Image of Dallas police chief Jesse Curry in his office

This photograph was taken sometime after 8:30 p.m. on Friday, November 22, 1963. Curry returned to Dallas police headquarters around 4:00 p.m. that day after witnessing the swearing-in of President Lyndon Johnson at Dallas Love Field. That evening, the chief took Governor John Connally's blood-stained Stetson hat - the one that had been in his lap throughout the motorcade - to his office and hung it on a nearby hat rack.  No one knows exactly when or why Curry ended up with Connally's hat.  Dallas Morning News chief photographer Tom Dillard heard that Curry had the hat and showed up to photograph it.  At the same time, he captured a series of pictures of Chief Curry at his desk. This photograph is part of that series. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

The one-page document seen at an angle on the far left of this photograph is a City of Dallas Office Memorandum dated November 22, 1963. It was submitted to Dallas Police Captain W.P. Gannaway of the Special Service Bureau from Dallas Police Detective Bob Carroll. The subject is: "Arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald for the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippet [sic] and the Assassination of President Kennedy." The one-paragraph memo briefly conveys Carroll's firsthand account of the Oswald arrest at the Texas Theatre, although it mistakenly states that Officer K.E. Lyons sprained his left ankle during the scuffle. It was actually Detective Paul Bentley who sprained his ankle (and who was seen in news footage and photographs that weekend walking on crutches at Dallas police headquarters). This interesting document can be read in full as part of the Dallas Municipal Archives collection at the Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas):  [Office Memorandum from Bob K. Carroll to W. P. Gannaway, November 22, 1963] - The Portal to Texas History (unt.edu) -- Stephen Fagin, Curator

Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry became a recognized figure on television during the weekend of the assassination, more than once stating his belief that Lee Harvey Oswald was responsible for the murder of President Kennedy. Three years after retiring from the Dallas Police Department, Curry wrote a book, awkwardly titled Retired Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry Reveals His Personal JFK Assassination File (1969). At a press conference about the book, Curry admitted that he had doubts about the single bullet theory and that Oswald was the lone assassin. In a BBC interview recorded two years before his death in 1980, Curry suggested that, "by the direction of his blood and brain from the president," the fatal shot was likely "fired from the front rather than behind. I can't say that I could swear that I believe that it was one man and one man alone. I think there's a possibility there could have been another man." -- Stephen Fagin, Curator