MY SIXTH BOOK "THE PLOT TO KILL PRESIDENT KENNEDY IN CHICAGO" 2024

MY SIXTH BOOK "THE PLOT TO KILL PRESIDENT KENNEDY IN CHICAGO" 2024
MY SIXTH BOOK "THE PLOT TO KILL PRESIDENT KENNEDY IN CHICAGO" 2024

JFK ASSASSINATION SECRET SERVICE DOCUMENTARY

MAJOR SECRET SERVICE RELATED BOOKS/DVDs/BLU RAYS I AM REFERENCED IN

MAJOR SECRET SERVICE RELATED BOOKS/DVDs/BLU RAYS I AM REFERENCED IN
Zero Fail (quotes from my fourth book), The updated version of The Secret Service-The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency (several pages), The Secrets of the Secret Service (the former agent quotes from my third book), The Kennedy Detail (the former agent refers to me on a few pages- he wrote his book as a reaction to my research), Guardians of Democracy (the former agent refers to this blog), Within Arm’s Length (the former agent has my blurb on the cover), C-SPAN November 2010 DVD with former agents Gerald Blaine and Clint Hill (they show a You Tube video of me and discuss my research), C-SPAN May 2012 DVD with former agent Clint Hill (he discusses my letter about his first book), the original edition of The Secret Service-The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency (several pages), My History Channel appearance on The Men Who Killed Kennedy (DVD), My NEWSMAX TV appearance on The Men Who Killed Kennedy (2019-2020), The Final Report of the Assassinations Records Review Board (images of the excerpt about my Secret Service interviews donation, President Clinton receiving the report, and an image of the cover), Last Word (several pages and my blurb on the cover of the paperback), A Coup in Camelot DVD/ Blu Ray, They Killed Our President (16 pages refer to my work), an image of myself on C-SPAN, A Coup in Camelot via Amazon Prime television, The Man Behind the Suit DVD (I am Associate Producer on this documentary about former agent Robert DeProspero), JFK REVISITED: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (I am credited at the end), Vanity Fair article 10/17/14 (refers to my first book a couple times), JFK: The Final Hours DVD (program credits-in background slightly above), Murder in Dealey Plaza (I have two chapters), The Kennedy Half Century (refers to this blog), Coinage Magazine February 2010 (several quotes from myself), Publishers Weekly 8/28/2000 (refers to my contribution to Murder in Dealey Plaza, above), JFK: DESTINY BETRAYED (thanked at the end of all four episodes), and 2 images from THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK SBS UK DOCUMENTARY 2021

ALL MY BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE:

ALL MY BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE:
ALL MY BOOKS AVAILABLE HERE:

Secret Service JFK

Secret Service, JFK, President Kennedy, James Rowley, Gerald Behn, Floyd Boring, Roy Kellerman, John Campion, William Greer, Forest Sorrels, Clint Hill, Winston Lawson, Emory Roberts, Sam Kinney, Paul Landis, John "Jack" Ready, William "Tim" McIntyre, Glenn Bennett, George Hickey, Rufus Youngblood, Warren "Woody" Taylor, Jerry Kivett, Lem Johns, John "Muggsy" O'Leary, Sam Sulliman, Ernest Olsson, Robert Steuart, Richard Johnsen, Stewart "Stu" Stout, Roger Warner, Henry "Hank" Rybka, Donald Lawton, Dennis Halterman, Walt Coughlin, Andy Berger, Ron Pontius, Bert de Freese, Jim Goodenough, Bill Duncan, Ned Hall II, Mike Howard, Art Godfrey, Gerald Blaine, Ken Giannoules, Paul Burns, Gerald O'Rourke, Robert Faison, David Grant, John Joe Howlett, Bill Payne, Robert Burke, Frank Yeager, Donald Bendickson, Gerald Bechtle, Howard Norton, Hamilton Brown, Toby Chandler, Chuck Zboril, Joe Paolella, Wade Rodham, Bob Foster, Lynn Meredith, Rad Jones, Thomas Wells, Charlie Kunkel, Stu Knight, Paul Rundle, Glen Weaver, Arnie Lau, Forrest Guthrie, Eve Dempsher, Bob Lilley, Ken Wiesman, Mike Mastrovito, Tony Sherman, Larry Newman, Morgan Gies, Tom Shipman, Ed Tucker, Harvey Henderson, Abe Bolden, Robert Kollar, Ed Mougin, Mac Sweazey, Horace "Harry" Gibbs, Tom Behl, Jim Cantrell, Bill Straughn, Tom Fridley, Mike Kelly, Joe Noonan, Gayle Dobish, Earl Moore, Arthur Blake, John Lardner, Milt Wilhite, Bill Skiles, Louis Mayo, Thomas Wooge, Milt Scheuerman, Talmadge Bailey, Bob Lapham, Bob Newbrand, Bernie Mullady, Jerry Dolan, Vince Mroz, William Bacherman, Howard Anderson, U.E. Baughman, Walt Blaschak, Robert Bouck, George Chaney, William Davis, Paul Doster, Dick Flohr, Jack Fox, John Giuffre, Jim Griffith, Jack Holtzhauer, Andy Hutch, Jim Jeffries, John Paul Jones, Kent Jordan, Dale Keaner, Brooks Keller, Thomas Kelley, Clarence Knetsch, Jackson Krill, Elmer Lawrence, Bill Livingood, J. Leroy Lewis, Dick Metzinger, Jerry McCann, John McCarthy, Ed Morey, Chester Miller, Roy "Gene" Nunn, Jack Parker, Paul Paterni, Burrill Peterson, Max Phillips, Walter Pine, Michael Shannon, Frank Stoner, Cecil Taylor, Charles Taylor, Bob Taylor, Elliot Thacker, Ken Thompson, Mike Torina, Jack Walsh, Jack Warner, Thomas White, Ed Wildy, Carroll Winslow, Dale Wunderlich, Walter Young, Winston Gintz, Bill Carter, C. Douglas Dillon, James Johnson, Larry Hess, Frank Farnsworth, Jim Giovanneti,Bob Gaugh,Don Brett, Jack Gleason, Bob Jamison, Gary Seale, Bill Sherlock, Bob Till, Doc Walters...

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

ANOTHER bad review of Blaine's book

2.0 out of 5 stars Bit of a bore, June 25, 2012


This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
I didn't find this book to be a particularly great read and thats possibly my own fault as the previous three books I have read which involved Pres. Kennedy, Frederick Kempes "Berlin 1961", Jim Rasenbergers "The Brilliant Disaster" and Michael Dobbs "One Minute To Midnight", are, although completely different topics, brilliantly written and accurate historical accounts.

This book claims that the agents "Break Their Silence!!" in that they have not spoken since 1963, as if the Warren Commission, various interviews, and several other books never happened in the intervening years.

Some of the quotations from the agents regarding various conversations from 1963 are recorded here in an almost childish manner.
Like regarding a motorcade in Florida where Blaine asks another agent "If you've got any connection with the man upstairs we'd love to have it be pouring with rain next Monday".
To which Agent Peppers laughed saying I'll see what I can do. But remember this is Florida the sunshine state. I wouldn't count on it". In other words the Agents had their heads screwed on when it came to Kennedy's car either having or not having the hardtop raised, just to let the reader know.

Or "Hey Jer, Arnie gave me the name of a good Cuban restaurant not too far from here. Are you up for some local culture?" 'Sure that sounds super" Blaine said. "I just realized I didn't have lunch".

The chapter on Dallas doesn't really reveal any new information or revealing facts that hasn't been recorded a million times before.

The whole book is littered with bland verbal interactions between agents like how tired they were or how hot or cold the weather was. They were thinly stretched, they had to pay for their own suits and it just wasn't fair. Kenny O'Donnell and Dave Powers had them running everywhere.

If you can borrow this from your library like I did, fine but I wouldn't pay $13 bucks for it or 28 when it came out originally.

Monday, June 25, 2012

LEM JOHNS

A life of Secret Service

By RICK WATSON
Inverness resident and former Secret Service agent Lem Johns holds a photo of himself standing behind President Lyndon Johnson and Jacqueline Kennedy as Johnson took the oath of office following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Photo by Rick Watson.
On November 22, 1963, four shots rang out at Daley Plaza in Dallas, the shots that were heard around the world.
Former Secret Service agent Lem Johns of Inverness remembers all too well where he was on that fateful day – less than 150 feet behind John F. Kennedy’s Lincoln Limosine.
“I was in the right rear seat of the car following the vice president’s limo, and I heard a shot that came from the right,” he said. Johns was riding in the third car in the motorcade with his door cracked, and the instant he heard the shot, he bolted from the vehicle and raced toward Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson’s limo.
Johns’ primary responsibility was protecting Johnson, and he needed to be in the car with him.
Film taken at the time of the assassination showed that Johns and his boss Rufus Youngblood both reacted instantly to protect the vice president when the first shot was fired.
But even with the lightning reflexes of the Secret Service, it was too late for Kennedy, the target of the bullet.
In a historic photograph taken later that evening, Lem Johns stands just behind Jacqueline Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson on Air Force One as he took the oath of office to become the thirty-sixth president of the United States.
After the assassination, Johns continued his role as Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAIC) but his duty station moved to the White House. He already had experience in the White House protecting President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the late 1950s.
“Being in the White House with Eisenhower gave me a chance to learn how things were done there,” said Johns.
The Secret Service had been understaffed for years, but after the Kennedy assassination, the organization ramped up its protection of high-level government officials as well as candidates for the presidency.
As the role of the Secret Service expanded, Johns became ASAIC for not only the presidential detail but for all the Secret Service. His role as ASAIC put him in a position to implement a number of initiatives that helped the Service to be more effective.
For example, he made presidential drivers and mechanics part of the Service. The drivers helped with advance team preparation whenever the president traveled. Johns also upgraded the weapons used by agents and acquired a bulletproof limousine, even though the president was hesitant to approve the expenditure.
During Johns’ time at the White House, President Johnson ushered a law through Congress that gave the Secret Service more power to coordinate with the military and other security organizations. Once enacted, the law was useful when the Service needed additional resources.
Another example of Johns’ creative problem solving came during the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami. The Secret Service needed 500 rooms to house the agents necessary to provide security for the convention. He soon learned there were so many candidates, delegates and media personnel at the event that there were no rooms available for the Secret Service.
Johns phoned the Joint Chiefs of Staff and requisitioned a naval ship to serve as lodging for agents. The ship was in dry dock in Norfolk, Va., undergoing renovation, but it was the only ship large enough to fit the bill.
“I asked them to double the work crews and complete the renovations on the voyage to Miami,” he remembered. And his strategy worked.
Hoover-based filmmaker John Jenkins took interest in Johns’ remarkable experience with the Secret Service and recently produced a documentary about his life that aired on Alabama Public Television.
Still, his life was not all the glamour worthy of films. Civil unrest of the 1960s made the job of the Secret Service even more stressful. There were a lot of divorces because of the demands on the agents, according to Johns.
“I always said, being an agent requires a team of two: the agent and his wife,” he said.
Johns and his wife, Nita, have been married 65 years, and his service must have made an impression on his family. His son, Jeff, became a Secret Service agent for Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and his grandson Michael has served as a Secret Service agent for the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.
Perhaps they were inspired by how Johns never regretted the stress and risks in his work.
“At any given moment, an agent is a foot away from history, but I’ve always considered it a great honor to serve.”

Friday, June 22, 2012

THIS information will be distributed to EVERY theatre that screens Blaine’s propaganda movie “The Kennedy Detail”


THIS information will be distributed to EVERY theatre that screens Blaine’s propaganda movie “The Kennedy Detail”



I have a veritable army of friends, researchers, and like-minded people, many of whom have volunteered to pass out the following information to any/ all theatre patrons who pay money to see “The Kennedy Detail”. These men have made huge sums of money for their failure to protect JFK–now they BLAME him for his own death! As I have for many years, I will continue to fight this false history. Sorry for the repetition, but I have found people have to be bombarded with (often the same or similar) information before they respond and/ or understand that the information IS available (i.e. I get alot of requests for my online book…yet it is easy to find via a simple online search!). Here we go:






JFK did NOT order the agents off his limousine




1)-2) Secret Service Chiefs James J. Rowley (former SAIC) and Urbanus E. “U.E.” Baughman—Rowley told the Warren Commission: “No President will tell the Secret Service what they can or cannot do.” Even President Truman agreed, stating: “the Secret Service was the only boss that the President of the United States really had.” Apparently, Rowley thought the agents DID ride on the rear of the limousine throughout the motorcade, for he added: “…the men at some point came back to this [follow-up] car.”Rowley told the JFK Library in 1976: “…you could talk to them [JFK’s staff]…It made for a very happy relationship.”

Rowley’s predecessor, former Chief U.E. Baughman, who had served under JFK from Election Night 1960 until Sept. 1961, had written in his 1962 book “Secret Service Chief”: “Now the Chief of the Secret Service is legally empowered to countermand a decision made by anybody in this country if it might endanger the life or limb of the Chief Executive. This means I could veto a decision of the President himself if I decided it would be dangerous not to. The President of course knew this fact.” Indeed, an AP story from 11/15/63 stated: “The (Secret) Service can overrule even the President where his personal security is involved.” To the point, when Baughman was asked by U.S. News & World report on 12/23/63 about the Service’s protective efforts inDallas, he said: “I can’t understand why Mrs. Kennedy had to climb over the back of the car, as she did, to get help…[this matter] should be resolved.” Apparently, Baughman was puzzled by the lack of agents on or near the rear of the limousine;

3) SAIC GERALD BEHN: “I don’t remember Kennedy ever saying that he didn’t want anybody on the back of his car.” Behn further stated: “I think if you watch the newsreel pictures you’ll find agents on there from time to time.” ;

4) ASAIC FLOYD BORING: “He actually – No, I told them…He didn’t tell them anything…He just – I looked at the back and I seen these fellahs were hanging on the limousine – I told them to return to the car…[JFK] was a very easy-going guy…he didn’t interfere with our actions at all. I never told him [William Manchester] that…No, no, no-that’s not true……Well that’s not true. That’s not true. He was a very nice man; he never interfered with us at all…President Kennedy was a very congenial man knowing most agents by their first name. He was very cooperative with the Secret Service, and well liked and admired by all of us.” To the JFK Library: “…of all the administrations I worked with, the president and the people surrounding the president were very gracious and were very cooperative. As a matter of fact, you can’t do this type of security work without cooperation of the people surrounding the president…” On 9/18/96, by request of the author, the ARRB’s Doug Horne interviewed Mr. Boring regarding this matter. Horne wrote: “Mr. Boring was asked to read pages 136-137 of Clint Hill’s Warren Commission testimony, in which Clint Hill recounted that Floyd Boring had told him just days prior to the assassination that during the President’s Tampa trip on Monday, 11/18/63, JFK had requested that agents not ride on the rear steps of the limousine, and that Boring had also so informed other agents of the White House detail, and that as a result, agents in Dallas (except Clint Hill, on brief occasions) did not ride on the rear steps of the limousine. MR BORING AFFIRMED THAT HE DID MAKE THESE STATEMENTS TO CLINT HILL, BUT STATED THAT HE WAS NOT RELAYING A POLICY CHANGE, BUT RATHER SIMPLY TELLING AN ANECDOTE ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S KINDNESS AND CONSIDERATION IN TAMPA IN NOT WANTING AGENTS TO HAVE TO RIDE ON THE REAR OF THE LINCOLN LIMOUSINE WHEN IT WAS NOT NECESSARY TO DO SO BECAUSE OF A LACK OF CROWDS ALONG THE STREET.” (see Hill, below)

[Note: the other ASAICs, John Campion and Roy H Kellerman, died many years ago and never went on the record regarding this matter. That said, Roy's widow, the late June Kellerman (deceased 2006), wrote to me: "Roy did not say JFK was difficult to protect."]

5) ATSAIC (SHIFT LEADER) Arthur L. Godfrey (on the TX trip): “That’s a bunch of baloney; that’s not true. He never ordered us to do anything. He was a very nice man…cooperative.” Godfrey reiterated this at a later date. Asked if whether Aide Ken O’Donnell did any similar ordering, Godfrey said emphatically: “He did not order anyone around.” “All I can speak for is myself. When I was working [with] President Kennedy he never ask [ed] me to have my shift leave the limo when we [were] working it” ;

[NOTE: the other 2 ATSAICs, Emory Roberts and Stu Stout, died in the 1970's and never went on record. Roberts DID submit a report on the matter, ATSAIC (Shift Leader) Emory Roberts one-page report (dated 4/10/64, the second one submitted to Rowley and finally on Treasury Department letterhead) deals exclusively with the Tampa FL trip of 11/18/63 and states nothing other than confirmation that he heard ASAIC Boring tell him, via radio, to get the agents off the back of JFK’s car; nothing about the President’s alleged wishes or anything else. From an evidentiary standpoint, moot and useless. Roberts was a “good soldier”: he ordered an agent back from JFK’s limo at Love Field (as this author discovered back in 1991 and had popularized for the first time back in 1995 and, again, in 2003 on The History Channel, long before this clip became something of an internet sensation), recalled an agent during the shooting and, as Sam Kinney told me, ordered the men on the follow-up car not to move! So, needless to say, like Boring, I am suspicious of Mr. Roberts (deceased 1973). Stout’s son, Stu Stout III, wrote to me on 11/1/10: “Vince. Thought I would mention that one of the influential people that attended the advance planning meetings for the Dallas trip was the Mayor of Dallas in 63 and I think it was Earle Cabell or Eric? Doesn’t really matter. I distinctly ...remember during a conversation at the dinner table weeks following (that surreal day), my father telling my mother that "the Mayor thought agents riding on the back of the car (which was common protocol) would send a message and did not want his city to appear dangerous to the world though the media. He asked for subtle security exposure if and where possible."On that day only two individuals would have been able to direct such an order and that would have been the President himself or Floyd Boring SAIC. In my opinion, and you know about opinions, if you find out who else was in that chain of command "during that moment" you will be able to rationally determine why the agents jumped down for a portion of that politically motivated route through the city. Take care Vince and please don’t give up.”]

