Secret Service agent Mike Howard and brother Pat deliberately planted story that a janitor saw LHO pull trigger

Secret Service agent Mike Howard and brother Pat deliberately planted story that a janitor saw LHO pull trigger
25 H 721-722, 725, 844-850:re: Secret Service agent Mike Howard and brother Pat and the allegation that they deliberately planted story that a janitor saw LHO pull trigger (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE):

[see also the video below]
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE- FROM THE WARREN COMMISSION VOLUMES:

READ THE SCATHING COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO- MIKE HOWARD HAS AS MUCH CREDIBILITY AS O.J. TRYING TO FIND THE REAL KILLER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZPVS-AkkP0

Landis disavows the SBT, lies that he didn't drink, and Mike Howard tells tall tales, too

Landis disavows the SBT, lies that he didn't drink, and Mike Howard tells tall tales, too

Secret Service agent Paul Landis:
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/11/shaker_heights_man_guarding_jfk_witnes.html

"He sounds almost proud of not having read the Warren Report, and said they got it right about no conspiracy and that Oswald as the lone actor, but blew it with the single-bullet theory. That theory holds that a single shot struck the President and also wounded Governor John Connally. And "I was never interviewed by the Warren Commission and still don't understand why," he said Saturday.
Asked about allegations that agents drank heavily the night before in Fort Worth, this witness said he didn't see it.
"I had a coke," he said, and there were Blue Laws in place that severely restricted the sale of liquor.
The quarry the night before the assassination was food that was not readily available "and at no time was I impaired."

FOR THE TRUTH:
https://vincepalamara.com/2012/04/19/a-slight-correction-and-another-look-at-paul-landis-and-the-drinking-incident-by-joe-backes/

---

Secret Service agent Mike Howard:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-reston-jfk-assassination-target-20161122-story.html

"In the hours after the Kennedy assassination, after Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit and was identified as the president’s assassin, a Secret Service officer named Mike Howard was dispatched to Oswald’s apartment. Howard found a little green address book, and on its 17th page under the heading “I WILL KILL” Oswald listed four men: an FBI agent named James Hosty; a right-wing general, Edwin Walker; and Vice President Richard Nixon. At the top of the list was the governor of Texas, John Connally. Through Connally’s name, Oswald had drawn a dagger, with blood drops dripping downward.
Special Agent Howard turned the address book over to the FBI and, ultimately, to the Warren Commission. Only some time later did he learn that the list with its hugely important insight into the killer’s motive had been torn out of the book."

LBJ's White House Detail May 1968

LBJ's White House Detail May 1968

Secret Service agents Mike Howard, Clint Hill's brother-in-law David Grant, Hamilton Brown, Ned Hall, Clint Hill, Ron Pontius and Chuck Zboril May 1968

 

 

 

 

 

(take anything he says with huge grain of salt:) Retired Secret Service agent talks about day of Kennedy assassination

(take anything he says with huge grain of salt:) Retired Secret Service agent talks about day of Kennedy assassination


By TEGAN HANLON

TEGAN HANLON The Dallas Morning News

Staff Writer

As a Secret Service agent assigned to the presidential detail on Nov. 22, 1963, Mike Howard was a busy fellow.



Soon after President John F. Kennedy and his wife departed from their Fort Worth hotel for Dallas that morning, Howard and other agents faced a monumental duty — meticulously collecting the half-used cologne, scraps of paper, bars of soap and even left-behind pieces of thread from the Kennedys’ hotel suite into two trash bags.



“By the time we got everything into those bags we heard over the TV that there had been a shot fired in Dallas,” Howard, 82, recalled Monday afternoon at the Carrollton Senior Center. The retired agent spoke there during an event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination.



Immediately after the shooting, Howard’s duties quickly changed. Soon he would be questioning suspects and in time, he would guard the family of Lee Harvey Oswald.



But first he had to get to Dallas.



