Mark Lane's book "Last Word" provides us with the major worldwide forum we all needed to further specifically debunk your book...and, wow: does he ever (graciously using my research with my permission)! Lane is a multiple major #1 NY Times Best-Selling author (not just a one-time "extended list" 'best-seller') and, so far, his book is selling great (even before the official publication date of 11/1/11; UK and overseas 11/11/11). Lane's book is on the very same publishing house as Jesse Ventura's major best-seller "American Conspiracies." Lane was already on TMZ for an hour; the response has been fantastic.
So, say goodnight, Jerry: keep cutting and pasting those positive Amazon reviews from your friends...it's over. :)
P.S. Mark Lane is also coming out with a major movie documentary to counter "The Kennedy Detail" and other books
Monday, October 31, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
"ivy league charlatans" 'quote' from "The Kennedy Detail": a fabricated quote
I used to hold Clint hill in high regard until this book came out. The quote"ivy league charlatans" off my car doesn't ring true because JFK attended Harvard and wouldn't insult the ivy league. Most of the secret service did not attend ivy league schools. Fabricated quote.
TheBillpucci 1 day ago
TheBillpucci 1 day ago
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
UPDATED-THE KENNEDY DETAIL DEBUNKED
200 of 203 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars THE KENNEDY DETAIL DEBUNKED, October 26, 2011
By Vince Palamara "SECRET SERVICE/JFK/STEELERS/M... (South Park/Bethel Park, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK (Hardcover)
Attorney Mark Lane thoroughly destroys Gerald Blaine & Lisa McCubbin's book "The Kennedy Detail": on the merit of this alone, every person who purcashed and/ or read that book needs to read this as the antidote. Lane saves his best JFK work for last with his appropriately titled tome "The Last Word", a book that joins Jim Douglass "JFK & The Unspeakable" and Douglas Horne's 5-volume series "Inside The Assassination Records Review Board" in the "holy troika" of essential, must-read (and own) Kennedy assassination books. Lane skillfully takes apart Vincent Bugliosi's magnum opus on the Oswald-did-it side entitled "Reclaiming History" and, most of all, Gerald Blaine's fraudulent "JFK-told-us-not-to" book "The Kennedy Detail"---for the latter, Lane used my research materials, for which I am most grateful. In addition, Lane adds further credibility to the tale of former Secret Service Agent Abraham Bolden and his book "The Echo From Dealey Plaza." It never ceases to amaze me how much great literature and research has come forth in the last 5-10 years. Mark Lane's book "The Last Word" adds to his legacy greatly. Get this one asap---Bugliosi, Blaine, and the CIA have a lot to answer for! Highly recommended; fantastic!
5.0 out of 5 stars THE KENNEDY DETAIL DEBUNKED, October 26, 2011
By Vince Palamara "SECRET SERVICE/JFK/STEELERS/M... (South Park/Bethel Park, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK (Hardcover)
Attorney Mark Lane thoroughly destroys Gerald Blaine & Lisa McCubbin's book "The Kennedy Detail": on the merit of this alone, every person who purcashed and/ or read that book needs to read this as the antidote. Lane saves his best JFK work for last with his appropriately titled tome "The Last Word", a book that joins Jim Douglass "JFK & The Unspeakable" and Douglas Horne's 5-volume series "Inside The Assassination Records Review Board" in the "holy troika" of essential, must-read (and own) Kennedy assassination books. Lane skillfully takes apart Vincent Bugliosi's magnum opus on the Oswald-did-it side entitled "Reclaiming History" and, most of all, Gerald Blaine's fraudulent "JFK-told-us-not-to" book "The Kennedy Detail"---for the latter, Lane used my research materials, for which I am most grateful. In addition, Lane adds further credibility to the tale of former Secret Service Agent Abraham Bolden and his book "The Echo From Dealey Plaza." It never ceases to amaze me how much great literature and research has come forth in the last 5-10 years. Mark Lane's book "The Last Word" adds to his legacy greatly. Get this one asap---Bugliosi, Blaine, and the CIA have a lot to answer for! Highly recommended; fantastic!
Vince Palamara named in Amazon review of "The Last Word" (I am IN Lane's book!!!!)
4.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional, Incomplete Summary, October 26, 2011
By E. H. Pitcher - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK (Hardcover)
Mark Lane has been a relentless force in the investigation of the JFK assassination. His poignant criticism of the "official" report did not keep him off the New York Times bestseller list in an era when many scholarly researchers like Harold Weisberg could not even find a publisher. Lane's performance has always been exceptional. His masterful debate with William F. Buckley displays an intellectual tug of war that exists to this very day - and Lane always seems to win. Lane's status has afforded him unprecedented access to very high profile opportunities across the spectrum of the investigation as an unmatched legal voice of dissent.
In Last Word, Lane offers an outstanding summary of his admirable work. Reading through the chapters, one is struck by this sometimes enigmatic (Jonestown / Posner) attorney's dedication to the case, as well as references to the contemporary American condition. Researchers may not find much new data, but Lane's assembly of familiar topics is clear and enjoyable. At the end, Lane now squarely accuses the CIA for murdering JFK. The fact that this accusation is made directly and openly in a published book perhaps signals a new level of tolerance and underscore's Lanes unique significance in the case, or at least that it is now acceptable to blame the acronym.
Lane's attention to the question of Secret Service malfeasance delivers a crushing review of "The Kennedy Detail", which is completely justified. By channelling Bolton, Lane also provides the necessary context for us to understand that, apparently, the Kennedy detail were comprised of holdover conservatives or racists who hated JFK, or his tolerant policies. This context allows the reader to further understand how the agency might have been compromised, and lane documents some - but not all - of the widely known facts of the statistically impossible systemic failure on Elm Street. Lane may have erred when he claimed that the Secret Service did not gain possession of the Zapruder film - this agency controlled the vast majority of the prima facie evidence, a vital subject that Lane does not adress. And while Lane stops short of "indicting" the agency who were in control of the president during the murder, he does direct readers to Vince Palamara, who has. Despite Lane endorsing these elements of the crime, readers will be perplexed later to find Lane questioning RFK's judgement in not accepting Secret Service protection, as if it were a fatal decision. At least one reader would have enjoyed Lane's sentient analysis probing the Secret Service question further.
In the final analysis, the CIA is an omnipotent tool wielded by the establishment. Readers who wish to further understand the establishment involvement in the crime and coverup should read The Kennedy Assassination Cover-Up. That the CIA turned it's machinations to a domestic target is a self-evident assertion. That certain members of the Secret Service detail were either elements of, or compromised by, the CIA to be active participants in the murder is widely suspected, yet not yet fully understood. Newcomb and Adams' "Murder From Within", Vince Palamara's "Survivor's Guilt", and Doug Horne's "Inside the AARB" provide readers with additional details that render's Lane's exceptional work incomplete.
By E. H. Pitcher - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK (Hardcover)
Mark Lane has been a relentless force in the investigation of the JFK assassination. His poignant criticism of the "official" report did not keep him off the New York Times bestseller list in an era when many scholarly researchers like Harold Weisberg could not even find a publisher. Lane's performance has always been exceptional. His masterful debate with William F. Buckley displays an intellectual tug of war that exists to this very day - and Lane always seems to win. Lane's status has afforded him unprecedented access to very high profile opportunities across the spectrum of the investigation as an unmatched legal voice of dissent.
In Last Word, Lane offers an outstanding summary of his admirable work. Reading through the chapters, one is struck by this sometimes enigmatic (Jonestown / Posner) attorney's dedication to the case, as well as references to the contemporary American condition. Researchers may not find much new data, but Lane's assembly of familiar topics is clear and enjoyable. At the end, Lane now squarely accuses the CIA for murdering JFK. The fact that this accusation is made directly and openly in a published book perhaps signals a new level of tolerance and underscore's Lanes unique significance in the case, or at least that it is now acceptable to blame the acronym.
Lane's attention to the question of Secret Service malfeasance delivers a crushing review of "The Kennedy Detail", which is completely justified. By channelling Bolton, Lane also provides the necessary context for us to understand that, apparently, the Kennedy detail were comprised of holdover conservatives or racists who hated JFK, or his tolerant policies. This context allows the reader to further understand how the agency might have been compromised, and lane documents some - but not all - of the widely known facts of the statistically impossible systemic failure on Elm Street. Lane may have erred when he claimed that the Secret Service did not gain possession of the Zapruder film - this agency controlled the vast majority of the prima facie evidence, a vital subject that Lane does not adress. And while Lane stops short of "indicting" the agency who were in control of the president during the murder, he does direct readers to Vince Palamara, who has. Despite Lane endorsing these elements of the crime, readers will be perplexed later to find Lane questioning RFK's judgement in not accepting Secret Service protection, as if it were a fatal decision. At least one reader would have enjoyed Lane's sentient analysis probing the Secret Service question further.
In the final analysis, the CIA is an omnipotent tool wielded by the establishment. Readers who wish to further understand the establishment involvement in the crime and coverup should read The Kennedy Assassination Cover-Up. That the CIA turned it's machinations to a domestic target is a self-evident assertion. That certain members of the Secret Service detail were either elements of, or compromised by, the CIA to be active participants in the murder is widely suspected, yet not yet fully understood. Newcomb and Adams' "Murder From Within", Vince Palamara's "Survivor's Guilt", and Doug Horne's "Inside the AARB" provide readers with additional details that render's Lane's exceptional work incomplete.
THE KENNEDY DETAIL DEBUNKED
THE KENNEDY DETAIL DEBUNKED
Attorney Mark Lane thoroughly destroys Gerald Blaine & Lisa McCubbin's book "The Kennedy Detail": on the merit of this alone, every person who purcashed and/ or read that book needs to read this as the antidote. Highly recommended; fantastic!
Attorney Mark Lane thoroughly destroys Gerald Blaine & Lisa McCubbin's book "The Kennedy Detail": on the merit of this alone, every person who purcashed and/ or read that book needs to read this as the antidote. Highly recommended; fantastic!
An essential purchase: run, don't walk, to obtain this book!
An essential purchase: run, don't walk, to obtain this book!
Legendary best-selling author Mark Lane saves his best JFK work for last with his appropriately titled tome "The Last Word", a book that joins Jim Douglass "JFK & The Unspeakable" and Douglas Horne's 5-volume series "Inside The Assassination Records Review Board" in the "holy troika" of essential, must-read (and own) Kennedy assassination books. Lane skillfully takes apart Vincent Bugliosi's magnum opus on the Oswald-did-it side entitled "Reclaiming History" and, most of all, Gerald Blaine's fraudulent "JFK-told-us-not-to" book "The Kennedy Detail"---for the latter, Lane used my research materials, for which I am most grateful. In addition, Lane adds further credibility to the tale of former Secret Service Agent Abraham Bolden and his book "The Echo From Dealey Plaza." It never ceases to amaze me how much great literature and research has come forth in the last 5-10 years. Mark Lane's book "The Last Word" adds to his legacy greatly. Get this one asap---Bugliosi, Blaine, and the CIA have a lot to answer for!
