SAMPLER OF OFFICIAL AND SEMI-OFFICIAL "HISTORY" IN THE LITERATURE 
PERTAINING TO THE SECRET SERVICE AND 11/22/63
              by Vincent Palamara

From William Manchester's "The Death of a President" (1988 Edition):
p.12  "Pierre (Salinger) told him (JFK) that Mac Kilduff would act as his 
press secretary in Texas. Normally the number 2 man in the press office was 
Andy Hatcher, but Hatcher, a Negro, would stay in Washington"- Kilduff was a 
third-stringer as was ASAIC 

Roy Kellerman!;
p.25 "The Warren Commission reported that the luncheon site was selected by 
the Secret Service with O'Donnell's approval. This is incorrect..."-?! 

p.149 "The weakest link in downtown Dallas was Dealey Plaza."- no argument here.

p. 169 "the failure of the police radio- for it was the dispatcher's stuck 
button which was largely accountable for this appalling situation[no ready 
medical personnel at Parkland]- played no role in the passion of John Kennedy
(?!)... the decision to put 

Dr. Burkley at the end of the motorcade" would have been important if JFK's 
wounds would have been less severe- what an apologist!

From Jim Bishop's "The Day Kennedy was Shot" (1988 edition):
p.46 "On the thirteenth floor of the Hotel Texas, Rufe Youngblood, the Vice-
President's bodyguard, asked "Anything new from PRS?" There was nothing new 
from the Protective Research Section of the Secret Service"- Manchester 
reported the same thing (this was at least the third known check that revealed
NO threats to JFK in Dallas/Texas!

p. 90 "Lawson told his men to leave the top off"- Lawson, Sorrels, Kellerman, 
O'Donnell, Moyers/JFK, Betty Harris... all of these people are alleged to 
have been responsible, but it was actually agent Sam Kinney's sole decision!

pp. 109-110 "Dr. George Burkley...felt that he should be close to the Presi-
dent at all times..."

p. 133 "The ninth car was a Chevrolet convertible for White House motion 
picture photographers. It was impossible to take pictures in a position so 
remote from the President. Behind it were two more automobiles with photo-
graphers."

pp. 133-134 " The press was displeased with its place in the parade. Some 
felt they could have reported a btter story watching the motorcade from 
any of the buildings downtown. Even their wire representatives- AR, UPI, 
and American Broadcasting- sitting forward in a special car, were six hundred
feet behind the Kennedys and could see little except the Mayor of Dallas 
directly ahead."
	"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)..."
	"Dr. Burkley was unhappy...this time the admiral protested. He could 
be of no assistance to the President if a doctor was needed quickly."

p.168 "Forrest V. Sorrels sat in the back seat on the right hand side (of 
the lead car). his job was to study crowds and buildings. The Secret Service 
agent needed a convertible to do his work correctly."

p. 558 "...(LBJ) called Secret Service Chief James Rowley. "Rufe did a brave 
thing today," he said. "He jumped on me and kept me down. I want you to do 
whatever you can, the best that can be done, for that boy." He hung up (this 
was 11/22/63). It had not occurred to him that Rowley, too, was lonely. 
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; 
it meant nothing that Roy Kellerman was in charge, along with Emory 
Roberts; 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"- wait a damn minute... I thought 
JFK was to "blame"?!-See p

p. 39-40.

From 18H803-809:
Rowley letter dated 4/22/64 in response to WC/Rankin letter of 4/3/64,
"requsting further information concerning expressions by President Kennedy 
regarding the placement of Secret Service agents on or near the car during 
the motorcade..."
Behn-4/16/64 [fourth]: mentions 11/18/63 trip +; STAMPED signature (similar 
to other reports contained in the WC volumes and elsewhere; not hand-written)
Boring- 4/8/64 [FIRST]; mentions 11/18/63 trip +
Roberts-4/10/64 [second]: mentions only 11/18/63; worthless corroboration of 
Boring only- only heard Boring over the radio! 
Ready- 4/11/64 [third]: mentions 11/18/63 trip but wasn't there
Hill- [?]; named Boring as source during WC testimony...
Behn and Boring (and several other agents I spoke to) refute report contents 
from above! 

from "Confessions of an Ex-Secret Service Agent"/ Marty Venker:
pp. 99-100 "Bringing up the rear of his (Ford's) motorcade was a stretch 
Cadillac convertible, customized with a tilted, reversed seat that gave a 
Secret Service machine gunner a better angle on any air attack.
	"Up ahead, in the press van, the "death watch" camera rolled. The 
networks were dead set on never again having to depend on a Zapruder home 
movie. So they taped every second of the motorcade. "If he didn't get 
killed by the end of the day", Marty said, "they erased the tape." 
Following the President's armored car was "Halfback", the limo that held 
the President's two constant companions: the doctor with his black bag 
and the military aide with his "black box"- the conduit to the 
president's nuclear arsenal."
pp. 216-217 " According to (agent) Chuck Rochner, another agent took his  
life "in the late sixties, in Washington, with his own weopon. There were 
signs that he was beginning to buckle."
p. 25 "So, in a way, part of the blame for JFK's death rested with the 
man himself"-?!
p.26 "There'd even been talk of disbanding the Secret Service and giving 
the job of protecting future Presidents to the FBI."
p.59 "Goddamn, I was protecting these guys. Once you got your feeling 
involved, it made it that much harder to step in front of a bullet. You 
might think, at the last minute, 'How do I feel about this guy?' I'd 
just as soon not know what he stood for."
p. 246 "Marty (Venker) told us to relax. He said they'd (the Secret 
Service) given him phony ID's so he could work undercover at demonstrations."

From Dennis McCarthy's "Protecting the President":
p.25 "Johnson had not been very well liked by any of the agents on the 
detail. he treated us as if we were the hired help on his ranch, cursed 
at us regularly, and was generally a royal pain to deal with."
p.31 " They (Secret Service) are around politicians, often some of the 
most powerful ones in the world, much of the time and frequently see 
these men and women at their worst as well as at their best."
p. 131 "My first day on the job was November 22, 1964..."
p. 188 "(talking about 11/22/63) ...and the President himself waved off the 
agents who customarily rode on the car's running boards"

from CFTR radio interview 1976:
General Godfrey McHugh: on 11/22/63, was asked to sit in a car farther 
back in the motorcade, rather than "normally, what I would do between 
the driver and Secret Service agent in charge of trip"- he admitted this 
was "unusual"; "back of his head blown off"; back wound was LOWER than 
neck wound.

From WC document-Griffin to Rankin re: Dallas PD:
"From an administrative standpoint, (DPD's Charles) Batchelor believed 
that the failure of the Secret Service to inform the police adequately 
in advance of the exact route to be taken by the president prevented 
them from adequately organizing their men and taking the necessary 
security precautions."


4/26/95; 8/4/95 by VMP