Elmer Boyd, the last surviving Dallas investigator in connection with the JFK assassination, has died at the age of 96 – Action News Jax

Boyd, born on September 21, 1927, in Cryer Creek, Texas, joined the Dallas Police Department on May 19, 1952, and became a detective on October 15, 1957.

On Nov. 22, 1963, Boyd was scheduled to sit in a vehicle several cars behind Texas Governor John Connally, the Corsicana Daily Sun reported. But his role was changed and he and his partner, Richard Sims, were assigned to the head table where Kennedy was to sit during a luncheon at the Trade Mart in Dallas, the newspaper said.

Kennedy never made it to the Trade Mart because he was gunned down at Dealey Plaza in Dallas.

Boyd received a radio call about the shooting and was dispatched to the Texas School Book Depository with Sims, KTXS-TV reported. He will lead the investigation at the book depository, the television station said.

The two detectives found cartridge cases on the sixth floor near the window.

Lee Harvey Oswald, the president’s suspected gunman, was escorted to the Dallas police station by Boyd and Sims, KTXS-TV reported. He also participated in Oswald’s interrogation.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Lee Harvey Oswald killed our president and JD Tippit,” Boyd said in a 2021 interview.

In one photo, Boyd and Sims are seen next to Oswald as they escort him out of Dallas prison, the Daily Sun reported.

“The first time I saw this picture, a guy from Ireland sent it to me in poster size,” Boyd told the newspaper in 2017. “He wanted me to sign it and send it back so he could hang it in his brother’s pub.”

According to his obituary, Boyd retired from the Dallas Police Department in 1978. He joined the Euless Police Department as a warrant officer in October 1978 and became a court administrator three years later. He permanently retired on February 1, 1989.

In 2023, Boyd donated his firearms, cowboy hat, and the handcuffs used to restrain Oswald after his arrest to the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas.

“I don’t claim to be an expert on this assassination – I just know what I did,” Boyd told the Daily Sun.

In a statement, the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza called Boyd “a true Southern gentleman who will be missed.”

“Although we were hesitant to talk about his involvement for years, we were honored when Elmer recorded an oral history in 2007 and later participated in a rare public program at our museum,” the museum wrote in a Facebook post. “Last year, he generously donated his firearms, cowboy hat and the handcuffs used to restrain Lee Harvey Oswald after his arrest.”