Robert Morrow Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 There is no good reason why in the DALLAS MOTORCADE mere MOMENTS before President Kennedy was about to take a bullet or bullets plural in head, that Lyndon Johnson and his Secret Service agent Rufus Youngblood (who became a de facto leader of the Secret Service post JFK assassination) would be listening to a WALKIE TALKIE turned down "real low" so that Kennedy ally and LBJ opponent Sen. Ralph Yarborough could not head what it said. The source on this is Jim Marrs' interview of Sen. Ralph Yarborough. Lyndon, you can't just peacefully sit in your limo for 30 minutes on the way over to lunch at the Trade Mart? You have to be on a walkie talkie obsessively listening in? Listening to what? The weather report? People who have read extensively on LBJ know he was a micromanager in all of his crimes and plots. Rufus Youngblood once said LBJ would give you directions on how to turn a screw. There is no good or innocent reason for this (covertly listening to a walkie talkie at this time), especially when one considers that absolute war that was going on behind the scenes between LBJ and the Kennedys in November, 1963. Lyndon Johnson also fabricated the fantasy that 6'3" Rufus Youngblood vaulted into the back seat, threw LBJ on the floorboard and then protected him with his body. Youngblood and Lady Bird both went along with this big, fat lie. Why do you have to LIE about that LBJ? Are you trying to pretend your life was in danger? From Jim Marrs' Crossfire: Yarborough's Suspicion of Lyndon Johnson "There is the well-publicized story of Agent Rufus Youngblood, who reportedly threw himself on top of Vice President Johnson after the shooting began in Dealey Plaza.... Johnson, in a statement to the Warren Commission, mentioned the incident: I was startled by a sharp report or explosion, but I had no time to speculate as to its origin because Agent Youngblood turned in a flash, immediately after the first explosion, hitting me on the shoulder, and shouted to all of us in the back seat to get down. I was pushed down by Agent Youngblood. Almost in the same moment in which he hit or pushed me, he vaulted over the back seat and sat on me. I was bent over under the weight of Agent Youngblood's body, toward Mrs. Johnson and Senator Yarborough.... However, former Texas senator Ralph Yarborough, who was sitting beside Johnson that day, told this author: 'It just didn't happen.... It was a small car, Johnson was a big man, tall. His knees were up against his chin as it was. There was no room for that to happen.' Yarborough recalled that both Johnson and Youngblood ducked down as the shooting began and that Youngblood never left the front seat. Yarborough said Youngblood held a small walkie-talkie over the back of the car's seat and that he and Johnson both put their ears to the device. He added: 'They had it turned down real low. I couldn't hear what they were listening to.'" --Jim Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy Yarborough's Suspicion of the Warren Commission Investigators "A couple of fellows [from the Warren Commission] came to see me. They walked in like they were a couple of deputy sheriffs and I was a bank robber. I didn't like their attitude. As a senator I felt insulted. They went off and wrote up something and brought it back for me to sign. But I refused. I threw it in a drawer and let it lay there for weeks. And they had on there the last sentence which stated: 'This is all I know about the assassination.' They wanted me to sign this thing, then say this is all I know. Of course, I would never have signed it. Finally, after some weeks, they began to bug me. 'You're holding this up, you're holding this up' they said, demanding that I sign the report. So I typed one up myself and put basically what I told you about how the cars all stopped. I put in there, 'I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but for the protection of future presidents, they should be trained to take off when a shot is fired.' I sent that over. That's dated July 10, 1964, after the assassination. To my surprise, when the volumes were finally printed and came out, I was surprised at how many people down at the White House didn't file their affidavits until after the date, after mine the 10th of July, waiting to see what I was going to say before they filed theirs. I began to lose confidence then in their investigation and that's further eroded with time." --Jim Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Down Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 Perhaps they were "listening" to nothing on the walkie talkie and were just pretending to to wind Ralph up. Pretending they were keeping him out of the loop on something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bulman Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 The real proof they were involved in the coverup is LBJ's WC statement Youngblood jumped over the seat to cover him at the sound of the shots. Denied by Youngblood and Senator Yarbough. Ok. Youngblood didn't out right deny it he just said "If that's what the president said", from memory. LBJ bending down between the front seats to listen to Youngblood's walkie-talkie to me indicates they were aware something was going to happen, and they listened in to hear reports of it's success. Not that LBJ was involved in the planning or execution itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Morrow Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 55 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said: The real proof they were involved in the coverup is LBJ's WC statement Youngblood jumped over the seat to cover him at the sound of the shots. Denied by Youngblood and Senator Yarbough. Ok. Youngblood didn't out right deny it he just said "If that's what the president said", from memory. LBJ bending down between the front seats to listen to Youngblood's walkie-talkie to me indicates they were aware something was going to happen, and they listened in to hear reports of it's success. Not that LBJ was involved in the planning or execution itself. You can certainly believe that LBJ was not involved in the planning or the execution of the JFK assassination. That is fine. I happen to believe that Lyndon Johnson murdered Sam Smithwick in prison in 1952; that he murdered U.S. Agricultural official Henry Marshall in 1961; that due to his war with the Kennedys, LBJ in a defensive action, murdered JFK; that LBJ and Israel together tried to sink an American ship the USS Liberty, murder all 294 Americans on board so that the heinous crime could be blamed on Egypt. I also think that certain people connected to Billie Sol Estes were murdered because they know too much about the Cash Kickback pipeline from Billie Sol Estes to Vice President Lyndon Johnson. LBJ micromanaged every crime he ever committed, and he micromanaged his daily affairs and subordinates for decades. On the day of the assassination, LBJ told his mistress Madeleine Brown that after today those goddamn Irish mafia bastard Kennedys will NEVER embarrass me again - that is a promise not a threat. And then there is this: Robert Caro describes the LBJ-RFK relationship post 1960 Democratic convention, where RFK had moved heaven and earth attempting to keep LBJ off the 1960 Democratic ticket. Caro: QUOTE John Connally, who during long days of conversation with this author was willing to answer almost any question put to him, no matter how delicate the topic, wouldn't answer when asked what Johnson said about Robert Kennedy. When the author pressed him, he finally said flatly: "I am not going to tell you what he said about him." During the months after the convention, when Johnson was closeted alone back in Texas with an old ally he would sometimes be asked about Robert Kennedy. He would reply with a gesture. Raising his big right hand, he would draw the side of it across the neck in a slowing, slitting movement. Sometimes that gesture would be his only reply; sometimes, as during a meeting with Ed Clark in Austin, he would say, as his hand moved across his neck, "I'll cut his throat if it's the last thing I do." UNQUOTE [Robert Caro, The Passage of Power, p. 140] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bulman Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 28 minutes ago, Robert Morrow said: You can certainly believe that LBJ was not involved in the planning or the execution of the JFK assassination. That is fine. I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Balch Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 There were several occupants in that car: Vice Presidential limousine - Lincoln - steel grey convertible Herschel Jacks Rufus Youngblood Clifton Carter Thomas Johns Ralph Yarborough Lady Bird Johnson Lyndon Jonson Did any of the other occupants confirm Yarborough’s account? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bulman Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 23 minutes ago, Kevin Balch said: There were several occupants in that car: Vice Presidential limousine - Lincoln - steel grey convertible Herschel Jacks Rufus Youngblood Clifton Carter Thomas Johns Ralph Yarborough Lady Bird Johnson Lyndon Jonson Did any of the other occupants confirm Yarborough’s account? Were any of them asked? Yes, Youngblood, who deferred to the new president. There were other SSA's as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Morrow Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 (edited) 10 hours ago, Kevin Balch said: There were several occupants in that car: Vice Presidential limousine - Lincoln - steel grey convertible Herschel Jacks Rufus Youngblood Clifton Carter Thomas Johns Ralph Yarborough Lady Bird Johnson Lyndon Jonson Did any of the other occupants confirm Yarborough’s account? Rufus Youngblood said something like "Well if that is what the President said I did..." which is the takeway he was going along with LBJ's lie. LBJ's slave Lady Bird wrote - I mean fabricated - in her dairy that "Rufus Youngblood, I believe it was, vaulted over the front seat on top of Lyndon, threw him to the floor, and said, "Get down." Remember both LBJ and Youngblood were pretty big men and there was not room in the back of the Lincoln for that to happen with Sen. Ralph Yarborough being completely aware of it. So it never happened. I think Barbara Bush put some fantasies in her dairy from the day of the JFK assassination, too. Lady Bird Johnson’s diary notes about this day in Dallas 1963 Michael Beschloss Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/536200742538059776/photo/1 Also, here: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=14 1964: Lyndon Johnson was very hostile to Secret Service director James Rowley – so much so that “Rowley could not make a decision… without Youngblood signing off on it” QUOTE In early 1964, President Johnson shocked Rowley by ordering him to cut the number of agents on his detail. The president handed down his orders just as the Secret Service chief was pressing Congress to agree to let him hire at least a hundred more agents in the coming year. “I want less