Mr. D, Robert DeProspero, has passed away. 12/31/1938-3/4/2019
A Secret Service legend—and my favorite agent—has passed away. Robert DeProspero, who served from 1965-1986 and was head of President Reagans detail for several years…simply the best. Godspeed, Bobby.
I had the supreme pleasure of quite a pleasant surprise in 2011: Mr. DeProspero wrote to me out of the blue with a very nice and inspiring message of encouragement. I confess to being slightly embarrassed for being such a critic of the agency’s performance on 11/22/63 (before his time, mind you), but he didn’t seem to mind.
I had the honor of speaking to him a couple times in 2016 (he generously invited my wife and I to his house for Thanksgiving. To my supreme regret, we could not make it…I really regret not making it now). We also corresponded and I even had the pleasure of speaking to his daughter, also an esteemed member of the Secret Service.
I am very happy I was able to be an Associate Producer of the documentary about his life, THE MAN BEHIND THE SUIT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3KdiHMWqCk
I am saddened by his passing but heartened by the example of the life he led. He truly left his mark on the world.
“In the months after the attack [3/30/81-Reagan assassination attempt], DeProspero took over Reagan’s security detail. He imposed a raft of new security requirements, some of which remain standard Secret Service protocol.
He is credited with the agency’s decision to begin using magnetometers to screen guests to all presidential visits away from White House. Presidential advisors had long resisted such electronic frisking, fearing it might alienate invited donors and constituents.
DeProspero also enacted the policy, still in force today, of stationing an agent at the closest trauma hospital whenever the president travels.
DeProspero also successfully pushed for the installation of bulletproof glass on many White House windows, over the objections of the mansion’s historical preservationists.
Eight members of Mr. DeProspero’s detail became assistant or deputy directors of the Secret Service, and two, Lewis Merletti and Brian Stafford, rose to become director.”
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About vincepalamara
Vincent Palamara was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Duquesne University with a degree in Sociology.
Although not even born when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Vince brings fresh eyes to an old case. In fact, Vince would go on to study the largely overlooked actions - and inactions - of the United States Secret Service in unprecedented detail, as well as achieving a world's record in the process, having interviewed and corresponded with over 80 former agents (the House Select Committee on Assassinations had the old record of 46 with a 6 million dollar budget and subpoena power from Congress), not to mention many surviving family members, White House aides, and even quite a few Parkland and Bethesda medical witnesses for a corresponding project. The result was Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect President Kennedy.
Vince is also the author of the books JFK: From Parkland To Bethesda, The Not-So-Secret Service, Who's Who in the Secret Service, and Honest Answers about the Murder of President John F. Kennedy: A New Look at the JFK Assassination.
All told, Vince has been favorably mentioned in over 140 JFK and Secret Service related books to date (including two whole chapters in Murder in Dealey Plaza, The Secret Service: The Hidden History Of An Enigmatic Agency by Philip Melanson, and the Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, among many others), often at length, in the bibliographies, and in the Secret Service - and even medical evidence - areas of these works.
Vince has appeared on the History Channel's THE MEN WHO KILLED KENNEDY (VHS and DVD), C-SPAN, Newsmax TV, A COUP IN CAMELOT (DVD/BLU RAY), KING KILL '63, THE MAN BEHIND THE SUIT (DVD), National Geographic's JFK: THE FINAL HOURS (including on DVD), PCN, BPTV, local cable access television, YouTube, radio, newspapers, print journals, at national conferences, and all over the internet. Also, Vince's original research materials, or copies of said materials, are stored in the National Archives (by request under Deed Of Gift by the ARRB), the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Harvard University, the Assassination Archives and Research Center, and the Dallas Public Library.
Vince Palamara has become known (as he was dubbed by the History Channel in 2003) "the Secret Service expert." As former JFK Secret Service agent Joe Paolella proclaimed: "You seem to know a lot about the Secret Service, maybe even more than I do!" Agent Dan Emmett calls Vince a Secret Service expert in his new book.
Vince Palamara 