American police officer who was the chief of the Dallas Police Department from 1960 to 1966. Curry was chief at the time of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in downtown Dallas on 22 November 1963.
Curry rode in the lead car of the motorcade carrying President Kennedy, he provided security for both the president and the vice-president, Lyndon B. Johnson, at Parkland Memorial Hospital where President Kennedy died, and, later, aboard Air Force One when Johnson was sworn in as the new president.
Two hours after President Kennedy was assassinated, Dallas Police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald in connection with the fatal shooting of Dallas Police officer J.D. Tippit. Oswald quickly became the prime suspect in Kennedy’s death and was charged with both crimes. Curry and the Dallas Police were initially praised for apprehending the alleged assassin so quickly, but the praise ended two days later when Oswald was shot by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while he was being transferred from the basement of the Dallas Police station to the county jail. Curry had allowed journalists and camera men into the area to witness the transfer in an effort to quell rumours that Oswald was being mistreated while in police custody. Curry was later criticized and sometimes blamed for compromising Oswald’s safety and allowing him to be killed “in the basement of his [Curry’s] own building.”
Curry suffered from diabetes and survived a stroke in 1978. On 22 June 1980, Curry suffered a fatal heart attack in his sleep at his Dallas home. He was 66.
Link to Wikipedia biography