Secret Service agent shares new info on JFK assassination
A Secret Service agent who was just feet away from President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated in 1963 is publicly sharing his account of the tragic moment in American history — and it raises questions about what really happened in Dallas that day.
Paul Landis, who was standing on the running board of the motorcade car behind the president’s vehicle, shared his recollections in a new book, “The Final Witness,” set for release on October 10.
In the book, Landis’ account of the JFK assassination puts the Warren Report and the single-bullet theory up for debate, along with the speculation there was a second shooter or more.
Landis’ new book has also led to some questions, especially since this published account differs from the statements he filed in the days following the shooting.
“There’s no goal at this point,” Landis told The New York Times. “I just think it had been long enough that I needed to tell my story.”
According to the government’s official findings in the Warren Report, three shots were fired by lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. One shot missed the limo and the final shot fatally struck Kennedy in the head. But the second shot has been referred to as the “magic bullet.” The report indicates the bullet hit the president from behind and passed through the front of his throat, then continued to hit Texas Gov. John Connally (who was sitting in front of the president) in the right shoulder, struck a rib, exited through his chest and continued through his right wrist and into his left leg. The bullet was later found on Connally’s stretcher at the hospital.
Landis offered a different explanation of how the bullet ended up on the stretcher, according to his book which was previewed by The Times. Landis says he picked up the bullet from the back seat of the presidential limousine after it arrived at the hospital, and put it on the president’s stretcher for investigators. The bullet must have shaken from one stretcher to another while they were pushed together, he theorized.
“I was just afraid that — it was a piece of evidence, that I realized right away. Very important. And I didn’t want it to disappear or get lost. So it was, ‘Paul, you’ve got to make a decision,’ and I grabbed it,” Landis told The Times.
If what Landis says is true, it reopens the question of a second shooter, “if not even more,” said James Robenalt, a Cleveland lawyer who deeply researched the assassination, helped Landis process his memories for the book.
“If the bullet we know as the magic or pristine bullet stopped in President Kennedy’s back, it means that the central thesis of the Warren Report, the single-bullet theory, is wrong,” Robenalt told The Times. It could also mean Connally was shot by a separate gunman and not by Oswald, who wouldn’t have had enough time to reload fast enough.
When Landis provided his account of what happened to the Secret Service, he failed to mention that he grabbed the bullet. He told The Times he was traumatized from just witnessing the president’s murder firsthand and that he likely made mistakes in his report. And despite his proximity to the president, Landis said he was never interviewed by the FBI and he never testified before the Warren Commission itself.
Landis didn’t offer an explanation as for why he’s stayed quiet for six decades, and said he’s not trying to promote any conspiracy theories. He just wanted to tell what he saw and leave it to others to draw conclusions.
