That Deadly Day in Dallas

Hill scrambles onto Kennedy car

Even now, almost 50 years later, you hear the emotion creep into his voice when Clint Hill talks about that deadly November, 1963 day in Dallas. Then, a 31-year-old Secret Service Agent, Hill was the agent who threw himself on top of Jackie Kennedy to protect her as she tried to comfort her blood-stained, dying husband as their open-topped car sped from Dealey Plaza to Parkland Hospital, where doctors tried frantically, and ultimately unsuccessfully, to save the life of the 35th President of the United States of America.

Hill, who until this year has remained relatively quiet about the assassination and his years serving as special agent for Mrs. Kennedy, appeared at the Newseum to discuss his new book, Mrs. Kennedy and Me: An Intimate Memoir with co-author Lisa McCubbin.

Obviously, a large portion of that talk focused on the assassination and the events immediately preceding and following President John Kennedy's death.

Kennedy had won the presidency over Richard Nixon in 1960 by the slimmest of margins and he knew that he would have to carry the important southern states of Florida and Texas to be re-elected.

During his visit to Florida just before his Texas trip, Kennedy again expressed his orders that Secret Service agents should not surround his car and impede the large crowds from seeing him.

"Get these Ivy League charlatans off the back of the car. I do not want it to appear that there is anything between me and the people," Hill said Kennedy mandated.

Ironically, the 2-day Texas trip was to be the first time Mrs. Kennedy, who had just finished recovering from the death of the couple's infant child, Patrick, would campaign with her husband. On the morning of the assassination, Hill said Kennedy seemed in a jovial mood, especially when he quipped at a supporters breakfast that he was "the man accompanying Mrs. Kennedy around Texas."

When the first couple began their motorcade, crowds were everywhere, Hill said. He was riding in the car directly behind the presidential car, which also contained then Texas Governor John Connally and his wife.

As the presidential car made a sharp turn, Hill heard a popping sound. He turned briefly in the direction of the noise, then jumped out and began running to overtake the moving car in front of him with the plan to climb on from the rear bumper and crawl over the trunk to the back seat where the President and First Lady were located. During that time, 2 more shots were fired.
 
Hill grabbed the handrail less than two seconds after the fatal shot to the President. The driver then accelerated, causing the car to slip away from Hill, who was in the midst of trying to leap on to it. His sunglasses flew off. He succeeded in regaining his footing and jumped on to the back of the quickly accelerating vehicle. As he got on, he saw Mrs. Kennedy, apparently in shock, crawling onto the flat rear trunk of the moving limousine."There was blood, brain material, bone fragments," Hill said. He struggled to her and guided the First Lady back into her seat. Once back in the car, Hill placed his body above the President and Mrs. Kennedy. "My objective was to form a shield," Hill said. "She wouldn't let go of the body. I think she didn't want anybody to see how bad the situation was."

Arriving at the hospital, Hill paced until he was notified he had a call from the attorney general, Kennedy's brother Robert. "He asked how bad is it and I told him it's as bad as it can be," Hill said, who was certain from seeing the president up close that his injuries were fatal.. The president died at 1 p.m., approximately 30 minutes after the 1st of the 3 shots were fired.

Hill said that Texas officials were contending that under Texas law an autopsy would have to be performed. Federal officials, not knowing how widespread the danger was, wanted to get Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife back to Washington as quickly as possible. The Johnsons said they would not return to Washington without Mrs. Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy refused to leave Dallas without her husband's body. Finally a compromise was reached. Hill and others loaded President Kennedy's coffin onto Air Force One and Mrs. Kennedy, still wearing her blood-stained pink suit, stood bravely at Johnson's side as he was sworn in as the 36th President.

Clint Hill today

Hill continued to guard Mrs. Kennedy until 1964, when he was switched to President Johnson's detail. He rose through the Secret Service ranks until he retired in 1975 as assistant director. But, of course, even as he got on with his life and career, thoughts of that tragic day never completely left. "I kept it inward. I should have sought counseling, but I just had to keep going," Hill said.

But today Hill believes, as do so many others, that Kennedy's death, was much more than the death of a powerful and often wildly popular president. "It was the end of the age of innocence," Hill said with a sense of finality.

Tales, Tip, and Tidbits
Perhaps more than any other American event, the death of President Kennedy has prompted a long-standing, still ongoing controversy. Was there a conspiracy? Or was it the case of one man, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone? Dozens of theories have been brought forward. However, the official word, as established by the Warren Commission, is that Oswald was the sole killer. But many still have questions. Hill was there. What does he think?  "There were 3 shots, 1 gun, and 1 assassin," Hill says. "A conspiracy coverup doesn't last for 50 days, let alone 50 years in Washington. But what about the doubts that one man could pull off such deed? "He (Oswald) had all the advantages that day and we didn't have any," Hill said.