Legendary best-selling author Mark Lane saves his best JFK work for last with his appropriately titled tome "The Last Word", a book that joins Jim Douglass "JFK & The Unspeakable" and Douglas Horne's 5-volume series "Inside The Assassination Records Review Board" in the "holy troika" of essential, must-read (and own) Kennedy assassination books. Lane skillfully takes apart Vincent Bugliosi's magnum opus on the Oswald-did-it side entitled "Reclaiming History" and, most of all, Gerald Blaine's fraudulent "JFK-told-us-not-to" book "The Kennedy Detail"---for the latter, Lane used my research materials, for which I am most grateful. In addition, Lane adds further credibility to the tale of former Secret Service Agent Abraham Bolden and his book "The Echo From Dealey Plaza." It never ceases to amaze me how much great literature and research has come forth in the last 5-10 years. Mark Lane's book "The Last Word" adds to his legacy greatly. Get this one asap---Bugliosi, Blaine, and the CIA have a lot to answer for!
MARK LANE'S BOOK "THE LAST WORD" OUT NOW: GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!
MARK LANE'S BOOK "THE LAST WORD" OUT NOW: GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
This book was written to counter Vince Palamara's work: epic FAIL
99 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars This book was written to counter Vince Palamara's work: epic FAIL, October 31, 2010
By r-devic-saint (Pittsburgh, PA) - This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
Researcher Vince Palamara interviewed and corresponded with many former agents, including Gerald Blaine. They ALL told him that JFK never interfered with their actions at all and DID NOT order the agents off his limousine. Blaine, in a panic because the truth hurts, hastily wrote this book as a result. Notice how defensive it is in tone and how Blaine goes on and on about the fraudulent notion that President Kennedy ordered the agents off his limo on 11/18/63, which somehow became a standing order to be applied to the upcoming Dallas trip...false! SAIC Gerald Behn, ASAIC Floyd Boring, ATSAIC Art Godfrey, GERALD BLAINE, and many other former agents and non-agency personnel debunked this years before this book was written. What's more, Blaine, without having the courage to name Palamara (pages 359-360), seeks to denigrate his massively researched work via the alleged misidentification of the agent who was recalled at Love Field...as if THAT alone overrides all the damning evidence of Blaine's lies about JFK throughout the work. Mr. Blaine, with all due respect, you should be ashamed of yourself for this book. You know the real story, as does Palamara and many of your colleagues. The agents who protected President Reagan on 3/30/81 put your men to shame. Irony: you have made major amounts of money on this case, much more than 99 percent of the critical research community you seek to denigrate. No one is buying it, but they sure are BUYING it...guess huge profits are nice, huh?
In reply to an earlier post on Dec 8, 2010 1:21:30 AM PST
don jeffries says:
By your rationale, young historians couldn't comment on the Civil War, or World War II, or any other event from the past, since they weren't there to witness it in person. Palamara has done the job mainstream journalists should have, but didn't. He tracked down all those agents, unearthed important documents, and produced a work that is of true historical value, unlike Blaine's self-serving piece of historical fluffery.
Btw, the biggest joke here is the promo line that Blaine and Hill "are breaking their silence." They've each been interviewed previously, and have testified before about the events in Dealy Plaza. Too bad they still can't get the story straight.
Face the facts- they were charged with protecting the President of the United States, and they failed miserably in their job.
-------
288 of 309 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Oswald did it...and JFK helped, too?, October 28, 2010
By Vince Palamara "SECRET SERVICE/JFK/STEELERS/M... (South Park/Bethel Park, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
As the leading civilian authority on the Secret Service, especially regarding the JFK/ LBJ era, and as someone who interviewed and/ or corresponded with close to 80 former agents between 1990-2006 (roughly double the number of former agents interviewed for this book), I was, needless to say, very much interested in what former agent and author Gerald Blaine (a nice gentleman I spoke to twice and corresponded with several times via e-mail), along with co-author Lisa McCubbin and fellow former agent Clint Hill (a very close friend of Blaine's to whom I had sent a 22-page letter to and spoke to very briefly and who also wrote the Foreword), had to say about President Kennedy and the tragic events of November 22, 1963, when the Secret Service failed in the worst way, costing the nation the life of our President. As a total stranger and an outsider, my contacts with the former agents were very much in the "cross examination" mode (often eliciting begrudging, not-too-friendly responses), while, as a trusted insider, it is fair to say that Blaine's contacts would be of the "direct/ friendly examination" variety. This dichotomy will become important for a number of reasons.
I am as certain as a human being can be that it was my lengthy letter to Clint Hill that led to the genesis of this book----I sent it in June of 2005 and received a very cantankerous "non-reply" when I phoned the gentleman this same time period. Also, during this very same time period, as Blaine admitted to the Daily Sentinel's Bob Silbernagel for his 5/23/10 article, Blaine began contacting as many living former agents who served President Kennedy for his book as he could (it is important to note that I also made contacts with Mr. Blaine during this time period, as well). Why am I so certain that my letter was a catalyst? As an ardent critic of the Secret Service's performance in Dallas (going much further than the two government "investigations", the Warren Commission and the HSCA), I sent Mr. Hill, in effect, a "Cliff Notes" version of my research for my own book ("Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President"), spelling out why I came to be certain that fellow former agents Floyd Boring (the number two agent on the Kennedy Detail and the Secret Service planner of the Texas trip), Shift Leader Emory Roberts (the commander of the agents in the follow-up car in Dallas), and William Greer (the driver of JFK's limousine on 11/22/63) were grossly negligent before, during, and after JFK was assassinated. Judging by Mr. Hill's "response" (or lack thereof), my attempt to address my concerns did not go over very well, to put it mildly.
As it bears directly on "The Kennedy Detail" , just what specifically are my concerns? Simply put: many of these former agents (and several White House aides), including several who passed away years before this book was even a thought, such as the number one agent on the Kennedy Detail, Gerald Behn; one of the three Shift Leaders, Arthur Godfrey; the number two agent on LBJ's detail (who ALSO had protected JFK), Rufus Youngblood; Sam Kinney, the driver of the follow-up car in Dallas; Robert Bouck, the Special-Agent-In-Charge of the Protective Research Section; Frank Stoner of the Protective Research Section; Maurice Martineau, the Acting-Special- Agent- In- Charge of the Chicago Office who protected JFK from '61-'63 whenever he came to the area; John Norris of the Uniformed Division; Dave Powers, the former curator of the JFK Library who rode in the follow-up car many times, including on 11/22/63; author Helen O'Donnell, daughter of the late Ken O'Donnell, JFK's Chief of Staff (based on her memory and her father's many audio tapes); and many others, told me, in no uncertain terms, that President Kennedy was a very nice man, NEVER interfered with the actions of the Secret Service, and, most importantly, DID NOT ORDER THE AGENTS OFF HIS CAR (nor did O'Donnell, as verified by the aforementioned Helen O'Donnell, Art Godfrey, and Sam Kinney and, by extension, Dave Powers)! With regard to the Tampa, FL trip of 11/18/63, not only do many existing films and photos all along the long motorcade route depict agents on the rear of JFK's car, Congressman Sam Gibbons, who RODE IN THE CAR WITH JFK, told me that he heard no such order from JFK for the agents to be removed in the first place AND that the agents rode the rear bumper all the way. Surprisingly, the number two agent, Floyd Boring (who passed away 2/1/08 and to whom I spoke to twice and corresponded with once), told me the same thing: namely, that the "Get-The-Ivy-League-Charlatans-Off-The-Limo" tale (first told by the late author William Manchester, who had interviewed Gerald Blaine, Clint Hill, and Emory Roberts, but not Boring) is false---Boring never said that to him, never spoke to Manchester in any case, the tale is not true, and that, once again, JFK was a very nice man, very cooperative with the Secret Service, and never interfered with their actions at all! Agents of the Kennedy Detail who conveyed similar knowledge to myself---that JFK never interfered with their actions--- were Walt Coughlin, Winston Lawson (the lead advance agent for Dallas), Don Lawton (who rode on the rear of the car 11/18/63), Abe Bolden, Robert Lilley, Frank Yeager, Gerald O'Rourke, Sam Sulliman, Vince Mroz (now deceased), Larry Newman, and, quite surprisingly, Gerald Blaine himself, a little over a year before he began writing his book!
Although very well written, along with some nice photographs, as well, "The Kennedy Detail" is really a thinly veiled attempt to rewrite history (a la Gerald Posner and Vince Bugliosi, who believe 11/22/63 was the act of a single lone man) and absolve the agents of their collective survivor's guilt (and to counter the prolific writings of a certain reviewer). In the eyes of those from "The Kennedy Detail", the assassination was the act of TWO "lone men": Oswald, who pulled the trigger, and JFK, who set himself up as the target. Simply put: President Kennedy WAS indeed a very nice man, did not interfere with the actions of the Secret Service, did not order the agents off his limousine (in Tampa, in Dallas, or elsewhere), and did not have his staff convey any anti-security sentiments, either. The sheer force and power of what these men all told me, a complete stranger, in correspondence and on the phone, is all the more strong because, not only did they have a vested interest to protect themselves, the vast majority believe that Oswald acted alone and that all official "stories" are correct. Floyd Boring, as agency planner of the fateful trip, in spite of what he forcefully stated to me, did indeed convey the exaggerated---some would say false--notion that JFK had asked that the agents remove themselves from the car 4 short days before Dallas, taking it upon himself to tell several Dallas agents, depending on who you choose to believe, either as an "anecdote" of alleged presidential kindness and consideration in not wanting to have the agents "over exert" themselves (what Boring told the ARRB's Doug Horne in 1996) or a strict "presidential admonition" to stay off the car (as Clint Hill conveyed to the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter, under oath, in 1964). In addition, the motorcycle escort was reduced to (as the HSCA put it) a "uniquely insecure" smaller formation for Dallas, allegedly because, as Boring told the ARRB (and as Win Lawson, assigned to the Dallas trip by Boring [and who would have been merely following orders], told the Warren Commission under oath), JFK allegedly didn't like alot of noise from motorcycles, although he had no problem in countless prior motorcades, including that very same morning in Fort Worth and the day before in San Antonio and Houston. Emory Roberts ordered an agent back from JFK's limo at Love Field (as this reviewer discovered back in 1991 and had popularized for the first time back in 1995 and, again, in 2003 on The History Channel, long before this clip became something of an internet sensation), recalled an agent during the shooting and, as Sam Kinney told me, ordered the men on the follow-up car not to move! For his part, Bill Greer slowed the President's car down during the shooting, twice looked back at JFK, and disobeyed Roy Kellerman's order to get out line (and denied all of this to the Warren Commission). Coupled with several---many?---of the agent's stated anger about JFK's private life (as stated to author Seymour Hersh, among others), these actions, inactions, and feelings are cause for concern.
That said, the vast majority of these men (Blaine included) are honorable former government employees that were merely following orders on that fateful day in Dallas. In light of the work of this reviewer, future pensions, professional and personal reputations, and so forth, "The Kennedy Detail" makes perfect sense. After the reviewer's letter to Clint Hill, it truly WAS "a book that HAD to be written".
