The infrastructure of the Secret Service on 11/22/63 and the ramifications involved

[Vince Palamara]

The infrastructure of the Secret Service on 11/22/63 and the ramifications involved

CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE

(see the author's first, third and upcoming fourth book for even more documentation on the below items)

First JFK Secret Service Chief U.E. Baughman: made the Chief via a call on 11/22/48 (excerpt from Baughman's 1962 book Secret Service Chief😞

Baughman was "retired"/ fired by RFK and JFK around the very same time the Bay of Pigs debacle top CIA agents were "retired"/ fired, including Director Allen Dulles (later of Warren Commission infamy), Charles Cabell (whose brother, who we now know had CIA connections of his own, was the mayor of Dallas who rode a mere few cars behind President Kennedy on 11/22/63) and Richard Bissell.

Interestingly (from the above article), Deputy Director and former OSS man Paul Paterni, who worked with future CIA men James Jesus Angleton and future Warren Commission liaison man Ray Rocca during WWII, was up for being his replacement- here is Paterni as he looked during his OSS days:

Paterni would go on to perform the limousine inspection on the night of 11/22/63 with ASAIC Floyd Boring (more on him in a moment). Paterni replaced Russell "Buck" Daniels as Deputy Director in early 1961.

The man who replaced Baughman? Former SAIC of the White House Detail (1946-1961), James J. Rowley, former FBI agent and friend of Hoover:

WHY was Baughman let go? Because he was in direct conflict with the Kennedy brothers and their war on Organized Crime- he thought (like FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover) that the Mafia did not exist!

There must have been some form of animus at Secret Service headquarters during the JFK administration, as well- it is common procedure and protocol to have the current president's portrait on the wall, yet a photo of headquarters from the 1962 book What Does A Secret Service Agent Do by Wayne Hyde (written with the general help of the Secret Service and the specific cooperation of Chief Inspector Michael Torina and Chief James Rowley) shows not only a photo of Ike but a derogatory "I Miss Ike" sticker on the bottom of Ike's portrait!

(As an important aside:)

Rowley was apparently more in line with the Kennedy brothers beliefs:

Rowley's replacement as SAIC was veteran Gerald Behn:

Unfortunately, Behn took his FIRST vacation during the JFK administration during the week involving both the Florida and Texas trips! In Florida, he was replaced by #2 man, ASAIC Floyd Boring (one of the heroes of the 11/1/50 assassination attempt on President Truman):

Boring was the planner of the Texas trip from the Secret Service's point of view (although he himself was not present) and he also took it upon himself to tell the agents between 11/19-11/21/63 that JFK did not want agents riding on the rear of his limo in Dallas, a blatant lie that has been debunked by many fellow agents and White House aides...including Boring himself! Boring also gave lead advance agent Winston Lawson the Dallas assignment. Boring is one of my three suspects. Please see:

https://vincepalamara.com/2018/06/03/secret-service-agent-floyd-boring-is-interesting/

See also:

https://vincepalamara.com/2018/06/13/updated-president-kennedy-the-bubble-top-and-all-security-issues-dissected-1961-1963/

https://vincepalamara.com/2018/06/02/secret-service-security-and-press-coverage-for-jfk-pre-11-22-63/

https://vincepalamara.com/2018/05/30/building-rooftops-were-regularly-guarded-during-the-jfk-era-also-the-secret-service-was-boss-not-jfk/

 

ASAIC Roy Kellerman, a third stringer who proved totally ineffective during and after the assassination, was making one of his first major trips on his own without either Behn or Boring!

