Secret Service agent Clint Hill never recovered from tragedy of JFK assassination, associates say
One of the most prominent figures associated with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has died: Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who jumped onto the back of the limousine moments after shots rang out in Dealy Plaza.
Those who knew him tell CBS News Texas that Hill never really overcame the guilt he felt on that tragic day.
In one of the most watched and analyzed films ever recorded, it's a young Secret Service agent's actions that seem to capture the most attention.
"His entire career was defined by roughly 5/10 of a second," said Farris Rookstool, a former FBI Analyst and JFK Assassination Historian.
Rookstool met Hill 30 years after Hill climbed onto the back of the presidential limousine in a desperate effort to get First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy back into the vehicle and also protect her husband who had just been fatally shot.
"He tried to do the right thing, but you can't outrun a bullet that's traveling 2,000 feet per second," Rookstool said.
It was a defining moment that Hill never fully recovered from when he died last week at the age of 93.
Those who knew Hill say he was racked with guilt wishing he could have done more to save the president. He spoke about it decades later:
"The way everything developed, the way all the other agents were positioned, I was the only one who had a chance to get to the car or to do anything, and I couldn't get there fast enough, and it really ate at me and bothered me a great deal."
"He was of course our last living link to the inside of the presidential limousine," said Stephen Fagin, the curator of The Sixth Floor Museum where Hill visited.
The Sixth Floor Museum, located within the former Texas School Book Depository building, chronicles the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy.
"Clint Hill was haunted by those moments in Dealy Plaza," Fagin said. "He struggled to talk about this event for decades."
In fact, it was a visit to The Sixth Floor Museum many years later and a view from the sniper's perch that finally convinced Hill that he would not have been able to prevent what happened on one of America's darkest days.
"I checked all the angles, the weather, everything I could think of, and I finally came to the realization that he had all the advantages that day," Hill said. "We didn't have any, and I did everything I could."
