Secret Service agent Hobart native Lou Sims tells of Kennedy assassination ...

ZEKE CAMPFIELD


HOBART The day Louis Sims graduated from U.S. Secret Service School was certainly the most notorious day in the organization's history since its founding.

It was November 1963, and then-29-year-old Sims had recently arrived in Washington, D.C., from Chicago, where he had been working as an agent for two years. Having passed the agency's entrance exam with flying colors the highest score recorded at that time, he said graduation was an especially exciting time, even when it was interrupted with some pretty sordid news.

"The chief of the Secret Service was getting ready to speak; it was a noon graduation," Sims, now 77, said, recalling his early days recently in the living room of the Hobart home he shares with his wife, Gwen. "He got called out of the room for a phone call. He came back and said, 'The President has been shot in Dallas. Everyone report to the Washington field office.' You always think, if I would have been there, what could I have done? How could I have helped save his life?"

Born in 1934, the son of an insurance agent, Sims was a star athlete at Hobart High School and then at several prep colleges in Oklahoma, where he played baseball and basketball while pursuing a degree in business.

Shortly after his 1956 graduation from Panhandle State University he was drafted into the U.S. Army and was immediately recommended for U.S. Army Intelligence School in Baltimore.

"I was absolutely delighted because I intended to serve, so I figured hey, I'm going to learn as much as I can while I'm in there and get as much as I can out of it," Sims said.

He was a week off basic training when he married Gwen, his high school sweetheart, and in November 1957, he was assigned to Kansas City to work as an agent in Army intelligence, and then to Topeka, Kan., as a resident agent in Army intelligence. In Kansas City, Sims was conducting a background investigation and one of the references cited was former President Harry Truman, who was setting up his presidential library at the time. While he had Truman's ear, Sims figured he'd ask the former president what he thought about a Secret Service career.

"I said, 'I've only got a year left in Army intelligence and I'm thinking about joining the Secret Service. What do you think?' President Truman spoke up and said, 'If the outfit can be that close to me and not get in my hair, that's a pretty good outfit,'" Sims said.

After an interview and a four-hour test, he was told he qualified as a candidate for the service but that he would have to await assignment. In the meantime, he opened a life insurance business. It was 1960.

"If I never got that call from Secret Service, I've got a business," he said. "And after a few weeks we didn't know if we'd ever get the call, so we moved to Lawton."

Assigned to Chicago
In 1961, however, and after some haggling over his pay grade, Sims was assigned a special agent at the agency's field office in Chicago.

The Secret Service was tasked then, as it is now, with protecting the president and other elected national officials but also with investigating federal financial crimes, like forgery or counterfeiting of government obligations. In fact, though the Secret Service was founded by Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s, it wasn't until William McKinley's assassination in 1900 that it was assigned its bodyguard duties.

In Chicago, Sims found the job as intense as it was an adventure, sometimes finding himself going to work in the morning and not knowing exactly where he'd wind up by night. The job was round-the-clock and required an enormous amount of personal commitment, he said.

"You realized that it was your responsibility to see that the right investigation was done and the right steps were taken for the security of the president or his family or the vice president," Sims said. "You looked at everyone and made a decision on whether or not that person was a danger. Unless it went to the courthouse, nine times out of 10 it never even hit the newspaper."

In 1961, he was assigned to the Kennedy detail at the White House for a month. Kennedy was the first of six U.S. presidents Sims would protect, an experience he tends to tone down.

"Normally a Secret Service agent doesn't have personal discussions with the president or first family; most of it is about the security activities where's your guy, itineraries and that sort of thing. Normally you don't sit down and visit," he said. "But it was just, I don't know how you describe it, it was exciting and you felt very privileged, no matter who the president was."

So of course it was only natural that when Kennedy was shot that fateful day in Dallas, Sims took it as kind of personal.

For four dark days, as he described them, Sims was among a crew of depressed agents tasked with handling logistics of the memorial. The day of the funeral, Sims walked alongside President Johnson's limousine during the motorcade from the Lincoln Memorial to the entranceway of Arlington National Cemetery.

Relied on his experience
"You're thinking about the job, but also, 'Here's a guy from Hobart up here where everybody in the country is focusing right now,'" he said. "And I will tell you how very true I relied on all that experience growing up in Hobart, Oklahoma, doing that job. You learn how to do everything here, and, if something needed to be done, you did it, no matter what it was."

Reforms put in place
The occasion marked serious reform for the Secret Service, and Sims was among the new agents who rode the tide as its budget was boosted and its personnel increased many times over. He was one of about 350 special agents when he went into the service, which operated then on about a $4 million budget. Today's Secret Service has more than 6,500 employees, including 3,200 agents, and operates with an annual budget of $1.4 billion.

The build-up after Kennedy's assassination did not stop until the Secret Service was ultimately swallowed by the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003, Sims said.

"The recommendations of the Warren Commission kind of changed our whole direction," he said. "No question that's what got the appropriations up where we could have the number of people we needed to do the job and get the right equipment. That was just the time when things began to happen, and they began with the assassination of President Kennedy and went from there."

The Kennedy funeral wasn't the last time Sims felt the eyes of the country upon him.



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Former Secret Service agent: Betty Ford looked after us

Written by

The Associated Press

GRAND RAPIDS — An ex-Secret Service agent says former First Lady Betty Ford was like “a mother” to him and his colleagues.

Mike Shannon signed a condolence book for Ford at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids. He was among many who came to express their sympathy to the Ford family after Betty Ford's death in California on Friday.