6) Winston G. Lawson, WHD (lead) advance agent for the Dallas trip (rode in the lead car): “I do not know of any standing orders for the agents to stay off the back of the car. After all, foot holds and handholds were built into that particular vehicle. I am sure it would have been on a “case by case” basis depending on event, intelligence, threats, etc. Jerry Behn as Special Agent in Charge of the White House Detail…would have been privy to that type of info more than I [see above]. However, it never came to my attention as such. I am certain agents were on the back on certain occasions.”;

7) Robert I. Bouck, SAIC of PRS: Bouck confirmed to the author that having agents on the back of the limousine depended on factors independent of any alleged Presidential “requests”: “Many times there were agents on his car.” The ARRB’s Doug Horne questioned Bouck: “Did you ever hear the President personally say that he didn’t want agents to stand on the running boards on his car, or did you hear that from other agents?” Bouck: “I never heard the President say that personally. I heard that from other agents (emphasis added).” The former agent also told the ARRB that JFK was the “most congenial” of all the presidents he had observed (Bouck served from FDR to LBJ).;

8) Rufus W. Youngblood, (A)SAIC of LBJ Detail (in LBJ’s car in Dallas) : “There was not a standing order” from JFK to restrict agents from the back of the limousine – the agents had “assigned posts and positions” on the back of the President’s car. “President Kennedy wasn’t a hard ass…he never said anything like that [re: removing agents from limo and the like]. As a historian, he [Manchester] flunked the course—don’t readManchester.” Youngblood knows of what he speaks: he was interviewed by Manchester on 11/17/64.;

9) SA Robert E. Lilley, WHD: “Oh, I’m sure he [JFK] didn’t [order agents off his car, agreeing with Behn, above]. He was very cooperative with us once he became President. He was extremely cooperative. Basically, ‘whatever you guys want is the way it will be’.” In interviews and correspondence on four separate occasions, Lilley reiterated this view. Lilley also refuted the Bishop and Manchester accounts, adding that, as an example, on a trip with JFK in Caracas, Venezuela, he and “Roy Kellerman rode on the back of the limousine all the way to the Presidential palace” at speeds reaching “50 miles per hour.”;

10) Samuel A. Kinney, WHD (drove the follow-up car in FL, TX, and many other trips):“That is absolutely, positively false…no, no, no: he had nothing to do with that [ordering agents off the rear of the limousine]…No, never-the agents say, ‘O.K., men, fall back on your posts’…President Kennedy was one of the easiest presidents to ever protect; Harry S. Truman was a jewel just like John F. Kennedy was…99% of the agents would agree…(JFK) was one of the best presidents ever to control-he trusted every one of us.” In regard to the infamous quote from William Manchester, Kinney said, “That is false. I talked to William Manchester; he called me on the book…for the record of history that is false – Kennedy never ordered us to do anything. I am aware of what is being said but that is false” Finally, just to nail down this issue, the author asked Kinney if an exception was made on 11/22/63: “Not this particular time, no. Not in this case”. Kinney also told the author that Ken O’Donnell did not interfere with the agents: “Nobody ordered anyone around.”;

11) Samuel E. Sulliman, WHD (On Texas trip, in Dallas, at the Trade Mart): Said that agents were on the back of the limousine a lot; in fact, he remembered riding there on the trips to Ireland and Germany. When told of Art Godfrey’s comments on the matter (see above), the former agent agreed with his colleague. Regarding the notion that JFK ordered the agents off the car, Sulliman told the author twice: “I don’t think so.” Sulliman also said that JFK was “easy to get along with.”;

12) Gerald W. “Jerry” O’Rourke, WHD (on Texas trip): ”To my knowledge President Kennedy never ordered us to leave the limo. President Kennedy was easy to protect as he completely trusted the agents of the Secret Service. We always had to be entirely honest with him and up front so we did not lose his trust.”;

13) J. Walter Coughlin, WHD (on Texas trip): “In almost all parade situations that I was involved w [ith] we rode or walked the limo… We often rode on the back of the car... The rear steps [of the limousine] were very adaquete [sic] for safety… [JFK was] Very funny and very friendly. Knew all the agents by first name.” When I asked him if he thought William Manchester and others took “poetic license” on this matter?” Coughlin responded: “Yes I do.”;

14) Vincent P. Mroz, WHD: President Kennedy was “friendly, congenial—he was really easy to get along with…just like Truman.” When asked, point blank, if JFK had ever ordered the agents off the car, Mroz said forcefully: “No, no—that’s not true.” When asked a second time, the former agent responded with equal conviction: “He did not order anybody off the car.”;

15) Frank G. Stoner, PRS: said that Manchester was “probably trying to sell books” when he suggested that Kennedy ordered the agents off the back of the limousine. In fact, the former agent laughed at the mere suggestion. Stoner also agreed with several of his colleagues that JFK was “very personable”: “He was an old Navy man. He understood security. He wouldn’t have ordered them off the car.”;

16) Larry Newman, WHD: Said that there was “no policy” regarding the use of agents on the rear of Kennedy’s car, further adding that the question was “hard to answer: it depends on the crowd, the threat assessment, and so forth. There was not a consistent rule of thumb.” Newman phoned the author unexpectedly later to say that “there was not a directive, per se” from President Kennedy to remove the agents from their positions on the back of his limousine;

17) J. Frank Yeager, WHD (on Texas trip): “I did not think that President Kennedy was particularly “difficult” to protect. In fact, I thought that his personality made it easier than some because he was easy to get along with… I know of no “order” directly from President Kennedy”;

18) Gerald S. Blaine, WHD (on Texas trip): President Kennedy was “very cooperative. He didn’t interfere with our actions. President Kennedy was very likeable—he never had a harsh word for anyone. He never interfered with our actions. Said it was a “fairly common” occurrence to have agents on the rear of the limo and that it depended on the crowd and the speed of the cars. Said the remark “Ivy League charlatans” came “from the guys…I can’t remember who [said it]…I can’t remember (emphasis added).”Thus, Blaine confirms that he did not hear the remark from JFK. He also added that the lack of agents on the rear of the car “had no impact,” adding: “Well, maybe a hesitation.”

On the issue of JFK being cooperative with the Secret Service, former agents James Goodenough (Texas trip), Jerry Kivett (LBJ Detail, Dallas), and Radford Jones cooroborated Blaine, Godfrey, Boring and the others—Goodenough: “President Kennedy was a pleasant and cooperative person to work for”; Kivett: “[JFK] was beloved by those agents on the detail and I never heard anyone say that he was difficult to protect”; Jones: “JFK was an easy President to protect and no different from other Presidents in wanting to mingle and be close to people … The President was always considerate of the agents and spoke with them. He kept us informed of his travels, etc. I would say he was no more difficult to protect than any other President.”;

19) Donald J. Lawton, WHD; rode on rear of limousine 3/23/63 (Chicago) & 11/18/63 (Tampa); relegated to airport duty 11/22/63: “It’s the way Sam said, yes” (Meaning, he agrees with Kinney, it happened the way Kinney said). Asked to explain how he dismounted the rear of the limousine in Tampa, Lawton said: ” I didn’t hear the President say it, no. ” JFK was “very personable…very warm”. Asked about the tragedy in Dallas, Lawton said, “Everyone felt bad. It was our job to protect the President. You still have regrets, remorse. Who knows, if they had left guys on the back of the car…you can hindsight yourself to death.” Lawton later wrote: “If you spoke with Bob Lilley as you stated then you can take whatever information he passed on to you as gospel [see Lilley’s comments, above];

20) Clinton J. Hill, WHD: [from his written report (18 H 809)] “I…never personally was requested by President John F. Kennedy not to ride on the rear of the Presidential automobile. I did receive information passed verbally from the administrative offices of the White House Detail of the Secret Service to Agents assigned to that Detail that President Kennedy had made such requests. I do not know from whom I received this information. It was general knowledge on the White House Detail, however [VMP- in his 2012 book, page 271, he writes: "I had never heard the president ever question procedural recommendations by his Secret Service detail"!]…No written instructions regarding this were ever distributed…(I) received this information after the Presidents return to Washington, D. C. This would have been between November 19,1963 and November 21, 1963 [note the time frame!]. I do not know specifically who advised me of this request by the President.” However, Hill DID reveal the specific source to the Warren Commission’s Arlen Specter- Floyd Boring! Specter: “What are the standard regulations and practices, if any, governing such an action on your part?” Hill: “It is left to the agent’s discretion…”Specter: “Are those practices specified in any written documents of the Secret Service?” Hill: “No, they are not.”Specter: “And to whom did the President make that request?”Hill: “Assistant Special Agent in Charge Boring.” Specter: “And Special Agent Boring informed you of that instruction by President Kennedy?”Hill: “Yes sir, he did.” Specter: “Did he make it a point to inform other special agents of that same instruction?” Hill: “I believe that he did, sir.” However, as Boring told the ARRB (above): “HE WAS NOT RELAYING A POLICY CHANGE, BUT RATHER SIMPLY TELLING AN ANECDOTE ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S KINDNESS AND CONSIDERATION IN TAMPA IN NOT WANTING AGENTS TO HAVE TO RIDE ON THE REAR OF THE LINCOLN LIMOUSINE WHEN IT WAS NOT NECESSARY TO DO SO BECAUSE OF A LACK OF CROWDS ALONG THE STREET”!;

21) Darwin David Horn, Sr. (Secret Service, Los Angeles office; former WHD agent; served in the agency from 1951 to 1981): “You asked about Kennedy. I have worked him primarily in Los Angeles on several occasions …and never heard him tell the agents to get off of the car. It is possible. You will have to ask some of the other agents who worked him full time. [Art] Godfrey would have been perfect but he passed away some time ago.” See Godfrey’s comments, above. Horn later wrote the author: “Agents on the rear of JFK’s car might have made a difference. They may have been hit instead of the President. That would have been all right with all of us. Agents normally would have been on the sides [of the car].”;

22) Maurice G. Martineau, SAIC of Chicago office: Martineau joined his colleagues in refuting the Manchester story that JFK ordered the agents off the rear of the car. Martineau said this to the author in two telephonic interviews on 9/21/93 and 6/7/96, respectively;

23) Abraham W. Bolden, Sr.: In reference to Kennedy’s alleged “requests”, Mr. Bolden told the author on numerous occasions in 1993-1996 that he “didn’t hear anything about that…I never believed that Kennedy said that [ordering removal of agents]”. Bolden, an ardent critic of the agency’s lax protection since 1963, also wrote the author: “No-one could have killed our President without the shots of omission fired by the Secret Service. Observe the feet of [four] Secret Service agents glued to the running boards of the follow-up car as bullets [sic?] pierce the brain of our President!!!” (In addition to being a WHD agent on temporary assignment in 1961, as well as a Chicago Office agent afterwards, Bolden saw action on the 3/23/63 and (cancelled) 11/2/63 trips to Chicago);

24) John F. Norris, Uniformed Division of the Secret Service: On 3/4/94, in an interview with the author, Norris also joined his colleagues in refuting the notion that JFK ordered the agents off the rear of the limo: “I would doubt that very much,” Norris said.;

25) Lynn S. Meredith (WHD, “Kiddie Detail”/ Kennedy Children; served in the Secret Service from 1951 to 1983): “in Dallas, the Secret Service had no reliable information that Dallas was a dangerous place…I do believe if agents had been riding on the rear of the limo in Dallas that President Kennedy would not have been assassinated …To elaborate a little more on the assassination in Dallas, I have always believed that the following adverse situations all contributed to the unnecessary and unfortunate death of President Kennedy: (1) No Secret Service agents riding on the rear of the limousine…I do not know first-hand if President Kennedy ordered agents off the back end of his limousine…If you really want to receive a very definite and accurate statement of fact about this, I strongly recommend that you try to contact former Agent Clint Hill…Here is Hill’s mailing address [deleted for privacy]…I don’t know how successful you would be in contacting Clint Hill…But I wish you “Good Luck” in this regard.”

On 6/2/05, the author mailed a lengthy, 22-page letter to former WHD agent Clinton J. Hill (Certified, Return Receipt Requested with a S.A.S.E. to boot) summarizing my work in great detail. On 6/13/05, after not receiving a reply, the author phoned Mr. Hill, who was quite apparently angry—he first pretended not to know about the lengthy letter he had to sign for (of which the author received his signed receipt): “About what?,” Hill exclaimed in response to the author’s inquiry. Then, forcefully, Hill added: “I’m just not interested in talking to you.”;

26)- 27) Aide David F. Powers (rode in the follow-up car on 11/22/63) & Jacqueline Kennedy (rode with President Kennedy in the limousine): In a personal letter to the author dated 9/10/93, Mr. Powers wrote: “Unless they were ‘running’ along beside the limo, the Secret Service rode in a car behind the President, so, no, they never had to be told to “get off” the limousine”. This comment rivals Behn’s shocking statements to the author due to the source: President Kennedy’s longtime friend and aide and a man who was on countless trips with the President. For the record, Agent Bob Lilley endorsed Mr. Powers view: “Dave would give you factual answers.” In addition, the ARRB’s Tom Samoluk told the author that, during the course of an interview he conducted with Powers in 1996, the former JFK aide and friend agreed with the author’s take on the Secret Service!

For her part, Jackie “played the events over and over in her mind…She did not want to accept Jack’s death as a freak accident, for that meant his life could have been spared—if only the driver in the front seat of the presidential limousine [Agent William R. Greer] had reacted more quickly and stepped on the gas…if only the Secret Service had stationed agents on the rear bumper…” (“Just Jackie: Her Private Years” by Edward Klein (Ballantine Books, 1999), pages 58-59 & 374: based off an interview Klein had with Kitty Carlisle Hart re: Hart’s conversation with Jackie);

28) Cecil Stoughton, WH photographer (on the FL & TX trips, as well as many others): “I did see a lot of the activity surrounding the various trips of the President, and in many cases I did see the agents in question riding on the rear of the President’s car. In fact, I have ridden there a number of times myself during trips…I would jump on the step on the rear of the [Lincoln] Continental until the next stop. I have made photos while hanging on with one hand…in Tampa [11/18/63], for example. As for the [alleged] edict of not riding there by order of the President- I can’t give you any proof of first hand knowledge.” Stoughton went on to write: “I am bothered by your interest in these matters”. In a later letter, Stoughton merely corroborated his prior written statements: “I would just jump on and off [the limo] quickly- no routine, and Jackie had no further remarks to me”. It should be explained that, according to Stoughton’s book, Jackie had told him to stay close to the limo in July 1963, and he did up to and including the Houston, TX trip of 11/21/63 (There are photos that Stoughton made from the follow-up car that day, as well). “Then, for some unknown reason, Stoughton was relegated to a position further away from JFK on 11/22/63;

29) Press Secretary Pierre Salinger: JFK had a good relationship with the Secret Service and, more importantly, did NOT argue with their security measures. This was based on the author’s correspondence with noted journalist Roger Peterson from 2/99 (from Peterson’s very recent conversations with Salinger);

30) DNC Advance man Martin E. “Marty” Underwood (on the TX trip): Underwood cited Clint Hill’s actions on 11/22/63 as just one of “many times” that agents were posted on the back of the JFK limousine. During this 10/9/92 interview, Underwood confirmed to the author that JFK never ordered the agents off the rear of the car;

31) FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1:40 p.m., 11/29/63: “You see, there was no Secret Service man standing on the back of the car. Usually the presidential car in the past has had steps on the back, next to the bumpers, and there’s usually been one [agent] on either side standing on these steps…[ellipsis in text]…Whether the President asked that that not be done, we don’t know.” “So, as of 11/29/63, a week after the murder, the myth hadn’t been set in motion yet. From Hoover’s Memorandum for Messrs. Tolson, Belmont, & Mohr, November 29, 1963: “…there was no Secret Service Agent on the back of the car; that in the past they have added steps on the back of the car and usually had an agent on either side standing on the bumper; that I did not know why this was not done – that the President may have requested it…[emphasis added].” One now wonders if Hoover was the originator of the blame-the-President campaign and if he had any influence on Agent Boring who, by date, had written the first report about these matters to former FBI agent—and Hoover friend and colleague—Chief James Rowley;

32)-34) Newsmen: ABC’s Ron Gardner, ABC’s Jim Haggerty (former Eisenhower Press Secretary), & UPI’s Robert J. Serling: Shortly after the assassination on 11/22/63 before a television audience of many millions of people, Gardner reported: “Secret Service agents normally walk directly beside the car. We can’t see any in these pictures.” Also on the very same day before an enormous television audience, Haggerty maintained that agents normally walked or jogged near the rear of the president’s car, adding that he had a hand in planning many motorcades (as did his successor, Pierre Salinger). For his part, Serling wrote on 11/23/63, based in part on “private conversations” with unnamed agents: “There are two absolute rules for motorcade protection: The agent running or riding at the President’s shoulder must never leave that position unless relieved. The other is to turn out the manpower in all secret service cars the moment trouble arises and get secret service bodies around the President.” (In the same UPI story written by Serling from Washington entitled “Secret Service Men Wary of Motorcade”: “The United States Secret Service… has always feared a motorcade assassination attempt more than anything else. In private conversations and in books published by high officials after they left the service, agents admit that Chief Executives riding in open cars down crowded city streets are at their most vulnerable as the targets of assassination… For motorcades the secret service checks every manhole cover and sewer along the parade route for bombs or dynamite. Buildings frequently are checked, along with records of occupants to make sure there are no known President-haters on the premises… They are trained never to watch the President himself but the people and crowds around him. They are also sworn to throw themselves in front of their charge at the first indication of gunfire — to take the bullets, if possible, meant for the Chief Executive… An agent is the only man in the world who can order a President of the United States around if the latter’s safety is believed at stake… in certain situations an agent outranks even a President.”);

35) Helen O’Donnell, daughter of JFK Chief of Staff Ken O’Donnell: “Suffice to say that you are correct; JFK did not order anybody off the car, he never interfered with my dad’s direction on the Secret Service, and this is much backed up by my Dad’s tapes. I think and know from the tapes Dallas always haunted him because of the might-have-beens—but they involved the motorcade route [only].”;

36) Florida Congressman Samuel Melville Gibbons, rode right next to JFK in Tampa on 11/18/63: Gibbons response in full, dated 1/15/04: “I rode with Kennedy every time he rode. I heard no such order. As I remember it the agents rode on the rear bumper all the way. Kennedy was very happy during his visit to Tampa. Sam Gibbons.”

