100th Anniversary Of J.D. Tippit's Birthday

[Charles Collins]

Thanks Bill. I agree. Do you know where Mary Wright was located at the time of the shots? Could she see what was going on?

I realized I could try to look this up myself. Here is what a search in Dale Myers’ book “With Malice” for Mary Wright turned up:

Frank Wright jumped off his front porch and ran down toward Tippit’s patrol car, as his wife, Mary phoned the police. “I ran to the telephone,” Mary Wright told researchers. “I didn’t look in the book or anything. I ran to the telephone, picked it up and dialed ‘O.’ I said, ‘Call the police, a man’s been shot!’” [408]

Dudley M. Hughes, Jr. took the phone call from the Dallas police, who gave Hughes the address of the shooting — “501 East Tenth” — actually the address of Mary Wright. Hughes filled out the ambulance call slip, put it into a time clock and stamped it 1:18 P.M., November 22nd. [485]

From Dale Myers’ timeline:

[1:15:40] Mrs. Mary Wright and Barbara Davis phone police from their homes.

[1:18:00] Dallas Police relay the call for an ambulance to the Dudley Hughes Funeral Home. The address given is 501 East Tenth, home of Frank and Mary Wright.

From footnote 424:

Two other witnesses – L.J. Lewis and Mary Wright –notified police of the shooting via the telephone. Both calls were received within a minute of Bowley’s transmission, providing strong evidence that the shooting occurred shortly before 1:17 p.m.

[Richard Smith]

Tippit was certainly a hero and played a significant role in bringing Oswald to justice.  Who knows how long Oswald might have been on the run had Tippit not stopped to question?  We can never know all the details of that interaction but Oswald most likely saw Tippit's police car and made some movement that aroused Tippit's suspicion.  Tippit pulls over to check it out.  Oswald tries to bluff his way out but can't ID himself because he may already be a suspect in the assassination.  So he is evasive.  Tippit decides to get out of the car and investigate further.  Oswald decides to act while he still has the element of surprise.  You do have to feel bad for the Tippit family.  They not only lost a husband and father but have also been subject to insane conspiracy theories for decades.