when I go into the campaign than you had before the assassination,” Johnson told him. Johnson’s motivation was political showmanship. Days earlier, he had promised a budget with the lowest federal spending in years. “I won’t even go to the bathroom if I have to have more people,” he told Rowley. “I’ll just stay right behind these black gates.” The president grew even more hostile toward Rowley that year, accusing him of everything from “running a dictatorship” to “trying to get me killed.” Johnson’s erratic meddling played havoc with the Service’s orderly hierarchy. He had installed Rufus Youngblood as his detail leader, and he soon began swearing him to secrecy about upcoming trips. The president also gave Youngblood final say on who served on the detail or got promoted. Johnson later tried to kick Hill, a Service hero, off the detail because he didn’t trust anyone who had been that close to the Kennedys. Youngblood persuaded Johnson to give him a chance. This palace intrigue further demoralized the Service “when it was going through a serious bout of cancer,” agent Larry Newman said. “Rowley could not make a decision…without Youngblood signing off. It was like we had two leaders. “People were talking about the FBI taking over,” Newman added. “The press was saying the Service sucks. The field was in turmoil. Nobody knew what was going to happen….And the Warren Commission report information was coming out.” Rowley took endless abuse from his new president. But to the agents of the Secret Service, the chief was a hero. That feeling was only vindicated by how the quiet man they knew handled a contentious interview before the Warren Commission. On June 18, Rowley arrived at the commission offices in a Capitol UNQUOTE [Carol Leonnig, Zero Fail: the Rise and Fall of the Secret Service, p. 64] Edited April 21 by Robert Morrow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Morrow Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 LBJ moved quickly to get this fantasy placed in the official record: Remarks at the Presentation of an Exceptional Service Award to Agent Rufus W. Youngblood of the Secret Service | The American Presidency Project (ucsb.edu) 36th President of the United States: 1963 ‐ 1969 Remarks at the Presentation of an Exceptional Service Award to Agent Rufus W. Youngblood of the Secret Service December 04, 1963 Mr. Secretary, Mr. Youngblood, Mrs. Youngblood, members of the Youngblood family, ladies and gentlemen: There is no more heroic act than offering your life to save another, and in that awful moment of confusion when all about him were losing their heads, Rufus Youngblood never lost his. Without hesitation, he volunteered his life to save mine. Nothing makes a man feel better than being an American and to be witness to this kind of noble patriotism. Rufus, there is no prouder person here this morning than I. You are a brave soldier in the highest American tradition of love for country and for duty. You are a proud son of Georgia. You are an excellent example of all the honored and brave and dedicated and diligent men and the women who work with them who make up what we proudly call the United States Secret Service. A more dedicated group of men I have never known from the Chief to the most humble employee. I am glad to know that Chief Rowley has made it possible for you to continue to serve the President as you did the Vice President, and I know in so doing that I will have one of the most noble and most able public servants I have ever known. Thank you. Note: The ceremony was held at 10:30 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House. The President's opening words "Mr. Secretary" referred to Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon. Later he referred to James J. Rowley, Chief, United States Secret Service. The citation accompanying the award reads as follows: "This Award is made in recognition of Agent Youngblood's outstanding courage and voluntary risk of personal safety in protecting the Vice President of the United States at the time of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. "Mr. Youngblood was riding in the front seat of the Vice President's limousine within close proximity to the President's limousine when the assassination occurred. Upon hearing the first shot, Mr. Youngblood instantly vaulted across the front seat of the car, pushed the Vice President to the floor, and shielded the Vice President's body with his own. His prompt response in the face of great danger and his readiness to sacrifice his life to save the Vice President were in the highest traditions of the Secret Service. His valor and example make him a worthy recipient of this Award." The text of the introductory remarks by Secretary Dillon, who read the citation, was also released. Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the Presentation of an Exceptional Service Award to Agent Rufus W. Youngblood of the Secret Service Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239673 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bertolino Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 9 hours ago, Robert Morrow said: There is no good reason why in the DALLAS MOTORCADE mere MOMENTS before President Kennedy was about to take a bullet or bullets plural in head, that Lyndon Johnson and his Secret Service agent Rufus Youngblood (who became a de facto leader of the Secret Service post JFK assassination) would be listening to a WALKIE TALKIE turned down "real low" so that Kennedy ally and LBJ opponent Sen. Ralph Yarborough could not head what it said. The source on this is Jim Marrs' interview of Sen. Ralph Yarborough. Lyndon, you can't just peacefully sit in your limo for 30 minutes on the way over to lunch at the Trade Mart? You have to be on a walkie talkie obsessively listening in? Listening to what? The weather report? People who have read extensively on LBJ know he was a micromanager in all of his crimes and plots. Rufus Youngblood once said LBJ would give you directions on how to turn a screw. There is no good or innocent reason for this (covertly listening to a walkie talkie at this time), especially when one considers that absolute war that was going on behind the scenes between LBJ and the Kennedys in November, 1963. Lyndon Johnson also fabricated the fantasy that 6'3" Rufus Youngblood vaulted into the back seat, threw LBJ on the floorboard and then protected him with his body. Youngblood and Lady Bird both went along with this big, fat lie. Why do you have to LIE about that LBJ? Are you trying to pretend your life was in danger? From Jim Marrs' Crossfire: Yarborough's Suspicion of Lyndon Johnson "There is the well-publicized story of Agent Rufus Youngblood, who reportedly threw himself on top of Vice President Johnson after the shooting began in Dealey Plaza.... Johnson, in a statement to the Warren Commission, mentioned the incident: I was startled by a sharp report or explosion, but I had no time to speculate as to its origin because Agent Youngblood turned in a flash, immediately after the first explosion, hitting me on the shoulder, and shouted to all of us in the back seat to get down. I was pushed down by Agent Youngblood. Almost in the same moment in which he hit or pushed me, he vaulted over the back seat and sat on me. I was bent over under the weight of Agent Youngblood's body, toward Mrs. Johnson and Senator Yarborough.... However, former Texas senator Ralph Yarborough, who was sitting beside Johnson that day, told this author: 'It just didn't happen.... It was a small car, Johnson was a big man, tall. His knees were up against his chin as it was. There was no room for that to happen.' Yarborough recalled that both Johnson and Youngblood ducked down as the shooting began and that Youngblood never left the front seat. Yarborough said Youngblood held a small walkie-talkie over the back of the car's seat and that he and Johnson both put their ears to the device. He added: 'They had it turned down real low. I couldn't hear what they were listening to.'" --Jim Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy Yarborough's Suspicion of the Warren Commission Investigators "A couple of fellows [from the Warren Commission] came to see me. They walked in like they were a couple of deputy sheriffs and I was a bank robber. I didn't like their attitude. As a senator I felt insulted. They went off and wrote up something and brought it back for me to sign. But I refused. I threw it in a drawer and let it lay there for weeks. And they had on there the last sentence which stated: 'This is all I know about the assassination.' They wanted me to sign this thing, then say this is all I know. Of course, I would never have signed it. Finally, after some weeks, they began to bug me. 'You're holding this up, you're holding this up' they said, demanding that I sign the report. So I typed one up myself and put basically what I told you about how the cars all stopped. I put in there, 'I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but for the protection of future presidents, they should be trained to take off when a shot is fired.' I sent that over. That's dated July 10, 1964, after the assassination. To my surprise, when the volumes were finally printed and came out, I was surprised at how many people down at the White House didn't file their affidavits until after the date, after mine the 10th of July, waiting to see what I was going to say before they filed theirs. I began to lose confidence then in their investigation and that's further eroded with time." --Jim Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy Yes. LBJ was involved. Though I don't like the source here. My strongest memory of Marrs is his presentation of an ancient alien gold diggers video I saw on YouTube. Everybody needs cash, I guess, but it ruined Marrs for me. No way this plot could be implemented without the consent of the next president. This walkie-talkie stuff is good. There are many other intimations including his chats with Hoover. Who but LBJ and Connally could manage Texas the way it was. This thing was never going to happen in Chicago or Miami. This was a Texas plan from start to finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Jesus Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 One of those officers who DID ride at the rear corner of the limousine, B.J. Martin, testified that, "they instructed us that they didn't want anyone riding past the President's car and that we were to ride to the rear, to the rear of his car, about the rear bumper." ( 10 ) Not only were they reduced in number and moved to the rear corners of the car, the four who were positioned at the rear of the limo were told not to react if anyone assaulted the President. Martin said that, "at morning muster the four Presidential motorcycle officers were ordered that under no circumstances were they to leave their positions regardless of what happened." ( 11 ) Sound like they were interested in protecting the President ? Martin also said that, "while Kennedy was busy shaking hands with all the well wishers at the airport, Johnson's Secret Service people came over to the motorcycle