CLINT HILL R.I.P. 1932-2025
SPECIAL VIDEO
Clint Hill 1932-2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt_RIuZtww0
Author of 7 books: "Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the Failure to Protect President Kennedy", "JFK: From Parkland to Bethesda", "The Not-So-Secret Service: Agency Tales from FDR To the Kennedy Assassination to The Reagan Era", "Who's Who in The Secret Service", "Honest Answers About the Murder of President John F. Kennedy", "The Plot to Kill President Kennedy in Chicago" and "President Kennedy Should Have Survived Dallas."
CLINT HILL R.I.P. 1932-2025
SPECIAL VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt_RIuZtww0
BORGOTA: CLASH OF TITANS- A History of the American Mafia by
Louis Ferrante (2025)
Bibliography- 6 books reference my work:
Murder in Dealey Plaza by Prof. James Fetzer (Catfeet
Press, 2000)- I have two whole chapters.
Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi (W.W. Norton &
Co., 2007)- I am on 15 pages including the bibliography.
The Kennedy Detail by Gerald Blaine with Lisa McCubbin
(Gallery Books, 2010)- I am referenced on 2 pages.
The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ by Roger
Stone (Skyhorse, 2013)- I am mentioned in the paperback edition.
Brothers by David Talbot (Free Press, 2008)- I am on a
couple pages.
David Ferrie by Judyth Baker
(Trine Day, 2014)- I am on at least one page.
Secret Service SAIC Gerald Behn:
Page 200- Behn to Sorrels: “It’s a plot.” “Of
course.” I also referenced this in my work; both got it from Manchester.
Pages 327-329 (references Curry’s book, Lawson’s WC
testimony, Blaine)- Winston Lawson- top off limo. Hill and Ready told not to
ride on rear of limo. Planned number of vehicles and their relative order. Felt
that 8 motorcycles around limo was too much---2 on either side even with rear
fender of limo. Other motorcycles pushed rearward. Press vehicle/photographers
bumped to rear of motorcade.
Dallas police told to stand with backs to crowd. (Curry) Supervision
ended one block short of Elm Street. Security comparatively light on Elm- freak
of history.
Motorcade 90-degree turn onto Elm Street last minute change
that slowed the limo to a crawl. Short stretch of Elm Street and the Book
Depository were virtually ignored.
Evelyn Lincoln, 1968 book- our own advance man urged that
the motorcade not take the route that it did but was overruled. Lawson during
WC testimony- motorcade thru plaza “wanted back in Washington, D.C.”
(Blaine book) Behn- first vacation, yet decided to work at
his office in D.C. Agent Ron Pontius could not believe that his fellow agents
were prohibited from riding on the rear of the limo. Called Behn who confirmed.
Agent Bert de Freese, who overheard conversation, said: “I thought Behn was on
vacation.” Former Chief Baughman called Behn’s actions into question. Behn
became LBJ’s SAIC.
Secret Service stole body away. Limo taken away by agents
and cleaned and refurbished.
Also- page 186: Senator Ralph Yarborough’s comments about
agents slow reaction noted.
Page 182- drinking incident noted. Fort Worth Press Club,
Cellar. Pat Kirkwood/ Ruby.
Pages 173-174: Chicago plot.
Pages 175-177: Fulbright; Milteer; Cabells; Sorrels;
11/20/63 knoll fence rifles incident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAjdQsrnvYE&t=0s
JFK Conspiracy & The Secret Service - Vincent Palamara - True Crime Podcast 701 Shaun Attwood 949K
I hate to give credit for this to a certain person, but I
must (for honesty’s sake): THE MOST HONORABLE FRED LITWIN (who could be a dead ringer for Donald Trump!) found these documents within other
HSCA docs. That said, he acts as if this nullifies the destruction of records
by the Secret Service during the ARRB’s tenure! It most certainly does NOT as
this was merely a fluky find within other docs. One is reminded of former Secret
Service agent Gerald Blaine attempting the same thing in his book The Kennedy
Detail just because he owned a copy of the Tampa trip docs (never mind the embarrassing
fact that those docs escaped the shredder in the first place). MANY other
Secret Service docs WERE destroyed, so this doc (similar to author Barry Ernest’s
1999 discovery of the Martha Stroud doc buried within other unrelated docs)
does not exonerate the government for burying the doc and the information it
contained in the first place.
