JFK’s bodyguard Clint Hill “couldn’t break down” as he escorted the president’s body back to Washington while sitting next to a heartbroken Jackie Kennedy. This was revealed in a documentary marking the 60th anniversary of the shocking murder.
Mr. Hill, now 91, had been riding in the Secret Service car directly behind the presidential limousine, which also contained John Connally and his wife, Nellie.
After the motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository, Lee Oswald, hiding in a sixth-floor window, shot the president. One shot hit him in the neck, another – which was fatal – hit him in the head.
Now, decades after Kennedy’s death, Mr. Hill, who famously jumped into a moving car to protect the first lady as the shots rang out, remembers how he remained stoic in the days after the assassination despite the shock he felt continued working as usual.
In “One Day in America,” a National Geographic documentary airing tonight, he said: “On that flight between Dallas and D.C., there was time for grief — for everything — except to keep doing the best job you can, and that I tried.” Do.
JFK’s bodyguard Clint Hill “couldn’t break down” as he escorted the president’s body back to Washington, he revealed in the new National Geographic documentary “One Day in America.”
This colorized archival image shows Secret Service Agent Paul Landis (far left) standing next to President John F. Kennedy as he arrives at Love Field in Dallas on November 22, 1963
This colorized archival image shows Dallas PD officers and detectives observing a moment of silence for their murdered colleague JD Tippit, killed by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963 in Dallas
“Mrs Kennedy was in shock. She cried terribly, of course she was a recent widow with two children. This is all that’s left of this family.
“Bobby Kennedy ran up the front steps of the plane and through the plane to Mrs. Kennedy and the casket in the back, and he was on the verge of tears. “It was shocking, it was emotional, but I couldn’t break down.”
Meanwhile, former Secret Service agent Paul Landis, 88, also spoke about the profound impact that attending the presidential nomination had on him.
Mr. Landis, then a young agent assigned to protect First Lady Jaqueline Kennedy, said, “I think I just cried the whole way home.” I helped unload the coffin.
“We were tired, we’d had a long day with a lot going on, and I hadn’t handled a lot of it very well.” “Now I know I was in shock.”
The new documentary features colorized footage showing Lee Harvey Oswald in police custody and being shot during his transfer to the county prison.
The three-part series interviews local reporter Bill Mercer – who was assigned to report that Oswald was indicted for the president’s murder – and Peggy Simpson, the only Associated Press employee in Texas in 1963.
They both recall their shock when they learned that Oswold had been shot while in custody by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, with Mr. Mercer claiming that Jack had wanted to become a hero.
The murderer Lee Harvey Oswald pictured after his arrest
Mr. Hill (seen standing, wearing sunglasses) sat on one of the running boards of the Secret Service car directly behind the presidential limousine, which also contained Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie
Mr. Hill was known for how he struggled to protect the president after the first shot but failed to reach him in time
He said: “When I saw that Jack had shot Ruby Oswell I was shocked. “I was sorry that he had messed up so badly, he had made a grave mistake that cannot be erased. It will go down in history.
“Jack did what he did. He wanted to be someone, everyone loved the president, so everyone hated the man who killed the president, and that would now make Jack a hero.’
Ms Simpson added: “I was on the phone with the office managers and I heard the police saying it was Jack Ruby and they said the police knew this guy, they said it was Jack Ruby.”
“And he said, ‘What? I drink in his bar, how can that be?” “He was a well-known person, he wasn’t someone they expected to cause harm.”
The series was created in official collaboration with the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas
The first episode airs tonight at 9 p.m. on National Geographic.