- On the 47th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, his bodyguards are talking for the first time about their memories.
- The men explained the charismatic president could be difficult to protect.
- After years of trying to figure out what they could have done differently, many agents have come to accept that JFK’s death was not their fault.
President John F. Kennedy is struck by an assassin’s bullet as he travels through Dallas in a motorcade, Nov. 22, 1963. Click to enlarge this image.
Getty Images
Four days before the fateful 1963 motorcade in Dallas when John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in the head, the young president had requested that his secret service agents give him some space.
“President Kennedy made a decision, and he politely told everybody, ‘You know, we’re starting the campaign now, and the people are my asset,’” said agent Jerry Blaine. “And so, we all of a sudden understood. It left a firm command to stay off the back of the car.”
Be sure to tune into “The Kennedy Detail” airing Nov. 22 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the Discovery Channel.
Blaine’s revelations, as well as those from JFK’s secret service agents in a forthcoming book, “The Kennedy Detail” and in a series of interviews with the Discovery Channel, reveal how challenging this charismatic president could be to protect and how shaken his murder left those whose job it was to keep him safe.
They were well trained and extraordinarily professional. They were dedicated to the President and especially to the honor of the presidency. Most of all, the Secret Service agents assigned to protect John F. Kennedy were stoic and silent.
They did not talk about their feelings for JFK. And they did not discuss their emotions about his death — not with each other and not to the world — until now.
Forty-seven years after the 35th president was fatally shot on Nov. 22, 1963, his bodyguards are sharing their memories about a charismatic man, his glamorous family, and a tragic ending.
Their words offer a new window into an event that transformed not just the nation, but also the men who were supposed to keep him safe.
What emerges from the interviews is a deep sense of grief and remorse. For their jobs and their country, the agents sacrificed sleep, personal freedoms, and time with their families in order to protect the lives of others. They became a tightly knit group. As they reunite with each other and recount their memories of the assassination, many of them unleash tears.
“It was an assault on our country, on every single thing that we stand for,” said agent Toby Chandler, who was giving a speech to agents-in-training when the news came in from Dallas. “It was a thing that just must not be allowed to happen. And we were supposed to prevent it. And we failed.”
“In our work, and in military work and things like that, you either get the job done or you don’t,” he continued. “There are very few excuses. You can always say ‘Well, you know, it would have been a nice picnic if it didn’t rain, but it rained.’ And it rained on us. And so we lost a symbol of our country.”
Compared to the presidents before him, JFK was a challenge to protect, especially in a motorcade, said agent Jerry Blaine. Eisenhower kept to himself and traveled in a closed-top car, Blaine explained, making him easy to cover.
But Kennedy was charismatic. He wanted to stand up in an open-top car and wave. He wanted to get out and shake hands, unencumbered. He loved crowds. And the crowds were big.
Still, the shooting in Dallas surprised everyone. When agent Paul Landis heard the first shot from his seat in the car behind Kennedy, he continued to scan the buildings and the crowds. But he didn’t see anything.
“I thought, ‘Well maybe there was a blow-out or something,’” Landis said. “When the third shot happened, I saw the President’s head explode, just like a melon. And well, I knew as soon as he’d been hit, there was no way he was gonna survive that.”
For the men who weren’t on the scene, shock hit first. But they had jobs to do. So, they pushed aside their emotions and went to work — moving the children to a home in Georgetown, escorting the President’s body to the White House, and later accompanying the First Lady on her powerful, yet dangerous walk from the White House to St. Matthew’s Cathedral.
“When all this is going on, your personal feelings are one of a tremendous emotional hit because of the respect you have for that family and for the president,” remembered agent Tom Wells, who was escorting young Caroline to her first sleepover when he heard the news that Kennedy had been shot.
Like the other agents, Wells had a deep respect for Kennedy, who knew the names of all his guards, frequently asked about their families, and made them feel like they were a part of his own.