The doc is valuable because it names Secret Service agent
Nemo Ciochina (who has a whole chapter in my latest book), SAIC Maurice
Martineau, Abraham Bolden and others as being part of the security for JFK’s
cancelled Chicago trip. Importantly, this is the Protective Survey Report and
NOT the preliminary survey report, so important security details are missing or
glossed over. That said, the docs do reveal that 4 press/photographer’s
vehicles were to be close behind the presidential limousine [as we know, the
press was far behind the limo in Dallas and out of the picture (literally)]; a
mayor’s car with police/detectives was to be right behind the Secret Service
follow-up car [Dallas Police Captain Jesse Curry and Chief of Homicide Will
Fritz wanted their own cars in the Dallas motorcade but their requests were
cancelled at the last minute]; General Godfrey McHugh was slated to ride in the
presidential limousine [as we know, he was asked in Dallas-for the first
time-not to ride there by the Secret Service in order to accentuate full exposure
for the president]; ASAIC Floyd Boring was scheduled for the trip and was to
ride in the presidential limo [#3 man Roy Kellerman took Boring’s place in
Dallas]; Press Secretary Pierre Salinger and his immediate assistant, Andy
Hatcher, were scheduled for the trip [as with third-stringer Kellerman,
third-stringer Malcolm Kilduff made his first presidential trip on his own for
the Texas trip. Salinger was very knowledgeable about motorcade security and
admitted in his 1997 book that he might have missed maybe 2-3 trips in all his
time with JFK. Texas was one of them!]; Secret Service agents Don Lawton and
Chuck Zboril were scheduled to ride in the follow-up car [both agents rode on
the rear of the limo in Tampa shortly after (11/18/63), while Lawton rode on
the rear of the limo in the prior Chicago trip of 3/23/63. As we know, Lawton
was famously recalled from the area of the rear of the limo at Love Field on
11/22/63 by the very same shift leader assigned to the cancelled Chicago trip
of 11/2/63- Emory Roberts].
Also, a 11/5/63 addendum merely states that “his trip was
cancelled,” not that he [JFK] cancelled the trip.
I don’t care if it turns out that a few surviving agents
have some of the shredded documents. The point is that the Secret Service
destroyed them in 1995 after they were formally asked for them and being in private
hands does not change anything.
2025: my 7th book "President Kennedy Should Have Survived Dallas: The Secret Service & The JFK Assassination" coming out + viral video!
Please "like" my new page (yes, you heard right: 2025 brings book number 7, my final one)! https://www.facebook.com/presidentkennedyshouldhavesurvivedDallas
1) NBC Reporter
Robert MacNeil[1]:
"The president's car was there [Parkland Hospital], still at the point
where it had pulled up, and they had taken the president out into that
emergency entrance...I remember that the Secret Service men were then STARTING
TO MOP UP THE BACK SEAT OF THE BIG LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT WAS PUT IN, and a few
minutes later they started putting the fabric top on it. And when I went over
to look at it a little closer, one of the agents waved me aside and said, 'You
can't look.' Later, of course, it seemed ironic that this wall of protection
went up when it of course could do no good..."
2) Parkland
Hospital Orderly Joe L. Richards[2]: asked to get a bucket of
water; he complied.
3) 21 H
217: Nurse Shirley Randall: was asked if she "would get someone to come
and wash the blood out of the car." She said that she would but was so
nervous and excited she forgot about it.
4) Reporter
Hugh Sidey[3]: "A guard was set up
around the Lincoln as Secret Service men got a pail of water and tried to wash
the blood from the car."
5) Reporter
Don Gardner[4]:
"Outside the hospital, blood had to be wiped from the limousine.”
6) Reporter
Tom Wicker[5]:"...the police were
guarding the Presidential car closely. A bucket of water stood by the car, suggesting
that the back seat had been scrubbed out."
