Jack Revill Oral History

Object number2005.001.0003

Date02/04/2005

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Jack Revill

Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumHi-8 videotape

DimensionsDuration: 101 Minutes

Collections

Oral History Collection

DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Jack Revill. Supervisor of Criminal Intelligence with the Dallas Police Department in 1963, Revill was involved in the immediate search of the Texas School Book Depository following the Kennedy assassination. Later that afternoon, he had a controversial conversation with Dallas FBI agent James Hosty that impacted the Bureau's relationship with the Dallas Police Department. On Sunday, November 24, 1963, Revill accompanied Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell to Washington, D.C. for the Kennedy funeral. Upon his return, he was part of a Dallas police internal investigation into the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on February 4, 2005 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and forty-one minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

Jack Revill passed away on September 8, 2012 at the age of 82. After a thirty-two-year career with the Dallas Police Department, he retired in 1983 as Executive Assistant Chief. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Curatorial Commentary

Exactly three months after this interview with Jack Revill, his wife, Pat Revill, recorded her own oral history with the Museum on May 4, 2005. It may be viewed here: Pat Revill Oral History – Works – The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. At the time of the Kennedy assassination, Pat Revill was a secretary in the Dallas County District Attorney's Office and worked closely with D.A. Henry Wade. Mrs. Revill passed away on March 6, 2018. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Curatorial Commentary

The brief verbal exchange between Lt. Jack Revill of the Dallas Police Department and Dallas FBI agent James P. Hosty on the afternoon of November 22, 1963 significantly eroded trust and damaged the working relationship between the Dallas police and the FBI. According to Jack Revill, Agent Hosty allegedly admitted to him that the FBI had known that suspect Lee Harvey Oswald "was capable of committing [the] assassination." Hosty later denied this. Revill was furious that the FBI had not shared crucial information with the Dallas police during security preparations for the presidential visit. Revill promptly reported the conversation to his superiors (and that information was subsequently leaked to the news media and ended up as a front-page Dallas Morning News story in April 1964). Within months of the Kennedy assassination, Agent Hosty was transferred from Dallas to the FBI's smaller and less prestigious field office in Kansas City, Missouri by order of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, which many have viewed as quiet disciplinary action. - Stephen Fagin, Curator