Kennedy’s assassination revisited

By Mark Pearson

Awhile back I wrote an article pertaining to this event.   Years after the fact, a prominent medical examiner came to SC4 and put on a presentation after he and two other medical examiners were allowed under the freedom of information act to see the evidence that the Warren Commission used to publish its findings to the American people.  At that time this medical examiner pointed out that the commission got several things wrong.  Without going into a lot of the details that were previously written in my first article, I would like to point out statements made by the person closest to the actual event.  The reason I’m going over this event again is that several people disagreed with his statements (not mine) that I included in my first article especially the account of Mrs. Kennedy’s reason for climbing out on to the rear deck of the limousine that they were in after the president was shot.  

A neighbor of mine loaned me a book written by none other than the secret service agent who is seen in the movies filmed at that time showing him jumping onto the back of the limousine as Mrs. Kennedy was climbing out.  The name of the book is FIVE PRESIDENTS, written by Secret Service Agent Clint Hill who was assigned to Mrs. Kennedy’s protection detail. (copyright 2016 by Hill McCubbin LLC).

Because of copyright restrictions, I will not quote anything from this book verbatim but I will state some comments pertaining to his recollections of that horrendous event.  Remember that if you are looking down at the car, the president was sitting on the right, passenger rear seat and Mrs. Kennedy was sitting to his left. In front of her was Mrs. Connally sitting on a jump seat and Governor Connally was sitting in front of the president also on a jump seat. Remember also that the president had a back brace on because of a back ailment that caused him discomfort if he had to ride sitting up for long periods of time.

Mr. Hill states that at that moment he was looking left when he heard what he thought sounded like a firecracker coming from behind and to his right. He says that as his head swiveled back to the right to look for the source of the sound, he caught sight of the president clutching his throat and moving left toward Mrs. Kennedy.  Unfortunately, the back brace hindered him from getting down out of the line of fire.

Mr. Hill says that he ran from the follow-up car and jumped onto the back bumper that was specially designed to stand on and handholds positioned so protection detail members could stand at the back of the limousine while it is moving.  Let me add something at this point that unknown to me.  Earlier, the president requested that the Secret Service agents Not stand on that rear bumper during the drive from the airport as they rode through Dallas.  According to him, not me, though not specifically stated but implied, the president unbeknownst to him at that time, signed his own death warrant.   

The next thing that he says is that he observed the results of a second shot.  He says because of all of the other ambient noise emanating from people and other things producing sound all around him that he didn’t hear that shot being fired.  As of the writing of this book, he maintains that in spite of all that has been said or written, he along with the governor and Mrs. Connally says that the round that hit the governor was not the same round that first hit the president. (The Warren Commission’s “Magic Bullet”)

This bullet came in from a different angle and entered the governor’s back and broke a rib as it went in.  Fortunately for him, this bullet missed all of his major internal organs as it was passing through but did break another rib as it exited. But that’s not all, it also smashed his wrist. According to the report, no part of this bullet was ever found so it has been assumed that the “Magic Bullet” went through the president and changed directions twice. After changing directions, it hit the governor and created all that traumatic damage but did not show any ballistic distortions that normally takes place when something like this happens. The only thing that was found on that bullet was the rifling marks that were made as the bullet was traveling down the barrel of Oswald’s rifle.

The next, or third, shot that hit the president was the one that was the fatal shot.  Without going through and repeating all the gory details let me suffice it to say that Mr. Hill confirms that what I described in my first article actually happened.  It is noted that Mrs. Kennedy doesn’t remember climbing out of the limousine at all but when it is considered what she went through in the last several seconds, it is no wonder that there are things that would be deliberately suppressed in one’s memory.

He still maintains and so do I that Lee Harvey Oswald was the one that shot President Kennedy.

What He and I both maintain is that there had to be another shooter who could have shot and indeed did shoot the governor. That person could have had no knowledge of another assassin in the same vicinity and acted alone.  The only thing that makes sense to me is that if someone shoots somebody who is next to the president or a person who is more important such as a foreign head of state, that person has a better chance to go unnoticed as all investigations would be aimed at finding any person or persons who had it in for the president or others.

After reading what Agent Hill says, I still claim that my theory of another person who had it in for the governor and actually shot him still holds water.  The only thing that leads to there being a conspiracy is all of the coincidences that happened after the president and governor were shot.  My long-held belief is if there are too many coincidences then it may not be a coincidence after all.

Mark E Pearson