“You’ve got an upheaval that goes on in your mind and in your gut,” Wells said. “There’s this unbelievable sympathetic feeling you have. But there’s no room for that because the only thing you have got to deal with now is what your role is. So, it is a difficult time. It’s a roller coaster, even as detached as I was from the main event.”
Eventually, each agent moved on.
“We have a code in the Secret Service called ‘worthy of trust and confidence,’” Blaine said. “So I made a decision. You walk away from here. You don’t talk about it. You put it behind you.”
As close as they were during the Kennedy administration, many of the agents lost touch with each other in the years following the assassination. Many agonized about what they could have done differently to prevent the shooting. Eventually, they tried to forget.
“Of course, I wish Dallas never happened,” said agent Ron Pontius. “Everyone will say that. It was a terrible thing to happen. And I think we’re marked for it for the rest of our lives.”
Agent Clint Hill was in the motorcade behind Kennedy that day in Dallas. After the fatal shot, Hill jumped on the back of the President’s car and held on as the car raced to the hospital. In the years after the assassination, Hill sunk into a downward spiral of depression and alcoholism. In 1990, when he was pulling his life back together, he finally visited Dallas again.
“I walked in Dealey Plaza for a long time, looking back and forth and up and down, at every angle, for everything possible that I could think of,” he said. “How could this have been avoided? What could we have done differently? Where did we go wrong? Why did it happen?”
“I finally came to the conclusion that because of everything that happened that day,” he continued, including the weather, the configuration of the streets, and the position of the shooter, “that every advantage had gone to the shooter that day. And we had none.”
“So I realized that based on all those conditions, there was nothing that I could have done,” he said. “And I finally accepted the fact that what happened was something that I could not avoid. And so that was a great deal of relief to me.”
COMMENTS (17)
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some of you are talking about “the video” … where is it? .. can you share the link?
All I can share is JFKMurdersolved.com, It has me stirred up….and I now wonder about John Jr. and if Bush is connected!?
I found,to me,a lot of information at JFKMurdersolved.com. The thing that peeves me most is that everyone is getting old and dying and the persons responsible can’t be brought to justice.
James Files claims to be the grassy knoll shooter and there is about an hour-a-half video at the beginning that I feel will be worth watching!
Finally, it all makes sense to me. To kill me is one thing,but to kill my brother also proved to me it wasn’t a lone nut!
Whether there was one shooter, two or three, or whether the Secret Service was told to stand down by their superiors in the Service, I think the Mafia (Giancana et. al.) killed JFK. They killed him because of Bobby’s efforts to nail them. When that didn’t work they killed Bobby.
I haven’t heard about this guy who claims to have been the grassy knoll shooter. What’s the story there?
Regardless, it was a “tipping point” or pivotal event in American History. Imagine how different things might be now if JFK had completed his two terms. I try but there are so many variables.
See JFKMurdersolved.com!
This was one of those “shoulda coulda woulda” situations. After 47 years its very hard to think that someone else is responsible for what happened. The same game is being played out with 9/11. Both were sad. Both are surrounded with the “shoulda coulda woulda” situations. I won’t buy the book, I will wait to find it on some goodwill shelf.
They’re saying that it’s not their fault JFK got killed. No matter how they put it still it will not change a thing. As bodyguards you never let go of the person you are protecting, especially if he is the president of any country for that matter. What the president may request from his bodyguards is a different thing. But the duty of the bodyguards is to keep him away from harm as much as possible. Those bodyguards protecting JFK failed in their duty and they failed miserably.
To top it all of there is a gentleman in prison that has confessed to being the shooter from the grassy knoll….this individual said that he bit the empty casing….and that casing has been found!!! We have been had and the government was up to their ears in it.
makes you wonder is this guy just trying to promo his book or is some new info about to be released to the public and the seeds of mis-information are being planted now to confuse opinions
glad to see other people are not buying into this Bu!! Sh!!
