Agent Speaks About JFK Assassination
A former Secret Service agent, who helped investigate the death of President John F. Kennedy, tells what he knows about that day.
Longmont, Colorado - No grassy knolls. No mob conspiracies. Just one man, one rifle and three shots. That was and is the conclusion of Dale Wunderlich, a retired Secret Service agent who helped investigate the death of President John F. Kennedy as part of the Warren Commission.
“There’s a lot of theories about what happened,” said Wunderlich, who lives in Parker. “At some point, you have to wonder - if it had been a conspiracy, do any of you really believe that anyone in Washington can keep a secret for 46 years?”
Wunderlich helped protect five presidents, from Kennedy through Jimmy Carter. On Nov. 22, 1963, he looked after Kennedy during a rally in Fort Worth, Texas, but was off duty when the president went on to Dallas.
Image: Retired Secret Service agent Dale Wunderlich
Wunderlich was at the airport when he heard the motorcade had been shot at. An early report said a Secret Service agent had been hit, and Wunderlich hurried back.
As he arrived, he realized that all the agents were accounted for. “Who got killed?” he asked agent Roy Kellerman.
“The president,” Kellerman said.
The sight of Kennedy’s body, face down in the hospital, is still engraved on Wunderlich’s mind. So is the funeral ceremony, when even the agents themselves were in mourning.
“I had such tears in my eyes that I couldn’t see anything,” Wunderlich said. “If someone had wanted to kill President (Lyndon) Johnson, that would have been the best time to do it. Everyone had tears in their eyes. No one could see.”
Since then, he said, there have been a lot of stories and myths about the assassination. Among them:
The Secret Service was drunk. Not true, Wunderlich said. Several agents did go to a place called the Cellar Bar the night before, but despite the name, the Cellar didn’t sell liquor. “We had sandwiches and near-beer,” he said.
There was a fourth shot. Not likely, Wunderlich said. Researchers at California Polytechnic State University analyzed the Zapruder film - a home movie that captured the assassination - a few years back, he said, and concluded the sound of the “fourth shot” was actually a police Harley-Davidson backfiring.
Oswald couldn’t have shot so fast, so accurately.
The range wasn’t very far, especially for the rifle used, Wunderlich said - 192 feet for the closest shot and 292 feet for the longest one. Moreover, he said, Lee Harvey Oswald had spent hours practicing rapid-fire shots.
Fast enough to fire three shots in 8.5 seconds? As a test, Wunderlich said, investigators sent a truck filled with hay bales down the street at the same speed while the FBI armorer and the Secret Service armorer took shots at it. In 8.5 seconds, each put five shots in the kill zone.
Oswald was trying to kill Texas Gov. John Connally. That may never be known, Wunderlich said.
He said Oswald is believed to have had a grudge against Connally, who as secretary of the Navy wouldn’t change his “hardship” discharge to an “honorable” one.
Image: Oswald’s rifle
The field of fire would have allowed a good shot at Connally, who was wounded by a bullet that clipped Kennedy’s shoulder first. And Kennedy may not have even been in the sights when the second shot was fired - his head was in his wife’s lap after the first shot hit; the second hit his head as she pulled him up.
“Sam Donaldson is the biggest supporter of this theory,” Wunderlich said. “I love to watch people’s eyes when I describe it. It’s another thing that could be logical.”
Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald, was on the mob payroll. Actually, Wunderlich said, Ruby was a big admirer of Jacqueline Kennedy and closed himself in his club after the Kennedy assassination, drinking heavily. He knew several police officers and had a permit to carry a gun because he frequently carried bank deposits with him.
He was on his way with a deposit and had made up a slip to put $20 in an employee’s account when he saw the crowd of media around the police station. After finding out it was Oswald on his way to be arraigned, Wunderlich said, Ruby worked his way close and shot Oswald - a gun in one hand and a bank bag in the other.
“If you plan to kill someone, are you going to be prepared to also make a deposit?” Wunderlich asked. “I think it was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
To this day, he said, America remains fascinated with the case, conspiracy or no.
“Hardly a day goes by when I don’t see something related to Kennedy,” Wunderlich said. “It’s a topic I don’t think will ever go away.”
Author: Scott Rochat
Source - http://www.timescall.com/
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