(and I am loving it!)
HELEN O'DONNELL, THE DAUGHTER OF THE LATE KENNETH O'DONNELL, CONFIRMS VINCE PALAMARA'S RESEARCH!
Helen O'Donnell October 11 at 2:25pm
Dear Vince, Thank you for your friend request and your note; I am crashing on a deadline for an article I hope to get out in time for the 50th anniversary and will give you a more thoughtful answer later today or tomorrow.
Suffice to say that you are correct; JFK did not order anybody off the car, he never interfered with my Dad's direction on the Secret Service and this is much backed up by my Dad's tapes;
I think and know from the tapes Dallas always haunted him becuase of the might have beens - but they involved the motorcade route, he constantly questioned his own decision to take the motorcade in that direction; but he never blamed the Secret Serice. He believed to a man they did everything they were trained and he always maintained his defense of their actions and took all blame upon himself. He and Bobby would have done anything to change that outcome; and as we know they never got over it. Thank you for standing up for my Dad. KPOD would be very proud of you, as am I.
I will have more for you shortly, but back to writing; I wanted to just send you my very good wishes, my appreciation of behalf of my Dad and a good Irish hug! Ever, Helen
---------------
(My initial message to her)
Vince Palamara October 10 at 1:28pm
Dear Helen:
Hello! As I said in my friend request, I am a big admirer of your father and I love your book very much. I interviewed and/ or corresponded with many former JFK-era Secret Service agents and Kennedy White House aides (I've been on The History Channel, in over 55 other author's book, all over the net, etc.). In this regard, I have come to one major conclusion from my research: President Kennedy was a very nice man, never interfered with the actions of the Secret Service and, specifically, did NOT order the agents off his limousine. While JFK has often been unfairly blamed for ordering the agents off his car (4 days before Dallas and even IN Dallas), there has also been a movement afoot to try to pin the blame on your father, in his role as Chief of Staff. Going through your fine book, your dad's book, my correspondence with the late Dave Powers, your dad's Warren Commission testimony, and the statements/ testimony of many former agents, I have come to the firm conclusion that your dad did NOT order (or convey a desire from President Kennedy to order) the agents off the rear of the car. Conspiracy or no conspiracy (Oswald acting 100% alone), this had dire consequences for what happened on 11/22/63, as JFK did not have good protection on his side of the car. As I told Patrick, the 64 million dollar question I am asking of you is this: AM I WRONG on this matter? DID your father order the agents off the car (even if merely expressing the wishes of President Kennedy)? NOTHING whatsoever in the documentary record confirms this belief...but he was your father and you have a treasure trove of audio statements from him.
I have pictures of your father riding right behind JFK in Italy (7/2/63), in Berlin (June 1963), and in Tampa (11/18/63), among other stops---the agents rode on (or very near) the rear of the limousine and your dad is smiling (with Dave Powers), as is JFK, seemingly not "in the mix" on the issue whatsoever (for the record, Dave Powers wrote me in December 1993 and said that the agents NEVER had to be told to get off the limo).
ANOTHER reason why this issue is important---former agent Gerald Blaine, whom I interviewed twice and corresponded with a few times, is coming out with a major book (brought on by a 22-page letter I sent to his best friend Clint Hill, who is writing the Foreward, that angered the former agent very much) that is going totally AGAINST what he himself---and many of his colleagues---told me (often in writing and audio): namely, that President Kennedy did NOT interfere with the actions of the Secret Service...his book is going to state that JFK, quote, "banned the agents from his car" AND that your father may have played a role in "fate's hand", as it were (which, at this juncture, I totally do NOT believe).
PLEASE let me know your feelings and beliefs on this matter. If I am wrong, I am man enough to admit it, despite what many agents already conveyed to me for the record (including the Special Agent In Charge of Kennedy's White House Detail, Gerald Behn, who worked hand-in-glove with your father on all of JFK's trips: Behn told me "I don't remember Kennedy ever saying anything about not having agents on the back of his car" [!!], thus agreeing with many of his assistants and "buck privates", like Gerald Blaine, the author of the forthcoming book alleging otherwise).
Sincerely,
Vince Palamara :O)
Pittsburgh, PA
P.S. The reason Hill was angry with me was because, by inference, my research puts the onus BACK on the Secret Service for lax security in Dallas, NOT on JFK (or your father, for that matter). The power of what they had to say/ write to me is that much stronger because a) I was a total stranger and b) the vast majority of them believe Oswald acted alone.