[honorable mentions:]

37) William “Tim” McIntyre, WHD (rode on the follow-up car on 11/18/63 & 11/22/63): The author contacted McIntyre on 6/13/05 (McIntyre had previously been contacted via mail in 2004, based on the strong recommendations of former agents’ Larry Newman and Tony Sherman, but did not respond back). Asked about the Tampa trip of 11/18/63, the former agent said: “I was there on the follow-up car.” Regarding the question of agents being on the back of the car, McIntyre said: “I believe so—Zboril was on the back,” which he was (He also mentioned Don Lawton and Emory Roberts as being on the trip, which they were). Regarding the matter at hand, McIntyre stated: “I can’t remember if they were told to be off the car.” So, in spite of these strong recommendations from his colleagues to ask him about this specific subject, McIntyre now allegedly “can’t remember”?;

38) Charles T. Zboril, WHD, Lawton’s partner on the rear of the limo in Tampa on 11/18/63: “Well, Don Lawton and I are just sub-notes [sic] because somebody else testified on behalf of us about what happened in Tampa”- this was Clint Hill, testifying to Arlen Specter about why agents were not on the rear of the car during the assassination. When asked if it was true that JFK had ordered the agents off the limousine four days before Dallas, which the author already knew not to be true, Zboril got emotional: “Where did you read that? I…If-if you read it in the Warren Report, that’s what happened…Do you want me commenting officially? I’m pretty sure it’s there [in the Warren Report]…I’m talking to someone I don’t know. I’m talking to you as frank as I can…If you read it in there [the Warren Report], it happened…I gave you more than I would give someone else”. The agent also added: “There is an old adage that we used in the Secret Service: ‘Don’t believe anything you read and only half of what you see.”;

POST SCRIPT:

Author Jim Bishop revealed the seemingly unknown fact that Floyd Boring was the number one agent involved in the Dallas trip back in the 1960′s in his book “The Day Kennedy Was Shot”: “If there was any blame, any official laxness, it didn’t matter that the planning of the Texas trip had been in the capable hands of Floyd Boring.” And, to the JFK Library in the 1970′s, Boring said: “Part of my job at the White House during the entire President Kennedy administration was to be in charge of the advance work. I used to assign people to do the advance work, and most of the overseas trips I did myself in conjunction with other people on the detail.” To the Truman Library in the 1980′s, Boring added: “I was on all the advance work out of there. I was assigned all the advance work, sort of an administrator… I was second in charge [behind Special Agent in Charge Jerry Behn].”

Finally, fellow former agent Sam Kinney told this author, in regard to SAIC Gerald A. “Jerry” Behn’s absence from the Texas trip, leaving ASAIC (#2) Floyd M. Boring to be the agent in charge of the Texas trip: “Here’s the story on that. We got, as agents, federal employees, thirty days a year annual leave. We lose it, because they can’t let us go…there was only ” x ” amount of agents back then in the whole wide world… they could not let us off …Jerry Behn had probably worked three years without any annual leave at all and this particular time, he could get some time off and he didn’t go to Dallas. Roy Kellerman was third in charge, so he took the thing (sic), which is, you know-he’s qualified. Floyd Boring stayed home- he could get his time off and he could still handle what ever came about from his house; there was very little correspondence between [the agents in Dallas] because Win Lawson had the advance.” Back to the ARRB interview of Boring: “Boring independently recalled that he was the person who assigned Winston Lawson as the S.S. advance agent for the Dallas leg of the Texas trip, but could not recall why or how “Win” Lawson was given that assignment.” Agent David Grant, who worked hand in glove with Boring on the controversial 11/18/63 Florida trip, assisted Lawson in the advance preparations in Dallas. Boring was also involved in the pre-11/22/63 checks of the Protective Research Section (PRS) files of any potential threats to JFK reported in Dallas which, incredibly, yielded nothing, a matter fellow ASAIC Roy Kellerman found unusual , as did fellow agent Abraham Bolden , as common sense would seem to dictate (interestingly, according to his Truman Library oral history, Boring worked for PRS back in the 1940’s!). Yet Boring had begun his ARRB interview exclaiming: “I didn’t have anything to do with it, and I don’t know anything,” a similar sentiment he first gave to the author before probing further into the mystery. The author later asked Boring: “Were you involved in any of the planning of the Texas trip?” Then, the agent finally admitted: “Well, no, I sent-ah, yeah, I was involved in that, yeah”. And, if that weren’t enough, during researcher Dan Robertson’s interview of the lucid, 90 year old Boring in 2006, the former agent quite shockingly claimed that “He [JFK] was responsible for his own death.” Indeed, Mr. Boring IS interesting, to say the least.

Secret Service agent Harry Neal wrote: “It is my personal belief that had they [Secret Service] been permitted to stay on the presidential car, the body of one of the agents might have completely obscured the President from Oswald’s vision. In that event, either no shots would have been fired, or the agent might have been killed or wounded. But the President would not have been hit.”

An unnamed former JFK-era agent told author Philip Melanson in February 2002 that not having agents on the running boards of the limousine was a major factor in Kennedy’s death.

Former Secret Service Chief Frank J. Wilson wrote: “Agents on running boards at Dallas might not have saved the President from the first bullet but might have saved him from the second one, which was fatal,” a view later shared by Agents Joseph Petro (in his own book) and Charles Taylor (in Kessler’s book).

Clinton Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti: stated that the assassination “might have been thwarted had agents been stationed on the car’s running boards.” “The Washington Post” from 5/20/98: “I have attached, as Exhibit A to this Declaration, photographs of President John F. Kennedy’s visit to Tampa, Florida on November 18, 1963. We use these photographs, and the ones attached as Exhibit B, in our training exercises. Exhibit A demonstrates the lengths to which protective personnel have been forced to go to try to maintain proximity to the President. In the photographs contained in Exhibit A, agents are kneeling on the running board of the Presidential limousine, while the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed. I can attest that this requires extraordinary physical exertion. Nevertheless, they performed this duty in an attempt to maintain close physical proximity to the President. Exhibit B, by contrast, scarcely needs any introduction. It is a series of photographs of the Presidential limousine, taken just four days later, on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. As can be seen, at the instruction of the President [VMP: huh? it can be "seen" that JFK ordered them off?], Secret Service agents had been ordered off of the limousine’s running boards. An analysis of the ensuing assassination (including the trajectory of the bullets which struck the President) indicates that it might have been thwarted had agents been stationed on the car’s running boards. In other words, had they been able to maintain close proximity to the President during the motorcade, the assassination of John F. Kennedy might have been averted. Exhibit C contains a series of photographs taken during the actual assassination that demonstrate how critical and tragic the absence of proximity to the protectee can be.”

POST SCRIPT TWO: JFK’S STAFF? NOT

Ronald M. Pontius, WHD (on Texas trip, but not the Dallas stop): When asked if JFK ever ordered the agents off his limo, the agent wrote back: “He did through his staff.” However, Presidential Aide (Chief of Staff/ Appointments Secretary) Kenneth P. O’Donnell does not mention anything with regard to telling the agents to remove themselves from the limousine (based on JFK’s alleged “desires”) during his lengthy Warren Commission testimony (nor to author William Manchester, nor even in his or his daughter’s books, for that matter); the same is true for the other two Presidential aides: Larry O’Brien and Dave Powers. In fact, as mentioned above, Powers and Helen O’Donnell refute this whole idea. Again, JFK’s staff is not mentioned as a factor during any of the agent’s Warren Commission testimony, nor in the five reports submitted in April 1964. (7 H 440-457. Manchester, page 666 (O’Donnell was interviewed 5/4/64, 6/4/64, 8/6/64 & 11/23/64). O’Donnell passed away 9/9/77. For what it’s worth, neither Presidential Aide’s Larry O’Brien [7 H 457- 472] or Dave Powers [7 H 472-474] mentioned any JFK “desires”, either (also, see Powers, above). In addition, nothing of the sort is mentioned in “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye” by O’Donnell, Kenneth P., David F. Powers, and Joseph McCarthy (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1972 [see especially page 20], nor in Kenny O’Donnell’s daughter’s book “A Common Good: The Friendship of Robert F. Kennedy and Kenneth P. O’Donnell (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1998), written by Helen O’Donnell, who wrote: “Much of the material in this book has been gathered from the private tapes of my father, Kenneth P. O’Donnell.” [Author’s Note]) In addition, former agent’s Godfrey and Kinney denounced the “staff/ O’Donnell” notion (see above). It is interesting to note that, like JFK, O’Donnell was not blamed for any security deficiencies and the like until only after his death (in 1977), when he was thus unable to refute any allegations as such. The biggest contradiction of all: on page 162 of “The Kennedy Detail”, agent Ron Pontius stated: “I’ve never heard the president say anything about agents on the back of the car”!

POST SCRIPT THREE: A COVER-UP, 5 MONTHS LATER

CE 1025, the 5 Secret Service reports submitted by Chief James J. Rowley on 4/22/64 (exactly 5 months to the day after the assassination) to the Warren Commission’s General Counsel, J. Lee Rankin, ONLY because Rankin asked via a letter dated 4/3/64, were supposed to specifically address, quote, “expressions by President Kennedy regarding the placement of Secret Service agents on or near his car during the motorcade,” obviously meaning THE fateful motorcade in Dallas on 11/22/63 when JFK was assassinated. However, not one of the five reports even addresses the DALLAS motorcade; only the Tampa, FL motorcade of 11/18/63 (and a few earlier motorcades) are addressed. Out of roughly 36 agents of the White House Detail (the number slightly fluctuates if you include “the brass”), Rowley chose to obtain written statements from just five: SAIC Gerald Behn (not in Dallas or Tampa; on leave during this time), ASAIC Floyd Boring (not in Dallas; in Tampa), ATSAIC Emory Roberts (in Tampa and Dallas), SA John Ready (not in Tampa but in Dallas), and Clint Hill (like Ready, not in Tampa but in Dallas). Why Roy Kellerman, the agent nominally in charge of the Texas trip, nor Winston Lawson, the lead advance agent, nor even the other 5 agents in the follow up car in Dallas (McIntyre, Kinney, Landis, Bennett, and Hickey), were not asked their thoughts on the matter raises suspicion (all the other agents on the Dallas trip, and prior trips, for that matter, could have participated). Importantly, NO MENTION is made of JFK’s staff (Ken O’Donnell, Dave Powers, Larry O’Brien) being involved in this issue in any way whatsoever—the same goes for the Warren Report (and accompanying testimony of the JFK agents they spoke to—Kellerman, Hill, & Greer), Jim Bishop’s book, and William Manchester’s tome.

Importantly, no mention is made of any alleged orders via President Kennedy’s staff.

And, again, THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT WHAT JFK SAID OR “REQUESTED” ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963, THE CRITICAL DAY IN QUESTION!

SAIC Behn’s two-page report, dated 4/16/64 (the fourth report submitted to Rowley, and on blank paper, to boot; not official treasury Department stationary), first mentions the Mexico trip of 1962 and the trip to Berlin in 1963—both trips involved agents on and near the rear of the limo, as the film/ photo record exhaustively proves, so whatever JFK allegedly said on the matter, one way or the other, is moot. As for the other trips he mentions on page two of his report (Seattle, Phoenix, Bonham, TX, and “other stops” [no specifics]), two points must be made. These all occured in November of 1961, a whopping two years before the assassination! So, if there was not a standing order for the agents to stay off the car by order of JFK (which the film/ photo record, just by viewing the aforementioned Mexico and Berlin trips, proves), these alleged statements by JFK (to have the agents off the limo) are not really germane to a trip two years after the (alleged) fact, to put it mildly. The second point is a recent discovery: the Bonham, TX stop was for the funeral of former Speaker Sam Rayburn and it involved a HARDTOP car without handholds for the agents to begin with: JFK was well protected, so mentioning this trip isn’t germane, either. Keep in mind a valuable point in looking at all these reports: this was before the internet and before many of these films and photos were somewhat accessible to the lay person. Back in 1964, it was very easy to believe the pronouncements of official government employees, especially with JFK dead and not able to defend himself by stating HIS real views on the matter.

However, as noted above, Behn tells me (on audio tape/ You Tube video): “I don’t remember Kennedy ever saying that he didn’t want anybody on the back of his car.”

ASAIC Boring’s one-page report, dated 4/8/64 (the very first report submitted to Rowley and, once again, on blank paper), deals mainly with the Tampa, FL trip of 11/18/63, while also mentioning the Italy trip of 7/2/63. Boring claims in this report that JFK told him to have the agents remove themselves from the rear of the limousine. However, films/ photos exhaustively prove that the agents rode on or near the rear of the car either the entire motorcade, or, at the very least, the vast majority of the trek, in Tampa, so, once again, whatever JFK allegedly said to Boring is moot. What’s more, as the author discovered via research at the JFK Library, films and photos depict agents on and near the rear of the limo in Italy, as well! Regarding the Tampa trip, the author wrote to former Florida Congressman Samuel Melville Gibbons. “I rode with Kennedy every time he rode. I heard no such order. As I remember it the agents rode on the rear bumper all the way. Kennedy was very happy during his visit to Tampa.” Furthermore, an amazing document was released in the 1990’s concerning, among many other related topics, the issue of the agents’ presence (or lack thereof) on the limousine. This is a 28-page “Sensitive”memorandum from Belford Lawson, the attorney in charge of the Secret Service area for the HSCA, addressed to Gary Cornwell & Ken Klein dated 5/31/77 and revised 8/15/77. Apparently, Attorney Lawson was suspicious of Mr. Boring, for he wrote on the final page of this lengthy memorandum: “Subject: Florida Motorcades in November 1963…Was Floyd Boring, the Senior SS Agent on the White House detail, lying to SS Agent Hill when he told Hill that JFK had said in Tampa…that he wanted no agents riding upright on the rear bumper step of the JFK limousine? Did JFK actually say this? Did Boring know when he told this to Hill that Hill would be riding outboard on the JFK follow-up car in Dallas on November 22, 1963? Did Boring say this to Ready or Roberts? [Lawson’s emphasis]” On page 27 of the same memo, Lawson wrote: “Why did only one Agent, Hill, run forward to the JFK limousine?”