There were three Shift Leaders (designated ATSAIC: Assistant To the Special Agent In Charge) on the Texas trip. Sadly, the two best ones, decorated WWII veterans Stu Stout and Art Godfrey were not on the specific leg of the Dallas part of the Texas trip (interestingly, like Boring, Stout was one of the heroes of the 11/1/50 assassination attempt on President Truman. Godfrey was also a Truman-era veteran):

The shift leader in Dallas and commander of the other 7 agents in the follow-up car, Emory Roberts, conveyed Boring's "wish" and ordered away two agents at Love Field, Henry Rybka and Don Lawton, from the limousine, ordered the agents not to move during the shooting itself, and usurped Kellerman's authority at Parkland Hospital, telling his boss to stay with Kennedy while he went to Johnson. Roberts also was responsible for LBJ taking over Air Force One. Roberts is one of my three suspects (see Boring above)- he became too close to Johnson after the assassination and died young in 1973 without speaking to anyone except William Manchester. Interestingly, Roberts shift of agents were the worst offenders by far in the drinking incident of early 11/22/63 in which 9 agents drank alcohol:

(Don Lawton with LBJ +image at Love Field):

 

The day after the infamous umbrella man appeared during the assassination, Roberts became an umbrella man of his own as he shields LBJ. What appears to be a look of disgust on fellow Dallas motorcade agent Jerry Kivett can be seen in the photo:

The lead advance agent for the Dallas trip was the aforementioned Winston Lawson:

However, I harbor no real suspicion towards him, as I feel he was merely following orders from above (Boring). While not necessarily one of my three suspects (two of whom you know about from above--Boring and Roberts---and the other I will get to in a moment), I feel that Lawson's assistant in the Dallas advance, David Grant (interestingly, Clint Hill's brother-in-law!), should be viewed a little more critically, although he may have also been a victim of following orders from above, as well (with regard to motorcycle formations, agents on the limousine, and other security matters):

The Warren Report (as well as Lawson, in correspondence with myself), state that Grant was an advance man in Tampa. The two advance agents for Tampa, officially speaking, were (also) Gerald Blaine (the author of The Kennedy Detail) and Frank Yeager:

Interestingly, Yeager did not think JFK was difficult to protect and seems to imply (like O'Rourke and Pontius) that O'Donnell had something to do with the agents not being on the car in Dallas, yet the agents who testified and wrote reports to the Warren Commission (and Blaine and Hill in their books) never blamed him for anything, while Powers denied there was any truth to JFK ordering the agents off his limo.

As most readers know from my books and my blogs, I don't find Blaine credible...others do not, as well:

https://www.sott.net/article/269016-Gerald-Blaine-and-the-Kennedy-Detail-Was-the-Secret-Service-Stood-Down-in-Dallas

Agent Walt Coughlin is a dear friend of Blaine (and many of the other agents), and was on the Florida and Texas trips, as well as many other trips from election day 1960-11/22/63...and he "had no idea"? hmmmm...

Blaine remarked on C-SPAN in 2010 and in his book that in the month prior to the 28 mile Tampa motorcade the White House detail had lost eleven agents and he had only one experienced agent available to rely on in Tampa. Based on years of intensive research, here are the experienced JFK agents who left (my count is slightly higher, although perhaps a few left a little earlier):

--Bill Skiles

There was one OTHER agent who "left", but he had no choice: he DIED! Driver agent Thomas B. Shipman died on 10/14/63 of an alleged heart attack at Camp David:

Fellow driver agent Sam Kinney, who believed there was a conspiracy and that the back of JFK's head was blown out on 11/22/63 (and had possession of the piece of the back of the head on the C-130 plane heading back to D.C.), was one of the good guys (he was adamant to me--on three occasions--that he was solely responsible for the bubble top's removal, but I hold no suspicion towards him just the same. This was merely an option not explored, not a sinister removal, per se. Interestingly, according to Lawson, it was Kinney who found Shipman's body at Camp David):

SAIC of the driver detail Morgan Gies (photo, arrow) was in Washington and likewise garners no suspicion (fellow new driver agents Andrew Hutch [no photo available] and Henry Rybka [see below] also are not suspicious):

This leaves my third suspect (with Boring and Roberts, above), driver agent William R. "Bill" Greer, who drove President Kennedy quite ineptly and negligently during the assassination (see chapter 8 of my first book Survivor's Guilt for much more):

