Rufus Youngblood was born
in 1924. After graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology
he found work with Bradshaws, a refrigeration and air-conditioning
company in Waycross. Later he became a consulting mechanical engineer
in Atlanta. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor
Youngblood joined the US Air Force and
was later was wounded in an air raid over Nazi
Germany.
Youngblood joined the Secret
Service in March, 1951 as a criminal investigator in Atlanta. Two
years later he was assigned to Washington
and later went to work in the White House where he helped to protect
Harry
S. Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.
In 1961 he was given responsibility to look after the safety of Vice
President Lyndon
B. Johnson.
On
22nd November, 1963, President John F. Kennedy
arrived in Dallas, Texas. It was decided that Kennedy and his party,
including his wife, Jackie Kennedy, Vice
President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor
John Connally and Senator Ralph
Yarborough, would travel in a procession of cars through the business
district of Dallas. A pilot car and several motorcycles rode ahead
of the presidential limousine. As well as Kennedy the limousine included
his wife, John Connally, his wife Nellie, Roy
Kellerman,
head of the Secret Service at the White House and the driver, William
Greer.
The
next car carried eight Secret Service Agents. This was followed by
a car containing Lyndon
B. Johnson
and Ralph
Yarborough.
This car also contained Rufus Youngblood.
At
about 12.30 p.m. the presidential limousine entered Elm Street. Soon
afterwards a shot was fired. Secret Service agent Roy
Kellerman
said
to the driver, William
Greer,
"let's get out of here." However, Greer hits the breaks.
More bullets were fired and John
F. Kennedy
was hit by bullets that hit him in the head and the left shoulder.
Another bullet hit John
Connally
in
the back.
As soon as Youngblood heard
the first shot he immediately turned and pulled the vice president
below window level, then climbed over the seat and covered his body
with his own. Youngblood received the Treasury Department's Exceptional
Service Award for "outstanding courage and voluntary risk of
personal safety" for his action under fire.
In 1964 Lyndon
B. Johnson
remarked "My life is in the hands of Georgia and it is 24 hours
a day under the direction of Rufus Youngblood, and no greater or more
noble son has this state ever produced, and no braver or more courageous
man." The following year Youngblood was promoted to assistant
director of the Secret Service. In 1968 he became deputy director.
After retiring in 1971,
Youngblood and his wife moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he sold
real estate.
Rufus Youngblood
died in Savannah, Georgia,
on 2nd October, 1996.
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Rufus Youngblood interviewed by Arlen
Specter on behalf of the Warren
Commission (9th March, 1964)
Arlen Specter: What
is your best estimate of the speed of the Vice President's car as
you proceeded down Houston Street toward Elm Street?
Rufus Youngblood: Well,
our speed, of course, was governed by the vehicles in front of us,
but I would say we had just made one turn, and it was only a block
there before we would make another turn. It was approximately 10 miles
an hour, between 10 and 15...
Arlen Specter: Will you
describe just what occurred as the motorcade proceeded past the intersection
of Houston and Elm Streets?
Rufus Youngblood: Well,
the crowd had begun to diminish, looking ahead and to the right the
crowd became spotty. I mean it wasn't continuous at all like it had
been. As we were beginning to go down this incline, all of a sudden
there was an explosive noise. I quickly observed unnatural movement
of crowds, like ducking or scattering, and quick movements in the
Presidential follow-up car. So I turned around and hit the Vice President
on the shoulder and hollered, get down, and then looked around again
and saw more of this movement, and so I proceeded to go to the back
seat and get on top of him. I then heard two more shots. But I would
like to say this. I would not be positive that I was back on that
back seat before the second shot. But the Vice President himself said
I was. But... then in hearing these two more shots, I again had seen
more movement, and I think someone else hit a siren - I heard the
noise of a siren. I told the driver to close it up, and stick close
to that car in front. And right away we started a hasty evacuation
speed, and left this immediate area, and we were following close behind...
Arlen Specter: Before you
go on, Mr. Youngblood, let me drop back and pick up a few of the details
theretofore.
What would your best estimate be of the speed of the Vice President's
car at the time you heard that first explosive noise?
Rufus Youngblood: Oh, approximately
12 miles an hour.
Arlen Specter: And had
you maintained the distance which you have described heretofore behind
the President's followup car?