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More Mainstream Disinformation, October 29, 2010
By don jeffries "dajeffries" (virginia, usa) - See all my reviewsThis review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
"The Kennedy Detail" is inacurate and self-serving fluff, and merely another in a long series of attempts to distort the truth about what really happened on November 22, 1963. For those of us who have studied the JFK assassination in some depth, one of the few indisputable facts about that day is the complete lack of response on the part of President Kennedy's Secret Service detail. The fact remains that, if the Secret Service agents had been doing their job, John F. Kennedy would not have died in Dealey Plaza.
Vince Palamara is THE expert on the Secret Service's performance, or lack thereof, the day of the assassination. It is a sad indictment of our mainstream press that pablum like this, or "Case Closed," or Vincent Bugliosi's magnus ridiculotus, gets published and massively marketed, while Palamara's ground breaking research remains available for free online, due to the generosity of the author.
Deapite these perpetual efforts to promote the impossible official fairy tale, the public remains largely unconvinced. In the case of this book, we have now reached the height of absurdity, as the victim (JFK) is now being blamed for his own murder. This is incredible gall on the part of the author, to say the least. I would urge anyone interested in the real truth about the way the Secret Service performed in Dallas that day to read Vince Palamara's online work.
Those expecting answers to the numerous questions about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, will most certainly not find them in this book.
1.0 out of 5 stars The truth hurts..., October 28, 2010
By Vince "music/ Secret Service/Steelers fanatic" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
"The Kennedy Detail" takes poetic license regarding some crucial matters. For one, there was NO morning-of-JFK's-funeral meeting with Chief Rowley OTHER than to discuss the security for Jackie's walk to St. Matthews Cathedral. Everyone from this 47-year-old meeting---other than Blaine--- is conveniently dead and there is no documentation for this meeting to discuss JFK's alleged comments ("order") to remove the agents in Tampa on 11/18/63, used as a very lame excuse for why the agents weren't there on 11/22/63 (as agent Win Lawson said, there were no standing orders for the agents to stay off the back of the car and the matter never came to his attention---so much for the advance agents getting wind of these "orders"). Many agents and NON AGENTS (a crucial distinction Blaine doesn't get) have denied that JFK ever interfered with the Secret Service (what "code" would the NON SECRET SERVICE AGENTS have been following, Mr. Blaine?). In addition, Blaine makes a big deal about CE1025, the 5 reports submitted to Chief Rowley in April 1964 (only because the Warren Commission asked) regarding any statements JFK may have made regarding agents being on the rear of his car. Besides the fact that two of the agents---SAIC Behn & ASAIC Boring---denied the substance of their reports to the self-described "Secret Service expert" Blaine seeks to denigrate in "The Kennedy Detail", these reports were NOT just released in 1992, as Blaine alleges, but have been available since 1964, when the Warren Commission released their 26 volumes of hearings and exhibits for sale and library holdings. If that weren't enough, many major newspapers (such as The New York Times) and massive best-selling books (such as Jim Bishop's "The Day Kennedy Was Shot") made a great issue out of these after-the-fact reports; nothing whatsoever hidden there (and the aforementioned "Secret Service expert" [unnamed: Vince Palamara] has discussed these reports many times, as have others). As for the supposed Rybka misidentification, Rybka's family and a couple former agents were fooled, as well (especially considering the fact that both Emory Roberts and Win Lawson 'mistakenly' placed Rybka IN the follow-up car in their reports, only to 'correct' the record later). This also does not address the fact that Emory Roberts can clearly be seen rising in his seat and, using hand gestures, tells the agents (whether Rybka or, as Blaine states, Don Lawton) to fall back from the car, the agent raises his hands several times in response, Paul Landis makes room for the agent in the follow-up car, and the agents and aides in the follow-up car, without smiling, follow the agents' seeming perplexed reaction as the cars move on without him. Finally, with regard to the figurative "back stabbing" (not intended) Blaine states the "Secret Service expert" made with regard to documenting what the former agents said, keep in mind: if there was NO record, WHO would choose to believe what was said to a total stranger (especially over the word of former agents)? In the vernacular of today, "it is what it is": the former agents---AND NON AGENTS---said what they said and wrote what they wrote.
With that in mind, "The Kennedy Detail" is a book I recommend everyone buy and read---some very good information and photos, written by a good and honorable man who is obviously a very good and caring friend of his former comrades in arms, who, with a few noteable exceptions, are equally good and honorable men who were just doing their jobs and following orders when JFK was killed.
Initial post: Nov 7, 2010 4:07:26 PM PST
r-devic-saint says:
Thank you Mr. Palamara. Anyone familiar with your exhaustive research, can point numerous changes in security protocol that occurred that day in Dallas that were not in effect on any of the other stops on this campaign trail, no motorcycles on the side of the car, no agents on the back of the car, no bubble-top on the car. Are we to believe that President Kennedy chose Dallas, a city where he was despised, to make these changes in his security? While we're at it, are we to believe he told the agents to stay out all night and get drunk the evening before?
This is all very far fetched but understandable in light of the incompetence these agents showed that day. The fact is wether you believe in a conspiracy or not, these men screwed up and the president was killed. That has to be a lot of guilt to cary around for 47 years and I can accept their wish to avoid responsibility for their own incompetence, what can't accept is their passing this denial off as history.
Blaine Contradicts Himself, December 27, 2010
By K. Good (Monroeville, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
First off, I will openly state that I have not yet read this book, but am rather disturbed by the splashy taglines that are associated with it. First off, the Secret Service Agents have not just now "broken their silence." That was done years ago through Vince Palamara's "Survivor's Guilt", which still holds the record for the largest number of interviews conducted with agents associated with the JFK assassination. Included among those interviewed and quoted in that book was Gerald Blaine.
Perhaps Mr. Blaine's current story is along the lines of what former agent Abe Bolden has alleged in his review (and Mr. Bolden is also among those quoted in Palamara's work) - a late-breaking attempt at CYA. It is interesting to note that it appears that this book - again, based on its own publicity descriptions - once more sets forth the accusation that JFK compromised his own safety in Dallas on 22 Nov. '63 by ordering agents off his open limo. Also that he exhibited a pattern of recklessly interfering with the SSA's efforts to protect him. This has become something of an urban legend, first set forth in the popular conscience by Wm. Manchester's "The Death of a President." Yet as Palamara's extensive interviews have revealed, the majority of agents interviewed refuted that notion, some being rather upset that Manchester had put this forth in his book.
The general consensus of the agents Palamara got to go on the record stated something far different - that JFK was relatively easy-going with the Secret Service and did not interfere with their efforts. Here is how Blaine himself described the situation to Palamara (a direct quote from "Survivor's Guilt"): "Blaine told the author on February 7, 2004 that President Kennedy was 'very cooperative. He didn't interfere with our actions. President Kennedy was very likeable--he never had a harsh word for anyone. He never interfered with our actions.' [Emphasis added.] When the author asked Blaine how often the agents rode on the back of JFK's limousine, the former agent said it was a 'fairly common' occurrence that depended on the crowd and the speed of the cars."
It should be noted that nowhere in Palamara's book did any secret service agent admit to having heard personally from JFK that the agents should back off their accepted protection practices of closely covering the president's limo. Several directly stated their doubts that he would have done so. And agents Boring and Behn refuted previous reports they had made (supporting the notion of JFK's "orders to back off"), by likewise telling Palamara that JFK did not interfere with the SSA's protection schemes.
I will reserve further comment and judgment on Mr. Blaine's book, but I must regard it with mistrust when it is now being promoted with expressed positions that contradict what the author has previously stated in published material on this topic.
1.0 out of 5 stars This book was written to counter Vince Palamara's work: epic FAIL, October 31, 2010
By r-devic-saint (Pittsburgh, PA) - This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
Researcher Vince Palamara interviewed and corresponded with many former agents, including Gerald Blaine. They ALL told him that JFK never interfered with their actions at all and DID NOT order the agents off his limousine. Blaine, in a panic because the truth hurts, hastily wrote this book as a result. Notice how defensive it is in tone and how Blaine goes on and on about the fraudulent notion that President Kennedy ordered the agents off his limo on 11/18/63, which somehow became a standing order to be applied to the upcoming Dallas trip...false! SAIC Gerald Behn, ASAIC Floyd Boring, ATSAIC Art Godfrey, GERALD BLAINE, and many other former agents and non-agency personnel debunked this years before this book was written. What's more, Blaine, without having the courage to name Palamara (pages 359-360), seeks to denigrate his massively researched work via the alleged misidentification of the agent who was recalled at Love Field...as if THAT alone overrides all the damning evidence of Blaine's lies about JFK throughout the work. Mr. Blaine, with all due respect, you should be ashamed of yourself for this book. You know the real story, as does Palamara and many of your colleagues. The agents who protected President Reagan on 3/30/81 put your men to shame. Irony: you have made major amounts of money on this case, much more than 99 percent of the critical research community you seek to denigrate. No one is buying it, but they sure are BUYING it...guess huge profits are nice, huh?
In reply to an earlier post on Dec 8, 2010 1:21:30 AM PST
don jeffries says:
By your rationale, young historians couldn't comment on the Civil War, or World War II, or any other event from the past, since they weren't there to witness it in person. Palamara has done the job mainstream journalists should have, but didn't. He tracked down all those agents, unearthed important documents, and produced a work that is of true historical value, unlike Blaine's self-serving piece of historical fluffery.
Btw, the biggest joke here is the promo line that Blaine and Hill "are breaking their silence." They've each been interviewed previously, and have testified before about the events in Dealy Plaza. Too bad they still can't get the story straight.
Face the facts- they were charged with protecting the President of the United States, and they failed miserably in their job.
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288 of 309 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Oswald did it...and JFK helped, too?, October 28, 2010
By Vince Palamara "SECRET SERVICE/JFK/STEELERS/M... (South Park/Bethel Park, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
As the leading civilian authority on the Secret Service, especially regarding the JFK/ LBJ era, and as someone who interviewed and/ or corresponded with close to 80 former agents between 1990-2006 (roughly double the number of former agents interviewed for this book), I was, needless to say, very much interested in what former agent and author Gerald Blaine (a nice gentleman I spoke to twice and corresponded with several times via e-mail), along with co-author Lisa McCubbin and fellow former agent Clint Hill (a very close friend of Blaine's to whom I had sent a 22-page letter to and spoke to very briefly and who also wrote the Foreword), had to say about President Kennedy and the tragic events of November 22, 1963, when the Secret Service failed in the worst way, costing the nation the life of our President. As a total stranger and an outsider, my contacts with the former agents were very much in the "cross examination" mode (often eliciting begrudging, not-too-friendly responses), while, as a trusted insider, it is fair to say that Blaine's contacts would be of the "direct/ friendly examination" variety. This dichotomy will become important for a number of reasons.
