We are currently down the rabbit hole of examining the anomalies of the Secret Service’s protection of President Kennedy in Dallas. We’ve already looked at the drinking incident, the reduction of local law enforcement, the cutback in police motorcycles, the removal of the bubble top, the planning of the luncheon that the motorcade was driving to, the motorcade route itself, and last minute changes in the order of motorcade vehicles and personnel.
In this episode, we continue to address issues related to how the Secret Service handled security on November 22nd, 1963, including, the vehicle speed of the presidential limo, rooftop security, the removal of agents from the rear of the limo, the threat research with the Protective Research Section, and the presence of Army Intelligence in the motorcade.
The Driver
One of the big disputes when it comes to the Secret Service is whether the driver of the presidential limo, Bill Greer, acted appropriately in Dealey Plaza. And no, I’m not talking about the driver shooting President Kennedy. We’ll get to that allegation next episode. I’m talking about whether or not Greer stopped or slowed way down instead of getting out of the danger zone.
The Warren Report says QUOTE “The Presidential car did not stop or almost come to a complete halt after the firing of the first shot or any other shots. The driver, Special Agent William Greer, has testified that he accelerated the car after what was probably the second shot. Motion pictures of the scene show that the car slowed down momentarily after the shot that struck the President in the head and then speeded up rapidly.”[1]
But, on the other hand, according to author and Secret Service expert Vince Palamara, there are at least 59 witnesses whose statements who say that they saw the motorcade either slow down to a near stop or come to a complete stop.[2] The 59 witness statements on this topic make it clear that Agent Greer definitely hit the brakes when he should have been accelerating.
The Secret Service typically maintained speeds of at least 20-30 miles per hour during motorcades.[3] But, in the Dallas motorcade, Greer was going about 11.2 miles per hour after making the 120 degree turn from Houston on to Elm.[4]
It appears from the Zapruder film and from witness statements that Agent Greer did at least hit the brakes after the first shot was fired. Greer then turned around to look in the back seat at the President. At that time, Agent Roy Kellerman, Agent Greer’s superior who was sitting shotgun, told Greer to get out of line and hit the gas because the president was hit. Inexplicably, Greer then turns around once more to look at the president a second time. It is during Greer’s second look back when President Kennedy was struck by the fatal head shot.[5]
We don’t know why Greer didn’t put the pedal to the metal. Maybe it was nerves. We’ll probably never know. But, Greer failed to follow the direction of Agent Kellerman to get out of the motorcade line. If Greer had listened to Kellerman, it’s possible that President Kennedy might have lived.[6]
Secret Service Protocol Failure – Rooftops
In addition to Agent Greer having suboptimal performance in Dealey Plaza, the standard measures to protect against rooftop or window assassins were not followed in Dallas. The usual precautions that the Secret Service would take were noted by a reporter that day.
Normally, any vantage point, a rooftop and the windows which command a parade route are carefully scrutinized and carefully guarded. And men are usually posted on rooftops along a parade route, particularly if there is any reason at all to supposed that there might be someone in the area who would have such ideas as assassination in his mind regarding the president. These precautions are taken by the Secret Service for all presidents as they have been for many years.[7]
So what exactly was the protocol? Luckily, we have two books from higher ups at the Secret Service that were written shortly before the assassination. The Chief Inspector of the Secret Service, Michael Torina, wrote in a book that came out in 1962: QUOTE “If the President is to appear in a parade, agents and policemen are assigned posts atop buildings and on the street along the parade route. If exceptionally large crowds are expected… the Secret Service may call upon the Armed Forces to station troops along the line of march.”[8]
Former Secret Service Chief, U.E. Baughman wrote in his book that QUOTE: “Every single building and all of its occupants along the parade route had to be checked. We had to have a dossier on each occupant sufficient to guarantee that he was safe. Only then could we grant him the privilege of viewing the parade from his window or rooftop…Both [the President and First Lady] would have been sitting ducks for a determined lunatic in a window even if he were a relatively poor shot…”[9] Baughman added QUOTE “It was always standard procedure for the Secret Service, through local police, to insist that building managers follow rigid rules to protect the president.”[10]
As we heard Inspector Torina and Chief Baughman, the rooftops and windows should have been guarded in Dallas. There should not have been people in the windows of the Texas Schoolbook Depository Building without being vetted. The building manager, Roy Truly, should have been contacted in advance about this by Secret Service or police. But that didn’t happen. There is no mention of advance planning in either of Truly’s two Warren Commission testimonies.[11] There was no rooftop security whatsoever in Dealey Plaza.[12]
It’s one thing to have statements from the Secret Service about the proper way to do things. But, what was the actual practice regarding rooftops and building windows in other cities around the time of the assassination?
