Secret Service Agent #9 | A Second Look Podcast

01 Oct 2024 (2 months ago)

Clint Hill's Role in the Kennedy Assassination

Clint Hill, a former Secret Service agent assigned to Jacqueline Kennedy, admitted to Mike Wallace that he believed he could have saved President Kennedy's life if he had moved sooner. (45s)
Clint Hill believes that if he had reacted faster, he would have taken the third shot that killed President Kennedy. (11m18s)

Clint Hill was 31 years old at the time of President Kennedy's assassination. (1m57s)
Clint Hill retired early from the Secret Service due to a “severe neurological problem” for which he received psychiatric help. (13m3s)
Gwen Hill stated that her husband, Clint Hill, returned home at 6:00 AM the morning after the assassination of President Kennedy. He had been at Bethesda Naval Hospital with Mrs. Kennedy and the President's body. After showering and changing, he went back to the White House to be with Mrs. Kennedy. (16m48s)
Clint Hill said that the divorce rate for Secret Service agents was very high. (17m40s)

Mike Wallace stated that there were at least eight ways to get in and out of the White House. (20m23s)

Clint Hill received hundreds of letters after appearing on 60 Minutes, most of which remained unopened for years. (21m52s)
Hill, at 92 years old, read excerpts from some of the letters, revealing the emotional toll the Kennedy assassination had taken on him. (26m47s)
One letter, written on December 12, 1975, expressed empathy and urged Hill to forgive himself for the events of that day. (25m55s)

Clint Hill's interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes in 1975, twelve years after the assassination of President Kennedy, turned into an emotional experience that helped him come to terms with the tragedy. (29m36s)
Mike Wallace wrote to Clint Hill requesting another interview and shared that he now understands the depth of trauma after experiencing a period of intense depression. (29m2s)

Clint Hill finds a new purpose in life by speaking with and encouraging others suffering from PTSD to get help. (33m25s)

Several people who attempted or committed assassinations, including Sarah Moore, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Arthur Bremer, James Earl Ray, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Sirhan Sirhan, were not on a list of potentially dangerous people kept by the Secret Service. (7m35s)