Rufus Youngblood: Yes,
generally. Sometimes as we went around corners, we tried to close
up the gap a little bit. But as soon as we got on a straight stretch,
we would drop back two or three car lengths...
Arlen Specter: And how
far behind the President's car was the Presidential followup car at
the time of the first shot?
Rufus Youngblood: I would
think somewhat less than a car length.
Arlen Specter: What is
your best estimate of the total timespan between the first and third
shots which you have already described?
Rufus Youngblood:
From the beginning to the last?
Arlen Specter: Yes,
sir.
Rufus Youngblood:
I would think 5 seconds.
Arlen Specter:
And you have described the first shot as being an explosive noise.
How would you describe each of the second and third shots?
Rufus Youngblood:
Well, there wasn't too much difference in the noise of the first shot
and the last two. I am not really sure that there was a difference.
But in my mind, I think I identified the last two positively as shots,
whereas the first one I thought was just an explosive noise, and I
didn't know whether it was a firecracker or a shot. It seems, as I
try to think over it, there was more of a crack sound to the last
two shots. That may have been distance, I don't know.
Arlen Specter: Now,
did you have any reaction or impression as to the source or point
of origin of the first shot?
Rufus Youngblood:
I didn't know where the source or the point of origin was, of course,
but the sounds all came to my right and rear.
Arlen Specter:
Now, how about as to the latter two shots, would the same apply, or
would there be a different situation there?
Rufus Youngblood:
No; all of them seemed to sound that they were from the right.
(2)
Rufus
Youngblood, statement on the assassination of John
F. Kennedy
(29th November, 1963)
During the motorcade,
I instructed our driver to keep some distance (about two or three
car lengths) behind the Presidential follow-up car while we were going
at slow speeds.
The motorcade had just
cleared the congested downtown area and made a right turn. I recall
observing an illuminated clock sign on a building - the time was 12:30
p.m., which was the time we were due to be at the Trade Mart. The
motorcade then made a left turn, and the sidewalk crowds were beginning
to diminish in size. I observed a grassy plot to my right in back
of the small crowd of bystanders on the sidewalk - some tall buildings
- a downhill grade ahead where the street went under what appeared
to be a railroad overpass. We were about two car lengths behind the
Presidential follow-up car at this time.
I heard an explosion -
I was not sure whether it was a firecracker, bomb, bullet, or other
explosion. I looked at whatever I could quickly survey, and could
not see anything which would indicate the origin of this noise. I
noticed that the movements in the Presidential car were very abnormal
and, at practically the same time, the movements in the Presidential
follow-up car were abnormal. I turned in my seat and with my left
arm grasped and shoved the Vice President, at his right shoulder,
down and toward Mrs. Johnson and Senator Yarborough. At the same time,
I shouted "get down!" I believe I said this more than once
and directed it to the Vice President and the other occupants of the
rear seat. They all responded very rapidly.
I quickly looked all around
again and could see nothing to shoot at, so I stepped over into the
back seat and sat on top of the Vice President. I sat in a crouched
position and issued orders to the driver. During this time, I heard
two more explosion noises and observed SA Hickey in the Presidential
follow-up car poised on the car with the AR-15 rifle looking toward
the buildings. The second and third explosions made the same type
of sound that the first one did as far as I could tell, but by this
time I was of the belief that they definitely were shots - not bombs
or firecrackers. I am not sure that I was on top of the Vice President
before the second shot - he says I was. All of the above related events,
from the beginning at the sound of the first shot to the sound of
the third shot, happened within a few seconds.
(3)
Gary
Goettling, Eyewitness to the Death of a President (1992)
Rufus W. Youngblood
has more than a passing interest in the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy. Like millions of A Americans, the 1950 industrial
engineering graduate remembers exactly where he was and what he was
doing on November 22, 1963. He was riding in a motorcade in downtown
Dallas.
As the special agent in
charge of the vice presidential Secret Service detail, Youngblood
rode in an open Lincoln convertible with Lyndon Johnson, Lady Bird
Johnson, Texas Sen. Ralph Yarborough and a driver. Only a Secret Service
follow-up car separated him from the president's limousine, and the
violence that unfolded there with graphic finality on a warm Dallas
afternoon 28 years ago.
Who killed Kennedy? It's
a question Youngblood has been asked hundreds of times, and his firm
answer defies popular opinion: "Lee Harvey Oswald."
