8
Motorcade Route changed
Why was the motorcade route changed? Instead of taking the original route planned to the speaking engagement at the Dallas Trade Mart, a new route was ordered that necessitated a long and slow dog-leg turn into the killing zone of Dealey Plaza. That turn was in blatant violation of standard Secret Service policy; it was “against the book.”86
As critics have rightly observed—including other Secret Service agents who have analyzed the security parameters that were not in place—the Secret Service had to have been aware of the fact that the new route was insecure, which was evidenced by the many areas along that route which were completely unprotected by law enforcement officials.87
Lynn Meredith of the Secret Service conducted an examination of the security failures in Dallas and these were the conclusions of that study:
I have always believed that the following adverse situations
all contributed to the unfortunate and unnecessary death of President Kennedy. . . . No Secret Service agents riding on the rear of the limousine.. .Inadequate security along the entire ten-mile motorcade route from the airport to downtown Dallas that day, particularly in the buildings along the route of travel. . . . The motorcade route published several days in advance. . .88
As Professor James Fetzer noted in his study of the security precautions in Dallas:
Secret Service policies for the protection of the President were massively violated during the motorcade in Dallas.89
And those violations were numerous and serious:
More than a dozen Secret Service policies for the protection of the President seem to have been violated during the motorcade in Dallas, including no protective military presence; no coverage of open windows; motorcycles out of position; agents not riding on the Presidential limousine; vehicles in improper sequence; utilization of an improper route, which included a turn of more than 90 degrees; limousine slowed nearly to a halt at the corner of Houston and Elm; the limousine came to a halt after bullets began to be fired; agents were virtually unresponsive; brains and blood were washed from the limousine at Parkland, even before the President had been pronounced dead; the limousine was stripped down and being rebuilt already Monday, the day of the formal state funeral; a substitute windshield was later produced as evidence.90
Especially when you factor in the point that there was hard evidence that President Kennedy was being stalked by conspirators for earlier attempts on his life in Chicago and Florida; especially when you consider that those serious threat levels were just prior to his trip to Texas—it’s absolutely incredible to me that protection for President Kennedy was reduced in Dallas rather than increased! Maybe that’s why Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General of the United States, had active plans to take over the responsibility for presidential protection from the jurisdiction of the Secret Service and place it under the direct control of his own Attorney General’s office.91 Because he didn’t trust the Secret Service either!
So let’s list this to make it clear.
The main changes that enabled the assassination were the following:
• The re-directed motorcade route;
• Advance publication of the insecure route in Dallas newspapers;
• The change to an inadequate motorcycle formation around the President;
• Agents being ordered off direct protection on the riding platforms of the President’s limousine.
• The Vince Palamara study assigns the responsibility for the above changes to the following people92:
Emory Roberts, who was the Shift Leader of the White House Secret Service Detail in Dallas;
Winston Lawson, the Special Agent who was in charge of the Advance Detail of the Secret Service in Dallas;
Floyd Boring, who was a higher-ranking Secret Service supervisor in Washington;
George Lumpkin was an Assistant Police Chief in Dallas and also a Colonel in Army intelligence who rode in the pilot car of the motorcade. In addition to being involved in the route change, he was also the man who, right after the assassination, ordered that the Texas Book Depository building be sealed off; and also the man who selected the Russian interpreter for the interrogation of Marina Oswald, the accused assassin’s Russian wife;
And Cliff Carter, a top aide to Vice-President Lyndon Johnson, who was involved in many of the plans for the Dallas trip of President Kennedy.
• To that list we should also add Bill Greer, driver of the presidential limousine, via his grossly negligent slowing of the vehicle to look back twice at JFK, thus disobeying the direct order from his superior seated right next to him, Agent Roy Kellerman, who had immediately screamed at Greer to “Get us out of line!” after the shooting began—meaning to floor it, evasive action to get the target out of the line of fire. Instead, Greer just froze, following human nature instead of his training. As Kellerman later said, “Greer then looked in the back of the car. Maybe he didn’t believe me.”93
I’m not saying that they were part of the conspiracy that killed Kennedy. Maybe their actions were controlled by other people; maybe some just acted ineffectually. I don’t know that and I’m being up front with you about it. But I am saying that it was the actions of those individuals which altered the protection in Dallas and thereby enabled the assassination of Kennedy to take place. It was their actions which eliminated the necessary protection and left the 35th President of the United States totally exposed to the cross-fire potential that turned Dealey Plaza into an open kill zone.