The Secret Service - The Successes & Failures

U.S. Secret Service

The United States Secret Service has been a government agency formed as a apart of the Treasury in July, 1865, 3 months after Lincoln's assassination. (If only Abe had a few of these guys guarding his theater box, he would have seen through the Reconstruction better than his successor did.) I have to point out that their successes may be too numerous to list. In 1894, President Cleveland received part-time protection. By 1901, after the McKinley assassination they were tasked to protect the President full time. Over the next century, their responsibilities grew to protect President-elect, Vice President, former Presidents and their immediately families and visiting dignitaries or people as deemed by the President. It didn't become a federal crime to attempt to assassinate the President until 1965. Bizarre. Just like the President never having security protection before McKinley. Unfathomable. However, since the Secret Service have been assigned protection there have been 10 unsuccessful Presidential assassination attempts. Overall, they've done a bang up job. Buuuttt...when they really screwed-up, they really screwed-up.

Sort of Successes

• The Ford Assassination Attempts - Yes, plural. Jerry would get the prize for most attempts in the shortest period of time in the least amount of Presidential terms. Two attempts were made on President Gerald Ford. Both attempts were in 1975 (17 days apart) and in California. The first attempt was made by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme of the Charlie Manson clan. Had she remembered to rack a round into her Colt automatic, she might have been successful. Fromme was wrestled to the ground by a Secret Service agent, a Sacramento police officer and bystanders, and was arrested. (The Sacramento Bee) The second attempt was by Sara Jane Moore, a 45 year-old woman an FBI informant with some extremist political views. She managed to fire off two rounds, one almost hitting Ford, the other deflected by a bystander when he grabbed her arm. A Sacramento police officer subdued her before she could get off another shot. The Secret Service tossed Ford into the limo and dashed off to San Francisco International to get the Prez the hell out of Dodge, if you know what I mean. Both crazy bitches were found guilty and sentenced to life. Both served 30+ years before the soft-hearted wimps that run this country and our prison systems paroled both women. I chalk this up to a success because no one died.

The Really, Really, Bad Screw-ups

• The Kennedy Assassination - Kennedy was assassinated while his Secret Service rode behind him in another car. Why weren't they walking beside the car or standing on running boards? Why did they use an open air vehicle without running boards? Anyone could have ran up from off the sidewalk and shot the President and the Governor. It was a very poor choice to have been riding behind the President. There is a theory first proposed about 25 years ago. Kennedy was killed by a Secret Service agent when he accidentally discharged his weapon while riding behind the President's limo after Oswald fired upon the motorcade from the book depository. I won't go into that scenario, but there is data and witness testimony that supported this theory was suppressed during the investigation in 1963. The facts speak volumes to the validity of this theory along with the shoddy investigation of the Warren Commission. Read the book, Mortal Error (1992) for more information on the accidental Secret Service murder of the President. Another book that tells the story from the Secret Service's POV is The Kennedy Detail (2011). It tells a different tale.

  

  About 2 minutes before the shooting in Dealey Plaza

• The Reagan attempted assassination - The attempted assassination President Ronald Reagan occurred on March 30, 1981, 69 days into his presidency. While leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr. The most seriously wounded victim, James Brady, who spent the rest of his life in a wheel chair, died decades later of complications related to his injuries. (Wikipedia) If you look at the photographs published, police and secret service are looking at Reagan. Who was watching the crowd? It should also be noted that the FBI and Secret Service did not share information. Hinckley had been on the FBI's radar since the Carter administration when he was arrested for illegal firearm possession while stalking President Carter.

Photos courtesy the Ronald Reagan Library.

• The FDR Assassination Attempt - Naturalized Italian immigrant Giuseppe Zangara attempted to kill FDR when FDR made an impromptu speech stop in Miami, Florida. Zangara fired a .32 caliber revolver at the President-elect. After his first shot, a woman, Lillian Cross and several spectators grabbed the 5 foot tall man's arm as he shot wildly four more times before he was subdued. He missed FDR but wounded 5 people. One of them being Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, who was standing on the running board of the car next to Roosevelt. At his trial, Zangara was given 80 years in prison pending whether any of the shooting victims died. Unfortunately for Cermak and Zangara, he died and the latter was charged with murder, convicted and given the death penalty. Zangara died in the arms of Old Sparky (electric chair) at Raiford Prison in March 1933. Where were the Secret Service agents? I believe there weren't any assigned to the detail. It wasn't until the 1950 attempt on President Harry Truman's life that Congress enacted legislation to permanently authorized Secret Service protection to the President and President-elect. The Vice President could be assigned Secret Service if he wanted it. It became mandatory in 1962.
• The Truman Assassination Attempt - In 1950, two Puerto Rican pro-independence activists attempted to gain access to Blair House where Truman was staying while the White House was under renovation. A White House Policeman stopped them at the gate and an exchange of gunfire occurred. The White House policeman and one of the activists were killed. Two Secret Service agents and the other gunman were wounded. Harry was indoors, upstairs and unharmed and lived to play the piano another day.

Truman with Lauren Bacall

On the Secret Service website, there is a Wall of Honor page. Thirty-six agents/operatives died while performing their duties, four of them women. Three of the four women along with three male agents died in the Oklahoma City bombing. One agent died in the World Trade Center attack.

In their 150 year existence the Secret Service has had a very impressive record. Hopefully, they will be able to continue to perform at that level considering the kind of terrorism that exists in the world today.