As or even more surprising than the shocking comments by Behn, Floyd Boring told the author, in reference to JFK’s alleged “desires” mentioned by Jim Bishop, Manchester (“quoting” Boring), and himself in his own report: “He actually – No, I told them…He didn’t tell them anything…He just – I looked at the back and I seen these fellahs were hanging on the limousine – I told them to return to the car…[JFK] was a very easy-going guy…he didn’t interfere with our actions at all” (emphasis added)! The author reiterated the point – Mr. Boring was still adamant that JFK never issued any orders to the agents; he even refuted Manchester’s book. Floyd Boring (and quite a few of his colleagues) categorically denied to the author what William Manchester reports in his acclaimed massive best-seller “The Death of a President”: “Kennedy grew weary of seeing bodyguards roosting behind him every time he turned around [indicating the frequency of the event], and in Tampa on November 18 [1963], just four days before his death, he dryly asked Agent Floyd Boring to ‘keep those Ivy League charlatans off the back of the car.’ Boring wasn’t offended. There had been no animosity in the remark. (Emphasis added).” (In his “defense”, Manchester also wrote: “It was a good idea, for example, to have agents perched on the broad trunk of the Presidential Lincoln when crowds threatened to grow disorderly. The trouble was that they were always there [emphasis added].”)

Incredibly, Boring told this author: “I never told him that.” As for the merit of the quote itself, as previously mentioned, Boring said: “No, no, no-that’s not true,” thus contradicting his own report in the process. Incredibly, BORING WAS NOT EVEN INTERVIEWED FOR MANCHESTER’S BOOK! We may never know Mr. Manchester’s source for this curious statement: he told the author on 8/23/93 that “all that material is under seal and won’t be released in my lifetime” and denied the author access to his notes (Manchester has since passed away). Interestingly, Manchester did interview the late Emory Roberts, Manchester’s probable and—as we shall see—very questionable “source.” [Of the 21 agents/ officials interviewed by Manchester, only Roberts, Greer, Kinney, and Blaine were on the Florida trip. Blaine was the advance agent for Tampa (riding in the lead car), Greer drove JFK’s car, Kinney drove the follow-up car, and Roberts was the commander of the follow-up car. That said, in the author’s opinion, Roberts is still the main suspect of the four as being Manchester’s dubious source for this quote: after all, he was asked to write a report about JFK’s so-called desires, citing Boring as the source for the order via radio transmission. The others---Greer, Kinney, & Blaine---were not asked to write a similar report. In addition, Manchester had access to this report while writing his book). Also, unlike the other three, Roberts was interviewed twice and, while Greer never went on record with his feelings about the matter, one way or the other, Kinney adamantly denied the veracity of Manchester’s information, while Blaine denied the substance of the information, although he DID mention the “Ivy league charlatan” remark coming from a secondary source. Finally, of the 21 agents interviewed by Manchester, Blaine is the only agent---save two headquarters Inspectors (see next section)---whose interview comments are not to be found in the text or index. Since, in addition to Blaine, three other agents---Lawton, Meredith & Newman---also mentioned the remark as hearsay, in some fashion or another, it is more than likely that Manchester seized upon the remark and greatly exaggerated its significance…AND attributed it to Boring, while his actual source was likely Roberts (and/ or Blaine). Again, since Boring wasn’t interviewed, the comment had to come second-hand from another agent, who, in turn, received the remark second-hand from Boring. Ultimately, the question is: did Boring really give out this order on instructions from JFK?]

Needless to say, Manchester left his mark on this issue. [Interestingly, Manchester, having interviewed 21 different agents/ officials for his book [pages 660-669], chose to include interviews with Secret Service Inspectors Burrill Peterson and Jack Warner. What’s the problem? Well, these men, not even associated with the Texas trip in any way, were interviewed more than any of the other agents: four times each (Peterson: 10/9/64, 11/17/64, 11/18/64, 2/5/65; Warner: 6/2/64, 11/18/64, 2/5/65, 5/12/65)! Only Emory Roberts, Clint Hill, Roy Kellerman, and Forrest Sorrels had two interviews apiece, while all the other agents/ officials garnered just one interview each. And, more importantly, unlike all the other 19 agents, save one, Gerald Blaine (a Texas trip WHD agent), these two Inspectors are not even mentioned in the actual text or the index; their comments are “invisible” to the reader. It appears, then, that Manchester’s book was truly a sanitized, “official” book, more so than we thought before (as most everyone knows, the book was written with Jackie Kennedy’s approval: it was her idea, in fact [page ix]. Manchester even had early, exclusive access to the Warren Commission itself: “At the outset of my inquiry the late Chief Justice Earl Warren appointed me an ex officio member of his commission…and provided me with an office in Washington’s VFW building, where the commission met and where copies of reports and depositions were made available to me [page xix]). Inspector Peterson figured prominently in the post-assassination press dealings (or lack thereof)—as Agent Sorrels testified: “…I don’t think at any time you will see that there is any statement made by the newspapers or television that we said anything because Mr. Kelley, the Inspector, told me ‘Any information that is given out will have to come from Inspector Peterson in Washington.’”[7 H 359] Peterson became an Assistant Director for Investigations in 1968 [“20 Years in the Secret Service” by Rufus Youngblood (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973), page 220], while Inspector Warner would go on to become Director of Public Affairs (a position he held until the 1990’s), acting as a buffer to critical press questions during the assassination attempts on President Ford and other related matters [“The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency” (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003) by Philip Melanson with Peter Stevens, pages 101, 201, 224, 237]. Warner would also later become a consultant to the 1993 Clint Eastwood movie “In The Line of Fire.”]

Jim Bishop, in his own massive best-selling book entitled “The Day Kennedy was Shot, “does nothing more than repeat the written record of the Warren Commission and the previously mentioned five reports, taken at face value. Again, Mr. Boring was not interviewed for the book. With Mr. Bishop dead, this is where the matter rests with his account. That said, Jim Bishop did sum up the situation best: “No one wanted to weigh the possibilities that, if a Secret Service man had been on the left rear bumper going down Elm Street, it would have been difficult to hit President Kennedy (emphasis added).” Bishop also noted: “The Secret Service men were not pleased because they were in a “hot” city and would have preferred to have two men ride the bumper of the President’s car with two motorcycle policemen between him [JFK] and the crowds on the sidewalks.”

Still, thanks to the Secret Service reports above (and, in large measure, to Agent Boring himself), three massive best-sellers still in print or in libraries —the Warren Report The Warren Report , Manchester‘s “The Death of a President“, and Bishop’s “The Day Kennedy Was Shot”— have created the myth that JFK was difficult to protect and had ordered the agents off his car and the like, a dangerous myth that endures to this day in classrooms and in the media, thus doing great damage to the true historical record.

Remember, Boring is admitting it came from him, and not JFK! With regard to exactly who makes the decision regarding the agents’ proximity to the President, Agent Jerry Parr told Larry King: “I would say it was the agent in charge who makes that decision.” When asked, point blank, if JFK had ever ordered the agents off the rear of the limousine, including in Tampa on 11/18/63, Boring told the author again : “Well that’s not true. That’s not true. He was a very nice man; he never interfered with us at all.” In a letter received by the author on, of all dates, 11/22/97, Boring confirmed what he had previously told the author on two previous occasions (9/22/93 and 3/4/94, respectively) when he wrote: “President Kennedy was a very congenial man knowing most agents by their first name. He was very cooperative with the Secret Service, and well liked and admired by all of us (emphasis added).” Not only does Boring NOT mention anything about JFK’s alleged “desires” to restrict security during his two lengthy oral histories, the agent stated: “…of all the administrations I worked with, the president and the people surrounding the president were very gracious and were very cooperative. As a matter of fact, you can’t do this type of security work without cooperation of the people surrounding the president…[emphasis added]” Indeed, Chief James J. Rowley told the ATSAIC (Shift Leader) Emory Roberts one-page report (dated 4/10/64, the second one submitted to Rowley and finally on Treasury Department letterhead) deals exclusively with the Tampa FL trip of 11/18/63 and states nothing other than confirmation that he heard ASAIC Boring tell him, via radio, to get the agents off the back of JFK’s car; nothing about the President’s alleged wishes or anything else. From an evidentiary standpoint, moot and useless. Roberts was a “good soldier”: he ordered an agent back from JFK’s limo at Love Field (as this author discovered back in 1991 and had popularized for the first time back in 1995 and, again, in 2003 on The History Channel, long before this clip became something of an internet sensation), recalled an agent during the shooting and, as Sam Kinney told me, ordered the men on the follow-up car not to move! So, needless to say, like Boring, I am suspicious of Mr. Roberts (deceased 1973).

Special Agent John (Jack) Ready’s one-page report (dated 4/11/64, the third one submitted to Rowley and, like Roberts, also on Treasury Department letterhead) deals exclusively with the 11/18/63 Tampa, Florida trip. However, Mr. Ready was not on this specific trip: Mr. Boring was, once again, his source for JFK’s alleged request. Ready would not respond to written inquiries from the author. The author phoned Mr. Ready on 6/13/05 and asked him if it was true that Boring said this, based on JFK’s request. After confirming he wasn’t on the Tampa trip, Ready stated: “Not on the phone [will I answer you]. I don’t know you from Adam. Can you see my point?”

Special Agent Clint Hill’s one-page report (strangely undated and, presumably, the last one submitted to Rowley) deals with the 11/18/63 Tampa, Florida trip and Boring second-hand because, like Ready, Mr. Hill was not on this trip, either. Mr. Hill lives incommunicado in Virginia and will not grant private interviews. That said, the author was the first private researcher to get through to Mr. Hill (more on this in a moment). Interestingly, Mr. Hill’s brother-in-law is none other than fellow former agent David B. Grant, a former advance agent who worked on the planning of the Florida and Texas trips with none other than Mr. Boring.

Agent Hill’s report was the most honest of the five: “I…never personally was requested by President John F. Kennedy not to ride on the rear of the Presidential automobile. I did receive information passed verbally from the administrative offices of the White House Detail of the Secret Service to Agents assigned to that Detail that President Kennedy had made such requests. I do not know from whom I received this information…No written instructions regarding this were ever distributed…(I) received this information after the Presidents return to Washington, D. C. This would have been between November 19,1963 and November 21, 1963 [note the time frame!]. I do not know specifically who advised me of this request by the President (emphasis added).”

Mr. Hill’s undated report was presumably written in April 1964, as the other four reports were written at that time. Why Mr. Hill could not “remember” the specific name of the agent who gave him JFK’s alleged desires is very troubling – he revealed it on 3/9/64, presumably before his report was written, in his (obviously pre-rehearsed) testimony under oath to the future Senator Arlen Specter, then a lawyer with the Warren Commission:

:

Specter: “Did you have any other occasion en route from Love Field to downtown Dallas to leave the follow-up car and mount that portion of the President’s car [rear portion of limousine]?”

Hill: “I did the same thing approximately four times.”

Specter: “What are the standard regulations and practices, if any, governing such an action on your part?”

Hill: “It is left to the agent’s discretion more or less to move to that particular position when he feels that there is a danger to the President: to place himself as close to the President or the First Lady as my case was, as possible, which I did.”

Specter: “Are those practices specified in any written documents of the Secret Service?”

Hill: “No, they are not.”

Specter: “Now, had there been any instruction or comment about your

performance of that type of a duty with respect to anything President

Kennedy himself had said in the period immediately preceding the trip to

Texas?”

Hill: “Yes, sir; there was. The preceding Monday, the President was on a trip to Tampa, Florida, and he requested that the agents not ride on either of those two steps.”

Specter: “And to whom did the President make that request?”

Hill: “Assistant Special Agent in Charge Boring.”

Specter: “Was Assistant Special Agent in Charge Boring the individual in charge of that trip to Florida?”

Hill: “He was riding in the Presidential automobile on that trip in Florida, and I presume that he was. I was not along.”

Specter: “Well, on that occasion would he have been in a position comparable to that occupied by Special Agent Kellerman on this trip to Texas?”

Hill: “Yes sir; the same position.”

Specter: “And Special Agent Boring informed you of that instruction by President Kennedy?”

Hill: “Yes sir, he did.”

Specter: “Did he make it a point to inform other special agents of that same instruction?”

Hill: “I believe that he did, sir.”

Specter: “And, as a result of what President Kennedy said to him, did he instruct you to observe that Presidential admonition?”

Hill: “Yes, sir.”

Specter: “How, if at all, did that instruction of President Kennedy affect your action and – your action in safeguarding him on this trip to Dallas?”

Hill: “We did not ride on the rear portions of the automobile. I did on those four occasions because the motorcycles had to drop back and there was no protection on the left-hand side of the car.” (Emphasis added)

On 9/18/96, by request of the author, the ARRB’s Doug Horne interviewed Mr. Boring regarding this matter. Horne wrote: “Mr. Boring was asked to read pages 136-137 of Clint Hill’s Warren Commission testimony, in which Clint Hill recounted that Floyd Boring had told him just days prior to the assassination that during the President’s Tampa trip on Monday, 11/18/63, JFK had requested that agents not ride on the rear steps of the limousine, and that Boring had also so informed other agents of the White House detail, and that as a result, agents in Dallas (except Clint Hill, on brief occasions) did not ride on the rear steps of the limousine. MR BORING AFFIRMED THAT HE DID MAKE THESE STATEMENTS TO CLINT HILL, BUT STATED THAT HE WAS NOT RELAYING A POLICY CHANGE, BUT RATHER SIMPLY TELLING AN ANECDOTE ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S KINDNESS AND CONSIDERATION IN TAMPA IN NOT WANTING AGENTS TO HAVE TO RIDE ON THE REAR OF THE LINCOLN LIMOUSINE WHEN IT WAS NOT NECESSARY TO DO SO BECAUSE OF A LACK OF CROWDS ALONG THE STREET (Emphasis added).”

The author finds this admission startling, especially because the one agent who decided to ride on the rear of the limousine in Dallas anyway—and on at least 4 different occasions— was none other than CLINT HILL himself.

This also does not address what the agents were to do when the crowds were heavier, or even what exactly constituted a “crowd”, as AGENTS DID RIDE ON THE REAR STEPS OF THE LIMOUSINE IN TAMPA ON NOVEMBER 18, 1963 ANYWAY (agents Donald J. Lawton, Andrew E. Berger, & Charles T. Zboril, to be exact)!

Furthermore, as noted above, both Clint Hill’s written report and his testimony sure convey a more strict approach than one stemming from an alleged kind anecdote. In fact, as mentioned above, Hill twice stated in his report that he DID NOT RECALL who the agent was who told him, and the other agents, not to ride on the rear of the limousine, yet named him under oath to Counsel Specter: Floyd Boring.

So of the five Secret Service reports, four have as their primary source for JFK’s alleged request Agent Boring, including one by Boring himself, while the remaining report, written by Mr. Behn, mentions the same 11/18/63 trip with Mr. Boring as the others do (again, Boring’s report was the first one written, then came one each from Roberts, Ready, Behn, and Hill, respectively). Both Behn and Boring totally contradicted the contents of their reports at different times, independent of each other, to the author. In addition, agents did ride on the rear of the limousine on 7/2/63 and 11/18/63 anyway, despite these alleged Presidential requests, as the film and photo record proves.

Needless to say, with Boring joining Behn in refuting the substance of their reports, the official Secret Service ‘explanation’ falls like a house of cards.Behn’s, Boring’s, and Hill’s reports are not even on any Secret Service or Treasury Dept. stationary, just blank sheets of paper. In fact, as noted above, Hill’s report is undated, a bizarre error to make in an official government report written by request of the head of the Secret Service.All are supposedly evidence of JFK expressing his desire to keep Secret Service agents off the limousine, particularly in Tampa, Florida on 11/18/63.



Thursday, June 21, 2012

Secret Service agents partied like rock stars on Obamas' Vineyard Vacation

EXCLUSIVE: Secret Service agents partied like rock stars on Obamas' Vineyard Vacation


By Jana Winter

Published June 19, 2012

FoxNews.coM





MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Mass. – Long before President Obama's security detail was scandalized in Colombia and new revelations emerged last week about the Secret Service, members of the elite team earned an "Animal House" reputation at the blueblood vacation mecca of Martha's Vineyard.

Local residents say wild parties, fights and late-night carousing involving Secret Service members have become commonplace in recent years at the Vineyard, a favorite getaway for the First Family and longtime destination for upper-crust members of the Northeastern political, media and business establishment.

“I expect parties during the summer. People come here to have fun -- they’re on vacation,” said a resident who lives in the East Chop section of Oak Bluffs, near the six-bedroom Victorian mansion whose owners dubbed it the Secret Service’s “party house,” after agents staying in a cluster of adjacent homes converged on it for late-night soirees. “But I didn’t think it’d be Secret Service people here protecting the president.”

'If Secret Service says they’ve never received complaints about these same guys, then there is clear evidence to the contrary -- if they say that, they’re lying.'

- Homeowner who says house was trashed by Secret Service agents

Trashed rental homes, bad behavior and barroom brawls that have required the local police to step in have some disgusted Martha’s Vineyard homeowners vowing never to rent out to the Secret Service again. And while none of the disturbing behavior appeared to have any direct effect on the president’s safety, some occurred even as the president and his family were nearby.

One resident called police in the early morning on Aug. 18, 2011, about a party that went on until well past 4 a.m. on the day President Obama arrived for a nine-day vacation. Cars were parked on a lawn strewn with beer bottles and young women went in and out of the house as shouts from a spirited foosball game pierced the wee-hours air, neighbors told FoxNews.com.

A police report obtained by FoxNews.com describes two local cops arriving at 2:23 a.m. to find as many as a dozen people on the porch “talking and laughing loudly.”

