President Johnson Almost Shot By Secret Service Agent Hours After Kennedy Assassination: New Book

A Secret Service agent came close to shooting President Lyndon Johnson just hours after Kennedy's assassination, according to "The Kennedy Detail", a new book that claims to be the first account of the tragedy by members of Kennedy's security detail.

Though Kennedy assassination buffs already have their bookcases full with countless accounts of the assassination, the book by retired agent Gerald Blaine does contain some new revelations.

The night after the assassination, Blaine says he was assigned to protect Johnson's two-story house in Washington when he heard the sound of someone approaching.

Instinctively Blaine picked up the Thompson submachine gun and activated the bolt on top. The unmistakable sound was similar to racking a shotgun. He firmly pushed the stock into his shoulder, ready to fire. He'd expected the footsteps to retreat with the loud sound of the gun activating, but they kept coming closer. Blaine's heart pounded, his finger firmly on the trigger. Let me see your face, you bastard.

The next instant, there was a face to go with the footsteps.

The new President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, had just rounded the corner, and Blaine had the gun pointed directly at the man's chest. In the blackness of the night, Johnson's face went completely white.

A split second later, Blaine would have pulled the trigger...

Blaine struggled to regain his composure as the reality of what had just happened washed over him. Fourteen hours after losing a president, the nation had come chillingly close to losing another one.

The book also includes the first-ever account of the fateful day by Clint Hill, the agent who jumped on the back of the car in the midst of the shooting and pushed Jackie down into the back seat.

And Blaine dismisses speculation about Kennedy's relationship with Marilyn Monroe. He says that he was on duty the night of May 19, 1962, the famous birthday fundraiser at which Monroe sang for the president. Blaine says that Monroe was present later in Kennedy's suite at the Carlyle Hotel, but that she "left before the other guests."

And he says that the only other time Monroe was in the president's company was in Santa Monica in 1961, at the home of Peter and Pat Lawford, where Kennedy took a brief swim before departing.

Comments

[Reno Fickler]

01:37 PM on 10/22/2010

The book 'Looking for a Hero' by Maslowski and Wilson might alter your opinion of LBJ.

[zeeshan809]

07:09 AM on 10/22/2010

Even presidents are not safe from the secret service.

http://www.celebritydialogue.com/

[Lulo]

02:39 PM on 10/23/2010

I sooooo hate people who try to plug in their cheesy, crappy blogs in a post.

[pennsykid2000]

02:39 PM on 10/21/2010

Imagine the conspiracy theories we'd have today if LBJ had been shot and killed. Millions would believe the Mob or Soviets or Cubans or CIA or whoever conspired to kill both JFK and LBJ to make 72-year old House Speaker John McCormack president. This incident should convince people that stupid coincidences do happen and not everything is the result of a planned conspiracy.

[Trollstein]

01:58 PM on 10/21/2010

That would've been a helova thing.
And Dick Cheney was not even there.

[laocoon]

10:55 AM on 10/21/2010

the most straight forward explanation for the known behavior of Oswald especially in light of Ruby's always has been and still is a conspiracy. Proponents of nonconspiracy theory always end up relying on abnormal psychology to avoid inferring intent from actions in a straight forward manner. Posner for example spends half his book trying to build a picture of Oswald as so fickle that we are dissuaded from applying a consistent motive to his actions that weekend. Then we end up adding another wing to the abnormal psych edifice with Ruby. The most logical conclusion is conspiracy.

[RevengeIsNear]

11:15 PM on 10/20/2010

Although he made a mistake with Vietnam, LBJ' s "Great Society" is still the bane of the NeoCons existence. Love watchin' their head spin whenever I bring that up. LOL

[Tom Sutpen]

01:50 AM on 10/21/2010

The original crop of Neo-Conservatives are almost all dead. At least one of them is still around, but I find it hard to believe you're on speaking terms with Norman Podhoretz.

If you mean the second-generation of Neo-Conservatives; there isn't more than a handful of them.

[RevengeIsNear]

06:56 AM on 10/21/2010

Yup, you're right, I'm mistakenly using an antiquated term.

I should have said TeaPartiers....I stand corrected. Had not heard of Podhoretz before so double thanks for the extra enlightenment.

[Lulo]

02:40 PM on 10/23/2010

Neocons are starting to look like angels compared to the Baggers. At least they had an ethos, wrong one at best, but they one. The Baggers? A piece of moldy bread would have a higher IQ that the whole lot combined.

[othel]

08:22 PM on 10/20/2010

"And Blaine dismisses speculation about Kennedy's relationship with Marilyn Monroe. He says .......Monroe was present later in Kennedy's suite at the Carlyle Hotel, but that she "left before the other guests."

Dah?!?
Was Blaine with JFK & Monroe the entire time at the Carlyle? And I'm sure she did leave before the other guests. I think his take on this (obviously misconstrued) undermines the book's overall credibility.

