Clint Hill
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Clinton J. Hill (born 1932) was a United States Secret Service agent who was in the presidential motorcade during the John F. Kennedy assassination. After Kennedy was shot, Hill ran from the car immediately behind the presidential limousine and leapt onto the back of it, holding on while the car went to Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Hill joined the Denver Office of the in 1958. After John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States he was assigned to protect the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. Hill became a nationally known figure during the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
The assassination
The assassination took place in Dallas, Texas during a Presidential motorcade through the city. The President and Mrs. Kennedy were riding in an open limousine containing three rows of seats. The Kennedy's were in the rear seat of the car, and the the Governor of Texas, John Connally and his wife, were in the middle row, and a secret service agent was driving and the president's body guard, Roy Kellerman, was also in the front seat.Clint Hill was riding in the car that was immediately behind the presidential limousine. As soon as the shooting began, Hill jumped out and began running to overtake the moving car in front of him with the plan to climb on from the rear bumper and crawl over the trunk to the back seat where the stricken President and frightened First Lady were located. Just as Hill was grabbing the small handrail by the trunk that was used by the bodyguards to climb onto a small back platform, he heard another gunshot and saw a portion of the President’s head blown away. The driver then sped up causing the car to slip away from Hill, who was in the midst of trying to leap on to it. He somehow succeeded in regaining his footing and jumped on to the back of the quickly accelerating car.
As he got on, he saw Mrs. Kennedy, apparently in shock, crawling onto the flat trunk of the moving limousine and retrieving parts of her husband’s head that had been blown out. Agent Hill crawled to her and guided the frantic Mrs. Kennedy back into her seat and placed his body above the President and Mrs. Kennedy.
Agent Kellerman, in the front seat of the car, gave orders, over the car’s two-way radio, to the lead of the procession "To the nearest hospital, quick." Hill was shouting as loud as he could "To the hospital, to the hospital."
As the car moved at high speed to the hospital, Hill maintained his position shielding the couple with his body, and was looking down at the mortally wounded President. Agent Hill later testified:
The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car. His brain was exposed. There was blood and bits of brain all over the entire rear portion of the car.
Mrs. Kennedy was completely covered with blood. There was so much blood you could not tell if there had been any other wound or not, except for the one large gaping wound in the right rear portion of the head. [link]
The limousine then exited Dealey Plaza and sped to Parkland Memorial Hospital, only minutes away.
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