The "Dead Secret Service Agent" Rumor — How Did It Start?

[Joseph McBride]

From my 2013 book INTO THE NIGHTMARE: MY SEARCH FOR THE KILLERS OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY AND OFFICER J. D. TIPPIT

THE DEAD SECRET SERVICE AGENT STORY

There is also that curious case of the dead Secret Service agent. Persistent reports that a Secret Service agent was killed in Dallas on November 22 may or may not relate to unknown activities in Oak Cliff in the period between Tippit’s murder and Oswald’s capture, the inadequately documented events at the theater, or to other strange events surrounding Tippit’s death. Dallas’s WFAA announced, “We may report this bulletin that a Secret Service agent and a Dallas policeman were shot and killed here today. They were shot some distance from the area where President Kennedy was assassinated.” All three television networks reported the agent’s death as fact, and the Associated Press was similarly quoted on WFAA-TV reporting, “A Secret Service agent and a Dallas policeman were shot and killed some distance from where the President was shot.” The story was dropped by the news media after they received a carefully worded “denial” (with significant holes in it) at 3:40 p.m. by Robert A. Wallace, the assistant secretary of the Treasury in charge of the Secret Service: “No Secret Service man was injured in the attack on President Kennedy.” Note that this non-denial denial would not cover an agent’s death in another location that day in Dallas. And as was noted in Chapter 13, DPD Detective Marvin A. Buhk reported to Chief Curry on December 3 that Secret Service men had been involved in the hunt for the suspect in the Tippit killing.

Some have theorized that the dead agent report may have been a cover story for spiriting Kennedy’s body out of Dallas by a means other than Air Force One or that the dead agent had attempted to warn the president of the impending plot. The Dallas Morning News reported that a man had run alongside Kennedy’s limousine a few minutes before the assassination, shouting a warning before being tackled by Secret Service agents from the followup car to Vice President Johnson’s vehicle, three car lengths behind the president. Vince Palamara, the leading expert on the Secret Service involvement in the assassination, has studied these matters carefully and has found anomalies and gaps in the record pertaining to some agents who might have been a candidate for the “dead agent.” One report (from an article by Penn Jones and Gary Shaw) was that a Dallas or Fort Worth agent posing as a postal inspector knew of the plot and left his office on the day of the assassination, saying, “Well, this is it,” and was never seen by his family again, although they continued to receive his paychecks. Palamara identifies this man as Chuck Robertson. Palamara also quotes the late Secret Service agent James K. Fox as saying, “We lost a man that day -- our man.” Fox, who was stationed in Washington, D.C., was asked “to get ready a detail of four to six agents to assist in retrieving the body and casket of the unnamed Secret Service agent,” reports Palamara.

In a transcript of a tape in which the respected Scripps-Howard reporter Seth Kantor recorded his memories shortly after the events in Dallas (reproduced in one of the Warren volumes), there is this passage about a discussion in an office in Parkland Hospital shortly after the announcement of Kennedy’s death:

A western union man who had been with us since we came down from from [sic] Andrews Air Force Base came into the office. A nurse asked him about a report that a Secret Service agent had been killed out on the street. He said that it was true. This was one of the immediate rumors which sprung [sic] up. It took several days for this particular rumor not to be believed in Dallas itself (fellow in Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall who got it from a friend who got it from a postman supposed to have been at the death scene that the shot and bleeding SS man was picked up and whisked away and it was all hushed up. Why? I asked. Because they even have to die in secret, he said. He and others hinted that maybe the SS man was in on the plot to kill the President.)

