Pulitzer Prize, anyone? :)
There's an old saying: never say never. Well, this has been a strange and heady couple years with regard to literature in the JFK assassination case. After being a fervent believer in a conspiracy in President John F. Kennedy's death (from about the age of 12 to 41!), the Spring of 2007 yielded the Oswald-did-it-alone masterpiece "Reclaiming History" by the highly respected author and former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi that, quite literally, made my world upside down and had me reassess everything I knew (or thought I knew) about JFK's murder. Result? While I still believed there mere multiple conspiracies (plural) to kill Kennedy, and that (speaking as the leading civilian Secret Service authority) the Secret Service was grossly negligent on 11/22/63 in Dallas, at the end of the day, Oswald beat everyone to the punch, so to speak; for all intents and purposes, that solved it for me, albeit with a great deal of discomfort.
Then came ANOTHER masterpiece of even greater length (spread over 5 volumes) that, once again, turned my world upside down (some would say, right side up)!
Douglas P. Horne, the author of this latest masterpiece, "Inside The Assassination Records Review Board," has achieved a literary feat worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. His 5 volume study (5 books in one, so to speak) reads almost like the Defense's side of the case; the perfect answer to the Prosecution's ("Reclaiming Historty") masterful plea to the bench. I am amazed and highly impressed with the book as both a very inspired, well put together piece of art (it's a great read!) AND for the substance--and length---of the (counter) argument. While Vince Bugliosi did the seeming impossible back in 2007 (convincing me, however begrudgingly, that Oswald acted alone, despite others who wished JFK ill), Douglas P. Horne has turned around and performed HIS own version of the impossible: convincing me I was WRONG in 2007---a delightful, soul searching, slightly embarassing, and honest appraisal. After all, it is somewhat painful, as a seasoned researcher with a "stake" in the case, to admit he was in error...twice!
Bugliosi's book cleans up the "junk" in the case and presents the best case for Oswald acting alone; STILL a terrific book (THE best Oswald-did-it book that will ever be written---infinitely better than Gerald Posner's "Case Closed" or the insufficient Warren Report). That said, Douglas P. Horne's masterwork trumps "Reclaiming History" and presents the best nuts-and-bolts-and-more case for conspiracy I ever thought possible, circa 2009 and post-Bugliosi. While I have sung the praises for many books over the years, no other book (other than David McCullough's triumphant "Truman") has moved me to the point where I would recommend the volume achieving the vaunted Pulitzer Prize...yes, I am THAT impressed with Horne's years of research and insider work on the case. Jim Douglass excellent volume "JFK and the Unspeakable" serves almost as a companion volume---the "warm-up act"---to Horne's masterwork.
The MEDICAL evidence is the keystone to the case, bar none. With this firmly in mind, Horne, as a respected insider into the U.S. Government's final investigation into JFK's assassination in the mid to late 1990's, has laid out the best case for conspiracy I have ever read, especially at this late juncture (and where my thinking on the case was at not long before his 5 volume study appeared). I won't spoil things by revealing anything specific in this review (sorry!). I will just say this: get these books asap---you will find yourself (like myself) reading them and refering to them many times over.
I recently admonished people in the research community (of which I am one) to, quote, "get a life" (shades of William Shatner, huh?). Well, disregard that bit of advice: instead, GET DOUGLAS P. HORNE'S BOOKS...NOW! 5 PLUS STARS; THE HIGHEST RATING HUMANLY POSSIBLE.
Vince Palamara
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
New Secret Service books & commentary by Vince Palamara
11/28/09
Vince Palamara says adamantly
DON'T BE FOOLED BY MISREPRESENTATIONS OF FACT:
My book, Survivor's Guilt; The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President, has been available since 1993 (and online since 2006) and is THE FIRST BOOK to explore, in detail, JFK's Secret Service agents AND GET THEM ON THE RECORD---Sam Kinney (died in 1997), Gerald Behn (died in 1993), Art Godfrey (died in 2002), Rufus Youngblood (died in 1996), Floyd Boring (died in 2008), Robert Bouck (died 2004), Lynn Meredith (died in 2008), and James Rowley (died in 1992), as well as Sam Sulliman, Larry Newman, Gerald O'Rourke, Tony Sherman, Robert Lilley, Winston Lawson, etc. etc. etc. Via phone, letter, e-mail, or all of the above, these gentleman, 70+ in all, conveyed their thoughts and feelings to me and answered my questions and inquiries. What makes MY work even more powerful is the fact that, unlike direct examination by friendly attorneys, my investigation was driven by a cross examination mindset, not to mention the fact that I was a total stranger contacting these men out of the clear blue; no rehearsal or script (or friendly editing, so to speak).
Vincent Palamara was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Duquesne University with a degree in Sociology.
Although not even born when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Vince brings fresh eyes to an old case. In fact, Vince would go on to study the largely overlooked actions - and inactions - of the United States Secret Service in unprecedented detail, as well as achieving a world's record in the process, having interviewed and corresponded with over seventy former agents (the House Select Committee on Assassinations had the old record of 46 with a 6 million dollar budget and supboena power from Congress), not to mention many surviving family members, White House aides, and even quite a few Parkland and Bethesda medical witnesses for a corresponding project. The result was Survivor's Guilt; The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President, a very successful self-published book that sold thousands of copies in the 1990's before becoming a free online e-book in 2006.
In addition, the aforementioned corresponding project on the John F. Kennedy assassination medical evidence, JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference, Vince's second book, although almost an afterthought to Vince's main area of research, still sold hundreds of copies and was favorably mentioned in books by William Law, R. Andrew Kiel, James Fetzer, and even Vince Bugliosi. Like his first book, Vince's medical evidence tome became a free online e-book in 2006.
All told, Vince has been favorably mentioned in over 50 JFK and Secret Service related books to date (including two whole chapters in Murder in Dealey Plaza, The Secret Service: The Hidden History Of An Enigmatic Agency by Philip Melanson, and the Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, among many others), often at length, in the bibliographies, and in the Secret Service - and even medical evidence - areas of these works.
Vince has appeared on the History Channel, local cable access television, YouTube, radio, newspapers, print journals, at national conferences, and all over the internet. Also, Vince's original research materials, or copies of said materials, are stored in the National Archives (by request under Deed Of Gift by the ARRB), the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Harvard University, the Assassination Archives and Research Center, and the Dallas Public Library.
Vince Palamara has become known (as he was dubbed by the History Channel in 2003) "the Secret Service expert." As former JFK Secret Service agent Joe Paolella proclaimed: "You seem to know a lot about the Secret Service, maybe even more than I do," while fellow JFK Secret Service agent Chuck Zboril stated: "You might be helpful to the official Secret Service historian who works out of Washington!"
-------------
(Texas Trip) Secret Service Agent Rosters & Duties
I. San Antonio, TX, 11/21/63:
(San Antonio International Airport, Aerospace Medical Center, Kelly AFB)
[Sources-RIF#154-10002-10424: Survey report; 1541000110104; 1541000110058;1541000110184;1541000110033;17H618; "Kennedy In Texas" video; "Four Days In November" video]
1) Dennis R. Halterman (WHD): Advance agent (arrived in San Antonio 11/12/63)
2) J. Walter Coughlin (WHD): assisted in the advance (later, as part of the 4p.m.-12 mid shift at the Kennedy residence in Middleburg VA)
3) ASAIC of WHD (#3) Roy H. Kellerman: rode in SS-100-X [limousine] (front passenger seat)
4) William R. Greer (WHD/ Garage Detail): driver of SS-100-X
5) Henry J. Rybka (WHD/ Garage Detail): driver of SS-697-X FROM Aerospace Medical Center (AMC)[follow-up car]
6) ATSAIC of WHD Stewart G. "Stu" Stout: Entrance to Headquarters Bldg., AMC
7) Samuel E. Sulliman (WHD): Entrance to speaker's stand, AMC
8) Richard E. Johnsen (WHD): Speaker's platform, AMC
9) Ernest E. Olsson, Jr. (WHD): same as above
10) Andrew E. Berger (WHD): same as above
11) ATSAIC of WHD Emory P. Roberts: commander of follow-up car (front passenger seat)
12) John D. "Jack" Ready (WHD): follow-up car
13) Donald J. Lawton (WHD): follow-up car
14) William "Tim" McIntyre (WHD): follow-up car
15) Glenn A. Bennett (PRS): follow-up car
16) SAIC of San Antonio office Luis Benavides: assisted in the advance
17) Richard S. McCully (San Antonio office): Supervision of Aerospace Medical Center (AMC)
18) John J. "Muggsy" O'Leary (WHD/ Luggage-Effects [see also 25 H 788])
19) Clinton J. Hill (WHD/ First Lady Detail)
20) Samuel A. Kinney (WHD/ Garage Detail): driver of SS-697-X TO AMC [Rybka: passenger]
21) Paul E. Landis, Jr. (WHD/ First Lady Detail)
22) George W. Hickey, Jr (WHD/ Garage Detail): follow-up car [passenger]
23) ASAIC (#2) of V.P./ LBJ Detail Rufus W. Youngblood (came from LBJ Ranch w/ Johns and Taylor)
24) ATSAIC OF V.P./ LBJ Detail Thomas "Lem" Johns
25) Warren "Woody" Taylor (Lady Bird Johnson Detail)
FORTY members of the military police from Ft. Sam Houston, Texas: traffic control, motorcade route security, and intersection control; police helicopter utilized along route; many flanking motorcycles;
PRS subjects: 0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
II. Houston, TX, 11/21/63:
(Houston International Airport, Rice Hotel, Coliseum/ Congressman Albert Thomas Dinner)
[Sources: RIF#1541000110104; 1541000110064; 1541000110042; 1541000110044 (Daily Shift report, V.P. Detail, 11/21/63); 1541000110031; 180-10083-10419;180-10078-10493; 16 H 950-951; 17 H 618; author's 10/9/92 interview with DNC advance man Marty Underwood; DNC Advance man Jerry Bruno's notes, JFK
Library]
26) Ronald M. Pontius (WHD): Advance agent (arrived in Houston 11/12/63); rode in lead car in motorcade
27) Lubert F. "Bert" de Freese (WHD): assisted in the advance (arrived in Houston 11/18/63 from JFK's Florida trip); departed at 7:00 p.m. on 11/21/63 to go back to Washington, D.C.
28) DNC Advance Man Martin E. "Marty" Underwood (also the DNC advance man for Austin: see below)
29) James R. “Jim” Goodenough (V.P. LBJ Detail): Advance agent, LBJ Detail; rode in V.P. follow-up car in motorcade; went to the LBJ Ranch afterward
30) SAIC of Houston office Lane Bertram: rode in lead car in motorcade
Ready: rode in pilot car in motorcade
Berger: rode in pilot car in motorcade
Kellerman: limo
Greer: driver of limo
Rybka: driver of follow-up car
Stout: follow-up car
Sulliman: follow-up car
Johnsen: follow-up car
Olsson: follow-up car
Hill: follow-up car
O'Leary: rode in station wagon in motorcade (near the rear)
Youngblood: rode in LBJ's car
Johns: rode in V.P. follow-up car
Taylor
[Note: Kinney was not in Houston, as he proceeded to Dallas on 11/21/63 after JFK's departure from San Antonio, presumably with Hickey, who also does not appear to have been in Houston, either. In addition, Roberts, Lawton, McIntyre, and Bennett are unaccounted for, although they may have had duties ahead at the Coliseum]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
III. Fort Worth, TX, evening of 11/21/63, morning of 11/22/63:
(Carswell Air Force Base, Hotel Texas)
[Sources-RIF#1541000110104; 1541000110104; 1541000110043; 2 H 133; 18 H 674-675, 678, 679, 686, 697, 730, 761; captioned photo of Duncan in "Fort Worth Press", 11/22/63; 16 H 950-951; 17 H 618; 18 H 678-679, 681-682; 25 H 787-788; “The Death of a President,” pages 88 and 116]
31) William L. Duncan (WHD): Advance agent (arrived in Fort Worth 11/12/63); still in Fort Worth as of 11/22/63 and after the assassination [25 H 787]
32) Ned Hall II (WHD): assisted in the advance (also arrived in Fort Worth 11/12/63)
33) James F. "Mike" Howard (Dallas office): assisted in the advance; in Fort Worth until 4:00 a.m. 11/22/63 [18 H 675]
34) Jerry D. Kivett (V.P. LBJ Detail): Advance agent, LBJ Detail
(Arrived in Fort Worth on 11/19/63)
35) William H. Patterson (Dallas office): in Fort Worth on the morning of 11/22/63: assigned to drive LBJ's car [25 H 788]; went to Love Field afterwards
36) ATSAIC of WHD Arthur L. Godfrey: arrived in Fort Worth from Washington, D.C. at 2:15 p.m. on 11/21/63 w/ Blaine, Giannoules, Burns, O'Rourke, and Faison for duty at the Hotel Texas 4p.m.-12 min (JFK arrived 11:50 p.m.)
37) Gerald S. Blaine (WHD)
38) Kenneth S. Giannoules (WHD)
39) Paul A. Burns (WHD)
40) Gerald W. O'Rourke (WHD)
41) Robert R. Faison (WHD) [African-American]
42) Michael J. Shannon (V.P./ LBJ Detail): on duty at LBJ Ranch on 11/21/63; went to Hotel Texas on the night of 11/21/63 [12 Mid-8 a.m. 11/22/63]; went back to Johnson City, TX afterwards
Johnsen: follow-up car 11/21/63
[Note: Kinney and Hickey were not in Fort Worth on 11/21/63: they were in Dallas with the two cars]
Kellerman: limo
Greer: driver of limo (NOT SS-100-X but a rented car)
Hill
Landis
O'Leary
Rybka: follow-up car to Carswell AFB 11/22/63 (NOT the driver)
Stout
Sulliman
Olsson
Berger [see also 18 H 672, 675, 698]
Ready
Lawton
McIntyre
Roberts
Bennett
Youngblood [note: he would go on to leave in the early morning hours of 11/22/63 to visit a childhood acquaintance (18 H 681-682)]
Johns
Taylor
Drinking Incident Involving The Secret Service: The drinking incident of 11/21-11/22/63 involving the Secret Service at the Fort Worth Press Club AND the "Cellar" [18 H 665-702; 5 H 459-461]:
Chief James J. Rowley-headed investigation [18 H 666-668];
SAIC of Dallas office Forrest V. Sorrels-reported to Rowley along with Inspector Gerard B. McCann [18 H 669-676; 681];
Inspector Thomas J. Kelley-also involved in investigation
THE AGENTS WHO FILED REPORTS-
The Supervisors:
a) ATSAIC Arthur L. Godfrey-shift leader; mentions agents Blaine, Giannoules, Burns, O'Rourke, and Faison in his report: none of Godfrey's men-including Godfrey-participated in consuming any alcoholic beverages [18 H 678];
b) ASAIC Roy H. Kellerman- mentions agents Greer, Kinney, Duncan, Hall, and Grant: only Grant consumed alcohol [18 H 678];
c) ATSAIC Emory P. Roberts-shift leader; mentions agents Ready, Lawton, McIntyre, Bennett, Hill, Landis, Kinney [2nd mention], and Hickey [Kinney and Hickey were in Dallas with the automobiles, so they obviously did not participate in any drinking]: only Roberts and McIntyre did NOT drink-this was the most irresponsible shift of all [18 H 679];
d) ATSAIC Stewart G. Stout, Jr.-shift leader; mentions agents Sulliman, Johnsen, Olsson, and Berger: all but Stout and Sulliman consumed alcoholic beverages, making Stout's shift second to Roberts as the worst offender in the drinking incident [18 H 680];
e) ASAIC of V.P. Detail Rufus W. Youngblood-mentions agents Johns (ATSAIC), Kivett, Taylor, and Shannon: NONE of the V.P. Detail participated in the drinking incident [18 H 681-682]!
The agents who submitted individual reports:
f) Glenn A. Bennett (PRS agent)-admitted to drinking "two beers" at the Fort Worth Press Club; went to the "Cellar" afterwards [18 H 682];
g) Andrew E. Berger-same as above [18 H 683];
h) Gerald S. Blaine-although he went to both establishments, Blaine states that he did NOT consume alcohol [18 H 683];
i) Paul A. Burns-although he went to the "Cellar", Burns (like Blaine) states that he did NOT consume alcohol [18 H 684];
j) David B. Grant-admitted to drinking a "scotch and soda" at the Fort Worth Press Club; went to the "Cellar" afterwards [18 H 684];
k) Clinton J. Hill-same as above [18 H 685];
l) Richard E. Johnsen-admitted to drinking "two beers" at the Fort Worth Press Club [18 H 686];
m) Paul E. Landis, Jr.-admitted to drinking a "scotch and soda" at the Fort Worth Press Club; went to the "Cellar" afterwards [18 H 687];
n) Donald J. Lawton-admitted to drinking "three beers" at the Fort Worth Press Club; went to the "Cellar" afterwards [18 H 687];
o) Ernest E. Olsson, Jr.-admitted to drinking "one and a half mixed drinks" at the Fort Worth Press Club [18 H 688];
p) Gerald W. O'Rourke-although he went to the "Cellar", O'Rourke (like Blaine and Burns above) states that he did NOT consume alcohol [18 H 689];
q) John "Jack" D. Ready-admitted to drinking "two beers" at the Fort Worth Press Club; went to the "Cellar" afterwards [18 H 690]
Conclusion-Rowley did not punish these men in any way whatsoever, even though (according to the Secret Service manual [18 H 665]) drinking while in travel status is grounds for REMOVAL from the agency (four of the above-mentioned agents-Bennett, Hill, Landis, and Ready-had critical duties in the Secret Service follow-up car, directly behind JFK's limousine)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
IV. Dallas, TX, 11/22/63:
(Love Field, Trade Mart)
[Sources-RIF#1541000110100; 1541000110065; 1541000110044; 16 H 950-951 (same as 1541000110032); 1541000110190; "Inside The Secret Service" video 1995 (Lawson); author's interview with Lawson 9/27/92; 17 H 601, 618; 18 H 789; author's interviews with Godfrey 5/30/96, 6/7/96, and letter dated 11/24/97]
43) Winston G. Lawson (WHD): Advance agent (arrived in Dallas 11/12/63); rode in lead car in motorcade; remains in Dallas after AF1 departs to assist in the investigation [18 H 788]
44) David B. Grant (WHD): assisted in the advance (arrived in Dallas 11/18/63 from JFK's Florida trip): Trade Mart, then Parkland Hospital; remains in Dallas after AF1 departs until the early morning hours of 11/24/63 [18 H 788]; although seemingly removed from the immediate area, Grant was involved in the drinking incident [18 H 684] (See below)
45) SAIC of Dallas office Forrest V. Sorrels: assisted in the advance; rode in lead car
46) DNC Advance Man Jacob L. "Jack" Puterbaugh (arrived in Dallas 11/12/63); rode in pilot car in motorcade
Kivett: Advance Agent, LBJ Detail (11/18-11/22 [17 H 601]); rode in V.P. follow-up car in motorcade
47) Robert A. Steuart (Dallas Office): Trade Mart, then Parkland Hospital
48) John Joe Howlett (Dallas office): Trade Mart, then Parkland Hospital; rode in limousine as it was taken back to the C-130 (Hickey, driver; Kinney drove the follow-up car back)
49) Roger C. Warner (Dallas office): Love Field
Kellerman: limo
Greer: driver of limo
Roberts: commander of follow-up car
Kinney: driver of follow-up car
Hill: follow-up car
McIntyre: follow-up car
Ready: follow-up car
Landis: folow-up car
Bennett: follow-up car
Hickey: follow-up car
Youngblood: LBJ's car
Johns: V.P. follow-up car
Taylor: V.P. follow-up car
Stout: Trade Mart, then Parkland Hospital (+rode in hearse)
Berger: Trade Mart, then Parkland Hospital (+drove hearse)
Johnsen: Trade Mart, then Parkland Hospital (+CE399)
Olsson: Trade Mart, then Parkland Hospital
Sulliman: Trade Mart, then Parkland Hospital
Lawton: Love Field
O'Leary: Love Field
Rybka: Love Field
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------
V. Austin, TX, 11/22/63:
(Inc. Bergstrom AFB, 40 Acre Club, Governor Connally's mansion/ fundraiser/dinner, Commodore-Perry Hotel, Johnson City, LBJ Ranch)
[Sources-RIF#1541000110104; 1541000110064; 1541000110057; 1541000110050;1541000110044; 1541000110033; 18 H 779; Air Force One radio tapes/ transcripts; Bill Moyers' interview on A&E 1992; "Death of a President", p. 317 (1988 edition), “20 Years In The Secret Service,” page 97]
50) William B. Payne (WHD): Advance agent for Austin (arrived in Austin 11/12/63)
51) Robert R. Burke (WHD): assisted in the advance; specifically, for the LBJ Ranch in Austin City, TX (arrived in Austin for the LBJ Ranch 11/18/63)
52) John F. Yeager (WHD): assisted in the advance for Austin, Texas (arrived in TX 11/18/63)
Underwood [still in Houston on 11/22/63]
Shannon: see above
53) Donald Bendickson (V.P./ LBJ Detail): LBJ Ranch 11/21-11/22/63
54) Gerald Bechtle (V.P./ LBJ Detail): LBJ Ranch 11/21-11/22/63
Goodenough: see above
55) Robert Lockwood (from San Antonio Office) [see 2 H 155 & 18 H 779]
Godfrey: Austin (Commodore-Perry Hotel; depart for Washington at 3:15 p.m.)