After hearing of the shooting, Howard got into the Tarrant County sheriff’s new Ford Crown Victoria. The car could go as fast as 150 mph, which Howard said he thought was “kind of funny — until we got in and took that drive to Dallas.”



As the speedometer hit 130 mph, Howard gripped the passenger seat as he, the sheriff and other agents sped to Parkland Hospital, where police and media vehicles had filled the parking lot. But by the time they arrived, the president was dead.



Many of the more than 120 audience members who packed the center to hear Howard on Monday could also recall where they were when they heard about Kennedy’s assassination.



Ronnie Donald had just left a geology exam at Arlington State College, now the University of Texas at Arlington. “I walked out, and usually the campus is busy, but there weren’t any students around,” said Donald, 69.



He asked a campus police officer what was going on.



“I was shocked,” the Dallas resident said. Donald headed to the student union and found his peers glued to the TV.



Meanwhile Howard, a Secret Service agent from 1960 to 1974, had received two phone calls. One was from headquarters in Washington, D.C. The other was from Lyndon Johnson. Authorities had a suspect in the shooting — Lee Harvey Oswald — and Johnson wanted Howard to help protect Oswald’s wife, Marina, and their two children.



“He said, ‘Mike, I don’t care what you do, you don’t let anything happen to these people,’” Howard recalled. He said Johnson, who had been sworn in as president at Love Field while aboard Air Force One, told him that there were rumors someone wanted to kill Oswald’s family by dragging them through the streets of Dallas.



“He said, ‘I don’t want that to happen. It’s not their fault that it happened,’” Howard said. “I said, yes sir, whatever you think, sir.”



By the next year, Howard was on a protection detail for the Johnson family, the assignment he held until he retired for medical reasons. He accompanied the president’s daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson, to school while she was in college.



On a trip to New York City, Howard said, he shielded the 19-year-old from a group of angry girls who wanted to attack her for dating popular actor George Hamilton.



“People try to get close to their children,” Howard said about the girls, who carried sulfuric acid. “It can be very touchy. You have to be very careful.”



Howard, who was born in Nocona, now lives on a ranch near Prosper. It wasn’t his intent to protect presidents and other prominent leaders. It just happened.



“I was in the military police, so that got me started and I just kind of liked it,” he said. “So, as time went by, I just kind of stuck with it.”


The tall tales of Mike Howard
















4/26/64 It was charged here [San Francisco] yesterday that a Dallas Secret Service agent deliberately "planted" a false story about the assassination of President Kennedy.



























New York attorney Mark Lane .. charged that the phony story was "leaked" to a Ft. Worth reporter on 2/9 to take press attention away from the appearance of Oswald's mother before the Commission on the following day.





















[Story refers to Negro janitor alleged to have seen Oswald shoot.]





















5/9/64 Mark Lane ... charged the Secret Service with deliberately planting a false story in the press ... According to Lane, the ... falsification concerned an article in the 2/10 issue of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram ... "The story broke the same day Oswald's mother was to appear as the first witness on behalf of Lee Oswald. It was obviously calculated to prevent press coverage of any witness who was going to raise doubts about Oswald's guilt." National Guardian





















[Story given by Mike Howard, Secret Service, to Thayer Waldo, reporter for the Star-Telegram: a Negro janitor, looking out of a window on the same floor Texas School Book Depository, heard first shot, saw Oswald and was prepared to identify him. AP account of Star-Telegram story filed Chronology, 2/9, 813 to 1143 pcs.]





















See Secret Service 2/13/64 – AP, 131 aes, Sterling Green





















5/9/64 Mark Lane, in a statement to the Guardian 5/4 ... said he has learned that a second rifle, not the one attributed to Oswald, was found on the roof of the Texas School Book Depository building the day the President was murdered.





