“I was informed by two males that it’s a rental house and they were working the presidential vacation,” the report states. “I informed them that it was still 2:30 a.m. and people in the area are complaining about the loud voices, and [they] were told to go inside and close the windows.”

In response to FoxNews.com’s request for comment, Secret Service spokesman Max Milien in Washington said the Secret Service “has not received any complaints or information regarding alleged misconduct of its personnel operating in Martha's Vineyard during the summer of 2011. Any information brought to our attention that can be assessed as credible will be followed up on in an appropriate manner.”

But at least one Vineyard homeowner says that isn’t true.

She said her husband called the Secret Service in Washington last year to complain about the rowdy behavior of agents and damage they caused to their home, but his gripe was dismissed by officials who told her “that’s what they do on vacation” – even though the agents were on assignment at the Vineyard.

“If Secret Service says they’ve never received complaints about these same guys, then there is clear evidence to the contrary -- if they say that, they’re lying,” the woman told FoxNews.com. "We were the only ones to care, apparently. Nobody else cared about them partying, trashing the house, bringing girls home.

“We would not rent to them again,” she said.

She described a wake of destruction left by the commander-in-chief’s bodyguards, including the Counter Assault and Counter Sniper Teams, the same elite groups that got into trouble in Colombia. Antique furniture was destroyed, expensive "locally harvested" wide pine flooring was ruined and beer and liquor bottles were scattered throughout the property after agents stayed in the house, one of several stately million-dollar Victorians with pastel-painted wood shingles and wraparound porches of the exclusive East Chop section of Oak Bluffs.

The homeowners and several neighbors described another incident where police responded to complaints about a truck parked half on the lawn, half on the driveway. Cops arrived, spoke to the Secret Service agents inside and, moments later, a half-dressed woman came running out, got in the truck and sped off, said neighbors.

The home police responded to on Aug. 18, 2011, was described by one neighbor as a virtual “party house” for local college girls home for the summer, while another neighbor said she saw young women coming and going during more than one raging Secret Service party.

The owner of a six-bedroom home rented out the last two summers to the same Secret Service team that got in trouble in South America showed FoxNews.com a bullet he said was left behind by the agents and said CAT agents let neighborhood children and other residents handle their weapons.

More alarmingly, he said the men told him details of presidential security plans and logistics.

“They left ammo behind, they told me things they shouldn’t have been telling me, things they shouldn’t be telling anyone about the details about how they protect the president. They let us hold their weapons, see all their stuff, they had huge house parties,” said the man, who spoke to FoxNews.com with his wife on the condition they not be named.

Real estate agents with knowledge of the East Chop homes rented out to Secret Service said a child found a spent shell casing on a front lawn of one of the homes.

Glen Caldwell, the general manager of Offshore Ale in Oak Bluffs, told FoxNews.com about an incident last summer when one of his staff found a Secret Service badge on the floor after the bar had closed at the end of the night. The commission book also included a list of emergency phone numbers -- two 1-800 Secret Service numbers, a Department of Homeland Security ID card.

“It was on the floor of the bar for who knows how long, covered in peanuts. It was pretty clear that the guy was drunk,” Caldwell said.

When another worker found the badge, Caldwell said he put it in the bar’s safe. He then got a frantic call an hour or two later from someone asking if they’d found a Secret Service ID. He said the owner soon showed up at the bar and, when he asked for proof that the ID was his, showed a Virginia driver’s license bearing the same name.

“You didn’t call any of those numbers did you?” the agent nervously asked, recalled Caldwell, who had not.

A woman who was close to one of the agents and spent time with a group of them last summer said she was concerned about the national security implications of them bringing home women -- many of whom were foreign nationals -- nearly every night. She said the agents she spent time with did not bring their weapons out at night to the bars and parties, but that detailed information about the protection plans for the president was on all of their cellphones -- as were the phone numbers, locations and contact phone numbers for everyone on the detail.

In another incident, a local bartender said she and her boyfriend were playing pool with White House staffers who were members of Obama’s detail at an Oak Bluffs restaurant when they ran out of quarters. She said the staffers shot pool using what they said was the cash they were carrying for Obama -- the president doesn’t carry his own cash; White House staffers traveling with the president pay for his meals or other purchases.

Yet despite the myriad incidents, neither local law enforcement nor Secret Service officials in Washington would acknowledge a problem with the agents’ behavior on Martha’s Vineyard.

“This isn’t news,” Oak Bluffs Police Lt. Timothy Williams insisted to FoxNews.com, when asked about the East Chop address party. “There’s no news here,” he said, while also refusing to make available the officers who responded to the early morning party.

A chef at one popular restaurant, who cooked for a Secret Service party last summer, said the hi-jinks weren’t confined to the male agents. Three female Secret Service agents at the affair “partied just as much, if not more, than the other guys,” he said, and even organized tequila-fueled “ladies nights” out on the town.

The women also detailed protection strategies the security team provided for the president.

“The women talked about all the layers of protection -- what they do, how they protect the president -- the secret things that nobody is supposed to ever know about,” the chef said.

Several locals said they were disturbed the agents seemed to treat the president’s vacation as their own, even though the agents were on duty. Among the complaints are that some agents used their status to skip out on bar tabs, or using restricted parking areas while out boozing it up at local bars.

“They think they own the place, that they’re above the law,” said a bartender at the Wharf, a bar in Edgartown across the road from where White House advance team and Signal Corp communications teams set up shop in the month before the president’s arrival on the Vineyard. “[They’ll say], ‘I kill people for a living,’ ‘the President of the United States is alive because of me,’” the bartender said.

SEND TIPS TO NEWSMANAGER@FOXNEWS.COM

Elsewhere, Vineyard residents reported Secret Service agents crashing parties all over the island. Last summer, the annual Harley-Davidson “Run to the Rock” event coincided with Obama’s visit, and many people reported seeing numerous Secret Service agents joining the party and drinking at the annual gathering.

Not everyone has problems with the Secret Service rentals. Walter Vail, an elected official in Oak Bluffs, said Secret Service teams that rented his home treated it with respect. He said the men used a large tree in his yard to do pull ups, ran windsprints down the main street and played wiffleball on the enormous lawn of a home next to his that was also rented.

And others on the island say Secret Service agents should be allowed to party, as long as they keep the First Family safe.

“Boys will be boys,” said Peter Martell, owner of the Wesley Hotel in Oak Bluffs, which has hosted Secret Service since Bill Clinton first vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard in 1993.

Hotel workers say that for as long as they’ve been staying there, there’s been a cooler of beer waiting for each agent when he returns from his shift.

“They work their butts off, these guys, and they do a hell of a job. If they want to have a little fun here, what’s the harm?” Martell said.









Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Jack White 1927-2012

Very sad to hear this. Jack was a great guy; super. I vividly remember 11/22/97, Dallas, TX: Jack drove me around Dealey Plaza and surrounding areas, giving me an impromptu tour, as it were. He was always nice, online and in person. He will live on in our memories, in countless books he was quoted in, conference videos, and The Men Who Killed Kennedy series. RIP my friend
-----------
[As Joe Backes sadly reported:]
Jack White has died


It is with great sadness that I report the news that our friend Jack White has died. Jack White was a pioneer in studying the photographic record of the JFK assassination. He made many significant contributions to the photographic record and our understanding of key issues in the JFK assassination. Thank you for your work Jack. You will be missed.



Jack D. White (1927 - 2012)




Jack D. White, 85, passed away Monday, June 18, 2012. Funeral: 3:30 p.m.

Thursday in Mount Olivet Chapel. Interment: Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Visitation: 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Mount Olivet Funeral Home. Memorials:

Those desiring to honor Jack's memory may contribute to a TCU Journalism

Department scholarship fund or a charity of choice . Jack was born Jan.

17, 1927, in San Angelo, moving to Fort Worth with his parents, John

Nathan White and Billie Lorena Dumas White, shortly after his birth.

Graduating from Carter-Riverside High School in 1944, he worked briefly

for the Fort Worth Press covering high school sports under the legendary

sports editor H.H. "Pop" Boone. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during

World War II and while serving attended Stanford University in the ROTC

program. Discharged in 1946, Jack entered Texas Christian University,

graduating in 1949 with a B.A. in journalism and began an advertising

career as copywriter and art director at Yates Advertising Agency. In

1954, he joined Witherspoon and Ridings Public Relations Agency, which

later became Witherspoon and Associates, as the firm's first art

director. During his 27 years with the agency he rose to vice president,

executive art director, personnel manager and part owner. He specialized

in design and photography. Although he had photographed the city since

the 1950s, he began collecting Fort Worth photographs seriously in 1972

when Witherspoon was planning the 100th anniversary for one of its

clients and he was in charge of acquiring copies of historical prints of

Fort Worth. After the event he took care to preserve all the exhibit

materials and during the next 20 years he reproduced other client's

historical photographs and took hundreds of pictures to add to the

collection. Jack retired from Witherspoon in 1981 and formed his own

company, Jack White Enterprises, specializing in free-lance art and

photography. In 1984, taking two partners, the firm's name changed to

VJS Companies. In 1991, he again became a sole proprietor. Because of

his interest in Fort Worth history, he spearheaded a group of local

historians and launched an internet website, which he named "The Way We

Were," to display and research old photos of the city. Another of Jack's

interest has been the study of the John F. Kennedy assassination,

serving as a photographic consultant to the U.S. Senate Select Committee

on Assassinations during its hearings, as well a consultant on the JFK

film. He produced two videotapes on his photographic studies of the

assassination and developed a slide lecture, while contributing his

research to books and professional journals. Jack's collection of JFK

assassination books and materials and his old Fort Worth photographs

have been donated to UTA Library's Special Collections where they are

accessible to those interested. Jack married the former Sue Benningfield

in 1969 and in 1977 they were instrumental in reactivating their

neighborhood home owners association. He served as president for several

years. He painted many works of art which hang in private collections

and adorn the walls of his modern home, as well as a large painting of

the Fort Worth skyline on display at the Fort Worth Public Library. He

was an avid TCU alumnus and until last year had not missed a home

football or basketball game since 1946. He enjoyed yard work and raising

tomatoes, which he happily supplied his friends. Survivors: Wife, Sue;

cousins, Pat O'Neal of Fort Worth, Laura O'Neal Tauzel of Arlington,

Larry O'Neal of Fort Worth, Nancy Robbins of Denton and Shirley Hurley

of Haltom City; and a host of wonderful friends.



Security detail included 5 presidents

Security detail included 5 presidents


About The Tribune-Review

The Tribune-Review can be reached via e-mail or at 412-321-6460.

OBIT, obits, Obituary: Joseph Start Tweet

By Adam Wagner



Published: Monday, June 18, 2012, 11:48 p.m.

Updated 14 hours ago





Joseph Start knew in 1959 that the Soviet Union would lose the Cold War.



Mr. Start was part of Nikita Khruschev’s security detail when the Soviet Union leader visited Pittsburgh. When Khruschev walked down the aisle for his keynote speech, though, all Mr. Smart could hear was the squeaking of his shoes.



“My dad always said he knew then that they weren’t going to make it technologically. If you can’t make shoes, how can you make rockets?” said his son, Jay Start of Vandergrift.



Joseph J. Start of Sewickley, a retired Allegheny County Police detective, died on Saturday, June 16, 2012, at his home. He was 91.



Mr. Start’s family said he lived the kind of life that always gave him a story to tell.



After serving in the Army Air Corps for 31⁄2 years, he returned to Sewickley and began working as a county detective in 1947, embarking on a 28-year career. During that time, Mr. Start worked on the security details for Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.



“His sons were very impressed with the stories he told them,” said Sue Start, Mr. Start’s wife of 63 years.



One of them occurred in 1948, when Mr. Start’s partner accidentally shot him in the back.



Mr. Start and his future wife got to know each other better while he recovered from his wound. She was one of the nurses who helped care for him.



“We carried on a friendship afterward,” she said. “I would go visit him while he was recuperating.”



Mr. Start’s recovery did not take long, though, and he was back on the job only one week after being shot.



The bullet remained with him, though, as doctors initially deemed it impossible to remove because it lodged near Mr. Start’s heart. Decades later, a surgeon who confused the bullet for a cyst removed it.



Mr. Start ascended to captain of the homicide unit in the 1960s, a role in which he often was interviewed by local media.



Jay Start remembered his father and he attending a Steelers game in 1969 — a ritual the two kept until Jay left for college — when his father received an emergency message, telling him that police had tracked down a suspect wanted for killing a police officer.



Mr. Start hustled his son into the car, loaded the M1 carbine he had in the trunk and told him: “You’re going to have to come with me. We got Stanley.”



“Here we were flying up Route 28, and my eyes were as big as saucers!” Jay Start said. The alert, though, was a false alarm, but it was a memory that Jay said he won’t forget.



Despite Mr. Start’s active professional life, his family remembered him as the kind of father who made it to every Little League game and chorus concert —even if it meant returning to work afterward.



“He lived life to its fullest, everything he did,” Jay Start said. “He was a good man, and I had no complaints. He was a great dad, and he’d do anything for his grandkids.”



In addition to his wife, Sue, and son, Jay, Mr. Start is survived by his son, Dr. Jefrey Start of Erie, and 10 grandchildren.



Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. today in Richard D. Cole Funeral Home in Sewickley. Interment will follow in St. James Cemetery, Sewickley.



Monday, June 18, 2012

Hey, Blaine & Atchity: any regrets over WHICH book you optioned for a movie?

"The Kennedy Detail" (Blaine's book which was optioned for a movie) is a forgotten EXTENDED list NY Times "best-seller", with a decidedly mixed reception, while "Mrs Kennedy and Me" is a LEGITIMATE smash, 10-weeks+, GENUINE NY Times best-seller in every sense of the word, while the reviews have been ecstatic. No one will see Blaine's propaganda, but you KNOW many would flock to see Hill's book turned into a movie...dumb move optioning Blaine's turkey... :O)

Vince Palamara
P.S. I will fight this movie, hammer and tong, over its naked propaganda. JFK DID NOT ORDER THE AGENTS OFF HIS LIMO AND BLAINE KNOWS IT!