Blaine: same
Giannoules: same
Burns: same
O'Rourke: same
Faison: same
56) Howard K. Norton (PRS) [see CD80 and 1541000110033, cited above]: same (this is the first and only time Norton's name appears anywhere in the Shift reports. He would go on to photograph the bloody limousine at the White House garage with fellow PRS photographer James K. "Jack" Fox on 11/23/63)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------
"VI." Chicago, IL, slated for sometime shortly AFTER 11/22/63:
[Sources-RIF#1541000110065]
57) Joseph Paolella (WHD): Advance agent (arrived in Chicago 11/18/63) [had been on JFK's 3/23/63 Chicago trip; interviewed for Seymour Hersh's "The Dark Side of Camelot" 1997]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shift Summary-
a) 12 Midnight to 8 a.m. shift:
ATSAIC Godfrey-shift leader,
SA Blaine,
SA Giannoules,
SA O'Rourke,
SA Burns,
SA Faison
HOTEL TEXAS (went to Austin after JFK's breakfast in Fort Worth);
b) 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift:
ATSAIC Roberts-shift leader,
SA Lawton,
SA Ready,
SA McIntyre,
SA Bennett (PRS),
SA Hill (First Lady Detail),
SA Landis (First Lady Detail),
SA Kinney (Garage/Chauffeur-in Dallas),
SA Hickey (Garage/Chauffeur-in Dallas)
FOLLOW-UP CAR (except Lawton-Love Field; Lawton rode in follow-up car AND back of JFK's limo on 11/18/63);
c) 4 p.m. to 12 Midnight shift:
ATSAIC Stout-shift leader,
SA Sulliman,
SA Johnsen,
SA Olsson,
SA Berger
TRADE MART (later, Parkland Hospital; all in Houston motorcade's follow-up car except Berger: in pilot car);
d) V.P. Detail:
ASAIC Youngblood,
ATSAIC Johns,
SA Kivett,
SA Taylor (assigned to Lady Bird),
SA Shannon
HOTEL TEXAS (Youngblood-LBJ's car; Johns, Kivett, Taylor-V.P. follow-up car;
Shannon-back to LBJ Ranch where he came)
e) [?] Shift:
ASAIC Kellerman,
SA Greer (Garage/Chauffeur),
SA Hall,
SA Duncan,
SA Grant
Kellerman and Greer-HOTEL TEXAS; JFK LIMOUSINE (all stops; later, Grey Navy ambulance and Bethesda; worked the WHOLE day without being relieved!)
Hall-HOTEL TEXAS
Duncan-HOTEL TEXAS (advance agent for Fort Worth stop)...
Grant-HOTEL TEXAS (advance agent for Florida [11/18/63] AND Texas trips; later, Trade Mart and Parkland Hospital);
ALSO: Dallas agents James F. "Mike" Howard and William H. Patterson also in Fort Worth (Howard assisted in advance arrangements at Fort Worth-on duty at the Hotel Texas from JFK's arrival until 4 a.m. on 11/22/63...later, questioned Marina Oswald; Patterson helped in security
at JFK's breakfast in Fort Worth-drove LBJ's car in Fort Worth on 11/22/63...later, Love Field);
Conclusion: Chief Rowley told the Warren Commission that 28 members of the WHITE HOUSE DETAIL accompanied JFK to Fort Worth-he's correct (Kinney and Hickey would make 30 if counted, but they were in Dallas, as previously mentioned). Advance agent Winston G. Lawson, SAIC of Dallas office Forrest V. Sorrels, and the remainder of Sorrels' men were in Dallas-leaving John J. "Muggsy" O'Leary (Garage/Chauffeur) and Henry J. Rybka (Garage/Chauffeur) [both were in the Houston motorcade of 11/21/63- O'Leary rode in the Station Wagon, while Rybka drove the follow-up car; both men were at Love Field on 11/22/63] to round out the
WHD agents
Other trips:
RIF # 154-10003-10012: Chicago, IL trip 3/23/63, Dedication of O’Hare Airport
WHD agents on trip: Grant (advance agent), Burke, Pontius, Lilley, Johnsen, Chandler, Giannoules, Lawton, Blaine, Lawson, Olsson, Burns, Paolella, Godfrey, Boring, Greer, Shipman, O’Leary
Chicago office agents: Hanly, Tucker, Martineau, Plichta, Bolden, Cross, Maynard, Stocks, Gorman, Noonan, Griffiths, Motto, McLeod, Russell, Strong
6 motorcycles surrounding limo, Lawton riding on (JFK’s side of) rear of limo, Mayor’s follow-up car with four detectives in ADDITION to SS follow-up car, police facing crowd (not JFK) on the route, noone permitted on overpasses except four policeman guarding them, press/photographers close to JFK, Hatcher with Kilduff
PRS: one threat.
Nashville, TN trip 5/18/63:Agent Paul Doster told the “Nashville Banner” back on 5/18/63 that“a complete check of the entire motorcade route” was done (also, “other [police] officers were assigned atop the municipal terminal and otherbuildings along the route. These men took their posts at 8 a.m. and remained at their rooftop stations until the president and his party passed”. In addition, a helicopter was used, similar to its use on 11/21/63 in San Antonio, Texas). Agents/ important personnel on this trip inc. Salinger, Behn, Kellerman, Greer, Roberts, DeFreese, Duncan, Chandler, Yeager, Nunn, O’Leary, Grant, Sulliman, Lawson, Olsson, Paolella, Burns, and DNC advance man Jerry Bruno. [Materials provided by researcher Bill Adams]
JFK's 11-state "Conservation Tour", 9/24/63-10/63---agents/ important personnel inc. Salinger, Behn, Godfrey, Blaine, Burns, Greer, Shipman, Bruno, Puterbaugh (Duluth, MN), Lawson, Foster, Roberts, Chandler, Burke, Lawton, & Rybka [see also HSCA interviews with Puterbaugh (4/14/78) and Bruno (12/13/77), as well as Bruno’s book “The Advance Man”]. Agents walked/ jogged beside JFK’s limousine+press bus closeby (on 9/25/63, Ashland, WI [film clip in “Executive Action”])
RIF #154-10002-10417: Philadelphia, PA trip 10/30/63
WHD agents on trip: Stout (advance agent), Godfrey, Faison, Behn, Greer, McIntyre, Burns, Giannoules, Paolella, Kinney, DeFreese, Payne, Duncan, Yeager, Zboril
Philadelphia office agents: Jordan, Kelly, Mesaros, Abel.
Close press/ photographers, Hatcher with Kilduff
PRS: two subjects;
RIF#154-10002-10418:Elkton, MD trip 11/14/63
Dedication of the Maryland-Delaware Turnpike
WHD agents on trip: Roberts (advance agent), Boring, Greer, Ready, Sulliman, Zboril, McIntyre, Berger, Morey, Jones, Kollar, Lawton [on faded part of list: Rybka (?)]
Baltimore office agents: Burger and Holmes
Philadelphia office agents: Abel, Kelly, Mesaros
Salinger
PRS: one subject;
RIF#154-10002-10419:SECOND New York City trip 11/14-11/15/63
AFL-CIO Convention
WHD agents on trip: Godfrey (advance agent), Boring, Greer, Grant, McIntyre, Thompson, Sulliman, Roberts, Rybka [follow-up car], Bennett*(PRS), Jones, Berger, Morey, Kollar, O’Leary; Also: Paolella, Burns, Metzinger & O’Rourke [USSS RIF#1541-0001-10093: shift Report, 11/14/63]
NY office agents: Whitaker, Jukes, Gibbs, Gunthers, Sershen, Starr, Mayes, Ward, Phillips, Wong, Thomas, Douglas, Tully, Melchiori, Luzania
*PRS: Bouck notified on 11/11/63, the day after Bennett was “temporarily” assigned to the WHD from PRS, and Bennett was then dispatched to the President’s suite at the Carlyle Hotel, prior to JFK’s arrival on 11/14/63, “to conduct a technical survey”; detective follow-up car along with SS follow-up car, Salinger with Kilduff, close press/ photographers
RIF#154-10002-10420:Palm Beach, FL trip 11/18/63
WHD/ PRS on trip: Johnsen (advance agent), Boring, Greer, Rybka, Norton (PRS), Wunderlich (PRS), Roberts, Stout, Godfrey, O’Leary (etc.) [Bennett-see Secret Service shift reports]
Miami office agents: Marshall, Howell
“same route as described in ASAIC Boring’s survey report dated March 26,1963”
fire alarm system: installed by SA’s Norton and Wunderlich of PRS;
“Two days prior to the arrival of the President, SA’s Norton and Wunderlich [of PRS] made a prelimimary sweep of the residence. On the day of the president’s arrival, these agents made a final sweep of the residence after which they…secured the residence”;
PRS agents Norton and Wunderlich “sanitized and secured the Kennedy residence” [along with Bennett, that makes THREE PRS agents on the Florida trip!]
Salinger with Kilduff
[NOTE: USSS RIF# 1541-0001-10082, Secret Service shift report dated 11/15/63 and written by David Grant, states that himself, Paolella, Burns, O’Rourke, and Metzinger arrived in Palm Beach via NY.Roberts’ shift report from the same day says as much: USSS RIF# 1541-0001-10081. However, none of these agent’s names show up on any of the FL survey reports. That said, the 11/18/63 shift report written by ATSAIC Godfrey (USSS RIF# 1541-0001-100650, states that himself, Burns, O’Rourke, and Metzinger departed Palm Beach at 9:30 a.m. for Washington, D.C. For his part, Paolella was heading out to Chicago to do advance work for a proposed trip to the city that JFK did not live to see, an apparent makeup date for the cancelled trip earlier in the month (USSS RIF# 1541-0001-100650)]
RIF#154-10002-10423:Tampa, FL 11/18/63
WHD agents on trip: Blaine (advance agent), Yeager, Boring, Greer, Rybka, Kinney, Stout, Roberts, Sulliman, Ready, Berger, Zboril, Morey, Lawton, Kollar, Jones, McIntyre [Bennett-see Secret Service shift reports]
Tampa office: Peppers
1964 White Lincoln Continental used for McDill Air Force Base
SS-100-X (JFK’s limo) and SS-678-X (1956 “Queen Mary” Cadillac follow-up car) used for downtown/ suburban motorcade
Salinger, underpasses controlled by police and military units, Sheriff’s office secured the roofs of major buildings in the downtown and suburban areas, agents on limo, Salinger with Kilduff, close press/ photographers (inc. Stoughton in follow-up car), McHugh in between SS agents in front seat of limo; it is noted that “the follow-up car will carry a considerable burden on this trip”;
SA Cecil Taylor of PRS: 2 subjects found;
RIF#154-10002-10422:Miami, FL 11/18/63
Inter-American Press Association
WHD agents on trip: DeFreese (advance agent), Boring, Greer, Coughlin, Blaine, McIntyre, Bennett (PRS), Kollar, Roberts, Lawton, Jones, Zboril, Rybka, Sulliman, Berger, Morey, O’Leary;
Miami office agents: Marshall, Aragon, Bailey, Curry, Jamison, Howell
CIA’s Ted Shackley and William Finch helped Secret Service on this trip
PRS: six pages worth! Subjects inc. Orlando Bosch, Pedro Diaz Lanz, Enrique Llaca, Jr., Rohinski, and Derber;
lead car inc. Dr. Burkley (!); Salinger with Kilduff
ONLY ‘similarity’ to Dallas the author could find, and it involves a very secure location JFK visited—
RIF#154-10002-10421:Cape Canaveral, FL 11/18/63
Final Survey Report dated 1/20/64 (!)
