The Secret Service was established on July 5, 1865 under the Treasury Department to fight the growing problem of counterfeit currency in the United States.[1] In a weird historical twist, the law creating the Secret Service was signed by President Lincoln just hours before he was assassinated. At first, the Secret Service was focused strictly on stopping counterfeiters. But, after President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, the organization expanded its duties to include full-time protection of the president. By 1963, the Secret Service was a respected institution with a waiting list of applicants to serve.
The Secret Service failed to do its job on November 22nd, 1963 in Dallas. After all, a president was murdered. And the Secret Service’s primary objective was to make sure that didn’t happen.
Over the next few episodes, we’ll analyze the granular details of the Secret Service’s actions on the day of the assassination and the lead up to it. The big overarching question is whether there was something more than mere negligence. Were the security failures a series of unfortunate coincidences, or was there someone intentionally making the motorcade less secure?
In this episode, we analyze whether the Secret Service agents drank excessive alcohol the night before. We also look at what led to the removal of the bubble top from the presidential limo. Why was local law enforcement not more involved? And why was the police motorcycle presence decreased in Dallas?
Excessive Drinking
First, we turn our attention to the infamous story of binge drinking by Secret Service agents on the night before the assassination, as President Kennedy was sleeping in his suite at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth. The Warren Report says QUOTE:
After the President had retired at his hotel, nine agents who were off duty went to the nearby Fort Worth Press Club at midnight or slightly thereafter, expecting to obtain food; they had little opportunity to eat during the day. No food was available at the Press Club. All of the agents stayed for a drink of beer, or in several cases, a mixed drink. According to their affidavits, the drinking in no case amounted to more than three glasses of beer or 1 1/2 mixed drinks, and others who were present say that no agent was inebriated or acted improperly.[1]
Around 2am, two of the nine agents who went to the Press Club went back to the hotel. The other seven agents then went to another establishment called The Cellar coffee house. The Cellar did not sell alcohol, but they sold mixers for people who brought their own booze. The Warren Report says that the agents who went to the Cellar at 2am only stayed until about 3am, except for one agent, Paul Landis, who stayed out until 5am.[2]
Even though drinking while on assignment with the president was grounds for being fired from the Secret Service,[3] none of the agents who drank alcohol the night before the assassination were disciplined in any way. This was because, as the Warren Report put it, holding the agents accountable and following the existing Secret Service rules QUOTE “might have given rise to an inference that the violation of the regulation had contributed to the tragic events.”[4] In other words, the agents did not get in trouble because that would have made the Secret Service look bad.
So, according to the official story, Secret Service agents broke the rules by drinking alcohol while on traveling assignment with the president. But, it wasn’t that big of a deal because they didn’t drink enough to be drunk – or to be so hungover the next morning that it would affect their ability to protect the president.
On the other hand, there are witnesses who say that the amount of alcohol consumed by the agents was much more than the Warren Report claimed. Two local reporters, Jack Moseley and Bob Ray Sanders confirmed that the Fort Worth Press Club stayed open past legal hours to accommodate the partying Secret Service agents who were drinking QUOTE “a large amount of alcohol.”[5] According to Pat Kirkwood, who owned the Cellar coffee house, where 7 of the agents went after the Press Club, QUOTE “About 3:30 in the morning, these Secret Service men were sitting around giggling about how the firemen were guarding the president over at the Hotel Texas…We didn’t say anything, but those guys were bombed. They were drinking pure Everclear.”[6]
It sounds like this incident involved more than just a couple of drinks. After all, why would 7 agents, who had already had a few drinks at the Press Club go to a beatnik coffee house for a few hours? It wasn’t for the coffee or the poetry readings. My educated guess is that The Cellar was the only place open nearby where the agents could get their hands on hard liquor that late. What makes this late night drinking excursion all the more reckless is that all of the agents who participated had to report for duty to protect the president at 8am – just hours after they went to sleep (almost certainly) drunk.[7]
Four of these nine partying Secret Service Agents had the critical duty of riding in the motorcade follow-up car immediately behind the presidential limousine. Incidentally, none of Vice President Johnson’s secret service agents participated in the assassination eve drinking incident.[8]
There are two reasons to bring this up. First, the fact that none of the men were punished shows that the Secret Service valued protecting its reputation above holding its people accountable. Second, and more importantly, the fact that 4 agents who were tasked with protecting the president in the follow up car were hungover may have had an actual impact on their ability to save the president’s life.