Shannon told WOOD-TV that he protected the Fords, and Betty Ford was always concerned about the agents and their families. He says she once sent him home with a bag of oranges for his wife.

The museum says its lobby will be open around the clock until further notice so people can sign the book.

Her body will be sent to Michigan for burial at the museum alongside her husband.

http://www.thetimesherald.com

Cop tracks down presidential limo's seal

http://news.blogs.cnn.com

















Magnetism is the only thing that keeps the presidential seal on the president's limousine.


The round, gold-trimmed presidential seal is an impressive symbol affixed to the door of the limousine known as "The Beast." It appears to be a permanent part of the limo. But in reality, it's a magnetic seal that comes on and off, vulnerable to wind and elements just like anything we'd put on our own cars. And Thursday night, the seal came off during President Obama's motorcade to the airport after his fundraising visit to Philadelphia, ending up alongside Interstate 76. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said agents and Philadelphia police returned to the area off the freeway that night and looked for it, but were unable to find it in the dark. But the next day, a Philadelphia police officer found it on the side of the road. The Philadelphia Daily News reports the officer had been part of the motorcade the night before and was helping a disabled car when he spotted it. It was brought to the Secret Service field office and is being returned to Washington. "It happens periodically," Donovan said. "They're only magnetic. They're not put on any special way."

Secret Service created July 5, 1865

http://washingtonexaminer.com




By: Scott McCabe | Examiner Staff Writer Follow Him @Scott_McCabe |

On this day, July 5, 1865, the U.S. Secret Service was created in Washington to arrest counterfeiters.

During President Lincoln's administration, more than a third of the nation's money was counterfeit. On April 14, 1965, the day he would be assassinated, Lincoln established a commission to stop the counterfeiting problem.

The Secret Service evolved into the country's first domestic intelligence and counterintelligence agency. After the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested that the Secret Service provide presidential protection. In 1902, William Craig became the first agent to be killed riding in the presidential carriage. Now, there are more than 3,200 Secret Service agents.

-Scott McCabe

Life With The Secret Service

http://www.newsweek.com

The Obamas have a head start among First Families in learning to live with the Secret Service's constant presence.

How would you feel if a frowning man in dark sunglasses and wires in his ears grabbed the back of your pants every time you walked into a crowd? That's just one of many less-than-enjoyable aspects of presidential life that the Obama family have been living with, ever since they were christened with their recently-released official Secret Service code names: Renegade (Barack), Renaissance (Michelle), Radiance (Malia), and Rosebud (Sasha).

The Obamas have had some time to adjust; they have had a Secret Service detail since May 2007, the earliest one ever assigned to a presidential contender. The detail was assigned because of concerns that the African-American candidate might face greater dangers. Those concerns were not misplaced, as evidenced by the discovery of several plots to do the candidate harm this fall.

The Obamas aren't the only ones keeping the Secret Service busy. Since 9/11, the ranks of the protected have swelled to include key cabinet and congressional leaders, and even their assistants. Files are kept on some 40,000 U.S. citizens, including about 400 deemed by the agency to pose a specific threat. Using gadgets that would make James Bond envious, agents sweep offices and hotel rooms for surveillance devices, test food for poison and measure air quality to check for dangerous bacteria. The cute code names might make for good stories, but they're functionally obsolete; Secret Service agents actually rely on modern encryption technology to help keep discussions about those they protect confidential.

Of course, all the technology and planning in the world can't protect a candidate or president if he won't do what he's told. Some politicians have been cooperative—Dwight Eisenhower, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, for example—while others have gone rogue; Bill Clinton, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson all loved to make mischief. What can agents expect from the new First Family? With the help of two valuable books on the subject—"The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency" and "Standing Next To History: An Agent's Life Inside the Secret Service"—and interviews with an agency staffer, NEWSWEEK compiled a tip sheet of anecdotes from administrations-past illustrating the sundry ways Renegade, Renaissance, Radiance, and Rosebud might manage to stir up trouble for the folks in the dark glasses.

Lesson 1: Expect the Unexpected
At a pet show at Ethel Kennedy's Virginia estate, Secret Service agents had to scoop up and whisk away Jimmy Carter's daughter Amy when Suzy, a 6,000 pound elephant, charged in her direction. With Amy in his arms, the agent jumped over a split-rail fence—which the rogue elephant soon splintered—and carted the First Daughter to safety inside Kennedy's house, while crowds scattered and trainers struggled to get Suzy back under control.

Lesson 2: Agents Protect, Not Serve
President Jimmy Carter, accustomed to asking his state trooper guards to do errands for him, initially used his Secret Service detail as bag carriers—much to their dismay. He eventually backed off, but other presidents have requested such favors as babysitting and providing a fourth for a bridge game; all of which, agents have complained, detracted from their ability to do their jobs. Jackie Kennedy was the opposite: after JFK died, her children continued to have protection until they were 18. She insisted that the guards remain as inconspicuous as possible—and that they not pick up after or run errands for her children.

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FBI, Secret Service duke it out on the ice

By Simon Hernandez-Arthur, CNN

The FBI and the Secret Service have held annual hockey games for more than 10 years.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• FBI, Secret Service face off in annual hockey game
• Secret Service wins in overtime
• Organizers say all 2,500 tickets were sold

Washington (CNN) -- It might be one of the most intense rivalries in sports.

