C. T. Walker, running from the description had raced into the public library about a make a break. These first two men were sitting about left, grabbed Oswald's left arm. Officer Ray Hawkins block away. I immediately drove to the public library 15 rows from the screen, in the center. ran to the row in front of us and grabbed Oswald from on Jefferson. I got out in the alley and took my shot- "After I decided that these men were unarmed and the front. I held on to the suspect with my left hand. gun with me. I went through the side door of the not suspect, I walked out of the 15th row, up the "The officers then took Oswald out of the theater 2 library and ordered all persons out with bands up. aisle and entered the row where Lee Harvey Oswald and transported him to the City Jail. It was then "Everybody inside the library came out with hands was sitting. Oswald was slumped down in the second P.M., about 90 minutes after President Kennedy had up. A teenager told me that he had just run in to tell seat, third row from the rear, on the right side of the been assassinatedg the people of the assassination. He didn't match the center section. PHOTOS TO PROVE A POINT police description of the unknown assassin at the time. "As I got within one foot of the suspect, I saw he "When Oswald was taken from the Texas Theatre, No one else in the library did either. was sitting calmly with his hands on his lap. He was "I ran back to my car. As I got in, there came an- wearing a brown shirt, with a white T-shirt under- I walked back to my squad car and drove downtown. other radio report. A suspect had just been seen neath, and dark trousers. There I reported to Captain Westbrook, and he es- running into the Texas Theatre in the 200 block of "'All right,' I said, 'on your feet.' Oswald stood up corted me to the crime lab, where pictures were taken West Jefferson. I drove on Code 3 to the theater.