WHD agents on trip: Stout (advance agent), Sulliman, Berger, Kollar, Jones, Boring, Greer, Morey, Rybka, Roberts, Lawton, Zboril, Bennett (PRS)
Jacksonville office agents: McDavid, Walter
8 agents from the Office of Special Investigations (OSI)
PRS: SA Dick Flohr found no threats
Salinger, close press/ photographers
List of author contacts & interviews (1990-2006 [for post 2006 contacts, see other blogs)
1) Gerald A. Behn (SAIC of WHD) 9/27/92-3 times
[Behn passed away 4/21/93]
2) Jean Brownell Behn-wife 11/18/95; 11/28/97-letter
[Also: 2000 e-mail from neighbor re: Mr. & Mrs. Behn]
3) Sandra Kane-daughter of Behn 8/8/95
4) Floyd M. Boring (ASAIC of WHD) 9/22/93; 3/4/94; 11/22/97-letter
5) Mrs. Roy (June) Kellerman, widow of Roy Kellerman (ASAIC of WHD) 3/2/92; 9/27/92; 12/2/97-letter
[Roy passed away 3/22/84]
[Also: letter to author from Harold Weisberg re: his contact with one of Roy's daughters 3/5/92]
6) Arthur L. Godfrey (ATSAIC of WHD) 5/30/96; 6/7/96; 11/24/97-letter
[Art passed away 5/12/02]
7) P. Hamilton Brown (WHD/ former Exec. Sec. of the AFAUSSS) 9/30/92
8) Richard E. Johnsen (WHD [CE399]) 9/29/92
9) Winston G. Lawson (WHD/advance agent) 9/27/92; 1/12/04, 1/20/04, 1/31/04, 2/17/04-letters
10) Donald J. Lawton (WHD) 11/15/95; 11/22/97-letter
11) Charles T. Zboril (WHD) 11/15/95
12) Wife of Chuck Zboril 11/15/95
13) Eve B. Dempsher (WHD Secretary) 11/19/97-letter
14) Richard Greer-son of William R. Greer (WHD/ Garage) 9/17/91; 10/7/91; 9/23/92
[William passed away 2/28/85]
15) Samuel A. Kinney (WHD) 10/19/92; 3/5/94; 4/15/94
[Sam passed away 7/21/97]
16) Hazel Kinney-wife 11/20/97-letter
17) Jacques Tangy-friend of Andy Hutch (WHD/ Garage) 7/27/96-letter
[Andy passed away 1991]
18) Robert I. Bouck (SAIC of PRS) 9/27/92
[deceased]
19) Mark Crouch-friend of James K. Fox (PRS) 1/28/92; 9/23/92
[Fox passed away 1987]
20) H. Stuart Knight (SAIC of V.P./LBJ) 10/22/92; 2/8/94
21) Rufus W. Youngblood (ASAIC of V.P.) 10/22/92; 2/8/94
[Rufus passed away 10/2/96]
22) Jerry D. Kivett (V.P./LBJ) 12/8/97, 2/18/04, 2/28/04-letters; e-mails, 2006; 2/7/04
23) G. d'Andelot “Don” Belin (General Counsel) 11/21/97-letter
[Belin passed away 4/15/03]
24) James J. Rowley (Chief) 9/27/92
[Rowley passed away 11/1/92]
25) John E. Campion-friend w/same name 11/20/97-letter
[The Agent John E. Campion passed away in the 1970's]
26) Michael W. Torina (Chief Inspector) 12/5/97, 2/23/04-letters
27) Abraham W. Bolden, Sr. (WHD/Chicago) 9/16/93, 4/10/94, & 8/8/03: calls;
9/10/93, 10/30/93, 12/13/93, 12/31/93, 8/94, 1/97, 7/04, 8/04, 9/04, Spring/ Summer 2005 and 2006: letters, e-mails and correspondence
28) Robert E. Lilley (WHD/Boston) 9/27/92; 9/21/93; 6/7/96; 3/29/04-letter
29) John Norris (Uniformed) 3/4/94
[Norris passed away 4/30/03]
30) Maurice G. Martineau (ASAIC, Chicago) 9/21/93; 6/7/96; 11/23/97-letter
[note: son Walt contacted the author via e-mail 9/04]
31) Forrest V. Sorrels (SAIC of Dallas) 1/28/92; 9/27/92
[Sorrels passed away 11/6/93]
32) Robert A. Steuart (Dallas) 10/22/92; 9/21/93
33) John Joe Howlett (Dallas) 11/26/97-letter
34) Bill Livingood (Dallas, later WHD) 11/92; 11/19/97-letter
[Also: friend Gary Rowell had spoken to him 11/91 and passed info. on to the author]
35) Gerald S. Parr (Nashville) 11/18/95
36) H. Terrence “Terry”Samway (Public Affairs) 1/16/98-letter
37) Gerald W. Bechtle (V.P./LBJ) 12/17/97-letter
38) Gerald W. Bechtle, Jr-son 6/29/01 & 11/03 e-mails
39) Cecil Stoughton (WH photographer) 12/2/95 and 11/20/97: letters
40) Martin E. Underwood (DNC advanceman) 10/9/92
[Underwood passed away 3/18/03]
41) Jacob L. Puterbaugh (DNC advanceman) 1/3/98-letter
42) David Powers (JFK aide) 9/10/93-letter
[Powers passed away 3/98]
43) Aubrey Rike (O'Neal Funeral Home) 11/22/97-video
44) Gerald Patrick Hemming (Intelligence) 2/10/92; 9/23/92
45) Rex W. Scouten (Secret Service/WHD) 5/28/98 and 9/98-letters
46) Joseph Paolella (WHD) 7/22/99-email; 3/24/04-letter
47) A. Dale Wunderlich (Secret Service/PRS) 10/9/99-email
48) Ronald M. Pontius (WHD) Oct. 2000 e-mail
49) Ken Wiesman (WHD) Oct. 2000 e-mail
50) J. Frank Yeager (WHD) 12/29/03 and 1/24/04- letters
51) Frank G. Stoner (Secret Service/PRS Liaison Officer/ WFO) 1/10/04, 1/21/04, 2/15/04, 2/28/04: letters (w/ pictures+book+report); 1/17/04, 1/18/04: calls; 1/18/04, 1/19/04, 1/21/04, 2/12/04, 2/14/04, 2/15/04, 2/17/04, 2/25/04, 2/26/04, 2/27/04, 2/28/04, 3/1/04, 12/2/04 (from wife Elaine): e-mails
52) J. Walter Coughlin (WHD) 1/15/04, 2/21/04: letters; 2/22/04, 2/23/04, 2/24/04, 2/25/04, 2/26/04, 2/27/04, 2/28/04, 2/29/04, 3/1/04, 3/10/04, 12/2/04, 1/20/05, 4/25/05, 4/26/05, 4/27/05, 4/28/05, 4/28/05, 5/3/05, 5/4/05, 5/5/05, 5/6/05, 5/7/05, 7/8/05, 7/9/05, 7/11/05, 7/15/05, various in 2006: e-mails
53) Gerald W. O’Rourke (WHD) 1/15/04 letter+2/11/04; 6/16/05, 6/17/05, 6/18/05, 7/23/05: e-mails
54) Winston J. Gintz (Secret Service/ St. Louis, MO Office) 2/11/04
55) Harry D. Anheier, Jr. (Son of the late agent, Harry D. Anheier, Sr.: Secret Service/ SAIC, Chicago & New Orleans) 2/11/04
[Harry D. Anheier, Sr. passed away in the late 1950’s]
56) Samuel E. Sulliman (WHD) 2/11/04
57) Kenneth S. Giannoules (WHD) 2/11/04
58) Thomas Lemuel “Lem” Johns (ATSAIC of V.P./ LBJ) 2/11/04
59) Frank D. Slocum (Secret Service/ Los Angeles Office) 1/16/04 letter
60) Radford W. “Rad” Jones (WHD) 1/16/04 letter
61) Darwin David Horn Sr. (Secret Service/ Los Angeles Office) 1/30/04, 2/14/04, 2/20/04, 2/22/04, 2/23/04, 2/24/04, 2/25/04, 2/26/04, 2/27/04, 2/28/04, 3/1/04, 3/2/04, 3/3/04, 3/8/04, 3/19/04, 3/26/04, 4/25/05, 4/27/05, 5/4/05: e-mails; 2/21/04: letter (+inscribed book)
62) Larry Newman (Secret Service/ WHD) 2/2/04-letter; 2/7/04, 2/12/04
63) Gerald S. Blaine (WHD) 2/7/04, 6/10/05; 6/12/05, 6/13/05, 7/9/05, 7/11/05: e-mails
64) Robert R. “Bob” Snow (Secret Service/WHD) 3/9/04-letter; 3/12/04, 12/2/04, 12/8/04, 12/9/04, 12/10/04, 12/20/04, 4/28/05: e-mails
65) Paul S. Rundle (V.P. LBJ Detail) 3/6/04-e-mail
66) Ernest E. Olsson, Jr. (WHD) 2/7/04
67) Talmadge W. Bailey (Secret Service/ Miami Office) 2/7/04
68) Vincent P. Mroz (Secret Service/WHD) 2/7/04
69) Anthony “Tony” Sherman (Secret Service/ WHD) 2/19/04- letter
70) Stanley B. Galup (Secret Service/ Special Officer, 1962-1985) 2/20/04-letter
71) Tom Heuerman (Secret Service, 1969-1971: Minnesota, Chicago, and temporary WHD assignment protecting Nixon around the world; also protected former V.P. Humphrey) 2/12/04-e-mail
72) Annie Stromberg re: Paul Landis (WHD: First Lady Detail) 4/6/99 e-mail
[Also: phoned Landis twice on 2/7/04: 2 unreturned messages; not inc. 2 unanswered letters]
73) Earl L. Drescher (Metropolitan Police Department, 5/30/56 to 4/25/70, rising to the position of Captain; Captain, WHP/ Uniformed Division, 4/26/70-May 1970; June 1970: became Deputy Chief of the Executive Protective Service: remained in this position until 4/1/73 when he became Chief; remained in this position until his retirement on 10/1/77; nephew of George Drescher, SAIC of WHD, FDR-Truman) 2/20/04-letter
74) Donald A. “Don” Stebbins (Secret Service/ current Exec. Sec. of the AFAUSSS) 2/27/04, 6/6/05: letters
75) William M. “Bill” McCord (Secret Service/ Miami office) 3/12/04-letter
76) Lynn S. Meredith (Secret Service/ WHD/ “Kiddie Detail”) 3/9/04, 5/22/05-letters
77) James R. “Jim” Goodenough (Secret Service/ V.P. LBJ Detail) 3/16/04-letter
78) Charles J. Marass (Secret Service) 3/25/04-letter
79) George D. Rogers (Assistant Director, Office of Government & Public Affairs) 6/14/05, 7/15/05: e-mails
80) Clinton J. Hill (WHD/ First Lady Detail) registered letter from author dated 6/1/05 (receipt signed 6/6/05); 6/13/05
81) William “Tim” McIntyre (WHD) 6/13/05
82) Dale Keaner (WHD) 6/13/05
83) Ed Morey (WHD) 6/13/05
84) John D. “Jack” Ready (WHD) 6/13/05
85) Mark Harmon (USSS) 2005 e-mails
86) Howell “Hal” Purvis (USSS) 2006 e-mails
87) Mike Maddaloni (WHD, Carter-Reagan) 2006 e-mails
88) Kent D. Jordan (WFO/ WHD) 6/13/05
89) DMN Kent Biffle (rode in local press pool car) 8/17/99 e-mail
90) Henry Burroughs 10/14/98 letter
[Deceased]
91) DPD Marrion Baker 9/98 letter
92) DPD Samuel Q. Bellah 9/98, 3/20/04: letters
93) George Whitmeyer, Jr. the son of the late Lt. Col. George Whitmeyer
[Deceased 1978] 9/28/98 letter
94) Gary Beckworth, son of Congressman Lindley Beckworth
[Deceased 1984] 10/5/98 letter
95) Vincent Gullo (C-130) 8/27/98 letter
96) Milton T. Wright 8/98 letter & 9/3/98 e-mail
97) Bobbie Jacks, wife of the late Hurchel Jacks 8/31/98 letter
[Deceased 12/19/95]
98) DPD Stavis Ellis 9/8/98 letter
99-115 Parkland Hospital:
99) Dr. Charles Crenshaw 8/26/98 letter
[Deceased]
100) Dr. Malcolm Perry 8/26/98 letter
101) Dr. Ronald Coy Jones 10/13/98 letter
102) Dr. Paul Peters 10/98 letter
[Deceased]
103) Dr. Donald Seldin 8/27/98 letter
104) Dr. Donald T. Curtis 9/30/98 letter
105) Dr. Robert N. McClelland 9/98 letter
106) Nurse Patricia B. Gustafson (Hutton) 9/1/98 & 10/98 letter
107) Dr. Adolph Giesecke 10/98 letter
108) Mrs. Billie Martinets 9/8/98 letter
109) Dr. William Risk 9/8/98 letter
110) Dr. William Osborne 9/3/98 letter
111) Dr. Donald Jackson 9/8/98 letter
112) Dr. Boris Porto, son of Dr. Lito Porto 8/31/98 letter; 9/6/98 & 9/8/98
113) Dr. Earl F. Rose 9/4/98 letter
114) Dr. William H. Zedlitz 11/4/98 letter
115) Evalea Glanges 12/2/98 letter
[Deceased]
163-117 Methodist Hospital
116) Dr. Gerard Noteboom 8/25/98 letter
117) William A. Harper 9/15/98 letter
118-127 Bethesda (autopsy)
118) Jerrol Custer (Bethesda X-ray tech) 11/22/91-video; 11/23/91; 3/15-3/16/98-video [Deceased July 2000]
119) Chester Boyers 8/25/98 letter
120) Richard Lipsey 9/98 letter
121) John T. Stringer, Jr. 9/2/98 letter
122) James W. Sibert 9/1/98 letter
123) MRS. Layton Ledbetter 9/98 letter
[Deceased 2/14/97]
124) Don Rebentisch 9/1/98 letter
125) Dr. James J. Humes 9/98 letter
[Deceased]
126) Paul K. O'Connor 10/6/98 letter
127) Jan Gail "Nick" Rudnicki 9/98 letter
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
128) Cortlandt Cunningham (FBI; Limousine, White House garage) 9/14/98 letter
129) Sarah McClendon (Press Corps) 10/95
130) Beverly Oliver (witness) 11/22/97-video
131) Shari Angel/Weston (Ruby stripper) 11/22/97-video
132) Palmer McBride (LHO friend) 11/22/97
133) Madeleine Duncan Brown (LBJ mistress) 11/22/97
[Deceased]
134) Tony Zappone (photographer, 11/18/63, Tampa, FL) 12/18/03 (+several e-mails Dec. 2003)
135) Jack Moseley (reporter in Fort Worth) 12/18/03-email
136) Congressman Samuel M. Gibbons (Florida) 1/15/04 letter
Note: This list does not include many attempted/ unsuccessful (primary and follow-up) contacts and unanswered letters from many others (inc. these Secret Service & related contacts: Toby Chandler, Donald Bendickson, George Weisheit, Bob Burke, Robert Melchiori, Robert Lockwood, John Giuffre, John Powers, John Simpson, Milton Scheuerman, Lynn E. Meredith [different agent than Lynn S. Meredith], Sal Mazzuca, Gerard McCann, Robert Faison, Alwyn Dickerson, Robert Jamison, Jerry Bruno, Robert Powis, Chuck Vance, Mrs. Mary Finger [Bill Greer’s second wife], Mrs. Emory Roberts [Betty], the family of the late Bert deFreese, James Mastrovito, Thomas Wells, Adrian Vial, Nemo Ciochina, Gene Wofford, George Sershen, Roy Nunn, William Duncan, Victor Gonzalez, Ron Williams and Robert L. DeProspero (two attempts)
Labels:
Blaine,
Clint Hill,
JFK,
Kennedy,
secret service,
Survivor's Guilt,
vince palamara,
White House Detail
Monday, April 27, 2009
Notes on 6th Floor Museum's 8 Secret Service oral history (dvds)
1) Warren Woody Taylor (10/14/05)[31 minutes]
[note: I could never find him due to common name!]
born 3/9/36, Dayton, KY;
joined agency in August 1961;
retired in 1982;
heard three shots, all from 6th floor of TSBD;
Dallas: first tume he was in a motorade with JFK
2) Jerry D. Kivett (10/14/05)[39 minutes]
[note: I spoke to, corresponded, and e-mailed Mr. Kivett. He has seen my work online including my book...:O)]
born 3/4/35, Greensboro, NC;
joined agency September 1961;
retired in 1982;
heard 3 shots from his right rear
3) A. Dale Wunderlich (10/15/05) [49 minutes]
[Note: I spoke to and e-mailed Mr. Wunderlich. Like many of his colleagues, he is much aware of my (online) work/ book]
born 1/2/37, Prosser, WA;
LAPD Bomb Squad;
recruited by agency Feb. 1963: joined PRS division;
Dallas: claims this was the FIRST time someone from PRS came to do an intelligence advance (?!?)
4) Victor Gonzalez (10/15/05) [10 minutes]
[Note: I contacted Mr. Gonzalez via e-mail--and through a friend---but he never responded back]
born 6/21/36, Puerto Rico;
joined agency in April 1962;
retired in July 1982;
11/22/63: part of Special Agent clas graduating that day-went to Ford's Theater, Capital Bldg, Blair House, then Press Corps for a luncheon and ceremony. Chief Rowley was called out and told of JFK's assassination!;
assigned to WFO;
protected the limousine at the White House Garage;
always felt it was Oswald, acting alone
5) Radford W. Jones (10/15/05) [18 minutes]
[Note: I corresponded with Mr. Jones and he refers to me without saying my name in his oral history interview-I had also sent him copies of his Secret Service shift reports for 11/63]
born 9/30/39;
joined agency Feb. 1963;
retired as SAIC of Detroit Field Office in 1983;
joined Ford Motor Company;
after retirement, joined the staff of MSU;
assigned to Buffalo, NY field office;
temporary assignment:Summer 1963, Hyannisport, Squaw Island;
Nov. 1963: assigned to Kellerman's shift-end of 30 day assignment (supplemented JFK Jr's detail). Glen Bennett and he flipped a coin as to who was to go to Dallas (?!?);
strongly believes Oswald acted alone;
assigned to Jackie for 4 months in 1964, along with Clint Hill and Tommy Mays;
liason to RFK campaign in '68
6) William L. Duncan (10/15/05) [14 minutes]
[Note: I contacted Mr. Duncan but he never responded back]
born 1935;
joined agency 1959-WHD, Ike ("very routine duty");
With JFK from Inaugural until 11/22/63 [through LBJ and Nixon eras, as well-in fact, he was in charge of Pat Nixon's Detail];
Re: JFK: "real fine gentleman"; "magnetic personality"; "very friendly"; "very concerned about the people around him"; "real pleasure to work with"; "easy to work very hard for"; "LET YOU DO YOUR JOB" [my emphasis];
11/22/63: advance agent for Fort Worth (partner: Ned Hall II);
Was to return to D.C. but, due to assassination, proceeded to Dallas/ Parkland Hospital: Secret Service "very well organized" there;
Ultimately returned to D.C. with Hall "with the cars" [C-130]
7) Winston G. Lawson (9/5/03) [1hr 52 minutes]
[Note: I spoke to and corresponded---and even e-mailed---Mr. Lawson several times]
born 10/15/28, Western NY, between Erie & Buffalo (Chattaqua County);
Korea war: joined the Army reserves/ CIC;
joined agency Fall 1959-Syracuse, NY Field Office;
Transfered to WHD Spring 1961;
Re: JFK: "He was pleasant"
8) Mike Howard (11/18/05) [2 and a half hours]
[Note: As with Mr. Taylor (above), I could never find Mr. Howard due to his having such a common name!]
born 3/20/31;
Korean War: Private, Military Police;
Saginaw (TX) Police Dept;
joined agency 1959 via a call from SAIC of Dallas Forrest Sorrels
Vince Palamara
4/27/09
[note: I could never find him due to common name!]
born 3/9/36, Dayton, KY;
joined agency in August 1961;
retired in 1982;
heard three shots, all from 6th floor of TSBD;
Dallas: first tume he was in a motorade with JFK
2) Jerry D. Kivett (10/14/05)[39 minutes]
[note: I spoke to, corresponded, and e-mailed Mr. Kivett. He has seen my work online including my book...:O)]
born 3/4/35, Greensboro, NC;
joined agency September 1961;
retired in 1982;
heard 3 shots from his right rear
3) A. Dale Wunderlich (10/15/05) [49 minutes]
[Note: I spoke to and e-mailed Mr. Wunderlich. Like many of his colleagues, he is much aware of my (online) work/ book]
born 1/2/37, Prosser, WA;
LAPD Bomb Squad;
recruited by agency Feb. 1963: joined PRS division;
Dallas: claims this was the FIRST time someone from PRS came to do an intelligence advance (?!?)
4) Victor Gonzalez (10/15/05) [10 minutes]
[Note: I contacted Mr. Gonzalez via e-mail--and through a friend---but he never responded back]
born 6/21/36, Puerto Rico;
joined agency in April 1962;
retired in July 1982;
11/22/63: part of Special Agent clas graduating that day-went to Ford's Theater, Capital Bldg, Blair House, then Press Corps for a luncheon and ceremony. Chief Rowley was called out and told of JFK's assassination!;
assigned to WFO;
protected the limousine at the White House Garage;
always felt it was Oswald, acting alone
5) Radford W. Jones (10/15/05) [18 minutes]
[Note: I corresponded with Mr. Jones and he refers to me without saying my name in his oral history interview-I had also sent him copies of his Secret Service shift reports for 11/63]
born 9/30/39;
joined agency Feb. 1963;
retired as SAIC of Detroit Field Office in 1983;
joined Ford Motor Company;
after retirement, joined the staff of MSU;
assigned to Buffalo, NY field office;
temporary assignment:Summer 1963, Hyannisport, Squaw Island;
Nov. 1963: assigned to Kellerman's shift-end of 30 day assignment (supplemented JFK Jr's detail). Glen Bennett and he flipped a coin as to who was to go to Dallas (?!?);
strongly believes Oswald acted alone;
assigned to Jackie for 4 months in 1964, along with Clint Hill and Tommy Mays;
liason to RFK campaign in '68
6) William L. Duncan (10/15/05) [14 minutes]
[Note: I contacted Mr. Duncan but he never responded back]
born 1935;
joined agency 1959-WHD, Ike ("very routine duty");
With JFK from Inaugural until 11/22/63 [through LBJ and Nixon eras, as well-in fact, he was in charge of Pat Nixon's Detail];
Re: JFK: "real fine gentleman"; "magnetic personality"; "very friendly"; "very concerned about the people around him"; "real pleasure to work with"; "easy to work very hard for"; "LET YOU DO YOUR JOB" [my emphasis];
11/22/63: advance agent for Fort Worth (partner: Ned Hall II);
Was to return to D.C. but, due to assassination, proceeded to Dallas/ Parkland Hospital: Secret Service "very well organized" there;
Ultimately returned to D.C. with Hall "with the cars" [C-130]
7) Winston G. Lawson (9/5/03) [1hr 52 minutes]
[Note: I spoke to and corresponded---and even e-mailed---Mr. Lawson several times]
born 10/15/28, Western NY, between Erie & Buffalo (Chattaqua County);
Korea war: joined the Army reserves/ CIC;
joined agency Fall 1959-Syracuse, NY Field Office;
Transfered to WHD Spring 1961;
Re: JFK: "He was pleasant"
8) Mike Howard (11/18/05) [2 and a half hours]
[Note: As with Mr. Taylor (above), I could never find Mr. Howard due to his having such a common name!]
born 3/20/31;
Korean War: Private, Military Police;
Saginaw (TX) Police Dept;
joined agency 1959 via a call from SAIC of Dallas Forrest Sorrels
Vince Palamara
4/27/09
Saturday, March 14, 2009
59 Witnesses: Delay on Elm Street by Vince Palamara
Based on the original 1991 article, "47 Witnesses," that appeared in "The Third Decade," Jan/ March 1992.