It's not the Yankees and the Red Sox, or the Cowboys and the Redskins, but the FBI and the Secret Service.

Their hockey teams clashed on the ice Saturday night in their annual match.

The two teams, made up of agents from the different organizations, have been playing against each other for more than 10 years. They raise money for different charitable causes for either FBI or Secret Service agents.

This year, organizers asked for a $5 donation from attendants, with the money raised going to Keith Rile, a Secret Service agent diagnosed with cancer.

"The FBI is a family; the Secret Service is a family. We work together every day of the year, and one day we come together to have this friendly rivalry," FBI director Robert Mueller told CNN. "We're all here to support him and support his family"

Mueller, who played hockey during his college years at Princeton University, faced off against special agent James Meehan of the Secret Service in a ceremonial puck drop before the game.

The Secret Service scored twice and took an early lead, to loud cheers from the stands which were packed with friends and families of the players, as well as other employees of the two agencies. The FBI tied the game soon afterward, but they were constantly on the defensive.

The match came down to the last minute of the first overtime period. With 58 seconds left on the clock, the Secret Service scored the tie-breaking goal that ended the game. The final score was 7-6.

"It's never an easy win," said Todd Nassoiy, one of the special agents playing for the Secret Service team. The Secret Service also won last year, but only after a tense shootout. The FBI won the year before that in overtime.

The match was played at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Virginia, and organizers said all 2,500 tickets were sold.

Inside Secret Service Training

The Making of An Agent

After 16 weeks of action-packed exercises that will test them to the core, the recruits in Training Class No. 283 will pass into the elite ranks of the Secret Service -- or leave humiliated

By Laura Blumenfeld

Special Agent in Charge Michael Bryant talks about the Secret Service and the rigorous program would-be agents must complete at the James J. Rowley Training Center outside Washington, D.C.


Launch Photo Gallery






LESSON ONE: Get Ready To Die

The teacher walks into the mat room.

"Good morning, Mr. Mixon," the students say in unison.

"Cut that [expletive] out. Don't act like you give a crap about my morning."

Steve Mixon smiles, or maybe it's a snarl. Before he became an instructor at the Secret Service training camp outside Washington, Mixon served as a team leader on President George W. Bush's Counter Assault Team.

"Everyone's going to leave today in some degree of pain," Mixon tells the special agent trainees.

The 24 recruits, dressed in black combat pants and jackets, stiffen into four rows, jingling handcuffs. Scott Swantner clenches his jaw. Krista Bradford rubs raw knuckles. One trainee, who broke a rib, is keeping it a secret, fearing he'll be discharged.

"Everything is in play here, guys. Everything you learned from Day One," Mixon tells them in a basement that muffles rifle blasts. "Assailant control. Guillotine chokeholds."

For the members of Special Agent Training Class No. 283, this is finals time. They have been cramming here for months, since days after the election of Barack Obama, hoping to join the men and women charged with protecting the president.

Not all of them will make it. Read More

Rene Verdon, White House chef for the Kennedys, dies at 86

By Emma Brown

Washington Post Staff Writer

Rene Verdon, a French-born chef who brought an air of continental sophistication to the White House under the Kennedys, and then left his post after a clash with the Johnson administration over frozen vegetables and garbanzo beans, died Feb. 2 at his home in San Francisco of undisclosed causes. He was 86.

Mr. Verdon, who later ran an acclaimed San Francisco restaurant and won admirers including Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, was perhaps most renowned for his five-year tenure at the White House.

When he arrived at the executive mansion in spring 1961, he took over a kitchen that had long been run by caterers and Navy stewards and not known for producing fine food.

That changed under Mr. Verdon - a "culinary genius," The Washington Post said, with refined tastes admired by Jacqueline Kennedy.

A veteran of some of Paris's best restaurants, Mr. Verdon championed seasonal, local food long before it became fashionable. He grew vegetables on the White House roof and herbs in the East Garden.

"I cooked everything fresh," he told the New York Times in 2009. "If the ingredients are superb, then the cooking can be, and must be, simple."

In April 1961, his White House debut - a luncheon for British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan - made the front page of the New York Times.

Mr. Verdon served trout cooked in Chablis, roast fillet of beef au jus and artichoke bottoms Beaucaire. Dessert was a vacherin, or meringue shell, filled with raspberries and chocolate ice cream.

"The verdict after the luncheon," wrote the Times's Craig Claiborne, "was that there was nothing like French cooking to promote good Anglo-American relations."

Media coverage of Mr. Verdon's menus helped burnish the Kennedys' reputation as tastemakers and spurred home cooks across the United States to begin investigating French cuisine. When the classic "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," cowritten by Child, appeared in 1961, a wave of Francophile homemakers began turning out souffles, pates and pork rillettes.

Mr. Verdon continued working at the White House for more than two years after President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but tastes were decidedly different under Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson - "more South," Mr. Verdon once said.

The Kennedys had asked for quenelles de brochet and mousse of sole with lobster. The Johnsons wanted barbecue, spoonbread and chili.

"You can eat at home what you want, but you do not serve barbecued spareribs at a banquet with the ladies in white gloves," he told The Post.

In 1965, the Johnsons hired a Texan "food coordinator" to cut costs. Her bargain-hunting brought frozen and canned vegetables to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., a change Mr. Verdon couldn't stomach.

"I don't think you can economize on food in the White House," he said. Plus, "I don't want to lose my reputation."

He resigned at the end of the year "in a Gallic huff," according to Time magazine, after he was asked to prepare a cold puree of garbanzo beans - a dish he described as "already bad hot."