Senator Ralph Yarborough, w ho was riding next to Vice President Johnson in the car behind the Secret Service follow up car told the Warren Commission that he was shocked at the poor performance of the Secret Service. He said QUOTE “All of the Secret Service men seemed to me to respond very slowly, with no more than a puzzled look…I had been lulled into a sense of false hope for the president’s safety by the lack of motion, excitement, or apparent visible knowledge by the Secret Service men that anything so dreadful was happening… I am amazed at the lack of instantaneous response by the Secret Service when the rifle fire began.”[9]
Dallas Morning News reporter, Mary Woodward, who was a close eyewitness to the assassination told CSPAN QUOTE “I could not believe how well-trained Secret Service people could have reacted so slowly…had there been proper reaction time the man might still be alive today.”[10]
Clint Hill, who was one of the four follow up car agents who had been boozing hours earlier, sprinted to get on the back of the presidential limo to help Mrs. Kennedy after all of the shots had already been fired. Aside from Hill, the other three agents at the Cellar were Glen Bennett, Paul Landis, and John Ready.[11] None of those agents took action after the shots were fired.
Agent John Ready, who was on the running board on President Kennedy’s side of the follow up car, opposite Clint Hill, should have sprinted to the presidential limo to protect President Kennedy, just like Hill did to protect the First Lady. Ready was the agent who was principally responsible for protecting Kennedy in the event of gunfire. He completely failed to react in the moment.
In conclusion, we cannot say that the drinking incident was the sole cause of Ready’s failure to react. But, certainly, his failure to act was at least partially caused by late night drinking just hours earlier.
Bubble Top Removal
Another perplexing issue related to the protection of President Kennedy is the removal of the quarter inch thick plexi glass bubble top over the limousine.[12] On this topic, the Warren Report says QUOTE
The limousine used by President Kennedy in Dallas was a convertible with a detachable, rigid plastic "bubble" top which was neither bulletproof nor bullet resistant. The last Presidential vehicle with any protection against small-arms fire left the White House in 1953. It was not then replaced because the state of the art did not permit the development of a bulletproof top of sufficiently light weight to permit its removal on those occasions when the President wished to ride in an open car. The Secret Service believed that it was very doubtful that any President would ride regularly in a vehicle with a fixed top, even though transparent.[13]
We have two questions here: Would the bubble top have saved President Kennedy’s life? And who made the decision to remove the bubble top in Dallas?
As the Warren Report noted, the bubble top was neither bullet proof nor bullet resistant. So, would it have even made a difference? While the bubble top would not have stopped a bullet, the opinion of 11 of the secret service agents in Dallas was that it would have deflected a bullet and made it more difficult for a potential assassin to target the president because of the sun’s glare off of the bubble top.[14] We cannot say that the bubble top would have definitively saved the president’s life. However, the bubble top probably would have changed the nature and location of the wounds, which might have saved the president’s life.
The day before the assassination, there was an airtel communication from the Dallas FBI office to J. Edgar Hoover at FBI HQ regarding President Kennedy’s imminent visit to Dallas. That airtel said QUOTE “Forrest Sorrels (Special Agent In Charge of the Dallas Secret Service office) advised on 11/20/63 that due to previous experiences with Ambassador Adlai Stevenson and others with some dissentient groups in the city of Dallas, the bullet-proof bubble type Lincoln automobile was being flown to Dallas in an Air Force Transport plane and that the president would use the same. He stated that he did not anticipate using this automobile in Fort Worth or Houston during the President’s visits this week in those Texas Cities.”[15]
From this airtel, it is clear that the Secret Service was aware of unique threats to President Kennedy in Dallas. After all, they were going to use the bubble top in Dallas only – not the other cities on the trip. We have the head of the local Secret Service telling the head of the local FBI that they were flying in the bubble top (which was incorrectly described as bullet proof) because of the Adlai Stevenson incident.
Stevenson, who had been the Ambassador to the United Nations was in Dallas on a speaking tour promoting the UN. At the end of his speech, Stevenson was hit by signs held by the crowd and was spat on by protestors.[16] That incident happened in Dallas on October 25th, 1963 – about one month before the assassination.
The airtel about the bubble top being flown in just for Dallas makes the decision to remove it when the president arrived at Love Field all the more mysterious. The bubble top was initially on the presidential limo at Love Field. Dallas police officers Stavis Elllis and Sam Bellah saw Secret Service agents remove it from the limo.[17] So, what was the rationale for getting rid of the bubble top?
