AGENCY : RECORD NUMBER: RECORD SERIES : AGENCY FILE NUMBER : ORIGINATOR : FROM: TO: TITLE : DATE: PAGES: SUBJECTS : DOCUMENT TYPE : CLASSIFICATION : RESTRICTIONS : CURRENT STATUS : DATE OF LAST REVIEW : OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : v9.1 HW 54756 DBocld:322761319 JFK Assassination System Date: 10/7/201 Identification Form Agency Information HSCA 180-10105-10388 NUMBERED FILES 014451 Document Information HSA CURRY, JESSIE G. 05/06/1978 10 CURRY JESSIE E. DALLAS, TX RUBY, JACK; BACKGROUND; FAMILIARITY WITH THE POLICE OSWALD, LEE; MURDER BY RUBY; TRANSFER TO COUNTY JAIL RUBY, JACK; BACKGROUND; BUSINESS & FINANCIAL INTERESTS GREEN, LOUIS SUMMARY Unclassified 3 Redact 10/25/1995 Box 258. Page 2?
‘ee ed KENNEDY | 014454 INVESTIGATION INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 1. Identifying Information: Name JESSIE E CuRR Date 5-0-8 lo:4Ss on en ng Address 250% Loving Place Re da gq Rous -| ot! DAY In _ City/State DACCAS, Tex ‘Telephone 244/327-6498 Date of Birth (O-3-(4/3 ss wor gg Mr arrcid Social Security ty 60.2% /F/o GO. Z2 (G1lt Spouse Qssace Besar n +. Children LY 2. Physical Description: Height G-/ oe .. Color Eyes boace tte Pg Weight Q2S . ' ‘Special Characteristics ° Ethnic Group , « e - ’ a 3. Personal History: a. Present Employment: Beret netind- Lnwukpabek Address Telephone b. Criminal Record 1. Arrests 2. Convictions 4,_ Additional. Personal Information: _. ..... ._ ae _ a. Relative(s): Name Addre ss b. Area frequented: c. Remarks: Investigator 4 oSeP tt ay Dasreat _ HW 54756 Docld:322761319 Padpate 7 Form #4-B
HW 54756 KENNEDY SELECT COMMITTEE ON ASSASSINATIONS Name vessie Curry Date %-6-78 Time 10:45 A.M Address 2508 Loving Place Holiday Inn - Regal Row Dallas, Texas Room #118 Interview: Staff Investigators Joseph J. Basteri and Albert Maxwell interviewed Jessie E. Curry who on November 22, 1963 was Chief of Police of the Dallas Police Dept. and commanded a force of . 1800 men. Curry entered the department in 1936 and rose up through the ranks to Chief of Police in 1959. He retired in 1966 because of poor health. Chief Curry gave us a brief history of the conditions that existed in Dallas in prior years. The year 1936 was the Centennial Year for Dallas and the town was wide open. It re- mained that way until 1945 when Chief Carl Hanson took over the reigns of the department and Will Wilson was elected the District attorney. They and the city officials decided to clean up the city and by 1948 Dallas was a clean city and remained that way to present time. | Chief Curry had not known Ruby and had only one contact with him--and that was when he rejected a renewal of his license for a club that Ruby had owned on /_-Ervay Street. Curry did not Interviewer Signature Typed Signature José, Date transcribed 5/17/78 BY: cs Form #4-, DoclId:322761319 Page 4
Interview: Jessie Curry . . TQ a . rec¢all the Club's name or what year this incident occurred... “The license was. rejected because this club had excess arrests for drunks and fights. Ruby had called Curry in. an effort to convince him that his Club had no more fights than other night clubs in Dallas. Chief curry was of the opinion. that this call did not alter his decision to suspend the license for a certain period of time--curry always followed a_xecommendation of the Vice Squad in these matters.- | | ‘Curry was, quite certain that Ruby was never a registered _ informant with his department. He remarked that it was quite possible that. Ruby may have had a detective. ‘friend that” he was giving information to. As. far as any , allegations that Ruby had . access to DPD files,. curry ‘termed this as absolutely ridiculous: In the area of organized crime, curry said that this _ Never existed in Dallas. The only, gang that he knew about was headed by Lois Green, a local man, and this was a loosely organized organization. ‘This gang's criminal activity concen-. © trated mostly on burglaries, gambling and. safe cracking. This gang never tried to influence ‘the DPD in any: manner. Chief HW 54756 Curry had never heard Jack Ruby' s vname connected with the Lois Green gang. During his administration, the DPD: was free from any political or outside pressure. Chief Curry stated that when he became Chief, the town was clean and the police department was. free of corruption. ‘He. said that it remained that way until BoclId: 322761319 Page 5
