George Hickey was born
in 1923. He became a member of the Secret Service working for the
White House in Washington. During
the motorcade tour of Dallas on 22nd November, 1963, Hickey was in
the follow-up car, directly behind the presidential limousine. When
President John
F. Kennedy
was shot he rose to his
feet with his AR-15 machine gun but did not fire it.
The following day Hickey
issued a statement: "After a very short distance I heard a loud
report which sounded like a firecracker. It appeared to come from
the right and rear and seemed to me to be at ground level. I stood
up and looked to my right and rear in an attempt to identify it. Nothing
caught my attention except people shouting and cheering."
In Mortal
Error, published in 1992, Bonar
Menninger claims that Kennedy was killed by Hickey. He claimed
that after the first shot, he stood up and lost his balance, and accidentally
discharging his gun into the back of Kennedy’s head.
The book was based on the
following evidence: (1) S.
M. Holland
saw Hickey lose his balance
when he stood up during the firing; (2) AR-15 rounds are encased in
thin copper and tend to break up upon impact, as did the shot that
struck John
F. Kennedy
in the head; (3) A Mannliher-Carcano
bullet would not break up when it hit a target; (4) Ralph
Yarborough
and other witnesses smelled
gunpowder soon after the shooting, indicating that at least one shot
had been fired from street level; (5) Two witnesses, Austin Miller
and Royce Skelton, thought one of the shots came from near the presidential
limousine and (6) Howard Donahue argued that the bullet's trajectory
that hit Kennedy in the head suggested it came from Hickey's gun.
In April, 1995, George
Hickey sued Bonar Menninger for what
he said about him in his book, Mortal Error.
However, the court judge in Baltimore said the suit by Hickey was
filed too long after publication of the book.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
George Hickey,
statement (23rd November, 1963)
The motorcade then left
the airport and proceeded along the parade route. Just prior to the
shooting the Presidential car turned left at the intersection and
started down an incline toward an underpass followed by 679X. After
a very short distance I heard a loud report which sounded like a firecracker.
It appeared to come from the right and rear and seemed to me to be
at ground level. I stood up and looked to my right and rear in an
attempt to identify it. Nothing caught my attention except people
shouting and cheering. A disturbance in 679X caused me to look forward
toward the President's car. Perhaps 2 or 3 seconds elapsed from the
time I looked to the rear and then looked at the President. He was
slumped forward and to his left, and was straightening up to an almost
erect sitting position as I turned and looked. At the moment he was
almost sitting erect I heard two reports which I thought were shots
and that appeared to me completely different in sound than the first
report and were in such rapid succession that there seemed to be practically
no time element between them. It looked to me as if the President
was struck in the right upper rear of his head. The first shot of
the second two seemed as if it missed because the hair on the right
side of his head flew forward and there didn't seem to be any impact
against his head. The last shot seemed to hit his head and cause a
noise at the point of impact which made him fall forward and to his
left again. Possibly four or five seconds elapsed from the time of
the first report and the last.
At the end of the last
report I reached to the bottom of the car and picked up the AR 15
rifle, cocked and loaded it, and turned to the rear. At this point
the cars were passing under the over-pass and as a result we had left
the scene of the shooting. I kept the AR 15 rifle ready as we proceeded
at a high rate of speed to the hospital.
Agent Clint Hill was riding
across the rear and the top of 100X in a horizontal position. He looked
into the rear of 100X and turned toward 679X and shook his head several
times. I received the impression that the President at the least was
very seriously injured. A few moments later shift leader Emory Roberts
turned to the rest of us in the car and said words to the effect that
when we arrive at the hospital some of us would have to give additional
protection to the Vice President and take him to a place of safety.
He assigned two of the agents in the car to this duty. I was told
to have the AR 15 ready for use if needed.
When we arrived at the
hospital the President and Governor Connally were taken inside and
about the same time the Vice President had arrived. I requested him
to come into the hospital to a place of safety and he was surrounded
by his detail and the other assigned agents, and myself and led into
the hospital. When he entered I returned the gun to 679X as ordered
by Agent Roberts.