7) "...the
Secret Service detail was sorry that hospital orderlies had sponged it [the
limousine] out."[6]
8) "An
inaccurate [?] story reported that they washed out the back seat with a bucket
of water. Actually, this was contemplated."[7]
9) White
House Photographer Cecil Stoughton[8]: “[Cecil] Stoughton
recalls that a man was washing the seat "with a cloth, and he had a
bucket. There was blood all over the seat, and flower petals and stuff on the
floor." On page 37 there is a Stoughton photo with the caption "A
bucket at his feet, an agent [Kinney] is seen leaning into the back seat of the
Lincoln cleaning up some of the gore." [Same photo, without this caption,
appears on page 41 of Pictures of The Pain]
10) Photographer Thomas Craven, Jr.[9]: "The Secret Service
cleaning the blood out of the car---the flowers still lying in the back
seat---and just chaos until the police figured out what was happening, and then
they started to push us off."
11) Secret
Service agents Sam Kinney and George Hickey[10]: The two agents who put
on the bubbletop---with the assistance of a DPD motorcycle officer---at
Parkland: they are pictured in the infamous photos/films of the bucket beside
the limousine. [11]
12) Photographer
Henry Burroughs[12]:
“The limousines that had carried the Presidential party and the
Vice-Presidential party were askew. An agent with a stainless-steel hospital
bucket was cleaning up the rear seat of the President's limousine. Flowers were
strewn over rear seats of both limos.”
13) Dallas
officer Bobby Joe Dale[13]: "…the President was
on the gurney beside the car, and they were wheeling him in. At that time, it
was obvious that nobody could have survived a wound like that…Blood and matter
was everywhere inside the car including a bone fragment which was oblong
shaped, probably an inch to an inch and a half long by three-quarters of an
inch wide. As I turned it over and looked at it, I determined that it came from
some part of the forehead because there was hair on it which appeared to be
near the hairline. There were other fragments around, but that was the largest
piece that grabbed my attention. What stood out in my mind was that there was
makeup up to the hairline. Apparently, he had used makeup for the cameras to
knock down the glare. It was fairly distinct where it stopped, and the wrap of
skin took up. Other than that, nobody messed with anything inside the car in
any manner, shape, or form. Nobody said, "Clean this up!" We then put
the top up and secured it."
14) Once
again, Secret Service agent Sam Kinney[14]: “Someone wanted to wash
the (Presidential) car [at Parkland]. I said no one touch.”
15) Hurchel
Jacks, Texas Highway Patrolman assigned to drive LBJ’s car in Dallas motorcade[15]: “ We were assigned by
the [Secret Service] to prevent any pictures of any kind to be taken of the
President’s car or the inside.” 8/31/98 letter to author from Mrs. H.D.
(Bobbie) Jacks, widow of Hurchel Jacks (Jacks passed away 12/19/95): “…he
guarded Kennedy’s car to make sure that no photos were taken.”[16]
16) Milton
Wright, Texas Highway Patrolman assigned to drive Mayor Cabell’s car in the
Dallas motorcade[17]:
“…we were instructed to keep the news media away from the car.”
17) Dallas
officers James W. Courson and Stavis Ellis[18]: told author Larry Sneed
about an incident whereupon a Secret Service agent destroyed the film of a
young boy who took pictures of the limousine at Parkland.
Skull
Fragments:
18) First
Lady Jackie Kennedy[19]: “And just as I turned
and looked at him, I could see a piece of his skull (sort of wedge-shaped like
that), and I remember it was flesh colored (with little ridges at the top). I
remember thinking he just looked as if he had a slight headache. And I just
remember seeing that. No blood or anything. And then he sort of did this
[indicating], put his hand to his forehead and fell in my lap… [Reference to
wounds deleted] …I was trying to hold his hair on. But from the front there was
nothing. I suppose there must have been. But from the back you could see, you
know, you were trying to hold his hair on, and his skull on.” 1/29/63 interview
with writer Theodore H. White: his notes released 5/26/95---"I could see a
piece of his skull coming off; it was flesh colored not white---he was holding
out his hand---and I can see this perfectly clean piece detaching itself from
his head; then he slumped in my lap…”
19) SECRET
SERVICE SAIC GERALD A. BEHN[20]- SKULL FOUND IN REAR SEAT.
