Agent Bill Greer, the original blame-the-victim (JFK) stooge

Page 146 of FBI Agent James Sibert's Deposition to AARB




To give you an idea of what went on during

the night of the autopsy, I was with Bill Greer

quite a bit.And he kept saying, "If I'd only been

moving faster."

He said, 'But I'd try to speed it up."

And 'The President, he'd say. 'Slow down.You're

going too fast."



http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/arrb/medical_testimony/pdf/Sibert_9-11-97.pdf     ----
Sixty witnesses (ten police officers, seven Secret Service agents, thirty-eight spectators, two Presidential aides, one Senator, Governor Connally, and Jackie Kennedy) and the Zapruder film document Secret Service agent William R. Greer’s deceleration of the presidential limousine, as well as his two separate looks back at JFK during the assassination (Greer denied all of this to the War-ren Commission).¹⁶
By decelerating from an already slow 11.2 mph, Greer greatly endangered the President’s life, and, as even Gerald Posner admitted, Greer contributed greatly to the success of the assassination. When we consider that Greer disobeyed a direct order from his superior, Roy Kellerman, to get out of line before the fatal shot struck the President’s head, it is hard to give Agent Greer the benefit of the doubt. As ASAIC Roy H. Kellerman said: "Greer then looked in the back of the car. Maybe he didn’t believe me."¹⁷ Clearly, Greer was responsible, at fault, and felt remorse. In short, Greer had survivor’s guilt.
Presidential Aide Ken O’Donnell (rode in the follow-up car): “… If the Secret Service men in the front had reacted quicker to the first two shots at the Presi-dent’s car, if the driver had stepped on the gas before instead of after the fatal third shot was fired, would President Kennedy be alive today?” The aide also re-ported: “Greer had been remorseful all day, feeling that he could have saved President Kennedy’s life by swerving the car or speeding suddenly after the first shots.” Indeed, William E. Sale, an airman first class aircraft mechanic assigned to Carswell Air Force Base and who was stationed at Love Field before, during, and after the assassination, stated: “When the agent who was driving JFK’s car came back to Air Force One he was as white as a ghost and had to be helped back to the plane.”32

Presidential aide Dave Powers (rode in the follow-up car): “… At that time we were traveling very slowly … At about the time of the third shot, the President’s car accelerated sharply.” On November 22, 1988, Powers was interviewed by CBS reporter Charles Kuralt. Powers remarked about the remorse Greer felt about not speeding up in time to save JFK’s life and agreed with Kuralt that, if Greer had sped up before the fatal head shot instead of afterwards, JFK might still be alive today. This is a very dramatic and compelling short interview. If that weren’t enough, as previously noted, the ARRB’s Tom Samoluk told the au-thor that, during the course of an interview he conducted in 1996 in which the Board was in the process of obtaining Powers’ film, Powers said that he agreed with the author’s take on the Secret Service!33
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (rode in the Presidential limousine): "We could see a tunnel in front of us. Everything was really slow then … [immediately after shooting]. And just being down in the car with his head in my lap. And it just seemed an eternity … And finally I remember a voice behind me, or something, and then I remember the people in the front seat, or somebody, finally knew something was wrong, and a voice yelling, which must have been Mr. Hill, "Get to the hospital," or maybe it was Mr. Kellerman, in the front seat … We were really slowing turning the corner [Houston and Elm] … I remember a sensation of enormous speed, which must have been when we took off … those poor men in the front …."³⁵
Mary Gallagher reported in her book: "She mentioned one Secret Service man who had not acted during the crucial moment, and said bit-terly to me, ‘He might just as well have been Miss Shaw!’ ”36 Jackie also told Gallagher: “You should get yourself a good driver so that nothing ever happens to you.”37 Secret Service agent Marty Venker confirmed that the agent Jackie was referring to was Agent Greer: “If the agent had hit the gas before the third shot, she griped, Jack might still be alive.”38 Later, authors C. David Heymann and Edward Klein further corroborated that the agent Mrs. Kennedy was referring to was indeed Greer.39

Manchester wrote: “[Mrs. Kennedy] had heard Kellerman on the radio and had wondered why it had taken the car so long to leave.”40 (For his part, former agent Walt Coughlin wrote the author on April 27, 2005: “Easy to criticize—Greer reacted his way—maybe someone else would have been worse [?].”)

As stated before, Greer was responsible, at fault, and felt remorse. In short, Greer had survivor’s guilt.
¹⁶ 2 H 112–132 (Greer): see his entire testimony. Based on the author’s original 1991 article, "47 Witnesses: Delay on Elm Street" that appeared in The Third Decade
, Jan-uary/March 1992, and which has since been cited in The Third Decade (Novem-ber 1992), The Fourth Decade (November 1993 and September 1997); Proceedings of the Second Research Conference of the Third Decade, June 18–20, 1993, pp. 128, 162; The Proceedings of the Research Conference of the Fourth Decade, July 19–21, 1996, p. 277; several websites, including "The Puzzle Palace"; James H. Fetzer, ed., Assas-sination Science (Chicago: Catfeet Press, 1998), p. 274; Bloody Treason (1997), Zapruder frame 313 photo section; November Patriots (1998), p. 465; the 1998 revised edition of High Treason, p. 551; The Dealey Plaza Echo, U.K. research journal, July 1999; James H. Fetzer, ed., Murder in Dealey Plaza (Chicago: Catfeet Press, 2000), pp. 119–128; Michael Benson, Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination (New York: Checkmark Books, 2002), pp. 233, 327; James H. Fetzer, ed., The Great Zapruder Film Hoax” (Chicago: Catfeet Press, 2003), pp. xv, 27, 336; Melanson, The Secret Ser-vice … (2003), p. 74.

17 Manchester, p. 160. ----
    32 As quoted in Marrs’ Crossfire, p. 248, based on a passage from Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, p. 31. See also 7 H 450; Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye, p. 44; undated Sale letter provided to the author by Martin Shackelford.

33 7 H 473–5. -- 35 5 H 179–181.

36 Mary Barelli Gallagher, My Life With Jacqueline Kennedy (New York: David McKay, 1969), p. 342: Secret Service Agent Marty Venker (Rush, p. 25) and Jackie biographer C. David Heymann [A Woman Called Jackie (New York: Lyle Stuart, 1989), p. 401] confirm that this unnamed agent was indeed Greer. See also Edward Klein, Just Jackie: Her Private Years (Ballantine Books, 1999), pp. 58, 374.

37 Gallagher, p. 351.

38 Rush, p. 25.
³⁹ A Woman Called Jackie
(New York: Lyle Stuart, 1989), p. 401; Edward Klein, Just Jackie: Her Private Years (Ballantine Books, 1999), pp. 58, 374.