JFK did NOT order the agents off his limousine 1)-2) Secret Service Chiefs James J. Rowley (former SAIC) and Urbanus E. “U.E.” Baughman—Rowley told the Warren Commission: “No President will tell the Secret Service what they can or cannot do.” Even President Truman agreed, stating: “the Secret Service was the only boss that the President of the United States really had.” Apparently, Rowley thought the agents DID ride on the rear of the limousine throughout the motorcade, for he added: “…the men at some point came back to this [follow-up] car.”Rowley told the JFK Library in 1976: “…you could talk to them [JFK’s staff]…It made for a very happy relationship.” Rowley’s predecessor, former Chief U.E. Baughman, who had served under JFK from Election Night 1960 until Sept. 1961, had written in his 1962 book “Secret Service Chief”: “Now the Chief of the Secret Service is legally empowered to countermand a decision made by anybody in this country if it might endanger the life or limb of the Chief Executive. This means I could veto a decision of the President himself if I decided it would be dangerous not to. The President of course knew this fact.” Indeed, an AP story from 11/15/63 stated: “The (Secret) Service can overrule even the President where his personal security is involved.” To the point, when Baughman was asked by U.S. News & World report on 12/23/63 about the Service’s protective efforts inDallas, he said: “I can’t understand why Mrs. Kennedy had to climb over the back of the car, as she did, to get help…[this matter] should be resolved.” Apparently, Baughman was puzzled by the lack of agents on or near the rear of the limousine; 3) SAIC GERALD BEHN: “I don’t remember Kennedy ever saying that he didn’t want anybody on the back of his car.” Behn further stated: “I think if you watch the newsreel pictures you’ll find agents on there from time to time.” ; 4) ASAIC FLOYD BORING: “He actually – No, I told them…He didn’t tell them anything…He just – I looked at the back and I seen these fellahs were hanging on the limousine – I told them to return to the car…[JFK] was a very easy-going guy…he didn’t interfere with our actions at all. I never told him [William Manchester] that…No, no, no-that’s not true……Well that’s not true. That’s not true. He was a very nice man; he never interfered with us at all…President Kennedy was a very congenial man knowing most agents by their first name. He was very cooperative with the Secret Service, and well liked and admired by all of us.” To the JFK Library: “…of all the administrations I worked with, the president and the people surrounding the president were very gracious and were very cooperative. As a matter of fact, you can’t do this type of security work without cooperation of the people surrounding the president…” On 9/18/96, by request of the author, the ARRB’s Doug Horne interviewed Mr. Boring regarding this matter. Horne wrote: “Mr. Boring was asked to read pages 136-137 of Clint Hill’s Warren Commission testimony, in which Clint Hill recounted that Floyd Boring had told him just days prior to the assassination that during the President’s Tampa trip on Monday, 11/18/63, JFK had requested that agents not ride on the rear steps of the limousine, and that Boring had also so informed other agents of the White House detail, and that as a result, agents in Dallas (except Clint Hill, on brief occasions) did not ride on the rear steps of the limousine. MR BORING AFFIRMED THAT HE DID MAKE THESE STATEMENTS TO CLINT HILL, BUT STATED THAT HE WAS NOT RELAYING A POLICY CHANGE, BUT RATHER SIMPLY TELLING AN ANECDOTE ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S KINDNESS AND CONSIDERATION IN TAMPA IN NOT WANTING AGENTS TO HAVE TO RIDE ON THE REAR OF THE LINCOLN LIMOUSINE WHEN IT WAS NOT NECESSARY TO DO SO BECAUSE OF A LACK OF CROWDS ALONG THE STREET.” (see Hill, below) [Note: the other ASAICs, John Campion and Roy H Kellerman, died many years ago and never went on the record regarding this matter. That said, Roy's widow, the late June Kellerman (deceased 2006), wrote to me: "Roy did not say JFK was difficult to protect."] 5) ATSAIC (SHIFT LEADER) Arthur L. Godfrey (on the TX trip): “That’s a bunch of baloney; that’s not true. He never ordered us to do anything. He was a very nice man…cooperative.” Godfrey reiterated this at a later date. Asked if whether Aide Ken O’Donnell did any similar ordering, Godfrey said emphatically: “He did not order anyone around.” “All I can speak for is myself. When I was working [with] President Kennedy he never ask [ed] me to have my shift leave the limo when we [were] working it” ; [NOTE: the other 2 ATSAICs, Emory Roberts and Stu Stout, died in the 1970's and never went on record. Roberts DID submit a report on the matter, ATSAIC (Shift Leader) Emory Roberts one-page report (dated 4/10/64, the second one submitted to Rowley and finally on Treasury Department letterhead) deals exclusively with the Tampa FL trip of 11/18/63 and states nothing other than confirmation that he heard ASAIC Boring tell him, via radio, to get the agents off the back of JFK’s car; nothing about the President’s alleged wishes or anything else. From an evidentiary standpoint, moot and useless. Roberts was a “good soldier”: he ordered an agent back from JFK’s limo at Love Field (as this author discovered back in 1991 and had popularized for the first time back in 1995 and, again, in 2003 on The History Channel, long before this clip became something of an internet sensation), recalled an agent during the shooting and, as Sam Kinney told me, ordered the men on the follow-up car not to move! So, needless to say, like Boring, I am suspicious of Mr. Roberts (deceased 1973). Stout’s son, Stu Stout III, wrote to me on 11/1/10: “Vince. Thought I would mention that one of the influential people that attended the advance planning meetings for the Dallas trip was the Mayor of Dallas in 63 and I think it was Earle Cabell or Eric? Doesn’t really matter. I distinctly ...remember during a conversation at the dinner table weeks following (that surreal day), my father telling my mother that "the Mayor thought agents riding on the back of the car (which was common protocol) would send a message and did not want his city to appear dangerous to the world though the media. He asked for subtle security exposure if and where possible."On that day only two individuals would have been able to direct such an order and that would have been the President himself or Floyd Boring SAIC. In my opinion, and you know about opinions, if you find out who else was in that chain of command "during that moment" you will be able to rationally determine why the agents jumped down for a portion of that politically motivated route through the city. Take care Vince and please don’t give up.”] 6) Winston G. Lawson, WHD (lead) advance agent for the Dallas trip (rode in the lead car): “I do not know of any standing orders for the agents to stay off the back of the car. After all, foot holds and handholds were built into that particular vehicle. I am sure it would have been on a “case by case” basis depending on event, intelligence, threats, etc. Jerry Behn as Special Agent in Charge of the White House Detail…would have been privy to that type of info more than I [see above]. However, it never came to my attention as such. I am certain agents were on the back on certain occasions.”; 7) Robert I. Bouck, SAIC of PRS: Bouck confirmed to the author that having agents on the back of the limousine depended on factors independent of any alleged Presidential “requests”: “Many times there were agents on his car.” The ARRB’s Doug Horne questioned Bouck: “Did you ever hear the President personally say that he didn’t want agents to stand on the running boards on his car, or did you hear that from other agents?” Bouck: “I never heard the President say that personally. I heard that from other agents (emphasis added).” The former agent also told the ARRB that JFK was the “most congenial” of all the presidents he had observed (Bouck served from FDR to LBJ).; 8) Rufus W. Youngblood, (A)SAIC of LBJ Detail (in LBJ’s car in Dallas) : “There was not a standing order” from JFK to restrict agents from the back of the limousine – the agents had “assigned posts and positions” on the back of the President’s car. “President Kennedy wasn’t a hard ass…he never said anything like that [re: removing agents from limo and the like]. As a historian, he [Manchester] flunked the course—don’t readManchester.” Youngblood knows of what he speaks: he was interviewed by Manchester on 11/17/64.; 9) SA Robert E. Lilley, WHD: “Oh, I’m sure he [JFK] didn’t [order agents off his car, agreeing with Behn, above]. He was very cooperative with us once he became President. He was extremely cooperative. Basically, ‘whatever you guys want is the way it will be’.” In interviews and correspondence on four separate occasions, Lilley reiterated this view. Lilley also refuted the Bishop and Manchester accounts, adding that, as an example, on a trip with JFK in Caracas, Venezuela, he and “Roy Kellerman rode on the back of the limousine all the way to the Presidential palace” at speeds reaching “50 miles per hour.”; 10) Samuel A. Kinney, WHD (drove the follow-up car in FL, TX, and many other trips):“That is absolutely, positively false…no, no, no: he had nothing to do with that [ordering agents off the rear of the limousine]…No, never-the agents say, ‘O.K., men, fall back on your posts’…President Kennedy was one of the easiest presidents to ever protect; Harry S. Truman was a jewel just like John F. Kennedy was…99% of the agents would agree…(JFK) was one of the best presidents ever to control-he trusted every one of us.” In regard to the infamous quote from William Manchester, Kinney said, “That is false. I talked to William Manchester; he called me on the book…for the record of history that is false – Kennedy never ordered us to do anything. I am aware of what is being said but that is false” Finally, just to nail down this issue, the author asked Kinney if an exception was made on 11/22/63: “Not this particular time, no. Not in this case”. Kinney also told the author that Ken O’Donnell did not interfere with the agents: “Nobody ordered anyone around.”; 11) Samuel E. Sulliman, WHD (On Texas trip, in Dallas, at the Trade Mart): Said that agents were on the back of the limousine a lot; in fact, he remembered riding there on the trips to Ireland and Germany. When told of Art Godfrey’s comments on the matter (see above), the former agent agreed with his colleague. Regarding the notion that JFK ordered the agents off the car, Sulliman told the author twice: “I don’t think so.” Sulliman also said that JFK was “easy to get along with.”; 12) Gerald W. “Jerry” O’Rourke, WHD (on Texas trip): ”To my knowledge President Kennedy never ordered us to leave the limo. President Kennedy was easy to protect as he completely trusted the agents of the Secret Service. We always had to be entirely honest with him and up front so we did not lose his trust.”; 13) J. Walter Coughlin, WHD (on Texas trip): “In almost all parade situations that I was involved w [ith] we rode or walked the limo… We often rode on the back of the car... The rear steps [of the limousine] were very adaquete [sic] for safety… [JFK was] Very funny and very friendly. Knew all the agents by first name.” When I asked him if he thought William Manchester and others took “poetic license” on this matter?” Coughlin responded: “Yes I do.”; 14) Vincent P. Mroz, WHD: President Kennedy was “friendly, congenial—he was really easy to get along with…just like Truman.” When asked, point blank, if JFK had ever ordered the agents off the car, Mroz said forcefully: “No, no—that’s not true.” When asked a second time, the former agent responded with equal conviction: “He did not order anybody off the car.”; 15) Frank G. Stoner, PRS: said that Manchester was “probably trying to sell books” when he suggested that Kennedy ordered the agents off the back of the limousine. In fact, the former agent laughed at the mere suggestion. Stoner also agreed with several of his colleagues that JFK was “very personable”: “He was an old Navy man. He understood security. He wouldn’t have ordered them off the car.”; 16) Larry Newman, WHD: Said that there was “no policy” regarding the use of agents on the rear of Kennedy’s car, further adding that the question was “hard to answer: it depends on the crowd, the threat assessment, and so forth. There was not a consistent rule of thumb.” Newman phoned the author unexpectedly later to say that “there was not a directive, per se” from President Kennedy to remove the agents from their positions on the back of his limousine; 17) J. Frank Yeager, WHD (on Texas trip): “I did not think that President Kennedy was particularly “difficult” to protect. In fact, I thought that his personality made it easier than some because he was easy to get along with… I know of no “order” directly from President Kennedy”; 18) Gerald S. Blaine, WHD (on Texas trip): President Kennedy was “very cooperative. He didn’t interfere with our actions. President Kennedy was very likeable—he never had a harsh word for anyone. He never interfered with our actions. Said it was a “fairly common” occurrence to have agents on the rear of the limo and that it depended on the crowd and the speed of the cars. Said the remark “Ivy League charlatans” came “from the guys…I can’t remember who [said it]…I can’t remember (emphasis added).”Thus, Blaine confirms that he did not hear the remark from JFK. He also added that the lack of agents on the rear of the car “had no impact,” adding: “Well, maybe a hesitation.” On the issue of JFK being cooperative with the Secret Service, former agents James Goodenough (Texas trip), Jerry Kivett (LBJ Detail, Dallas), and Radford Jones cooroborated Blaine, Godfrey, Boring and the others—Goodenough: “President Kennedy was a pleasant and cooperative person to work for”; Kivett: “[JFK] was beloved by those agents on the detail and I never heard anyone say that he was difficult to protect”; Jones: “JFK was an easy President to protect and no different from other Presidents in wanting to mingle and be close to people … The President was always considerate of the agents and spoke with them. He kept us informed of his travels, etc. I would say he was no more difficult to protect than any other President.”; 19) Donald J. Lawton, WHD; rode on rear of limousine 3/23/63 (Chicago) & 11/18/63 (Tampa); relegated to airport duty 11/22/63: “It’s the way Sam said, yes” (Meaning, he agrees with Kinney, it happened the way Kinney said). Asked to explain how he dismounted the rear of the limousine in Tampa, Lawton said: ” I didn’t hear the President say it, no. ” JFK was “very personable…very warm”. Asked about the tragedy in Dallas, Lawton said, “Everyone felt bad. It was our job to protect the President. You still have regrets, remorse. Who knows, if they had left guys on the back of the car…you can hindsight yourself to death.” Lawton later wrote: “If you spoke with Bob Lilley as you stated then you can take whatever information he passed on to you as gospel [see Lilley’s comments, above]; 20) Clinton J. Hill, WHD: [from his written report (18 H 809)] “I…never personally was requested by President John F. Kennedy not to ride on the rear of the Presidential automobile. I did receive information passed verbally from the administrative offices of the White House Detail of the Secret Service to Agents assigned to that Detail that President Kennedy had made such requests. I do not know from whom I received this information. It was general knowledge on the White House Detail, however [VMP- in his 2012 book, page 271, he writes: "I had never heard the president ever question procedural recommendations by his Secret Service detail"!]…No written instructions regarding this were ever distributed…(I) received this information after the Presidents return to Washington, D. C. This would have been between November 19,1963 and November 21, 1963 [note the time frame!]. I do not know specifically who advised me of this request by the President.” However, Hill DID reveal the specific source to the Warren Commission’s Arlen Specter- Floyd Boring! Specter: “What are the standard regulations and practices, if any, governing such an action on your part?” Hill: “It is left to the agent’s discretion…”Specter: “Are those practices specified in any written documents of the Secret Service?” Hill: “No, they are not.”Specter: “And to whom did the President make that request?”Hill: “Assistant Special Agent in Charge Boring.” Specter: “And Special Agent Boring informed you of that instruction by President Kennedy?”Hill: “Yes sir, he did.” Specter: “Did he make it a point to inform other special agents of that same instruction?” Hill: “I believe that he did, sir.” However, as Boring told the ARRB (above): “HE WAS NOT RELAYING A POLICY CHANGE, BUT RATHER SIMPLY TELLING AN ANECDOTE ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S KINDNESS AND CONSIDERATION IN TAMPA IN NOT WANTING AGENTS TO HAVE TO RIDE ON THE REAR OF THE LINCOLN LIMOUSINE WHEN IT WAS NOT NECESSARY TO DO SO BECAUSE OF A LACK OF CROWDS ALONG THE STREET”!; 21) Darwin David Horn, Sr. (Secret Service, Los Angeles office; former WHD agent; served in the agency from 1951 to 1981): “You asked about Kennedy. I have worked him primarily in Los Angeles on several occasions …and never heard him tell the agents to get off of the car. It is possible. You will have to ask some of the other agents who worked him full time. [Art] Godfrey would have been perfect but he passed away some time ago.” See Godfrey’s comments, above. Horn later wrote the author: “Agents on the rear of JFK’s car might have made a difference. They may have been hit instead of the President. That would have been all right with all of us. Agents normally would have been on the sides [of the car].”; 22) Maurice G. Martineau, SAIC of Chicago office: Martineau joined his colleagues in refuting the Manchester story that JFK ordered the agents off the rear of the car. Martineau said this to the author in two telephonic interviews on 9/21/93 and 6/7/96, respectively; 23) Abraham W. Bolden, Sr.: In reference to Kennedy’s alleged “requests”, Mr. Bolden told the author on numerous occasions in 1993-1996 that he “didn’t hear anything about that…I never believed that Kennedy said that [ordering removal of agents]”. Bolden, an ardent critic of the agency’s lax protection since 1963, also wrote the author: “No-one could have killed our President without the shots of omission fired by the Secret Service. Observe the feet of [four] Secret Service agents glued to the running boards of the follow-up car as bullets [sic?] pierce the brain of our President!!!” (In addition to being a WHD agent on temporary assignment in 1961, as well as a Chicago Office agent afterwards, Bolden saw action on the 3/23/63 and (cancelled) 11/2/63 trips to Chicago); 24) John F. Norris, Uniformed Division of the Secret Service: On 3/4/94, in an interview with the author, Norris also joined his colleagues in refuting the notion that JFK ordered the agents off the rear of the limo: “I would doubt that very much,” Norris said.; 25) Lynn S. Meredith (WHD, “Kiddie Detail”/ Kennedy Children; served in the Secret Service from 1951 to 1983): “in Dallas, the Secret Service had no reliable information that Dallas was a dangerous place…I do believe if agents had been riding on the rear of the limo in Dallas that President Kennedy would not have been assassinated …To elaborate a little more on the assassination in Dallas, I have always believed that the following adverse situations all contributed to the unnecessary and unfortunate death of President Kennedy: (1) No Secret Service agents riding on the rear of the limousine…I do not know first-hand if President Kennedy ordered agents off the back end of his limousine…If you really want to receive a very definite and accurate statement of fact about this, I strongly recommend that you try to contact former Agent Clint Hill…Here is Hill’s mailing address [deleted for privacy]…I don’t know how successful you would be in contacting Clint Hill…But I wish you “Good Luck” in this regard.” On 6/2/05, the author mailed a lengthy, 22-page letter to former WHD agent Clinton J. Hill (Certified, Return Receipt Requested with a S.A.S.E. to boot) summarizing my work in great detail. On 6/13/05, after not receiving a reply, the author phoned Mr. Hill, who was quite apparently angry—he first pretended not to know about the lengthy letter he had to sign for (of which the author received his signed receipt): “About what?,” Hill exclaimed in response to the author’s inquiry. Then, forcefully, Hill added: “I’m just not interested in talking to you.”; 26)- 27) Aide David F. Powers (rode in the follow-up car on 11/22/63) & Jacqueline