Rene Verdon was born June 29, 1924, in the village of Pouzauges on France's west coast, where his parents owned a bakery and pastry shop.

He grew up helping his father deliver bread and apprenticed to a chef at a hotel in Nantes. From there, he went to Paris, where he worked in restaurants such as the Berkeley before moving to the United States in the late 1950s.

He was working as an assistant chef at the Carlyle Hotel in New York, where the Kennedys had a penthouse, when John F. Kennedy was elected president.

After leaving the White House, Mr. Verdon spent several years hawking electric kitchen appliances and then settled in San Francisco. He wrote several books, including "The White House Chef Cookbook" (1968) and "The Enlightened Cuisine" (1985).

In 1972, he started Le Trianon, a French restaurant hailed in the Times for its "Old-World charm."

Survivors include his wife, Yvette, a former House of Chanel director who ran the front of the house at Le Trianon.

Mr. Verdon presided over several state dinners, but his favorite, he said, was held in 1961 at Mount Vernon - George Washington's estate on the banks of the Potomac River - in honor of the president of Pakistan.

The mansion had neither a kitchen for Mr. Verdon nor modern toilets for the 132 guests who arrived by boat. And Mount Vernon's swampy grounds were thick with mosquitoes.

Mr. Verdon prepared a simple meal at the White House - an appetizer of avocado and crabmeat followed by chicken casserole - that was trucked 16 miles to Mount Vernon. When he saw Park Service employees spraying insecticide to battle the bugs, he threatened to quit.

"I'm not going to be responsible," he cried, "for the number of deaths from DDT!"

He was calmed after Secret Service officers taste-tested several dishes. Guests ate under a tent and listened to the National Symphony Orchestra, and the night was pronounced a triumph.

"Onlookers have speculated as to what marks the end of the Kennedy era," read a 1965 editorial in The Post. "The resignation that truly signals the end of the Kennedy era is that of Chef Rene Verdon."

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Sixth Floor Museum Book Event Premieres December 12 th on CSpan2 Book TV!

The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence Gerald Blaine; Lisa McCubbin

Airings

• Sunday, December 12th at 8am (ET)
• Monday, December 13th at 2am (ET)
• Saturday, December 18th at 2pm (ET)
• Friday, December 31st at 9am (ET)
• Saturday, January 1st at 7pm (ET)

About the Program

Gerald Blaine, one of the secret service agents assigned to the Kennedy detail the day the President was assassinated on November 22, 1963, reports on his and his colleagues rememberances of the day. Mr. Blaine is joined in conversation, by his co-author Lisa McCubbin and Clint Hill, the agent who covered Jackie Kennedy following the shooting. The event is held at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas.

About the Authors

Gerald Blaine

Gerald Blaine is a former U.S. Secret Service Agent who served on President Eisenhower's and President Kennedy's security detail. For more information, visit kennedydetail.com.

Buy the author's book from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Lisa McCubbin

Lisa McCubbin has worked as a journalist and a media consultant. For more information, visit lisamccubbin.com.

The Kennedy Detail Airs on Discovery Channel Tonight At 6 pm

KD Announcement

The Kennedy Detail Meets Former Dallas Det. Jim Leavelle!

On Sunday, November 21, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. Clint Hill, Lisa McCubbin, Toby Chandler and I are having Brunch at the Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas. We will be meeting Jim Lavelle for the first time.

Jim Lavelle is the former Dallas, Texas homicide detective who was escorting Lee Harvey Oswald through the basement of Dallas Police headquarters when Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby.

In a 2006 interview Leavelle, who was the first to interrogate Oswald after his arrest,recalled joking to Oswald before the transfer, "'Lee, if anybody shoots at you, I hope they're as good a shot as you are.' He kind of smiled and said, ‘Nobody’s going to shoot at me.’ ”

He personally believes that Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy, and says that in a 2006 discussion, he was told by Oswald's brother Robert that he believes the same thing, "because I knew my brother."

Arranged by former SS Agent Mike Pritchard who is good friends with Detective Jim Leavelle. Leavelle is 90 years old and still quite spry. In attendance will be present and former SAIC's of the Dallas Secret Service Office as well as Gary Mack, Director of the Sixth Floor Museum.

Theodore Sorensen, JFK's speechwriter, has died

Ted Sorensen was President Kennedy's chief speech writer and they had an intellectual compatibility that was unique. Ted was not a member of the Irish Mafia, but when it came to putting words together I doubt if there was anyone who could match Ted Sorensen. Teamed with President Kennedy they could cover every subject with precision, clarity and depending upon the event, with humor. He was respected by President Kennedy and had regular access to the oval office. It is sad to think that the last person among the close insiders has departed. They were a unique and talented team.

Theodore C. Sorensen (right) was a close adviser to President John F. Kennedy. He's seen here in April 1968 with Robert Kennedy just a couple of months before RFK's death.

By the CNN Wire Staff
October 31, 2010

(CNN) -- Theodore C. Sorensen, a close adviser and speechwriter to President John F. Kennedy, has died, the White House said Sunday.

He was 82.

Though he wore a number of hats in his relationship with Kennedy and later in life, he is best known publicly as the wordsmith who helped put Kennedy's ideas to paper in what remain some of the most recognizable speeches in American political history.

The youngest top official in the Kennedy White House, Sorensen was an influential policy adviser and a presidential confidante.