In Tampa, on November 18th, there were police or military stationed on the roof of every multi-story building along the motorcade route.[13] The roofs of buildings were also guarded in San Antonio the day before the assassination and in Fort Worth on the morning of the assassination.[14]
Advance agent Winston Lawson told the Warren Commission and the HSCA that he could not recall giving instructions to police to watch building windows, although it was his usual practice to do so.[15] Dallas police captain Purdue Lawrence confirmed that Agent Lawson did not provide any instructions related to securing buildings or windows.[16]
With no pre-communication to building managers (as was the protocol) and with Agent Lawson failing to do as he normally did and request assistance from police to cover rooftops along the motorcade, the Secret Service was left to rely on Agent Emory Roberts in the follow up car, who had the responsibility of scanning the windows and rooftops of buildings in front of the motorcade.[17] Obviously, agent Roberts was not successful in his task.
Dallas agent Sorrels told the HSCA QUOTE “During the time we were making this survey with police, I made the remark that if someone wanted to get the POTUS he could do it with a high powered rifle and a telescopic site from some building or some hillside because that has always been a concern to us about the buildings.”[18] Agent Sorrels was supposed to be on the lookout for people in buildings in the back seat of the lead car. But, since the lead car was a sedan with a roof, Sorrels’ view was blocked and he was not able to do his job, either.[19]
Even President Kennedy himself was worried about being shot from a window with a high powered rifle! After the Florida trip, just days before he would be gunned down, the President told his assistant, Dave Powers, that he feared an assassination QUOTE “would be tried by someone with a high-power rifle and a telescopic sight during a downtown parade when there would be so much noise and confetti that nobody would even be able to point and say “It came from that window.”[20]
Removal of Agents From Rear of Limo
One of the most obvious anomalies in the Secret Service detail is the removal of two agents from the rear of the presidential limo at Love Field. On the film you can clearly see that Agent Henry Rybka was running alongside the left bumper of the presidential limo as it left Love Field. Agent Donald Lawton was on the right bumper. (not to be confused with advance agent Winston Lawson or HSCA lawyer Belford Lawson) Lawton then moved away from the rear of the presidential vehicle and threw his hands up in disgust three different times.[21] After being ordered to stand down, Agents Lawton and Rybka remained behind at Love Field.[22]The person who gave the order removing them from their positions was Agent Emory Roberts who can be seen standing up in his seat in the follow up car speaking to the men.
From Lawton’s reaction, it is clear that he was surprised by the decision and that he disagreed with it. But, why was that last second call to remove Lawton made by Emory Roberts in the first place?
According to Gerald Behn’s April 16, 1964 report to Secret Service Chief James Rowley, President Kennedy QUOTE “told me that he did not want agents riding on the back of his car” during several trips in 1961.[23]While Behn was not on the Dallas trip, his statement does carry weight because he was the head of the White House Detail.
Aside from Behn’s report, the only other first hand evidence supporting the idea that the president did not want agents on the rear of the car comes from memos from Floyd Boring and Clint Hill, and a memo from Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon which said QUOTE “the President had frequently stated that he did not wish to have the gents riding on these steps during a motorcade and had repeated this wish only a few days previously to agents assigned to him in Tampa.”[24] (Note that Dillon does not claim to have personally heard this from the President.) The HSCA also believed that President Kennedy had specifically requested that the rear limo agents be removed.[25]
So, we have a fair amount of evidence to show that President Kennedy did not want anyone on the rear of the limo. But are there any counterpoints to that assertion?
