Posted on 11/16/2023 6:07:01 AM PST by Red Badger
Now 88 years old, former Secret Service agent Paul Landis is breaking his silence regarding what he witnessed on the day US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Telling his version of events in the book, The Final Witness: A Kennedy Secret Service Agent Breaks His Silence After Sixty Years, Landis’ account could change the way the public has long understood the events of that infamous day.
While the official report states Lee Harvey Oswald was the only shooter that day, Landis’ account might suggest otherwise.
An eyewitness to John F. Kennedy’s assassination
Paul Landis first joined the Secret Service in 1959, and, by ’63, had been assigned to protect First Lady Jackie Kennedy and her children. Accompanying the family to Dallas, Texas, Landis was one of the agents walking behind the presidential limousine on November 22, 1963.
After hearing the first shot, Landis spun around to locate where it had come from, but didn’t spot anything. When he turned back, he watched fellow agent Clint Hill run toward the limousine. Landis then witnessed JFK get shot in the head. He was so close that he had to duck down to avoid being splattered with the president’s brain tissue.
The limousine rushed both Kennedy and wounded Texas Gov. John Connally to Parkland Memorial Hospital, with several agents following. Once the two men were removed from the vehicle, Landis noticed two bullet fragments in a pool of blood, but left them alone.
However, there was another bullet, still intact, that he found in the seam of the leather cushioning that has to potential to change how we understand the infamous assassination.
Confusion around the bullet
This bullet is the same one that’s the foundation of the single-bullet theory in the Warren Commission’s report. Doctors deduced that the round must have struck JFK from behind, exiting his throat before continuing toward John Connally. It entered the governor’s right shoulder, struck his rib and exited under his right nipple, before continuing through his right wrist and into his left thigh. The near-pristine condition the bullet was in has led many to regard it as a “magic” bullet.
The round was found on Connally’s stretcher and, as such, the Warren Commission stated it “eliminated President Kennedy’s stretcher as a source of the bullet,” as the president’s body was only moved from the stretcher upon it being placed in a coffin. However, Landis claims he was the one to find the bullet in the limousine, placing it in his pocket to prevent souvenir hunters from taking it.
Speaking with The New York Times, the former Secret Service agent says:
“There was nobody there to secure the scene, and that was a big, big bother to me. All the agents that were there were focused on the president. This was all going on so quickly. And 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.”
Once Landis arrived at the hospital, he planned to hand over the round to a supervisor, but in the mass confusion placed it on Kennedy’s stretcher. In doing so, he’d hoped it would help the doctors determine exactly what had happened. He believes the bullet must’ve bounced from JFK’s stretcher onto Connally’s when they were pushed together, leading to the single-bullet theory.
Paul Landis’ account could debunk the single-bullet theory
Paul Landis thinks the bullet he found must have struck JFK in the back and was unable to penetrate deeply, causing it to pop out and fall back in the seat. If this account is true, then the single-bullet theory may be debunked after all.
James Robenalt, a Cleveland lawyer and historical author who worked with Landis, tells The New York Times:
“If what he says is true, which I tend to believe, it is likely to reopen the question of a second shooter, if not even more. 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.”
Film footage of the assassination shows JFK and John Connally physically reacting to the shooting, but their reactions are about a second apart. Investigators have estimated that it would’ve taken Lee Harvey Oswald 2.3 seconds to reload and fire a second time.
“The FBI recreation suggests that Oswald would not have had enough time to get off two separate shots so quickly as to hit Connally after wounding the president in the back,” Robenault explains in an article in Vanity Fair. As such, it’s believed that, had there been a second shooter, their shot hit likely Connally from “above and to the rear.”
Why is Paul Landis speaking out now?
Being an eyewitness to the assassination, Paul Landis has been haunted by what he saw that fateful day. “The president’s head exploding – I could not shake that vision,” he tells The New York Times. “Whatever I was doing, that’s all I was thinking about.”
After about six more months of trying to work, Landis called it quits and left the Secret Service. The Warren Commission never reached out to him, which was a surprise. He says he thought the agency was simply protecting their own, and after everything that had happened, he didn’t want to talk about it.
