Interview at the 33rd Annual National Press Club Book Fair and Authors' Night ...

A fundraiser for the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library and The SEED Foundation held Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Watch Video Here

[The Kennedy Detail] - C-SPAN Video Library

Lincoln's Missing Bodyguard

What happened to Officer John Parker, the man who chose the wrong night to leave his post at Ford's Theater?

By Paul Martin

After President Lincoln settled in to enjoy Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre, his guard left to drink at a nearby saloon, leaving Lincoln vulnerable.

When a celebrity-seeking couple crashed a White House state dinner last year, the issue of presidential security dominated the news. The Secret Service responded by putting three of its officers on administrative leave and scrambled to reassure the public that it takes the job of guarding the president very seriously. “We put forth the maximum effort all the time,” said Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan.

That kind of dedication to safeguarding the president didn’t always exist. It wasn’t until 1902 that the Secret Service, created in 1865 to eradicate counterfeit currency, assumed official full-time responsibility for protecting the president. Before that, security for the president could be unbelievably lax. The most astounding example was the scant protection afforded Abraham Lincoln on the night he was assassinated. Only one man, an unreliable Washington cop named John Frederick Parker, was assigned to guard the president at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865.

Today it’s hard to believe that a single policeman was Lincoln’s only protection, but 145 years ago the situation wasn’t that unusual. Lincoln was cavalier about his personal safety, despite the frequent threats he received and a near-miss attempt on his life in August 1864, as he rode a horse unescorted. He’d often take in a play or go to church without guards, and he hated being encumbered by the military escort assigned to him. Sometimes he walked alone at night between the White House and the War Department, a distance of about a quarter of a mile.

John Parker was an unlikely candidate to guard a president—or anyone for that matter. Born in Frederick County, Virginia, in 1830, Parker moved to Washington as a young man, originally earning his living as a carpenter. He became one of the capital’s first officers when the Metropolitan Police Force was organized in 1861. Parker’s record as a cop fell somewhere between pathetic and comical. He was hauled before the police board numerous times, facing a smorgasbord of charges that should have gotten him fired. But he received nothing more than an occasional reprimand. His infractions included conduct unbecoming an officer, using intemperate language and being drunk on duty. Charged with sleeping on a streetcar when he was supposed to be walking his beat, Parker declared that he’d heard ducks quacking on the tram and had climbed aboard to investigate. The charge was dismissed. When he was brought before the board for frequenting a whorehouse, Parker argued that the proprietress had sent for him.

In November 1864, the Washington police force created the first permanent detail to protect the president, made up of four officers. Somehow, John Parker was named to the detail. Parker was the only one of the officers with a spotty record, so it was a tragic coincidence that he drew the assignment to guard the president that evening. As usual, Parker got off to a lousy start that fateful Friday. He was supposed to relieve Lincoln’s previous bodyguard at 4 p.m. but was three hours late.

Lincoln’s party arrived at the theater at around 9 p.m. The play, Our American Cousin, had already started when the president entered his box directly above the right side of the stage. The actors paused while the orchestra struck up “Hail to the Chief.” Lincoln bowed to the applauding audience and took his seat.

Parker was seated outside the president’s box, in the passageway beside the door. From where he sat, Parker couldn’t see the stage, so after Lincoln and his guests settled in, he moved to the first gallery to enjoy the play. Later, Parker committed an even greater folly: At intermission, he joined the footman and coachman of Lincoln’s carriage for drinks in the Star Saloon next door to Ford’s Theatre.

John Wilkes Booth entered the theater around 10 p.m.. Ironically, he’d also been in the Star Saloon, working up some liquid courage. When Booth crept up to the door to Lincoln’s box, Parker’s chair stood empty. Some of the audience may not have heard the fatal pistol shot, since Booth timed his attack to coincide with a scene in the play that always sparked loud laughter.

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C-Span Q & A

Program from Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010.