The mention of the Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall Printing Company (JCS) in Dallas is intriguing, for this was the firm for which Oswald worked from October 12, 1962 (ten days before the Cuban Missile Crisis would become public) through April 6, 1963, doing photographic work. The firm did classified jobs for the U.S. Army and Navy on maps and photographs. It is one of the many mysteries of Oswald’s story -- most likely an indication of his intelligence connections -- that he could have obtained such a sensitive position with his record as a supposed defector to the USSR. As Armstrong writes in Harvey and Lee, “It is worth noting that while working on military jobs at JCS Oswald made no attempt to conceal his sympathies towards Cuba, Russia, and communism. He brought Russian newspapers to work, read them during his breaks, and spoke Russian with co-worker Dennis Ofstein. Apparently, no one at JCS was concerned.” That last point may not be entirely true. Oswald was fired in late March 1963 because he was “inept in this particular craft,” but not because of any other problem, according to the Warren Commission testimony of Robert L. Stovall, the company’s president. But the director of the firm’s photographic department, John G. Graef, testified that Oswald had friction with other employees and that his reading of a Russian newspaper at work “didn’t help” him avoid being discharged when business was slow.

And as for the curious history of the dead agent story, is it possible that Tippit worked clandestinely for the Secret Service or some other U.S. government agency and could have been reported to be the “dead agent” before the official story began to coalesce? The reports that a policeman was killed along with the agent, and that the agent “had been killed out on the street,” are suggestive, even if the record is vague on what might have happened. It would not have been unusual for a police officer to have operated under cover for a U.S. federal law enforcement or intelligence agency. Alternatively, given the initial confusion about an agent and a policeman being shot on the street, seemingly in the same incident, could this have resulted from an incident, otherwise lost to history, in which Tippit, or whoever shot him, shot an agent? As was discussed in Chapter 14, the chain of evidence on Tippit’s service revolver was broken by the strange action of witness Ted Callaway.

M. S. Arnoni, who wrote some insightful early commentary on the assassination and related events, asked these questions as early as December 1, 1963, in his article “Dark Thoughts about Dark Events” in the independent journal The Minority of One: “Was Lee Harvey Oswald a walking corpse, a fall guy, doomed even before the assassination to die? And if so, did he die after fulfilling an assassin’s role, or only as a decoy? Was the assassin condemned to death by the very people who assigned him to shoot? If so, when did the execution take place -- with the shooting of Lee Oswald, or with the shooting of Dallas Patrolman J. D. Tippit? The first reports of the murder of Patrolman Tippit also related that a Secret Service man had been wounded; since then, nothing has been heard about that Secret Service man. What was his relation to Patrolman Tippit; and is it possible that the two were shot in a duel between them?”

I asked Jim Leavelle if he had heard anything about a Secret Service agent being killed that day in Dallas. Leavelle confirmed he had looked into the story, but thought it wasn’t true: “I’ve heard that, but I’ve asked some people about it. Nobody knows a thing about it. It’s never been brought to my attention that it happened out there where [Tippit] was. If there had been a Secret Service man hurt out there, we’d have known about it, I can assure you about that. [Forrest V.] Sorrels was chief of the Secret Service here, and we were real close. I can assure you that if there had been a Secret Service agent shot or killed or even hurt, wounded [in Dallas that day], we would have known about it. We worked together just like that.”

Edited April 15, 2016 by Joseph McBride

[Joseph McBride]

The erroneous report on James Brady being dead was made

by Maureen Santini of the Associated Press. She was in

the White House press room when she heard someone say

that Brady had been killed. Apparently without checking

to confirm the story, she called it in, and it went out on the

wire before it was retracted. I used to work with Santini

at The Wisconsin State Journal before that. When I learned

that she had been the source of the false report

on Brady, I was not surprised.

Edited April 15, 2016 by Joseph McBride

[David Lifton]

Here's a link to the previous thread:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9658&hl=%20robertson%20%20dead%20%20secret%20%20service%20%20agent

See post #36 on the alleged disappearance of SS agent Chuck Robertson, who allegedly had foreknowledge of the plot, on 11/22/63.

There are a couple of other tidbits worth noting in the thread that I had not previously heard of.