Kennedy (rode with President Kennedy in the limousine): In a personal letter to the author dated 9/10/93, Mr. Powers wrote: “Unless they were ‘running’ along beside the limo, the Secret Service rode in a car behind the President, so, no, they never had to be told to “get off” the limousine”. This comment rivals Behn’s shocking statements to the author due to the source: President Kennedy’s longtime friend and aide and a man who was on countless trips with the President. For the record, Agent Bob Lilley endorsed Mr. Powers view: “Dave would give you factual answers.” In addition, the ARRB’s Tom Samoluk told the author that, during the course of an interview he conducted with Powers in 1996, the former JFK aide and friend agreed with the author’s take on the Secret Service! For her part, Jackie “played the events over and over in her mind…She did not want to accept Jack’s death as a freak accident, for that meant his life could have been spared—if only the driver in the front seat of the presidential limousine [Agent William R. Greer] had reacted more quickly and stepped on the gas…if only the Secret Service had stationed agents on the rear bumper…” (“Just Jackie: Her Private Years” by Edward Klein (Ballantine Books, 1999), pages 58-59 & 374: based off an interview Klein had with Kitty Carlisle Hart re: Hart’s conversation with Jackie); 28) Cecil Stoughton, WH photographer (on the FL & TX trips, as well as many others): “I did see a lot of the activity surrounding the various trips of the President, and in many cases I did see the agents in question riding on the rear of the President’s car. In fact, I have ridden there a number of times myself during trips…I would jump on the step on the rear of the [Lincoln] Continental until the next stop. I have made photos while hanging on with one hand…in Tampa [11/18/63], for example. As for the [alleged] edict of not riding there by order of the President- I can’t give you any proof of first hand knowledge.” Stoughton went on to write: “I am bothered by your interest in these matters”. In a later letter, Stoughton merely corroborated his prior written statements: “I would just jump on and off [the limo] quickly- no routine, and Jackie had no further remarks to me”. It should be explained that, according to Stoughton’s book, Jackie had told him to stay close to the limo in July 1963, and he did up to and including the Houston, TX trip of 11/21/63 (There are photos that Stoughton made from the follow-up car that day, as well). “Then, for some unknown reason, Stoughton was relegated to a position further away from JFK on 11/22/63; 29) Press Secretary Pierre Salinger: JFK had a good relationship with the Secret Service and, more importantly, did NOT argue with their security measures. This was based on the author’s correspondence with noted journalist Roger Peterson from 2/99 (from Peterson’s very recent conversations with Salinger); 30) DNC Advance man Martin E. “Marty” Underwood (on the TX trip): Underwood cited Clint Hill’s actions on 11/22/63 as just one of “many times” that agents were posted on the back of the JFK limousine. During this 10/9/92 interview, Underwood confirmed to the author that JFK never ordered the agents off the rear of the car; 31) FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1:40 p.m., 11/29/63: “You see, there was no Secret Service man standing on the back of the car. Usually the presidential car in the past has had steps on the back, next to the bumpers, and there’s usually been one [agent] on either side standing on these steps…[ellipsis in text]…Whether the President asked that that not be done, we don’t know.” “So, as of 11/29/63, a week after the murder, the myth hadn’t been set in motion yet. From Hoover’s Memorandum for Messrs. Tolson, Belmont, & Mohr, November 29, 1963: “…there was no Secret Service Agent on the back of the car; that in the past they have added steps on the back of the car and usually had an agent on either side standing on the bumper; that I did not know why this was not done – that the President may have requested it…[emphasis added].” One now wonders if Hoover was the originator of the blame-the-President campaign and if he had any influence on Agent Boring who, by date, had written the first report about these matters to former FBI agent—and Hoover friend and colleague—Chief James Rowley; 32)-34) Newsmen: ABC’s Ron Gardner, ABC’s Jim Haggerty (former Eisenhower Press Secretary), & UPI’s Robert J. Serling: Shortly after the assassination on 11/22/63 before a television audience of many millions of people, Gardner reported: “Secret Service agents normally walk directly beside the car. We can’t see any in these pictures.” Also on the very same day before an enormous television audience, Haggerty maintained that agents normally walked or jogged near the rear of the president’s car, adding that he had a hand in planning many motorcades (as did his successor, Pierre Salinger). For his part, Serling wrote on 11/23/63, based in part on “private conversations” with unnamed agents: “There are two absolute rules for motorcade protection: The agent running or riding at the President’s shoulder must never leave that position unless relieved. The other is to turn out the manpower in all secret service cars the moment trouble arises and get secret service bodies around the President.” (In the same UPI story written by Serling from Washington entitled “Secret Service Men Wary of Motorcade”: “The United States Secret Service… has always feared a motorcade assassination attempt more than anything else. In private conversations and in books published by high officials after they left the service, agents admit that Chief Executives riding in open cars down crowded city streets are at their most vulnerable as the targets of assassination… For motorcades the secret service checks every manhole cover and sewer along the parade route for bombs or dynamite. Buildings frequently are checked, along with records of occupants to make sure there are no known President-haters on the premises… They are trained never to watch the President himself but the people and crowds around him. They are also sworn to throw themselves in front of their charge at the first indication of gunfire — to take the bullets, if possible, meant for the Chief Executive… An agent is the only man in the world who can order a President of the United States around if the latter’s safety is believed at stake… in certain situations an agent outranks even a President.”); 35) Helen O’Donnell, daughter of JFK Chief of Staff Ken O’Donnell: “Suffice to say that you are correct; JFK did not order anybody off the car, he never interfered with my dad’s direction on the Secret Service, and this is much backed up by my Dad’s tapes. I think and know from the tapes Dallas always haunted him because of the might-have-beens—but they involved the motorcade route [only].”; 36) Florida Congressman Samuel Melville Gibbons, rode right next to JFK in Tampa on 11/18/63: Gibbons response in full, dated 1/15/04: “I rode with Kennedy every time he rode. I heard no such order. As I remember it the agents rode on the rear bumper all the way. Kennedy was very happy during his visit to Tampa. Sam Gibbons.” [honorable mentions:] 37) William “Tim” McIntyre, WHD (rode on the follow-up car on 11/18/63 & 11/22/63): The author contacted McIntyre on 6/13/05 (McIntyre had previously been contacted via mail in 2004, based on the strong recommendations of former agents’ Larry Newman and Tony Sherman, but did not respond back). Asked about the Tampa trip of 11/18/63, the former agent said: “I was there on the follow-up car.” Regarding the question of agents being on the back of the car, McIntyre said: “I believe so—Zboril was on the back,” which he was (He also mentioned Don Lawton and Emory Roberts as being on the trip, which they were). Regarding the matter at hand, McIntyre stated: “I can’t remember if they were told to be off the car.” So, in spite of these strong recommendations from his colleagues to ask him about this specific subject, McIntyre now allegedly “can’t remember”?; 38) Charles T. Zboril, WHD, Lawton’s partner on the rear of the limo in Tampa on 11/18/63: “Well, Don Lawton and I are just sub-notes [sic] because somebody else testified on behalf of us about what happened in Tampa”- this was Clint Hill, testifying to Arlen Specter about why agents were not on the rear of the car during the assassination. When asked if it was true that JFK had ordered the agents off the limousine four days before Dallas, which the author already knew not to be true, Zboril got emotional: “Where did you read that? I…If-if you read it in the Warren Report, that’s what happened…Do you want me commenting officially? I’m pretty sure it’s there [in the Warren Report]…I’m talking to someone I don’t know. I’m talking to you as frank as I can…If you read it in there [the Warren Report], it happened…I gave you more than I would give someone else”. The agent also added: “There is an old adage that we used in the Secret Service: ‘Don’t believe anything you read and only half of what you see.”; POST SCRIPT: Author Jim Bishop revealed the seemingly unknown fact that Floyd Boring was the number one agent involved in the Dallas trip back in the 1960′s in his book “The Day Kennedy Was Shot”: “If there was any blame, any official laxness, it didn’t matter that the planning of the Texas trip had been in the capable hands of Floyd Boring.” And, to the JFK Library in the 1970′s, Boring said: “Part of my job at the White House during the entire President Kennedy administration was to be in charge of the advance work. I used to assign people to do the advance work, and most of the overseas trips I did myself in conjunction with other people on the detail.” To the Truman Library in the 1980′s, Boring added: “I was on all the advance work out of there. I was assigned all the advance work, sort of an administrator… I was second in charge [behind Special Agent in Charge Jerry Behn].” Finally, fellow former agent Sam Kinney told this author, in regard to SAIC Gerald A. “Jerry” Behn’s absence from the Texas trip, leaving ASAIC (#2) Floyd M. Boring to be the agent in charge of the Texas trip: “Here’s the story on that. We got, as agents, federal employees, thirty days a year annual leave. We lose it, because they can’t let us go…there was only ” x ” amount of agents back then in the whole wide world… they could not let us off …Jerry Behn had probably worked three years without any annual leave at all and this particular time, he could get some time off and he didn’t go to Dallas. Roy Kellerman was third in charge, so he took the thing (sic), which is, you know-he’s qualified. Floyd Boring stayed home- he could get his time off and he could still handle what ever came about from his house; there was very little correspondence between [the agents in Dallas] because Win Lawson had the advance.” Back to the ARRB interview of Boring: “Boring independently recalled that he was the person who assigned Winston Lawson as the S.S. advance agent for the Dallas leg of the Texas trip, but could not recall why or how “Win” Lawson was given that assignment.” Agent David Grant, who worked hand in glove with Boring on the controversial 11/18/63 Florida trip, assisted Lawson in the advance preparations in Dallas. Boring was also involved in the pre-11/22/63 checks of the Protective Research Section (PRS) files of any potential threats to JFK reported in Dallas which, incredibly, yielded nothing, a matter fellow ASAIC Roy Kellerman found unusual , as did fellow agent Abraham Bolden , as common sense would seem to dictate (interestingly, according to his Truman Library oral history, Boring worked for PRS back in the 1940’s!). Yet Boring had begun his ARRB interview exclaiming: “I didn’t have anything to do with it, and I don’t know anything,” a similar sentiment he first gave to the author before probing further into the mystery. The author later asked Boring: “Were you involved in any of the planning of the Texas trip?” Then, the agent finally admitted: “Well, no, I sent-ah, yeah, I was involved in that, yeah”. And, if that weren’t enough, during researcher Dan Robertson’s interview of the lucid, 90 year old Boring in 2006, the former agent quite shockingly claimed that “He [JFK] was responsible for his own death.” Indeed, Mr. Boring IS interesting, to say the least. Secret Service agent Harry Neal wrote: “It is my personal belief that had they [Secret Service] been permitted to stay on the presidential car, the body of one of the agents might have completely obscured the President from Oswald’s vision. In that event, either no shots would have been fired, or the agent might have been killed or wounded. But the President would not have been hit.” An unnamed former JFK-era agent told author Philip Melanson in February 2002 that not having agents on the running boards of the limousine was a major factor in Kennedy’s death. Former Secret Service Chief Frank J. Wilson wrote: “Agents on running boards at Dallas might not have saved the President from the first bullet but might have saved him from the second one, which was fatal,” a view later shared by Agents Joseph Petro (in his own book) and Charles Taylor (in Kessler’s book). Clinton Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti: stated that the assassination “might have been thwarted had agents been stationed on the car’s running boards.” “The Washington Post” from 5/20/98: “I have attached, as Exhibit A to this Declaration, photographs of President John F. Kennedy’s visit to Tampa, Florida on November 18, 1963. We use these photographs, and the ones attached as Exhibit B, in our training exercises. Exhibit A demonstrates the lengths to which protective personnel have been forced to go to try to maintain proximity to the President. In the photographs contained in Exhibit A, agents are kneeling on the running board of the Presidential limousine, while the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed. I can attest that this requires extraordinary physical exertion. Nevertheless, they performed this duty in an attempt to maintain close physical proximity to the President. Exhibit B, by contrast, scarcely needs any introduction. It is a series of photographs of the Presidential limousine, taken just four days later, on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. As can be seen, at the instruction of the President [VMP: huh? it can be "seen" that JFK ordered them off?], Secret Service agents had been ordered off of the limousine’s running boards. An analysis of the ensuing assassination (including the trajectory of the bullets which struck the President) indicates that it might have been thwarted had agents been stationed on the car’s running boards. In other words, had they been able to maintain close proximity to the President during the motorcade, the assassination of John F. Kennedy might have been averted. Exhibit C contains a series of photographs taken during the actual assassination that demonstrate how critical and tragic the absence of proximity to the protectee can be.” POST SCRIPT TWO: JFK’S STAFF? NOT Ronald M. Pontius, WHD (on Texas trip, but not the Dallas stop): When asked if JFK ever ordered the agents off his limo, the agent wrote back: “He did through his staff.” However, Presidential Aide (Chief of Staff/ Appointments Secretary) Kenneth P. O’Donnell does not mention anything with regard to telling the agents to remove themselves from the limousine (based on JFK’s alleged “desires”) during his lengthy Warren Commission testimony (nor to author William Manchester, nor even in his or his daughter’s books, for that matter); the same is true for the other two Presidential aides: Larry O’Brien and Dave Powers. In fact, as mentioned above, Powers and Helen O’Donnell refute this whole idea. Again, JFK’s staff is not mentioned as a factor during any of the agent’s Warren Commission testimony, nor in the five reports submitted in April 1964. (7 H 440-457. Manchester, page 666 (O’Donnell was interviewed 5/4/64, 6/4/64, 8/6/64 & 11/23/64). O’Donnell passed away 9/9/77. For what it’s worth, neither Presidential Aide’s Larry O’Brien [7 H 457- 472] or Dave Powers [7 H 472-474] mentioned any JFK “desires”, either (also, see Powers, above). In addition, nothing of the sort is mentioned in “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye” by O’Donnell, Kenneth P., David F. Powers, and Joseph McCarthy (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1972 [see especially page 20], nor in Kenny O’Donnell’s daughter’s book “A Common Good: The Friendship of Robert F. Kennedy and Kenneth P. O’Donnell (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1998), written by Helen O’Donnell, who wrote: “Much of the material in this book has been gathered from the private tapes of my father, Kenneth P. O’Donnell.” [Author’s Note]) In addition, former agent’s Godfrey and Kinney denounced the “staff/ O’Donnell” notion (see above). It is interesting to note that, like JFK, O’Donnell was not blamed for any security deficiencies and the like until only after his death (in 1977), when he was thus unable to refute any allegations as such. The biggest contradiction of all: on page 162 of “The Kennedy Detail”, agent Ron Pontius stated: “I’ve never heard the president say anything about agents on the back of the car”! POST SCRIPT THREE: A COVER-UP, 5 MONTHS LATER CE 1025, the 5 Secret Service reports submitted by Chief James J. Rowley on 4/22/64 (exactly 5 months to the day after the assassination) to the Warren Commission’s General Counsel, J. Lee Rankin, ONLY because Rankin asked via a letter dated 4/3/64, were supposed to specifically address, quote, “expressions by President Kennedy regarding the placement of Secret Service agents on or near his car during the motorcade,” obviously meaning THE fateful motorcade in Dallas on 11/22/63 when JFK was assassinated. However, not one of the five reports even addresses the DALLAS motorcade; only the Tampa, FL motorcade of 11/18/63 (and a few earlier motorcades) are addressed. Out of roughly 36 agents of the White House Detail (the number slightly fluctuates if you include “the brass”), Rowley chose to obtain written statements from just five: SAIC Gerald Behn (not in Dallas or Tampa; on leave during this time), ASAIC Floyd Boring (not in Dallas; in Tampa), ATSAIC Emory Roberts (in Tampa and Dallas), SA John Ready (not in Tampa but in Dallas), and Clint Hill (like Ready, not in Tampa but in Dallas). Why Roy Kellerman, the agent nominally in charge of the Texas trip, nor Winston Lawson, the lead advance agent, nor even the other 5 agents in the follow up car in Dallas (McIntyre, Kinney, Landis, Bennett, and Hickey), were not asked their thoughts on the matter raises suspicion (all the other agents on the Dallas trip, and prior trips, for that matter, could have participated). Importantly, NO MENTION is made of JFK’s staff (Ken O’Donnell, Dave Powers, Larry O’Brien) being involved in this issue in any way whatsoever—the same goes for the Warren Report (and accompanying testimony of the JFK agents they spoke to—Kellerman, Hill, & Greer), Jim Bishop’s book, and William Manchester’s tome. Importantly, no mention is made of any alleged orders via President Kennedy’s staff. And, again, THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT WHAT JFK SAID OR “REQUESTED” ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963, THE CRITICAL DAY IN QUESTION! SAIC Behn’s two-page report, dated 4/16/64 (the fourth report submitted to Rowley, and on blank paper, to boot; not official treasury Department stationary), first mentions the Mexico trip of 1962 and the trip to Berlin in 1963—both trips involved agents on and near the rear of the limo, as the film/ photo record exhaustively proves, so whatever JFK allegedly said on the matter, one way or the other, is moot. As for the other trips he mentions on page two of his report (Seattle, Phoenix, Bonham, TX, and “other stops” [no specifics]), two points must be made. These all occured in November of 1961, a whopping two years before the assassination! So, if there was not a standing order for the agents to stay off the car by order of JFK (which the film/ photo record, just by viewing the aforementioned Mexico and Berlin trips, proves), these alleged statements by JFK (to have the agents off the limo) are not really germane to a trip two years after the (alleged) fact, to put it mildly. The second point is a recent discovery: the Bonham, TX stop was for the funeral of former Speaker Sam Rayburn and it involved a HARDTOP car without handholds for the agents to begin with: JFK was well protected, so mentioning this trip isn’t germane, either. Keep in mind a valuable point in looking at all these reports: this was before the internet and before many of these films