Subject: Recent major newspaper article re: JFK/ Secret Service/ Palamara, ETC.
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 05:06:37 -0700
From: "Vincent M. and Jessica K. Palamara" <palamara@telerama.com>
Organization: startext.net
Newsgroups: startext.jfk

The following was published on January 26, 1998 in the
"Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", THE major paper of record here that serves
half a million readers [text only, not. inc. photo of me]:

JFK's death is often focus of his research
By Mary Anne Lewis

Vince Palamara wasn't alive the day President John F. Kennedy was
assassinated, and he's never thought seriously of becoming a Secret
Service agent.

But this 31-year-old's intense fascination with these people and this
pivotal event has made the Castle Shannon man a nationally known expert
on the agents' reactions to that day. He's often asked speak at
conferences on the assassination, sharing billing with another local
Kennedy expert, Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H.Wecht, a dogged
critic of the Warren Commission's single-bullet assassination theory.

Palamara has interviewed nearly three dozen agents from the Kennedy
administration, including nine who were in Dallas that day. He has
written and published his own book on the assassination. He is quoted in

several Kennedy books. And he has given numerous presentations about the

Secret Service actions during the assassination.

Tapes of some of his interviews with agents are in the National
Archives,
after they were requested by the Assassination Records Review Board.

"I hear from people all over the world," says Palamara. "I'm sort of on
my own in this area, so whenever anything comes up remotely connected to

the Secret Service, it usually comes my way.

Palamara first became interested in the assassination when he was 12,
watching a 1960s TV drama focusing on the Secret Service agents of the
American frontier.

Watching the show, Palamara realized Secret Service agents were merely
human beings. He also realized how little was said or written about the
modern-day agency.

But it wasn't until he was an adult that his research became so focused,

and he really began to question how effectively the Secret Service had
protected the president. Once again, he was watching television, the
Abraham Zapruder assassination film, for the umpteenth time.

"I started to notice the action of the agents in President Kennedy's
limousine, says Palamara. "The driver turned back twice, and was looking

at Kennedy when the fatal shot arrived."

By this time, Palamara had amassed a formidable cache of documents,
books, tapes and videos about the assassination. In an obscure book, he
found an interview with a Secret Service agent who claimed the driver of

the presidential limousine disobeyed his direct order to speed away the
moment the first shot was fired.

"At that point, I realized, conspiracy or no conspiracy, the Secret
Service was at the very least, negligent," he says, adding that he never

interviewed either of the two agents involved in the exchange described
above, both of whom are now dead.

Palamara, who works for the Federal Reserve in Pittsburgh, said his
research keeps him busy.

"But [my research] is mainly done in my spare time on the weekends. I
have a wife and a job, " he says. "My interest in all this stuff is
10-plus, but I try to remain detached.

Detachment, though,was difficult while interviewing Sam Kinney, the
Secret Service agent who drove the limousine directly behind the
president's the day of the assassination.

He said Kinney, who died last year, helped him further his main aim: to
disprove popular folklore propagated by the Secret Service in the
immediate aftermath of the assassination.

"The 'official' history[is] that President Kennedy was one of the most
difficult presidents to protect," says Palamara.

But Kinney maintained that Kennedy did not make the Secret Service's job

any harder. He said Kennedy did not tell agents to take the bubble top
off the limousine in Dallas, did not order agents off his limousine and
did not reduce the number of Secret Service motorcycles in the
motorcade.
All those actions have been attributed to the president.

It was the Secret Service, according to Palamara, that was responsible
for other changes in standard procedure which may have jeopardized the
president's safety.

He said agents decided to alter the traditional parade route in Dallas,
slowing down the procession and taking the motorcade around sharp
corners. Overpasses were not cleared of spectators, and no orders were
given to police sharpshooters to monitor high-rise windows.

"The buck stops with the Secret Service," says Palamara. "Some take a
sinister look and say the Secret Service was involved. Others say
they're
just covering their behinds."

Palamara has earned little money from appearances, or his book,
"Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the JFK Murder," published
 last year.