Betty Harris was an aide to Bill Moyers who was a special assistant to Vice President Johnson. She told the HSCA that she is the one who told Agent Sorrels to remove the bubble top.[18] However, agent Sam Kinney says in his written report to the Warren Commission and in his HSCA interview that he had the sole responsibility for the decision to remove the bubble top.[19]
Secret Service agent Floyd Boring was the number two man overseeing the entire White House Detail under Gerald Behn. Boring told author William Manchester QUOTE “JFK was responsible for his own death” because he would not let the Secret Service put the bubble top on the limo.[20] It is not disputed that the First Lady did want the bubbletop to be on. She told William Manchester this when she was interviewed by him in 1964.[21]
It’s possible that the weather played a role in the bubble top removal. It had been raining in Dallas on the morning of the assassination. Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Roy Kellerman, claims that he was told by JFK aide, Kenny O’Donnell that QUOTE “If it’s not raining, have the bubbletop off.” Agent Winston Lawson also said that he was told to remove the bubble top if the rain stopped.[22]
Agent Kinney, who claims responsibility for removing the bubble top, said that he did it because the president was on a political trip. Kinney told author Vince Palamara QUOTE “I walked out the door and said, ‘The sun is shining, that’s it. The top stays off because we were down there on a political move.”[23]
Agent Kinney’s explanation that the bubble top always came off if the purpose of the trip was political has some problems. First, JFK’s aide, Larry O’Brien, told the Warren Commission that the purpose of the trip was not political and that the decision to remove the bubble top was made solely by the Secret Service.[24]Second, there are at least 22 documented instances of trips where the bubbletop was used on the limo even though there was no rain in the forecast.[25] Thus, it was not the policy of the Secret Service to only use the bubble top if there was rain in the forecast.[26]
Local Law Enforcement Stand Down From Motorcade
Normally, the local law enforcement would help the Secret Service when it came to motorcade security.[27] But the assistance of the Dallas County Sheriff and the Dallas police officers was materially cut back for the November 22nd motorcade. There was no support whatsoever from the Sheriff’s office. The police department did provide assistance, but it was limited as compared to the initial plan.
Sheriff Bill Decker told all deputies that they were not to participate in security for the motorcade and instead would “stand out in front of the building and represent the Sheriff’s Office.”[28] According to Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney, QUOTE “I was merely a spectator…We in the sheriff’s department had nothing to do with security.”[29] What is strange about this lack of action by the Sheriff’s department is that Sheriff Decker told the local agent in charge of the Dallas Secret Service, Forrest Sorrels, that he would provide 15 men for duty.[30]According to Sheriff Roger Craig and Allan Sweatt, the orders for the Sheriff’s deputies to stand down came from a phone call from Washington, D.C.[31]
The Dallas police had several meetings with Secret Service in preparation for motorcade security. Captain Will Fritz had planned to ride in a closed car with machine guns in the car behind the president, but that plan was changed.[32] Fritz told the Warren Commission QUOTE “We had taken some precautions but those were changed. We were told in the beginning that we would be in the parade directly behind it, I don’t know whether it was the second or third car, but the Vice President’s car, that we would be directly behind that, and we did make preparation for that. But at 10 o’clock the night before the parade, Chief Stevenson called me at home and told me that had been changed…”[33] Agent Lawson, told HSCA he didn’t know who removed the police cars from the motorcade.[34]
The Dallas police did provide security along parts of the motorcade route. But, significantly, Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry told officers to end supervision of Friday’s crowd at Houston and Main.[35] Unfortunately, the police security ended there at the entrance to Dealey Plaza. Chief Curry clarified in his book that he was QUOTE “simply following the orders of Mr. Lawson, the Secret Service representative from Washington.”[36]
Notably, HSCA attorney Belford Lawson (no relation to Secret Service Agent Winston Lawson) did not take Agent Lawson at his word. Belford Lawson wrote in an internal HSCA memo, QUOTE “Did Lawson knowingly approve Curry’s plan (to have a police vehicle with machine guns) … and then suddenly retract the plan at the last minute?”[37]
Reduction of Police Motorcycles
Initially, the Dallas Police planned to assign motorcycle escorts alongside the president’s limo, which would partially have screened the president from gunfire. These plans were changed on the day before the assassination. The result was that the motorcycle escort of 4 police officers were riding behind the presidential limo instead of alongside it.[38]
The driver of the presidential limo that day, Bill Greer, told the Warren Commission that the limo was normally escorted by 4 motorcycle agents, one on each corner of the vehicle, as well as some motorcycle officers in front of and behind the vehicle.[39] There are numerous instances of photographs taken of motorcades that show at least six motorcycles surrounding the limo.[40] For example, in Tampa on November 18th, immediately before the Texas trip, there were a total of 34 motorcycle cops, including at the front, back and sides of the presidential limo.[41]
But what really sheds light on the question of ‘what was the standard practice for motorcycle escorts?’ is that President Kennedy visited three other cities in Texas, immediately before the Dallas motorcade: San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth. In each of those three Texas cities, local motorcycle police were positioned alongside the limo, unlike in Dallas.[42] And keep in mind, Dallas had a security concern that was serious enough for Agent Sorrels to request the bubble top specifically for Dallas (even though it wasn’t used). The fact that the motorcycle protection was lacking only in Dallas on the Texas Trip is an anomaly that needs to be explained.