This article has since been cited in:
"The Third Decade," 11/92
"The Fourth Decade," 11/93 and 9/97
"Proceedings of the Second Research Conference of the Third Decade, 6/18-6/20/93," pages 128 & 162
"The Proceedings of the Research Conference of the Fourth Decade," 7/19-7/21/96", p. 277
"The Third Alternative-Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the JFK Murder," 1997, pages 20 and 53
"The Puzzle Palace" Web site
"Assassination Science...," 1998, p. 274
"Bloody Treason," 1997, Z-frame 313 photo section
"November Patriots," 1998, p. 465
"High Treason," 1998 revised edition, p. 551
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-UPI's "Four Days," 1964, p. 17 - "In the right hand picture [a frame from the Muchmore film], the driver slams on the brakes and the police escort pulls up."
-"Newsweek," 12/2/63, p. 2 - "For a chaotic moment, the motorcade ground to an uncertain halt."
-"Time," 11/29/63, p. 23 - "There was a shocking momentary stillness, a frozen tableau."
-"Case Closed" by Gerald Posner, 1993, p. 234 - "Incredibly, Greer, sensing that something was wrong in the back of the car, slowed the vehicle to almost a standstill."
AND
-Gerald Posner, with Dan Rather, on CBS' "Who Killed JFK: The Final Chapter?" 11/19/93 - By turning around the second time and looking at JFK as the car slows down, Posner says that, "What he [Greer] has done is inadvertantly given Oswald the easiest of the three shots."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Houston Chronicle Reporter Bo Byers (rode in White House Press Bus) - twice stated that the Presidential Limousine "almost came to a stop, a dead stop"; in fact, he has had nightmares about this. [C-SPAN, 11/20/93, "Journalists Remember The Kennedy Assassination"; see also the 1/94 "Fourth Decade" article by Sheldon Inkol]
2) ABC Reporter Bob Clark (rode in the National Press Pool Car) - Reported on the air that the limousine stopped on Elm Street during the shooting [WFAA/ ABC, 11/22/63]
3) UPI White House Reporter Merriman Smith (rode in the same car as Clark, above) - "The President's car, possibly as much as 150 or 200 yards ahead, seemed to falter briefly..." [UPI story, 11/23/63, as reported in "Four Days", UPI, p. 32]
4) DPD motorcycle officer James W. Courson (one of two mid-motorcade motorcycles) - "The limousine came to a stop and Mrs. Kennedy was on the back. I noticed that as I came around the corner at Elm. Then the Secret Service agent [Clint Hill] helped push her back into the car, and the motorcade took off at a high rate of speed." ["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 129]
5) DPD motorcycle officer Bobby Joe Dale (one of two rear mid-motorcade motorcycles) - "After the shots were fired, the whole motorcade came to a stop. I stood and looked through the plaza, noticed there was commotion, and saw people running around his [JFK's] car. It started to move, then it slowed again; that's when I saw Mrs. Kennedy coming back on the trunk and another guy [Clint Hill] pushing her back into the car." ["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 134]
6) Clemon Earl Johnson - "You could see it [the limo] speed up and then stop, then speed up, and you could see it stop while they [sic; Clint Hill] threw Mrs. Kennedy back up in the car. Then they just left out of there like a bat of the eye and were just gone." ["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 80]
7) Malcolm Summers - "Then there was some hesitation in the caravan itself, a momentary halt, to give the Secret Service man [Clint Hill] a chance to catch up with the car and jump on. It seems to me that it started back up by the time he got to the car…"["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 104]
8) NBC reporter Robert MacNeil (rode in White House Press Bus)---"The President's driver slammed on the brakes - after the third shot…" ["The Way We Were, 1963: The Year Kennedy Was Shot" by Robert MacNeil (1988), p. 193]
9) AP photographer Henry Burroughs (rode in Camera Car #2) - "…we heard the shots and the motorcade stopped." [letter, Burroughs to Palamara, dated 10/14/98]
10) DPD Earle Brown - "…The first I noticed the [JFK's] car was when it stopped..after it made the turn and when the shots were fired, it stopped." [6 H 233]
11) DPD motorcycle officer Bobby Hargis (one of the four Presidential motorcyclists)---"…At that time [immediately before the head shot] the Presidential car slowed down. I heard somebody say 'Get going.' I felt blood hit me in the face and the Presidential car stopped almost immediately after that." [6 H 294; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71.
6/26/95 videotaped interview with Mark Oakes & Ian Griggs: "That guy (Greer) slowed down, maybe his orders was to slow down…slowed down almost to a stop." Like Posner, Hargis feels Greer gave Oswald the chance to kill Kennedy.]
12) DPD D.V. Harkness - "…I saw the first shot and the President's car slow[ed] down to almost a stop…I heard the first shot and saw the President's car almost come to a stop and some of the agents [were] piling on the car." [6 H 309]
13) DPD James Chaney (one of the four Presidential motorcyclists)---stated that the Presidential limousine stopped momentarily after the first shot (according to the testimony of Mark Lane; corroborated by the testimony of fellow DPD motorycle officer Marion Baker: Chaney told him that "…at the time, after the shooting, from the time the first shot rang out, the car stopped completely, pulled to the left and stopped…Now I have heard several of them say that, Mr. Truly was standing out there, he said it stopped. Several officers said it stopped completely." [2 H 44-45 (Lane)---refering to Chaney's statement as reported in the "Houston Chronicle" dated 11/24/63; 3 H 266 (Baker)]
14) DPD motorcycle officer B.J. Martin (one of the four Presidential motorcyclists) - saw JFK's car stop "…just for a moment." ["Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
15) DPD motorcycle officer Douglas L. Jackson (one of the four Presidential motorcyclists) - stated "…that the car just all but stopped…just a moment." ["Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
16) Texas Highway Patrolman Joe Henry Rich (drove LBJ's car) - stated that "…the motorcade came to a stop momentarily." ["Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
17) DPD J.W. Foster - stated that "…immediately after President Kennedy was struck…the car in which he was riding pulled to the curb." [CD 897, pp. 20, 21; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97]
18) Secret Service Agent Sam Kinney (driver of the follow-up car behind JFK's limo)---indicates, via his report to Chief Rowley, that Greer hit the gas after the fatal head shot to JFK and after the President's slump to the left toward Jackie. [18 H 731-732]. From the HSCA's 2/26/78 interview of Kinney: "He also remarked that 'when Greer (the driver of the Presidential limousine) looked back, his foot must have come off the accelerator'…Kinney observed that at the time of the first shot, the speed of the motorcade was '3 to 5 miles an hour.'" [RIF#180-10078-10493; author's interviews with Kinney, 1992-1994]
19) Secret Service Agent Clint Hill (follow-up car, rear of limo)---"…I jumped from the follow-up car and ran toward the Presidential automobile. I heard a second firecracker-type noise…SA Greer had, as I jumped onto the Presidential automobile, accelerated the Presidential automobile forward." [18 H 742; Nix film; "The Secret Service" and "Inside The Secret Service" videos from 1995]
20) Secret Service Agent John Ready (follow-up car) - "…I heard what sounded like fire crackers going off from my post on the right front running board. The President's car slowed…" [18 H 750]
21) Secret Service Agent Glen Bennett (follow-up car) - after the fatal head shot "the President's car immediately kicked into high gear." [18 H 760; 24 H 541-542]. During his 1/30/78 HSCA interview, Bennett said the follow-up car was moving at "10-12 m.p.h.", an indication of the pace of the motorcade on Elm Street [RIF#180-10082-10452]
22) Secret Service Agent "Lem" Johns (V.P. follow-up car) - "…I felt that if there was danger [it was] due to the slow speed of the automobile." [18 H 774]. During his 8/8/78 HSCA interview, Johns said that "Our car was moving very slowly", a further indication of the pace of the motorcade on Elm Street [RIF# 180-10074-10079; Altgens photo]
23) Secret Service Agent Winston Lawson (rode in the lead car) - "…I think it [the lead car on Elm Street] was a little further ahead [of JFK's limo] than it had been in the motorcade, because when I looked back we were further ahead." [4 H 352], an indication of the lag in the limo during the assassination.
24) Secret Service Agent William "Tim" McIntyre (follow-up car) - "He stated that Greer, driver of the Presidential limousine, accelerated after the third shot." [RIF#180-10082-10454: 1/31/78 HSCA interview]
25) Mrs. Earle "Dearie" Cabell (rode in the Mayor's car) - the motorcade "stopped dead still when the noise of the shot was heard." [7 H 487; "Accessories After the Fact" by Sylvia Meagher (1967), p. 4; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
26) Phil Willis - "…The [Presidential] party had come to a temporary halt before proceeding on to the underpass." [7 H 497; "Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 24]
27) Mrs. Phil Willis - Marilyn - after the fatal head shot, "she stated the Presidential limousine paused momentarily and then sped away under the Triple Underpass." [FBI report dated 6/19/64; "Photographic Whitewash" by Harold Weisberg (1967), p. 179]
28) Mrs. John Connally - Nellie (rode in JFK's limo) - JFK's car did not accelerate until after the fatal head shot. [4 H 147; WR 50; "Best Evidence" by David Lifton (1988), p. 122]
29) Texas Governor John Connally (rode in JFK's limo and himself a victim of the assassination) - "…After the third shot, I heard Roy Kellerman tell the driver, 'Bill, get out of line.' And then I saw him move, and I assumed he was moving a button or something on the panel of the automobile, and he said 'Get us to a hospital quick'…at about this time, we began to pull out of the cavalcade, out of line." [4 H 133; WR50; "Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 13];
30) Dallas Morning News reporter Robert Baskin (rode in the National Press Pool Car) - stated that "…the motorcade ground to a halt." ["Dallas Morning News", 11/23/63, p. 2; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
31) Dallas Morning News reporter Mary Woodward (Pillsworth) - "…Instead of speeding up the car, the car came to a halt."; she saw the President's car come to a halt after the first shot. Then, after hearing two more shots, close together, the car sped up. [2 H 43 (Lane); "Dallas Morning News," 11/23/63; 24 H 520; "The Men Who Killed Kennedy," 1988]. She spoke forcefully about the car almost coming to a stop and the lack of proper reaction by the Secret Service in 1993. [C-SPAN, 11/20/93, "Journalists Remember The Kennedy Assassination"; see also the 1/94 "Fourth Decade" article by Sheldon Inkol]
32) AP photographer James Altgens - "He said the President's car was proceeding at about ten miles per hour at the time [of the shooting]…Altgens stated the driver of the Presidential limousine apparently realized what had happened and speeded up toward the Stemmons Expressway." [FBI report dated 6/5/64; "Photographic Whitewash" by Harold Weisberg (1967), p. 203] "The car's driver realized what had happened and almost if by reflex speeded up toward the Stemmons Expressway." [AP dispatch, 11/22/63; "Cover-Up" by Stewart Galanor (1998), Document 28]
33) Alan Smith - "…the car was ten feet from me when a bullet hit the President in the forehead…the car went about five feet and stopped." ["Chicago Tribune," 11/23/63, p. 9; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
34) Mrs. Ruth M. Smith - confirmed that the Presidential limousine had come to a stop. [CD 206, p. 9; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97]
35) TSBD Supervisor Roy Truly - after the first shot "…I saw the President's car swerve to the left and stop somewheres down in the area…[it stopped] for a second or two or something like that…I just saw it stop." [3 H 221, 266]
36) L.P. Terry - "…The parade stopped right in front of the building [TSBD]." ["Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 26]
37) Ochus V. Campbell - after hearing shots, "he then observed the car bearing President Kennedy to slow down, a near stop, and a motorcycle policeman rushed up. Immediately following this, he observed the car rush away from the scene." [22 H 845]
38) Peggy Joyce Hawkins - she was on the front steps of the TSBD and "…estimated that the President's car was less than 50 feet away from her when he was shot, that the car slowed down almost coming to a full stop." ["Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97]
39) Billy Lovelady - "I recall that following the shooting, I ran toward the spot where President Kennedy's car had stopped." [22 H 662];
40) An unnamed witness - from his vantage point in the courthouse building, stated that, "The cavalcade stopped there and there was bedlam." ["Dallas Times Herald", 11/24/63; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97]
41) Postal Inspector Harry Holmes (from the Post Office Annex, while viewing through binoculars) - "…The car almost came to a stop, and Mrs. Kennedy pulled loose of him and crawled out over the turtleback of this Presidential car." [7 H 291]. He noticed the car pull to a halt, and Holmes thought: "They are dodging something being thrown." ["The Day Kennedy Was Shot" by Jim Bishop (1967), p. 176]
42) Peggy Burney - she stated that JFK's car had come to a stop. ["Dallas Times Herald", 11/24/63; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97.
Interestingly, during the 11/20/93 C-SPAN "Journalists Remember" conference, Vivian Castleberry of the Dallas Times Herald made the claim that her first cousin, Peggy Burney, was Abraham Zapruder's assistant "and was next to him when he shot his famous film. She called and said, 'Vivian, today I saw the President die.'"! See Sheldon Inkol's article on this conference in the January 1994 "Fourth Decade"]
43) David Broeder - "…The President's car paused momentarily, then on orders from a Secret Service agent, spurted ahead." ["Washington Evening Star", 11/23/63, p. 8]
44) Sam Holland - stated that the Presidential limousine slowed down on Elm Street. [taped interview with Holland conducted in April, 1965]
45) Maurice Orr - noted that the motorcade stopped. [Arch Kimbrough, Mary Ferrell, and Sue Fitch, "Chronology," unpublished manuscript; see also "Conspiracy" by Anthony Summers, pages 20 & 23]
46) Mrs. Herman (Billy P.) Clay - "…When I heard the second and third shots I knew someone was shooting at the President. I did not know if the President had been hit, but I knew something was wrong. At this point the car President Kenedy was in slowed and I, along with others, moved toward the President's car. As we neared the car it sped off." [22 H 641]
47) Mrs. Rose Clark - "…She noted that the President's automobile came almost to a halt following the three shots, before it picked up speed and drove away." [24 H 533]
48) Hugh Betzner - "…I looked down the street and I could see the President's car and another one and they looked like the cars were stopped…then the President's car sped on under the underpass." [19 H 467]
49) John Chism - after the shots he saw "the motorcade beginning to speed up." ["Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 29]
50) Bill Newman - after the fatal head shot "the car momentarily stopped and the driver seemed to have a radio or phone up to his ear and he seemed to be waiting on some word. Some Secret Service men reached into their car and came out with some sort of machine gun. Then the cars roared off…"; "I've maintained that they stopped. I still say they did. It was only a momentary stop, but…" ["Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 70; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 96]
"I believe Kennedy's car came to a full stop after the final shot." ["JFK: Breaking The Silence" by Bill Sloan (1993), p. 169]
"…I believe it was the passenger in the front seat [Roy Kellerman]---there were two men in the front seat---had a telephone or something to his ear and the car momentarily stopped. Now everywhere that you read about it, you don't read anything about the car stopping. And when I say "stopped" I mean very momentarily, like they hit the brakes and just a few seconds passed and then they floorboarded [sic] and accelerated on." [11/20/97 videotaped interview with Bill Law, Mark Row, & Ian Griggs, as transcribed in "November Patriots" by Connie Kritzberg & Larry Hancock (1998), p. 362]
"One of the two men in the front seat of the car had a telephone in his hand, and as I was looking back at the car covering my son, I can remember seeing the tail lights of the car, and just for a moment they hesitated and stopped, and then they floorboarded [sic] the car and shot off." ["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 96]
51) Charles Brehm - "Brehm expressed his opinion that between the first and third shots, the President's car only seemed to move some 10 or 12 feet. It seemed to him that the automobile almost came to a halt after the first shot…After the third shot, the car in which the President was riding increased its speed and went under the freeway overpass and out of sight." [22 H 837-838]
52) Mary Moorman - "She recalls that the President's automobile was moving at the time she took the second picture, and when she heard the shots, and has the impression that the car either stopped momentarily or hesistated and then drove off in a hurry." [22 H 838-839]
53) Jean Hill - "…The motorcade came to almost a halt at the time the shots rang out and I would say it [JFK's limo] was just approximately, if not - it couldn't have been in the same position, I'm sure it wasn't, but just a very, very short distance from where it had been. It [JFK's limo] was just almost stunned." [6 H 208-209; Hill's testimony on this matter was dramatized in the Oliver Stone movie "JFK" (1991): "The driver had stopped - I don't know what was wrong with that driver." See also "JFK: The Book of the Film" (1992), p. 122. Therein is referenced a March 1991 conversation with Jean Hill.]
54) James Leon Simmons - "…The car stopped or almost stopped." [2/15/69 Clay Shaw trial testimony; "Forgive My Grief Vol. III" by Penn Jones, p. 53; "High Treason" by Groden & Livingstone (1990 Berkley Edition), p. 22]
55) Norman Similas - "…The Presidential limousine had passed me and slowed down slightly." ["Liberty" Magazine, 7/15/64, p. 13; "Photographic Whitewash" by Harold Weisberg (1967), p. 233];
56) 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 President'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? [as quoted in Marrs' "Crossfire," p. 248, based off a passage from O'Donnell & Powers' book "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye"]. On page 40 of O'Donnell's book "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye," the aide reports that "Greer had been remorseful all day, feeling that he could have saved President Kenendy'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 AFB and who was stationed at Love Field before, during, and after the assassination, stated that "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 *[undated Sale letter, provided to the author by Martin Shackelford]
57) 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." [7 H 473-475]. On 11/22/88, Powers was interviewed by CBS' 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 [CBS, 11/22/88---this is a very dramatic and compelling short interview]. If that weren't enough, the ARRB's Tom Samoluk told me 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 my take on the Secret Service!
58) Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough (rode in LBJ's car) - "…When the noise of the shot was heard, the motorcade slowed to what seemed to me a complete stop (though it could have been a near stop)…After the third shot was fired, but only after the third shot was fired, the cavalcade speeded up, gained speed rapidly, and roared away to the Parkland Hospital."; "…The cars all stopped. I put in there [his affidavit], 'I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but for the protection of future Presidents, they [the Secret Service] should be trained to take off when a shot is fired." [7 H 439-440; "Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 482; see also "The Men Who Killed Kennedy," 1988: "The Secret Service in the car in front of us kind of casually looked around and were rather slow to react."]