"This is no witch hunt," he says, "In one respect, I have tremendous
admiration for [the Secret Service]. In another respect, I am
tremendously
disappointed with their conduct and behavior in Dallas. If they had done

their job, we'd be in a different world today."
END

ASAIC OF WHD FLOYD BORING'S ORAL HISTORY FINALLY RELEASED BY THE JFK
LIBRARY [JAN. 1998]!

    My thanks go to researcher Bill Adams for letting me know of this
development. I recently ordered the document and have it in hand now.
Although this Oral History was made back on 2/25/76, the day AFTER SAIC
Gerald A.Behn's was made, and with the very same interviewer from the
JFK Library (Bill Hartigan, former JFK aide), it has only recently
surfaced, although the Behn Oral History has been available for many
years as one of the many items listed in the Library's catalogue. There
is one reason for this: back on 9/22/93, Boring told me that he did an
Oral History for the JFK Library, but both himself and Hartigan "sounded

like a bunch of sopranos" when they listened back to the tape
[unavailable, by the way]; this is duly noted at the end of the
transcript, as well. It seems that, despite being able to transcribe the

faulty tape (the transcript is type-written and appears
contemporaneous), the Library decided not to release it...until just
early this year, after I brought Floyd Boring's name to the attention of

the JFK Library and a score of other prominent people!

    There is much of value in the 29 pages, esp. for someone like me
(!). That said, there are also some things of value to the general
public, as well: Boring confirms what he told the Truman Library in his
Oral History made back on 9/21/88 [76 pages] by stating that "part of my

job at the White House during the entire President Kennedy
administration was to be in charge of the advance work." Importantly,
Boring makes absolutley NO mention of any alleged JFK "desires" to limit

any form of security (in Dallas or elsewhere), confirming what he told
me emphatically and unequivocally on two different occasions: JFK did
not interfere with the Secret Service at all and did NOT tell the agents

to remove themselves from the rear of the limousine, debunking
Manchester, Bishop, and a whole host of others [Boring is strongly
corroborated by many of his colleagues that I interviewed].

BAD NEWS FOR SEYMOUR HERSH

    Confirming what SAIC Behn said in HIS Oral History interview, Boring

denies that JFK knew/ was ever with Judith Campbell Exner ("Never seen
the girl. Never heard her name until I read it in the paper"), Mary
Pinchot Meyer (Wouldn't know her. As a matter of fact, I never saw any
of these girls that they mention today" [1976]), and Marilyn Monrow
("Absolutely untrue")! In fact, Boring stated: "I can't recall---and I
was there the entire time during the president's administration and
prior to the president's administration and I know I can never recall at

any time the president meeting with any girl. Everything I've ever seen
the man do was with a moral attitude...there was nothing that I ever saw

that would lead me to believe that the president was at fault"---wow!

NASHVILLE, TN 5/18/63 JFK TRIP---AS USUAL, GOOD (NORMAL) SECURITY:

    SAIC of the Nashville office Paul Doster, a former member of the WHD

from Truman to JFK, told the "Nashville Banner" on the day of the trip
in question that "a compete check of the entire motorcade route" was
invoked. Also, the newspaper reported that "225 Nashville Police and
tennessee highway patrolmen also were stationed along the motorcade
route to assist in other security measures [along with the Secret
Service]" and that "other [Police] officers were ASSIGNED ATOP THE
MUNICIPAL TERMINAL AND OTHER BUILDINGS ALONG THE ROUTE. THESE MEN TOOK
THEIR POSTS AT 8:00 A.M. AND REMAINED AT THEIR ROOFTOP STATIONS UNTIL
THE PRESIDENT AND HIS PARTY HAD PASSED" [emphasis added]! If that
were'nt enough, the newspaper made note of the "fast-paced motorcade"
with JFK's limo LEADING the procession, which, as the photos confirm,
was made thru downtown Nashville, VERY similar in many respects to other

major cities, esp. DALLAS. In fact, some of the in-progress motorcade
photos were taken BY HELICOPTER!

