BUILDING ROOFTOPS WERE REGULARLY GUARDED DURING THE JFK ERA!
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE (See also my first book Survivor’s Guilt and especially the entire chapter devoted to this subject in THE NOT-SO-SECRET SERVICE)
First, some precedent- FDR era:
Truman era:
Ike era:
Syndicated news story Summer 1963. Interestingly, many articles did not carry the highlighted information:
Milwaukee May 1962:
New York trip 1963:
Paris trip 1961
Caracas Dec 1961:
Chief Inspector Michael Torina, WHO WROTE THE SECRET SERVICE MANUAL, and Chief James Rowley (pictured) contributed to this 1962 book:
TAMPA, FL 11/18/63. Motorcycle officer Russell Groover confirmed to me that all multi-story buildings on the 28-MILE LONG MOTORCADE, the LONGEST DOMESTIC MOTORCADE JFK EVER UNDERTOOK (second only to the foreign trip to Berlin), were guarded by heavily armed officers. This Secret Service survey report was written by Frank Yeager and GERALD BLAINE OF KENNEDY DETAIL infamy! Author Larry Sabato, based on my tip (he acknowledges me in his book), contacted Blaine and called him out on this. Baine lamely stated that they didn’t have the manpower in Dallas—-a far shorter motorcade (only 10 miles)—to do what they did four days earlier in Tampa:
11/21/63 SAN ANTONIO- VIEW FROM POLICE HELICOPTER!
11/22/63 Fort Worth (JFK Historian Mark Henderson from Australia):
Former Secret Service Chief U.E. Baughman, author of the 1962 book SECRET SERVICE CHIEF, came clean in early December 1963…I guess this is why he wasn’t called before the Warren Commission:
Chicago 3/23/63:
Pittsburgh, PA October 1962:
Official Getty Images caption: McKeesport High School marching band lining up preparing to march, with sharpshooters on roof tops and billboard for Union Clothing Co., during President Kennedy campaign stop, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, October 13, 1962. (Photo by Charles ‘Teenie’ Harris/Teenie Harris Archive/Carnegie Museum of Art/Getty Images)
Another New York trip:
Nashville Agent Paul Doster, a former JFK White House Detail agent, told the “Nashville Banner” back on 5/18/63:
“a complete check of the entire motorcade route” was done. Also, Doster noted that “Other [police] officers were assigned atop the municipal terminal and other buildings along the route. These men took their posts at 8 a.m. and
remained at their rooftop stations until the president and his party
passed.”
UPDATE: The 2013 book from the Nashville Tennessean JFK IN NASHVILLE provides the corroboration/ text in question and more:
Pueblo, CO 1962:
Washington, D.C. May 1961—police guard rooftops, line the streets and face the crowds with their military counterparts. Flatbed truck also visible.
Billings, MT September 1963:
Duluth, MN 9/25/63:
Ireland June 1963:
Miami, FL 11/18/63:
Germany June 1963:
Seattle, WA November 1961:
Alabama 1963:
Washington, D.C. 1962—JFK uses the old Ike bubble top limousine as police are on rooftops and lining the street.
Inaugural:
After the fact excuses (that still demonstrate that guarding buildings and rooftops was performed):
BOB BURKE
GERALD O’ROURKE