59) 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&Elm]…I remember a sensation of enormous speed, which must have been when we took off…those poor men in the front…" [5 H 179-181] Mary Gallagher reported in her book: "She mentioned one Secret Service man who had not acted during the crucial moment, and said bitterly to me, 'He might just as well have been Miss Shaw!'" ["My Life With Jacqueline Kennedy" by Mary Barelli Gallagher (1969), p. 342---Secret Service Agent Marty Venker and Jackie biographer C. David Heymann confirm that this unnamed agent was indeed Greer ("Confessions of an Ex-Secret Service Agent", p. 25; "A Woman Called Jackie", p. 401)] Jackie also told Gallagher that "You should get yourself a good driver so that nothing ever happens to you" [Ibid., p. 351]
* William Manchester, who interviewed Greer, tells us what the driver told Jackie on 11/22/63 at Parkland Hospital: "Oh, Mrs. Kennedy, oh my God, oh my God. I didn't mean to do it[?!?!], I didn't hear[who, Kellerman?], I should have swerved the car[how about hitting the gas!], I couldn't help it[!]. Oh, Mrs. Kennedy, as soon as I saw it[?] I swerved. If only I'd seen it in time! Oh!" (Manchester, p.290). 59 witnesses (10 police officers, 7 Secret Service agents, 37 spectators, 2 Presidential aides, 1 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 seperate looks back at JFK during the assassination (Greer denied all of this to the Warren Commission-2HGREER[see his entire testimony]). 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"("The Death of a President" by William Manchester, p.160). Clearly, Greer was responsible, at fault, and felt remorse. In short, Greer had survivor's guilt.
But, then, stories and feelings changed.
Agent Greer to the FBI 11/22/63: "Greer stated that he first heard what he thought was possibly a motorcycle backfire and glanced around and noticed that the President had evidently been hit [notice that, early on, Greer admits seeing JFK, which the Zapruder proves he did two times before the fatsal head shot occurred]. He thereafter got on the radio and communicated with the other vehicles, stating that they desired to get the President to the hospital immediately [in reality, Greer did not talk on the radio, and Greer went on to deny ever saying this during his WC testimony]…Greer stated that they (the Secret Service) have always been instructed to keep the motorcade moving at a considerable speed inasmuch as a moving car offers a much more difficult target than a vehicle traveling at a very slow speed. He pointed out that on numerous occasions he has attempted to keep the car moving at a rather fast rate, but in view of the President's popularity and desire to maintain close liaison with the people, he has, on occasion, been instructed by the President to "slow down". Greer stated that he has been asking himself if there was any thing he could have done to have avoided this incident, but stated that things happened so fast that he could not account for full developments in this matter(!) [the "JFK-as-scapegoat" theme…and so much for Greer's remorse from earlier the same day!]."(Sibert & O'Neil Report, 11/22/63)
Agent Greer to the FBI 11/27/63: "…he heard a noise which sounded like a motorcycle backfire. On hearing this noise he glanced to his right toward Kellerman and out of the corner of his eye noticed that the Governor appeared to be falling toward his wife [notice that Greer now mentions nothing about seing JFK hit---he does the same thing in his undated report in the WC volumes (18 H 723)] He thereafter recalls hearing some type of outcry after which Kellerman said, "Let's get out of here." He further related that at the time of hearing the sound he was starting down an incline which passes beneath a railroad crossing and after passing under this viaduct, he closed in on the lead car and yelled to the occupants and a nearby police motorcyclist, "Hospital, Hospital! [nothing about using the radio this time out]" Thereafter follows a complete physical description of Greer, as if the FBI agents considered him a suspect, inc. age, height, and color of eyes! (Sibert & O'Neil Report, 11/29/63)
Critical excerpts from Greer's 3/9/64 Warren Commission testimony before Arlen Specter:
Mr. Specter.
Were you able to see anything of President Kennedy as you glanced to the rear?
Mr. Greer.
No, sir; I didn't see anything of the President, I didn't look, I wasn't far enough around to see the President.
Mr. Specter.
When you started that glance, are you able to recollect whether you started to glance before, exactly simultaneously with or after that second shot?
Mr. Greer.
It was almost simultaneously that he had--something had hit, you know, when I had seen him. It seemed like in the same second almost that something had hit, you know, whenever I turned around. I saw him start to fall.
Mr. Specter.
Did you step on the accelerator before, simultaneously or after Mr. Kellerman instructed you to accelerate?
Mr. Greer.
It was about simultaneously.
Mr. Specter.
So that it was your reaction to accelerate prior to the time--
Mr. Greer.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Specter.
You had gotten that instruction?
Mr. Greer.
Yes, sir; it was my reaction that caused me to accelerate.
Mr. Specter.
Do you recollect whether you accelerated before or at the same time or after the third shot?
Mr. Greer.
I couldn't really say. Just as soon as I turned my head back from the second shot, right away I accelerated right then. It was a matter of my reflexes to the accelerator.
Mr. Specter.
Was it at about that time that you heard the third shot?
Mr. Greer.
Yes, sir; just as soon as I turned my head
[…]
Mr. Specter.
To the best of your current recollection, did you notice that the President had been hit?
Mr. Greer.
No, sir; I didn't know how badly he was injured or anything other than that. I didn't know.
Mr. Specter.
Did you know at all, from the glance which you have described that he had been hit or injured in any way?
Mr. Greer.
I knew he was injured in some way, but I didn't know how bad or what.
Mr. Specter.
How did you know that?
Mr. Greer.
If I remember now, I just don't remember how I knew, but I knew we were in trouble. I knew that he was injured, but I can't remember, recollect, just how I knew there were injuries in there. I didn't know who all was hurt, even.
Mr. Specter.
Are you able to recollect whether you saw the President after the shots as you were proceeding toward Parkland Hospital?
Mr. Greer.
No; I don't remember ever seeing him any more until I got to the hospital, and he was lying across the seat, you know, and that is the first I had seen of him.
Mr. Specter.
Your best recollection is, then, that you had the impression he was injured but you couldn't ascertain the source of that information?
Mr. Greer.
Right. I couldn't ascertain the source.
Warren Commission finding: "The driver, Special Agent William R. Greer, has testified that he accelerated the car after what was probably the second shot...The Presidential car did not stop or almost come to a complete halt after the firing of the first shot or any other shots."(WC Report, page 641)
11/19/64 interview with "Death of a President" author William Manchester [RIF#180-10116-10119]---"After the second shot I glanced back. I saw blood on the Governor's white shirt, and I knew we were in trouble. The blood was coming out of his right breast. When I heard the first shot, I had thought it was a backfire. I was tramping on the accelerator and at the same time Roy was saying, let's get out of here fast."
But remember what Roy Kellerman said: "Greer then looked in the back of the car. Maybe he didn't believe me"("The Death of a President" by William Manchester, p.160).
2/28/78 HSCA interview [RIF#180-10099-10491]---"The first shot sounded to him like a backfire. He did not react to it. After the second shot he turned to his right and saw blood on Governor Connally's shirt. At the same moment he heard Kellerman say "We're hit. Let's get out of here," or words to that effect. He said he immediately accelerated and followed the pilot car to Parkland Hospital [However, DNC Advance man Jack Puterbaugh, who rode in the pilot car, said they "pulled over and let the motorcade pass" (HSCA interview 4/14/78). The Washington Post from 2/28/85 reported Greer as saying that "I just looked straight ahead at the car in which the police chief was leading our way to the hospital"---this is the lead car. Nevertheless, the Daniel film and still photos depict the limousine AHEAD of the lead car, as it appear it was the lead motorcyclists who actually guided Greer to Parkland! (see pp. 21-22 and 59 of "The Third Alternative" by the author)]
Bill Greer passed away from Cancer on 2/23/85.
The End?---
>From a 9/17/91 interview with Bill's son Richard:
When asked, "What did your father think of JFK," Richard did not respond the first time. When this author asked him a second time, he responded: "Well, we're Methodists..and JFK was Catholic..." (Bill Greer was born and raised in County Tyrone, Ireland; 2 H 112 - 113)
"My father certainly didn't blame himself; it's not one of those things - if only I was driving one mile per hour faster
"My father had absolutely no survivor's guilt...he figured that events were kind out of their control...it was pretty common knowledge that a person riding in an open car was subject to a bullet at any time..."
The End.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* - A thirty-two year old native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mr. Palamara is a graduate of Duquesne University where he earned a degree in Sociology. Although not even born when President John F. Kennedy was brutally gunned down in Dallas, Vince brings fresh eyes to an old case. In fact, Vince became totally immersed in the subject at the tender age of twelve.
However, it wasn't until 1988, the twenty-fifth anniversary of JFK's murder that Vince began to do his own thinking on the topic; it was from this point that Vince decided to do research on the Secret Service aspect of the case, an area that has received a small amount of attention, especially up to that time period. Vince would soon contact over thirty five different former agents, White House aides, and surviving family members, resulting in his first book entitled, "The Third Alternative-Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the JFK Murder," selling well over 500 copies to date and receiving favorable reviews in the "Fair Play," "Fourth Decade," Probable Cause, and "Lobster" magazines.
Since 1991, Vince has had articles published in the following journals:
1) "The Third Decade"
2) "The Fourth Decade"
3) "Investigator"
4) "BackChannels"
5) "Lobster"
6) "JFK/ Deep Politics Quarterly"
7) Kennedy Assassination Chronicles
8) Dealey Plaza UK
9) Fair Play
In addition, Vince has been credited for his research assistance in the following books on the subject:
1) "High Treason 2" (1992/1993) by H.E.L.
2) "Killing the Truth"(1993/1994) by H.E.L.
3) "High Treason" Revised (1998) by Livingstone and Groden
4) "The Complete Videography-1963 to 1992" (1993/1994) by Anthony Frewin
5) "Killing Kennedy"(1995) by H.E.L.
6) "Treachery in Dallas"(1995) by Walt Brown [9 pages total]
7) The JFK Assassination Quiz Book by Walt Brown (1995)
8) The Warren Omission(1996) by Walt Brown
9) Breach of Faith(1996) by Dr. William Truels
10) Motorcade Schematic(1993) by Todd Vaughan
11) Bloody Treason (1997/1998) by Noel Twyman [13 pages total]
12) Assassination Science (1998) by Prof. James Fetzer
13) "November Patriots" (1998) by Larry Hancock and Connie Kritzberg
14) The Final Report of the ARRB (1998)
15) "That Day In Dallas" by Richard Trask (1998)
Vince has also appeared as a speaker at the following:
* June 1991 Third Decade conference in Fredonia, New York
* March 1992 American Popular Culture conference in Louisville, Kentucky
* June 1993 Third Decade conference (Dr. Jerry Rose presented in absentia)
* October 1995 COPA conference in Washington, D.C.
[soon after appearing on New York's WBAI radio show]
* 1996 COPA conference in Washington, D.C.
* JFK Lancer conference in Dallas, Texas in Nov. 1997
[soon after appearing on KDKA radio in Pittsburgh, PA, as well as in "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"].
In this time, Vince has become known as the "Secret Service expert.
But he didn't stop there...
Not satisfied with an acclaimed first book, many journal articles, and a commanding presence on the internet, Vince set about researching and writing for his second book, "JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference." Just like with his first project, Vince went on to contact over 35 different witnesses and principals, including quite a few Parkland doctors and Bethesda technicians. The results speak for themselves: "JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference" is THE Bible on the medical evidence in the JFK assassination, with over 350 names and thousands of sources and citations!
The journey continues... - Vince Palamara, 12/98
This article has since been cited in:
"The Third Decade," 11/92
"The Fourth Decade," 11/93 and 9/97
"Proceedings of the Second Research Conference of the Third Decade, 6/18-6/20/93," pages 128 & 162
"The Proceedings of the Research Conference of the Fourth Decade," 7/19-7/21/96", p. 277
"The Third Alternative-Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the JFK Murder," 1997, pages 20 and 53
"The Puzzle Palace" Web site
"Assassination Science...," 1998, p. 274
"Bloody Treason," 1997, Z-frame 313 photo section
"November Patriots," 1998, p. 465
"High Treason," 1998 revised edition, p. 551
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-UPI's "Four Days," 1964, p. 17 - "In the right hand picture [a frame from the Muchmore film], the driver slams on the brakes and the police escort pulls up."
-"Newsweek," 12/2/63, p. 2 - "For a chaotic moment, the motorcade ground to an uncertain halt."
-"Time," 11/29/63, p. 23 - "There was a shocking momentary stillness, a frozen tableau."
-"Case Closed" by Gerald Posner, 1993, p. 234 - "Incredibly, Greer, sensing that something was wrong in the back of the car, slowed the vehicle to almost a standstill."
AND
-Gerald Posner, with Dan Rather, on CBS' "Who Killed JFK: The Final Chapter?" 11/19/93 - By turning around the second time and looking at JFK as the car slows down, Posner says that, "What he [Greer] has done is inadvertantly given Oswald the easiest of the three shots."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Houston Chronicle Reporter Bo Byers (rode in White House Press Bus) - twice stated that the Presidential Limousine "almost came to a stop, a dead stop"; in fact, he has had nightmares about this. [C-SPAN, 11/20/93, "Journalists Remember The Kennedy Assassination"; see also the 1/94 "Fourth Decade" article by Sheldon Inkol]
2) ABC Reporter Bob Clark (rode in the National Press Pool Car) - Reported on the air that the limousine stopped on Elm Street during the shooting [WFAA/ ABC, 11/22/63]
3) UPI White House Reporter Merriman Smith (rode in the same car as Clark, above) - "The President's car, possibly as much as 150 or 200 yards ahead, seemed to falter briefly..." [UPI story, 11/23/63, as reported in "Four Days", UPI, p. 32]
4) DPD motorcycle officer James W. Courson (one of two mid-motorcade motorcycles) - "The limousine came to a stop and Mrs. Kennedy was on the back. I noticed that as I came around the corner at Elm. Then the Secret Service agent [Clint Hill] helped push her back into the car, and the motorcade took off at a high rate of speed." ["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 129]
5) DPD motorcycle officer Bobby Joe Dale (one of two rear mid-motorcade motorcycles) - "After the shots were fired, the whole motorcade came to a stop. I stood and looked through the plaza, noticed there was commotion, and saw people running around his [JFK's] car. It started to move, then it slowed again; that's when I saw Mrs. Kennedy coming back on the trunk and another guy [Clint Hill] pushing her back into the car." ["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 134]
6) Clemon Earl Johnson - "You could see it [the limo] speed up and then stop, then speed up, and you could see it stop while they [sic; Clint Hill] threw Mrs. Kennedy back up in the car. Then they just left out of there like a bat of the eye and were just gone." ["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 80]
7) Malcolm Summers - "Then there was some hesitation in the caravan itself, a momentary halt, to give the Secret Service man [Clint Hill] a chance to catch up with the car and jump on. It seems to me that it started back up by the time he got to the car…"["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 104]
8) NBC reporter Robert MacNeil (rode in White House Press Bus)---"The President's driver slammed on the brakes - after the third shot…" ["The Way We Were, 1963: The Year Kennedy Was Shot" by Robert MacNeil (1988), p. 193]
9) AP photographer Henry Burroughs (rode in Camera Car #2) - "…we heard the shots and the motorcade stopped." [letter, Burroughs to Palamara, dated 10/14/98]
10) DPD Earle Brown - "…The first I noticed the [JFK's] car was when it stopped..after it made the turn and when the shots were fired, it stopped." [6 H 233]
11) DPD motorcycle officer Bobby Hargis (one of the four Presidential motorcyclists)---"…At that time [immediately before the head shot] the Presidential car slowed down. I heard somebody say 'Get going.' I felt blood hit me in the face and the Presidential car stopped almost immediately after that." [6 H 294; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71.
6/26/95 videotaped interview with Mark Oakes & Ian Griggs: "That guy (Greer) slowed down, maybe his orders was to slow down…slowed down almost to a stop." Like Posner, Hargis feels Greer gave Oswald the chance to kill Kennedy.]
12) DPD D.V. Harkness - "…I saw the first shot and the President's car slow[ed] down to almost a stop…I heard the first shot and saw the President's car almost come to a stop and some of the agents [were] piling on the car." [6 H 309]
13) DPD James Chaney (one of the four Presidential motorcyclists)---stated that the Presidential limousine stopped momentarily after the first shot (according to the testimony of Mark Lane; corroborated by the testimony of fellow DPD motorycle officer Marion Baker: Chaney told him that "…at the time, after the shooting, from the time the first shot rang out, the car stopped completely, pulled to the left and stopped…Now I have heard several of them say that, Mr. Truly was standing out there, he said it stopped. Several officers said it stopped completely." [2 H 44-45 (Lane)---refering to Chaney's statement as reported in the "Houston Chronicle" dated 11/24/63; 3 H 266 (Baker)]
14) DPD motorcycle officer B.J. Martin (one of the four Presidential motorcyclists) - saw JFK's car stop "…just for a moment." ["Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
15) DPD motorcycle officer Douglas L. Jackson (one of the four Presidential motorcyclists) - stated "…that the car just all but stopped…just a moment." ["Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
16) Texas Highway Patrolman Joe Henry Rich (drove LBJ's car) - stated that "…the motorcade came to a stop momentarily." ["Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
17) DPD J.W. Foster - stated that "…immediately after President Kennedy was struck…the car in which he was riding pulled to the curb." [CD 897, pp. 20, 21; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97]
18) Secret Service Agent Sam Kinney (driver of the follow-up car behind JFK's limo)---indicates, via his report to Chief Rowley, that Greer hit the gas after the fatal head shot to JFK and after the President's slump to the left toward Jackie. [18 H 731-732]. From the HSCA's 2/26/78 interview of Kinney: "He also remarked that 'when Greer (the driver of the Presidential limousine) looked back, his foot must have come off the accelerator'…Kinney observed that at the time of the first shot, the speed of the motorcade was '3 to 5 miles an hour.'" [RIF#180-10078-10493; author's interviews with Kinney, 1992-1994]
19) Secret Service Agent Clint Hill (follow-up car, rear of limo)---"…I jumped from the follow-up car and ran toward the Presidential automobile. I heard a second firecracker-type noise…SA Greer had, as I jumped onto the Presidential automobile, accelerated the Presidential automobile forward." [18 H 742; Nix film; "The Secret Service" and "Inside The Secret Service" videos from 1995]
20) Secret Service Agent John Ready (follow-up car) - "…I heard what sounded like fire crackers going off from my post on the right front running board. The President's car slowed…" [18 H 750]
21) Secret Service Agent Glen Bennett (follow-up car) - after the fatal head shot "the President's car immediately kicked into high gear." [18 H 760; 24 H 541-542]. During his 1/30/78 HSCA interview, Bennett said the follow-up car was moving at "10-12 m.p.h.", an indication of the pace of the motorcade on Elm Street [RIF#180-10082-10452]
22) Secret Service Agent "Lem" Johns (V.P. follow-up car) - "…I felt that if there was danger [it was] due to the slow speed of the automobile." [18 H 774]. During his 8/8/78 HSCA interview, Johns said that "Our car was moving very slowly", a further indication of the pace of the motorcade on Elm Street [RIF# 180-10074-10079; Altgens photo]
23) Secret Service Agent Winston Lawson (rode in the lead car) - "…I think it [the lead car on Elm Street] was a little further ahead [of JFK's limo] than it had been in the motorcade, because when I looked back we were further ahead." [4 H 352], an indication of the lag in the limo during the assassination.