I am as certain as a human being can be that it was my lengthy letter to Clint Hill that led to the genesis of this book----I sent it in June of 2005 and received a very cantankerous "non-reply" when I phoned the gentleman this same time period. Also, during this very same time period, as Blaine admitted to the Daily Sentinel's Bob Silbernagel for his 5/23/10 article, Blaine began contacting as many living former agents who served President Kennedy for his book as he could (it is important to note that I also made contacts with Mr. Blaine during this time period, as well). Why am I so certain that my letter was a catalyst? As an ardent critic of the Secret Service's performance in Dallas (going much further than the two government "investigations", the Warren Commission and the HSCA), I sent Mr. Hill, in effect, a "Cliff Notes" version of my research for my own book ("Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President"), spelling out why I came to be certain that fellow former agents Floyd Boring (the number two agent on the Kennedy Detail and the Secret Service planner of the Texas trip), Shift Leader Emory Roberts (the commander of the agents in the follow-up car in Dallas), and William Greer (the driver of JFK's limousine on 11/22/63) were grossly negligent before, during, and after JFK was assassinated. Judging by Mr. Hill's "response" (or lack thereof), my attempt to address my concerns did not go over very well, to put it mildly.
As it bears directly on "The Kennedy Detail" , just what specifically are my concerns? Simply put: many of these former agents (and several White House aides), including several who passed away years before this book was even a thought, such as the number one agent on the Kennedy Detail, Gerald Behn; one of the three Shift Leaders, Arthur Godfrey; the number two agent on LBJ's detail (who ALSO had protected JFK), Rufus Youngblood; Sam Kinney, the driver of the follow-up car in Dallas; Robert Bouck, the Special-Agent-In-Charge of the Protective Research Section; Frank Stoner of the Protective Research Section; Maurice Martineau, the Acting-Special- Agent- In- Charge of the Chicago Office who protected JFK from '61-'63 whenever he came to the area; John Norris of the Uniformed Division; Dave Powers, the former curator of the JFK Library who rode in the follow-up car many times, including on 11/22/63; author Helen O'Donnell, daughter of the late Ken O'Donnell, JFK's Chief of Staff (based on her memory and her father's many audio tapes); and many others, told me, in no uncertain terms, that President Kennedy was a very nice man, NEVER interfered with the actions of the Secret Service, and, most importantly, DID NOT ORDER THE AGENTS OFF HIS CAR (nor did O'Donnell, as verified by the aforementioned Helen O'Donnell, Art Godfrey, and Sam Kinney and, by extension, Dave Powers)! With regard to the Tampa, FL trip of 11/18/63, not only do many existing films and photos all along the long motorcade route depict agents on the rear of JFK's car, Congressman Sam Gibbons, who RODE IN THE CAR WITH JFK, told me that he heard no such order from JFK for the agents to be removed in the first place AND that the agents rode the rear bumper all the way. Surprisingly, the number two agent, Floyd Boring (who passed away 2/1/08 and to whom I spoke to twice and corresponded with once), told me the same thing: namely, that the "Get-The-Ivy-League-Charlatans-Off-The-Limo" tale (first told by the late author William Manchester, who had interviewed Gerald Blaine, Clint Hill, and Emory Roberts, but not Boring) is false---Boring never said that to him, never spoke to Manchester in any case, the tale is not true, and that, once again, JFK was a very nice man, very cooperative with the Secret Service, and never interfered with their actions at all! Agents of the Kennedy Detail who conveyed similar knowledge to myself---that JFK never interfered with their actions--- were Walt Coughlin, Winston Lawson (the lead advance agent for Dallas), Don Lawton (who rode on the rear of the car 11/18/63), Abe Bolden, Robert Lilley, Frank Yeager, Gerald O'Rourke, Sam Sulliman, Vince Mroz (now deceased), Larry Newman, and, quite surprisingly, Gerald Blaine himself, a little over a year before he began writing his book!
Although very well written, along with some nice photographs, as well, "The Kennedy Detail" is really a thinly veiled attempt to rewrite history (a la Gerald Posner and Vince Bugliosi, who believe 11/22/63 was the act of a single lone man) and absolve the agents of their collective survivor's guilt (and to counter the prolific writings of a certain reviewer). In the eyes of those from "The Kennedy Detail", the assassination was the act of TWO "lone men": Oswald, who pulled the trigger, and JFK, who set himself up as the target. Simply put: President Kennedy WAS indeed a very nice man, did not interfere with the actions of the Secret Service, did not order the agents off his limousine (in Tampa, in Dallas, or elsewhere), and did not have his staff convey any anti-security sentiments, either. The sheer force and power of what these men all told me, a complete stranger, in correspondence and on the phone, is all the more strong because, not only did they have a vested interest to protect themselves, the vast majority believe that Oswald acted alone and that all official "stories" are correct. Floyd Boring, as agency planner of the fateful trip, in spite of what he forcefully stated to me, did indeed convey the exaggerated---some would say false--notion that JFK had asked that the agents remove themselves from the car 4 short days before Dallas, taking it upon himself to tell several Dallas agents, depending on who you choose to believe, either as an "anecdote" of alleged presidential kindness and consideration in not wanting to have the agents "over exert" themselves (what Boring told the ARRB's Doug Horne in 1996) or a strict "presidential admonition" to stay off the car (as Clint Hill conveyed to the Warren Commission's Arlen Specter, under oath, in 1964). In addition, the motorcycle escort was reduced to (as the HSCA put it) a "uniquely insecure" smaller formation for Dallas, allegedly because, as Boring told the ARRB (and as Win Lawson, assigned to the Dallas trip by Boring [and who would have been merely following orders], told the Warren Commission under oath), JFK allegedly didn't like alot of noise from motorcycles, although he had no problem in countless prior motorcades, including that very same morning in Fort Worth and the day before in San Antonio and Houston. Emory Roberts ordered an agent back from JFK's limo at Love Field (as this reviewer discovered back in 1991 and had popularized for the first time back in 1995 and, again, in 2003 on The History Channel, long before this clip became something of an internet sensation), recalled an agent during the shooting and, as Sam Kinney told me, ordered the men on the follow-up car not to move! For his part, Bill Greer slowed the President's car down during the shooting, twice looked back at JFK, and disobeyed Roy Kellerman's order to get out line (and denied all of this to the Warren Commission). Coupled with several---many?---of the agent's stated anger about JFK's private life (as stated to author Seymour Hersh, among others), these actions, inactions, and feelings are cause for concern.
That said, the vast majority of these men (Blaine included) are honorable former government employees that were merely following orders on that fateful day in Dallas. In light of the work of this reviewer, future pensions, professional and personal reputations, and so forth, "The Kennedy Detail" makes perfect sense. After the reviewer's letter to Clint Hill, it truly WAS "a book that HAD to be written".
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More Mainstream Disinformation, October 29, 2010
By don jeffries "dajeffries" (virginia, usa) - See all my reviewsThis review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
"The Kennedy Detail" is inacurate and self-serving fluff, and merely another in a long series of attempts to distort the truth about what really happened on November 22, 1963. For those of us who have studied the JFK assassination in some depth, one of the few indisputable facts about that day is the complete lack of response on the part of President Kennedy's Secret Service detail. The fact remains that, if the Secret Service agents had been doing their job, John F. Kennedy would not have died in Dealey Plaza.
Vince Palamara is THE expert on the Secret Service's performance, or lack thereof, the day of the assassination. It is a sad indictment of our mainstream press that pablum like this, or "Case Closed," or Vincent Bugliosi's magnus ridiculotus, gets published and massively marketed, while Palamara's ground breaking research remains available for free online, due to the generosity of the author.
Deapite these perpetual efforts to promote the impossible official fairy tale, the public remains largely unconvinced. In the case of this book, we have now reached the height of absurdity, as the victim (JFK) is now being blamed for his own murder. This is incredible gall on the part of the author, to say the least. I would urge anyone interested in the real truth about the way the Secret Service performed in Dallas that day to read Vince Palamara's online work.
Those expecting answers to the numerous questions about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, will most certainly not find them in this book.
1.0 out of 5 stars The truth hurts..., October 28, 2010
By Vince "music/ Secret Service/Steelers fanatic" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
"The Kennedy Detail" takes poetic license regarding some crucial matters. For one, there was NO morning-of-JFK's-funeral meeting with Chief Rowley OTHER than to discuss the security for Jackie's walk to St. Matthews Cathedral. Everyone from this 47-year-old meeting---other than Blaine--- is conveniently dead and there is no documentation for this meeting to discuss JFK's alleged comments ("order") to remove the agents in Tampa on 11/18/63, used as a very lame excuse for why the agents weren't there on 11/22/63 (as agent Win Lawson said, there were no standing orders for the agents to stay off the back of the car and the matter never came to his attention---so much for the advance agents getting wind of these "orders"). Many agents and NON AGENTS (a crucial distinction Blaine doesn't get) have denied that JFK ever interfered with the Secret Service (what "code" would the NON SECRET SERVICE AGENTS have been following, Mr. Blaine?). In addition, Blaine makes a big deal about CE1025, the 5 reports submitted to Chief Rowley in April 1964 (only because the Warren Commission asked) regarding any statements JFK may have made regarding agents being on the rear of his car. Besides the fact that two of the agents---SAIC Behn & ASAIC Boring---denied the substance of their reports to the self-described "Secret Service expert" Blaine seeks to denigrate in "The Kennedy Detail", these reports were NOT just released in 1992, as Blaine alleges, but have been available since 1964, when the Warren Commission released their 26 volumes of hearings and exhibits for sale and library holdings. If that weren't enough, many major newspapers (such as The New York Times) and massive best-selling books (such as Jim Bishop's "The Day Kennedy Was Shot") made a great issue out of these after-the-fact reports; nothing whatsoever hidden there (and the aforementioned "Secret Service expert" [unnamed: Vince Palamara] has discussed these reports many times, as have others). As for the supposed Rybka misidentification, Rybka's family and a couple former agents were fooled, as well (especially considering the fact that both Emory Roberts and Win Lawson 'mistakenly' placed Rybka IN the follow-up car in their reports, only to 'correct' the record later). This also does not address the fact that Emory Roberts can clearly be seen rising in his seat and, using hand gestures, tells the agents (whether Rybka or, as Blaine states, Don Lawton) to fall back from the car, the agent raises his hands several times in response, Paul Landis makes room for the agent in the follow-up car, and the agents and aides in the follow-up car, without smiling, follow the agents' seeming perplexed reaction as the cars move on without him. Finally, with regard to the figurative "back stabbing" (not intended) Blaine states the "Secret Service expert" made with regard to documenting what the former agents said, keep in mind: if there was NO record, WHO would choose to believe what was said to a total stranger (especially over the word of former agents)? In the vernacular of today, "it is what it is": the former agents---AND NON AGENTS---said what they said and wrote what they wrote.
With that in mind, "The Kennedy Detail" is a book I recommend everyone buy and read---some very good information and photos, written by a good and honorable man who is obviously a very good and caring friend of his former comrades in arms, who, with a few noteable exceptions, are equally good and honorable men who were just doing their jobs and following orders when JFK was killed.
Initial post: Nov 7, 2010 4:07:26 PM PST
r-devic-saint says:
Thank you Mr. Palamara. Anyone familiar with your exhaustive research, can point numerous changes in security protocol that occurred that day in Dallas that were not in effect on any of the other stops on this campaign trail, no motorcycles on the side of the car, no agents on the back of the car, no bubble-top on the car. Are we to believe that President Kennedy chose Dallas, a city where he was despised, to make these changes in his security? While we're at it, are we to believe he told the agents to stay out all night and get drunk the evening before?
