Authorized interview with former Secret Service agent Sam Kinney conducted on 3/5/94 (I interviewed Sam three different times: 10/19/92; 3/5/94; 4/15/94. I also corresponded with his wife Hazel)
[Sam passed away 7/21/97]
~an excerpt from this interview appears elsewhere (as with Gerald Behn, Floyd Boring, Don Lawton, John Norris, and several others, Sam agreed to have the conversation recorded)~
A note on methodology: sometimes I had to play the naïve and agreeable "student", so to speak, in order to keep the conversation going and not offend Sam. It is what it is. That said, I think this is a very good interview. Sam also agreed to be recorded on 4/15/94 and both of these interviews are in the National Archives. These are cassette-to-cd-to-dvdr transfers and I was shuttling back and forth between Ohio and PA a lot of the time AND the cheap recorder I used would sometimes malfunction, but this is 95-99 percent of the actual interview (the transfer runs out at the end). OTHER topics were covered on the other two interview dates- see my book "Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the Failure to Protect President Kennedy" for the details.
Sam adamantly denounces the notion that JFK ordered the agents off the limo OR ordered them to do anything (thus debunking colleague Gerald Blaine's future book "The Kennedy Detail"); Sam debunks William Manchester and, in one instance, Jim Bishop, as well as the book "Mortal Error"; Sam was adamant, as he was in all my interviews with him, that he was solely responsible for the removal of the bubbletop on 11/22/63, thus debunking Jim Lehrer's book on the subject; Sam's windshield hit with blood and brain matter during assassination (after head shot); Sam had the piece of the rear of JFK's skull and said it WAS indeed from the back of President Kennedy's head; Sam saw all three shots hit without acknowledging a missed shot; Sam believes there was a conspiracy (although Oswald was the lone shooter, he felt); etc
Note: Sam was not interviewed by the Warren Commission. Sam was interviewed by William Manchester but his transcript will not be released until 2067. Sam was also interviewed by the HSCA- the staff interview report was only released in the late 1990's, right around the time Sam passed away. Sam's only tv interview was a short human interest segment on the "Today" show in 1993 (see another video on my channel for that clip)
http://www.amazon.com/Survivors-Guilt-Service-Failure-President/dp/1937584607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373914997&sr=8-1&keywords=vince+palamara