Clint Hill, the bodyguard who tried to save Kennedy on the day of the assassination, has died
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is considered the most shocking public crime of the 20th century, and even 60 years after that fateful November 22, 1963, it still causes shock. One of the bodyguards took on special relevance at that time, as he was the protagonist of an image that traveled around the world.
Clinton Hill is the man seen in the iconic photograph , with his back turned and riding into the limousine, minutes after the attack in Dallas . The Secret Service agent who made headlines in every newspaper, died at the age of 93. The news was confirmed on Monday by Jennifer Robinson, her publicist.
Known as "the man in the suit," he had been assigned as Jacqueline Kennedy 's bodyguard, and it was he who prevented her from falling to the ground after pushing her back in her seat.
The motorcade guarding President Kennedy (AP Photo/James W. "Ike" Altgens, File)
“I believe Special Agent Clinton Hill saved Mrs. Kennedy’s life ,” David F. Powers, a Kennedy aide who was riding in the Secret Service backup car, would later say when questioned by the Warren Commission.
"He probably would have fallen off the back of the car and would have been right in the path of the other cars coming in the motorcade," Powers added.
Hill received the Treasury Department's highest award for "extraordinary courage and heroic effort in the face of extreme danger" 13 days after the attack. As seen in videos and footage, he put his own body on the line in an attempt to cover the president and safeguard his life.
A journalist and the curator of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas recall the day the former president of the United States was shot
In 2010, on the 47th anniversary of the murder, Hill wrote an essay for The New York Times , recounting his tormented memories. “The caravan began like any other I had been part of as an officer, with adrenaline flowing and members of the detail on alert,” he described.
" I heard an explosive noise , looked over at the presidential limousine and saw the president clutch his throat and lurch to the left. I ran to the limousine, and I was so focused on getting to the President and Mrs. Kennedy to provide cover that I didn't hear the second shot ," he said.
John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie, minutes before the attack (Credit: Jim Altgens/Associated Press)
Then he heard the third fatal shot. “It hit the president in the upper right part of his head, and there was blood everywhere,” he recalled, pain and helplessness raw.
He also saw a bloodied John Connally , the governor of Texas, who had also been shot but survived. The limousine was speeding towards Parkland Memorial Hospital, while he was still in the back seat and beneath him lay the president face up on his wife's lap.
The limousine carrying Kennedy raced to the hospital seconds after he was shot, with a Secret Service agent, Clint Hill, riding in the back of the car. Photograph by Justin Newman/Associated Press
It was Hill who took off his jacket upon arrival at the hospital and covered Kennedy's head so that he could be taken to the hospital in a wheelchair. Minutes later, John F. Kennedy was declared dead, and an hour later a White House statement would confirm this.
“I remained at Mrs. Kennedy ’s side for the next four days,” he said in his essay in The Times. “The woman who only days before had been so happy and exuberant about this trip to Texas was in deep shock. Her eyes reflected the pain of the nation and the world ,” he lamented.
All security agencies pointed to Lee Harvey Oswald , considered the material author , and arrested him two hours later. However, countless theories have emerged around the assassination , and countless books have been written about it, with different versions that do not believe the official version.
Clint Hill received many tributes and recognitions for his heroic actions, and wrote his own book about the attack, "Five days in November" (Photo: Instagram @clinthill_ss)
Hill continued his work protecting Mrs. Kennedy, Caroline and the Kennedys' son, John Jr., for another year. He then served as bodyguard to Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford.
Hill was interviewed by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes , where He spoke publicly about his anguish for the first time, confessing that he blamed himself for not reacting a fraction of a second before the shots were fired. “I feel very guilty about that; if I had turned in a different direction, I would have saved him. It’s my fault and I will live with that until the grave,” he said.
"You have my gratitude forever," Jackie Kennedy wrote to Clint Hill, who protected her for another year after the attack.
His emotional breakdown resulted in his retirement in 1975 at the age of 43, with the approval of his doctors. At the time, he was the deputy director responsible for all protective forces. During his later years, he spoke at various events and wrote a book about what happened, "Five Days in November," co-authored with Lisa McCubbin Hill.
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