In keeping with the above, here are the new agents who effectively replaced the veterans who left:

Robert Kollar :

Robert Burke (Summer 1963):

Radford Jones (Summer 1963):

George Hickey (July 1963):

Robert Faison (September 1963):

Tim McIntyre (Fall 1963):

Chuck Zboril (Fall 1963):

Henry Rybka (Fall 1963):

William Straughn (10/17/63):

Dick Metzinger (11/10/63- interestingly, Metzinger's daughter told me that her dad was sent home unexpectedly on 11/21/63!😞

Gerald O'Rourke (11/11/63):

Kent Jordan:

Ed Morey (11/20/63):

Dale Keaner (11/23/63):

Glenn Weaver (11/23/63):

Bill Livingood (11/23/63):

Not pictured: Bill Bacherman (11/10/63), John J. McCarthy (11/10/63), Roy "Gene" Nunn (11/11/63), Andrew Hutch (11/18/63), and Ken Thompson (11/23/63)

ALSO: PRS agent Glen Bennett was made a temporary White House Detail agent on 11/10/63, while fellow PRS agent Howard K. Norton [no photo available] was on both the Florida and Texas trips:

Please see:

https://vincepalamara.com/2018/06/01/very-important-postprs-agents-glen-bennett-howard-norton-covert-monitors-of-threats-to-jfk/

and

https://vincepalamara.com/2018/03/23/secret-service-agents-from-the-jfk-lbj-era-who-is-still-alive-who-died-who-i-interviewed/

SAIC of the VP LBJ detail Stu Knight (later the Director of the Secret Service from 1973-1981, replacing Rowley) was not on the Texas trip:

Knight's transfer was to have taken place 11/25/63. Knight's deputy, ASAIC of VP LBJ detail Rufus Youngblood took his place on the Texas trip (Youngblood, later the author of a 1973 book just re-released by his daughter, Twenty Years in the Secret Service, became the SAIC of the WHD and Assistant Director):

Treasury Secretary (and former OSS man) C. Douglas Dillon was on a crowded cabinet plane heading to Hawaii (then onto Japan) along with Press Secretary Pierre Salinger (a man agent Bob Lilley stated was extremely knowledgeable about motorcade security and planning, as they had worked with Pierre on many advances. In fact, Salinger stated in his 1997 book John F. Kennedy: Commander In Chief that he missed only “one or two trips” with JFK...Texas was one of them! 😞

(Salinger's deputy, Andy Hatcher, also was not on the Texas trip)

As with Kellerman, another third stringer, Mac Kilduff, was on the trip, making his first major trip on his own!

In Dillon's place: Acting Secretary Gaspard d'Andelot Belin (General Counsel of the Treasury Department and married to one of the Bundy sisters):

Making his very first presidential trip (from the Washington D.C. field office, presumably): future CIA agent Roger Warner:

Two agents along on the trip because Jackie Kennedy was there: Clint Hill (who has said from day one in testimony, reports, and his books that the back of JFK's head was gone and that the wound in the back was a back wound, not a neck wound) and Paul Landis (who stated in two reports that one of the shots came from the front):

A racist agent from Mississippi

(confirmed by Abraham Bolden, Walt Coughlin and Clint Hill in the book Out From The Shadow) gone from the detail by 1961 or 1962 but still an active agent (most likely in the Birmingham, Alabama office) and a definite candidate for the mysterious agent on the knoll- Harvey Henderson:

San Francisco agent Elmer Moore (sometimes confusingly named a Dallas office agent) harassed the Parkland doctors (especially Dr. Perry) and got them to change their tune regarding the wounds. He harbored hatred toward JFK and would definitely be a possible fourth-line suspect:

