CHANGE THE WHOLE INVESTIGATION. PAUL LANDIS WAS RIGHT BEHIND THE KENNEDY’S WHEN THE PRESIDENT WAS ASSASSIN’S DATED. THE 28 YEAR OLD SECRET SERVICE AGENT WAS ASSIGNED TO PROTECT JACQUELINE KENNEDY. I REACHED OVER. HER, TOOK HER BY THE SHOULDERS AND TRIED TO HELP HER UP, BUT SHE HAD SHE WAS LEANING OVER THE PRESIDENT’S HEAD COVERING HIS HEAD WOUND. LANDIS IS NOW 88, AND HE’S FINALLY BREAKING HIS SILENCE AFTER 60 YEARS. THE NEW INFORMATION COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING. WHY DID YOU WAIT SO LONG TO BRING THIS STORY TO THE PUBLIC’S ATTENTION? WELL, THAT’S VERY COMPLICATED. I WAS TRAUMATIZED. AND FROM THE SHOT. I CARRIED THIS VISION. THIS TAPE LOOP OF PRESIDENT’S HEAD EXPLODING WITH ME FOR SEVERAL YEARS. AFTER THAT, I SAT DOWN WITH PAUL LANDIS TO SORT OUT THESE NEW DETAILS. I’M JUST HOPING IT DOES HELP A LITTLE BIT. AND SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT. LANDIS TOLD ME. THIS IS THE PART THE WARREN COMMISSION GOT WRONG. THIS BULLET FOUND ON TEXAS GOVERNOR CONNALLY’S GURNEY IN THE HOSPITAL. LANDIS SAID. THIS IS THE BULLET HE FOUND IN THE LIMO. MRS. KENNEDY STOOD UP AND RIGHT BEHIND WHERE SHE WAS SITTING, THERE WAS A FULLY INTACT BULLET. I PICKED THE BULLET UP. I LOOKED AT IT. I STARTED TO PUT IT BACK. AND THEN I WAS HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS BECAUSE I THOUGHT THIS WAS A PERFECT PIECE OF EVIDENCE THAT SHOULD BE SAVED. SO. LANDIS CLAIMS HE PUT IT IN HIS POCKET TO PROTECT IT, TOOK IT INSIDE PARKLAND HOSPITAL AND LAID IT ON THE STRETCHER, HOLDING PRESIDENT KENNEDY. EVERYBODY WAS PUSHING AND SHOVING AND SCREAMING. AND I WENT INTO I GOT WEDGED UP AGAINST THE EXAM TABLE WHERE THEY HAD REMOVED THE PRESIDENT’S BODY. HE THOUGHT THE DOCTORS WOULD SEE IT AND USE IT FOR EVIDENCE IN WHAT HAPPENED. HE PLANNED TO TELL THIS TO THE WARREN COMMISSION, BUT WAS NEVER INTERVIEWED. AND HE SAID WHEN QUESTIONED ABOUT THE EVENTS IMMEDIATELY AFTER HE WAS TOO TRAUMATIZED TO MENTION IT. THE WARREN COMMISSION CONCLUDED THE FIRST SHOT MISSED THE SECOND SHOT HIT BOTH KENNEDY AND GOVERNOR CONNALLY AND THE THIRD SHOT HIT KENNEDY IN THE HEAD, WHICH WAS WAS FATAL. LANDIS INSTEAD, THOUGH, THINKS THE FIRST SHOT HIT KENNEDY IN THE BACK BUT DIDN’T GO VERY FAR IN BECAUSE IT WAS AN UNDERCHARGED BULLET AND THEN FELL OUT. LANDIS THINKS THE SECOND SHOT ONLY HIT GOVERNOR CONNALLY, AND THE THIRD SHOT WAS THE FATAL HEAD WOUND TO KENNEDY. THE DEBATE ABOUT THE BULLETS AND WHETHER LEE HARVEY OSWALD ACTED ALONE HAS RAGED ON FOR 60 YEARS. DO YOU THINK THERE WAS A SECOND SHOOTER AT THIS POINT, I DO NOT BELIEVE THERE WAS A SECOND SHOOTER. THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE QUESTIONING LANDIS RECOLLECTIONS ABOUT THAT DAY, BUT HE DECIDED TO SPEAK OUT ANYWAY. HE HOPES THE GOVERNMENT REOPENS THE EXAM AND RELEASES ALL THE RELATED DOCUMENTS SO WE CAN GET TO THE TRUTH, WHATEVER IT MAY BE. MICHELLE WRIGHT. PITTSBURGH’S ACTION NEWS 4 FOR LANDIS’S MEMOIR BY THE WAY, IS CALLED THE FIN
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Secret Service agent shares recollection of being in Dallas when John F. Kennedy was assassinated
Updated: 7:01 PM EST Nov 20, 2023
On Nov. 22, 1963, Paul Landis was a 28-year-old Secret Service agent. He was riding in the car directly behind President John F. Kennedy’s limousine in Dallas that fateful day. Now 88, Landis recently published his memoir and spoke at Duquesne University’s Wecht Symposium commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. After six decades, Landis said he is breaking his silence about that day in Dallas, saying he hopes he can set the record straight. Watch the report in the video above.On that late fall day in 1963, Landis was assigned to protect First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.”I reached over and took her by the shoulders and tried to help her up, but she was leaning over president’s head, covering his head,” he told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 anchor Michelle Wright. “Mrs. Kennedy