History in Five: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

[Music] my name is Clint Hill I was presid in Dallas Texas on November 22nd 1963 at the time of the assassination this is my personal account of 5 days in [Music] November the trip to Texas was conceived in the spring of 1963 when President Kennedy met with Vice President Johnson and Governor Connelly in El Paso in 1960 they won the election by a very slim margin and they knew they had to carry some states in the south in order to win in 1964 they needed two states with a large number of electoral votes and they selected Florida and Texas I was the agent assigned to Mrs Kennedy and that is the reason I was on this trip to Texas the president came to the senior agent and the advanced agent and said look I can't afford it to appear that there's anything between the people and myself and when the agents are on the back of the car hovering over me as he said it appears that there is something between us and I can't afford that to be the case there was nothing written no documentation but the word was passed all throughout the Secret Service that from this point on you would not be on the back of the car unless there was an emergency as we drove into daily Plaza we turned from Houston Street onto Elm Street we made a leftand turn at that point we were traveling down Elm Street about 120 ft I heard an explosive noise over my right shoulder the president grabbed did his throat he moved to his left I knew something was wrong I jumped from my position on the follow-up car and ran toward the presidential vehicle a second shot rang out but when I approached the presidential vehicle the third shot was fired that shot hit the president in the rear of the head when that happened Mrs Kennedy came up in the rear of the car she was trying to retrieve some of that material trying to gather it in her hands I grabbed her and I put her in the back seat and when I did this the president's body fell to its left with his head in her lap I assumed it was a fatal wound I turned and gave a thumbs down motion to the agents in the follow-up car to make sure they were aware of the situation the authorities in Texas said that the state law in Texas required an autops be performed at the hospital in the jurisdiction in which uh this situation occurred before we could remove the body we finally said we're leaving anyway and so they said in that event please have a medical professional remain with the body at all times we then brought the body of the president of the United States in the casket out to the hearse we traveled to Lovefield from Parkland Hospital Admiral Berkeley Mrs Kennedy and me in the back of the hearse with the president's body in the casket at one point after the funeral services at St Matthew's Cathedral in Washington DC the body was taken out of the church and placed on a queson Mrs Kennedy and the family members came out the military Presence at that time rendered a salute to the president Mrs Kennedy noticed that she leaned over whispered into John's ear and John turned threw his shoulders back and Sal uded his father in the gas everybody had a tear in their eye myself included I was standing very near his mother and it was I was a witness to exactly what [Music] happened

Channel: Simon & Schuster Books

Views: 1,773,083

Keywords: clint hill, conspiracy theories, five days in november, history in five, jackie kennedy, president john f. kennedy, assassination, podcast-history-in-five

Id: c-jOVaAssmE

Length: 4min 35sec (275 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 04 2015