Two agents who appear to have left the detail in 1962 to head toward field offices, Mike Mastrovito and Jack Warner, have colorful backgrounds. Mastrovito, like Warner above, became a CIA agent and ALSO controlled the JFK assassination file for the Secret Service for years, destroyed part of Kennedy's brain, and was interviewed by the ARRB. For his part, Warner became a decades-long spokesman and consultant for the Secret Service on everything from assassination attempt damage control (Ford, Reagan) to In The Line of Fire movie technical assistance:

Interestingly, Hillary Rodham Clinton's older first cousin (and "kinda uncle", as several people viewed him and actually referred to him as her uncle), Wade Rodham, was the SAIC of the Kennedy residence in Middleberg, VA (he was famous for being one of the agents who was decorated for protecting VP Nixon in Caracas. He was at Middleberg when the assassination happened. One wonders where he was when Bill Clinton met JFK at the White House...):

Rounding out the rest of the Kennedy detail (of no special note, other than Richard Johnsen, the official keeper of CE399😞

NED HALL II

Some final food for thought loose ends:

 

[James DiEugenio]

Very informative VInce.  Only you can do something like this.

 

Gives the rest of us the framework.  

Although I do disagree with you on Sorrells and Lawson.  And didn't you once say Boring was in Dallas later that day?

 

And its Rybka and Lawton being called back at Love Field?

[Ron Bulman]

So Baughman was with the Secret Service for 33 years. If he was retired, along with Dulles, Cabell and Bissell of the CIA (why?) in 1962, he wasn't trusted by JFK/RFK?  He was head of the SS for 25 years then retired a year and a half before JFK died.  The associate of Angleton, Paterni took over from Braughman and ultimately inspected the limo after the assassination.  But never made any kind of report of it?  Was never questioned by the Warren Omission about it?

[Vince Palamara]

3 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Very informative VInce.  Only you can do something like this.

 

Gives the rest of us the framework.  

Although I do disagree with you on Sorrells and Lawson.  And didn't you once say Boring was in Dallas later that day?

 

And its Rybka and Lawton being called back at Love Field?

Thanks, Jim.

Fair enough. Regarding Boring being in Dallas: this was based on Clint Hill's identification of an agent (who turned out to be----guess who---Don Lawton!) as Floyd Boring. Please see:

https://vincepalamara.com/2014/12/05/houston-well-dallas-we-have-a-major-problem-floyd-boring-in-texas-on-112263/

https://vincepalamara.com/2014/12/06/part-two-of-the-floyd-boring-clint-hill-conundrum-the-plot-thickens/

Re: Rybka and Lawton- yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trl6U6knXO4

 

[Vince Palamara]

16 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said:

So Baughman was with the Secret Service for 33 years. If he was retired, along with Dulles, Cabell and Bissell of the CIA (why?) in 1962, he wasn't trusted by JFK/RFK?  He was head of the SS for 25 years then retired a year and a half before JFK died.  The associate of Angleton, Paterni took over from Braughman and ultimately inspected the limo after the assassination.  But never made any kind of report of it?  Was never questioned by the Warren Omission about it?

Yes. See above- Baughman was "retired" because (like Hoover) he thought the Mafia did not exist (!)...which did not sit too well with RFK'S war on crime.

Paterni was slated to be Baughman's replacement (which ultimately went to someone lower on the totem pole, Rowley), yet retained his Deputy Chief (Director) role. He was never questioned by the Warren Omission (typical).

[B. A. Copeland]

Hey Vince amazing work...seriously. Thank you. I was wondering if you’ve found anything of specific interest to you in the newest (or most recent) document releases or are you still digging lol?

[Vince Palamara]

28 minutes ago, B. A. Copeland said:

Hey Vince amazing work...seriously. Thank you. I was wondering if you’ve found anything of specific interest to you in the newest (or most recent) document releases or are you still digging lol?

Thanks a lot! I found a few little things of interest, but nothing major...EXCEPT ONE (!)---it is an appendix in my new book coming out 9/1/18

[B. A. Copeland]

Welcome! Looking forward to it Vince. Keep digging when possible lol.