This is all very far fetched but understandable in light of the incompetence these agents showed that day. The fact is wether you believe in a conspiracy or not, these men screwed up and the president was killed. That has to be a lot of guilt to cary around for 47 years and I can accept their wish to avoid responsibility for their own incompetence, what can't accept is their passing this denial off as history.
Blaine Contradicts Himself, December 27, 2010
By K. Good (Monroeville, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
First off, I will openly state that I have not yet read this book, but am rather disturbed by the splashy taglines that are associated with it. First off, the Secret Service Agents have not just now "broken their silence." That was done years ago through Vince Palamara's "Survivor's Guilt", which still holds the record for the largest number of interviews conducted with agents associated with the JFK assassination. Included among those interviewed and quoted in that book was Gerald Blaine.
Perhaps Mr. Blaine's current story is along the lines of what former agent Abe Bolden has alleged in his review (and Mr. Bolden is also among those quoted in Palamara's work) - a late-breaking attempt at CYA. It is interesting to note that it appears that this book - again, based on its own publicity descriptions - once more sets forth the accusation that JFK compromised his own safety in Dallas on 22 Nov. '63 by ordering agents off his open limo. Also that he exhibited a pattern of recklessly interfering with the SSA's efforts to protect him. This has become something of an urban legend, first set forth in the popular conscience by Wm. Manchester's "The Death of a President." Yet as Palamara's extensive interviews have revealed, the majority of agents interviewed refuted that notion, some being rather upset that Manchester had put this forth in his book.
The general consensus of the agents Palamara got to go on the record stated something far different - that JFK was relatively easy-going with the Secret Service and did not interfere with their efforts. Here is how Blaine himself described the situation to Palamara (a direct quote from "Survivor's Guilt"): "Blaine told the author on February 7, 2004 that President Kennedy was 'very cooperative. He didn't interfere with our actions. President Kennedy was very likeable--he never had a harsh word for anyone. He never interfered with our actions.' [Emphasis added.] When the author asked Blaine how often the agents rode on the back of JFK's limousine, the former agent said it was a 'fairly common' occurrence that depended on the crowd and the speed of the cars."
It should be noted that nowhere in Palamara's book did any secret service agent admit to having heard personally from JFK that the agents should back off their accepted protection practices of closely covering the president's limo. Several directly stated their doubts that he would have done so. And agents Boring and Behn refuted previous reports they had made (supporting the notion of JFK's "orders to back off"), by likewise telling Palamara that JFK did not interfere with the SSA's protection schemes.
I will reserve further comment and judgment on Mr. Blaine's book, but I must regard it with mistrust when it is now being promoted with expressed positions that contradict what the author has previously stated in published material on this topic.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
What is THIS all about??????
FROM AMAZON.COM:
Lisa McCubbin is an award-winning journalist. As the Live Reporter for both the CBS and ABC affiliates, she was adept at covering everything from education to sports to politics and was eventually chosen to host Bakersfield’s most watched morning news program, as co-anchor of NBC’s Sunrise, the two-hour show prior to Today with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer. During the 2000 election, she landed an exclusive one-on-one interview with then Governor George W. Bush, and covered the election through the Florida voting debacle. In the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11, McCubbin provided compelling reports to KGET-TV (NBC) as a foreign correspondent in Saudi Arabia. Later, as the Saudi government came under increasing Western media scrutiny, the Saudi Minister of Foreign Investment hired Lisa McCubbin as a media consultant to train leading business people and members of the Saudi government to deal with the Western press. She currently splits her time between the Middle East and Colorado with her husband and two teenaged sons.
Lisa McCubbin is an award-winning journalist. As the Live Reporter for both the CBS and ABC affiliates, she was adept at covering everything from education to sports to politics and was eventually chosen to host Bakersfield’s most watched morning news program, as co-anchor of NBC’s Sunrise, the two-hour show prior to Today with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer. During the 2000 election, she landed an exclusive one-on-one interview with then Governor George W. Bush, and covered the election through the Florida voting debacle. In the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11, McCubbin provided compelling reports to KGET-TV (NBC) as a foreign correspondent in Saudi Arabia. Later, as the Saudi government came under increasing Western media scrutiny, the Saudi Minister of Foreign Investment hired Lisa McCubbin as a media consultant to train leading business people and members of the Saudi government to deal with the Western press. She currently splits her time between the Middle East and Colorado with her husband and two teenaged sons.
Monday, October 17, 2011
"Back on Nov. 22, 1963, a team of Secret Servicemen failed in their task to protect the life of the president of the United States"
October 15, 2011
Paul J. Nyden: The JFK assassination: Agent recalls dark day
By Paul J. Nyden
The Charleston Gazette
Advertiser
"The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence"
By Gerald Blaine and Lisa McCubbin
Simon & Schuster Gallery Books, 427 pages. Hardcover, $28.
Back on Nov. 22, 1963, a team of Secret Servicemen failed in their task to protect the life of the president of the United States.
Jerry Blaine, a member of that elite team, tells his story for the first time in his book, "The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence."
Blaine also writes about the tragic memories of several of his fellow Secret Service agents. Kennedy often banned them from his car [bullshit!]and frequently jumped into crowds of people gathered around him, giving little notice to his protectors.
Blaine is the first member of Kennedy's Secret Service detail to write a book about the assassination [false: Chief U.E. Baughman, Bill Carter, Rufus Youngblood, and Abraham Bolden all wrote books years before Blaine].
On that tragic day in 1963, there were only 43 Secret Service members assigned to protecting Kennedy. The Secret Service's annual budget of $4.1 million funded 300 agents.
After JFK was killed, the agency expanded. Today, the Secret Service has 4,000 agents and an annual budget of more than $1.6 billion.
Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots that day [false]. The first shot was fired at Kennedy, and the second hit Texas Gov. John Connally. When the third shot hit Kennedy in the head, Secret Service agents immediately knew, Blaine recalls, that the devastating wound would prevent him from functioning as president, even if he were not killed [what about the KNOWN missed shot that even the Warren Commission acknowledged???].
Kennedy's trip to Texas was the first time his usually private wife Jacqueline made a political appearance with him since he was elected president three years earlier [false---the trips to Canada, France, Mexico, and Costa Rica immediately spring to mind].
During his trip Kennedy received warm welcomes from people in Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth [and Dallas before the shooting].
"It was the hidden loner the Secret Service agents worried about most," Blaine writes.
And while there are no apparent ties with Oswald, the "Dallas Morning News" printed a full-page advertisement the day of the assassination paid for by the American Fact-Finding Committee. The ad accused Kennedy of being a traitor who supported communism.
In a foreword to Blaine's book, Clint Hill, a fellow Secret Service agent also on duty in Dallas that day, wrote: "No matter how much training you've had, nothing prepares you for the emotions and nightmares that follow the horror of seeing a human being alive one instant, their head blown open the next."
Throughout his book, Blaine and his fellow agents tell how friendly the president, his wife and children were to them.
Blaine vigorously dismisses "baseless and unreasonable conspiracy theories" about the assassination, despite a growing literature that argues Oswald was not acting alone.
Blaine also rejects more personal gossip, including the story that Kennedy had an affair with actress Marilyn Monroe [not a "story": it is true]. He argues a president has the right to privacy, and the Secret Service is obligated to protect that privacy.
Immediately after Kennedy's death, the exhausted team of Secret Service agents switched to protect Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and other top government figures.
Blaine offers a variety of other intriguing stories, including the drama of his own first encounter with Johnson, hours after Kennedy died.
Reassigned to Johnson, Blaine was on duty outside the back door of Johnson's large two-story house in Washington, D.C.
About 15 minutes into the watch, Blaine heard someone walking toward him from the clockwise direction. That alarmed Blaine because agents routinely walked counter-clockwise when moving around buildings where any president was located.
Blaine activated his Thompson submachine gun, put it against his shoulder and prepared to fire. Despite the noise of the gun, the person kept coming closer. With his finger on the trigger, Blaine said, "Let me see your face, you bastard." [What?!?!? THAT is not in the book---???]
He could not immediately identify the person who rounded a corner. He pointed his gun directly at the man's chest, ready to pull the trigger.
The man turned out to be President Johnson.
"Fourteen hours after losing a president, the nation had come chillingly close to losing another one," Blaine writes [if false, unbelievable...if true, unbelievable].
Lisa McCubbin, a reporter who has worked for three major television news networks, co-wrote the book. Blaine also gives major credit to other Secret Service agents, both living and dead, who shared memories, reports, oral histories, diaries and other personal documents.
Clint Hill, assigned to protect Jacqueline Kennedy in Dallas, was particularly helpful. Hill will appear with Blaine at the West Virginia Book Festival at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 22 in West Virginia Room 105 at the Charleston Civic Center.
Shortly after the assassination, Blaine left the Secret Service and provided high-level corporate security for companies, including IBM. He retired in 2003 and now lives in Colorado with his wife.
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Posted By: ANonyMouse
There's a bit of rewriting of history here. In his book, Mr. Blaine agrees with the findings of the Warren Commission except for 1 serious area: Secret Service agents on the scene insist that they saw all 3 shots hit targets in the limo, as stated in your article. The problem with that is that one shot hit a curb way down the street near the underpass and a piece of that curb struck a bystander, James Tague, who was standing beside the road. The only way a bullet could have hit that curb is if it had missed the occupants of the limo. A bullet hitting JFK or Connally would have had to go through the windshield to get to that curb and that didn’t happen. The Warren Commission recognized this problem and decided that one bullet, the "magic bullet", must have hit both JFK and Connally. If agents saw all three shots hit people, a fourth shot must have hit the curb, meaning 2 shooters. So Mr. Blaine actually lends credence to the conspiracy theories he doesn’t believe, with this information.
Paul J. Nyden: The JFK assassination: Agent recalls dark day
By Paul J. Nyden
The Charleston Gazette
Advertiser
"The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence"
By Gerald Blaine and Lisa McCubbin
Simon & Schuster Gallery Books, 427 pages. Hardcover, $28.
Back on Nov. 22, 1963, a team of Secret Servicemen failed in their task to protect the life of the president of the United States.
Jerry Blaine, a member of that elite team, tells his story for the first time in his book, "The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence."
Blaine also writes about the tragic memories of several of his fellow Secret Service agents. Kennedy often banned them from his car [bullshit!]and frequently jumped into crowds of people gathered around him, giving little notice to his protectors.
Blaine is the first member of Kennedy's Secret Service detail to write a book about the assassination [false: Chief U.E. Baughman, Bill Carter, Rufus Youngblood, and Abraham Bolden all wrote books years before Blaine].
On that tragic day in 1963, there were only 43 Secret Service members assigned to protecting Kennedy. The Secret Service's annual budget of $4.1 million funded 300 agents.
After JFK was killed, the agency expanded. Today, the Secret Service has 4,000 agents and an annual budget of more than $1.6 billion.
Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots that day [false]. The first shot was fired at Kennedy, and the second hit Texas Gov. John Connally. When the third shot hit Kennedy in the head, Secret Service agents immediately knew, Blaine recalls, that the devastating wound would prevent him from functioning as president, even if he were not killed [what about the KNOWN missed shot that even the Warren Commission acknowledged???].
Kennedy's trip to Texas was the first time his usually private wife Jacqueline made a political appearance with him since he was elected president three years earlier [false---the trips to Canada, France, Mexico, and Costa Rica immediately spring to mind].
During his trip Kennedy received warm welcomes from people in Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth [and Dallas before the shooting].
"It was the hidden loner the Secret Service agents worried about most," Blaine writes.
And while there are no apparent ties with Oswald, the "Dallas Morning News" printed a full-page advertisement the day of the assassination paid for by the American Fact-Finding Committee. The ad accused Kennedy of being a traitor who supported communism.
In a foreword to Blaine's book, Clint Hill, a fellow Secret Service agent also on duty in Dallas that day, wrote: "No matter how much training you've had, nothing prepares you for the emotions and nightmares that follow the horror of seeing a human being alive one instant, their head blown open the next."
Throughout his book, Blaine and his fellow agents tell how friendly the president, his wife and children were to them.
Blaine vigorously dismisses "baseless and unreasonable conspiracy theories" about the assassination, despite a growing literature that argues Oswald was not acting alone.
Blaine also rejects more personal gossip, including the story that Kennedy had an affair with actress Marilyn Monroe [not a "story": it is true]. He argues a president has the right to privacy, and the Secret Service is obligated to protect that privacy.
Immediately after Kennedy's death, the exhausted team of Secret Service agents switched to protect Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and other top government figures.
Blaine offers a variety of other intriguing stories, including the drama of his own first encounter with Johnson, hours after Kennedy died.
Reassigned to Johnson, Blaine was on duty outside the back door of Johnson's large two-story house in Washington, D.C.
About 15 minutes into the watch, Blaine heard someone walking toward him from the clockwise direction. That alarmed Blaine because agents routinely walked counter-clockwise when moving around buildings where any president was located.
Blaine activated his Thompson submachine gun, put it against his shoulder and prepared to fire. Despite the noise of the gun, the person kept coming closer. With his finger on the trigger, Blaine said, "Let me see your face, you bastard." [What?!?!? THAT is not in the book---???]
He could not immediately identify the person who rounded a corner. He pointed his gun directly at the man's chest, ready to pull the trigger.
The man turned out to be President Johnson.
"Fourteen hours after losing a president, the nation had come chillingly close to losing another one," Blaine writes [if false, unbelievable...if true, unbelievable].
Lisa McCubbin, a reporter who has worked for three major television news networks, co-wrote the book. Blaine also gives major credit to other Secret Service agents, both living and dead, who shared memories, reports, oral histories, diaries and other personal documents.
Clint Hill, assigned to protect Jacqueline Kennedy in Dallas, was particularly helpful. Hill will appear with Blaine at the West Virginia Book Festival at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 22 in West Virginia Room 105 at the Charleston Civic Center.
Shortly after the assassination, Blaine left the Secret Service and provided high-level corporate security for companies, including IBM. He retired in 2003 and now lives in Colorado with his wife.
-------
Posted By: ANonyMouse
There's a bit of rewriting of history here. In his book, Mr. Blaine agrees with the findings of the Warren Commission except for 1 serious area: Secret Service agents on the scene insist that they saw all 3 shots hit targets in the limo, as stated in your article. The problem with that is that one shot hit a curb way down the street near the underpass and a piece of that curb struck a bystander, James Tague, who was standing beside the road. The only way a bullet could have hit that curb is if it had missed the occupants of the limo. A bullet hitting JFK or Connally would have had to go through the windshield to get to that curb and that didn’t happen. The Warren Commission recognized this problem and decided that one bullet, the "magic bullet", must have hit both JFK and Connally. If agents saw all three shots hit people, a fourth shot must have hit the curb, meaning 2 shooters. So Mr. Blaine actually lends credence to the conspiracy theories he doesn’t believe, with this information.
Friday, October 14, 2011
At Concordia, former Secret Service agent talks about day JFK assassinated
At Concordia, former Secret Service agent talks about day JFK assassinated
MOORHEAD – A local link to a dark day in U.S. history shared his experiences Wednesday at Concordia College.
By: Amy Dalrymple, INFORUM
MOORHEAD – A local link to a dark day in U.S. history shared his experiences Wednesday at Concordia College.
Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent assigned to Jackie Kennedy the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, spoke to an overflow crowd.
The Washburn, N.D., native and 1954 Concordia graduate is receiving an Alumni Achievement Award this week.
Hill, 79, shared some lighter moments with the crowd of 800, such as the Secret Service agents’ efforts to teach toddler John Kennedy Jr. to salute with his right hand rather than his left.
He also spoke openly about Nov. 22, 1963, a day Hill didn’t talk to anyone about for decades following the assassination.
Hill received national recognition for “exceptional bravery” for jumping onto the presidential vehicle in an attempt to shield the Kennedys from more gunshots.
Journalist Lisa McCubbin, co-author of “The Kennedy Detail,” joined Hill onstage at Concordia.
Hill credited McCubbin with getting him to talk about the assassination, which Hill says has helped with the depression he suffered for years.
“It was like I was stuck in a dungeon. I couldn’t get out,” Hill said.
Hill and McCubbin also are collaborating on the book “Mrs. Kennedy and Me,” due out this spring.
An audience member asked Hill which president he protected was the most difficult. Hill also served during the administrations of Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
“They’re all difficult, but all difficult in a different way,” Hill said. “They are just down-to-earth people. Some egos are a little bit bigger than others.”
Another asked about reports of President Kennedy’s infidelities.
“He never asked me about my sex life, and I never asked him about his, either,” said Hill, prompting laughter and applause.
Wednesday was the first time Hill returned to Concordia, where he excelled at football.
In attendance was Gordon Dahl, Hill’s college roommate, who came from Great Falls, Mont., to hear him speak.
Dahl was called out of class one day to be interviewed by two Secret Service agents who were doing a background check on Hill. Dahl said he followed Hill’s career over the years.
“It was a thrill to hear him tonight,” Dahl said. “I’m really proud of him.”
Mike Rehder of Fargo was born 11 years after Kennedy’s assassination, but considers himself a student of that day and has read many of the books.
“It’s still tough to grasp that it actually did happen,” Rehder said.
The crowd also included many of Hill’s relatives, including second-cousins Timothy Hill and Becky Long.
They had never met Hill before but had followed his career. Long remembered her parents always looking for Hill on TV.
Most who attended the event didn’t have a connection to Hill but wanted to hear about that historic day from someone who lived it.
MOORHEAD – A local link to a dark day in U.S. history shared his experiences Wednesday at Concordia College.
By: Amy Dalrymple, INFORUM
MOORHEAD – A local link to a dark day in U.S. history shared his experiences Wednesday at Concordia College.
Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent assigned to Jackie Kennedy the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, spoke to an overflow crowd.
The Washburn, N.D., native and 1954 Concordia graduate is receiving an Alumni Achievement Award this week.
Hill, 79, shared some lighter moments with the crowd of 800, such as the Secret Service agents’ efforts to teach toddler John Kennedy Jr. to salute with his right hand rather than his left.
He also spoke openly about Nov. 22, 1963, a day Hill didn’t talk to anyone about for decades following the assassination.
Hill received national recognition for “exceptional bravery” for jumping onto the presidential vehicle in an attempt to shield the Kennedys from more gunshots.
Journalist Lisa McCubbin, co-author of “The Kennedy Detail,” joined Hill onstage at Concordia.
Hill credited McCubbin with getting him to talk about the assassination, which Hill says has helped with the depression he suffered for years.
“It was like I was stuck in a dungeon. I couldn’t get out,” Hill said.
Hill and McCubbin also are collaborating on the book “Mrs. Kennedy and Me,” due out this spring.
An audience member asked Hill which president he protected was the most difficult. Hill also served during the administrations of Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
“They’re all difficult, but all difficult in a different way,” Hill said. “They are just down-to-earth people. Some egos are a little bit bigger than others.”
Another asked about reports of President Kennedy’s infidelities.
“He never asked me about my sex life, and I never asked him about his, either,” said Hill, prompting laughter and applause.
Wednesday was the first time Hill returned to Concordia, where he excelled at football.
In attendance was Gordon Dahl, Hill’s college roommate, who came from Great Falls, Mont., to hear him speak.
Dahl was called out of class one day to be interviewed by two Secret Service agents who were doing a background check on Hill. Dahl said he followed Hill’s career over the years.
“It was a thrill to hear him tonight,” Dahl said. “I’m really proud of him.”
Mike Rehder of Fargo was born 11 years after Kennedy’s assassination, but considers himself a student of that day and has read many of the books.
“It’s still tough to grasp that it actually did happen,” Rehder said.
The crowd also included many of Hill’s relatives, including second-cousins Timothy Hill and Becky Long.
They had never met Hill before but had followed his career. Long remembered her parents always looking for Hill on TV.
Most who attended the event didn’t have a connection to Hill but wanted to hear about that historic day from someone who lived it.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Memories of JFK assassination haunt former Secret Service agent and North Dakota native
Memories of JFK assassination haunt former Secret Service agent and North Dakota native
MOORHEAD - Nov. 22, 1963, is on Clint Hill’s mind every day. The former Secret Service agent assigned to protect Jackie Kennedy the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated is still haunted with guilt nearly 50 years later.
By: Amy Dalrymple, INFORUM
Former Secret Service agent Clint Hill talks about the day JFK was assassinated
MOORHEAD - Nov. 22, 1963, is on Clint Hill’s mind every day.
The former Secret Service agent assigned to protect Jackie Kennedy the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated is still haunted with guilt nearly 50 years later.
The Washburn, N.D., native and Concordia College graduate was on the running board of the car behind the presidential limousine in Dallas. He heard the first shot and jumped onto the presidential vehicle in an attempt to shield the Kennedys from gunshots. Hill made it just as the first lady was reaching for the top of Kennedy’s scalp.
He received recognition for “extraordinary courage and heroic effort in the face of maximum danger.”
But Hill, who battled depression and alcoholism for years as a result of that day, still wonders if he could have done more.
“I still have a sense of responsibility and a guilt feeling I should have been able to do more, because I was the only one who had that chance,” Hill said in an interview last week with The Forum.
Hill, who served five presidents during his time with the Secret Service, will return to Concordia this week to accept an Alumni Achievement Award.
“I tried to tell them that I didn’t think I was worthy of the honor, but they insisted,” said the 79-year-old, who now lives in the Washington, D.C., area.
Hill also will give a public talk on Wednesday night, along with Lisa McCubbin, co-author of “The Kennedy Detail,” which gives the Secret Service agents’ account of the assassination.
North Dakota native
Hill was born in 1932 in Larimore, N.D., and was adopted as a baby by Chris and Jennie Hill of Washburn.
Hill graduated from high school in Washburn and attended Concordia, where he majored in history and physical education and excelled at football and baseball.
After Hill graduated from Concordia in 1954, he served in the U.S. Army as an intelligence agent.