[Lane describes meeting between Thayer Waldo, reporter for Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and Mike Howard, Secret Service agent.] ... At one point during their meeting, Waldo asked Mike Howard whether there was any truth to the story that another rifle was found on the roof of the school book building, a story that had previously been denied. Mike Howard replied: "Yes, we found a rifle on the roof, but it was dropped by a Dallas police officer earlier in the day and he forgot to pick it up." National Guardian

The tall tales of Mike Howard

The tall tales of Mike Howard


4/26/64 It was charged here [San Francisco] yesterday that a Dallas Secret Service agent deliberately "planted" a false story about the assassination of President Kennedy.




New York attorney Mark Lane .. charged that the phony story was "leaked" to a Ft. Worth reporter on 2/9 to take press attention away from the appearance of Oswald's mother before the Commission on the following day.



[Story refers to Negro janitor alleged to have seen Oswald shoot.]



5/9/64 Mark Lane ... charged the Secret Service with deliberately planting a false story in the press ... According to Lane, the ... falsification concerned an article in the 2/10 issue of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram ... "The story broke the same day Oswald's mother was to appear as the first witness on behalf of Lee Oswald. It was obviously calculated to prevent press coverage of any witness who was going to raise doubts about Oswald's guilt." National Guardian



[Story given by Mike Howard, Secret Service, to Thayer Waldo, reporter for the Star-Telegram: a Negro janitor, looking out of a window on the same floor Texas School Book Depository, heard first shot, saw Oswald and was prepared to identify him. AP account of Star-Telegram story filed Chronology, 2/9, 813 to 1143 pcs.]



See Secret Service 2/13/64 – AP, 131 aes, Sterling Green



5/9/64 Mark Lane, in a statement to the Guardian 5/4 ... said he has learned that a second rifle, not the one attributed to Oswald, was found on the roof of the Texas School Book Depository building the day the President was murdered.



[Lane describes meeting between Thayer Waldo, reporter for Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and Mike Howard, Secret Service agent.] ... At one point during their meeting, Waldo asked Mike Howard whether there was any truth to the story that another rifle was found on the roof of the school book building, a story that had previously been denied. Mike Howard replied: "Yes, we found a rifle on the roof, but it was dropped by a Dallas police officer earlier in the day and he forgot to pick it up." National Guardian

GREAT REVIEW of Alford's book

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars When is a secret really a secret?, February 13, 2012
By The Good Book Lady (Philadelphia) - See all my reviewsAmazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath (Hardcover)
This book - though well-written and captivating - is an embarrasment to Mimi and the American Public. So she had an intimate relationship with JFK. I believe those intimate moments should have been kept a secret. It was not "the secret" that ruined Mimi's first marriage, it was her incredible and overwhelming guilt over the affair. She should not have told her fiance in fact, she should not have even married him. After JFK was killed she should have gone straight to therapy! It sounds as though she has convinced herself she is well now - by virtue of her current marriage. She is also using this book as therapy and we - who bought it - are all party to this charade. While I do not condone JFK's actions with Mimi or any other woman outside his marriage, what I do know is that she has not been loyal to JFK's love for her nor loyal to his memory. She said after the first time, she not only knew what she was doing but, she accepted and wanted his intimacy so, she was the other dancer in the dance. JFK would not have expected nor wanted her to "tell all" about the inner workings of the White House, no matter how sordid the situation, that was then. We can argue that she might or might not have been old enough to play adult games when she was an Intern but, what is her excuse now? I guarantee this book will not clear her conscience nor relieve her guilt, and the money she makes on the sale of the books and the interviews will only make her life worse.