A legacy of service: Robert Roy Faison Jr.

The Daily Herald



http://www.rrdailyherald.com

The United States knows Robert Roy Faison Jr. as the first black man assigned permanently to White House Detail.

In Seaboard, the former Coates High School graduate is remembered as a humble but strong man that wasn’t defined simply as the son of hardworking, sharecropping parents.

Known as “Bob” to family and friends, he died June 28 and will be buried next month in Arlington National Cemetery.

A 25-year United States Secret Service veteran who retired with the rank of Inspector, Bob provided personal protection service for United States Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

He retired in 1982, although his love for the Secret Service kept him working as a contractor for 10 more years.

Deputy Director of the U.S. Secret Service Keith Prewitt said Bob conducted part of his own background investigation. Prewitt described Bob as an outstanding role model and professional who was always easy to speak to and very good at coaching and mentoring.

“He was committed and engaged, but quietly competent,” Prewitt said. “He meant a lot to all of us.”

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Gerald S. Blaine, former Secret Service agent and author of “The Kennedy Detail,” published by Simon and Schuster in November, said Bob joined the White House Detail in late 1963 and shared a shift with him.

“We were on the midnight shift when President Kennedy was in Fort Worth the night before the assassination,” Blaine said. “We flew to Austin where the president was to stay at LBJ’s ranch on the night of the 22nd. After the assassination, Bob and I were assigned to LBJ.”

Blaine said the Secret Service White House Detail was very select in approving agents for permanent duty.

Most agents, including Bob, did a 30-day assignment.

“At the end of the assignment, the agents would report any weaknesses in the individual that might preclude him for a permanent assignment,” Blaine said. “Bob was unanimously selected.”

Blaine said Bob’s inclusion on the Secret Service was not embraced by everyone outside the service.

He describes an incident in his book about Bob being requested to stay at another hotel that allowed blacks since the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth did not.

“The agents threatened to move President Kennedy to another hotel if Bob was not allowed to stay,” Blaine said. “The hotel finally allowed Bob to stay.”

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© 2011 Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald. All rights reserved.

Photos:

Robert Roy Faison Jr. is seen at age 21 shortly before heading off to the Korean War. He is a former Seaboard resident and Coates High School graduate

Robert Roy Faison Jr. takes the lead, walking out front of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s car. Faison, who died June 28, will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next month.

Robert Roy Faison Jr., back left, stands in guard of President John F. Kennedy, third from right, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, center, during a White House event.

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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Thanks from a Former Agent

Jerry:

My name is Tom Heuerman. I was an agent in Minneapolis and Chicago
from late 1968-1972.

I just finished "The Kennedy Detail" and want to say bravo, bravo, bravo.

You were definitely called to do this work, and I thank you for
following it. The world is better for your work.

I found the book deeply painful AND inspiring. It is really, I feel, a
book about all of our shared humanity in a world filled with villains
that the good people have to say "NO" to.

Clint Hill's story made me cry. I am a recovering alcoholic, (37
years), and don't know that he considers himself an alcoholic or not,
but I do relate to his suffering and isolation. I am so happy that he
dug himself out of his despair.

I am writing a review (as I fancy myself a writer too) and will post
it on Amazon, my blog, and my web site probably tomorrow.

By the way, in 2001 I lived on the side of a mountain between Ridgway
and Ouray, Colorado. I am in Plymouth, MN now.

My best wishes

--
Tom Heuerman

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR EMMY® NOMINATED TEAM FOR THE KENNEDY DETAIL

OUTSTANDING HISTORICAL PROGRAMMING – LONG FORM

The Kennedy Detail

Discovery Channel

Executive Producers

Ken Atchity, Brooke Runnette, Chi‑Li Wong, Jay Renfroe, David Garfinkle

Co‑Executive Producer

Vince DiPersio

Producers

Grant Axton, Gerald Blaine, Liza Maddrey, Lisa McCubbin




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