He served as special counsel and speechwriter to Kennedy from 1961 to 1963, and participated in secret White House meetings during the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

Sorensen was a key aide on Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign and had earlier served as a speechwriter and assistant to Kennedy during his Senate years.

After Kennedy's 1963 assassination, Sorensen helped to shape the young president's legacy, writing four books on the Kennedy years, including the 1965 volume "Kennedy."

Sorensen also played an important role in helping the future president shape 1956's "Profiles in Courage."

A 2008 memoir, "Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History," was a candid look at his relationship with Kennedy.

Sorensen was often asked whether he wrote the classic line from Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

"Having no satisfactory answer, I long ago started answering the oft-repeated question as to its authorship with the smiling retort: 'Ask not,' " Sorensen wrote in "Counselor."

The lawyer later served as special counsel to President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1963 and 1964.

Sorensen played a major role in completing Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's book "Thirteen Days," based on notes left after the latter's 1968 assassination.

"I got to know Ted after he endorsed my campaign early on," President Barack Obama said in a statement Sunday. "He was just as I hoped he'd be -- just as quick-witted, just as serious of purpose, just as determined to keep America true to our highest ideals."

A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Sorensen received his law degree in 1951, according to the publication Current Biography. He soon became an administrative assistant to Kennedy, then a newly elected U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

A chief goal was getting Kennedy elected president. Sorensen's efforts included helping Kennedy overcome anti-Catholic prejudice during the successful 1960 campaign.

Sorensen's later career included serving as an attorney in Manhattan, attending Democratic conventions and serving as a presidential and political adviser, according to the JFK Library.

http://www.cnn.com

SIXTH FLOOR MUSEUM ANNOUNCES SERIES OF EVENTS TO OBSERVE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION ANNIVERSARY

The Museum will open at 10 a.m. Monday, November 22, 2010. Saturday, November 20 - 2 p.m.

Q&A and Book Signing with Clint Hill, Jerry Blaine and Lisa McCubbin Moderated by Museum Curator Gary Mack THE KENNEDY DETAIL JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence By Gerald Blaine with Lisa McCubbin Foreword by Clint Hill

After nearly 50 years under a "Code of Silence," many of the Secret Service agents serving on President Kennedy's detail when he was assassinated are speaking out. "The Kennedy Detail" (Gallery Books; November 2, 2010) is the only authoritative account of the events of that day from the men who were there to guard the president's life. Clint Hill, the agent who jumped on the back of the car immediately after the shooting and helped Jackie to her seat, has rarely contributed to any works on the assassination, until now. Program is free but seating reservations are required. To reserve your seat, email programs@jfk.org or call 214.747.6660. Museum parking is $5.

___________________________________________________________________

On November 22, 1963, the Texas School Book Depository building was the focus of world shock, grief, and outrage when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza. Twenty-six years later, John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation opened on the building's sixth floor, where significant evidence was found. Using nearly 400 photographs, 45 minutes of documentary films, and artifacts, this exhibition recreates the social and political context of the early 1960s, chronicles the assassination and its aftermath, and recognizes Kennedy's lasting impact on American culture.

http://www.jfk.org/go/home

The Man Who Did Not Kill JFK

This story is included in The Kennedy Detail with previously undisclosed details. This happened to President-elect Kennedy after eight years of no serious threats against President Eisenhower. It was an ominous start for the new president.


By Bob Greene, CNN Contributor http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION

Editor's note: CNN contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose books include "Late Edition: A Love Story" and "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War."

(CNN) -- In a few weeks a noteworthy anniversary will arrive: fifty years since the election of John F. Kennedy as president of the United States.

Much will be made of the fact that half a century has passed. Photographs of the young president and his family will be republished, retrospective essays will be written. Inevitably, as the Kennedy years are freshly examined, the name of the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald will be mentioned in the context of what might have been, if only Kennedy's path and Oswald's never had intersected.

But there is another name that you have likely never heard: a man who might have changed history as drastically and irrevocably as Oswald did. Kennedy was elected in November 1960; a month later, this man came very close to making sure that Kennedy never served a single day in office.

His name was Richard Pavlick.

From an Associated Press dispatch, December 16, 1960, dateline West Palm Beach, Florida:

"A craggy-faced retired postal clerk who said he didn't like the way John F. Kennedy won the election is in jail on charges he planned to kill the president-elect.

"Richard Pavlick, 73, was charged by the Secret Service with planning to make himself a human bomb and blow up Kennedy and himself."

Pavlick came much closer to killing Kennedy than most news reporters realized at the time. He was arrested in Palm Beach on December 15, 1960, in a car loaded with sticks of dynamite. Kennedy; his wife, Jacqueline; his daughter, Caroline; and his son, John Jr., were staying in the Kennedy family mansion in Palm Beach, preparing for the inauguration the next month.

Because Pavlick didn't get near Kennedy on the day he was arrested, the story was not huge national news. The announcement of his arrest coincided with a terrible airline disaster in which two commercial planes collided over New York City, killing 134 people, and that was the story that received the banner headlines and led the television and radio newscasts.

It wasn't until later that the complete story of a first Pavlick assassination attempt, a few days earlier, began to get out. It was that first one that might have changed American history.

Pavlick, who had lived in New Hampshire, spent much of his time writing enraged and belligerent letters to public figures and to newspapers. He resided in Belmont, New Hampshire; Belmont was at one time called Upper Gilmanton, and Gilmanton itself, four miles away, was reputed to be the model for the New England town in Grace Metalious' scandalous 1950s novel "Peyton Place." Thus, Time magazine, in its report of Pavlick's arrest in Florida, headlined the story: "The Man From Peyton Place."