Posts #38 and 39: When arraigned Oswald he was under the jurisdiction of the County Sheriff's office, and should not have been in police custody when murdered.

Post #41: the statement is made that communications over the SS channels were withheld from the WC.

Ron:

Thanks for locating this thread, and posting the link.

For those following this particular subject: The thread you cited spans about 5 web pages and (presently) has 63 posts.

It provides a useful collection of just about everything publicly written to that point in time (Jan 2010).

If I were doing a master's thesis in history, this would be a good topic to choose, because it provides an opportunity to study (in depth) how the media handled an important matter, how it was (if the initial reports are true) successfully covered up; and how it remains an unresolved mystery to this day. Of course, if the initial reports are true (and the solution can be found), it probably qualifies as more than a master's thesis.

Suggestion to James Gordon: You might consider "sealing off" the previous thread, so it doesn't contain material duplicated on this thread, but remains readily available as a reference of "past posts" on the subject.

DSL

4/15/16 - 6:12 a.m. PDT

Los Angeles, California

Edited April 15, 2016 by David Lifton

[Brad Milch]

Hi, all:

There's an underlying issue here that's not being discussed that gets its share of discussion on college campuses around the globe. For those who tip toe through the tulips on the JFK ambush & murder, I'll spell it out here:

Namely, the strong belief that President Kennedy & Texas Governor Connally came under gunfire by those closest to both men: The SS personnel in the followup car just a few feet from the back of JFK's head. Point-blank range. On Elm Street. Distraction fire from the TSBD & knolls. Gunsmoke smelled by witnesses originated from Queen Mary and/or SS agents firing while on foot in the street. The men with guns Bill Newman saw leaving the Queen Mary had just shot the President (something he didn't see).

If one follows (or recalls from life experiences) the progression of investigation that began with newspaper & TV reports to the WC, the early critics & ballistics/trajectory analysts of the WC, The Church Committee, the HSCA, all the way to David Lifton's 1st book detailing SS JFK body snatching, body hiding on AF-1, covert pre-arrival at Bethesda & apparent body alteration & looks at Vince Palamara's books detailing SS SAIC Emory Roberts calling back John Ready's apparent attempt to get to JFK during the ambush & Robert's dumping JFK at Parkland for LBJ, one has to question if all that info is true & accurate, why did the SS want to get the bullets out of JFK's body so badly & why did the SS people involved act the way they reportedly acted?. Why did the SS agents & their car disappear from tailgating JFK's parade car down Elm St. during the ambush from all Government investigation re-enactments & each & every CBS & other network TV special pushing the 'LHO did it' theory (this includes Dale Meyers' infamous cartoon that so impressed Peter Jenning more than a decade ago)?

The answer is blowing in the wind: the bullets that wounded & killed JFK & wounded Connally were SS bullets.

For the timid or blind, I said it....

Brad Milch

PS: I'm not talking about SS Agent Hickey attempting to return fire to the TSBD & accidentally shooting JFK. I'm talking about SS people involved in a Coup d'état to murder JFK & replace him with LBJ and doing it not in front of hundreds of people, but around a dozen or two scattered around the area in front of the North Pergola & the triple underpass where two bright yellow marks were painted on Elm Street in a dip in the road that prevented most of the motorcade cars & occupants from witnessing with their eyes unobstructed exactly what was going on during the JFK ambush. Closest agents to JFK during the ambush: Emory Roberts & all 4 running board agents. All were armed with pistols. Pistols shoot exploding (dum-dum) rounds as well as rifles do. Parade car front seat SS agents make up the other two closest armed agents. To the sides of JFK & alongside the running board agents & interior occupants of the Queen Mary would be the 4 DPD motorcycle escorts that should be factored in as possible firing points too.

FWIW, after 53 years of following all this good & bad JFK research. IMHO (means nothing to anyone but me), JFK was murdered by some of his guard detail. The 'dead SS agent' story, regardless of its origin, was disseminated to the public to give the impression that JFK & his guards came under fire during the ambush & not focus attention on the very real possibility that JFK's guards killed him.