24) Secret Service Agent William "Tim" McIntyre (follow-up car) - "He stated that Greer, driver of the Presidential limousine, accelerated after the third shot." [RIF#180-10082-10454: 1/31/78 HSCA interview]
25) Mrs. Earle "Dearie" Cabell (rode in the Mayor's car) - the motorcade "stopped dead still when the noise of the shot was heard." [7 H 487; "Accessories After the Fact" by Sylvia Meagher (1967), p. 4; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
26) Phil Willis - "…The [Presidential] party had come to a temporary halt before proceeding on to the underpass." [7 H 497; "Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 24]
27) Mrs. Phil Willis - Marilyn - after the fatal head shot, "she stated the Presidential limousine paused momentarily and then sped away under the Triple Underpass." [FBI report dated 6/19/64; "Photographic Whitewash" by Harold Weisberg (1967), p. 179]
28) Mrs. John Connally - Nellie (rode in JFK's limo) - JFK's car did not accelerate until after the fatal head shot. [4 H 147; WR 50; "Best Evidence" by David Lifton (1988), p. 122]
29) Texas Governor John Connally (rode in JFK's limo and himself a victim of the assassination) - "…After the third shot, I heard Roy Kellerman tell the driver, 'Bill, get out of line.' And then I saw him move, and I assumed he was moving a button or something on the panel of the automobile, and he said 'Get us to a hospital quick'…at about this time, we began to pull out of the cavalcade, out of line." [4 H 133; WR50; "Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 13];
30) Dallas Morning News reporter Robert Baskin (rode in the National Press Pool Car) - stated that "…the motorcade ground to a halt." ["Dallas Morning News", 11/23/63, p. 2; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
31) Dallas Morning News reporter Mary Woodward (Pillsworth) - "…Instead of speeding up the car, the car came to a halt."; she saw the President's car come to a halt after the first shot. Then, after hearing two more shots, close together, the car sped up. [2 H 43 (Lane); "Dallas Morning News," 11/23/63; 24 H 520; "The Men Who Killed Kennedy," 1988]. She spoke forcefully about the car almost coming to a stop and the lack of proper reaction by the Secret Service in 1993. [C-SPAN, 11/20/93, "Journalists Remember The Kennedy Assassination"; see also the 1/94 "Fourth Decade" article by Sheldon Inkol]
32) AP photographer James Altgens - "He said the President's car was proceeding at about ten miles per hour at the time [of the shooting]…Altgens stated the driver of the Presidential limousine apparently realized what had happened and speeded up toward the Stemmons Expressway." [FBI report dated 6/5/64; "Photographic Whitewash" by Harold Weisberg (1967), p. 203] "The car's driver realized what had happened and almost if by reflex speeded up toward the Stemmons Expressway." [AP dispatch, 11/22/63; "Cover-Up" by Stewart Galanor (1998), Document 28]
33) Alan Smith - "…the car was ten feet from me when a bullet hit the President in the forehead…the car went about five feet and stopped." ["Chicago Tribune," 11/23/63, p. 9; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 71]
34) Mrs. Ruth M. Smith - confirmed that the Presidential limousine had come to a stop. [CD 206, p. 9; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97]
35) TSBD Supervisor Roy Truly - after the first shot "…I saw the President's car swerve to the left and stop somewheres down in the area…[it stopped] for a second or two or something like that…I just saw it stop." [3 H 221, 266]
36) L.P. Terry - "…The parade stopped right in front of the building [TSBD]." ["Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 26]
37) Ochus V. Campbell - after hearing shots, "he then observed the car bearing President Kennedy to slow down, a near stop, and a motorcycle policeman rushed up. Immediately following this, he observed the car rush away from the scene." [22 H 845]
38) Peggy Joyce Hawkins - she was on the front steps of the TSBD and "…estimated that the President's car was less than 50 feet away from her when he was shot, that the car slowed down almost coming to a full stop." ["Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97]
39) Billy Lovelady - "I recall that following the shooting, I ran toward the spot where President Kennedy's car had stopped." [22 H 662];
40) An unnamed witness - from his vantage point in the courthouse building, stated that, "The cavalcade stopped there and there was bedlam." ["Dallas Times Herald", 11/24/63; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97]
41) Postal Inspector Harry Holmes (from the Post Office Annex, while viewing through binoculars) - "…The car almost came to a stop, and Mrs. Kennedy pulled loose of him and crawled out over the turtleback of this Presidential car." [7 H 291]. He noticed the car pull to a halt, and Holmes thought: "They are dodging something being thrown." ["The Day Kennedy Was Shot" by Jim Bishop (1967), p. 176]
42) Peggy Burney - she stated that JFK's car had come to a stop. ["Dallas Times Herald", 11/24/63; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 97.
Interestingly, during the 11/20/93 C-SPAN "Journalists Remember" conference, Vivian Castleberry of the Dallas Times Herald made the claim that her first cousin, Peggy Burney, was Abraham Zapruder's assistant "and was next to him when he shot his famous film. She called and said, 'Vivian, today I saw the President die.'"! See Sheldon Inkol's article on this conference in the January 1994 "Fourth Decade"]
43) David Broeder - "…The President's car paused momentarily, then on orders from a Secret Service agent, spurted ahead." ["Washington Evening Star", 11/23/63, p. 8]
44) Sam Holland - stated that the Presidential limousine slowed down on Elm Street. [taped interview with Holland conducted in April, 1965]
45) Maurice Orr - noted that the motorcade stopped. [Arch Kimbrough, Mary Ferrell, and Sue Fitch, "Chronology," unpublished manuscript; see also "Conspiracy" by Anthony Summers, pages 20 & 23]
46) Mrs. Herman (Billy P.) Clay - "…When I heard the second and third shots I knew someone was shooting at the President. I did not know if the President had been hit, but I knew something was wrong. At this point the car President Kenedy was in slowed and I, along with others, moved toward the President's car. As we neared the car it sped off." [22 H 641]
47) Mrs. Rose Clark - "…She noted that the President's automobile came almost to a halt following the three shots, before it picked up speed and drove away." [24 H 533]
48) Hugh Betzner - "…I looked down the street and I could see the President's car and another one and they looked like the cars were stopped…then the President's car sped on under the underpass." [19 H 467]
49) John Chism - after the shots he saw "the motorcade beginning to speed up." ["Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 29]
50) Bill Newman - after the fatal head shot "the car momentarily stopped and the driver seemed to have a radio or phone up to his ear and he seemed to be waiting on some word. Some Secret Service men reached into their car and came out with some sort of machine gun. Then the cars roared off…"; "I've maintained that they stopped. I still say they did. It was only a momentary stop, but…" ["Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 70; "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p. 96]
"I believe Kennedy's car came to a full stop after the final shot." ["JFK: Breaking The Silence" by Bill Sloan (1993), p. 169]
"…I believe it was the passenger in the front seat [Roy Kellerman]---there were two men in the front seat---had a telephone or something to his ear and the car momentarily stopped. Now everywhere that you read about it, you don't read anything about the car stopping. And when I say "stopped" I mean very momentarily, like they hit the brakes and just a few seconds passed and then they floorboarded [sic] and accelerated on." [11/20/97 videotaped interview with Bill Law, Mark Row, & Ian Griggs, as transcribed in "November Patriots" by Connie Kritzberg & Larry Hancock (1998), p. 362]
"One of the two men in the front seat of the car had a telephone in his hand, and as I was looking back at the car covering my son, I can remember seeing the tail lights of the car, and just for a moment they hesitated and stopped, and then they floorboarded [sic] the car and shot off." ["No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), p. 96]
51) Charles Brehm - "Brehm expressed his opinion that between the first and third shots, the President's car only seemed to move some 10 or 12 feet. It seemed to him that the automobile almost came to a halt after the first shot…After the third shot, the car in which the President was riding increased its speed and went under the freeway overpass and out of sight." [22 H 837-838]
52) Mary Moorman - "She recalls that the President's automobile was moving at the time she took the second picture, and when she heard the shots, and has the impression that the car either stopped momentarily or hesistated and then drove off in a hurry." [22 H 838-839]
53) Jean Hill - "…The motorcade came to almost a halt at the time the shots rang out and I would say it [JFK's limo] was just approximately, if not - it couldn't have been in the same position, I'm sure it wasn't, but just a very, very short distance from where it had been. It [JFK's limo] was just almost stunned." [6 H 208-209; Hill's testimony on this matter was dramatized in the Oliver Stone movie "JFK" (1991): "The driver had stopped - I don't know what was wrong with that driver." See also "JFK: The Book of the Film" (1992), p. 122. Therein is referenced a March 1991 conversation with Jean Hill.]
54) James Leon Simmons - "…The car stopped or almost stopped." [2/15/69 Clay Shaw trial testimony; "Forgive My Grief Vol. III" by Penn Jones, p. 53; "High Treason" by Groden & Livingstone (1990 Berkley Edition), p. 22]
55) Norman Similas - "…The Presidential limousine had passed me and slowed down slightly." ["Liberty" Magazine, 7/15/64, p. 13; "Photographic Whitewash" by Harold Weisberg (1967), p. 233];
56) 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 President'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? [as quoted in Marrs' "Crossfire," p. 248, based off a passage from O'Donnell & Powers' book "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye"]. On page 40 of O'Donnell's book "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye," the aide reports that "Greer had been remorseful all day, feeling that he could have saved President Kenendy'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 AFB and who was stationed at Love Field before, during, and after the assassination, stated that "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 *[undated Sale letter, provided to the author by Martin Shackelford]
57) 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." [7 H 473-475]. On 11/22/88, Powers was interviewed by CBS' 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 [CBS, 11/22/88---this is a very dramatic and compelling short interview]. If that weren't enough, the ARRB's Tom Samoluk told me 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 my take on the Secret Service!
58) Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough (rode in LBJ's car) - "…When the noise of the shot was heard, the motorcade slowed to what seemed to me a complete stop (though it could have been a near stop)…After the third shot was fired, but only after the third shot was fired, the cavalcade speeded up, gained speed rapidly, and roared away to the Parkland Hospital."; "…The cars all stopped. I put in there [his affidavit], 'I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but for the protection of future Presidents, they [the Secret Service] should be trained to take off when a shot is fired." [7 H 439-440; "Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989), p. 482; see also "The Men Who Killed Kennedy," 1988: "The Secret Service in the car in front of us kind of casually looked around and were rather slow to react."]
59) 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&Elm]…I remember a sensation of enormous speed, which must have been when we took off…those poor men in the front…" [5 H 179-181] Mary Gallagher reported in her book: "She mentioned one Secret Service man who had not acted during the crucial moment, and said bitterly to me, 'He might just as well have been Miss Shaw!'" ["My Life With Jacqueline Kennedy" by Mary Barelli Gallagher (1969), p. 342---Secret Service Agent Marty Venker and Jackie biographer C. David Heymann confirm that this unnamed agent was indeed Greer ("Confessions of an Ex-Secret Service Agent", p. 25; "A Woman Called Jackie", p. 401)] Jackie also told Gallagher that "You should get yourself a good driver so that nothing ever happens to you" [Ibid., p. 351]
* William Manchester, who interviewed Greer, tells us what the driver told Jackie on 11/22/63 at Parkland Hospital: "Oh, Mrs. Kennedy, oh my God, oh my God. I didn't mean to do it[?!?!], I didn't hear[who, Kellerman?], I should have swerved the car[how about hitting the gas!], I couldn't help it[!]. Oh, Mrs. Kennedy, as soon as I saw it[?] I swerved. If only I'd seen it in time! Oh!" (Manchester, p.290). 59 witnesses (10 police officers, 7 Secret Service agents, 37 spectators, 2 Presidential aides, 1 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 seperate looks back at JFK during the assassination (Greer denied all of this to the Warren Commission-2HGREER[see his entire testimony]). 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"("The Death of a President" by William Manchester, p.160). Clearly, Greer was responsible, at fault, and felt remorse. In short, Greer had survivor's guilt.
But, then, stories and feelings changed.
Agent Greer to the FBI 11/22/63: "Greer stated that he first heard what he thought was possibly a motorcycle backfire and glanced around and noticed that the President had evidently been hit [notice that, early on, Greer admits seeing JFK, which the Zapruder proves he did two times before the fatsal head shot occurred]. He thereafter got on the radio and communicated with the other vehicles, stating that they desired to get the President to the hospital immediately [in reality, Greer did not talk on the radio, and Greer went on to deny ever saying this during his WC testimony]…Greer stated that they (the Secret Service) have always been instructed to keep the motorcade moving at a considerable speed inasmuch as a moving car offers a much more difficult target than a vehicle traveling at a very slow speed. He pointed out that on numerous occasions he has attempted to keep the car moving at a rather fast rate, but in view of the President's popularity and desire to maintain close liaison with the people, he has, on occasion, been instructed by the President to "slow down". Greer stated that he has been asking himself if there was any thing he could have done to have avoided this incident, but stated that things happened so fast that he could not account for full developments in this matter(!) [the "JFK-as-scapegoat" theme…and so much for Greer's remorse from earlier the same day!]."(Sibert & O'Neil Report, 11/22/63)
Agent Greer to the FBI 11/27/63: "…he heard a noise which sounded like a motorcycle backfire. On hearing this noise he glanced to his right toward Kellerman and out of the corner of his eye noticed that the Governor appeared to be falling toward his wife [notice that Greer now mentions nothing about seing JFK hit---he does the same thing in his undated report in the WC volumes (18 H 723)] He thereafter recalls hearing some type of outcry after which Kellerman said, "Let's get out of here." He further related that at the time of hearing the sound he was starting down an incline which passes beneath a railroad crossing and after passing under this viaduct, he closed in on the lead car and yelled to the occupants and a nearby police motorcyclist, "Hospital, Hospital! [nothing about using the radio this time out]" Thereafter follows a complete physical description of Greer, as if the FBI agents considered him a suspect, inc. age, height, and color of eyes! (Sibert & O'Neil Report, 11/29/63)
Critical excerpts from Greer's 3/9/64 Warren Commission testimony before Arlen Specter:
Mr. Specter.
Were you able to see anything of President Kennedy as you glanced to the rear?
Mr. Greer.
No, sir; I didn't see anything of the President, I didn't look, I wasn't far enough around to see the President.
Mr. Specter.
When you started that glance, are you able to recollect whether you started to glance before, exactly simultaneously with or after that second shot?
Mr. Greer.
It was almost simultaneously that he had--something had hit, you know, when I had seen him. It seemed like in the same second almost that something had hit, you know, whenever I turned around. I saw him start to fall.
Mr. Specter.
Did you step on the accelerator before, simultaneously or after Mr. Kellerman instructed you to accelerate?
Mr. Greer.
It was about simultaneously.
Mr. Specter.
So that it was your reaction to accelerate prior to the time--
Mr. Greer.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Specter.
You had gotten that instruction?
Mr. Greer.
Yes, sir; it was my reaction that caused me to accelerate.
Mr. Specter.
Do you recollect whether you accelerated before or at the same time or after the third shot?
Mr. Greer.
I couldn't really say. Just as soon as I turned my head back from the second shot, right away I accelerated right then. It was a matter of my reflexes to the accelerator.
Mr. Specter.
Was it at about that time that you heard the third shot?
Mr. Greer.
Yes, sir; just as soon as I turned my head
[…]
Mr. Specter.
To the best of your current recollection, did you notice that the President had been hit?
Mr. Greer.
No, sir; I didn't know how badly he was injured or anything other than that. I didn't know.
Mr. Specter.
Did you know at all, from the glance which you have described that he had been hit or injured in any way?
Mr. Greer.
I knew he was injured in some way, but I didn't know how bad or what.
Mr. Specter.
How did you know that?
Mr. Greer.
If I remember now, I just don't remember how I knew, but I knew we were in trouble. I knew that he was injured, but I can't remember, recollect, just how I knew there were injuries in there. I didn't know who all was hurt, even.
Mr. Specter.
Are you able to recollect whether you saw the President after the shots as you were proceeding toward Parkland Hospital?
Mr. Greer.
No; I don't remember ever seeing him any more until I got to the hospital, and he was lying across the seat, you know, and that is the first I had seen of him.
Mr. Specter.
Your best recollection is, then, that you had the impression he was injured but you couldn't ascertain the source of that information?
Mr. Greer.
Right. I couldn't ascertain the source.
Warren Commission finding: "The driver, Special Agent William R. Greer, has testified that he accelerated the car after what was probably the second shot...The Presidential car did not stop or almost come to a complete halt after the firing of the first shot or any other shots."(WC Report, page 641)
11/19/64 interview with "Death of a President" author William Manchester [RIF#180-10116-10119]---"After the second shot I glanced back. I saw blood on the Governor's white shirt, and I knew we were in trouble. The blood was coming out of his right breast. When I heard the first shot, I had thought it was a backfire. I was tramping on the accelerator and at the same time Roy was saying, let's get out of here fast."
But remember what Roy Kellerman said: "Greer then looked in the back of the car. Maybe he didn't believe me"("The Death of a President" by William Manchester, p.160).
2/28/78 HSCA interview [RIF#180-10099-10491]---"The first shot sounded to him like a backfire. He did not react to it. After the second shot he turned to his right and saw blood on Governor Connally's shirt. At the same moment he heard Kellerman say "We're hit. Let's get out of here," or words to that effect. He said he immediately accelerated and followed the pilot car to Parkland Hospital [However, DNC Advance man Jack Puterbaugh, who rode in the pilot car, said they "pulled over and let the motorcade pass" (HSCA interview 4/14/78). The Washington Post from 2/28/85 reported Greer as saying that "I just looked straight ahead at the car in which the police chief was leading our way to the hospital"---this is the lead car. Nevertheless, the Daniel film and still photos depict the limousine AHEAD of the lead car, as it appear it was the lead motorcyclists who actually guided Greer to Parkland! (see pp. 21-22 and 59 of "The Third Alternative" by the author)]
Bill Greer passed away from Cancer on 2/23/85.
The End?---
>From a 9/17/91 interview with Bill's son Richard:
When asked, "What did your father think of JFK," Richard did not respond the first time. When this author asked him a second time, he responded: "Well, we're Methodists..and JFK was Catholic..." (Bill Greer was born and raised in County Tyrone, Ireland; 2 H 112 - 113)
"My father certainly didn't blame himself; it's not one of those things - if only I was driving one mile per hour faster
"My father had absolutely no survivor's guilt...he figured that events were kind out of their control...it was pretty common knowledge that a person riding in an open car was subject to a bullet at any time..."