Richly detailed, documented, and researched blogs and articles pertaining to the Secret Service during the FDR-Reagan era, with a special emphasis on the JFK/ LBJ years, by the leading civilian Secret Service expert, Vince Palamara http://thekennedydetailsecretservicejfk.blogspot.com/
JFK did NOT ban the Kennedy Detail from his car: the Secret Service are to blame
Secret Service, JFK, President Kennedy, James Rowley, Gerald Behn, Floyd Boring, Roy Kellerman, John Campion, William Greer, Forest Sorrels, Clint Hill, Winston Lawson, Emory Roberts, Sam Kinney, Paul Landis, John "Jack" Ready, William "Tim" McIntyre, Glenn Bennett, George Hickey, Rufus Youngblood, Warren "Woody" Taylor, Jerry Kivett, Lem Johns, John "Muggsy" O'Leary, Sam Sulliman, Ernest Olsson, Robert Steuart, Richard Johnsen, Stewart "Stu" Stout, Roger Warner, Henry "Hank" Rybka, Donald Lawton, Dennis Halterman, Walt Coughlin, Andy Berger, Ron Pontius, Bert de Freese, Jim Goodenough, Bill Duncan, Ned Hall II, Mike Howard, Art Godfrey, Gerald Blaine, Ken Giannoules, Paul Burns, Gerald O'Rourke, Robert Faison, David Grant, John Joe Howlett, Bill Payne, Robert Burke, Frank Yeager, Donald Bendickson, Gerald Bechtle, Howard Norton, Hamilton Brown, Toby Chandler, Chuck Zboril, Joe Paolella, Wade Rodham, Bob Foster, Lynn Meredith, Rad Jones, Thomas Wells, Charlie Kunkel, Stu Knight, Paul Rundle, Glen Weaver, Arnie Lau, Forrest Guthrie, Eve Dempsher, Bob Lilley, Ken Wiesman, Mike Mastrovito, Tony Sherman, Larry Newman, Morgan Gies, Tom Shipman, Ed Tucker, Harvey Henderson, Abe Bolden, Robert Kollar, Ed Mougin, Mac Sweazey, Horace "Harry" Gibbs, Tom Behl, Jim Cantrell, Bill Straughn, Tom Fridley, Mike Kelly, Joe Noonan, Gayle Dobish, Earl Moore, Arthur Blake, John Lardner, Milt Wilhite, Bill Skiles, Louis Mayo, Thomas Wooge, Milt Scheuerman, Talmadge Bailey, Bob Lapham, Bob Newbrand, Bernie Mullady, Jerry Dolan, Vince Mroz, William Bacherman, Howard Anderson, U.E. Baughman, Walt Blaschak, Robert Bouck, George Chaney, William Davis, Paul Doster, Dick Flohr, Jack Fox, John Giuffre, Jim Griffith, Jack Holtzhauer, Andy Hutch, Jim Jeffries, John Paul Jones, Kent Jordan, Dale Keaner, Brooks Keller, Thomas Kelley, Clarence Knetsch, Jackson Krill, Elmer Lawrence, Bill Livingood, J. Leroy Lewis, Dick Metzinger, Jerry McCann, John McCarthy, Ed Morey, Chester Miller, Roy "Gene" Nunn, Jack Parker, Paul Paterni, Burrill Peterson, Max Phillips, Walter Pine, Michael Shannon, Frank Stoner, Cecil Taylor, Charles Taylor, Bob Taylor, Elliot Thacker, Ken Thompson, Mike Torina, Jack Walsh, Jack Warner, Thomas White, Ed Wildy, Carroll Winslow, Dale Wunderlich, Walter Young, Winston Gintz, Bill Carter, C. Douglas Dillon, James Johnson, Larry Hess, Frank Farnsworth, Jim Giovanneti,Bob Gaugh,Don Brett, Jack Gleason, Bob Jamison, Gary Seale, Bill Sherlock, Bob Till, Doc Walters...President Kennedy was a very nice man and never interfered with the Secret Service! My name is Vince Palamara, Secret Service expert (as noted on The History Channel and in many books), and I base this on numerous interviews and correspondence with former JFK era agents from 1991-2009, as well as many years of research through files, films, photos, and other documentary evidence (my research materials are stored, by request under Deed of Gift from the U.S. Government, in the National Archives, as well as at the JFK Library. My work is duly noted in the U.S. Government's official report given to President Clinton, as well as to a host of other luminaries and the media, in 1998: "The Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board"). My book is entitled "Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service and the Failure to Protect the President" (1993/2006)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I am the author of three books: SURVIVOR'S GUILT, JFK: FROM PARKLAND TO BETHESDA, and THE NOT SO SECRET SERVICE. I am also part of a major DVD/ BLU RAY/ Streaming documentary A COUP IN CAMELOT. THIS IS AN OLD (2010) BLOG. PLEASE SEE MY LATEST BLOG:
ReplyDeletehttp://vincepalamara.blogspot.com/