'What have they done?': Jackie's words as JFK was shot are revealed by secret service agent who breaks silence after almost 50 yearsBy Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:18 AM on 14th November 2010
The secret service agent who was at John F Kennedy’s side on the day he was assassinated has spoken for the first time of the moment he was killed.
Clint Hill told how he saw the former U.S. President collapse into the back of his car and into his wife’s blood-splattered arms after being shot while driving through Dallas in November 1963.
The couple were rushed to hospital and on the way Jacqui Kennedy looked at her dying husband and said: ‘What have they done? What have they done?'
Tragic image: Secret Service agent Clint Hill climbs onto the presidential limousine in a bid to protect Jackie after John Kennedy has been shot in the head
The compelling account is the first time Mr Hill, now in his late seventies, has spoken about the incident.
He and four other former secret service agents have broken their vow of silence to write about their time in the White House in a new book, The Kennedy Detail.
The most arresting part by far is that of Mr Hill, whose specific duty on the fateful day was to protect the First Lady.
He was running alongside the presidential vehicle when the assassination took place.
Guard duty: Earlier in the motorcade, Hill can be seen alongside the president's back-up car. He and three other agents have broken their silence in a new book
Dangerous job: Hill said he rode with Jackie and the dying president on the way to the hospital. He says Jackie said: 'Oh Jack. What have they done?'
Mr Hill is the figure in the famous Zapruder film of the killing which shows him climbing onto the back of the president's limousine.
‘I heard the first shot, saw the president grab his throat, lurch left and I knew something was wrong,’ he recalled, his voice halting.
‘When I got to the presidential vehicle, just as I approached it, a third shot rang out, hitting the president in the head, just above the right ear and left a hole about the size of my palm.
Clint Hill
Vivid memory: Now in his seventies, Hill still remembers the tragic day clearly
‘There were blood and brains spewed about over myself and the car.
‘I helped Mrs Kennedy get in the back seat and the President fell into her lap.
‘I was quite sure it was a fatal wound. The First Lady was in shock. She was doing the best she could, she was covered in blood.’
On the way to Parkland Hospital, where the president would be certified, dead there was little conversation. But, according to Mrs Hill, Mrs Kennedy ‘said something about, "Oh, Jack, what have they done? What have they done?".‘
In the book the agents also discussed what it was like to work in the White House and addressed a number of rumours, such as the affair between Mr Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe which they say never happened.
Their anecdotes also include light-hearted moments such as the times Mrs Kennedy used to ask permission to smoke a cigarette.
Nobody at the time knew she was a smoker and she wanted to make sure the secret service had checked the area so it was ‘safe’ for a quick puff away from prying eyes.
The agents hope their book will put an end to the ‘conspiracy theory industry’ which has grown up around Mr Kennedy’s assassination.
Ex-agent Gerald Blaine said: ‘Most of history today has been written by what I call a cottage industry called 'conspiracy’. ‘If we didn't speak up and give a balance to this, history would never know exactly what happened.’
No funny business: Despite widespread belief to the contrary, Hill and his colleagues claim there was no affair between JFK and Marilyn Monroe
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329301/Secret-service-agent-Clint-Hill-breaks-silence-John-F-Kennedy-assassination.html#ixzz15EEzTATQ