On the other hand, Agent Floyd Boring (the number two man in the entire Secret Service White House Detail) told ARRB investigators that there was no standard for motorcycle cops in motorcades. He suggested that it was a bad idea to place motorcycles alongside the presidential limo, as was the case in the other three cities immediately preceding Dallas. Boring said motorcycles that close would be too noisy to allow the president to have a conversation with anyone in the limo.[43] (Though, that didn’t seem to be a concern in the other Texas cities).
So, what’s the backstory behind the plan for motorcycle cops? On November 19th, there was a security meeting in Dallas that was not attended by any Secret Service agents. At that meeting, it was determined that there would be 18 motorcycle officers.[44]
The next day, November 20th, Dallas police Captain Perdue Lawrence met with Chief Ray Lunday and Chief Charles Batchelor to discuss plans for the motorcade. This is what Captain Lawrence told the Warren Commission about the plan for motorcycle cops as of the Wednesday before the assassination QUOTE:
I was told that there would be these lead motorcycle officers and that we would have these other officers alongside the President’s car and the Vice President’s car, and some of the others that would be in the motorcade. And approximately how many officers would be needed for the escort. And at that time I had prepared a list of 18 solo motorcycle officers…[45]
So, the plan was to have motorcycles alongside the president and the vice president as of Wednesday, November 20th. What happened to change that?
At 5pm on November 21st – only nineteen and a half hours before the president would be shot in Dealey Plaza – Captain Lawrence met with senior members of the Dallas police department, along with Secret Service agents. Lawrence told the Warren Commission that an unknown Secret Service agent told the Dallas police that President Kennedy did not want motorcycle cops between him and the crowd.[46]
We know from Chief Jesse Curry’s notes that the Secret Service agents present at the meeting were Dallas agent Forrest Sorrels, advance agent Winston Lawson, and agent David Grant.[47] While Chief Curry noted in his written report that there was a reduction in motorcycle officers, Agent Grant did not mention the reduction in motorcycle cops in his written report.[48] On the other hand, Agent Grant was very high level in his report and did not get into many details. So, it could be that he didn’t think a reduction of motorcycle cops was important enough to mention. Still, given that a bubble top had been requested due to threats unique to Dallas by Agent Sorrels, the notion that the Secret Service would reduce the motorcycle police presence in Dallas only does not make any sense.
Chief Curry said that advance agent Lawson was the Secret Service man who told the cops to keep the motorcycle officers behind the limo – instead of riding alongside it.[49] So what was Agent Lawson’s explanation for his decision to reduce the motorcycle officer security for Dallas only on the Texas trip?
Lawson told the Warren Commission QUOTE “it was my understanding that he did not like a lot of motorcycles surrounding the car. That is why we had four just back of the President’s car, so that they could come up and intercept anyone running out from the sides easily…”[50] This raises the question of why there were no similar concerns raised about the president not being able to hear because of the motorcycles in the other Texas cities. When HSCA investigators asked Agent Lawson about the change in plans for the motorcycles, Lawson said that he had QUOTE “no recall of changing plans.”[51]
What I found to be confusing is that, in one of the earliest statements Agent Lawson made about the motorcycle escort, he makes a flat out false statement. In Lawson’s November 30th, 1963 report to Secret Service Chief, James Rowley, Agent Lawson says QUOTE “Motorcycles were used ahead of the pilot car, the lead car, the right and left flanks of the President’s car and Secret Service follow up car to keep the people off the street.”[52]
Lawson said that there actually were motorcycle cops alongside the limo and in front of it. This was a lie – as there were only 4 motorcycles in the motorcade, which were behind the president’s limo – not alongside it.
Lawson says nothing about the president not wanting motorcycle cops in his November 30th report. It’s a 12 page report with 11 attachments. I would expect that to be mentioned. Was Lawson just trying to cover his mistake? Did he think no one would notice the lie? It doesn’t seem that Lawson could plausibly say that he didn’t know or couldn’t remember only 9 days later, especially when he is the one who changed the original plan!
