Sh*t Richard Says
...an Iowa connection to the JFK assassination you might not know about
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was back in the news last week with the release of mountains of classified files that President Trump ordered to be declassified. With all the other stuff going on in the national news, it might be a while before the conspiracy theorists jump-start the cottage industry that sprung up for several decades after the tragic death of the President. Expect some effort to resurrect controversy as it would make a good distraction from more current events spawned by the players in the White House.
Two Iowans, both now deceased, came to mind as I read the story about the release of more JFK assassination files. And I so wish both of these men were still with us as I would have already called then to get their take on this most recent data dump about the JFK murder.
One, of course, would be to David Belin. He was a prominent Des Moines attorney, often a mentor to me as well as a frequently mentioned member of the “kitchen cabinet” of Governor Bob Ray.
I was shocked and saddened as were so many who knew and admired Belin when he died as a result of a head injury from a fall in 1999. His distinguished career included serving as an attorney for Chief Justice Earl Warren’s Commission, which was charged with finding everything there was to know about the Assassination of President Kennedy. He later headed an inquiry into the CIA at the behest of President Gerald Ford.
He was the author of several books, the first being “November 22, 1963: You Are The Jury,” the verdict of the Warren Commission, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. He had limited tolerance of the many conspiracy theories that sprung up after the killing, and I suspect if Belin were available for comment, he would politely stand his ground on the conclusions set out in his painstaking search for the facts.
David Belin (photo on back cover book jacket of “November 22, 1963: You Are The Jury.”
Belin was a dogged truth seeker, a trait I am convinced has been inherited by his daughter Laura, who is a distinguished member of the Iowa Writers’ Collabortive and a highly respected political reporter/commentator,
The other day, I asked Laura what her dad would say about releasing formerly classified files. “He would welcome it, she said. “He believed it was very important that all facts were available to the people and that classifying only encouraged conspiracy theorists.”
The other call I wish I could make would be to the late Samuel Kinney, a Florida resident, whom I meant one summer evening in the mid-1990s when I caught up with my now deceased parents at Ottumwa’s RV campground in Wapello County. Sam and his wife Hazel were the owners of Holiday Rambler travel trailers, and pals of my mother and dad. Both couples enjoyed retirement traveling around the country in their RVs, which they usually parked side by side at Rambler RV gatherings.
I will always remember my conversation with Sam across a campground picnic table lit only by Coleman Lantern on one beautiful Iowa summer night. My dad had told me his friend Sam was a retired Secret Service agent, and I asked Sam if he had been on the Presidential detail.
“Yes, he replied, “under Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson.”
I couldn’t resist my next question: “Were you in Dallas?”
Again, “Yes. I was driving the follow car in the motorcade.”
Most of us can recall seeing the AP photo of the big Cadillac right up against the rear bumper of the president’s Lincoln convertible. Sam said he heard the gunshots and saw the bullets hit Kennedy. He described for me what happened next, which is described in detail in this article published years later in the West Palm Beach post. Here is a link to that article.
It was a surreal moment, sitting across the picnic table, only one degree of separation from a living eyewitness to a nation’s most infamous murder.
How close was Sam Kinney to JFK at the moment of the death of a president?
So close, he said, that he had to use his Cadillac’s windshield washers to wipe the splattered gore from the impact caused by the high-caliber bullet striking its target.
As I write this, I am reminded of how the Des Moines Register editors and reporters, where I was employed for about a decade, were very good at looking for the “Iowa angle” in news of national or international events. They would joke about a favorite made-up headline: “Iowan dies in Johnstown Flood”, referring to a catastrophe in Pennsylvania in 1889 that claimed 2,200 people as a dam collapsed and sent a wall of water through a community. It was the highest civilian death toll in the nation until 9/11. See link here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood
Well, here is the “Iowa angle” to this story. Headline: “Iowan Eye Witness to Kennedy Killing”
That Iowan was Sam Kinney, a secret service agent, born in the southwest Iowa town of Shenandoah in 1928. He joined the Navy, then was a policeman, and then served in the Secret Service until he and Hazel retired in southeast Florida. Not only was he born an Iowan, but he actually died in Iowa.
Late on another Iowa summer evening, July 21, 1997, in that RV campground in Ottumwa, Sam died unexpectedly in the couple’s Holiday Rambler travel trailer parked right next to my parents’ Rambler RV.
Richard Gilbert
Monday Zoom call with Julie and Katy Gammack
Katy and Julie Gammack will launch a new column featuring stories and recipes from their mother, Kaye Gammack. It’s an endeavor to help raise funds for the Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat scholarship fund. Learn more on Monday, when the two ‘Gammack girls’ team up for a Zoom call over the noon (central) hour. The calls and stories will be free, but the recipes will remain behind a paywall.
Iowa Writers Collaborative
Please explore the 70+ writers who make up the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. We cover politics, business, local music, food, entertainment, and stories about folks who will make you smile and those who might infuriate you.
There is no other state-wide collaborative effort like this. Tell a friend.
 |
|
What a wonderful historical and human record. I do hope readers click through and read the linked story from the Palm Beach Record also.
A great story, Richard. Thank you. It surely sounds like Mr Kinney was a good person, committed to doing what is right. Secret Service agents must get to know very well the Presidents they protect. I imagine it is the spirit and honor of the job, if not an actual contractual obligation, to not publicize their own assessment of the character of those they protect, even after retiring. It would be immensely fascinating, however, to learn what they truly have observed and do think. I can imagine extreme dedication to someone they totally admire and respect. How difficult it must be if that person is the complete opposite. In the present day, is it possible that corrupt, mean spirited and narcissistic Trump could be decent and ingratiating to those sworn to protect him? Janus-faced for Trump would not be unimaginable.