The End.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* - A thirty-two year old native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mr. Palamara is a graduate of Duquesne University where he earned a degree in Sociology. Although not even born when President John F. Kennedy was brutally gunned down in Dallas, Vince brings fresh eyes to an old case. In fact, Vince became totally immersed in the subject at the tender age of twelve.
However, it wasn't until 1988, the twenty-fifth anniversary of JFK's murder that Vince began to do his own thinking on the topic; it was from this point that Vince decided to do research on the Secret Service aspect of the case, an area that has received a small amount of attention, especially up to that time period. Vince would soon contact over thirty five different former agents, White House aides, and surviving family members, resulting in his first book entitled, "The Third Alternative-Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the JFK Murder," selling well over 500 copies to date and receiving favorable reviews in the "Fair Play," "Fourth Decade," Probable Cause, and "Lobster" magazines.
Since 1991, Vince has had articles published in the following journals:
1) "The Third Decade"
2) "The Fourth Decade"
3) "Investigator"
4) "BackChannels"
5) "Lobster"
6) "JFK/ Deep Politics Quarterly"
7) Kennedy Assassination Chronicles
8) Dealey Plaza UK
9) Fair Play
In addition, Vince has been credited for his research assistance in the following books on the subject:
1) "High Treason 2" (1992/1993) by H.E.L.
2) "Killing the Truth"(1993/1994) by H.E.L.
3) "High Treason" Revised (1998) by Livingstone and Groden
4) "The Complete Videography-1963 to 1992" (1993/1994) by Anthony Frewin
5) "Killing Kennedy"(1995) by H.E.L.
6) "Treachery in Dallas"(1995) by Walt Brown [9 pages total]
7) The JFK Assassination Quiz Book by Walt Brown (1995)
8) The Warren Omission(1996) by Walt Brown
9) Breach of Faith(1996) by Dr. William Truels
10) Motorcade Schematic(1993) by Todd Vaughan
11) Bloody Treason (1997/1998) by Noel Twyman [13 pages total]
12) Assassination Science (1998) by Prof. James Fetzer
13) "November Patriots" (1998) by Larry Hancock and Connie Kritzberg
14) The Final Report of the ARRB (1998)
15) "That Day In Dallas" by Richard Trask (1998)
Vince has also appeared as a speaker at the following:
* June 1991 Third Decade conference in Fredonia, New York
* March 1992 American Popular Culture conference in Louisville, Kentucky
* June 1993 Third Decade conference (Dr. Jerry Rose presented in absentia)
* October 1995 COPA conference in Washington, D.C.
[soon after appearing on New York's WBAI radio show]
* 1996 COPA conference in Washington, D.C.
* JFK Lancer conference in Dallas, Texas in Nov. 1997
[soon after appearing on KDKA radio in Pittsburgh, PA, as well as in "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"].
In this time, Vince has become known as the "Secret Service expert.
But he didn't stop there...
Not satisfied with an acclaimed first book, many journal articles, and a commanding presence on the internet, Vince set about researching and writing for his second book, "JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference." Just like with his first project, Vince went on to contact over 35 different witnesses and principals, including quite a few Parkland doctors and Bethesda technicians. The results speak for themselves: "JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference" is THE Bible on the medical evidence in the JFK assassination, with over 350 names and thousands of sources and citations!
The journey continues... - Vince Palamara, 12/98
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Arnold J. Lau, 85, retired U.S. Secret Service agent
Obama triggers memories for former agent
Arnold Lau served five U.S. presidents
Arnold J. Lau, 85, retired U.S. Secret Service agent, served from 1952 until 1979 in field offices around the eastern United States.
Rita Borden, Special to The Chapel Hill News
CHAPEL HILL - The inauguration of President Barack Obama brought back many memories for Arnold Lau, retired assistant director of the United States Secret Service, now living in Carolina Meadows.
In his 27 years with the Service he participated in the inaugurations of five presidents: Gen. Dwight D, Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
"There's an incredible amount of research and planning that goes into providing security for such a large event," Lau said. "The men you see walking beside the president's car are just the tip of the iceberg. Every agent is involved, regardless of where they are stationed.
"While I was agent in charge of various field offices, we were constantly researching who might have an unusual interest in the president and keeping tabs on their whereabouts," he said. "At the event itself, we were stationed at posts throughout the area, usually before dawn, and usually in frigid conditions. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the time I was assigned to the inside of the parade reviewing stand!"
Lau didn't set out to become a Secret Service agent when he graduated with an education degree from Montclair State University in 1948. He taught physical education and coached high school football, basketball and baseball in New Jersey.
"After four years, I was only making $2,800 a year and I couldn't see supporting a family on that," he said. "So after I married Mary Louise Roy, a fellow teacher, I started job hunting. While walking down the street in Newark, I bumped into a fellow I'd been in the Navy with during WWII. He'd just applied to the Secret Service and1 suggested I apply, too. So I did and was appointed in 1952."
One of Lau's first assignments was in the White House where he guarded Harry Truman until Eisenhower was inaugurated.
"I'd walk at a discrete distance behind President Truman as he went from his office to his quarters," he said. "I'd also accompany him in the car when he went to play cards with his cronies."
Lau was assigned to protect Eisenhower when the president took office in 1953.
"I went everywhere with him, including to the 1955 Summit Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, for the historic meeting of President Eisenhower, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of the United Kingdom, Premier Nikolai Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France," Lau said. "We scoured every inch of Eisenhower's villa on Lake Geneva for bombs, eavesdropping devices and anything electronic."
A bittersweet moment came when Lau visited Eisenhower at Walter Reed Hospital just before he died. "Mamie was there and said, 'Ike, say hello to Mr. Lau -- he's one of the old timers.'"
Another memorable experience was on election night of 1960.
"Some of us registered at a Hyannis Port motel as 'The Savings Bond Division." As soon as it was clear that John F. Kennedy had been elected, we were authorized to move into the Kennedy compound."
"Bobby Kennedy came out and offered us a cold drink. A fellow agent requested coffee instead. Shortly, JFK himself came out with the coffee and some cake. We all really liked him, he was more of a contemporary of ours."
Kennedy was the first president inaugurated who didn't wear a hat -- and that changed the Secret Service agents' dress, too. "Up until then we all wore suits, white shirts, ties and fedoras. Now we wore whatever the president wore so we would blend in."
The assassination of President Kennedy and then Bobby Kennedy brought major changes in the Secret Service. Protection was extended to presidential and vice presidential candidates and their families. Lau, for example, was temporarily assigned to President Lyndon Johnson during the election campaign and often accompanied him to the LBJ ranch in Texas.
Lau was tapped to set up a new comprehensive training program for new recruits and experienced agents. He created dozens of new and advanced courses, developed an expanded and professionalized instructor staff, and established a Counter-Sniper team. "My early teaching experience came in handy after all," he said.
Lau ended his 27-year Secret Service career as assistant director for protective research, overseeing the vital and sensitive protective intelligence needs of the Service.
Since then the authority of the Secret Service has expanded to include the investigation of financial institution fraud, access device fraud, computer crimes, fraudulent government and commercial securities, fictitious financial instruments, telecommunications fraud, false identification and identity theft. In 2003, the Secret Service was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security where it has made nearly 29,000 criminal arrests for counterfeiting, and other financial crimes, 98 percent of which resulted in convictions.
The Laus retired to Chapel Hill from the Washington, D.C., area in 1980; their children soon followed. Their son, John Lau, a lieutenant with the Carboro Police Department, and wife Lisa live in Hillsborough. Their daughter, Nancy and husband Charles Prescott run Prescott Stone Fabricators Ltd. in Durham.
Vince Palamara
http://www.youtube.com/user/VincePalamara
3/11/09:
More links:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Vince_Palamara
http://www.encyclopediefrancaise.com/Vince_Palamara.html
Arnold Lau served five U.S. presidents
Arnold J. Lau, 85, retired U.S. Secret Service agent, served from 1952 until 1979 in field offices around the eastern United States.
Rita Borden, Special to The Chapel Hill News
CHAPEL HILL - The inauguration of President Barack Obama brought back many memories for Arnold Lau, retired assistant director of the United States Secret Service, now living in Carolina Meadows.
In his 27 years with the Service he participated in the inaugurations of five presidents: Gen. Dwight D, Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
"There's an incredible amount of research and planning that goes into providing security for such a large event," Lau said. "The men you see walking beside the president's car are just the tip of the iceberg. Every agent is involved, regardless of where they are stationed.
"While I was agent in charge of various field offices, we were constantly researching who might have an unusual interest in the president and keeping tabs on their whereabouts," he said. "At the event itself, we were stationed at posts throughout the area, usually before dawn, and usually in frigid conditions. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the time I was assigned to the inside of the parade reviewing stand!"
Lau didn't set out to become a Secret Service agent when he graduated with an education degree from Montclair State University in 1948. He taught physical education and coached high school football, basketball and baseball in New Jersey.
"After four years, I was only making $2,800 a year and I couldn't see supporting a family on that," he said. "So after I married Mary Louise Roy, a fellow teacher, I started job hunting. While walking down the street in Newark, I bumped into a fellow I'd been in the Navy with during WWII. He'd just applied to the Secret Service and1 suggested I apply, too. So I did and was appointed in 1952."
One of Lau's first assignments was in the White House where he guarded Harry Truman until Eisenhower was inaugurated.
"I'd walk at a discrete distance behind President Truman as he went from his office to his quarters," he said. "I'd also accompany him in the car when he went to play cards with his cronies."
Lau was assigned to protect Eisenhower when the president took office in 1953.
"I went everywhere with him, including to the 1955 Summit Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, for the historic meeting of President Eisenhower, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of the United Kingdom, Premier Nikolai Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France," Lau said. "We scoured every inch of Eisenhower's villa on Lake Geneva for bombs, eavesdropping devices and anything electronic."
A bittersweet moment came when Lau visited Eisenhower at Walter Reed Hospital just before he died. "Mamie was there and said, 'Ike, say hello to Mr. Lau -- he's one of the old timers.'"
Another memorable experience was on election night of 1960.
"Some of us registered at a Hyannis Port motel as 'The Savings Bond Division." As soon as it was clear that John F. Kennedy had been elected, we were authorized to move into the Kennedy compound."
"Bobby Kennedy came out and offered us a cold drink. A fellow agent requested coffee instead. Shortly, JFK himself came out with the coffee and some cake. We all really liked him, he was more of a contemporary of ours."
Kennedy was the first president inaugurated who didn't wear a hat -- and that changed the Secret Service agents' dress, too. "Up until then we all wore suits, white shirts, ties and fedoras. Now we wore whatever the president wore so we would blend in."
The assassination of President Kennedy and then Bobby Kennedy brought major changes in the Secret Service. Protection was extended to presidential and vice presidential candidates and their families. Lau, for example, was temporarily assigned to President Lyndon Johnson during the election campaign and often accompanied him to the LBJ ranch in Texas.
Lau was tapped to set up a new comprehensive training program for new recruits and experienced agents. He created dozens of new and advanced courses, developed an expanded and professionalized instructor staff, and established a Counter-Sniper team. "My early teaching experience came in handy after all," he said.
Lau ended his 27-year Secret Service career as assistant director for protective research, overseeing the vital and sensitive protective intelligence needs of the Service.
Since then the authority of the Secret Service has expanded to include the investigation of financial institution fraud, access device fraud, computer crimes, fraudulent government and commercial securities, fictitious financial instruments, telecommunications fraud, false identification and identity theft. In 2003, the Secret Service was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security where it has made nearly 29,000 criminal arrests for counterfeiting, and other financial crimes, 98 percent of which resulted in convictions.
The Laus retired to Chapel Hill from the Washington, D.C., area in 1980; their children soon followed. Their son, John Lau, a lieutenant with the Carboro Police Department, and wife Lisa live in Hillsborough. Their daughter, Nancy and husband Charles Prescott run Prescott Stone Fabricators Ltd. in Durham.
Vince Palamara
http://www.youtube.com/user/VincePalamara
3/11/09:
More links:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Vince_Palamara
http://www.encyclopediefrancaise.com/Vince_Palamara.html
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Vince Palamara: leading civilian Secret Service expert
Vince Palamara
Vince Palamara is the world's leading civilian authority on the United States Secret Service, especially with regards to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Palamara's work has appeared in over 50 books by other authors, numerous articles, countless internet articles, radio, and even on The History Channel. Palamara is currently in the process of having his book entitled Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President published.
This biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Categories: People stubs
Vince Palamara is an American author who focuses on the United States Secret Service, especially with regard to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. [1][2] He is a notable alumni of Duquesne University,[3] and a native of Bethel Park and South Park, Pennsylvania[4]
References
^ Vince Palamara booksSee, for examples, "Murder in Dealey Plaza" (2000)by Prof. James H. Fetzer, numerous, but especially page 159Murder In Dealey Plaza Publisher's Weekly wrote: "A compendium of recent thought and discovery about the Kennedy assassination, this volume makes a case for official malfeasance and against the "lone gunman" explanation...Vincent Palamara names several Secret Service agents who he believes may have been compromised...This coolly angry dismantling of the theories of the Warren commission and lone-gunman supporters like Gerald Posner will be fodder for conspiracy theorists. (Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.) ; "The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency" (2002; updated 2005)by Philip Melanson, pages 80, 87, and Bibliography Secret Service Melanson; The Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, pages xvii & 138 Final Report ARRB; "Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years" (2007) by David Talbot, pages 14, 22, and Bibliography Brothers ; "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" (2007) by Vincent Bugliosi, pages XV [page 3, endnotes disc], 146 [source notes disc], 347 [endnotes disc], 403, 404, 408, 691 [endnotes disc], 711 [endnotes disc], 998, 1242-1243, 1276, 1529 (Bibliography), 1592 (index), 1603 (index), & 1604 (index)Bugliosi JFK book, and even "Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" by the aforementioned Vincent Bugliosi (2008) Four Days by Bugliosi
^ See also episode seven of the A & E/ History Channel series "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" (TMWKK) titled "The Smoking Guns" (aired four times in November 2003; available on VHS and DVD from 11/03-4/04; still shown in the UK and on YouTube). Palamara appears in the first segment of the program and is referred to by the British narrator as "A Secret Service expert" with an accompanying title at the bottom of the picture saying the same thing Palamara on History Channel. Vincent Bugliosi refers to Palamara as a "Secret Service expert" in his 2008 book "Four Days In November", as well as on his website:Bugliosi official book website In addition, former Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden favorably mentioned Palamara's research during his November 2007 ABC News interview, as well as on his book's website:Agent Bolden official book website
^ PDF Palamara-Duquesne University alumniNotable Duquesne University Alumni
^ UK website on Palamara Palamara official MySpace page Palamara official MySpace page two
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Palamara
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Vince-Palamara
Encyclopedia > Vince Palamara
Vince Palamara is a civilian authority on the United States Secret Service, especially with regards to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Palamara's work has appeared in over 32 books by other authors, numerous articles, countless internet articles, radio, and The History Channel. Palamara is currently in the process of having his book entitled Survivor's Guilt published. USSS redirects here. ... President Kennedy, with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Texas Governor John Connally in the Presidential limousine shortly before the assassination. ... John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK or Jack Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States. ... History Channel logo. ...
Category: United States writer stubs
http://www.duq.edu/frontpages/aboutdu/magazines/DUMagWinter2004.pdf
-------------------
Vincent Palamara was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Duquesne University with a degree in Sociology.
Although not even born when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Vince brings fresh eyes to an old case. In fact, Vince would go on to study the largely overlooked actions - and inactions - of the United States Secret Service in unprecedented detail, as well as achieving a world's record in the process, having interviewed and corresponded with over seventy former agents (the House Select Committee on Assassinations had the old record of 46 with a 6 million dollar budget and supboena power from Congress), not to mention many surviving family members, White House aides, and even quite a few Parkland and Bethesda medical witnesses for a corresponding project. The result was Survivor's Guilt; The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President, a very successful self-published book that sold thousands of copies in the 1990's before becoming a free online e-book in 2006.
In addition, the aforementioned corresponding project on the John F. Kennedy assassination medical evidence, JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference, Vince's second book, although almost an afterthought to Vince's main area of research, still sold hundreds of copies and was favorably mentioned in books by William Law, R. Andrew Kiel, James Fetzer, and even Vince Bugliosi. Like his first book, Vince's medical evidence tome became a free online e-book in 2006.
All told, Vince has been favorably mentioned in over 50 JFK and Secret Service related books to date (including two whole chapters in Murder in Dealey Plaza, The Secret Service: The Hidden History Of An Enigmatic Agency by Philip Melanson, and the Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, among many others), often at length, in the bibliographies, and in the Secret Service - and even medical evidence - areas of these works.
Vince has appeared on the History Channel, local cable access television, YouTube, radio, newspapers, print journals, at national conferences, and all over the internet. Also, Vince's original research materials, or copies of said materials, are stored in the National Archives (by request under Deed Of Gift by the ARRB), the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Harvard University, the Assassination Archives and Research Center, and the Dallas Public Library.
Vince Palamara has become known (as he was dubbed by the History Channel in 2003) "the Secret Service expert." As former JFK Secret Service agent Joe Paolella proclaimed: "You seem to know a lot about the Secret Service, maybe even more than I do," while fellow JFK Secret Service agent Chuck Zboril stated: "You might be helpful to the official Secret Service historian who works out of Washington!"
http://lads.myspace.com/slides/slideshow_random.swf?u=58490370
-------------
Vince Palamara Biography (extended/ part two)
Vince Palamara is the leading civilian authority on the United States Secret Service, especially with regard to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He is a graduate of Duquesne University, and a native of Bethel Park and South Park, Pennsylvania.
Writing
Palamara's work has appeared in over 50 books by other authors, in print articles,and internet articles,YouTube, newspapers, radio, at national conferences, and The History Channel.
Palamara is currently in the process of having his book entitled Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President published, as well as continuing his role as international consultant on the actions---and inactions---of the United States Secret Service on November 22, 1963, during the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy [note: Vince Palamara is also consulted, from time to time, regarding the Secret Service's interaction with other U.S. Presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon Johnson, to name but a few, although the agents that protected President John F. Kennedy are his primary focus.
Palamara is also the author of JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference.