Yes, there are many. Most notably, Gerald Behn and Floyd Boring, the two men who told the Warren Commission that they had personal knowledge that Kennedy did not want agents on the back of the car were later interviewed by Vince Palamara. Behn told him QUOTE “I don’t remember Kennedy ever saying that he didn’t want anybody on the back of his car.”[26] Similarly, Floyd Boring told Palamara, that President Kennedy was QUOTE “a very easy going guy. He didn’t interfere with our actions at all.” Boring says Kennedy didn’t tell them anything.[27]
Additionally, Clint Hill, the only other remaining person who potentially had first hand knowledge, said that he did not actually hear the president request the removal of the agents on the rear of the limo. Instead, he testified to the Warren Commission that Floyd Boring told him about it.[28] Advance agent Winston Lawson wrote in a letter to Vince Palamara in 2004, QUOTE “I do not know of any standing orders for the agents to stay off the back of the car.”
Indeed, in addition to Behn, Boring, and Hill repudiating their earlier testimony, there are at least 30 other witnesses documented by Vince Palamara who are on the record saying that either President Kennedy did not give that order, or that they did not personally hear President Kennedy give that order.[29] In light of that, the weight of the evidence seems overwhelming that President Kennedy did not request the agents to be removed from the rear of the limo.
To know how significant this last second removal of security really was, we need to understand the protocol for such security. How common was it really for agents to ride on the back of the presidential limo?
It was common enough for J. Edgar Hoover to mention it in a recorded call with President Johnson on November 29th:
You see there was no Secret Service man standing on back of the car. Usually, the Presidential car, in the past, has had steps on the back next to the bumpers. And there’s usually been one on either side standing on those steps at the back bumper. And whether the president asked that that not be done, we don’t know.[30]
Hoover couldn’t speak to whether the president requested that the agents not be there. But, as we just discussed, all of the agents who previously supported that idea, later recanted it when speaking to Vince Palamara, or clarified that they never heard it themselves.
In Tampa, days before, agents rode on the rear of the limo. But, during the motorcade, Floyd Boring, who was present in the front seat for Tampa, told Emory Roberts to call the men off. The origination of the official story seems to come Boring, who, again, later emphatically distanced himself from this claim. There is no mention in the Final Survey Report of the November 18th Tampa trip of any directives from President Kennedy regarding agents on the car.
So while this seems really shady, it is not a slam dunk to show malfeasance by the Secret Service because agents were not always on the rear of the limo. Indeed, the agents did not ride at the rear of the limo on the other motorcades in Texas. Still, if you watch films from other motorcades, most often the rear agents are there in place. They were there about 50 to 75 percent of the time according to Vince Palamara.[31] Since we know that the reason for removing the agents is not credible in hindsight, it remains a real mystery why Agent Emory Roberts called off Agents Lawton and Rybka at Love Field. I have yet to see a believable answer.