Hill’s Secret Service career began in 1958.
When Kennedy was elected, Hill anticipated he would be assigned to protect the president because he had been assigned to President Dwight Eisenhower.
He was shocked to learn that he’d instead be protecting the first lady.
“I was very upset about it,” Hill said. “I didn’t really want that assignment.”
But it turned out to be the best job in the Secret Service at the time, Hill said.
Jackie Kennedy and Hill built up a trust and became friends, though she always called him Mr. Hill, and he always called her Mrs. Kennedy.
“We shared secrets, and we got to know each other very well,” Hill said.
That historic day in Dallas was unusual because the first lady was campaigning with Kennedy, something she often shied away from doing.
During the motorcade, Hill was positioned behind Jackie Kennedy on the follow-up car and was scanning people taking photos from a grassy area off to the left.
Then he heard an explosive noise over his right shoulder, and his eyes scanned past the presidential vehicle.
“I saw the president grab at his throat and kind of move to his left. I knew something had happened,” Hill said.
“I jumped from the follow-up car and ran toward the presidential vehicle,” he said. “My attempt was to get on the back of the presidential car and place my body above the president and Mrs. Kennedy so that I would shield them from anything that was a possibility of happening.
“There was a second shot, apparently, but I didn’t hear it because I was running.
“Then the third shot happened just as I was approaching the presidential vehicle. I slipped, had to regain my steps, got up on the car. The president had been hit in the upper right rear of his head with that third shot.
“There were blood and brain matter and bone fragments throughout the entire area, including myself. He slumped to his left. Mrs. Kennedy came up from her seat onto the trunk of the car trying to grab some of the material that came off his head. … I grabbed her and put her back into her seat. When I did that, the president’s body fell into her lap.
“The right side of his face was up, and I could see his eyes were fixed. There was a hole in the upper right rear of his head. It appeared to me that he was dead.”
Hill gave a thumbs-down to the follow-up car, and agents yelled to the lead driver to go to Parkland Hospital. Hill continued lying on the back of the car to shield the Kennedys as the car sped 80 mph to the hospital.
‘Downward spiral’
After the assassination, Hill continued to be assigned to the first lady and the children until the election.
He was then assigned to President Lyndon Johnson and served him during the tumultuous time that included the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.
Hill also protected Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
In 1970, a promotion had Hill working an administrative desk job, and for the first time since the assassination, he had time to think. That day in Dallas was never far from his mind.
“I gradually deteriorated emotionally, and that affected my physical well-being,” Hill said.
In 1975, doctors said he wasn’t fit for the Secret Service, and he retired at age 43.
Hill returned to North Dakota and worked on his sister’s farm for about six weeks, “trying to get everything out.”
That year, he also spoke about the assassination for the first time in a famous interview with Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes.” Prior to that, Hill hadn’t talked about that day with anyone, not even his family.
Hill’s emotional state only worsened in his retirement.
“By 1976, I was once again in a downward spiral, and that lasted until 1982,” Hill said. “I had a great big bottle of scotch and a carton of cigarettes, and I laid on a couch in my very dark basement.”
Then in 1982, a doctor told Hill he either had to change or die.
“I decided I wanted to live,” Hill said.
Without any help, Hill quit drinking and did some security work for Chrysler, Mesa Petroleum and Billy Graham during the 1980s.
Decades after the assassination, Hill was still not talking about that day. He declined to be interviewed in 2003 for the 40th anniversary of the event.
“I didn’t want to talk about any of this type of thing and never did,” Hill said. “We as agents never talked about the assassination among ourselves. I never discussed it with any member of my family.”
Then fellow Secret Service agent Gerald Blaine and journalist Lisa McCubbin began working on the book “The Kennedy Detail.”
Hill said McCubbin convinced him that it would benefit history if he revealed details of that day from his perspective.
Contributing to the book proved to be beneficial for Hill, and he’s now talking more openly about that day for the first time, nearly 50 years later.
Hill and McCubbin also are collaborating on a book, “Mrs. Kennedy and Me,” that will be published in the spring of 2012.
In 1990, Hill did something he wishes he would have done earlier: He returned to Dallas and walked Dealey Plaza and looked out the window of the sixth floor.
“I came to the conclusion that on that particular day, because of everything involved, the weather, the angle of the building, the way the street was configured and the way the motorcade was running at the time that I did everything I could, and I really couldn’t have done any more than that,” Hill said.
MOORHEAD - Nov. 22, 1963, is on Clint Hill’s mind every day. The former Secret Service agent assigned to protect Jackie Kennedy the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated is still haunted with guilt nearly 50 years later.
By: Amy Dalrymple, INFORUM
Former Secret Service agent Clint Hill talks about the day JFK was assassinated
MOORHEAD - Nov. 22, 1963, is on Clint Hill’s mind every day.
The former Secret Service agent assigned to protect Jackie Kennedy the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated is still haunted with guilt nearly 50 years later.
The Washburn, N.D., native and Concordia College graduate was on the running board of the car behind the presidential limousine in Dallas. He heard the first shot and jumped onto the presidential vehicle in an attempt to shield the Kennedys from gunshots. Hill made it just as the first lady was reaching for the top of Kennedy’s scalp.
He received recognition for “extraordinary courage and heroic effort in the face of maximum danger.”
But Hill, who battled depression and alcoholism for years as a result of that day, still wonders if he could have done more.
“I still have a sense of responsibility and a guilt feeling I should have been able to do more, because I was the only one who had that chance,” Hill said in an interview last week with The Forum.
Hill, who served five presidents during his time with the Secret Service, will return to Concordia this week to accept an Alumni Achievement Award.
“I tried to tell them that I didn’t think I was worthy of the honor, but they insisted,” said the 79-year-old, who now lives in the Washington, D.C., area.
Hill also will give a public talk on Wednesday night, along with Lisa McCubbin, co-author of “The Kennedy Detail,” which gives the Secret Service agents’ account of the assassination.
North Dakota native
Hill was born in 1932 in Larimore, N.D., and was adopted as a baby by Chris and Jennie Hill of Washburn.
Hill graduated from high school in Washburn and attended Concordia, where he majored in history and physical education and excelled at football and baseball.
After Hill graduated from Concordia in 1954, he served in the U.S. Army as an intelligence agent.
Hill’s Secret Service career began in 1958.
When Kennedy was elected, Hill anticipated he would be assigned to protect the president because he had been assigned to President Dwight Eisenhower.
He was shocked to learn that he’d instead be protecting the first lady.
“I was very upset about it,” Hill said. “I didn’t really want that assignment.”
But it turned out to be the best job in the Secret Service at the time, Hill said.
Jackie Kennedy and Hill built up a trust and became friends, though she always called him Mr. Hill, and he always called her Mrs. Kennedy.
“We shared secrets, and we got to know each other very well,” Hill said.
That historic day in Dallas was unusual because the first lady was campaigning with Kennedy, something she often shied away from doing.
During the motorcade, Hill was positioned behind Jackie Kennedy on the follow-up car and was scanning people taking photos from a grassy area off to the left.
Then he heard an explosive noise over his right shoulder, and his eyes scanned past the presidential vehicle.
“I saw the president grab at his throat and kind of move to his left. I knew something had happened,” Hill said.
“I jumped from the follow-up car and ran toward the presidential vehicle,” he said. “My attempt was to get on the back of the presidential car and place my body above the president and Mrs. Kennedy so that I would shield them from anything that was a possibility of happening.
“There was a second shot, apparently, but I didn’t hear it because I was running.
“Then the third shot happened just as I was approaching the presidential vehicle. I slipped, had to regain my steps, got up on the car. The president had been hit in the upper right rear of his head with that third shot.
“There were blood and brain matter and bone fragments throughout the entire area, including myself. He slumped to his left. Mrs. Kennedy came up from her seat onto the trunk of the car trying to grab some of the material that came off his head. … I grabbed her and put her back into her seat. When I did that, the president’s body fell into her lap.
“The right side of his face was up, and I could see his eyes were fixed. There was a hole in the upper right rear of his head. It appeared to me that he was dead.”
Hill gave a thumbs-down to the follow-up car, and agents yelled to the lead driver to go to Parkland Hospital. Hill continued lying on the back of the car to shield the Kennedys as the car sped 80 mph to the hospital.
‘Downward spiral’
After the assassination, Hill continued to be assigned to the first lady and the children until the election.
He was then assigned to President Lyndon Johnson and served him during the tumultuous time that included the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.
Hill also protected Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
In 1970, a promotion had Hill working an administrative desk job, and for the first time since the assassination, he had time to think. That day in Dallas was never far from his mind.
“I gradually deteriorated emotionally, and that affected my physical well-being,” Hill said.
In 1975, doctors said he wasn’t fit for the Secret Service, and he retired at age 43.
Hill returned to North Dakota and worked on his sister’s farm for about six weeks, “trying to get everything out.”
That year, he also spoke about the assassination for the first time in a famous interview with Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes.” Prior to that, Hill hadn’t talked about that day with anyone, not even his family.
Hill’s emotional state only worsened in his retirement.
“By 1976, I was once again in a downward spiral, and that lasted until 1982,” Hill said. “I had a great big bottle of scotch and a carton of cigarettes, and I laid on a couch in my very dark basement.”
Then in 1982, a doctor told Hill he either had to change or die.
“I decided I wanted to live,” Hill said.
Without any help, Hill quit drinking and did some security work for Chrysler, Mesa Petroleum and Billy Graham during the 1980s.
Decades after the assassination, Hill was still not talking about that day. He declined to be interviewed in 2003 for the 40th anniversary of the event.
“I didn’t want to talk about any of this type of thing and never did,” Hill said. “We as agents never talked about the assassination among ourselves. I never discussed it with any member of my family.”
Then fellow Secret Service agent Gerald Blaine and journalist Lisa McCubbin began working on the book “The Kennedy Detail.”
Hill said McCubbin convinced him that it would benefit history if he revealed details of that day from his perspective.
Contributing to the book proved to be beneficial for Hill, and he’s now talking more openly about that day for the first time, nearly 50 years later.
Hill and McCubbin also are collaborating on a book, “Mrs. Kennedy and Me,” that will be published in the spring of 2012.
In 1990, Hill did something he wishes he would have done earlier: He returned to Dallas and walked Dealey Plaza and looked out the window of the sixth floor.
“I came to the conclusion that on that particular day, because of everything involved, the weather, the angle of the building, the way the street was configured and the way the motorcade was running at the time that I did everything I could, and I really couldn’t have done any more than that,” Hill said.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
First lady delivers thank-you to Secret Service
First lady delivers thank-you to Secret Service
By NANCY BENAC, Associated Press – 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — This is what passes for dinner table conversation in the Obama White House:
Sasha wants Scott. So does Malia. The first lady wants Beth. So does Barack.
Turns out everyone's dickering over who gets which Secret Service agent.
Michelle Obama revealed the tongue-in-cheek family feud as she paid a visit to Secret Service headquarters on Wednesday to thank workers at the agency that, among its many duties, protects the first family.
It was another of her periodic visits to government offices around town. But this visit was more personal than most.
