SS Agent Paul Landis speaks out... finally, about Magic Bullet.

[Jake Maxwell]

Paul Landis, an 88-year-old former Secret Service agent, was just a few feet away from when President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. At the time, he was assigned to protect Jackie Kennedy, the former first lady.

Mr. Landis, in a recent interview with the New York Times, cast doubt on the government-backed Warren Commission's finding that a "magic bullet" struck and exited the president before it struck then-Texas Gov. John Connally Jr., a theory that has been the subject of criticism for decades and has helped fuel a range alternative theories about the former president's assassination. Officially, the U.S. government and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has maintained that a lone gunman—Lee Harvey Oswald—was the sole perpetrator.....

In the interview with the paper, published on Sept. 9, Mr. Landis recalled hearing multiple gunshots at Dealy Plaza in Dallas as he went behind President Kennedy's limousine, seeing the president moving forward after being shot in the head. After the assassination, Mr. Landis recalled picking up what he called a near-perfect-condition bullet from the back seat of President Kennedy's limousine, near where the president had been sitting.

The former agent then transported the bullet to the hospital where President Kennedy was taken and put on a stretcher to be examined. The reason why he took it is because he believed someone might pocket the bullet, which he did not describe in detail, as a keepsake....

Explaining why he hasn't spoken out for 60 years, the former agent said, “I didn’t want to talk about it." He left the Secret Service months after the assassination. “I was afraid. I started to think, did I do something wrong? There was a fear that I might have done something wrong and I shouldn’t talk about it," he said.

Historian James Robenalt, who helped work on Mr. Landis's forthcoming memoir, said his eyewitness account raised the possibility of there being more than one gunman.

“If the bullet we know as the magic or pristine bullet stopped in President Kennedy’s back, it means that the central thesis of the Warren Report, the single-bullet theory, is wrong," he told the NY Times....

“The FBI recreation suggests that Oswald would not have had enough time to get off two separate shots so quickly as to hit Connally after wounding the president in the back," he wrote. Mr. Oswald, according to officials, had used a bolt-action Carcano Model 38 infantry carbine.

Referring to his memoir, meanwhile, Mr. Landis said that "there’s no goal at this point. I just think it had been long enough that I needed to tell my story."

[From The Epoch Times]

[Steve Barber]

 
  Only a fool would believe what Paul Landis claims he found in the SS-100-X.   He found nothing of the sort.  He has a book to sell, and since he did nothing remarkable that day--not even attempting to save the life of President Kennedy--he pulls a stunt like this to try to sell his book. 

[Steve M. Galbraith]

 
  Only a fool would believe what Paul Landis claims he found in the SS-100-X.   He found nothing of the sort.  He has a book to sell, and since he did nothing remarkable that day--not even attempting to save the life of President Kennedy--he pulls a stunt like this to try to sell his book.

Landis did a 6th Floor Museum interview as recently as 2016. He said this about his acts at Parkland:

"....and there was a little delay there because we had to [get] Governor Connally out. I was not aware that he had been shot at that time, and Mrs. Connally, and then the President, and then finally Clint walked through with Mrs. Kennedy and  I had stepped into the limo also and I saw there was a bloody cigarette lighter on the seat and a bouquet of roses and her hat. And I picked up her hat and the lighter and we left the limo, and I followed them to the hospital."

Not a thing about a bullet, a bullet fragment or anything related to a bullet.

The full interview is here: https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/47223/paul-landis-oral-history

[Brian Doyle]

As if Landis would risk his career and break Secret Service protocol in order to drop a bullet that he could have handed over to his supervisor...He could have been charged with mis-handling evidence...Perhaps what happened was Landis really did hand it off and it was planted in to evidence during the time gap in DC only he can't tell that true version...Or, if you really think outside the box, Landis was recruited to plant the bullet beforehand by the plotters...How could he drop a bullet in Parkland and not be seen?...

[Jon Banks]

As if Landis would risk his career and break Secret Service protocol in order to drop a bullet that he could have handed over to his supervisor...He could have been charged with mis-handling evidence...Perhaps what happened was Landis really did hand if off and it was planted in to evidence during the time gap in DC only he can't tell that true version...Or, if you really think outside the box, Landis was recruited to plant the bullet beforehand by the plotters...How could he drop a bullet in Parkland and not be seen?...

Correct. And by the time the Warren Commission settled on the assumption that CE399 came from Connolly’s stretcher, not Kennedy’s, he might’ve faced intense pressure to “shut up” or change his story (as was the case for other witnesses).

I can think of more reasons why he would wait til the end of his life to come clean than I can think of for why he didn’t cash in on his experiences as Jackie’s bodyguard like Clint Hill did decades ago.

Apparently, Landis spent most of his life after leaving the SS working ordinary middle class jobs…

[Brian Doyle]

Correct. And by the time the Warren Commission settled on the assumption that CE399 came from Connolly’s stretcher, not Kennedy’s, he might’ve faced intense pressure to “shut up” or change his story (as was the case for other witnesses).

    Agreed...Which is why it could still be true...

     Once you realize the extreme amount of corruption in this case, like Victoria Adams, Sarah Stanton, Carolyn Arnold, and now, as it seems, Landis, all bets are off on what you can assume and normal logic...

     If I were forced to choose a version I would pick Landis handing it over to a supervisor and obeying strict professional not volunteering anything...The Secret Service agents he gave it to were corrupted by FBI and CIA in to staying quiet about that bullet being introduced as the Magic Bullet during the timing problem in DC between Johnsen and Rowley...The story still has serious possibility only Landis can't tell the full truth without exposing the devil's den of corruption and duplicity within the trusted federal police authorities...

Some reckless researchers are saying it was Phyllis Hall's bullet only they make the bungling mistake of not realizing Hall's bullet was pointed...

[Andrew Mason]

 
  Only a fool would believe what Paul Landis claims he found in the SS-100-X.   He found nothing of the sort.  He has a book to sell, and since he did nothing remarkable that day--not even attempting to save the life of President Kennedy--he pulls a stunt like this to try to sell his book.

It is conceivable that he found CE399 and recalled placing it on a stretcher.  But it is not conceivable that the bullet he claims he found was a bullet other than CE399.  His description fits CE399 but the wounds, including Tague's, and car damage do not permit two bullets looking like CE399.  If a separate bullet struck JBC in the back it would have been moving too fast to show no nose damage and come out looking anything like CE399.

[Charles Collins]

Landis did a 6th Floor Museum interview as recently as 2016. He said this about his acts at Parkland:

"....and there was a little delay there because we had to [get] Governor Connally out. I was not aware that he had been shot at that time, and Mrs. Connally, and then the President, and then finally Clint walked through with Mrs. Kennedy and  I had stepped into the limo also and I saw there was a bloody cigarette lighter on the seat and a bouquet of roses and her hat. And I picked up her hat and the lighter and we left the limo, and I followed them to the hospital."

Not a thing about a bullet, a bullet fragment or anything related to a bullet.

The full interview is here: https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/47223/paul-landis-oral-history

Thanks for the link to the Landis interview. That is one of the best ones I have seen. It answers my question about whether or not Landis ever entered trauma room one. He said he did but left after a doctor asked for people who were not needed for medical reasons to leave the room. Stephen Fagin is a very good interviewer. Thanks to him and the Sixth Floor Museum for all that they do.