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U.S. Secret Service Agents

It may come as a shock to learn that many of the Secret Service special agents who were right at the scene of the shooting felt certain that shots which hit President Kennedy came from the front. What’s even more shocking is that it has been so little publicized that most people are completely unaware of their conclusions. But that’s actually what they thought—in fact, they stated this with certainty. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at exactly who they were and exactly what they said.

Forrest Sorrels was the Special-Agent-in-Charge of the Dallas district for the Secret Service. Special Agent Sorrels was one of the higher ranking Secret Service agents in Dallas that day and was riding in the lead car of the President’s motorcade, just a bit ahead of the limousine carrying President Kennedy. SAIC Sorrels was in the back seat of the lead car on the right side. At the time of the gunshots, he was looking out the right rear passenger window. Here’s what he said about it:

I looked towards the top of the terrace to my right as the sound of the shots seemed to come from that direction.⁴⁶

That sounds pretty clear to me, don’t you agree? By the way, that terrace area that Special Agent Sorrels is describing as where the shots had come from is precisely the area that the government and their stooges mockingly refer to as the grassy knoll, as in “grassy knoll conspiracy kooks.” Funny, it doesn’t sound so kooky when it’s an experienced high-ranking Secret Service agent who was right on top of the murder scene telling us where he thought the shots came from. Notice that he doesn’t say that they came from behind him, where Oswald was located; he says that the shots—plural—came from the right side, and he was ahead of the President’s car at that moment.

But wait, there’s more! Here’s another Secret Service agent who was in a different position from which to gauge the shots. Lem Johns was Shift Leader of the Secret Service Vice Presidential Detail. He was in the car with Vice-President Johnson which was two cars behind Kennedy. What Lem Johns remembered was in accord with Special Agent Sorrels:

The first two [shots] sounded like they were on the side of me towards the grassy knoll.⁴⁷

Here’s another one. Special Agent Paul Landis, part of the White House Detail, was riding right in the Secret Service Follow-Up car which was immediately behind President Kennedy. So remember that he was immediately behind President Kennedy—the agents in the Follow-Up car had a bird’s eye view of President Kennedy in the backseat of the car right in front of them and are trained to be alert to any possible danger arising around them. Here’s what he said:

My reaction at this time was that the shot came from somewhere towards the front.⁴⁸

Well, gee whiz folks, none of that lines up with the official version, does it? I thought our government told us that the shots came from the rear? But here are three Secret Service agents who were right there in the best locations, and they’re telling us something completely different. What’s the deal? Who are we supposed to trust, highly professional Secret Service agents expertly trained in gunfire, or a bunch of Washington lawyers in white shirts who write long books in legalese? I think I’ll go with the Secret Service agents on that one.

That’s a matter of great importance. The first focus of those Secret Service agents was on the area that had been in front of the limousine because—in their professional opinions—that’s where they thought the shots came from.⁴⁹ And it wasn’t just the Secret Service who thought that either, as the next fact proves.

⁴⁶ Sorrells, Forrest, “Secret Service Report of Special Agent-In-Charge Forrest V. Sorrells,” 28 November, 1963.

⁴⁷ House Select Committee on Assassinations, “Interview of Special Agent Thomas L. Johns,” 8 August, 1978.

⁴⁸ Landis, Paul “Statement of United States Secret Service Special Agent Paul E. Landis,” 27 November, 1963.

⁴⁹ Palamara, Vincent Michael, Survivor’s Guilt: The Secret Service and the Failure to Protect the President (TrineDay: 2013).