"I support the findings
of the Warren Commission. (Conspiracy theorist) have had investigation
after investigation, and nobody has come up with anything concrete.
Nothing."
Actor Kevin Costner "should
have stuck to dancing with wolves," Youngblood says tartly, referring
to the movie "JFK." Although he says that he has not seen
the Oliver Stone film, he is familiar with its premise, which implicates
Lyndon
Johnson and the secret service in a massive conspiracy to assassinate
President John F. Kennedy and cover up the crime. Stone, he notes,
"is making a whole bunch of money from it," a motive that
he believes drives other conspiracy proponents as well.
Youngblood has not read
any of the dozens of "conspiracy books" that promulgate
theories ranging from CIA plots to French hit-men, but he is generally
familiar with their assertions. In particular, he labels as "ridiculous"
an upcoming
book that blames the assassination of "friendly fire" from
a secret service agent.
"I don't think any
Secret Service guy fired his weapon down there that day. I could look
ahead and see (George) Hickey, an agent in the president's follow-up
car, who had the AR-15 (rifle). He stood up and looked, but didn't
see anything to fire at."
Kennedy's body was removed
from Parkland Hospital by the Secret Service and flown back to Washington
aboard Air Force One, technically a violation of Texas law which states
that homicide victims must be autopsied in-state. Many conspiracy
proponents point to that as evidence of Secret Service complicity
in an assassination cover-up.
"That's nitpicking,"
Youngblood says. "I was telling Johnson that the safest thing
for us was to get out of there and get back to Washington. He said
that we were not leaving without Mrs. Kennedy, and she wasn't leaving
without her husband's body. There was nothing sinister about it. Some
people are just trying to make something up that isn't really there."
Youngblood is particularly
bothered because "children growing up are not going to know what
to believe because the apparently the adults don't know what to believe,"
he says, a reference to polls which indicate that over 70 percent
of the public does not support the lone-gunman conclusion in the Warren
Report.
The bi-partisan Warren
Commission did a thorough investigation of the crime, including the
subsequent killing of Oswald, and reached the most reasonable and
logical conclusions, Youngblood says. Acknowledging that there are
some "honest skeptics," Youngblood believes that more people
would concur with the commissions' findings - -if
they read them.
"I'd say that 90
percent of the public has never read (the summary), says Youngblood,
who keeps a bound copy of the report on a living-room bookshelf. And
although he has not read all 26 volumes himself, he has read the two-inch
thick
summary, and reviewed the other volumes...
Inevitably, the conversation
drifts back to 1963 and the tragedy that staggered the world - and
put Rufus Youngblood's name in a hundred reporter's notebooks.
Up until the time the
presidential motorcade turned onto Elm Street, "it looked like
just another very successful political trip," Youngblood remembers.
"They wanted crowds, and they got crowds.
As the procession crawled
into Dealey Plaza, Youngblood glanced up at the clock on the roof
of the Texas School Book Depository. It flashed 12:30. Less than a
minute to the freeway, and only five minutes to the Trade Mart, he
thought. That instant, piercing through the shouts of the thinning
crowd, and the stuttering and backfiring of police motorcycle's, Youngblood
heard the shattering crack! of a rifle. His reaction was immediate
and instinctive.
"Get down!"
he yelled. "Get down!" And in the time it takes to pull
the bolt of a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, Youngblood had vaulted over
the back of the limousine seat onto Vice President Johnson, pushing
him to the floor of the Lincoln convertible and shielding Johnson's
body with his own...
Lyndon Johnson, on the
other hand, did not receive universal high marks for his performance
after the assassination, mostly from people who felt he jumped into
the presidency with more enthusiasm than appropriate or necessary.
"I'm
really surprised at a lot of the things that have been written,"
Youngblood says. "Some nasty things have been said about him,
and the guy could not have been any more considerate toward the president's
family and the president's staff. I mean, not only on that day and
the flight back, but through the ensuing months and even years. They
didn't treat him as nicely as he treated them."
Youngblood is still dogged
by the Kennedy assassination - not so much by the past as the present;
but the outrageous speculation and accusations of people who literally
spent years dissecting decisions made in a few chaotic minutes
or seconds. Once upon a time it may have hurt and sometimes it still
makes him angry. But mostly, he is just tired of it.
"I wish they would
just put it to rest," he sighs. "But they won't - not as
long as someone can make a buck off it."
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