Edited April 15, 2016 by Brad Milch

[David Andrews]

It's tempting, Brad, but remember that others among the "closest to" JFK - Dave Powers and Kenny O'Donnell - were riding in the Queen Mary.

[James DiEugenio]

Brad;

I actually did some work on this once for a book I had to review.

There simply is not any credible witness testimony or photographic evidence that will bear this out. Believe me, I looked.

[Brad Milch]

@David & James:

It's the simplest explanation for the crime. It's also the reason the dance has taken so long to remove the focus on JFK's corrupt guards & place it on LHO (where it was originally intended). Ask anyone who has ever worked for Uncle Sam & they'll tell you the higher ups NEVER do anything wrong. Hillary will walk a plank before admitting she screwed up big time with her email server. Uncle Sam's sock puppets (MSM) will broadcast footage of Soviet fighters buzzing a US Destroyer, but won't air footage of whatever it was the Destroyer did that peeved the Soviet Air Force off.

The photographic record went thru many hands connected to the Government before the public saw the pieces of this, portions of that & darkened out visual info here & there. A good portion of it went thru the hands of Life magazine. Almost all of it has been accused of being victims of visual alterations. YouTube is flooded with visual analysis of JFK ambush films & photographs ranging from amateurs, noted & respected visual analysts such as David Healy, David Lifton, the late Jack White, Josiah Thompson and many others, to pranksters making an a$$ of themselves online.

By going on what Bill Newman & Bob Clark reported in an early radio broadcast about SS men scurrying around the JFK parade car during the shooting (along with Mary Moorman or jean Hill remarking in an interview they thought the SS was firing back), I am of the opinion the shooting took place in the street between the two cars, away from Dave Powers. If Dave saw anything, it was probably the back(s) of one or more agents or the shot he 1st heard & saw JFK pulling his arm in the car & to his throat could have come from Kellerman or Ready without him seeing or hearing it. Pistols can be silenced also. To Connally, because the parade car was traversing a steep decline, any gunfire would sound to him like it was coming over his right shoulder, even if it originated from behind him from someone on the sidewalk.

One SS Agent could squeeze a pistol fast enough to have done the shooting without the spectators being the wiser.

I have faith in James (I've read all his books & follow his Internet Black Op radio interviews with Len Osanic) finding the truth someday, somehow, with something those who pulled this slick crime off didn't think of 53 years ago.

I encourage James DiEugenio to introduce this topic on one of his upcoming radio interviews with Len Osanic. I'll bet the highly JFK murder educated Mr. Osanic has some candid thoughts about the subject. With some listener call in participation it should prove a dynamic show; perhaps a trend setter.

The burden of proof doesn't exist globally. What criminals get away with in the USA by covering their misdeeds doesn't work everywhere. For example, if ISIS fighters got their hands on a defenseless person & wanted to execute him/her, there is no phone call for a lawyer first. Their 'proof' is whatever the perpetrators determine it to be. If your head is wanted, your head will be taken.

There was some discussion in the Ruth Paine thread a few weeks back about LHO's brother Robert getting it on with Marina. I kept waiting for someone to comment that 'maybe that's how LHO's alleged rifle got out of the Paine garage' with helpful brother Robert stopping by to 'service' Marina while she & LHO lived apart & how long the alleged adultery began & lasted, but no one ever did. From what I heard on the radio as a kid, only the Shadow knows stuff like that. He don't need no proof either.

BM

Edited April 16, 2016 by Brad Milch

[Joseph McBride]

Senator Ralph Yarborough, who was riding with LBJ

two cars behind President Kennedy, told me in 1988, "The first shot I heard I thought was a rifle shot.

The second shot, the motorcade almost came to a halt. They said later that the president‘s car slowed

to something like five miles an hour. I wondered what the hell they were stopping for when somebody is shooting.

