Former Secret Service agent Clint Hill, best known for his actions during President John F. Kennedy’s assassination while driving through Dealy Plaza in Dallas on November 22, 1963, died Friday in California at the age of 87.
Hill was 31 years old when he served on the Secret Service detail protecting President Kennedy. As shots rang out, he became known as the agent who leaped onto the Presidential Lincoln while First Lady Jackie Kennedy reached toward the trunk—later revealed to be for a piece of Kennedy’s skull.
Hill was the last surviving person who was inside the presidential limousine that day.
The Lyndon Johnson administration convened the Warren Commission, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, to investigate whether a conspiracy was behind Kennedy’s assassination. The Commission concluded that a lone left-wing gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, was responsible. However, many Americans have since come to believe a larger plot was at play—recent polls show 57% suspect a conspiracy. Hill, for his part, has generally avoided sharing any personal views beyond the official conclusion that Oswald acted alone.
Hill later said about the Kennedy assassination, “I have a great deal of guilt.”
Hill was reportedly the one who had to inform Robert F. Kennedy, then the Attorney General, of his brother’s death. In a 2013 CBS interview, Hill recalled that he didn’t feel it was his place to say it outright. When Robert Kennedy asked how bad the situation was, Hill simply responded, “It is as bad as it can get,” prompting Robert to hang up. Hill was also responsible for finding and securing a casket for Kennedy’s body and accompanied it onto Air Force One and to the autopsy.
In an interview with CBS’s Mike Wallace, Hill was asked if anything could have been done differently to save Kennedy’s life. He admitted that if he had reacted just a fraction of a second faster to the initial gunshots, he might have been able to trade his life for the President’s. When Wallace asked if he would have been willing to do so, Hill simply responded, “That would have been fine with me.” Hill’s decades-long career saw him safeguard five presidents, but his actions in 1963 would define the rest of his life.
A month after the assassination, Hill admitted in his 2022 memoir “My Travels With Mrs. Kennedy” and later interviews that he had considered ending his own life as he struggled with grief and guilt over failing to protect Kennedy. He later developed a relationship with television host Mike Rowe, who interviewed him about his PTSD, grief, and lingering guilt over the tragedy.
After the assassination Hill was selected to provide security to former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, with whom he had a close relationship. Hill retired at the age of 43 having served five Presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford.
Controversy has surrounded nearly every detail of that day in Dallas. While detractors dismiss these as ‘conspiracy theories,’ polls consistently show that most Americans doubt the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Even the validity of the Zapruder film—long considered the definitive documentary evidence of the assassination—has been questioned due to its years of secrecy and alleged inconsistencies that some argue make it appear staged. Analyses suggest that the fatal shot’s trajectory most likely came from in front of Kennedy, contradicting the official claim that Oswald fired from behind.
A year and a half ago, an admission from 88-year-old Hill Secret Service colleague Paul Landis completely upended the ‘magic bullet theory’ as Landis admitted planting the bullet on the Kennedy stretcher at the hospital. President Kennedy’s nephew Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared ‘the magic bullet theory dead’ due to the admission. New footage from the assassination emerged as recently as last September.
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