{Raises hand}
Ummmm, because it worked like a charm?
: > No one has ever been able to prove there were fake Secret Serice agents on
: > the knoll. The sole contemporary basis for this is the account of
: > Patrolman Joe Marshall Smith, who said he encountered a SS man on the
: > knoll after the shooting. But Smith never said that the man identified
: > himself as a SS agent but had only *shown* him who he was by flashing some
: > kind of ID that in the haste of the moment, Smith mistook for SS ID. In
: > all likelihood, the man Smith saw was either a plainclothes police
: > officer, a federal agent from another bureau, or a member of the White
: > House Press Corps such as NBC's Robert MacNeil, who was in the area at the
: > time.
: >
: I am afraid you are totally incorrect. Officer Smith's testimony is in
: Volume 7, page 535 and
: is as exactly as follows:
: "I got to make this statement, too. I felt awfully silly, but after
: the shot and this woman, I pulled my pistol from my holster, and I
: thought, this is silly, I don't know who I am looking for, and I put it
: back. Just as I did, he showed me that he was a Secret Service agent.
: Mr. LIEBELER. Did you accost this man?
: Mr. SMITH. Well, he saw me coming with my pistol and right away he
: showed me who he was.
: Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember who it was?
: Mr. SMITH. No, sir; I don't--because then we started checking the
: cars."
Jan, what you posted is perfectly consistent with that Eric said. The
person "showed" Smith that he "was a secret service agent."
But the testimony you posted is very helpful, in that it shows that Smith
was overwrought -- he had his gun out of his holster in an action that he
himself thought was "silly." And he was harried. He paid essentially no
attention to the "Secret Service agent" because he was intent on checking
the cars.
The most likely hypothesis is that *some* agent -- not a Secret Service
agent and not a conspirator -- flashed some sort of credentials at Smith.
The rest he assumed, like all sorts of other people in Dealey Plaza
assumed.
I'm sure you've read Sitzman's testimony, and it's likely that Oswald
himself assumed that Robin MacNeil was a Secret Service agent.
The House Select Committee tended toward this view:
---------------------------------------------------------
Significantly, most of the witnesses who made identifications of
Secret Service personnel stated that they had surmised that any plain-
clothed individual in the company of uniformed police officers must have
been a Secret Service agent. (25) Because the Dallas Police Department had
numerous plainclothes detectives on duty in the Dealey Plaza area,(26) the
committee considered it possible that they were mistaken for Secret
Service agents.
One witness who did not base his Secret Service agent identification
merely upon observing a plainclothesman in the presence of uniformed
police officers was Dallas police officer Joseph M. Smith. Smith, who had
been riding as a motorcycle escort in the motorcade, ran up the grassy
knoll immediately after the shooting occurred. He testified to the Warren
Commission that at that time he encountered a man who stated that he was a
Secret Service agent and offered supporting credentials. Smith indicated
that he did not examine these credentials closely, and he then proceeded
to search the area unsuccessfully for suspicious individuals. (27)
The committee made an effort to identify the person who talked to
Patrolman Smith. FBI Special Agent James P. Hosty stated that Frank
Ellsworth, then an agent for the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau of
the Treasury Department, had indicated that he had been in the grassy
knoll area and for some reason had identified himself to someone as a
Secret Service agent. (28) The committee deposed Ellsworth, who denied
Hosty's allegation. (29)
The committee did obtain evidence that military intelligence personnel
may have identified themselves as Secret Service agents or that they might
have been misidentified as such. Robert E. Jones, a retired Army
lieutenant colonel who in 1963 was commanding officer of the military
intelligence region that encompassed Texas, told the committee that from 8
to 12 military intelligence personnel in plain-clothes were assigned to
Dallas to provide supplemental security for the President's visit. He
indicated that these agents had identification credentials and, if
questioned, would most likely have stated that they were on detail to the
Secret Service. (30)
The committee sought to identify these agents so that they could be
questioned. The Department of Defense, however, reported that a search of
its files showed "no records * * * indicating any Department of Defense
Protective Services in Dallas."(31) The committee was unable to resolve
the contradiction.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Posner pretty much follows the HSCA:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
While Oswald made good his escape, law enforcement swarmed into Dealey
Plaza. Outside the Depository, some witnesses later claimed they ran into
Secret Service agents. . . . Most of the witnesses later admitted they
were mistaken. And immediately after the assassination, different groups
of law enforcement officials (most of them having been there to watch the
motorcade from nearby government buildings) spread out in Dealey--they
included Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents, postal inspectors,
officers from the Special Service Bureau of the Dallas Police, county
sheriffs, IRS agents, and even an Army Intelligence agent.
[footnote] The author has reviewed the 1963 badges for the above
organizations, and found that several look alike. Any of these law
enforcement officials could have been confused with Secret Service agents.
CASE CLOSED (paperback), pp. 267-268.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Given the implausibility of The Conspiracy leaving a "Secret Service
agent" on the Knoll -- was this guy supposed to turn everybody who swarmed
back there away? -- the simplest explanation is that somebody flashed
*some* sort of identification at Smith, and he assumed it was Secret
Service.
Another thing to note is that the very first people behind the Stockade
Fence -- Sam Holland and his fellow railroad workers -- said that *nobody*
was back there when they first got around behind the fence. See SIX
SECONDS IN DALLAS, pp. 121-123.
So if this fellow was assigned to stay behind the Stockade Fence and
turn people away, he was late for work!
.John
