Secret Service Agent Number 9 Clint Hill | 60 Minutes Archive
In a Nutshell
Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who jumped onto JFK's limousine seconds after the fatal shot, reveals he could have saved the president if he'd reacted half a second faster, and has suffered severe neurological problems and guilt ever since. He exposes critical security failures including Haldeman's refusal of recommended presidential car modifications that would have prevented the assassination, and criticizes massive waste protecting unnecessary targets like former first ladies and foreign dignitaries while essential protection is under-resourced. Hill concludes that complete protection against determined assassins is impossible and the risk must be accepted as inherent to the job.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Clint Hill was a Secret Service agent for 17 years, serving as chief of the White House detail and later as assistant director of the service. He retired from the Secret Service 4 months prior to the interview at the age of 43. The agents encountered on duty are described as almost faceless, humorless, and single-minded in their devotion to their responsibilities.
Following Robert Kennedy's assassination on June 6, 1968, the Secret Service was required to begin protecting candidates. This resulted in agents working 12 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, often away from home for weeks or months at a time. Director Rowley testified before Congress that doctors examining many agents found they were suffering from the same type of fatigue experienced by military personnel in battle.
The Secret Service maintains a list of potentially dangerous people containing 35,000 to 45,000 names that is updated daily. However, several notable assassins were not included on this list, including Sarah Jane Moore, Lynette Fromme, Arthur Bremer, James Earl Ray, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Sirhan Sirhan. Hill explained that predicting every individual who might attempt an assassination is impossible.
When someone is identified on the threat list and appears in a crowd, agents maintain surveillance, watching for any hand motion or unusual movement. Agents stay close to monitor the individual continuously. Hill noted that Sarah Jane Moore simply never came to the Secret Service's attention despite warnings from San Francisco Police Inspector Jack O'Shea to the FBI and Secret Service that she might be another Squeaky Fromme.
The Secret Service does not always have the final say in protective decisions. Hill described conflicts with presidential chief of staff Bob Haldeman regarding security recommendations, including the specific instance where the Secret Service wanted a certain type of top on the presidential car to protect from the rear, but Haldeman rejected this recommendation. Hill confirmed that if such protection had been in place in Dallas, President Kennedy would still be alive.
On November 22, 1963, Hill was positioned on the fender of the Secret Service car directly behind President Kennedy's vehicle. At the first shot, he ran forward and jumped onto the back of the presidential car in less than two seconds. Jacqueline Kennedy had climbed out of the back seat and was reaching for the portion of her husband's head that had been shot off and fallen to the street. Hill pulled her back down to protect her.
Hill stated there were only three shots fired from one gun. He expressed complete satisfaction that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Regarding his own response time, Hill believed that if he had reacted 5/10ths of a second faster or perhaps one second faster, he would have been able to take the third shot himself.
Hill expressed significant guilt about the assassination, stating that if he had turned in a different direction, he would have made it in time. He received a citation for "Extraordinary courage and heroic effort in the face of maximum danger," but stated he doesn't care about that recognition. He confirmed that his early retirement was directly related to this incident, describing it as causing a severe neurological problem traceable to the 1963 events, for which doctors recommended psychiatric help.
President Johnson expressed deep concern for his personal safety in 1968 following Martin Luther King's assassination. Johnson called Hill at home at 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., requesting that Hill stay as close as possible during the memorial service, preferably not more than a foot and a half away, due to a premonition that something would happen to him.
Hill estimated that more than half of the security expenditures at Richard Nixon's San Clemente and Key Biscayne properties were unnecessary from the Secret Service perspective. He attributed these decisions to the General Services Administration, suggesting that White House staff, including Bob Haldeman, ordered work and attributed it to Secret Service requirements.
The cost of guarding Mamie Eisenhower by the Secret Service totaled $472,000 annually. Hill stated that former presidents and first ladies, including Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson, do not need Secret Service protection according to his opinion. The protection is provided solely because of existing law. The agents' duties in these cases are primarily service functions rather than protective functions, including tasks like taking Lady Bird Johnson to the beauty parlor.
Hill described agents becoming "butlers, chauffeurs, companions" when assigned to protect former first ladies. He referenced a conversation with former Treasury Secretary John Connally who agreed with this assessment. Hill also noted that too much time and money is wasted protecting foreign dignitaries, with approximately half not requiring such protection, including finance ministers, divorced wives of kings, and deposed monarchs.
Hill stated that better protection could be provided to the president and his family if agents weren't assigned to unnecessary protective details. During political years, the question arises regarding which candidates should receive protection. In 1972, the Secret Service was required to protect candidates including Dr. Spock, Tom Anderson from Tennessee, and Julius Hobson, a terminal cancer patient who signed a letter declining protection.
Hill acknowledged that it is impossible to provide complete protection against mentally deranged or fanatical individuals willing to sacrifice themselves. While protection could theoretically be achieved by placing the president in a glass cage at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, such measures are not practical. He concluded that the risk must be accepted as an inherent limitation of the Secret Service's protective capabilities.
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