and photos were somewhat accessible to the lay person. Back in 1964, it was very easy to believe the pronouncements of official government employees, especially with JFK dead and not able to defend himself by stating HIS real views on the matter. However, as noted above, Behn tells me (on audio tape/ You Tube video): “I don’t remember Kennedy ever saying that he didn’t want anybody on the back of his car.” ASAIC Boring’s one-page report, dated 4/8/64 (the very first report submitted to Rowley and, once again, on blank paper), deals mainly with the Tampa, FL trip of 11/18/63, while also mentioning the Italy trip of 7/2/63. Boring claims in this report that JFK told him to have the agents remove themselves from the rear of the limousine. However, films/ photos exhaustively prove that the agents rode on or near the rear of the car either the entire motorcade, or, at the very least, the vast majority of the trek, in Tampa, so, once again, whatever JFK allegedly said to Boring is moot. What’s more, as the author discovered via research at the JFK Library, films and photos depict agents on and near the rear of the limo in Italy, as well! Regarding the Tampa trip, the author wrote to former Florida Congressman Samuel Melville Gibbons. “I rode with Kennedy every time he rode. I heard no such order. As I remember it the agents rode on the rear bumper all the way. Kennedy was very happy during his visit to Tampa.” Furthermore, an amazing document was released in the 1990’s concerning, among many other related topics, the issue of the agents’ presence (or lack thereof) on the limousine. This is a 28-page “Sensitive”memorandum from Belford Lawson, the attorney in charge of the Secret Service area for the HSCA, addressed to Gary Cornwell & Ken Klein dated 5/31/77 and revised 8/15/77. Apparently, Attorney Lawson was suspicious of Mr. Boring, for he wrote on the final page of this lengthy memorandum: “Subject: Florida Motorcades in November 1963…Was Floyd Boring, the Senior SS Agent on the White House detail, lying to SS Agent Hill when he told Hill that JFK had said in Tampa…that he wanted no agents riding upright on the rear bumper step of the JFK limousine? Did JFK actually say this? Did Boring know when he told this to Hill that Hill would be riding outboard on the JFK follow-up car in Dallas on November 22, 1963? Did Boring say this to Ready or Roberts? [Lawson’s emphasis]” On page 27 of the same memo, Lawson wrote: “Why did only one Agent, Hill, run forward to the JFK limousine?” As or even more surprising than the shocking comments by Behn, Floyd Boring told the author, in reference to JFK’s alleged “desires” mentioned by Jim Bishop, Manchester (“quoting” Boring), and himself in his own report: “He actually – No, I told them…He didn’t tell them anything…He just – I looked at the back and I seen these fellahs were hanging on the limousine – I told them to return to the car…[JFK] was a very easy-going guy…he didn’t interfere with our actions at all” (emphasis added)! The author reiterated the point – Mr. Boring was still adamant that JFK never issued any orders to the agents; he even refuted Manchester’s book. Floyd Boring (and quite a few of his colleagues) categorically denied to the author what William Manchester reports in his acclaimed massive best-seller “The Death of a President”: “Kennedy grew weary of seeing bodyguards roosting behind him every time he turned around [indicating the frequency of the event], and in Tampa on November 18 [1963], just four days before his death, he dryly asked Agent Floyd Boring to ‘keep those Ivy League charlatans off the back of the car.’ Boring wasn’t offended. There had been no animosity in the remark. (Emphasis added).” (In his “defense”, Manchester also wrote: “It was a good idea, for example, to have agents perched on the broad trunk of the Presidential Lincoln when crowds threatened to grow disorderly. The trouble was that they were always there [emphasis added].”) Incredibly, Boring told this author: “I never told him that.” As for the merit of the quote itself, as previously mentioned, Boring said: “No, no, no-that’s not true,” thus contradicting his own report in the process. Incredibly, BORING WAS NOT EVEN INTERVIEWED FOR MANCHESTER’S BOOK! We may never know Mr. Manchester’s source for this curious statement: he told the author on 8/23/93 that “all that material is under seal and won’t be released in my lifetime” and denied the author access to his notes (Manchester has since passed away). Interestingly, Manchester did interview the late Emory Roberts, Manchester’s probable and—as we shall see—very questionable “source.” [Of the 21 agents/ officials interviewed by Manchester, only Roberts, Greer, Kinney, and Blaine were on the Florida trip. Blaine was the advance agent for Tampa (riding in the lead car), Greer drove JFK’s car, Kinney drove the follow-up car, and Roberts was the commander of the follow-up car. That said, in the author’s opinion, Roberts is still the main suspect of the four as being Manchester’s dubious source for this quote: after all, he was asked to write a report about JFK’s so-called desires, citing Boring as the source for the order via radio transmission. The others---Greer, Kinney, & Blaine---were not asked to write a similar report. In addition, Manchester had access to this report while writing his book). Also, unlike the other three, Roberts was interviewed twice and, while Greer never went on record with his feelings about the matter, one way or the other, Kinney adamantly denied the veracity of Manchester’s information, while Blaine denied the substance of the information, although he DID mention the “Ivy league charlatan” remark coming from a secondary source. Finally, of the 21 agents interviewed by Manchester, Blaine is the only agent---save two headquarters Inspectors (see next section)---whose interview comments are not to be found in the text or index. Since, in addition to Blaine, three other agents---Lawton, Meredith & Newman---also mentioned the remark as hearsay, in some fashion or another, it is more than likely that Manchester seized upon the remark and greatly exaggerated its significance…AND attributed it to Boring, while his actual source was likely Roberts (and/ or Blaine). Again, since Boring wasn’t interviewed, the comment had to come second-hand from another agent, who, in turn, received the remark second-hand from Boring. Ultimately, the question is: did Boring really give out this order on instructions from JFK?] Needless to say, Manchester left his mark on this issue. [Interestingly, Manchester, having interviewed 21 different agents/ officials for his book [pages 660-669], chose to include interviews with Secret Service Inspectors Burrill Peterson and Jack Warner. What’s the problem? Well, these men, not even associated with the Texas trip in any way, were interviewed more than any of the other agents: four times each (Peterson: 10/9/64, 11/17/64, 11/18/64, 2/5/65; Warner: 6/2/64, 11/18/64, 2/5/65, 5/12/65)! Only Emory Roberts, Clint Hill, Roy Kellerman, and Forrest Sorrels had two interviews apiece, while all the other agents/ officials garnered just one interview each. And, more importantly, unlike all the other 19 agents, save one, Gerald Blaine (a Texas trip WHD agent), these two Inspectors are not even mentioned in the actual text or the index; their comments are “invisible” to the reader. It appears, then, that Manchester’s book was truly a sanitized, “official” book, more so than we thought before (as most everyone knows, the book was written with Jackie Kennedy’s approval: it was her idea, in fact [page ix]. Manchester even had early, exclusive access to the Warren Commission itself: “At the outset of my inquiry the late Chief Justice Earl Warren appointed me an ex officio member of his commission…and provided me with an office in Washington’s VFW building, where the commission met and where copies of reports and depositions were made available to me [page xix]). Inspector Peterson figured prominently in the post-assassination press dealings (or lack thereof)—as Agent Sorrels testified: “…I don’t think at any time you will see that there is any statement made by the newspapers or television that we said anything because Mr. Kelley, the Inspector, told me ‘Any information that is given out will have to come from Inspector Peterson in Washington.’”[7 H 359] Peterson became an Assistant Director for Investigations in 1968 [“20 Years in the Secret Service” by Rufus Youngblood (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973), page 220], while Inspector Warner would go on to become Director of Public Affairs (a position he held until the 1990’s), acting as a buffer to critical press questions during the assassination attempts on President Ford and other related matters [“The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency” (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003) by Philip Melanson with Peter Stevens, pages 101, 201, 224, 237]. Warner would also later become a consultant to the 1993 Clint Eastwood movie “In The Line of Fire.”] Jim Bishop, in his own massive best-selling book entitled “The Day Kennedy was Shot, “does nothing more than repeat the written record of the Warren Commission and the previously mentioned five reports, taken at face value. Again, Mr. Boring was not interviewed for the book. With Mr. Bishop dead, this is where the matter rests with his account. That said, Jim Bishop did sum up the situation best: “No one wanted to weigh the possibilities that, if a Secret Service man had been on the left rear bumper going down Elm Street, it would have been difficult to hit President Kennedy (emphasis added).” Bishop also noted: “The Secret Service men were not pleased because they were in a “hot” city and would have preferred to have two men ride the bumper of the President’s car with two motorcycle policemen between him [JFK] and the crowds on the sidewalks.” Still, thanks to the Secret Service reports above (and, in large measure, to Agent Boring himself), three massive best-sellers still in print or in libraries —the Warren Report The Warren Report , Manchester‘s “The Death of a President“, and Bishop’s “The Day Kennedy Was Shot”— have created the myth that JFK was difficult to protect and had ordered the agents off his car and the like, a dangerous myth that endures to this day in classrooms and in the media, thus doing great damage to the true historical record. Remember, Boring is admitting it came from him, and not JFK! With regard to exactly who makes the decision regarding the agents’ proximity to the President, Agent Jerry Parr told Larry King: “I would say it was the agent in charge who makes that decision.” When asked, point blank, if JFK had ever ordered the agents off the rear of the limousine, including in Tampa on 11/18/63, Boring told the author again : “Well that’s not true. That’s not true. He was a very nice man; he never interfered with us at all.” In a letter received by the author on, of all dates, 11/22/97, Boring confirmed what he had previously told the author on two previous occasions (9/22/93 and 3/4/94, respectively) when he wrote: “President Kennedy was a very congenial man knowing most agents by their first name. He was very cooperative with the Secret Service, and well liked and admired by all of us (emphasis added).” Not only does Boring NOT mention anything about JFK’s alleged “desires” to restrict security during his two lengthy oral histories, the agent stated: “…of all the administrations I worked with, the president and the people surrounding the president were very gracious and were very cooperative. As a matter of fact, you can’t do this type of security work without cooperation of the people surrounding the president…[emphasis added]” Indeed, Chief James J. Rowley told the ATSAIC (Shift Leader) Emory Roberts one-page report (dated 4/10/64, the second one submitted to Rowley and finally on Treasury Department letterhead) deals exclusively with the Tampa FL trip of 11/18/63 and states nothing other than confirmation that he heard ASAIC Boring tell him, via radio, to get the agents off the back of JFK’s car; nothing about the President’s alleged wishes or anything else. From an evidentiary standpoint, moot and useless. Roberts was a “good soldier”: he ordered an agent back from JFK’s limo at Love Field (as this author discovered back in 1991 and had popularized for the first time back in 1995 and, again, in 2003 on The History Channel, long before this clip became something of an internet sensation), recalled an agent during the shooting and, as Sam Kinney told me, ordered the men on the follow-up car not to move! So, needless to say, like Boring, I am suspicious of Mr. Roberts (deceased 1973). Special Agent John (Jack) Ready’s one-page report (dated 4/11/64, the third one submitted to Rowley and, like Roberts, also on Treasury Department letterhead) deals exclusively with the 11/18/63 Tampa, Florida trip. However, Mr. Ready was not on this specific trip: Mr. Boring was, once again, his source for JFK’s alleged request. Ready would not respond to written inquiries from the author. The author phoned Mr. Ready on 6/13/05 and asked him if it was true that Boring said this, based on JFK’s request. After confirming he wasn’t on the Tampa trip, Ready stated: “Not on the phone [will I answer you]. I don’t know you from Adam. Can you see my point?” Special Agent Clint Hill’s one-page report (strangely undated and, presumably, the last one submitted to Rowley) deals with the 11/18/63 Tampa, Florida trip and Boring second-hand because, like Ready, Mr. Hill was not on this trip, either. Mr. Hill lives incommunicado in Virginia and will not grant private interviews. That said, the author was the first private researcher to get through to Mr. Hill (more on this in a moment). Interestingly, Mr. Hill’s brother-in-law is none other than fellow former agent David B. Grant, a former advance agent who worked on the planning of the Florida and Texas trips with none other than Mr. Boring. Agent Hill’s report was the most honest of the five: “I…never personally was requested by President John F. Kennedy not to ride on the rear of the Presidential automobile. I did receive information passed verbally from the administrative offices of the White House Detail of the Secret Service to Agents assigned to that Detail that President Kennedy had made such requests. I do not know from whom I received this information…No written instructions regarding this were ever distributed…(I) received this information after the Presidents return to Washington, D. C. This would have been between November 19,1963 and November 21, 1963 [note the time frame!]. I do not know specifically who advised me of this request by the President (emphasis added).” Mr. Hill’s undated report was presumably written in April 1964, as the other four reports were written at that time. Why Mr. Hill could not “remember” the specific name of the agent who gave him JFK’s alleged desires is very troubling – he revealed it on 3/9/64, presumably before his report was written, in his (obviously pre-rehearsed) testimony under oath to the future Senator Arlen Specter, then a lawyer with the Warren Commission: : Specter: “Did you have any other occasion en route from Love Field to downtown Dallas to leave the follow-up car and mount that portion of the President’s car [rear portion of limousine]?” Hill: “I did the same thing approximately four times.” Specter: “What are the standard regulations and practices, if any, governing such an action on your part?” Hill: “It is left to the agent’s discretion more or less to move to that particular position when he feels that there is a danger to the President: to place himself as close to the President or the First Lady as my case was, as possible, which I did.” Specter: “Are those practices specified in any written documents of the Secret Service?” Hill: “No, they are not.” Specter: “Now, had there been any instruction or comment about your performance of that type of a duty with respect to anything President Kennedy himself had said in the period immediately preceding the trip to Texas?” Hill: “Yes, sir; there was. The preceding Monday, the President was on a trip to Tampa, Florida, and he requested that the agents not ride on either of those two steps.” Specter: “And to whom did the President make that request?” Hill: “Assistant Special Agent in Charge Boring.” Specter: “Was Assistant Special Agent in Charge Boring the individual in charge of that trip to Florida?” Hill: “He was riding in the Presidential automobile on that trip in Florida, and I presume that he was. I was not along.” Specter: “Well, on that occasion would he have been in a position comparable to that occupied by Special Agent Kellerman on this trip to Texas?” Hill: “Yes sir; the same position.” Specter: “And Special Agent Boring informed you of that instruction by President Kennedy?” Hill: “Yes sir, he did.” Specter: “Did he make it a point to inform other special agents of that same instruction?” Hill: “I believe that he did, sir.” Specter: “And, as a result of what President Kennedy said to him, did he instruct you to observe that Presidential admonition?” Hill: “Yes, sir.” Specter: “How, if at all, did that instruction of President Kennedy affect your action and – your action in safeguarding him on this trip to Dallas?” Hill: “We did not ride on the rear portions of the automobile. I did on those four occasions because the motorcycles had to drop back and there was no protection on the left-hand side of the car.” (Emphasis added) On 9/18/96, by request of the author, the ARRB’s Doug Horne interviewed Mr. Boring regarding this matter. Horne wrote: “Mr. Boring was asked to read pages 136-137 of Clint Hill’s Warren Commission testimony, in which Clint Hill recounted that Floyd Boring had told him just days prior to the assassination that during the President’s Tampa trip on Monday, 11/18/63, JFK had requested that agents not ride on the rear steps of the limousine, and that Boring had also so informed other agents of the White House detail, and that as a result, agents in Dallas (except Clint Hill, on brief occasions) did not ride on the rear steps of the limousine. MR BORING AFFIRMED THAT HE DID MAKE THESE STATEMENTS TO CLINT HILL, BUT STATED THAT HE WAS NOT RELAYING A POLICY CHANGE, BUT RATHER SIMPLY TELLING AN ANECDOTE ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S KINDNESS AND CONSIDERATION IN TAMPA IN NOT WANTING AGENTS TO HAVE TO RIDE ON THE REAR OF THE LINCOLN LIMOUSINE WHEN IT WAS NOT NECESSARY TO DO SO BECAUSE OF A LACK OF CROWDS ALONG THE STREET (Emphasis added).” The author finds this admission startling, especially because the one agent who decided to ride on the rear of the limousine in Dallas anyway—and on at least 4 different occasions— was none other than CLINT HILL himself. This also does not address what the agents were to do when the crowds were heavier, or even what exactly constituted a “crowd”, as AGENTS DID RIDE ON THE REAR STEPS OF THE LIMOUSINE IN TAMPA ON NOVEMBER 18, 1963 ANYWAY (agents Donald J. Lawton, Andrew E. Berger, & Charles T. Zboril, to be exact)! Furthermore, as noted above, both Clint Hill’s written report and his testimony sure convey a more strict approach than one stemming from an alleged kind anecdote. In fact, as mentioned above, Hill twice stated in his report that he DID NOT RECALL who the agent was who told him, and the other agents, not to ride on the rear of the limousine, yet named him under oath to Counsel Specter: Floyd Boring. So of the five Secret Service reports, four have as their primary source for JFK’s alleged request Agent Boring, including one by Boring himself, while the remaining report, written by Mr. Behn, mentions the same 11/18/63 trip with Mr. Boring as the others do (again, Boring’s report was the first one written, then came one each from Roberts, Ready, Behn, and Hill, respectively). Both Behn and Boring totally contradicted the contents of their reports at different times, independent of each other, to the author. In addition, agents did ride on the rear of the limousine on 7/2/63 and 11/18/63 anyway, despite these alleged Presidential requests, as the film and photo record proves. Needless to say, with Boring joining Behn in refuting the substance of their reports, the official Secret Service ‘explanation’ falls like a house of cards.Behn’s, Boring’s, and Hill’s reports are not even on any Secret Service or Treasury Dept. stationary, just blank sheets of paper. In fact, as noted above, Hill’s report is undated, a bizarre error to make in an official government report written by request of the head of the Secret Service.All are supposedly evidence of JFK expressing his desire to keep Secret Service agents off the limousine, particularly in Tampa, Florida on 11/18/63.