It reported:

"One day last month Richard Pavlick decided to do something worthy of inclusion in 'Peyton Place': he made up his mind to kill a president-elect. He took ten sticks of dynamite, some blasting caps and wire, and began to shadow Jack Kennedy. He cased the cottage in Hyannisport, sized up the house in Georgetown, headed south for Palm Beach." The magazine quoted Pavlick: "The Kennedy money bought him the White House. I wanted to teach the United States the presidency is not for sale."

Here is what was not reported at the time, and was disclosed later by a top U.S. Secret Service official:

On December 11, 1960 -- four days before he was arrested -- Pavlick drove his car to the Kennedy home in Palm Beach. He held a switch wired to the dynamite, which, according to the Secret Service official, was "enough to blow up a small mountain." His plan was to wait for Kennedy's limousine to leave the house for Sunday Mass, then to ram it and blow up both the president and himself.

What stopped him?

Kennedy did not leave the house alone. Instead, he came out the door with Jacqueline, Caroline and John Jr.

Pavlick later told law enforcement officials that he did not want to hurt Mrs. Kennedy and the children. He only wanted to kill Kennedy himself.

So he waited a few days. A postmaster back in New Hampshire, troubled by some postcards that Pavlick had sent, alerted the Secret Service. That is how notification of the license plate of Pavlick's car made it down to Florida -- and that is why he was stopped and arrested on December 15. "I had the crazy idea I wanted to stop Kennedy from being president," he told reporters from his jail cell.

What if Pavlick had gone ahead with his plan on that first day -- what if the sight of Mrs. Kennedy and the two children had not dissuaded him?

As reporter Robin Erb, writing in The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade years later, put it:

"Had Pavlick been successful, [the assassination by Lee Harvey] Oswald and his murder by Jack Ruby would never have occurred. Had Mr. Kennedy been killed, Lyndon B. Johnson would have been sworn in as president in January, 1961. How would he have handled U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis, or the civil-rights movement in the South?"

Next month a book about Kennedy's Secret Service detail in Dallas on November 22, 1963, co-written by a member of that detail, is scheduled to be published; advance publicity for the book has centered on the events surrounding that day in Dallas. It will be interesting to see if the Richard Pavlick story is mentioned, and, if so, if any new light is shed on the events in Florida in December of 1960.

As it was, Pavlick was ordered to be confined to a government mental-health facility. He would die in 1975.

And the Kennedy family remained in Florida during those final weeks of 1960. Allowed to live, they prepared for Christmas. United Press International reported that the tree in their home was donated by the West Palm Beach Optimist Club. The president-elect received, from his family, gifts of cigars and hand-knitted socks. All seemed safe and right in their world.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.

Discovery.com Announces Kennedy Special

JFK Requested Bodyguards to Back Off

Days before he was assassinated in Dallas, John F. Kennedy asked his secret service agents to give him space to campaign.

By Emily Sohn | Thu Oct 21, 2010 05:30 PM ET

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.

Investigation Discovery: Explore video, follow the timeline and take a quiz about the JFK assassination.

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."

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Dallas Art News Announces The Kennedy Detail SPECIAL EVENT November 20, 2010 at 2:00 p.m

After Nearly Fifty Years Under Code of Silence, JFK Secret Service Agents Speak Out in New Book

THE KENNEDY DETAIL: JFK’s Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence

By Gerald Blaine with Lisa McCubbin
Foreword by Clint Hill

In THE KENNEDY DETAIL: JFK’S Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Gallery Books; November 2, 2010; $28.00), Jerry Blaine – one of thirty-four Secret Service agents on President Kennedy’s detail when he was assassinated – sets history straight on what really happened that afternoon and in the months leading up to and following the tragedy. Written with award-winning journalist Lisa McCubbin, this insider account includes contributions from many of the Secret Service agents who were serving on the Kennedy Detail, and draws upon their daily reports, expense accounts, personal notes, and vivid recollections.

Clint Hill, the agent who jumped on the back of the car immediately after the shooting and helped Jackie back down into her seat, has rarely contributed to any works on the assassination, until now. As Hill writes in the Foreword, “I don’t talk to anybody about that day…It is only because of my complete faith and trust that Jerry Blaine would tell our story with dignity and unwavering honesty that I agreed to be involved.”

THE KENNEDY DETAIL is the only authoritative account of the events of that day from the men, like Clint Hill, who were there to guard the president’s life.

As Blaine writes, “Every man on the Kennedy Detail would re-live those six seconds in Dallas a million times over. For the rest of their lives, they would be defined by the assassination of JFK, questioned and blamed for failing to achieve the impossible.”

The Discovery Channel is producing a TV special based on The Kennedy Detail that airs in November and features rare footage from The Sixth Floor Museum’s collections.

The Sixth Floor Museum will host a free program with Jerry Blaine, Lisa McCubbin and Clint Hill on November 20, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. Museum Curator Gary Mack will moderate a program and Q&A session, followed by a book-signing. Books can be purchased at the Museum Store + Café for $28.00.

The program is free but advance seating reservations are required. To make your reservation or to purchase a copy of the book, e-mail programs@jfk.org or call 214-747-6623.

Museum parking is available for $5.00. Visit www.jfk.org for more information.