Several random points re: "The Kennedy Detail" upon rereading

Several random points re: "The Kennedy Detail" upon rereading


NOTE: please see my extensive prior review:
http://www.ctka.net/reviews/kennedydetailreview.html

-The book is of value for its non-assassination/ non-controversial content. Great pictures, well written, and good index, as well (although no bibliography, specific sources, footnotes, or endnotes, and the book is written in the third person narrative). That said, there are well over 100 "returns" on Amazon and the book WAS only a minor best-seller (making the extended NY Times best-seller list)---one wonders how interesting this book truly is/ was for the casual fan/ student of the case (or even of JFK, in general);

-There is even more "faction", even of a seemingly trivial nature (i.e. Floyd Boring sips on coffee, sighs, etc.), than I remembered---it makes me baffled that, 47 years later, an author--or anyone---can claim to recall specific words and actions from "his" memory...and ESPECIALLY from the "memories" of agents long deceased;

-Page 101: "If the motorcade was to go down Main Street, this [the Houston-to-Elm jog past the TSBD] was the only option to get to the Trade Mart": FALSE--Main to Industrial would have done the trick;

-Page 146: sounds VERY similar---almost TOO similar (ahem)---to Floyd Boring's JFK Library oral history (page 20): "But on several occasions in the White House when he started to enter into
crowds and shake hands and do—he was actually the first, to my knowledge, of any
president who left the vehicle and was gregarious enough to go into the crowds and shake
hands and so forth. I, in the automobile one day, said, to the President, “You know, Mr.
President, I think that by going into these crowds you could be leaving yourself wide open to
be assassinated or seriously injured.” And he said, “Well, Floyd, I'll tell ya. I couldn't get
elected dog catcher, and I don't think any other politician could, if they didn't get out and
meet the people. People vote for us, and we have to go out and shake hands.”

-On page 162, Blaine alleges that SAIC Gerald Behn, from his office in the White House, told agent Ron Pontius on 11/21/63: “[JFK] wanted the agents off the back of the car [in Tampa and Dallas] in order for the people to get an unobstructed view.” However, in a contradiction Blaine doesn’t even notice (although he previously mentioned it on page 19 and in the first photo section), BEHN WAS ON VACATION DURING THIS TIME! Perhaps most importantly, Behn told this reviewer on 9/27/92: “I don’t remember Kennedy ever saying that he didn’t want anybody on the back of his car. I think if you watch the newsreel pictures you’ll find agents on there from time to time.” In fact, MANY former agents and White House aides told this reviewer the same thing Lawson, Boring, and Behn all said!

As the Church Lady would say, "How convenient!"---Behn now allegedly is still on vacation, yet happens to saunter into the White House to be available for a business call...yeah, right. Sam Kinney and Behn's neighbor, as well as all previous indicators point to Behn TRULY being on vacation-away from his office.

-pages 174, 1976-177: Nine of the agents from Kennedy’s White House Detail drank alcohol the night before the assassination in Fort Worth (at the Fort Worth Press Club and, presumably, The Cellar “Coffee House”), including four who had critical duties in the follow-up car directly behind his limousine: Bennett, Landis, Hill, and Ready. (Interestingly, they were all from Shift Leader Emory Roberts’ particular shift. Significantly, None of the agents from the V.P. LBJ detail were involved in the drinking incident. In addition, although all the agents had to report for duty at 8:00 a.m., several stayed out until between 1:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. One—Landis—stayed out until 5:00 a.m. Sleep deprivation can wreak havoc on even the best-trained reflexes. Although this flagrant violation of Secret Service regulations was grounds for dismissal from the service [18 H 665], none of the men were punished in any way whatsoever by Chief Rowley, who did not want to stigmatize the agents and their families [A good discussion of this the drinking incident, based in part on the author’s work, can be found in The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency by Philip Melanson with Peter Stevens, pp. 69–71]

-page 201: regarding agent Bill Greer, the driver of JFK’s car in Dallas, Blaine writes: “And, God forbid, if he [Greer] ever did have to make a sudden getaway, he knew the 7,500-pound car with its 300-horsepower engine just didn’t gather speed as quickly as he would like.” If that wasn’t enough, Blaine adds, on page 212: “[Greer, after the shooting commenced] quickly tapped on the brake to see how the car would respond.” Finally, on page 356, Blaine delivers the coup de grace: “Yes, Bill Greer put his foot on the brake after the first shot. But for God’s sake, it had nothing to do with a conspiracy, or negligence—he was merely responding as any professionally trained driver would respond.”

