JFK RFK MLK Assassination Forum

Roy Herman Kellerman (March 14, 1915 – March 22, 1984) was a U.S. Secret Service Agent assigned to protect President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963. In his reports, later testimony and interviews, Kellerman outlines in detail his role in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, controlling key evidence of the crime and guiding doctors during the official autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital.Kellerman, a Macomb County, Michigan native, graduated from high school in 1933 and worked for the Dodge division of Chrysler sporadically from 1935 until 1937 when he was sworn in as a trooper for the Michigan State Police. Kellerman joined the Secret Service in Detroit just before Christmas, 1941, transferring temporarily to the White House detail in March 1942 and permanently one month later. After the assassination, he was promoted, retiring from the Secret Service in 1968 as an assistant administrator. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida on March 22, 1984 of unreported causes.[edit]Actions during assassinationAs the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of November 22, 1963 Shift Team #3, Kellerman was riding in the front passenger seat of the presidential limousine. The driver was Secret Service Agent William Greer. Like all Secret Service agents assigned to protect the President of the United States, Kellerman was trained to use his own body as a shield, taking a bullet if necessary in the line of duty.Kellerman was the nearest agent to the President during the attack. In the uncropped Zapruder film, he can be seen turning his entire torso to view Kennedy at a time when the president shows distress. Then, he turns back around to face forward in a relaxed position, which he maintains as the remaining shots are fired into the president and the limo speeds away from the scene.The recently stabilized version of the Zapruder film displays even greater detail of Kellerman's actions during the shooting, including his raising a radio handset and an apparent momentary glance at Greer. Both actions take place after Kennedy is seen to be in distress but before the fatal head shot.Kellerman testified to the Warren Commission, "I turned around to find out what happened when two additional shots rang out and the President slumped into Mrs. Kennedy's lap and Governor Connally fell to Mrs. Connally's lap."[1] As clearly seen in the Zapruder film and Ike Altgens photo number six, Kellerman did not start his head turn rearward until Zapruder film frame 253 to 254.Kellerman also testified to the Warren Commission, "I am going to say that I have, from the firecracker report and the two other shots that I know, those were three shots. But, if President Kennedy had from all reports four wounds, Governor Connally three, there have got to be more than three shots, gentlemen."[2]He further testified to the Warren Commission that after he remembered hearing the first audible muzzle blast or mechanically suppressed fired bullet bow shockwave, the assassination then ended in a "flurry of shells" coming into the limousine that reminded him of a jet sonic-boom sound quickness.[3][edit]Controller of evidenceKellerman's report and later testimony indicate that he was with the president without interruption from the motorcade's departure from Love Field, through the entire autopsy and embalming and up until the president's remains were brought back to the White House. In photographs and footage of the casket being loaded aboard Air Force One at Love Field, and later upon its arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Kellerman can be seen directing the movements of the president's casket.Kellerman maintained his composure immediately after the violent death of the president he was charged to protect, managing events as they continued to develop. Kellerman testified that he played a role in the autopsy at Bethesda, including guiding the doctors toward specific conclusions regarding bullet locations. Kellerman also took personal custody of the x-rays and photographic negatives at the conclusion of the autopsy and took them with him as he rode in the ambulance that transported the president's casket to the White House. When asked by the House Select Committee on Assassinations staff why he wanted this material, he said "...the point is, he was our man, everything belonged in the White House."."[4]With Kellerman in charge of local events (and with the assistance of Greer), the Secret Service maintained custody of the most important evidence of the crime, including the president's body, clothing, limousine, forensic tissues, and autopsy photographs and X-rays, returning everything to the White House before the sun rose on November 23, 1963, less than fifteen hours from when the first shot was fired.According to his widow June, Roy Kellerman believed there was a conspiracy behind the death of JFK.."

Reich’s description of the confrontation at Parkland Hospital was corroborated by Dr. Crenshaw. The following is Crenshaw’s recollection of events from his book, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence:As though on cue, a phalanx of guards poured into Trauma Room 1 just as the coffin was being rolled out. They looked like a swarm of locusts descending upon a cornfield. Without any discussion, they encircled the casket and began escorting the President's body down the hall toward the emergency room exit. A man in a suit, leading the group, holding a submachine gun, left little doubt in my mind who was in charge. That he wasn't smiling best describes the look on his face. Just outside Trauma Room 1, Jacqueline joined the escort and placed her hand on the coffin as she walked along beside it. I followed directly behind them.When the entourage had moved into the main hall, Dr. Earl Rose, chief of forensic pathology, confronted the men in suits. Roy Kellerman, the man leading the group, looked sternly at Dr. Rose and announced, "My friend, this is the body of the President of the United States, and we are going to take it back to Washington."Dr. Rose bristled and replied, "No, that's not the way things are. When there's a homicide, we must have an autopsy.""He's the President. He's going with us," Kellerman barked, with increased intensity in his voice."The body stays," Dr. Rose said with equal poignancy.Kellerman took an erect stance and brought his firearm into a ready position. The other men in suits followed course by draping their coattails behind the butts of their holstered pistols. How brave of these men, wearing their Brooks Brothers suits with icons of distinction (color-coded Secret Service buttons) pinned to their lapels, willing to shoot an unarmed doctor to secure a corpse."My friend, my name is Roy Kellerman. I am special agent in charge of the White House detail of the Secret Service. We are taking President Kennedy back to the capitol.""You are not taking the body anywhere. There's a law here. We're going to enforce it."Admiral George Burkley, White House Medical Officer, said, "Mrs. Kennedy is going to stay exactly where she is until the body is moved. We can't have that … he's the President of the United States.""That doesn't matter," Dr. Rose replied rigidly. "You can't lose the chain of evidence."For the second time that day, there was little doubt in my mind as to the significance of what was happening before me."Goddammit, get your ass out of the way before you get hurt," screamed another one of the men in suits. Another snapped, "We're taking the body, now."Strange, I thought, this President is getting more protection dead than he did when he was alive.Had Dr. Rose not stepped aside I'm sure that those thugs would have shot him. They would have killed me and anyone else who got in their way. Dr. Kemp Clark wanted to physically detain the coffin, but the men with guns acted like tough guys with specific orders. A period of twenty-seven years has neither erased the fear that I felt nor diminished the impression that that incident made upon me.They loaded the casket into the hearse, Jacqueline got into the backseat, placed her hand on top of the coffin, and bowed her head. As they drove off, I felt that a thirty-year-old surgeon had seen more than his share for one day