Failure of PRS to Tell Dallas About Milteer
As we discussed in Episode 59, there was a specific threat against President Kennedy from militant right wing troublemaker, Joseph Milteer. About 2 weeks before the assassination, Miami police informant, William Somerset, recorded Milteer saying that the best way to kill President Kennedy was QUOTE “from an office building with a high powered rifle.”[32]
This audio recording was sent by the Miami Secret Service to the head of the Secret Service’s Protective Research Section, Robert Bouck. Bouck followed up by asking the local Miami agents to look into the matter more. But, critically, Bouck did not pass the information about Milteer’s threat on to the Secret Service in Dallas (or anywhere else on the Texas trip).[33] Bouck’s failure to pass on the credible threat outlined by Joseph Milteer led to Bouck being fired from his position as head of the Protective Research Section.[34]
In addition to Bouck failing to pass the Milteer threat on to the Dallas Secret Service office, Advance agent Winston Lawson told the HSCA that he affirmatively checked with the PRS before departing for Dallas and there were no reports about any threats.[35] But, Lawson also clarified to the HSCA that he was specifically asking about threat information QUOTE “on the basis of President Kennedy’s visit to Texas for the funeral of Representative Sam Rayburn in November 1961” in Bonham, Texas (an hour and 15 minutes northeast of Dallas).[36] In other words, Lawson found no threats based on JFK’s brief visit northeast of Dallas two years earlier. Agent Lawson learned of the Adlai Stevenson incident from reading it in the newspaper.[37]
In addition to the PRS threat check done by Agent Lawson, assistant special agent in charge of the White House detail, Floyd Boring also checked the PRS for threats twice. Boring found no threats after either of his checks.[38] Agent Boring was in charge of planning the Dallas trip from Washington, but he was not present in Dallas.[39]
SS did not bring the A team
As we work through the remaining cornucopia of Secret Service related issues, it’s important to understand that the agency did not bring their A team to Dallas. Gerald Behn, the man in charge of the White House security detail, who would normally have been in charge, was on vacation for both the Texas trip and the Florida trip which immediately preceded it. This was Behn’s first vacation in three years.[40]
Agent Floyd Boring, the number two man in charge of the White House detail, made the trip to Florida and oversaw advance work for Dallas. However, Boring stayed in Washington for the President’s trip to Texas. With Behn on vacation and Boring in DC, that left Agent Roy Kellerman to be the agent in charge of the presidential security in Dallas. Agent Kellerman had only ever been in charge one other time – on November 8th and 9th for a trip to New York.[41]
Thus, the third string lead of the White House detail was in charge on November 22nd and on his second trip ever where he had the lead. Kellerman was the agent physically closest to President Kennedy. He should have climbed over Governor Connally and shielded the president after the first shot was fired. Instead, Kellerman stayed in his seat.
Army Intelligence Angle
Another anomaly with the motorcade in Dallas was an unexpected visitor in the pilot car that day – Army Intelligence officer, Lt. Col. George Whitmeyer. Whitmeyer told researcher Larry Haapanen in 1970 that he was QUOTE “along for the ride” because Dallas Police Deputy Chief George Lumpkin, invited him.[42]
Deputy Chief Lumpkin was an Army intelligence reserve officer. Lt. Col. Whitmeyer was Lumpkin’s advisor in the Army. Just when you think the plot could not get any thicker, it turns out that Advance Agent Winston Lawson worked for Army Counterintelligence before joining the Secret Service. Agent Lawson told the HSCA that he knew that Lt. Col. Whitmeyer taught Army intelligence, but that Whitmeyer’s presence in the motorcade had nothing to do with Lawson’s own prior service in Army Counterintelligence.[43] [44]
Deputy Chief Lumpkin, the army intelligence reservist, played a key role immediately after the shots were fired. He ordered the building sealed and was accompanied to oversee that order by Army Intelligence Lt. Col. Whitmeyer.[45] Lumpkin is also the person who chose Marina Oswald’s interpreter after the assassination.[46]
There were two other Army intelligence officers who happened to be in Dealey Plaza that day: James Powell and Edward Croyle. We covered James Powell in episode 4. Powell was a Sergeant in the 112th Military Intelligence Division. His office was just blocks away from the Schoolbook Depository Building. Powell said that he ran inside the Schoolbook Depository after the shots were fired to call his office to let them know what happened.
Army intelligence officer, Edward Croyle, was the army liaison to the Secret Service. Croyle spent the morning of November 22nd before the assassination with Oswald’s FBI agent, James Hosty, and with ATF agent, Frank Ellsworth.[47]
We certainly can’t prove that Army intelligence is nefariously involved based on just this information. Yet, the fact that the Secret Service advance agent, one of the Dallas police who was central to the earliest moments of the investigation, and one of the people stuck inside the Schoolbook Depository when it was locked down - all have clear Army Intelligence ties is worth noting; so is the random, protocol breaking, invite to army intelligence Lt. Col. Whitmeyer to ride in the pilot car of the motorcade. Are these ties purely coincidental – or is there something else going on?