Oh, really? Sixty witnesses (ten police officers, seven Secret Service agents, thirty-eight spectators, two Presidential aides, one Senator, Governor Connally, and Jackie Kennedy) and the Zapruder film document Secret Service agent William R. Greer’s deceleration of the presidential limousine, as well as his two separate looks back at JFK during the assassination. And, as Roy Kellerman testified before the Warren Commission: "Mr. Congressman [Ford], I have driven that car many times, and I never cease to be amazed even to this day with the weight of the automobile plus the power that is under the hood; we just literally jumped out of the God-damn road."


A CONTRADICTION: page 193- Agent George Hickey on the Tampa (Florida) trip of 11/18/63, working the follow-up car (as I already was much aware of); yet on page 217: Blaine states that Hickey's appearance in the follow-up car in Dallas on 11/22/63 was "his first presidential motorcade"---?!? It was not;

Page 305: LBJ DID BELIEVE THERE WAS A CONSPIRACY!


pp 314-315: Take Jackie's comments with a huge grain of salt: 2 sides to every story. On the one hand, she wrote a nice letter to Greer, yet criticized him harshly to others. Remember also the very nice correspondence between RFK and Hoover, yet they hated each other

page 319 Lawson---see Melanson's book and the 1995 Discovery Channel documentary. "If it had to happen, I'm glad it happened to you." Lawson cries

INTERLUDE:
Page 20 of Ronald Kessler's true best-selling book "In The President's Secret Service" (2009) confirms Blaine's tale of hitting a bird with a rock on the LBJ Ranch and assuming it was dead, only to have it "awaken" and come out staggering from of the water later!

Page 12: Marilyn Monroe DID indeed have sexual liaisons with JFK, as MULTIPLE Secret Service agents confirmed to Kessler, thus debunking Blaine's statements on this issue


Page 396: Blaine writes of his "anger at the character assassination and defamation of outstanding men who were ready to sacrifice their lives to protect the president"...they weren't Ready (pun intended)and they DID NOT sacrifice their lives. Many people have commented on the lethargic "reactions" of the agents that day, as well as the poor planning;

Page 397: Blaine writes "The president is not legally bound to follow the directives of the Secret Service"---WRONG! (from my review:) Also on page 19, Blaine begins to (using a lawyer’s term) “lay the foundation,” as it were, for blaming the victim (JFK) and, in the process, makes a real whopper: Blaine writes, “the Secret Service was not authorized to override a presidential decision.” Wrong! Ample proof to the contrary abounds. Chief James J. Rowley testified under oath to the Warren Commission: “No President will tell the Secret Service what they can or cannot do.”15 In fact, Rowley’s predecessor, former Chief U. E. Baughman, who had served under JFK from Election Night 1960 until September 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.”16 Indeed, an Associated Press story from November 15, 1963 stated: “The (Secret) Service can overrule even the President where his personal security is involved.” Even President Truman agreed, stating, “The Secret Service was the only boss that the President of the United States really had.”17 Finally, In an 11/23/63 UPI story written by Robert J. Serling from Washington entitled “Secret Service Men Wary of Motorcade,” based in part on “private conversations” with unnamed agents: “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.” (emphasis added)

15 5 H 570

16. U. E. Baughman, Secret Service Chief (New York: Harper & Row, Popular Library edition, January 1963), p. 70.

17. Rowley oral history, LBJ Library, January 22, 1969, p. 2. See also David Seidman, Extreme Careers—Secret Service Agents: Life Protecting the President (New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2003), p. 11. Rowley himself said: “Most Presidents have responded to our requests ... .”