HW 54756 Interview: Jessie Curry | . _3 the day he left office. ‘The. large scale organized. -gambiing’ that occurred was, back in the mid- forties with Benny Binion and. his group. which. included. Harry ‘Urban, Bob. ‘Minyard and Lotta Milk. He estimated the daily take for ‘this policy operation, which was mostly among Blacks, to be about $600 a day. Before this operation could spread any further they decided to put an end to it. Most of these men were eventually run out of: town. Whenever his department had received word that a member of any so-called organized crime figure was in town, he would immediately dispatch a police officer to inform this person that he was not welcome . in Dallas... ‘Chief Curry stated’ that there were never any. intelligence ‘files missing, he never heard of any such rumors nor had he ever conducted any investigation to recover: any’ such missing documents. It never came.to: Chief Curry's attention of any unusual activity of police officers frequenting any of: Ruby's clubs. As far as any pay-offs of Ruby to Dallas police officers, Chief Curry thought. that this was most unlikely because there was no need for Ruby ‘to: pay any police officer. He imagined that Ruby may have bought an officer a drink or picked up a tab now. and then, but that would be the extent of any payoffs. Curry is certain that no police officer worked in Ruby's Club because that was against police department regulations... He DoclId: 322761319 Page 6
‘Interview: Jessie Curry | oe 4 suggested that perhaps: Special Police officers may have worked for Ruby,:.as it was not against their regulations. These special police officers are not regular police officers and they did not come under his jurisdiction. Their sole function is to supervise dance halls. The plans for the movement of Lee Harvey Oswald were | formulated by Chief Curry, Captain Fritz,:of. Homicide, Chief Stevenson, head of Criminal Investigation, and Chief Lumpkin, who headed the Jails and Services Division. Curry informed | Y us that. no big plans were made, nor any official reports made, a but they just sat down and verbally discussed what would be HW 54756 the best way to move LHO to insure his ‘safety. Curry was aware that many threats were ‘made against Oswald and a group, whom he could not identify, was: attempting to seize him. These plans were made sometime on Saturday, November 23, 1963. There was never any decision made to move Oswald on saturday evening. ' @urry.recallssa group of newsmen appréaching - him: on Saturday and wanted: to know if it was necessary for them to sleep there all night to insure that they would not miss viewing the movement of Oswald. Chief Curry stated that he told the news media that Oswald will be moved ‘tomorrow morning — and if they returned by 10 AM Sunday morning they would not miss anything. Chief Curry said.that he was reluctant to have ‘the newsmen present during Oswald. transfer but was concerned Docld: 322761319 Page Tf
. Interview: Jessie Curry oo ; — . “5. abl the adverse publicity his department would receive if the 7 news. media were excluded... . Chief Batchlor was in charge of the security in the "basement - and was, instructed to thoroughly | search the entire basement, including even ‘the air conditioning ducts. ‘Also, men . were posted on all entrances of the building and basement to insure that no.one but authorized personnel and’ the news media wiS allowed to enter.’ Also, there was a designated place. for the news media to ‘be placed and that was behind the railing separating the basement auto ramp from the. garage. According to Curry, there was no possible way anyone could. have known the exact hour that Oswald was to be moved ,-inéluding curry himself. | i That Sunday morning, he called Captain Fritz and told him that whenever he was finished with the questioning of Oswald. ~ they would set the plan of ‘Oswald's movement in motion. No one was fully briefed on the: entire transfer plan of LHO and about ten ranking offices knew only what theix. specific:éipervising duties were. Chief curry then received a call from Captain Fritz informing him. that he“had completed the interrogation of LHO. Curry informed Fritz that he was. going downstairs to, check to see if the security was in order and that if he did not hear from him (curry) in three or. four-minutes, to bring Oswald downstairs. As Curry proceeded to go downstairs HW 54756 DBoclId:32261319 Page 6
