What They Saw

Comments (0) By Alex Weir Thursday, Apr 14 2011

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If you've spent more than five minutes in front of a TV anytime in the last 40-odd years, you've seen the unforgettable images of the Zapruder film as it captures the trauma at Dealey Plaza just as President John F. Kennedy's limousine comes under fire from a sniper's rifle. To feel the full, chilling effect of what happened on that short stretch of Elm Street in Dallas that day in 1963, nothing beats a visit to Dealey Plaza itself — nothing, that is, outside of a first-hand account from a Secret Service agent assigned to JFK's motorcade on that final ride. Clint Hill (Hill is the agent you can see, in the frames of Abraham Zapruder's infamous home movie, scrambling up the rear bumper of the president's limousine seconds after the lethal bullet struck Kennedy) wrote the foreword to fellow ex-Secret Service Special Agent Gerald Blaine's new memoir, The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence. You can hear the two former agents discuss the events of that momentous day at 7 p.m. this evening at St. Louis County Library Headquarters (1640 South Lindbergh Boulevard, Frontenac; 314-994-3300 or www.slcl.org). The event is free, and copies of the book will be available for sale courtesy of Pudd'nHead Books.
Thu., April 21, 2011