William Greer
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William Greer (Ireland, 1910 - North Carolina, February 23, 1985) was an agent of the U.S. Secret Service, and drove President John F. Kennedy's automobile in the motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas on November 22, 1963, when the President was assassinated. He can be seen in several pictures of the Kennedy family, including shadowing the family around the Easter holidays, 1962.
According to his Warren Commission testimony, Greer was born on a farm in Ireland and emigrated to the United States in 1930. After working as a chauffeur and servant to several wealthy families, including the Lodge family, in the Boston area for over a decade, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in World War II and then joined the U.S. Secret Service on Oct. 1, 1945.
Following the assassination of her husband, Greer delivered an anguished and muddled apology to Jacqueline Kennedy, seeming to claim both that he hadn't heard the shots and that he hadn't reacted in time.[1] Privately, Mrs. Kennedy was bitterly critical of the agents' performance, Greer's in particular, comparing his efforts to those of "Maud Shaw" (the Kennedy children's nanny).[2]
The major criticism leveled against Greer is that he failed to accelerate the vehicle to get the president out of danger after the first shots were fired. Indeed, in the midst of the shooting, he actually applied the vehicle's brakes (the limousine's brake lights come on in the various films of the assassination), slowing the car to almost a walking pace. In both his statement to the FBI on the night of the assassination and later to the Warren Commission, Greer made no mention of slowing the car.
In Greer's defense, it must be said that he had received no specialized training in evasive driving. Also, his seatmate, Agent Roy Kellerman, was the senior agent. Secret Service procedures in place at the time did not allow Greer to take action without orders from Kellerman. Between the second and third shots, however, the latter claims he shouted, "Let's get out of line, we've been hit," but that Greer apparently turned to look at Kennedy (for the second time), allowing Kennedy to be hit fatally, before accelerating the car out of the danger zone.[3]
Since that time, Secret Service agents have been trained to accelerate rapidly out of the area if they even think they hear gunfire.
[edit] References
- ^ William Manchester, The Death of a President, Harper & Row, 1967, p. 290.
- ^ Mary Gallagher, My Life With Jacqueline Kennedy, McKay, 1969, pp. 343, 351
- ^ Philip H. Mellanson, with Peter F. Stevens, The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency, (Carroll & Graf, 2002), p. 74.
[edit] Trivia
One popular conspiracy theory is that Mr. Greer in fact fired the fatal shot to Kennedy's head. This theory is supported by closely viewing the famed Zapruder film and noting the timing of the fatal kill shot to the front of Kennedy's head and the fact the Greer actually turns his head to the rear of the vehicle at exactly that same instant. Closer examination also shows what appears to be a shiny object that is raised above Greers shoulder as he turns his head. Lastly many point to the fact that Mrs. Kennedys attempts to exit the vehicle at this point durin the assassination point to a likelihood that she knew where the kill shot had come from and was escaping the vehicle in fear for her life.