This was a SECRET SERVICE decision: JFK had 0.0 to do with it…and Blaine knows it—he told me so, as did many of his colleagues: I have the proof on audio tape and in writing. No theories; just facts.
yes, it most certainly WOULD have helped: as many former agents conceded, their bodies would have blocked the shots and/ or they would have been able to cover JFK before the fatal shot.
And how would have it help if they had been closer? Not at all.
“President Kennedy made a decision, and he politely told everybody, ‘You know, we’re starting the campaign now, and the people are my asset,’” said agent Jerry Blaine. “And so, we all of a sudden understood. It left a firm command to stay off the back of the car.”—?!?!?!?!?!?!
How did THAT made-up phrase that JFK never said in the first place lead to a “firm command to stay off the back of the car”???? Huh???
Bottom line:
There is NO TRUTH WHATSOEVER to this fabrication that JFK
had ordered the agents off the back of his car AND GERALD BLAINE AND COMPANY KNOW IT! Even if Oswald acted alone and there was no conspiracy whatsoever, if these men would have been on or near the rear of JFK’s limo, the President would have lived. GERALD BLAINE TOLD ME ON 2/7/04, TWICE, THAT JFK “NEVER INTERFERED WITH OUR ACTIONS AT ALL” and did NOT say anything like the above passage. In fact, the “brass”—SAIC GERALD BEHN, ASAIC FLOYD BORING, AND ATSAIC ART GODFREY—told me (on audio tape-now videos online-and in writing) that JFK was a very nice man, never interfered with their actions at all, and did not order the agents off the car (these men died years before this book was even a thought)! Boring was riding IN the limo with JFK on the Tampa trip and denied this unequivocally, as did fellow limo rider Congressman Sam Gibbons, who wrote to me (as verified by films/ photos) that the agents rode the rear bumper all the way in Tampa 11/18/63 (as did eyewitness photographer Tony Zappone, who told me the agents rode on the rear of the car in Tampa until the end of the day!). Sam Kinney, who drove the follow-up car on both 11/18/63 and 11/22/63, also told me that JFK never ordered the agents off the car and added: “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.” This is not a THEORY of mine but absolute fact—I was a mere stranger on the phone (and/ or in writing) and the vast majority of these men believe that Oswald acted alone…why would they all lie (30+ agents in all on this specific matter, between 1992 and 2004)? JFK Aide Dave Powers wrote me in 1993 and said the agents “NEVER” had to be told to get off the car. Simply put, “The Kennedy Detail” was written because of MY RESEARCH—I sent a 22-page letter that encapsulated all my research on this matter to Clint Hill (Blaine’s best friend who wrote the Foreward to the book and who is going on the book tour with Blaine AND appearing in the 2-hour documentary on the book) that angered him deeply. At this very same time, as Blaine even admitted in press interviews, he then began contacting all his living former colleagues and–presto—”The Kennedy Detail” now emerges (Blaine also had his attorney send me a threatening letter, but those tactics don’t work with me). Again, DON’T BELIEVE THESE 47-YEAR-OLD FABRICATIONS BY THESE MEN WHO COST THE NATION ITS PRESIDENT (and, furthermore, Hill was one of the 9 agents who went drinking the night before the assassination).
This is so irresponsible a story. It’s all on film what happened that day. It is clear men were called off the motorcade as it pulled way. They were directed to do so, not by JFK, but by t heir superiors. They stood dumbfounded. One guy had very strong body language like “WTF are you doing?”
It must have been horrible to live with. Talk about post traumatic stress. It had to be, because it was a defining moment for the whole nation I still have the newspapers and magazines from those days and I was 11. These guys deserve great respect . They did nothing wrong. It was a crime against the USA and very hard to accept. It also bonded all who remember it to that time.
Did you not see the film of these guys being asked to stand down by their superiors as they attended to the motorcade? It’s all on film. This story is bogus.