Special Event

Q&A with Jerry Blaine, Lisa McCubbin and Clint Hill
Moderated by Museum Curator Gary Mack
November 20, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.
The Sixth Floor Museum, 411 Elm Street, Dallas, TX, 75202

The Sixth Floor Museum

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza chronicles the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy; interprets and supports the Dealey Plaza National Historic Landmark District and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza; and presents contemporary culture within the context of presidential history. Located at 411 Elm Street in downtown Dallas, the Museum is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday–Sunday and 12 to 6 p.m. Monday. Audio guides for the permanent exhibit are available in seven languages, and a youth version is available in English. For more information, visit www.jfk.org or call 214-747-6660.

The Huffington Post

President Johnson Almost Shot By Secret Service Agent Hours After Kennedy Assassination: New Book

by Marcus Baram

A Secret Service agent came close to shooting President Lyndon Johnson just hours after Kennedy's assassination, according to "The Kennedy Detail", a new book that claims to be the first account of the tragedy by members of Kennedy's security detail.

Though Kennedy assassination buffs already have their bookcases full with countless accounts of the assassination, the book by retired agent Gerald Blaine does contain some new revelations.

The night after the assassination, Blaine says he was assigned to protect Johnson's two-story house in Washington when he heard the sound of someone approaching.

Instinctively Blaine picked up the Thompson submachine gun and activated the bolt on top. The unmistakable sound was similar to racking a shotgun. He firmly pushed the stock into his shoulder, ready to fire. He'd expected the footsteps to retreat with the loud sound of the gun activating, but they kept coming closer. Blaine's heart pounded, his finger firmly on the trigger. Let me see your face, you bastard.

The next instant, there was a face to go with the footsteps.

The new President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, had just rounded the corner, and Blaine had the gun pointed directly at the man's chest. In the blackness of the night, Johnson's face went completely white.

A split second later, Blaine would have pulled the trigger...

Blaine struggled to regain his composure as the reality of what had just happened washed over him. Fourteen hours after losing a president, the nation had come chillingly close to losing another one.

Story continues below

The book also includes the first-ever account of the fateful day by Clint Hill, the agent who jumped on the back of the car in the midst of the shooting and pushed Jackie down into the back seat.

And Blaine dismisses speculation about Kennedy's relationship with Marilyn Monroe. He says that he was on duty the night of May 19, 1962, the famous birthday fundraiser at which Monroe sang for the president. Blaine says that Monroe was present later in Kennedy's suite at the Carlyle Hotel, but that she "left before the other guests."

And he says that the only other time Monroe was in the president's company was in Santa Monica in 1961, at the home of Peter and Pat Lawford, where Kennedy took a brief swim before departing.

Richard Johnsen, a Kennedy Detail Secret Service Agent, Passed away last week.

Dick was born in California and graduated from the University of California.



He joined the Secret Service in September 1959 and was assigned to the Eisenhower detail. When President Kennedy was sworn in Dick became a member of the Kennedy Detail.

On November 22 nd, Dick was assigned to the 4:00 PM to Midnight shift and was on post at the Trade Center when word came in that the President had been shot. Dick along with his fellow shift members immediately went to Parkland Hospital to assist in securing the hospital and provided assistance on the trip back to Washington D.C.

He remained on the White House Detail through President Ronald Reagan. He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Patricia and his son Erick B. Johnsen and his wife Diane and his grand daughter Isabella.



Dick personified the agents assigned to the Kennedy Detail in dedication to his profession and lived by the values of his generation. Dick provided material for "The Kennedy Detail." He will be missed.

JFK Library Programs Will Mark 50th Anniversary

By Melanie Eversley and Sara Newman, USA TODAY


The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is planning three years of programs to honor the 50th anniversary of JFK's presidency.

The observances will help Americans learn about or remember a presidency shaped by the space program, the civil rights movement, the Cuban missile crisis and other historic developments.
The events will include journalists who covered the Kennedy era and advisers who worked with the late president, among others who would have unique insider perspectives.

"We're trying to have people who lived during those times or covered them," says Thomas Putnam, library director.

It's an important anniversary, and because of this, the library wants to do things right, Putnam says. The three-year-long observance is set up to coordinate with the length of Kennedy's
time in the White House, before his 1963 assassination in Dallas.

"Fifty is oftentimes a bigger deal than other anniversaries," Putnam says. "People will want to look back on these big events that happened in the 1960s."

Last week, the library observed the 50th anniversary of the first of four televised campaign debates between Democrat Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon. Gathered together for a forum were former Kennedy advisers Ted Sorensen and William Wilson, and veteran journalists Russell Baker, Marty Nolan and Sander Vanocur, who covered the debate. They reflected on the historic event and how debates have changed over the years. Tom Oliphant, a former Boston Globe reporter, moderated.

On Nov. 8, the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's election, the library will host a party with a couple of thousand people that will include a video feed of results offered by late anchorman Walter Cronkite, Putnam says.

And in January, veteran NBC newsman Tom Brokaw will share his memories about JFK's inauguration.

The other theme that will shape the library's observances is modern technology. Twitter, Facebook and the Internet in general will play an integral role in the anniversary events, library staffers say.

In January, the library launched a Twitter feed regularly updated by communications director Rachel Day that issues tweets coordinated with significant events in the Kennedy presidential campaign. The January start-up was timed to coincide with Kennedy's announcement of his candidacy, Putnam says.

"We're trying to re-create that as if people were watching the campaign again," he says.

