J. D. Tippit

J. D. Tippit was an American police officer who was an 11year veteran with the Dallas Police Department. On a Dallas street about 45 minutes after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald fatally shot Tippit. Oswald was initially arrested as a suspect in Tippits murder but later also became a suspect in the shooting of President Kennedy. Oswald was charged with both crimes shortly after his arrest. However, Oswald denied involvement in either of the cases. Before Oswald could be prosecuted for either crime, he was shot and killed, while in police custody, by strip club owner Jack Ruby on November 24, 1963.

Tippit was born near the town of Annona in Red River County, Texas. He was one of seven children to Edgar Lee, a farmer, and Lizzie Mae Tippit . The Tippit and Rush families were of English ancestry, their ancestors having immigrated to Virginia from England by 1635. It is sometimes reported that J.D. stood for Jefferson Davis, but in fact, the letters did not stand for anything in particular. Tippit attended public schools through the tenth grade and was raised as a Baptist, a faith he practiced for the rest of his life. He entered the United States Army on July 21, 1944, and was assigned to the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the US 17th Airborne Division. He saw combat in Operation Varsity, the airborne crossing of the Rhine River in March 1945, earning a Bronze Star, and remained on active duty until June 20, 1946.

Source: Wikipedia