People were jumping out of the car in front of me [the Secret Service followup car] and running to the president‘s car.

I thought maybe somebody had thrown a bomb in there. The third shot I heard was a rifle shot."

[Brad Milch]

Thank you for including that critical info, Joseph!

Your input, when added to the gunsmoke several witnesses in the head portion of the motorcade smelled as they were driven through the kill zone is added in & sidewalk spectator interviews of those closest to the ambush (Bill Newman, Mary Moorman & Jean Hill, among others) is factored in & taken into consideration, it becomes obvious that either a reaction to an outside the motorcade attack directed to it occurred on Elm St. or the attack came from within the motorcade itself from where Mr. Yarborough places it (SS agents outside their transport car) or both.

I strongly urge all interested in this unsolved case to research back in time to the original radio & TV broadcasts & subsequent newspaper coverage, examine the WC exhibits & testimony, look at all the TV specials 'proving' that LHO committed this crime solo, watch all the re-enactment animations & the original SS re-enactment film from late 1963-1964 & find the SS Queen Mary & representatives of the persons that car contained during the actual ambush as the car tailgated JFK's parade car down Elm Street. Hint: you won't find them anywhere in the visuals portraying the ambush. They vanish. Like magic.

It's time to factor the JFK SS agents & their transport vehicle into the analysis. 53 years is a long time to pretend they weren't present during the attack on President Kennedy that stole his existence.

BM

Edited April 16, 2016 by Brad Milch

[Paul Rigby]

Thank you for including that critical info, Joseph!

Your input, when added to the gunsmoke several witnesses in the head portion of the motorcade smelled as they were driven through the kill zone is added in & sidewalk spectator interviews of those closest to the ambush (Bill Newman, Mary Moorman & Jean Hill, among others) is factored in & taken into consideration, it becomes obvious that either a reaction to an outside the motorcade attack directed to it occurred on Elm St. or the attack came from within the motorcade itself from where Mr. Yarborough places it (SS agents outside their transport car) or both.

I strongly urge all interested in this unsolved case to research back in time to the original radio & TV broadcasts & subsequent newspaper coverage, examine the WC exhibits & testimony, look at all the TV specials 'proving' that LHO committed this crime solo, watch all the re-enactment animations & the original SS re-enactment film from late 1963-1964 & find the SS Queen Mary & representatives of the persons that car contained during the actual ambush as the car tailgated JFK's parade car down Elm Street. Hint: you won't find them anywhere in the visuals portraying the ambush. They vanish. Like magic.

It's time to factor the JFK SS agents & their transport vehicle into the analysis. 53 years is a long time to pretend they weren't present during the attack on President Kennedy that stole his existence.

BM

Shots from inside the presidential limousine

1. Bobby Hargis (Police motorcycle outrider, left rear of limousine):Mr. Stern: Do you recall your impression at the time regarding the shots?

Hargis: “Well, at the time it sounded like the shots were right next to me,” 6WCH294.

2. Austin Miller (railroad worker, on triple overpass):

Mr. Belin: “Where did the shots sound like they came from?”

Miller: “Well, the way it sounded like, it came from the, I would say right there in the car,” 6WCH225.

3. Charles Brehm (carpet salesman, south curb of Elm St.): “in front of or beside” the President. Source: Dallas Times Herald, first post-assassination edition, November 22, 1963, cited by Joachim Joesten. Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy? (London: Merlin Press, 1964), p.176.

4. Officer E. L. Boone (policeman, corner of Main and Houston Streets):" I heard three shots coming from the vicinity of where the President's car was,” 19WCH508.

5. Hugh Betzner, Jr. told the Dallas County Sheriffs Office that he “saw what looked like a fire-cracker going off in the President's car and recall seeing what looked like a nickel revolver in someone's hand in or somewhere immediately around the President's car," 19WCH467.