"You all have really made us feel at home and safe, and there is no amount of thanks that I could convey that would give you a sense of how important you all are to us," Mrs. Obama told hundreds of Secret Service employees. She spoke to the group for about five minutes after touring classified areas of the building, including the protective intelligence division and the joint operations center.
The first lady paid tribute not just to the agents who protect the Obamas, but to all the workers behind the scenes, "whether it's filing or looking at terrorists."
"The work you do here is pretty scary," she said. "All I can say, after my little tour, is ignorance is bliss. I just don't want to know. You all can handle that. Just tell me where to run."
The first lady said the Obamas have a special affinity for the agents assigned to protect them.
"People always ask what it is like to have Secret Service around," Mrs. Obama said. "It's like having family around. ... We have a fight among our family over who's getting which people.
"Sasha will come in, it's like, 'You took Scott!'" Mrs. Obama said. "Malia's like, 'You took Scott? That's not fair!' And then I'll say the same thing to Barack. It's like, 'Why did you get Beth?' It's dinner table conversation."
Mrs. Obama said a good relationship with the agents is important "when you're trying to live a normal life and raise a couple of girls in the White House."
The president, in an interview with ABC News this week, said it's a challenge to give his daughters plenty of "space to make mistakes, be teenagers" while also ensuring they're protected.
"They're still going to the mall. And they're still going to movies. But they've got this guy with a gun following them around," Obama said. "Our Secret Service detail is terrific about it. But it's a balance that has to be struck."
By NANCY BENAC, Associated Press – 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — This is what passes for dinner table conversation in the Obama White House:
Sasha wants Scott. So does Malia. The first lady wants Beth. So does Barack.
Turns out everyone's dickering over who gets which Secret Service agent.
Michelle Obama revealed the tongue-in-cheek family feud as she paid a visit to Secret Service headquarters on Wednesday to thank workers at the agency that, among its many duties, protects the first family.
It was another of her periodic visits to government offices around town. But this visit was more personal than most.
"You all have really made us feel at home and safe, and there is no amount of thanks that I could convey that would give you a sense of how important you all are to us," Mrs. Obama told hundreds of Secret Service employees. She spoke to the group for about five minutes after touring classified areas of the building, including the protective intelligence division and the joint operations center.
The first lady paid tribute not just to the agents who protect the Obamas, but to all the workers behind the scenes, "whether it's filing or looking at terrorists."
"The work you do here is pretty scary," she said. "All I can say, after my little tour, is ignorance is bliss. I just don't want to know. You all can handle that. Just tell me where to run."
The first lady said the Obamas have a special affinity for the agents assigned to protect them.
"People always ask what it is like to have Secret Service around," Mrs. Obama said. "It's like having family around. ... We have a fight among our family over who's getting which people.
"Sasha will come in, it's like, 'You took Scott!'" Mrs. Obama said. "Malia's like, 'You took Scott? That's not fair!' And then I'll say the same thing to Barack. It's like, 'Why did you get Beth?' It's dinner table conversation."
Mrs. Obama said a good relationship with the agents is important "when you're trying to live a normal life and raise a couple of girls in the White House."
The president, in an interview with ABC News this week, said it's a challenge to give his daughters plenty of "space to make mistakes, be teenagers" while also ensuring they're protected.
"They're still going to the mall. And they're still going to movies. But they've got this guy with a gun following them around," Obama said. "Our Secret Service detail is terrific about it. But it's a balance that has to be struck."
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
"Banal, like a PR piece for Secret Service"-The Kennedy Detail
2.0 out of 5 stars Banal, like a PR piece for Secret Service, October 5, 2011
By David A. Woerner (Houston, Texas area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
This book is very boring and banal, and reads like a public relations piece for the Secret Service. Everyone is competent and a complete professional. Not a word about Kennedy's private activities. Not worth your time to read, nothing to learn here
By David A. Woerner (Houston, Texas area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
This book is very boring and banal, and reads like a public relations piece for the Secret Service. Everyone is competent and a complete professional. Not a word about Kennedy's private activities. Not worth your time to read, nothing to learn here
Monday, October 3, 2011
A Continuation of the Myth---"The Kennedy Detail"
A Continuation of the Myth, October 1, 2011
By John B. Howarth (Richland washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
Although it was heartwarming to read Clint Hill's preface, this book is truly a disappointment in its lack of objectivity...As a result, Gerald Blain's blindness and Kennedy veneration made this entire book lacking in credibility.
I do not consider myself a conspiracy nut by dismissing the findings of the fairy tale explanation offered up by the Warren Commission. As a retired Police Officer I simply view the assassination as a crime requiring cold and calculating objective investigation- regardless of the emotional attachments that clouded the event and still to this day have rendered sober analysis a near impossibility with a great number of people.
In November 1963, the murder of a POTUS was not a Federal crime and therefore regardless of the desire to spare Mrs. Kennedy any further grief by remaining in Dallas, the Secret Service, and particularly people like Kenny O'Donnell, Dave Powers and Robert Kennedy had absolutely no authority to have JFK's corpse illegally removed from the Texas authorities prior to an autopsy, and coupled with the destruction of physical evidence in the Limo was itself obstruction of justice.
Even if Oswald had survived his own assassination, it would have been interesting to see how the prosecution would explain the contamination of physical evidence and total destruction of the chain of custody. The botched and questionable autopsy at Bethesda was in itself a farce and a sham to any forensic scientist conducted by unqualified military syncopates.
Blaine and his Kennedy worshiping co-author did not do reality any favors with this whitewashed and sterile attempt at explaining the truth and should be ashamed.
By John B. Howarth (Richland washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
Although it was heartwarming to read Clint Hill's preface, this book is truly a disappointment in its lack of objectivity...As a result, Gerald Blain's blindness and Kennedy veneration made this entire book lacking in credibility.
I do not consider myself a conspiracy nut by dismissing the findings of the fairy tale explanation offered up by the Warren Commission. As a retired Police Officer I simply view the assassination as a crime requiring cold and calculating objective investigation- regardless of the emotional attachments that clouded the event and still to this day have rendered sober analysis a near impossibility with a great number of people.
In November 1963, the murder of a POTUS was not a Federal crime and therefore regardless of the desire to spare Mrs. Kennedy any further grief by remaining in Dallas, the Secret Service, and particularly people like Kenny O'Donnell, Dave Powers and Robert Kennedy had absolutely no authority to have JFK's corpse illegally removed from the Texas authorities prior to an autopsy, and coupled with the destruction of physical evidence in the Limo was itself obstruction of justice.
Even if Oswald had survived his own assassination, it would have been interesting to see how the prosecution would explain the contamination of physical evidence and total destruction of the chain of custody. The botched and questionable autopsy at Bethesda was in itself a farce and a sham to any forensic scientist conducted by unqualified military syncopates.
Blaine and his Kennedy worshiping co-author did not do reality any favors with this whitewashed and sterile attempt at explaining the truth and should be ashamed.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Ex-secret service agent reveals secrets of Jackie Kennedy - an ‘accomplished flirt’
Ex-secret service agent reveals secrets of Jackie Kennedy - an ‘accomplished flirt’
There was a reason for her signature style choices
By ANTOINETTE KELLY,IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Saturday, October 1, 2011, 8:24 AMUpdated Saturday, October 1, 2011, 8:24 AM
Jackie O wore those over-sized glasses for a reason.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had an undefinable allure in life and it's legend will live on forever it seems.
Although her candid interviews with Arthur Schlesinger Jr in 1964 released earlier this month surprised and even shocked many, there's little doubt they will do serious damage to the former First Lady's reputation.
This week a series of new interviews with her closest friends has revealed even further details about Jackie, who passed away in 1994.
Former Secret Service agent Clint Hill, who worked closely with her husband JFK in the White House, spoke to People magazine this week about the woman he remembers.
Speaking of the couple he said: "They relied on each other. They were very, very close."
But in all the time he knew them he very rarely ever saw them show any physical affection in public.
The Kennedy marriage was by no means perfect either, it emerged. While the public was shocked to hear of JFK's infidelities after his death in 1963, his wife was not the last to know.
Laurence Leamer, author of The Kennedy Women called her the "queen of denial," referring to her ability to overlook what she knew to be a fact.
And Kennedy was by no means a retiring bloom when it came to social interactions.
"I don't think I've met a more accomplished flirt," admitted friend John Perry Barlow. "It was the best I'd ever seen because it was based on genuine interest. She could be talking to five or six guys and have each of them think he was the real object of her focus."
READ MORE:
Jackie Kennedy disliked the Irish and cooking Irish stew
Jackie Kennedy believed LBJ had her husband killed new tape shows
Jackie Kennedy disliked Catholics, said they always felt persecuted
As for her personal style, one of the things that defined her, there was a reason she adopted some signature accoutrements, it turns out.
The large round sun glasses that became her calling card were actually adopted to allow her to watch other people without them knowing, Jackie Style author Pamela Keogh revealed.
And as for those ubiquitous white gloves, "It was to hide her hands," Keogh said. "She was self-conscious because she bit her nails."
It's now 17 years since Jackie died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but there's no question the mystique that surrounds her and her husband is undiminished.
There was a reason for her signature style choices
By ANTOINETTE KELLY,IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Saturday, October 1, 2011, 8:24 AMUpdated Saturday, October 1, 2011, 8:24 AM
Jackie O wore those over-sized glasses for a reason.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had an undefinable allure in life and it's legend will live on forever it seems.
Although her candid interviews with Arthur Schlesinger Jr in 1964 released earlier this month surprised and even shocked many, there's little doubt they will do serious damage to the former First Lady's reputation.
This week a series of new interviews with her closest friends has revealed even further details about Jackie, who passed away in 1994.
Former Secret Service agent Clint Hill, who worked closely with her husband JFK in the White House, spoke to People magazine this week about the woman he remembers.
Speaking of the couple he said: "They relied on each other. They were very, very close."
But in all the time he knew them he very rarely ever saw them show any physical affection in public.
The Kennedy marriage was by no means perfect either, it emerged. While the public was shocked to hear of JFK's infidelities after his death in 1963, his wife was not the last to know.
Laurence Leamer, author of The Kennedy Women called her the "queen of denial," referring to her ability to overlook what she knew to be a fact.
And Kennedy was by no means a retiring bloom when it came to social interactions.
"I don't think I've met a more accomplished flirt," admitted friend John Perry Barlow. "It was the best I'd ever seen because it was based on genuine interest. She could be talking to five or six guys and have each of them think he was the real object of her focus."
READ MORE:
Jackie Kennedy disliked the Irish and cooking Irish stew
Jackie Kennedy believed LBJ had her husband killed new tape shows
Jackie Kennedy disliked Catholics, said they always felt persecuted
As for her personal style, one of the things that defined her, there was a reason she adopted some signature accoutrements, it turns out.
The large round sun glasses that became her calling card were actually adopted to allow her to watch other people without them knowing, Jackie Style author Pamela Keogh revealed.
And as for those ubiquitous white gloves, "It was to hide her hands," Keogh said. "She was self-conscious because she bit her nails."
It's now 17 years since Jackie died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but there's no question the mystique that surrounds her and her husband is undiminished.
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