20) SECRET
SERVICE AGENT ROY KELLERMAN[21]- SKULL IN REAR SEAT.
21) SECRET
SERVICE AGENT CLINTON J. HILL[22]- BACK OF SKULL IN REAR
SEAT.
22) THREE
pieces of skull found by none other than SECRET SERVICE ASAIC FLOYD BORING
during the "official" Secret Service limousine inspection late on
11/22/63[23],
four hours before the FBI did the same- this is separate from the finding made
by Kinney on the C-130 will en route to Andrews Air Force Base; the “Harper
fragment.”[24]
23) DALLAS
OFFICER STAVIS ELLIS: "Yes, I did see a hole in the limousine windshield
at Parkland Hospital. I did not see the bone fragment. The officer on the
escort with me said there was one fragment, approximately 6 or 7 inches
around."[25]
24) DALLAS
OFFICER BOBBY JOE DALE: "…the President was on the gurney beside the car,
and they were wheeling him in. At that time, it was obvious that nobody could
have survived a wound like that…Blood and matter was everywhere inside the car
including a bone fragment which was oblong shaped, probably an inch to an inch
and a half long by three-quarters of an inch wide. As I turned it over and
looked at it, I determined that it came from some part of the forehead because
there was hair on it which appeared to be near the hairline. There were other
fragments around, but that was the largest piece that grabbed my attention.
What stood out in my mind was that there was makeup up to the hairline. Apparently,
he had used makeup for the cameras to knock down the glare. It was fairly
distinct where it stopped, and the wrap of skin took up. Other than that,
nobody messed with anything inside the car in any manner, shape, or form.
Nobody said, "Clean this up!" We then put the top up and secured
it."[26]
25) DALLAS
OFFICER JAMES W. COURSON: "The driver immediately got out into the center
lane with me on his left rear and another officer on the right. Mrs. Kennedy
had, by that time, gotten back down in the seat and was holding the President's
head in her lap. I was able to see that his head was horribly mangled. Skull,
brain, and blood material was all along the seat…Flowers were scattered all
around the car… Two other officers and I helped take the President out of the
car and put him onto the stretcher. From what I was able to see of the wound,
the damage seemed to be in the right rear of his head, but it was hard to tell
because there was so much blood. The back part of the skull seemed to be laying
over the forehead. I didn't actually see an exit wound since I saw only the
back part of his head.” [27]
26) DALLAS
OFFICER H.B. McCLAIN: "I figured at the time that the wound was fatal.
Part of the skull was laying on the floorboard. Blood and brain material was
splattered all over as if a ripe watermelon had been dropped. It was a pretty
gory scene."[28]
27) 3 FBI
AGENTS- JAMES SIBERT & FRANCIS O’NEILL AT THE AUTOPSY + FBI AGENT VINCENT
E. DRAIN: "When I arrived in the trauma room, the doctors were working
with President Kennedy. They were trying to do what they could to stop the
gurgling sound he was making by performing a tracheotomy on him. Despite the
fact, as I later learned, that he was dead, his body reflexes were still
working. I wasn't up close to the body, but I could still see fairly well the
large amount of blood from the head wound. The head was badly damaged from the
lower right base across the top extending across the top of the ear. It
appeared to me as though the bullet traveled upward and had taken off the right
portion of his skull. It may have been the security officer or one of the other
officers who gave me a portion of the skull, which was about the size of a
teacup, much larger than a silver dollar. Apparently, the explosion had jerked
it because the hair was still on it. I carried that back to Washington later
that night and turned it over to the FBI laboratory."[29]
28) DEPUTY
SHERIFF SEYMOUR WEITZMAN: found a small piece of skull in the plaza.[30]
29) DEPUTY
SHERIFF JACK FAULKNER: "As we were crossing Elm Street, [A.D.] McCurley
picked up a white piece of bone near the north curb. He asked me, "Do you
suppose that could be part of his skull?" I said, "There's no blood
on it," and he put it down. Later, we got to thinking, and somebody said
your skull doesn't necessarily have to be touching something that's bloody. We
went back and looked for it later but never found it. To this day, I believe it
was a piece of John Kennedy's skull."[31]
30) DEPUTY
SHERIFF AL MADDOX: "…I also saw human tissue lying in the street which was
being wiped and cleaned up at the time. That was right about where the
President was said to have been hit. I also saw one of the motorcycle officers
who was splattered with blood."[32]
31) CHARLES
BREHM: saw the skull fragment fly back and to the left of where he was standing.[33]
32) DALLAS
OFFICER JOE CODY: "No More Silence" by Larry Sneed (1998), page467:
"…we jumped in our car and arrived at the scene where Kennedy was shot and
killed in just three or four minutes. By that time, it was probably ten minutes
after the shooting. While we were there, I searched the plaza and found a bone
lying in the gutter that apparently came out of the back of the President's
head."