However, after reading Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-study of the Kennedy Assassination in 2014, he realized his memories of the event didn’t align with the account presented by the Warren Commission.
Speaking about the many theories surrounding JFK’s death, Landis says, “I just paid no attention to that. I just removed myself. I just felt I had been there. I had seen it, and I knew what I saw and what I did. And that’s all.”
However, this brought up mixed feelings. “I didn’t want to talk about it,” he explains. “I was afraid. I started to think, did I do something wrong? There was a fear that I might have done something wrong and I shouldn’t talk about it.” Even Clint Hill discouraged him from coming forward, suggesting how there could be “many ramifications.”
However, while it may have taken a few years, Landis still feels his account needs to be shared. “There’s no goal at this point,” he explains. “I just think it had been long enough that I needed to tell my story.”
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Samantha Franco is a Freelance Content Writer who received her Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Guelph, and her Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Western Ontario. Her research focused on Victorian, medical, and epidemiological history with a focus on childhood diseases. Stepping away from her academic career, Samantha previously worked as a Heritage Researcher and now writes content for multiple sites covering an array of historical topics.
In her spare time, Samantha enjoys reading, knitting, and hanging out with her dog, Chowder!
linkedin.com/in/samantha-v-franco
One factoid is dispositive - there was an incoming bullet hole in the front windshield. Under no permutations could it be argued that Oswald could shoot bullets that could do a 180 from behind. Yet at least 16 people saw the front windshield bullet hole and LBJ ordered the limo’s shipment to Ford in Detroit on the Monday after the assassination when the nation’s attention was turned to JFK’s funeral. There is a sworn deathbed affidavit from a high-level Ford executive that they were ordered to replace and destroy the front windshield which seems to be evidence tampering to me.
Wow! They placed Kennedy’s body in a coffin! I thought they put his body in a sarcophagus. Idiot writers.
LBJ was as complicit as hell.....................
Will the book be locked up for 60 years?
So, why would this guy NEVER say crap about this all these years!
He just let stories perpetuate, whereas he may have helped straighten some of this mess out years ago!
That was one magic loogie
The truth is about to blow the doors off everything the Democrats have done for 60 years.
One has to ask what possible reason th3y had for destroying the windshield of the car that held the nation’s president in one of the most notorious acts in history of us. And to destroy it so quickly!
That just screams “Coverup!”, just like hiding the Jan 6th tapes, and the Memphis shooter’s manifesto, and the epstien black book screams “Coverup”
Maybe someone should ask Ted Cruz if his father gave him some insight. LOL
Self preservation................................They would have killed him.................
The so-called pristine bullet was heavily damaged at the base. An Australian crew was able to replicate the shot that hit Kennedy and Connally using body Gel and rope and some twine for ligaments, and bone replications. The bullet followed the exact same path as predicted. The only difference is that the bullet struck two bones in the Connally dummy’s wrist, turning it so it bounced off the Connally Dummy. Also, all bullet fragments, the “Pristine” bullet, and the bullets found up by the Sniper’s nest that had not been fired all came from the same lot. They had the same percent of lead and other impurities at the same percentages.
This Guy would also like to hang out with Chowder.
Wow, a magic jumping bullet!
So, why would this guy NEVER say crap about this all these years!
He just let stories perpetuate, whereas he may have helped straighten some of this mess out years ago!
~~~
I think he was afraid.
He picked up the bullet with good intentions, but after that he panicked. He wanted to find a supervisor, but him just placing it on the stretcher tells me he regretted picking up the bullet and didn’t want to cause a major confrontation over removing it from the car. The fact that he quit the service that year and kept it a secret as well suggests to me that he was ashamed and/or fearful about what transpired.
It went out of the ER and straight into a coffin. The autopsy took place later, after the body and everyone else had gotten back to DC.
That’s funny right there!
bkmk
Sounds quite plausible.
Yes. When I moved to Texas in 1978 I worked with a lot of native Texans. After several months I got up enough curiosity to ask them if they thought LBJ was behind JFK’s assassination and to a person they all said “Of course he was”.
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