The museum's Facebook page, which has 4,300 followers, includes quiz questions related to the Kennedy presidency and shares new articles and tidbits related to the anniversary. The library website also includes a daily "diary" that describes what Kennedy was doing each day 50 years ago.

By next year, the library and its foundation will complete much of its effort to create a digital archive of the Kennedy presidency. The records will be accessible to the public via the Web, according to the library website.

"John F. Kennedy was one of the most important presidents of our time," Putnam says. The anniversary "allows us to look back at the signature events of his presidency."

Caroline Kennedy Carries On Her Parents' Legacies

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

As a cute blonde toddler whose impromptu appearances at White House events delighted news photographers, Caroline Kennedy was her father's best political asset.

Today, as a willowy Park Avenue matron, she still is.

Former president John F. Kennedy's oldest and only surviving child has kept a lower public profile since her attempt to win one of New York's U.S. Senate seats last year degenerated into a political failure.

Now, she's stepping back into the spotlight to celebrate a political success: her father's.

Over the next three years, as the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library marks the 50th anniversary of a presidency that riveted the nation with its glamorous beginning and its tragic end, "She is going to be the one to take the principal role in the celebrations of her father's life," says John Culver, a longtime family friend.

Kennedy, 52, is working on three books to be published in conjunction with the festivities. She and her husband, New York artist and designer Edwin Schlossberg, also are helping the JFK Library and the Institute of Politics plan the commemoration of her father's presidency, from his election in November 1960 to his assassination three years later.

"She and Ed are in many ways the chief architects of how the 50th anniversary will roll out," said former Massachusetts senator Paul Kirk, a family confidant who served with Kennedy on the library foundation's board.

One of Kennedy's forthcoming books, due in fall 2011, has blockbuster potential: It is based on tapes of never-before published interviews her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, gave to historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. about her years as first lady.

Also next year, Kennedy and the JFK Library will issue a book for young adults commemorating her father's famous inaugural address, which urged a generation to "ask what you can do for your country." That will be followed in 2012 by an album of her father's family photos.

For most of her adult life, Kennedy has been the chief protector and promoter of her parents' legacy. For 23 years, she has served as president of the foundation that helps fund and direct her father's presidential library. After the death of her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., in a 1999 plane crash, she took over his duties as a member of the advisory board to the Institute of Politics, established at Harvard University in 1966 by her mother and her father's brothers as a living memorial to the slain president. After her mother's death in 1994, Kennedy replaced her as honorary chairwoman of the American Ballet Theatre.

She already has edited several literary homages to her parents, including an anthology of her mother's favorite poems and a sequel to Profiles in Courage, her father's Pulitzer Prize-winning book about politicians who put principle above popular opinion.

Kennedy, who declined to be interviewed for this article, has largely shied away from political controversy and personal publicity for most of her life. An exception came in 2008 when she endorsed Barack Obama for president and persuaded her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, to second her.

It came at a crucial moment, when Obama was reeling from defeat in the New Hampshire primary at the hands of Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. In a column for The New York Times, Kennedy said she was supporting Obama over Clinton, her home-state senator, because she felt he would be "a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them."

The effect was electrifying: "Camelot Crowns Obama," read one TV headline. The onetime first daughter began flowering as a politico. Kennedy became a regular surrogate on the campaign trail. Obama, who declared her "a very dear friend," named her to the inner circle that vetted his vice presidential choices.

After Obama's election, it briefly appeared as if she might be the next Kennedy in the Senate.

In December 2008, Kennedy let it be known that she was interested in the New York Senate seat that Clinton was leaving to become secretary of State. There was family history: Her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, served as New York's senator.

As she traveled upstate to meet with local politicians and to Harlem to break cornbread with Al Sharpton, Kennedy was trailed by a pack of reporters who parsed her every utterance, keeping count of her frequent "ums" and "you knows."

A Marist College poll showed Kennedy and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, her cousin Kerry's ex-husband, as the favorites to be appointed to the Senate seat. But her inability to articulate her reasons for seeking the coveted appointment drew mockery. "The lady hasn't yet said but one word in public about the race, about the issues or about virtually anything," the New York Daily News editorialized

Before Gov. David Paterson could announce his choice, Kennedy abruptly withdrew her name from consideration, creating confusion and recriminations that added to a list of embarrassments that ultimately drove Paterson's approval ratings so low he decided not to run for re-election.

Since then, Kennedy has kept her political efforts focused on others. Last year she held a fundraiser to help Cyrus Vance— whose father served as her father's secretary of the Army — win the Manhattan district attorney's election.

Earlier this year, she was at the White House when President Obama signed his landmark health care bill and paid tribute to the decades-long struggle by her beloved "Uncle Teddy" to see the legislation enacted.

She is also focused on the printed page. In addition to the books she's producing for the 50th anniversary of her father's presidency, Kennedy also is compiling an anthology of poetry aimed at women, due in spring; a collection of children's poems the following year, and for 2013, a travelogue about the historically themed trips she and her cousins took every summer with their uncle.

Now that Kennedy's daughters Rose and Tatiana are in their 20s and son John in his teens, some friends hope Kennedy will give politics another chance. "If she's at all inclined, I would hope she would," said Culver, a former Iowa senator.

Kennedy's sense of duty to her family and its political legacy was apparent in a fond eulogy she delivered last year at the wake for Edward Kennedy.

"Now Teddy has become a part of history," she said. "And we have become the ones who have to do all the things that he would have done, for us and for each other and for our country."