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In reply to the discussion: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy believed President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy. [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)Either way, people should have gone to jail. Yet, nothing happened.
Here's physical evidence for the latter: Videotape shot at Love Field on November 22, 1963 clearly shows Secret Service Agent Donald Lawton holding up his arms thrice in the classic "What the heck?" gesture. The video also shows SS agent Emory P. Roberts standing up in the follow-up car to order Lawton* off the presidential limousine's back bumper, leaving the president unprotected from behind. President Kennedy was murdered a few minutes later.
Video: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/171830/secret_service_jfk /
From Vince Palamara:
An important discovery was made by this correspondent during review of video of the Dallas trip shot by the ABC television affiliate in that city. During the start of the fatal motorcade at Love Field, Secret Service agent Don Lawton begins to jog alongside the presidential limousine. He is immediately called back by his shift leader and commander of the follow-up car detail, Emory P. Roberts.
Lawton's dismay and confusion is made manifest by his unambiguous body language: He throws up his arms several times before, during and after the follow-up car passes him. He was not being allowed to do his job -- and it was not JFK who was ordering the stand-down.
Despite the discovery by this correspondent of three reports to the contrary (two by Roberts) written on November 22, 1963, this newly discovered photographic evidence confirms that frustrated and vocal-in-his-objections Rybka did not enter the follow-up car and was left behind at the airport.
Afterward, in William Manchester's book, Death of a President, we see the "official story" of what happened:
"Kennedy grew weary of seeing bodyguards roosting behind him every time he turned around, and in Tampa on November 18 (1963), just four days before his death, he dryly asked Agent Floyd Boring to 'keep those Ivy League charlatans off the back of the car.' Boring wasn't offended. There had been no animosity in the remark." (1988 Harper & Row/Perennial Library edition, pp. 37-38)
For the record: PRESIDENT KENNEDY NEVER SAID THAT.
SOURCE:
Agents Go On Record Yet, someone in a position of authority was interested in creating that impression.
* Previously, the man in the photo was incorrectly identified as Secret Service agent Henry J. Rybka. According to records, he also was ordered to stay off the car and remain at Love Field. Much "chatter" arose over the misidentification. Of course, were it not for someone preserving the videotape, few would ever know anything about this important evidence for conspiracy.