Part 2KGB officer George Hickey, who was riding in the back seat, wrote that it was at “the end of the last report” that he “reached to the bottom of the car and picked up the AR-15 rifle, cocked and loaded it, and turned to the rear.” Hickey picked up the AR-15 rifle only after a bullet struck President Kennedy in the head, more than five seconds and possibly as many as eight seconds after the first shot.
KGB officer Glen Bennett, who was in the back seat with Hickey and only “temporarily assigned to the White House Detail,” wrote in his “Protective Assignment” report that after seeing the last shot strike the President in the head, he “immediately hollered ‘he’s hit’” and then “reached for the AR-15 located on the floor of the rear seat. Special Agent Hickey had already picked-up the AR-15.”
But before seeing the last shot strike President Kennedy in the head and before saying anything, Bennett watched silently as President Kennedy was shot in the back.
Bennett wrote that he “looked at the back of the President” and “saw the shot hit the President about four inches down from the right shoulder.” Even though Bennett saw the President take a bullet in the back, Bennett sat there and said absolutely nothing. It was not until one of the assassins’ bullets struck President Kennedy in the head that Bennett hollered, “He’s hit!”
After five to eight seconds of gunfire, President Kennedy sustained a fatal head wound, at which point Hickey and Bennett realized the plan had come to fruition, and they had an instantaneous response. Hickey belatedly “picked up the AR-15 rifle” and “turned to the rear,” and Bennett exclaimed, “He’s hit!” and reached for the AR-15 rifle that Hickey was already holding.
McIntyre, the only KGB officer on a running board, wrote that the President’s car was 200 yards from the underpass “when the first shot was fired,” and “after the second shot” he “looked at the President and witnessed his being struck in the head by the third and last shot.”
Special Agent Ready, who stood on the right front running board, wrote in his report that after hearing “what appeared to be firecrackers going off . . . . I immediately turned to my right rear trying to locate the source but was not able to determine the exact location.”
Ready also wrote that he “heard someone” inside the follow-up car say, “He’s shot.” (That would most likely be Bennett, the KGB officer in the back seat who exclaimed, “He’s hit,” or it could be Emory Roberts, the KGB officer in the front seat who turned around and exclaimed, “They got him! They got him!”)
After hearing someone say that the President has been shot, Ready “left the follow-up car in the direction of the President’s car,” but he was “recalled” by Roberts “as the cars increased their speeds.”
Ready, being closest in proximity to the President, should have been the very first agent to shield the President, but he made no mention of seeing President Kennedy get shot, and he was oblivious to the President being shot in the head until he heard someone say something. His ignorance of the President being shot would be due to “trying to locate the source” of “firecrackers” for five to eight seconds.
Ready was clearly suffering from the effects of alcohol and a lack of sleep when he spent five to eight seconds violating the directive not to “investigate or evaluate a present danger.”
Special Agent Clint Hill was standing on the left front running board next to Kinney, the driver, and Hill went into action only after he saw the President react to being shot. The facts bear out Hill’s remarkably slow reaction time, as he, too, had engaged in the late-night drinking and partying.
Hill’s report states that he heard “a noise similar to a firecracker” that “came from my right rear, and I immediately moved my head in that direction.” When Hill moved his head “in that direction,” his “eyes had to cross the Presidential automobile,” and he “saw the President hunch forward and then slump to his left.”
Hill “jumped from the follow-up car and ran toward the Presidential automobile,” after which he “jumped onto the left rear step of the Presidential automobile.” Hill, who was oblivious to the first shot, told the Warren Commission that he was not “up on” the limousine until after the last shot “removed a portion of the President’s head.” After five to eight seconds of gunfire, Hill had not yet past the left front fender of the Secret Service follow up car.
The above frame from the “Muchmore” film shows President Kennedy being shot in
the head after five to eight seconds of gunfire. Hill has just come off the running
board and has not yet passed the left front fender of the Secret Service follow-up
car. Like running board Agents Landis and Ready, Hill was suffering from a lack of
sleep and the consumption of alcohol just a few hours earlier.
Secret Service policy clearly dictates that Hill, who was oblivious to the first shot, should have immediately jumped from the running board and ran toward the Presidential limousine instead of moving his head in the direction of what he called “a noise similar to a firecracker.” Secret Service agents are not supposed to look back thinking that they should, or somehow can, determine if someone has fired a rifle or simply set off a firecracker.
Hill went into action only because he saw the President “hunch forward and then slump to his left” while he was turning to look back toward the “firecracker” noise.
After Drinking and Staying Up All Night, These Three Running
Board Agents Were Clearly Disabled During the Assassination.In the photo above, Special Agent Clint Hill, wearing sunglasses and standing on the left “front”
running board, is clearly resting atop the car door and leaning into the car with his right leg
crossed in front of his left as the assassination continues to unfold.
Ready and Landis are standing on the right-side running boards and looking back after the first
shot. KGB officer Tim McIntyre is behind Hill and focused across the car on Ready and Landis.
Roberts is the KGB officer in the front passenger seat quietly watching the assassination unfold.
More than three seconds after this photo was snapped, President Kennedy was shot in the head,
after which Roberts turned to McIntyre and exclaimed, “They got him! They got him!”
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