The Secret Service agent who jumped on the back of President John F. Kennedy’s limousine moments after shots rang out in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, has died.
Clint Hill was 93.
Hill died at his home in Belvedere, California, but a cause was not provided, The Associated Press reported.
Hill was an agent that fateful day that earned him a promotion and awards, but he had to retire early because he could outrun the memories of the day his protectee was shot and killed.
He retired at the age of 43 following the advice of his doctors.
Hill blamed himself for Kennedy’s assassination. He believed he did not act fast enough and that he would have given his life to protect the president, the AP reported.
“If I had reacted just a little bit quicker. And I could have, I guess,” Hill told Mike Wallace on “60 Minutes” in 1975, according to the AP. “And I’ll live with that to my grave.”
“If I had reacted about five-tenths of a second faster, maybe a second faster, I wouldn’t be here today,” he told Wallace.
He told CNN, “I had a sense that we had a responsibility to protect the president that day and we failed.”
“I was the only one who had a chance to do anything,” he said during the CNN interview. “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 and do anything. And I couldn’t get there fast enough.”
Hill was assigned to protect first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and was on the left running board of the car that was behind the vehicle that held the Kennedys, Texas Gov. John Connally and his wife plus another secret service agent who was driving and a special agent in the front passenger seat.
Testifying in front of the Warren Commission, Hill told the panel, he heard the shot, saw the president slump and reacted. President Kennedy had already been hit in the head by Lee Harvey Oswald’s bullet before Hill was able to jump on the back of the limousine.
The famous Zapruder film showed Hill grabbing the handle on the car, pulling himself into the vehicle and forcing the first lady back into the seat, shielding her, as the driver sped away from Dealey Plaza.
Hill was born in 1932 in North Dakota and attended Concordia College. He served in the Army and was a railroad agent before being hired by the Secret Service in 1958, assigned to the Denver office before being transferred to the presidential detail.
He eventually became the agent in charge at the White House and assistant director of the Secret Service before his early retirement due to deep depression and recurring memories, the AP reported.
Hill protected presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, along with the Kennedys, CNN reported.
The Secret Service paid tribute to Hill, in a statement to CNN, which read, “Clint’s career exemplified the highest ideals of public service. We mourn the loss of a respected colleague and a dear friend whose contributions to the agency and the nation will forever be remembered.”
In addition to the 1975 “60 Minutes” interview, he spoke with Larry King in 2006, telling King and Wallace that the 1975 interview helped him to finally start healing.
“I have to thank Mike for asking me to do that interview and then thank him more because he’s what caused me to finally come to terms with things and bring the emotions out where they surfaced,” he said. “It was because of his questions and the things he asked that I started to recover.”
Hill was an author, writing several books about his time in the Secret Service. He also became a speaker and continued to be interviewed about the Kennedy assassination.
He received the highest civilian honor in North Dakota, the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, and was honored with a portrait hanging in the state’s Capitol gallery among other honorees.
North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong said in a statement, “Clint Hill embodied the qualities of courage, service and sacrifice. His loyalty to his country and his devotion to his solemn duty to protect the president continues to inspire us to this day. North Dakota has lost a legendary native son.”
A funeral for Hill will be held in Washington, D.C.
He left behind his wife, Lisa McCubbin Hill, sons and grandchildren, CNN reported.
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