6. Jack Franzen: “He said he heard the sound of an explosion which appeared to him to come from the President's car and ...small fragments flying inside the vehicle and immediately assumed someone had tossed a firecracker inside the automobile,” 22WCH840.

7. Mrs. Jack Franzen: “Shortly after the President’s automobile passed by…she heard a noise which sounded as if someone had thrown a firecracker into the President’s automobile…at approximately the same time she noticed dust or small pieces of debris flying from the President’s automobile,” 24WCH525.

7. Clint Hill (on the second shot, the fatal one to the head): “It was as though someone was shooting a revolver into a hard object," 2WCH144.

8. James Altgens: “The last shot sounded like it came from the left side of the car, if it was close range because, if it were a pistol it would have to be fired at close range for any degree of accuracy," 7WCH518.

9. James N. Crawford: “As I observed the parade, I believe there was a car leading the President's car, followed by the President's car and followed, I suppose, by the Vice President's car and, in turn, by the Secret Service in a yellow closed sedan. The doors of the sedan were open. It was after the Secret Service sedan had gone around the corner that I heard the first report and at that time I thought it was a backfire of a car but,in analyzing the situation, it could not have been a backfire of a car because it would have had to have been the President's car or some car in the cavalcade there. The second shot followed some seconds, a little time elapsed after the first one, and followed very quickly by the third one. I could not see the President's car,” 6WCH171

10. Royce Skelton: “around” the car

11. Mary Moorman, KRLD Radio interview, 22 Nov 1963, 1530hrs: “The sound popped, well it just sounded like, well, you know, there might have been a firecracker right there in that car.”

12. In his Warren Commission Testimony Dr. McClelland stated that the wound in the back of the president’s skull could be expected: “From a .45 pistol fired at close range,” 6WCH38

[Daniel Gallup]

One more reason to reject the authenticity of the Z-film. "People were jumping out of the car in front of me [the Secret Service followup car] and running to the president‘s car." (Ralph Yarborough) That's something that would be done to a stopped limo, and there is plenty of other evidence that the limo did indeed stop. What happened during that time was probably critical to knowing how the President was murdered, and that's why the limo stop no longer appears in the extant film .

[David Andrews]

We don't get a history of remarks by Jackie Kennedy that support something other than rifle fire, and Bobby Kennedy's reactions were formed by Jackie's experience. Jackie's few public complaints were about Greer's driving response time.

As for Yarborough's statement, Clint Hill ran for the car and the agent opposite him made a move to run and was called back by his superior. Yarborough, two cars behind, doesn't offer anything that seriously conflicts with that.

No one reporting pistol-like shots can place their origin or identify a perpetrator, and some of the eyewitness statements (Brehm, Boone) are so imprecisely phrased that they could refer to rifle shots from a distance. Others (the Franzens, Hill) seem to describe the impact noise and disjecta of the head wound. The highlighted portion of Crawford's backfire statement doesn't localize the gunfire noise to the limo area (being that Crawford was a block away), or to the moment of the major head wound. There was more than one comparison made to backfire, and this one is no more revelatory than the others.

Edited April 17, 2016 by David Andrews

[David Lifton]

We don't get a history of remarks by Jackie Kennedy that support something other than rifle fire, and Bobby Kennedy's reactions were formed by Jackie's experience. Jackie's few public complaints were about Greer's driving response time.

As for Yarborough's statement, Clint Hill ran for the car and the agent opposite him made a move to run and was called back by his superior. Yarborough, two cars behind, doesn't offer anything that seriously conflicts with that.

No one reporting pistol-like shots can place their origin or identify a perpetrator, and some of the eyewitness statements (Brehm, Boone) are so imprecisely phrased that they could refer to rifle shots from a distance. Others (the Franzens, Hill) seem to describe the impact noise and disjecta of the head wound. The highlighted portion of Crawford's backfire statement doesn't localize the gunfire noise to the limo area (being that Crawford was a block away), or to the moment of the major head wound. There was more than one comparison made to backfire, and this one is no more revelatory than the others.