Music
Palamara is also an accomplished guitarist, performing in the original, progressive hard rock bands Seance, Entourage, Diamond Haze, and now Silent Choir (featured on college and foreign radio, in international fanzines and magazines, on cable access television, on the internet, and on YouTube).
http://www.youtube.com/user/VincePalamara
http://www.myspace.com/vincepalamara
http://twitter.com/vincepalamara
http://www.facebook.com/vince.palamara
http://vincepalamara.blogspot.com/
http://vincepalamarasecretservicejfk.blogspot.com/
I am in over 50 other author's books to date, including:
"RECLAIMING HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY" (2007) BY VINCE BUGLIOSI: 16 pages, inc. the disc, biblio., index, & text
"FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER" by Vincent Bugliosi (2008)
Vince Bugliosi letter to Vince Palamara dated 7/14/07:"I want you to know that I am very impressed with your research abilities and the enormous amount of work you put into your investigation of the Secret Service regarding the assassination. You are, unquestionably, the main authority on the Secret Service with regard to the assassination. I agree with you that they did not do a good job protecting the president (e.g. see p. 1443 of my book)..."
"FINAL REPORT OF THE ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD" (1998) [ALSO ONLINE] [Given to President Clinton, Trent Lott, & Newt Gingrich!]
"BROTHERS" (2007) by David Talbot
In all versions of "THE SECRET SERVICE: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AN ENIGMATIC AGENCY" (2005) BY PHILLIP H. MELANSON WITH PETER F. STEVENS--- see especially *updated and revised version with different cover*
"MURDER IN DEALEY PLAZA" (2000) BY JAMES FETZER [2 whole chapters+; favorable mention by Publisher's Weekly; Amazon.Com "best-seller"] Publisher's Weekly, 8/28/00: "A compendium of recent thought and discovery about the Kennedy assassination, this volume makes a case for official malfeasance and against the "lone gunman" explanation...Vincent Palamara names several Secret Service agents who he believes may have been compromised...This coolly angry dismantling of the theories of the Warren commission and lone-gunman supporters like Gerald Posner will be fodder for conspiracy theorists. "
Sample of my research:
Special Agent In Charge (SAIC) of White House Detail (WHD), later known as the Presidential Protective Division (PPD)---***compiled*** by Vince Palamara
The Associated Press, 7/18/98: "[Larry] Cockell is one of only 24 special agents to be in charge of the presidential protective division since it started in 1901 and is the first black to hold the job."--- SAIC's [24 from 1901 to 1999]:
1 Joseph E. Murphy (Teddy Roosevelt [1901]-Taft; became Asst. Chief in 1919 under Wilson)
2 Dick Jervis Wilson; his asst.: Col. Edmund W. Starling)
3 Col. Edmund W. Starling (1935; ASAIC: Michael F. Reilly; his own book "Starling of the White House")
4 Michael F. Reilly (1943-1946/47; had been ASAIC 1941-1943, along with Guy H. Spaman and Thomas J. Qualters; his own book "Reilly of the White House")
5 George C. Drescher (joined the Secret Service in 1919; worked in the Philadelphia, and Washington field offices; SAIC 4/12/45-5/3/46 when replaced by Rowley; 5/46: SAIC of Baltimore office; retired in 1953; Herbert Hoover Library 6/1/67; mentioned by Boring and Rowley during their Truman Library Oral Histories in 1988; deceased; nephew Earl L. Drescher became the deputy chief of the Executive Protective Service in the late 1970's)
6 James J. Rowley (1946-Sept. 1961; during late Ike into early JFK era: Behn & Campion: ASAIC; Boring, Kellerman, Stout & Roberts: ATSAIC) ; became Director 1961-1973; Secret Service training facility in Beltsville, MD named after Rowley
7 Gerald A. Behn (Sept. 1961-Jan. 1965; ASAIC's: Boring, Campion [replaced by Kellerman 10/62], and Kellerman; after 11/22/63, ASAIC's inc. Youngblood; ATSAIC's: Roberts, Godfrey, & Stout)
8 Rufus W. Youngblood (Jan. 1965; ASAIC's: Kellerman [2] + Johns & Taylor); later, became an Asst. Director
9 Thomas "Lem" Johns (Fall 1965; ASAIC: Robert H. Taylor); son later served on PPD
10 Clinton J. Hill (Approx. 1966-1968; Became SAIC of V.P. Agnew's Detail in 1969); later, bnecame an Asst. Director; on "60 Minutes" 12/75 and 11/93; "The Secret Service", 1995; "Inside The Secret Service", 1995; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; Larry King, 2006
11 Robert H. Taylor (LBJ & NIXON: 1969-Feb. 1973/Nixon; ASAIC: William L. Duncan)
12Richard E. Keiser (Feb. 1973-1978; Nixon, Ford [Keiser bore a resemblance to Ford], Carter; ASAIC: Warren "Woody" Taylor; ASAIC of V.P. Detail: David B. Grant; Ronald M. Pontius; Robert L. Kollar: was ASAIC of Ford Detail in 1978)
13John R. Simpson (Carter) later, became Director; "Inside The Secret Service", 1995
14Gerald S. Parr (Carter-Reagan; ATSAIC: Ray Shaddick; ASAIC: Robert DeProspero; SAIC of Nancy Reagan's Detail: George Opfer); "The Secret Service", 1995; "Inside The Secret Service", 1995; Larry King 1998; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; etc.
15Robert DeProspero (Reagan, Jan. 1982-approx. April 1985; pictured on pages 110, 111, 114, 122, 123, 126, & 127 of AFAUSSS book from 1991; later, became the Assistant to the Director [Simpson]; ASAIC: Joe Petro) see this wikipedia which I created: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_DeProspero
16Ray Shaddick (Reagan/ Bush)
17John W. Magaw (Bush) later, became Director
18Rich "Skip" Miller (Bush/ Clinton); later, became an Assistant Director; pictured in Petro's book and President Bill Clinton's book
19David Carpenter (Clinton) ; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
20Don Flynn (Clinton); "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
21Pat Miller (Clinton; "The Secret Service" video 1995); pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
22Lewis C. Merletti (Clinton; appears in "The Secret Service" video 1995[un-credited]); later, became Director; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
23Brian L. Stafford (Clinton); later, became Director; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
24Larry Cockell (Clinton; testified before Kenneth Starr's investigation into the Monica Lewinsky matter); later, became an Assistant Director; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; ; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
Reginald Moore (Clinton)
Nick Trotta (at least since 2004 to the present [2007]; George W. Bush)
----------------------
Vince Palamara is the world's leading civilian authority on the United States Secret Service, especially with regards to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Palamara's work has appeared in over 50 books by other authors, numerous articles, countless internet articles, radio, and even on The History Channel. Palamara is currently in the process of having his book entitled Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President published.
This biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Categories: People stubs
Vince Palamara is an American author who focuses on the United States Secret Service, especially with regard to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. [1][2] He is a notable alumni of Duquesne University,[3] and a native of Bethel Park and South Park, Pennsylvania[4]
References
^ Vince Palamara booksSee, for examples, "Murder in Dealey Plaza" (2000)by Prof. James H. Fetzer, numerous, but especially page 159Murder In Dealey Plaza Publisher's Weekly wrote: "A compendium of recent thought and discovery about the Kennedy assassination, this volume makes a case for official malfeasance and against the "lone gunman" explanation...Vincent Palamara names several Secret Service agents who he believes may have been compromised...This coolly angry dismantling of the theories of the Warren commission and lone-gunman supporters like Gerald Posner will be fodder for conspiracy theorists. (Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.) ; "The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency" (2002; updated 2005)by Philip Melanson, pages 80, 87, and Bibliography Secret Service Melanson; The Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, pages xvii & 138 Final Report ARRB; "Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years" (2007) by David Talbot, pages 14, 22, and Bibliography Brothers ; "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" (2007) by Vincent Bugliosi, pages XV [page 3, endnotes disc], 146 [source notes disc], 347 [endnotes disc], 403, 404, 408, 691 [endnotes disc], 711 [endnotes disc], 998, 1242-1243, 1276, 1529 (Bibliography), 1592 (index), 1603 (index), & 1604 (index)Bugliosi JFK book, and even "Four Days in November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" by the aforementioned Vincent Bugliosi (2008) Four Days by Bugliosi
^ See also episode seven of the A & E/ History Channel series "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" (TMWKK) titled "The Smoking Guns" (aired four times in November 2003; available on VHS and DVD from 11/03-4/04; still shown in the UK and on YouTube). Palamara appears in the first segment of the program and is referred to by the British narrator as "A Secret Service expert" with an accompanying title at the bottom of the picture saying the same thing Palamara on History Channel. Vincent Bugliosi refers to Palamara as a "Secret Service expert" in his 2008 book "Four Days In November", as well as on his website:Bugliosi official book website In addition, former Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden favorably mentioned Palamara's research during his November 2007 ABC News interview, as well as on his book's website:Agent Bolden official book website
^ PDF Palamara-Duquesne University alumniNotable Duquesne University Alumni
^ UK website on Palamara Palamara official MySpace page Palamara official MySpace page two
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Palamara
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Vince-Palamara
Encyclopedia > Vince Palamara
Vince Palamara is a civilian authority on the United States Secret Service, especially with regards to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Palamara's work has appeared in over 32 books by other authors, numerous articles, countless internet articles, radio, and The History Channel. Palamara is currently in the process of having his book entitled Survivor's Guilt published. USSS redirects here. ... President Kennedy, with his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Texas Governor John Connally in the Presidential limousine shortly before the assassination. ... John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK or Jack Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States. ... History Channel logo. ...
Category: United States writer stubs
http://www.duq.edu/frontpages/aboutdu/magazines/DUMagWinter2004.pdf
-------------------
Vincent Palamara was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Duquesne University with a degree in Sociology.
Although not even born when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Vince brings fresh eyes to an old case. In fact, Vince would go on to study the largely overlooked actions - and inactions - of the United States Secret Service in unprecedented detail, as well as achieving a world's record in the process, having interviewed and corresponded with over seventy former agents (the House Select Committee on Assassinations had the old record of 46 with a 6 million dollar budget and supboena power from Congress), not to mention many surviving family members, White House aides, and even quite a few Parkland and Bethesda medical witnesses for a corresponding project. The result was Survivor's Guilt; The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President, a very successful self-published book that sold thousands of copies in the 1990's before becoming a free online e-book in 2006.
In addition, the aforementioned corresponding project on the John F. Kennedy assassination medical evidence, JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference, Vince's second book, although almost an afterthought to Vince's main area of research, still sold hundreds of copies and was favorably mentioned in books by William Law, R. Andrew Kiel, James Fetzer, and even Vince Bugliosi. Like his first book, Vince's medical evidence tome became a free online e-book in 2006.
All told, Vince has been favorably mentioned in over 50 JFK and Secret Service related books to date (including two whole chapters in Murder in Dealey Plaza, The Secret Service: The Hidden History Of An Enigmatic Agency by Philip Melanson, and the Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, among many others), often at length, in the bibliographies, and in the Secret Service - and even medical evidence - areas of these works.
Vince has appeared on the History Channel, local cable access television, YouTube, radio, newspapers, print journals, at national conferences, and all over the internet. Also, Vince's original research materials, or copies of said materials, are stored in the National Archives (by request under Deed Of Gift by the ARRB), the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Harvard University, the Assassination Archives and Research Center, and the Dallas Public Library.
Vince Palamara has become known (as he was dubbed by the History Channel in 2003) "the Secret Service expert." As former JFK Secret Service agent Joe Paolella proclaimed: "You seem to know a lot about the Secret Service, maybe even more than I do," while fellow JFK Secret Service agent Chuck Zboril stated: "You might be helpful to the official Secret Service historian who works out of Washington!"
http://lads.myspace.com/slides/slideshow_random.swf?u=58490370
-------------
Vince Palamara Biography (extended/ part two)
Vince Palamara is the leading civilian authority on the United States Secret Service, especially with regard to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He is a graduate of Duquesne University, and a native of Bethel Park and South Park, Pennsylvania.
Writing
Palamara's work has appeared in over 50 books by other authors, in print articles,and internet articles,YouTube, newspapers, radio, at national conferences, and The History Channel.
Palamara is currently in the process of having his book entitled Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President published, as well as continuing his role as international consultant on the actions---and inactions---of the United States Secret Service on November 22, 1963, during the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy [note: Vince Palamara is also consulted, from time to time, regarding the Secret Service's interaction with other U.S. Presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon Johnson, to name but a few, although the agents that protected President John F. Kennedy are his primary focus.
Palamara is also the author of JFK: The Medical Evidence Reference.
Music
Palamara is also an accomplished guitarist, performing in the original, progressive hard rock bands Seance, Entourage, Diamond Haze, and now Silent Choir (featured on college and foreign radio, in international fanzines and magazines, on cable access television, on the internet, and on YouTube).
http://www.youtube.com/user/VincePalamara
http://www.myspace.com/vincepalamara
http://twitter.com/vincepalamara
http://www.facebook.com/vince.palamara
http://vincepalamara.blogspot.com/
http://vincepalamarasecretservicejfk.blogspot.com/
I am in over 50 other author's books to date, including:
"RECLAIMING HISTORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY" (2007) BY VINCE BUGLIOSI: 16 pages, inc. the disc, biblio., index, & text
"FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER" by Vincent Bugliosi (2008)
Vince Bugliosi letter to Vince Palamara dated 7/14/07:"I want you to know that I am very impressed with your research abilities and the enormous amount of work you put into your investigation of the Secret Service regarding the assassination. You are, unquestionably, the main authority on the Secret Service with regard to the assassination. I agree with you that they did not do a good job protecting the president (e.g. see p. 1443 of my book)..."
"FINAL REPORT OF THE ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD" (1998) [ALSO ONLINE] [Given to President Clinton, Trent Lott, & Newt Gingrich!]
"BROTHERS" (2007) by David Talbot
In all versions of "THE SECRET SERVICE: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AN ENIGMATIC AGENCY" (2005) BY PHILLIP H. MELANSON WITH PETER F. STEVENS--- see especially *updated and revised version with different cover*
"MURDER IN DEALEY PLAZA" (2000) BY JAMES FETZER [2 whole chapters+; favorable mention by Publisher's Weekly; Amazon.Com "best-seller"] Publisher's Weekly, 8/28/00: "A compendium of recent thought and discovery about the Kennedy assassination, this volume makes a case for official malfeasance and against the "lone gunman" explanation...Vincent Palamara names several Secret Service agents who he believes may have been compromised...This coolly angry dismantling of the theories of the Warren commission and lone-gunman supporters like Gerald Posner will be fodder for conspiracy theorists. "
Sample of my research:
Special Agent In Charge (SAIC) of White House Detail (WHD), later known as the Presidential Protective Division (PPD)---***compiled*** by Vince Palamara
The Associated Press, 7/18/98: "[Larry] Cockell is one of only 24 special agents to be in charge of the presidential protective division since it started in 1901 and is the first black to hold the job."--- SAIC's [24 from 1901 to 1999]:
1 Joseph E. Murphy (Teddy Roosevelt [1901]-Taft; became Asst. Chief in 1919 under Wilson)
2 Dick Jervis Wilson; his asst.: Col. Edmund W. Starling)
3 Col. Edmund W. Starling (1935; ASAIC: Michael F. Reilly; his own book "Starling of the White House")
4 Michael F. Reilly (1943-1946/47; had been ASAIC 1941-1943, along with Guy H. Spaman and Thomas J. Qualters; his own book "Reilly of the White House")
5 George C. Drescher (joined the Secret Service in 1919; worked in the Philadelphia, and Washington field offices; SAIC 4/12/45-5/3/46 when replaced by Rowley; 5/46: SAIC of Baltimore office; retired in 1953; Herbert Hoover Library 6/1/67; mentioned by Boring and Rowley during their Truman Library Oral Histories in 1988; deceased; nephew Earl L. Drescher became the deputy chief of the Executive Protective Service in the late 1970's)
6 James J. Rowley (1946-Sept. 1961; during late Ike into early JFK era: Behn & Campion: ASAIC; Boring, Kellerman, Stout & Roberts: ATSAIC) ; became Director 1961-1973; Secret Service training facility in Beltsville, MD named after Rowley
7 Gerald A. Behn (Sept. 1961-Jan. 1965; ASAIC's: Boring, Campion [replaced by Kellerman 10/62], and Kellerman; after 11/22/63, ASAIC's inc. Youngblood; ATSAIC's: Roberts, Godfrey, & Stout)
8 Rufus W. Youngblood (Jan. 1965; ASAIC's: Kellerman [2] + Johns & Taylor); later, became an Asst. Director
9 Thomas "Lem" Johns (Fall 1965; ASAIC: Robert H. Taylor); son later served on PPD
10 Clinton J. Hill (Approx. 1966-1968; Became SAIC of V.P. Agnew's Detail in 1969); later, bnecame an Asst. Director; on "60 Minutes" 12/75 and 11/93; "The Secret Service", 1995; "Inside The Secret Service", 1995; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; Larry King, 2006
11 Robert H. Taylor (LBJ & NIXON: 1969-Feb. 1973/Nixon; ASAIC: William L. Duncan)
12Richard E. Keiser (Feb. 1973-1978; Nixon, Ford [Keiser bore a resemblance to Ford], Carter; ASAIC: Warren "Woody" Taylor; ASAIC of V.P. Detail: David B. Grant; Ronald M. Pontius; Robert L. Kollar: was ASAIC of Ford Detail in 1978)
13John R. Simpson (Carter) later, became Director; "Inside The Secret Service", 1995
14Gerald S. Parr (Carter-Reagan; ATSAIC: Ray Shaddick; ASAIC: Robert DeProspero; SAIC of Nancy Reagan's Detail: George Opfer); "The Secret Service", 1995; "Inside The Secret Service", 1995; Larry King 1998; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; etc.
15Robert DeProspero (Reagan, Jan. 1982-approx. April 1985; pictured on pages 110, 111, 114, 122, 123, 126, & 127 of AFAUSSS book from 1991; later, became the Assistant to the Director [Simpson]; ASAIC: Joe Petro) see this wikipedia which I created: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_DeProspero
16Ray Shaddick (Reagan/ Bush)
17John W. Magaw (Bush) later, became Director
18Rich "Skip" Miller (Bush/ Clinton); later, became an Assistant Director; pictured in Petro's book and President Bill Clinton's book
19David Carpenter (Clinton) ; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
20Don Flynn (Clinton); "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
21Pat Miller (Clinton; "The Secret Service" video 1995); pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
22Lewis C. Merletti (Clinton; appears in "The Secret Service" video 1995[un-credited]); later, became Director; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
23Brian L. Stafford (Clinton); later, became Director; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
24Larry Cockell (Clinton; testified before Kenneth Starr's investigation into the Monica Lewinsky matter); later, became an Assistant Director; "Inside The U.S. Secret Service", 2004; ; pictured in President Bill Clinton's book
Reginald Moore (Clinton)
Nick Trotta (at least since 2004 to the present [2007]; George W. Bush)
----------------------
Labels:
11/22/63,
2010,
AFAUSSS,
Behn,
bill greer,
Clint Hill,
floyd boring,
google,
jerry behn,
jerry blaine,
JFK,
Kennedy,
lbj,
secret service blaine,
Survivor's Guilt,
White House Detail
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)