Clint Hill
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For the Crystal Palace football player of the same name, see Clint Hill (footballer)
Clinton J. Hill (born 1932) is a former United States Secret Service agent who was in the presidential motorcade during the John F. Kennedy assassination. After Kennedy was shot, Hill ran from the car immediately behind the presidential limousine and leapt onto the back of it, holding on while the car raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Hill joined the Denver Office in 1958. After John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States, he was assigned to protect the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. Hill became a nationally-known figure during the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
Hill remained assigned to Mrs. Kennedy and the children until after the 1964 Presidential Election. He then was assigned to President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House. In 1967, when Johnson was still in office, he became Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of Presidential Protection. When Richard Nixon came into office, he moved over to SAIC of protection of Vice President Agnew. Finally, Hill was assigned to headquarters as the Assistant Director of the Secret Service for all protection. He retired in 1975.[1]
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[edit] The assassination
The assassination took place in Dallas, Texas during a Presidential motorcade through the city while en route to a luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart. The President and Mrs. Kennedy were riding in an open limousine containing three rows of seats. The Kennedys were in the rear seat of the car, and the Governor of Texas, John Connally, and his wife, Nellie Connally, were in the middle row. Secret Service agent William Greer was driving and the president's bodyguard, Roy Kellerman, was also in the front seat.
Clint Hill was riding in the car that was immediately behind the presidential limousine. As soon as the shooting began, Hill jumped out and began running to overtake the moving car in front of him with the plan to climb on from the rear bumper and crawl over the trunk to the back seat where the stricken President and frightened First Lady were located. Hill grabbed a small handrail on the left rear of the trunk that was normally used by bodyguards to stabilize themselves while standing on small platforms on the rear bumper. Hill heard another gunshot and saw a portion of the President’s head shot away. The driver then sped up, causing the car to slip away from Hill, who was in the midst of trying to leap on to it. He succeeded in regaining his footing and jumped on to the back of the quickly accelerating vehicle.
As he got on, he saw Mrs. Kennedy, apparently in shock, crawling onto the flat rear trunk of the moving limousine and apparently reaching for the portion of the President's head that had been removed. Agent Hill crawled to her and guided the First Lady back into her seat. He then placed his body above the President and Mrs. Kennedy. Meanwhile, in the folding jump seats directly in front of them, Mrs. Connally had pulled her wounded husband to a prone position on her lap.
Agent Kellerman, in the front seat of the car, gave orders over the car’s two-way radio to the lead vehicle in the procession "To the nearest hospital, quick." Hill was shouting as loudly as he could "To the hospital, to the hospital."
As the car moved at high speed to the hospital, Hill maintained his position shielding the couple with his body, and was looking down at the mortally wounded President. Agent Hill later testified:
The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car. His brain was exposed. There was blood and bits of brain all over the entire rear portion of the car.
Mrs. Kennedy was completely covered with blood. There was so much blood you could not tell if there had been any other wound or not, except for the one large gaping wound in the right rear portion of the head.
The limousine then rapidly exited Dealey Plaza and sped to Parkland Memorial Hospital, only minutes away, followed by other vehicles in the motorcade.
Although the Secret Service was shocked at its failure to protect the life of President Kennedy, virtually everyone agreed that Clint Hill's rapid and brave actions had been without blemish. He was honored at a ceremony in Washington just days after the funeral of John F. Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy, despite being in deep mourning, made a rare appearance at this same event to personally thank him.
[edit] After the Assassination
In a 1975 interview with Mike Wallace, a tearful Hill showed a great deal of regret for not being able to get to the President in time. Hill placed the blame of the President's death on himself in the interview, despite his heroism. The interview states:[1]
MIKE WALLACE: Was there any way, was there anything that the Secret Service or that Clint Hill could have done to keep that from happening?
CLINT HILL: Clint Hill, yes.
MIKE WALLACE: Clint Hill, yes? What do you mean?
CLINT HILL: If he had reacted about five-tenths of a second faster, maybe a second faster, I wouldn't be here today.
MIKE WALLACE: You mean you would have gotten there and you would have taken the shot?
CLINT HILL: The third shot, yes, sir.
MIKE WALLACE: And that would have been all right with you?
CLINT HILL: That would have been fine with me.
MIKE WALLACE: But you couldn't. You got there in less than two seconds, Clint. You couldn't have gotten there. You surely don't have any sense of guilt about that?
CLINT HILL: Yes, I certainly do. I have a great deal of guilt about that. Had I turned in a different direction I'd have made it. It's my fault.
MIKE WALLACE: Oh. No one has ever suggested that for an instant. What you did was show great bravery and great presence of mind. What was on the citation that was given you for your work on November 22, 1963?
CLINT HILL: I don't care about that.
MIKE WALLACE: Extraordinary courage and heroic effort in the face of maximum danger.
CLINT HILL: Mike, I don't care about that. If I had reacted just a little bit quicker and I could have I guess and I'll live with that to my grave.
[edit] In fiction
In the Quantum Leap episode "Lee Harvey Oswald," Sam Beckett is shown leaping into Clint Hill only moments before the assassination takes place. As such, he is the one to get on the presidential limousine, leaping out again only after arriving at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Clint Eastwood's character in the movie In the Line of Fire was inspired by Clint Hill.
[edit] References
- ^ King, LarryLarry King Interviews Mike Wallace, CNN, March 22, 2006
