Roy Kellerman

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The Presidential limousine shortly before Kennedy's assassination. Kellerman was in the front passenger's seat of the car
The Presidential limousine shortly before Kennedy's assassination. Kellerman was in the front passenger's seat of the car

Roy Herman Kellerman (March 14, 1915 - March 22, 1984) was a U.S. Secret Service Agent and witness to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

Kellerman, a Macomb County, Michigan native, graduated from High School in 1933, and worked for the Dodge Division of Chrysler sporadically from 1935 until 1937 when he was sworn in as a Trooper for the Michigan State Police. Kellerman joined the Secret Service in Detroit just before Christmas, 1941, transferring temporarily to the White House detail in March 1942 and permanently one month later.

As the Secret Service Agent, Assistant in Charge of November 22, 1963 Shift Team #3, Kellerman was riding in the front passenger seat of the presidential limousine. The driver was William Greer.

Kellerman also testified to the Warren Commission, "I am going to say that I have, from the firecracker report and the two other shots that I know, those were three shots. But, Mr. Specter, if President Kennedy had from all reports four wounds, Governor Connally three, there have got to be more than three shots, gentlemen."

Kellerman further testified to the Warren Commission, "I turned around to find out what happened when two additional shots rang out and the President slumped into Mrs. Kennedy's lap and Governor Connally fell to Mrs. Connally's lap." (Kellerman Treasury department report 11-29-63, & WCR 18H724)

Kellerman's actions (or lack thereof) have been contrasted unfavorably with that of Agent Rufus Youngblood, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's car further back in the motorcade. As soon as he heard the shot, Agent Youngblood immediately left his seat and threw himself atop the vice president. Witnesses said he managed this before the fatal third shot was fired that killed Kennedy.[1]

Like all of the agents on duty during the assassination, Kellerman was neither reprimanded nor disciplined for his role. Indeed, he was promoted, retiring from the Secret Service in 1968 as an assistant administrator. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida on March 22, 1984.

Kellerman's widow, June, told author Vince Palamara on March 2, 1992 that her husband believed there was a conspiracy involved in the death of JFK [2][citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Philip H. Mellanson, with Peter F. Stevens, The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency, (Carroll & Graf, 2002), p. 77.
  2. ^ Please see: http://www.assassinationresearch.com/v4n1.html
  • Philip H. Mellanson, with Peter F. Stevens, The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency, (Carroll & Graf, 2002), p. 77.
  • Obit, The Washington Post, March 30, 1984

[edit] See also