33) POSTAL
INSPECTOR HARY HOLMES: "A postal inspector [Holmes] picked up a piece of
skull from the Elm St. pavement. He said it was as “...big as the end of my
finger..." Furthermore, it was one of many: "...there was just pieces
of skull and bone and corruption all over the place..." He later discarded
it.[34]
[1] The Way We Were-1963: The Year
Kennedy Was Shot by Robert MacNeil (1988, Carrol & Graf), p. 197.
[2] 21 H 226.
[3] Time Magazine, 11/29/63, p.
24.
[4] ABC, 11/22/63.
[5] New York Times, 11/23/63, p.
2.
[6] The Day Kennedy Was Shot by
Jim Bishop, p. 352 [1992 edition].
[7] The Death of a President by
William Manchester, p. 180n [1988 edition].
[8] That Day in Dallas by Richard
Trask (1998), page 35 [based off a 7/10/85 interview with Stoughton; same as
page 42 of Trask's Pictures of the Pain].
[9] Pictures of The Pain by
Richard Trask (1994), pages 377 and 383 [based off a 5/23/85 interview with
Thomas Craven, Jr.].
[10] 18 H 731-732 and 18 H 763-764.
[11] JFK Assassination File by DPD
Chief Jesse Curry, p. 36 (see also p. 34: same photo, different angle in UPI's Four
Days, p. 25); Texas News newsreel (Kennedy In Texas video); WFAA/
ABC video 11/22/63; Cooper/ Sturges film; Reasonable Doubt by Henry Hurt
(1985), p. 84.
[12] 10/14/98 letter to Vince Palamara
from Henry Burroughs.
[13] No More Silence by Larry Sneed
(1998), pp. 135-136.
[14] 2/26/78 HSCA interview of Kinney.
[15] 18 H 801.
[16] Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination,
page 121.
[17] CD 3 Exhibits.
[18] No More Silence, pages 130
& 148.
[19] 5 H 180 / testimony [see also Murder
from Within by Fred Newcomb and Perry Adams (1974), pp. 138-139: what comes
from the unedited transcript is in parentheses].
[20] (FBI/S&O INTERVIEW, 11/27/63) [Behn:
9/27/92 interviews (3) by Vince Palamara; deceased 4/93].
[21] 2 H 85.
[22] 2 H 141.
[23] CD 80. p.3.
[24] CD
5, pp. 150-151, CD 1269 and FBI 89-43-479 (11/25/63).
[25] 9/8/98 letter to Vince Palamara.
[26] No More Silence by Larry Sneed
(1998), pp.135-136.
[27] No More Silence by Larry Sneed
(1998), pp. 127-131+photos].
[28] No More Silence by Larry Sneed
(1998), p.164.
[29] No More Silence by Larry Sneed
(1998), p. 246.
[30] 7 H 107.
[31] No More Silence by Larry Sneed
(1998), pp. 215-223+photos: page 216].
[32] No More Silence by Larry Sneed
(1998), pp. 507, 517+photo: page 509].
[33] NBC
11/22/63 (familiar newsreel interview); Mark Lane Rush To Judgment film
1967 (clip repeated in Lane’s Two Men In Dallas video).
[34] Murder From Within by Fred
Newcomb and Perry Adams, p. 213 (based off an early 1970's interview).