NEXT TIME ON SOLVING JFK: We’ll spend a fourth episode covering the Secret Service, including allegations that the Bill Greer and George Hickey killed the President. Then, we’ll wrap up the Secret Service series and be joined for a Recap & Rebuttals episode by Vince Palamara.
[1] Warren Report at 641.
[3] Phillip Melanson, The Politics of Protection, at 171.
[4] Vince Palamara, Survivor’s Guilt, at 183.
[5] Id. at 188; see also The Zapruder Film.
[6] Id. at 181; New York Times, 7/2/66, p 10. (When Vince Palamara interviewed Greer’s son and asked him what his dad thought of JFK, the son said QUOTE “Well, we’re methodists and JFK was catholic.” Greer added QUOTE “My father certainly didn’t blame himself; it’s not one of those things ‘If I only was driving one mile per hour faster…My father had absolutely no survivor’s guilt.” Even so, Agent Greer, who was 54 at the time, worked only 9 months under President Johnson and then retired due to a stomach ulcer that grew worse after the assassination of President Kennedy.)
[8] Wayne Hyde, What Does a Secret Service Agent Do, at 28.
[9] U.E. Baughman, Secret Service Chief, at 39-40.
[10] Pittsburgh Press, 12/11/63; Palamara at 146.
[11] https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh3/pdf/WH3_Truly.pdf; https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/pdf/WH7_Truly.pdf
[12] Palamara at 147.
[13] Id. at 136.
[14] Constance Kritzberg and Larry Hancock, November Patriots, at 423.
[16] 11 HSCA 526; 4H 328; Warren Report at 449.
[17] 5H 453.
[18] 7H 338 HSCA Report at 233.
[19] Warren Commission Testimony of Forrest Sorrels, 7H 342.
[20] Ralph Martin, A Hero for Our Time, at 503.
[22] Palamara at 291.
[23] Report of Gerald Behn to James Rowley, 4/16/64.
[24] Memorandum from C. Douglas Dillon to Chief Justice Earl Warren, dated 12/18/63.
[25] HSCA Final Report, at 35-36.
[26] Palamara at 4.
[27] Id. at 5.
[28] Warren Commission Testimony of Clint Hill, 2H 136-137.
[29] See Palamara at 24-41.
[30] https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/lbjlib/phone_calls/Nov_1963/html/LBJ-Nov-1963_0242a.htm; https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/lbjlib/phone_calls/Nov_1963/audio/LBJ-Hoover_11-29-63.mp3 at 15:00
[31] Email from Vince Palamara to Matt Crumpton, 2/20/2025.
[34] 3 HSCA 358.
[35] HSCA Interview with Winston Lawson, 1/31/78.
[36] Id.
[37] Id.
[38] Palamara at 318.
[39] Warren Report at 440-442. (In addition to Bouck at the Protective Research Section of Secret Service botching the Milteer threat (from an office building with a high powered rifle), the local Dallas FBI agent assigned to Oswald, James Hosty, was also put under the microscope by the Warren Commission for his failure to report Oswald as a threat to the Dallas Secret Service. Hosty was aware of the President’s trip to Dallas. But, he didn’t know that there would be a motorcade passing by the Texas Schoolbook Depository building. Hosty told the Warren Commission that he would not have passed on Oswald as a threat, even if he did know about the motorcade route, because he did not perceive Oswald as a specific threat to President Kennedy.)
[40] Clint Hill, Mrs. Kennedy and Me, at 297.
[41] Palamara at 125.
[42] Id. at 109; Letter from Haapanen to Palamara, 3/9/94.
[43] HSCA Interview with Winston Lawson, 1/31/78.
[44] Palamara at 313. Lawson also served with Richard Case Nagell at Fort Holabird, Maryland in the 1950s.
[45] 21 H 580; 24 H 324; RIF # 180-10093-10320; 5/31/77 Memorandum from HSCA’s Belford Lawson to fellow HSCA members’ Gary Cornwell and Ken Klein.
[46] 9H 106.
[47] 4H 461; Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, at 274.