-Interview: Jessie Curry — - . oo an: he received a call from Mayor Caball who was inquiring on the. status of their plan. While on the phone with the Mayor, Captain Fritz evidently decided, not hearing from Chief Curry, that it was alright to bring Oswald downstairs--which he did. Minutes later Chief Curry was informed that Oswald had been shot. Chief Curry stated that had he’ | ;/ gone downstairs and seen. the reporters in areas off limits to ‘them, he would have oo halted .> the entire transfer until they: (reporters) were : moved back into their designated area. Chief Curry could not conceive why Batchelor had permitted the news media to roam on off-limits “areas. Curry stated’ that he had a practice to always form a special squad to investigate any unusual incident. after the Oswald shooting he did just that and appointed Inspector J.H. Sawyer to head it. Chief Curry said that there were no ill feelings or dissension among any men in.the department because. of this unit. Also no pressure was exerted to disband the unit. It was disbanded when the investigation was fully completed. The purpose of this unit was to find out what caused the breakdown in security allowing LHO to be shot and who was responsible, if anyone, for any errors that may have occurred. Chief Curry implied that he knew who made the mistake. . He coritinued that the investigation disclosed that Police Officer HW 54756 Vaugh. left his post to direct traffic in order that the decoy Docld:32261319 Page 9
. oof -Interview: Jessie Curry . 7 police vehicle could leave the basement. Curry assumed that . Vaugh took this action out of respect for Lt.. Pierce, who was the driver. Curry stated that, he never blamed Vaughy for this action nor did he think it advisable to single him out and bring him up on departmental charges. curry felt if he did accuse Vaughnand single him out, then people would. think that he had taken that action in order for the heat‘ to be taken off himself. This special unit, .Curry said, was terminated after | it had conducted a full and thorough. examination into the operation security of the transfer of LHO on Nov. 24, 1963. There was never any pressure brought to bear to disband this . unit.. After all the leads were checked into and there. was” nothing left to investigate, captain Jones. submitted a | full and _ complete report to my office. (Curry) . | When asked’ if there existed an intelligence report on Ruby prior to his shooting of LHO, Chief Curry. replied that he did not know of any such file on: Ruby and further ‘more he believed thére. would be no ‘reason to keep: such a file on Ruby . because he was only a small time night club owner. At no time was any: pressure put on the Dallas Police Department by the FBI or any other governmental agencies, so stated Chief curry. He has never seen or recalled any special - orders by any governinental agencies governing’ any of his actions HW 54756 during the period of the Presidential assassination. t 4 Bocld: 322761319 Page 10
Interview: Jessie Curry a 8 Chief curry did mention that the only trouble that aia ‘arise. with the ‘FBI was when he released to the press _ the news that the FBI » “was? aware of LHO's presence in the Dallas area. Several hours after making this statement, Curry received a phone call from Gordon Shanklin, who was the agent in charge of ‘the Dallas office, suggesting that he ‘retract this statement. Chief Curry said he never made the . retraction because the statement was true (Note: for a full a HW 54756 report on this incident see Interview Sheet #000813 by Gilbert and Moriarty dated. 3/13/77. ). ‘Chief. Curry acknowledged knowing Joe’ Civello, Joe. Campisi and John Grizzaffi, stating that he had. gone to high school with all three of: then. He characterized Joe Civello as being a businessman all his Life (export ana import) and having the reputation of being a mob figure because of the reputation of his © father. Curry believes that Civello' s father was active in organized crime years ‘ago and Joe.Civello became acquainted with many of these mobsters. . He continued that Joe Campisi was never a gangster but had always been in the restaurant business... He described Campisi as a sportsman who liked to gamble but had nothing to do with any gambling syndicate. John Grizzaffi isa small: time “gambler who would love to be thought of as a big time hood. | Chief Curry was then asked. about a Charles D. West who Docld: 322761319 Page il