BAD NEWS FOR WILLIAM MANCHESTER

The "Tampa Tribune" from 11/19/63 depicts JFK's limo during the Tampa
motorcade in the heart of the city---agents Donald J. Lawton and Charles

T. Zboril (both of whom I interviewed) are shown RIDING ON THE REAR OF
THE LIMOUSINE! up to recently, I was well aware of JFK Library photos by

Cecil Stoughton, taken from the FOLLOW-UP CAR (something he or Knudsn
always did from July 1963 thru 11/21/63),that demonstrate the SAME
thing; I showed them for the first time ever at COPA 1996 and, again, at

Lancer '97. However, those pictures only depict the motorcade in the
SUBURBAN part of town (albeit quite crowded on both sides of the limo,
AND with good, flanking motorcycles next to JFK, by the way). This
latest find puts the lie to Manchester's allegations (which are refuted
by Boring, Lawton, Zboril, Kinney, Godfrey, Martineau, Norris,
Underwood, Behn, Powers, and several others...the first four mentioned
were ON this Tampa trip!!!).

OTHER 1963 TRIPS: MORE NORMAL SECURITY [WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED IN
DALLAS?!]----

Many of the written documents generated by the Secret Service and only
recently released also corroborate my interviews/ correspondence with
the former agents. JFK’s trip to Chicago on 3/23/63 had Agent Lawton
riding on the rear of the limousine, 6 motorcycles flanking and
shielding the vehicle, a Mayor’s follow-up car with four detectives, a
close follow-up car, a tremendous police presence facing the crowd and
not the president (inc. four patrolman on overpasses, not just two),
both Press Secretaries (Salinger and Hatcher, the top two men) on the
trip, an active and involved PRS (one threat was found), and, perhaps
most importantly, press people and photographers close to JFK’s car
(ASAIC Boring was the leader on this trip).  The Philadelphia trip of
10/30/63 was similar in security effectiveness, this time with SAIC Behn

on the trip (two PRS threats were found).   Likewise, the 11/14/63 trip
to Elkton, MD, was in keeping with the last two trips mentioned  above
(one PRS threat); Boring was on this trip, and Salinger, the number one
man, was on his own.  The second New York City trip was a model of  good

security, contrary to any misconceptions: close press, Salinger and
Boring on the trip, a car with detectives, Dr. Burkley close behind JFK,

and a strong PRS presence (although no threats were reported).  Art
Godfrey, who did the advance on both New York trips, told me in his
letter: “I have no idea why Pres. Kennedy went to New York City twice in

Nov. 1963…I did the advance for both [of] these trips. I do not remember

the 8th and 9th trip but the 14th and 15th trip[the second, well-known
trip] was to ad[d]ress a convention at the Americana Hotel after which
we went to Palm Beach for the weekend.”    (emphasis added) Where are
the survey reports for this first mysterious trip?
 The President’s trips to Palm Beach, Cape Canaveral, Tampa, and Miami,
Florida, 11/16-11/18/63, were all  examples of good planning and
security: Salinger (with Kilduff, #3 man on the totem pole), a strong
PRS presence, Boring in charge (again), flat bed truck for the
photographers, close press to JFK’s car, agents on/ near the rear of the

limo, roofs of major buildings secured (Tampa), military units involved,

PRS threats reported (Miami), and a good police presence.  Finally,
JFK’s trip to San Antonio, Texas, to start the ill-fated Texas tour
(11/21/63) incorporated a police helicopter utilized along the motorcade

route, military police from Ft. Sam Houston, Stoughton close to JFK, and

agents from the San Antonio field office.
[FOR MUCH MORE, SEE MY ARTICLE IN THE NEXT KENNEDY ASSASSINATION
CHRONICLES JOURNAL]

VINCE PALAMARA, AUTHOR OF "THE THIRD ALTERNATIVE---SURVIVOR'S GUILT: THE

SECRET SERVICE AND THE JFK MURDER" (1997