‘I should have been faster’: Heroic Secret Service agent who jumped onto JFK’s limousine moments after he was shot reveals he will forever be haunted by president’s assassination
- Clint Hill jumped onto the president’s limousine after he was shot in the neck
- But he was seconds too late – another shot hit his head, shattering his skull
- On the 55th anniversary of JFK’s death, Hill opened up about how it affected him
- He revealed that he still blames himself for failing to protect the president
Clint Hill (pictured in May) revealed he will forever be haunted by what he saw on the day JFK was assassinated
The heroic Secret Service agent who leapt into action in a brave bid to save John F Kennedy from being assassinated has revealed he is still haunted by what he saw that day.
Clint Hill leaped out of a car and hurled himself onto the back of the presidential limousine seconds after a bullet hit Kennedy in the neck on November 22, 1963.
But he was seconds too late.
Before he could create a human shield between President Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy, another shot was fired by Lee Harvey Oswald as the limousine traveled through Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
This one hit Kennedy in the head, splattering his brain matter and blood all over his car – and on Jackie’s pink Chanel suit, which she famously insisted on wearing on the flight back to Washington with her husband’s body.
Now, on the 55th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination, Hill has revealed to the Sun Online that he still blames himself for the president’s death because ‘he should have been faster.’
John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy are pictured on the day of his assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1953
‘One thing that I’ve never been able to erase from my mind is being on the back of the car looking down at the president who was lying with his face in Mrs Kennedy’s lap,’ Hill told the website.
Now 86, he said he would always remember seeing the inside of Kennedy’s skull after the shot blasted through it.
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‘In the room that’s in the skull, I can see that there is no more brain matter left,’ he said.
Although he earned an award for his bravery, Hill has always felt he failed to do his job that day and protect the president.
Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon (left) presents Clint Hill with an award for bravery in December 1963
It was decades before he could even talk about it or realize there was nothing more he could’ve done.
In the immediate wake of Kennedy’s assassination, Hill accompanied Kennedy’s body to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
He was then tasked with buying a casket and ensuring it safely transported Kennedy’s body back to the White House.
Hill protected Jackie Kennedy before being assigned to protect Kennedy’s successor, President Lyndon Johnson.
Clint Hill wrote a book on JFK’s assassination called Five days in November
Yet it wasn’t until after he retired from the Secret Service in 1975 that what how deeply traumatized he was.
He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and spent six years in seclusion, according to the Sun.
From 1976 until 1982, he drank heavily and rarely saw anyone besides his wife and two children.
‘I just didn’t care about anything and I didn’t want to have contact with anybody,’ he said.
As a result, he says his children were forced to grow up ‘pretty much without a father.’
But finally in 1982, he realized he needed to change if he wanted to live –after a doctor friend warned he would die early if he didn’t stop his pattern of destructive behavior.
In 1990, he was able to return to Dallas, where he walked around Dealey Plaza and looked up at the sixth floor window where Oswald fired his shots.
Five years ago, his book – Five Days in November – was published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination.
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