----------------
Page 398: Blaines states that Ike "rode in a closed-top car and didn't like parade-type motorcades"---WRONG! See the FOUR pics in fellow agent Darwin Horn's book depicting a SMILING Ike in an OPEN-top limo, as well as the FOUR pics in "Looking Back And Seeing The Future"...AND I FOUND OVER A DOZEN PICS OF IKE SMILING IN AN OPEN CAR ONLINE (JUST GOOGLE "PRESIDENT EISENHOWER MOTORCADE" IN THE 'IMAGES' SECTION)!!!!!!!!!

Mike Howard with more disinformation, uh, I mean, a presentation

August 14, 2011

Retired Secret Service agent returns for JFK presentation
By DELANIA TRIGG, Assistant Editor



Gainesville Daily Register The Daily Register Sun Aug 14, 2011, 11:07 AM CDT

Gainesville — The last time former United States Secret Service agent Mike Howard spoke to a group in Gainesville, he packed the house.

Organizers are hoping for similar results when Howard returns for “A Night with JFK: A Secret Service Agent’s Perspective.”

The event is a fundraiser for the Morton Museum of Cooke County and is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 19 at the State Theater.

Howard —a retired Secret Service agent who served during the Kennedy, Johnson and Ford Administrations — addressed a standing room-only crowd at the Santa Fe Depot last September.

Cooke County Historical Society President Jayleane Smith said some who wanted to hear Howard’s Camelot memories were turned away due to lack of space.

The organization hopes to make room for many more guests this year when Howard puts on a program which includes a multi-media presentation on the theater’s projection screen.

“We had so much response from last year that we asked if he’d come back next year,” Smith said. “We just had so many requests for him to return, and he graciously accepted.”

After his presentation, Howard will answer questions from the audience.

Guests can also look over some of the Morton Museum’s collection of JKF memorabilia.

“Some items will be on loan that night from our museum,” Smith said. “We’re going to have pictures and possibly some maps and things that (Howard) can use on the big screen.”

Smith — who is a friend of Howard’s — said the former Secret Service agent offers intimate insight into the events leading up to the Kennedy assassination.

During his appearance last September, Howard talked about the final 24 hours of the President’s life beginning with the Kennedy’s arrival at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth.

“Mr. Howard is able to give us history and tell us stories that are his personal reflections from this time period,” Smith said. “We will be able to see the events leading up to, during and after the assassination. We’ll hear what really happened.”

Tickets are $15 and include access to the State’s snack bar. They may be purchased at the Morton Museum and Parker Electric. Tickets will also be available at the door.

Smith said Howard’s presentation will also give guests a chance to find out answers to some of their questions about the JFK era and Kennedy’s assassination.

“I would say to the people that we encourage them to be thinking of questions they would like to ask Mr. Howard,” Smith said.

The Kennedy Detail- JFK's Secret Service agents

The Kennedy Detail- JFK's Secret Service agents





A Vince Palamara discovery at the JFK Library in December 2008 (circa Summer 1962). This is from a photographic briefing book done at the request of President Kennedy, in order for him to properly put names to faces and vice versa. Perhaps Greer was not included because, as one of JFK's primary drivers, JFK was already much aware of him...or he did not wish to participate? Agents who came before and after the Summer of 1962 are not included for obvious reasons (timing of briefing book)
SAIC Behn, ASAIC Campion, ASAIC Boring, ATSAIC Kellerman, ATSAIC Roberts, ATSAIC Stout, Blaine, Chandler, Coughlin, deFreese, Duncan, Foster, Fridley, Giannoules, Godfrey, Grant, Halterman, Hill, Johnsen, Johnson, Kunkel, Landis, Lawson, Lilley, Mastrovito, Meredith, Newman, Olsson, O'Leary, Payne, Paolella, Pontius, Ready, Rundle, Sherman, Skiles, Warner, Wiesman, Wilhite, Yeager, Shipman, Rybka, Rodham, Behl, Blake, Brett, Cantrell, Farnsworth, Gaugh, Gintz, Giovanetti, Gleason, Goodenough, Howard, Jamison, Johns, Metzinger, Seales, Sherlock, Sulliman, Till, Walters




Tags: JFK, President, Kennedy, secret, service, interviews, conspiracy, Lee, Harvey, Oswald, Dallas, assassination, murder, death, discovery, news, Jorge, Ribas, protecting, the, Kennedys, kennedy, detail, gerald, blaine, clint, hill, vince, palamara, final, moments, cuban, missile, crisis

EXCELLENT review of "The Kennedy Detail": no one is buying it, Blaine...but they're sure BUYING ($$) it!