So, (except for his November 30th report) Lawson says the same thing that Floyd Boring, his boss, said about President Kennedy not liking the motorcycles next to the vehicle. But neither Lawson nor Boring ever explained why there were so many other motorcades that had motorcycles alongside the president, including all 4 of the previous motorcades immediately preceding Dallas.[53]
NEXT TIME ON SOLVING JFK: We continue to study the Secret Service’s role in the security break down on November 22, 1963, with a focus on the planning of the motorcade. Did the Secret Service simply fail to do their jobs, or was there something more nefarious going on?
[1] Warren Report at 449.
[2] Id. at 450.
[3] Warren Commission Volumes 18H 665.
[4] Warren Report at 451.
[5] Vince Palamara, Survivor’s Guilt, at 150.
[6] Harrison Livingstone and Robert Groden, High Treason, at 129-130.
[7] Palamara at 151.
[8] Warren Commission Testimony of Glen Bennett (18H 6882); Clint Hill (18H 685); John Ready (18H 690); and Paul Landis (18H 687). The other 5 agents were Berger Grant, Johnsen, Lawton, and Olsson. See Vince Palamara, Survivor’s Guilt at 158, note 155.
[9] Affidavit of Ralph Yarborough - https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/pdf/WH7_Yarborough_aff.pdf
[11] Palamara at 150.
[12] Commission Document 3 Exhibits; Palamara at 89.
[13] Warren Report at 452.
[14] Palamara at 85.
[15] Airmail of November 21, 1963 from SAC Dallas to Director, FBI; Palamara at 86.
[17] Larry Sneed, No More Silence, at 143; Fairfield Recorder (TX), 11/17/1988.
[18] 11 HSCA 596.
[19] Palamara at 87.
[20] Dan Robertson’s 2006 interview with Floyd Boring; see Palamara at 86.
[21] William Manchester, The Death of A President, at 122, 664.
[22] Letter from Winston Lawson to Vince Palmara dated 1/12/2004.
[23] Interviews of Sam Kinney by Vincent Palamara, 1992-1994; Today Show on 11/22/93.
[24] Larry O’Brien Warren Commission Testimony, 7H 458, 459-460.
[25] See Palamara at 89 for list of specific trips.
[26] One final note on the bubble top, Dallas Times Herald reporter Jim Lehrer said that he personally saw Forrest Sorrels, the agent in charge of the Dallas office, order the bubble top to be removed.[26] If Sorrels made this order to Kinney, Kinney never mentioned it in any of his interviews on the record.
[27] See Palamara at 118.
[28] James Douglass, JFK & the Unspeakable, at 271.
[29] Sneed, at 224.
[30] Written statement of Forrest Sorrels, https://aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh21/html/WH_Vol21_0286a.htm
[31] Palamara at 117.
[32] 20 H 391
[33] Warren Commission Testimony of Will Fritz, at 4H 202-247.
[34] HSCA Interview with Winston Lawson, 1/31/1978.
[35] Douglass at 271.
[36] Id.
[37] RIF # 180-10093-10320, Memorandum from Belford Lawson to HSCA members Gary Cornwell and Ken Klein, 5/31/1977.
[38] Douglass at 272.
[39] Warren Commission Testimony of William Greer at 116, https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh2/pdf/WH2_Greer.pdf;
Agent Walt Coughlin also said it was common to have motorcycles flanking each side of the presidential limo. Palamara at 136.
[40] Id. at 138.
[41] Id. at 136.
[42] HSCA 527; 21H 567; RIF# 180-10093-10320; 5/31/77 Memorandum from Belford Lawson to HSCA members Gary Cornwell and Ken Klein.
[43] ARRB Interview Notes, Floyd Boring, 9/18/1996, https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/arrb/master_med_set/pdf/md259.pdf
[44] HSCA 527; 21H 567; RIF# 180-10093-10320; 5/31/77 Memorandum from Belford Lawson to HSCA members Gary Cornwell and Ken Klein.
[45] Warren Commission Testimony of Perdue Lawrence, https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh7/pdf/WH7_Lawrence.pdf at 580
[46] Id. at 581.
[47] Jesse Curry, The JFK Assassination File, at 15-16.
[49] Warren Commission Testimony of Jesse Curry at 171, https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh4/html/WC_Vol4_0090a.htm
[50] Warren Commission Testimony of Winston Lawson at 338, https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh4/pdf/WH4_Lawson.pdf
[51] Winston Lawson HSCA Interview, 1/31/78; Palamara at 138.
[53] Looking at other advance work done by Lawson would shed light on the differences for Dallas if any. Lawson did Billings, MT and Little Rock, AR in Fall of 1963. But the files from those trips were destroyed by Secret Service in 1995 when the ARRB was seeking them. Palamara at 136 citing ARRB Memorandum from Doug Horne.
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