cops and gave us a bunch of instructions...We were to stay well to the back and not let ourselves get ahead of the car's rear wheels under any circumstances." ( 12 ) These last minute changes were made to keep the motorcycle officers out of the line of fire. It indicates that "Johnson's Secret Service people" were well aware from which direction the shots would be fired. And it also indicates that the Secret Service played a role in the assassination. Sources: ( 10 ) 6 H 293 ( 11 ) "Murder From Within" by Fred Newcomb & Perry Adams (1974), p.33 ( 12 ) Jean Hill, "JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness" (1992), pp. 112-114 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Coleman Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 (edited) I think logic prevails here…. LBJ was 6’3” or 1.92m tall Rufus was also tall drink of water… Lyndon, Ladybird & Ralph sat at intimate distance…. in a rear seat for two. I’m 6’1” and have committed enough vehicular buffoonery to know that Rufus clambering over his seat to throw Lyndon to the floor would have been a gold plated comedy classic. With Ladybird probably receiving some form of facial injury. Edited April 21 by Sean Coleman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Balch Posted April 21 Share Posted April 21 10 hours ago, Ron Bulman said: Were any of them asked? Yes, Youngblood, who deferred to the new president. There were other SSA's as well. I was referring to the use of the walkie talkie. How could anyone hear what was on a walkie talkie turned down low in an open car surrounded by cheering crowds, motorcycles etc.? I know a bystander remarked that he saw a Secret Service agent in the presidential limo speak into a microphone as the shots rang out but I don’t know of any accounts of bystanders seeing what Yarborough described. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Morrow Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 12 hours ago, Ron Bulman said: The real proof they were involved in the coverup is LBJ's WC statement Youngblood jumped over the seat to cover him at the sound of the shots. Denied by Youngblood and Senator Yarbough. Ok. Youngblood didn't out right deny it he just said "If that's what the president said", from memory. LBJ bending down between the front seats to listen to Youngblood's walkie-talkie to me indicates they were aware something was going to happen, and they listened in to hear reports of it's success. Not that LBJ was involved in the planning or execution itself. Can you find Rufus Youngblood's comments upon receiving his commendation for bravery from Lyndon Johnson? I have been unable to find them on the internet. (I am sure they are somewhere.) I wonder what Rufus said in his book about this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bulman Posted April 22 Share Posted April 22 Other than Jim Marrs interview of Senator Yarborough mentioned above from Crossfire the only thing I remember reading about this if from Joseph McBride's Into The Nightmare and his June 24, 1988 interview of Yarborough. From pages 387-388. Youngblood's 1964 Warren Commission testimony contained significant qualifiers. He said after hearing the first shot and seeing unusual crowd movement as well as movement in the Secret Service follow up car behind the president's limousine, "I turned around and hit the Vice President on the shoulder and hollered, get down, then looked around again and saw more of this movement, and so I proceeded to do to the back seat and get on top of him. I then heard two more shots. But I would like to say this. I would not be positive that I was on that back seat before the second shot. But the Vice President himself said I was". Asked to describe his movements further, Youngblood added another qualifier" "Well, the Vice President says that I vaulted over. It was more of a stepping over. And then i sat on top of him, he being crouched down somewhat." Yarborough scoffed at that story. He said Youngblood never left the front seat. The back seat was so full . . . Yarborough's description of Johnson's reaction after the shots were fired is suggestive: Absolutely motionless. Said nothing. You know the tale Johnson liked to tell about Youngblood, the Secret Service man, jumping over the front seat when the shots were fired and shielding him with his body? Well, that's as big a cock-and-bull tale as the time he told the Marines in Da Nang that his great-grand father had fought at the Alamo. [Actually Johnson told servicemen in Camp Stanley in Korea, "My great-great-grandfather died at the Alamo."] Youngblood never jumped over the seat. Johnson sat there stoically. The only time they moved was when we were going through the Tripple Overpass, and Youngblood leaned over the seat - - he had a small radio receiver in his hand - - and Johnson leaned over, they were about six inches apart, and they listened to some transmission together on the radio. I asked them what happened, and they didn't say anything. . . . They knew damn well what had happened, because when the cars pulled up at the hospital, the Secret Service men swarmed all around Johnson, and one of them said, "Mr. President." They left Mrs. Kennedy alone in the car with the body, grieving over it. They knew he was dead instantly, because his head was blown off. Mrs. Kennedy was holding onto him and wouldn't let him go until they put a suit coat around him to cover his head [Secret Service Agent Clint Hill did that]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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