1 star out of 5 Disappointed, November 22, 2010
By FIJake - See all my reviewsThis review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)
I was very disappointed in this book. I bought the book based on the tag line "agents break their silence". The author writes in a creepy third-person vernacular. I thought the author's condescending and dismissive tone toward the various alternate conspiracy theories (including the House Subcomittee on Assasinations which found a conspiracy was 'probable') was very self-serving. The author appears to not grasp that the 'Oswald as lone gunman' and its attendant 'magic bullet' and inability for anyone to duplicate Oswald's alledged markmanship is also just a 'theory'. Of course, any viable conspiracy account would compound the degree of failure of the Secret Service to not identify the threat.

I was particularly disappointed with the lack of detail regarding witness testimony in Dealey Plaza, detail surrounding the autopsy, the custody chain and evidence collected from the limosine and follow car after they left Parkland Hospital.

Maybe most troubling for me was the authors admission that agents originally lied about the President demanding that they not ride on the limo which may hae protected him from the line of fire. The author's apparent 'justification' for the lying was that the agents didn't want any blame put on Kennedy himself for their failure to protect him. But if the SS agents lied about that, IMO, it begs the question about what else they may have lied about. The author repeats testimony that Kennedy said, "get those charlatan ivy leaguers off the car"... If true, that is a puzzling statement. Could his use of the term 'charlatan' mean that he questioned their credentials???

The bottom line for me is that I wanted much more detail and just don't feel I got it.

6/6/10 article on Secret Service Agent Mike Howard

http://www.courier-gazette.com/articles/2010/06/06/news_update/228.txt

Collin County man lives 'secret' life

Ronnie Baker / Staff Photo - Mike Howard served as a Secret Service agent behind the scenes with Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and their families. Behind him are reminders of his time with the Johnson family.
By Marthe Stinton, mstinton@acnpapers.com
Published: Sunday, June 6, 2010 10:05 PM CDT

Imagine exaggerating on a resume. Now imagine exaggerating on a resume, getting hired, and being assigned to work with the first lady of the United States in one of the most controversial times in U.S. history. For former Secret Service agent Mike Howard, one little exaggeration took him farther than he ever thought he would go: the White House.

Upon walking into his home, it is very clear that Mike Howard is a native Texan. It is even clearer that this retired agent has served his country in almost every aspect, from military, to Secret Service, to police and now to instructor. However, perhaps what's unclear about this man is what story he will tell next.

"I was assigned to protect Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy," Howard said. "I was working a counterfeit case and they called and said, 'You're being reassigned.' Mr. Sorrels, the agent in charge of the Dallas (branch), called me in his office and said, 'You're going to be working with the first lady.' I thought, 'That's not going to work - I don't speak Bostonian and she doesn't speak Texican.' I was scared to death."



But the fear soon turned to a lasting friendship with the first lady, one that started with a small exaggeration in his personnel file.

"When you first come into the Secret Service, one of the things they ask you is what you are good at," Howard said. "One of the things they asked me was my hobbies, and one of them was that I was a horseback rider. On the card it gives you an option: good, better, best and expert; and guess what I put? 'Expert.'"

Howard said when he met Mrs. Kennedy, she was ecstatic.

"She said, 'Oh, you're Mr. Howard. I'm so glad you're here; now I can ride every day if I want to, can't I?" Howard said. "What am I going to say? All I could think to say was, 'Yes, Ma'am.'"

Howard said he became very good friends with Mrs. Kennedy, calling her "gracious" and "always a lady."