[monique rn]

06:38 PM on 10/20/2010

Thank you, BlueZoo. I too lived through that horrible weekend. Everyone was glued to the TV and radio all weekend, dazed, greiving, afraid of what would happen next. Really, I know it's hard to understand in today's cynical age, but it was a devastating time. To have lost Johnson 14 hours after President Kennedy's assasination might have had incalculable results.

[ProudMilVet]

01:55 AM on 10/21/2010

monique rn : I was 13 at the time, now i'm 60. I remember it vividly ! It was a Horrible thing to live through. Especially for a little kid. Apparently the far right wing today doesn't realize what their Hate speech could lead to. Or Sadly, perhaps they do.

[monique rn]

11:12 AM on 10/22/2010

I have thought about that so many times. When you hear vague reports about the number of assination threats to Pres Obama, I have a real sense of dread. The reckless talk and actions by the right wing are inviting action that, besides being incredibly sad, would change the nations psyche. We are about the same age, I was 11, sitting in Miss Larson's 6th grade English class. Suddenly a very rattled sounding principle's voice came over the intercom, saying we needed to listen. He put through a radio broadcast that was reporting the assisnation. Miss Larson stood up and screamed "oh my God". At the end of the school day many more parents came to pick up their kids than usually did, many were crying. In those days (not so long ago, kids, time flies) "Breaking News" meant something. After JFK, MLK and RFK, breaking news still causes a stomach clench. Whether or not you believe in conspiracy theories (I do) or the magic bullet theory, the murder of the president remains an unsolved mystery. Isn't that incredible?

[ProudMilVet]

01:56 AM on 10/21/2010

monique rn : BTW, Fanned & Faved !

[Rhonda Kelso]

06:30 PM on 10/20/2010

Yes and this happened too and next case? Many assassinations were attempted and carried out during this era and others. It goes to show what is over reported then and now. Conspiracy Theories and Propeganda... Who and what do you choose to believe?

[CessnaDriver]

07:17 PM on 10/20/2010

If the government did an actual investigation with actual cross-examination of witnesses, things might be a lot different.

[Greygolla]

05:22 PM on 10/20/2010

Another fine asignation bites the dust, the Kenney/Monroe one.

[CessnaDriver]

07:18 PM on 10/20/2010

Check out what Jerry Lewis said about his relationship with MM.

[BlueZoo]

05:01 PM on 10/20/2010

I lived through those horrible hours and days and "Oooops" doesn't begin to cover what this could have meant. I resent whatever twerp decided to use that in a headline at HuffPo! Don't they teach anyone in college what real journalism is? A journalist does NOT editorialize!

[Tom Sutpen]

05:06 PM on 10/20/2010

You don't learn Journalism in college; you learn how to service the interests of economic elites.

[ZubinTomato]

03:20 PM on 10/20/2010

How could anyone miss LBJ's enormous ear lobes? Those suckers were the size of cantaloupes!

[Richard Pearce banned]

04:47 PM on 10/20/2010

a) it was dark

b) he was around the corner

This was in the days before night vision googles and cornershots were being issued to the Presidential security detail.

[CessnaDriver]

07:19 PM on 10/20/2010

Of course they might scare the chit out of you in a darkend room, and you might think it's an alien!

[giantspaceship]

03:03 PM on 10/20/2010

The Secret Service was involved in the event that lead to JFK's death.
Watch this and wonder .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY02Qkuc_f8

[AlexNYC]

11:41 AM on 10/21/2010

Since all the crucial evidence to the assasination was either manipulated or destroyed, and all key witnesses were eliminated, we will never really know for sure who or why of JFK's assasination. Some things are obvious though. The Warren Commission Report ignored a lot of crucial evidence and the results were forced in order to support a predetermined conclusion that it was the act of a lone crazed gunman. Based on the small number of SS and how they were stationed on the route in in the motorcade, at the very least the secret service was complicit in "standing down" on that day in Dallas.

[giantspaceship]

03:07 PM on 10/21/2010

Americans seem to have the ability to not see the obvious . Its defies logic that a President can be removed from office by a bullet that has magical properties and skyscrapers can collapse into dust but once a "Commission" hands down its "report" they (Americans) stop thinking about it .Good "programming" .

[deadaphids1]

02:58 PM on 10/20/2010

Hey: how about John McCormack as President? How would you have liked them apples? (Good hearted guy, but very "old" in spirit...

[nana4g]

02:51 PM on 10/20/2010

I find it unbelievable that the newly emergently sworn in President would be left alone to stalk around his home at night at any time, but, especially, hours after the President he replaced had been gunned down in the plain sight of day in a car caravan.

Assume, for a moment, that he slipped the Security detail long enough to stroll outside in the dark, or even if he had just one from the detail with him, would not he or his "companion" not have heard that "unmistakable crack" of that big gun and called out or fled while alerting other security contingents?

None of this is plausible.

[laocoon]

05:59 PM on 10/20/2010

it is if LBJ had to have a secret talk with someone. you are stumbling over the elephant in the room.

[Jack Colin Rimmer]

07:04 PM on 10/20/2010

He probably just stepped outside to pay-off the guys who shot Kennedy.