(2)
Winston
G. Lawson,
United States Secret Service, statement (1st December, 1963)
At the corner of
Houston and Elm Streets I verified with Chief Curry that we were about
five minutes from the Trade Mart and gave this signal over my portable
White House Communications radio. We were just approaching a railroad
overpass and I checked to see if a police officer was in position
there and that no one was directly over our path. I noticed a police
officer but also noticed a few persons on the bridge and made motions
to have these persons removed from over our path. As the lead car
was passing under this bridge I heard the first loud, sharp report
and in more rapid succession two more sounds like gunfire. I could
see persons to the left of the motorcade vehicles running away. I
noticed Agent Hickey standing up in the follow-up car with the automatic
weapon and first thought he had fired at someone. Both the President's
car and our lead car rapidly accelerated almost simultaneously. I
heard a report over the two-way radio that we should proceed to the
nearest hospital. I noticed Agent Hill hanging on to the rear of the
President's vehicle. A motorcycle escort officer pulled alongside
our lead car and said the President had been shot. Chief Curry gave
a signal over his radio for police to converge on the area of the
incident. I requested Chief Curry to have the hospital contacted that
we were on the way. Our lead car assisted the motorcycles in escorting
the President's vehicle to Parkland Hospital.
(3)
Warren
Commission Report (1964)
Special Agent Ready, on
the right front running board of the Presidential follow-up car, heard
noises that sounded like firecrackers and ran toward the President's
limousine. But he was immediately called back by Special Agent Emory
K. Roberts, in charge of the follow-up car, who did not believe that
he could reach the President's car at the speed it was then traveling.
Special Agent George W. Hickey, Jr., in the rear seat of the Presidential
follow-up car, picked up and cocked an automatic rifle as he heard
the last shot. At this point the cars were speeding through the underpass
and had; left the scene of the shooting, but Hickey kept the automatic
weapon ready as the car raced to the hospital. Most of the other Secret
Service agents in the motorcade had drawn their sidearms.
(4)
Scott Higham, The Baltimore Sun (October, 1996)
This time, one of those
theories will be played out in federal court in Baltimore, where a
former U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to protect John F. Kennedy
on the day of his death nearly 33 years ago is suing for libel.
A little-known book called
Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK claims the agent slipped
and accidentally pulled the trigger of his high-powered AR-15 rifle,
striking Kennedy in the head Nov. 22, 1963.
It's a theory - first advanced
by a ballistics expert from Towson - that just won't go away.
"We're trying to stop
this now while Hickey's still alive," said Mark S. Zaid, an attorney
for former agent George W. Hickey, 73. "He doesn't want his grandchildren
growing up and hearing other children say,'Hey, your grandfather killed
the president of the United States.' "
Hickey is seeking untold
damages from St. Martin's Press in New York. He also wants an apology,
preferably printed on full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington
Post and The Baltimore Sun, his lawyer said.
It's not likely Hickey
will see an apology anytime soon.
"The case is utterly
without merit," said David N. Kaye, chief attorney for St. Martin's.
Hickey's suit, filed last
week in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, says "Mortal Error"
is simply false, and other Kennedy assassination experts agree. Published
in 1992, the 350-page book recounts the day of the assassination and
focuses on the actions of Hickey.
Written by Missouri-based
journalist Bonar Menninger, the book claims that when Hickey heard
the first volley in Dallas' Dealey Plaza that day, he pulled out an
AR-15 assault-type rifle while standing in a trailing Cadillac outfitted
for the Secret Service.
The first shot by Lee Harvey
Oswald (according to Mortal Error) hit the pavement. The second
-- the so-called "magic bullet" -- struck Kennedy in the
neck. At that point, Hickey lost his balance in the Cadillac, "Mortal
Error" claims, and he accidentally pulled the trigger, hitting
the president in the head.
The lawsuit - which does
not name Menninger as a defendant - says Mortal Error is "replete
with false and misleading defamatory statements and innuendos.'' The
suit says the book libels Hickey by accusing him of a crime - negligent
homicide for shooting Kennedy - and by claiming that the agent has
participated in a deliberate coverup for three decades.
The lawsuit quotes numerous
passages from the book, calling them libelous and saying they were
published with "reckless disregard" of the truth.
"So Hickey reaches
down and grabs the AR-15 off the floor, flips off the safety and stands
up on the seat, preparing to return fire," one passage reads.
"But his footing is precarious. The follow-up car hits the brakes
or speeds up. Hickey begins to swing the gun around to draw a bead
on Oswald, but he loses his balance. He begins to fall. And the barrel
happens to be pointing toward Kennedy's head. And the gun happens
to go off."
Hickey, who lives in Abingdon,
declined through his lawyer to discuss the case. Menninger did not
return a call to his home in Kansas City, Mo. But Howard Donahue,
the ballistics expert responsible for the theory, said Wednesday that
he still stands by it.
Available from Amazon Books
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