"It's hard to imagine a first lady being just another lady," Howard said. "That's all she was: a lady. It was always 'Mr. Howard' this and 'Mr. Howard' that - it was never 'Agent Howard.' She was great to work with."

Howard spoke of several outings he had with the first lady, including shopping excursions, dinners and the fateful trip to Texas.

According to Howard, because of his experience with the Saginaw Police Department he was sent to accompany the president and first lady during the Fort Worth leg of their Texas tour. When they arrived it was after midnight, and crowds of people lined the streets in front of the Texas Hotel. Howard assisted the couple to their room on the last night they would spend together.

"The next morning was the big breakfast," Howard said. "Everyone was giving their speeches, and I was asked to have Mrs. Kennedy come down from her room. Well, the worst thing you can do is tell a woman to hurry up - especially the first lady."

He had tried to pass off the assignment to other agents, but he said, "That didn't work." Howard said that before he could even knock on the door, she opened it.

"There she was; she was all dressed in that pink suit, pink pillbox hat and leather purse," Howard said. "She said, 'Oh good morning, Mr. Howard, isn't it a beautiful day?' And it was. It had been raining all morning, but all of a sudden it was beautiful."

Howard escorted President Kennedy and the first lady to Carswell Air Force Base, where they boarded Air Force One for the short flight to Dallas. Howard, along with other agents, stayed behind and swept the hotel rooms before their scheduled trip to Love Field, where they were to meet the president and head to Austin.

"We were fixing to leave the room when we heard the TV say there were shots fired in Dallas," Howard said. "We went downstairs and found a 1963 white Ford Interceptor that belonged to Tarrant County Sheriff Lon Evans. I told him I needed his car and that I wasn't sure what was going on but that shots had been fired. He asked where we were going, and I said, 'Dallas.'"

Upon arriving in Dallas, Howard went straight to Parkland Hospital, where fellow agents directed him to the emergency room.

"I went in and they were working on President Kennedy, and in the other room they were working on John Connolly because he was hit also," Howard said. "As I was standing there, Mrs. Kennedy walked in and the pink suit I had seen her in that morning was all spattered in blood. They asked the priest to come in to administer the last rites. We then took the body into the hearse and then to Air Force One. That was the last time I saw Mrs. Kennedy like that."

In an unusual turn of events, the next morning Howard received orders that he was to protect the Oswald family.

"People wanted to kill the whole family. Emotion was very high," Howard said.

Fellow agent Charlie Kunkel went with Howard to the Oswald's home. However, the family was nowhere to be found. According to Howard, he picked up a pad of paper on the table.

"We could tell it had been scribbled on, so we picked up a pencil and" - Howard pantomimed rubbing a pencil on a sheet of paper - "sure enough, it said, 'Executive Inn,'" he said. "It was the only clue we had."

The two agents went to the inn, where they waited until the next morning to take the family into protective custody. Marina Oswald requested that the men take her by the house to get supplies for the baby.

"As we left there, we had the police radio on and they said that they were fixing to move Lee Oswald from the city jail to the county jail," Howard said. "They said that Oswald had been shot and that he was on the way to the hospital. Mamma Oswald translated for Marina - who only spoke Russian - and said, 'She would like to go see my son.' When we arrived at the hospital, the surgeon was cursing, saying, 'I had the S.O.B. saved and he died of shock.'"

When asked about the transition from protecting the First Family to protecting the assassin's family, Howard said, "You just tighten your belt and do your job."

"It was hard because I was protecting the president and first lady one day, and then I had the assassin's family the next," Howard said. "That really hits you; but by order of the president and when you are an agent with the Secret Service, you do your job."

After the Kennedy assassination, Howard worked with Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and their families. After his retirement from the Secret Service, Howard was a police officer for the city of Frisco for 20 years. He is now a concealed handgun license instructor and also teaches classes for Collin College's SAIL program. Howard has made and continues to make presentations about his life during the Kennedy and Secret Service years.