David,

I thought Paul Rigby's list was reasonably impressive. "Non one reportng pistol-like shots can place their origin or identify a perpetrator. . "

Re Jackie: She was trying to get out of the car, desperate to do so.

Do you believe the story that she was out on the turtleback lookng for a piece of JFK's head?

If so, then that is your right (of course); but if not, then her attempt to get out of the car, the way she did, is circumstantial evidence she viewed the threat as coming form "the front".

When she exclaimed, "They have murdered my husband, I have his brains in my hand". That doesn't sound like a g-knoll quote.

DSL

[David Lifton]

One more reason to reject the authenticity of the Z-film. "People were jumping out of the car in front of me [the Secret Service followup car] and running to the president‘s car." (Ralph Yarborough) That's something that would be done to a stopped limo, and there is plenty of other evidence that the limo did indeed stop. What happened during that time was probably critical to knowing how the President was murdered, and that's why the limo stop no longer appears in the extant film .

Daniel:

Very nicely stated; but DiEugenio says he "looked but coudn't find."

"There simply is not any credible witness testimony or photographic evidence that will bear this out. Believe me, I looked.--DiEugenio.

Well, Jim. . we'll give you a B+ for effort; maybe you didn't "look" hard enough.

Are you sure you were in Dallas, and in Dealey Plaza, and not in Disneyland?

When I visited Dallas in 1971, armed with my TC-800 tape recorder, I got vivid accounts of the car slowing sharply and/or stopping from Moorman, the Newmans, Franzen, Chism, etc.

In particular, I spent well over an hour in Bill Newman's home, and both he and his wife were adamant that the car stopped, right in front of them. Again, that's November 1971.

That's over 40 years ago, when memories were much fresher than today.

When I told Bill Newman that the Z film at the Archives (hadn't been broadcast nationally yet, that was in March 1975) didn't show any stop, he replied strongly that he didn't care what any film showed at the Archives. "I was there, and it stopped."

This sort of evidence persuaded me that there was good reason to believe the car stopped; and, once one goes down that path, one is'rtalking about film alteration.

The opening pages of Sylvia Meagher's book lays out a list of those who believed the car stopped. I remember when I first became aware of this--around 1969--I set to work combing the eyewitness accounts, and was amazed at home many stated the car stopped.

Too many witnesses said the car stopped. And then many of the Dallas doctors saw a blowout at the back of the head.

Its highly unlikely that all this was the result of "mis-perception."

Dealey Plaza was not the Bermuda Triangle.

DSL

Edited April 17, 2016 by David Lifton

[Don Jeffries]

This is the kind of discussion that makes these forums worthwhile. Thanks especially to Joseph McBride, for sharing from his impressive book, and to Paul Rigby for his typical out-of-the-box thinking.

There are so many of these aspects to the assassination that have simply been attributed to faulty eyewitness perceptions. As David Lifton pointed out; way, way too many disparate witnesses, independently of one another, mentioned the limousine stopping or almost stopping. Were they all "mistaken" in an identical manner, just as all the Parkland medical personnel was "mistaken" identically about that huge blowout in the back of JFK's head, which isn't shown on the official photos and x-rays?

There is far too much, for my taste at least, to the dead secret service agent story, to discard it because of more "mistaken" impressions that day. I would throw in the pool of blood that was reported near the pergola, including a witness who reported (rather oddly, in my view) that he'd tasted it to make sure it was blood. Here's a link to an earlier thread here discussing that: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9768

When I spoke to the granddaughter of Henry Rybka for my book, the only thing relating to the assassination that she volunteered was the fact her family was terrified that Henry was the Secret Service agent who'd been killed. This story bears all the earmarks of initial reports in most important events of the past 50 years, which are tossed aside once the official narrative has been agreed upon.