stood up and behind where she was sitting, there was a fully intact bullet. It wasn’t damaged in any way other than it had rifle striations from being fired. I picked the bullet up and I looked at it. I started to put it back, and then I was having second thoughts because I thought this was a perfect piece of evidence that should be saved.”Landis claims he put it in his pocket to protect it and laid it on the stretcher holding President Kennedy. “Everybody was pushing and shoving and screaming,” he recalled. “I got wedged up against the exam table where they had removed the president’s body.”He thought the doctors would see the bullet and use it for evidence. Landis says he planned to tell this to the Warren Commission, but was never interviewed. He said when questioned by those right after the shooting, he said he was too traumatized to include that detail.The Warren Commission concluded the first shot missed, the second shot went through Kennedy and then also hit Texas Gov. John Connally, and the third shot hit Kennedy in the head. Landis believes the first shot hit Kennedy in the back, but didn’t go far because it was an undercharged bullet and must have fallen out as the president leaned to the left. He thinks the second shot only hit Gov. Connally and the third was the fatal head wound to Kennedy. He does not believe there was a second shooter.The commission concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was solely responsible for killing Kennedy, but the debate has over the president’s assassination has raged for decades.
On Nov. 22, 1963, Paul Landis was a 28-year-old Secret Service agent. He was riding in the car directly behind President John F. Kennedy’s limousine in Dallas that fateful day.
Now 88, Landis recently published his memoir and spoke at Duquesne University’s Wecht Symposium commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. After six decades, Landis said he is breaking his silence about that day in Dallas, saying he hopes he can set the record straight.
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Watch the report in the video above.
On that late fall day in 1963, Landis was assigned to protect First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
“I reached over and took her by the shoulders and tried to help her up, but she was leaning over president’s head, covering his head,” he told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 anchor Michelle Wright. “Mrs. Kennedy stood up and behind where she was sitting, there was a fully intact bullet. It wasn’t damaged in any way other than it had rifle striations from being fired. I picked the bullet up and I looked at it. I started to put it back, and then I was having second thoughts because I thought this was a perfect piece of evidence that should be saved.”
Landis claims he put it in his pocket to protect it and laid it on the stretcher holding President Kennedy.
“Everybody was pushing and shoving and screaming,” he recalled. “I got wedged up against the exam table where they had removed the president’s body.”
He thought the doctors would see the bullet and use it for evidence. Landis says he planned to tell this to the Warren Commission, but was never interviewed. He said when questioned by those right after the shooting, he said he was too traumatized to include that detail.
The Warren Commission concluded the first shot missed, the second shot went through Kennedy and then also hit Texas Gov. John Connally, and the third shot hit Kennedy in the head.
Landis believes the first shot hit Kennedy in the back, but didn’t go far because it was an undercharged bullet and must have fallen out as the president leaned to the left. He thinks the second shot only hit Gov. Connally and the third was the fatal head wound to Kennedy. He does not believe there was a second shooter.
The commission concluded Lee Harvey Oswald was solely responsible for killing Kennedy, but the debate has over the president’s assassination has raged for decades.