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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1962)
Secret Service Agents Charged With Protection of President By HARRY FERGUSON United Press International Washington -JliPD- Since the turn of the century every president ot the United States has been forced to live with the thought that there is al most a fifty-fifty chance that somebody will try to kill him. President William McKin Icy was fatally wounded at Buffalo. N.Y.. on Sept. 6. 1901 by an anarchist named Leon ', Czolgosz, but since then no assassination attempt against s president has succeeded. This is chiefly due to the vigi-: lance of a small band of un derpaid and overworked men known as the White House detail of the United States Se cret Service. - But people keep trying and there has been an alarming increase in the number of j threats since President Ken- J nedy took office. The Secret ' Service investigated 870 threatening letters addressed j to the President last year. Guards at the White House gates turned back 643 persons 1 who tried to argue or force their way into Kennedy's of-j fice. The figures are about 50 ! per cent higher than those for the last year of the Eisenhow-! er administration. j Letters Investigated Every threatening letter; must be investigated, the writ-1 er must be located and a de termination made about his sanity. Almost invariably he is mentally deranged and is turned over to local authori ties for action. In the first six weeks of the Kennedy admin istration the threatening mail increased by 300 per cent. An unsigned letter from Los An geles: "We are sick of the dir ty black Catholics. The next bomb will be for you; Mr. Kennedy." Religious and racial preju dice and fanaticism seem to be the prime motivations of persons who threaten the President. The following was sent to President Eisenhower: "Address: to the Nigger lov ing President of the Jewnited States. Message: You will be judged in Heaven if you help those black apes. And I may put you there." , There are few light mo ments in the grim, life-or-rieath business of being a Se cret Service agent, but occa sionally a letter offers some comic relief. One signed "King Harry of Harriso IV" was sent to Eisenhower. King Harry advised the President that he was organizing a sep arate state, intended to se cede from the union and that if Eisenhower didn't go along SECTION D PAGES 1 to 8 MedfordTribune MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1962 Valley Described In Oregon Guide Medford, as "headquarters for the Crater Lake National park and the Rogue River Na tional forest," is described in a tour guide of the Oregon valley as part of a tourist pro motion program launched this month by the Sperry and Hutchinson company, distrib utors of S & H green stamps. Four tour guides plus a color souvenir book are avail able free at more than 800 Oregon service stations offer ing S & H green stamps. Medford is saluted as the center of the prolific pear and peach-producing area of the rich Rogue river valley, as an important lumbering city, as the home of an unusual Cat fish Derby, as the seat of the Jackson county fair, and as the "capitol" of southern Ore gon. Crater lake and Crater Lake National park are de tailed in a separate section. Also mentioned are Jackson ville. Rogue River, Gold Hill and Central Point. Travel guides and souvenir hooks will be backed up in tourist promotion by a state wide system of billboards list ing the scenic points of the local areas as well as calling attention tn local events, such as fairs and shows. By United Press International American presidents who have been assasinaled: Abraham Lincoln Fatally wounded by actor John Wilkes Booth in Ford s theater, Washington, April 14, 1865. James A. Garfield Fatally wounded by Charles J. Guiteau while entering Baltimore and Potomac railroad station in Washington, July 2, 1881. William McKinley Fatally wounded by Leon Czolgosz on Sept. 6, 1901, while attending Pan-American exposition at Buffalo, N.Y. Unsuccesful attempts to assassinate American presi dents: Theodore Roosevelt Wounded in the chest in Mil waukee, Oct. 14, 1912, after he had served as President and was campaigning for re-election on the Bull Moose ticket. Joseph Schrank, a saloon keeper who fired the shot because of his objection to a third term, was adjudged in sane and confined to an asyium. Franklin D. Roosevelt Joseph Zangara fired at him at Miami, Fla., on Feb. 15, 1933, just before Roosevelt took off ice. A woman knocked against Zangara's arm as he fired and the bullet fatally wounded Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago who was riding in an automobile with Roose velt. Zangara was electrocuted. Harry Truman Puerto Rican nationalists tried to shoot their way into Blair House, where Truman was living while the White House was being renvoated, on Nov. 1, 1950. One of the attackers, Griselio Torresola, was killed and Oscar Collazo was captured. White House guard Leslie Coffelt was fatally wounded. Collazo was tried for Coffelt's murder, sentenced to death and Truman commuted it to live imprisonment. er things besides drives, pitches and putts. Kennedy is by nature a Rregarious man and some times will walk into the mid dle of a crowd to talk and shake hands. When that hap pens, there is nothing the agents can do except sweat it out and try to stay as close as possible to him. Just the other day Kennedy was engulfed on the White House lawn by 2,200 foreign students who broke through the ropes and gave the Secret Service a bad time until they could fight their way into the throng and rescue him. Presi dents have to be protected from their friends as well as their enemies. One of the clos est calls Eisenhower ever had was during a trip to India with the program he would have to "reason with a .22 Winchester." Head of Club King Harry truned out to be a 12-year-old boy, head of a club whose members had sent in cereal box tops which entitled each of them to one square inch of territory in Alaska, where they intended to set up their kingdom. The Secret Service delegated the discipline to King Harry's mother who delivered a lec ture supplemented by corpo ral punishment. The Secret Service was founded in 1865, but it was not charged with the protec tion of the President until af ter the McKinley assassina tion. In 1913, Congress au thorized the service to pro tect the President-elect. On last election night 15 agents were standing by at the head quarters of Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon waiting to see who would win. The mo ment Kennedy won, they moved in and look charge of lu's daily routine and his schedule of trips. Technically, Secret Service Chief James J. Rowley is the most powerful man in the United States. He can forbid the President to take a walk or a trip to Mexico, he can tell him where to go fishing or forbid him to go at all. He can veto the choice of a sum mer residence and deprive Kennedy of the pleasure of seeing a Broadway show. The law charges the Secret Serv ice with protecting the Presi dent and it charges the Presi dent with obeying the Secret Service. Presidents Pose Problems Rowley almost never uses his veto power, but tries to accommodate himself to the President's wishes within the limits of security. Each Presi dent, of course, is a different personality and presents a different problem. Herbert Hoover apparently was the easiest President to guard be cause he knew the problems and abided by the decisions of the Secret Service. . Other Presidents, because of their living and recreation al habits, posed some tough problems. Calvin Coolidge, despite his austere exterior, had a pixie sense of humor and liked to hide from his guards when he was out walk ing. Franklin D. Roosevelt's physical handicap made it necessary for the Secret Service to carry a squad of carpenters to build ramps up which the President could walk slowly or be pushed in a wheel chair. They also had to be especially alert for night fires because Roosevelt could not move quickly in an emer gency. Harry Truman put many gray hairs in the heads of the agents with his early morning walks. On his first day In of fice he surprised the Secret Service by going for a walk before full light, thereby be coming a sitting duck for any sniper firing from a window or assassins in an automobile. Truman objected to too much fuss being made and, without his knowledge, the Service not only had agents walk with him but had others follow him in an automobile equipped with machine guns and tele scopic rifles. Golf Course Ideal A golf course with its hills, bushes and clumps of trees is an ideal set-up for an assassin, and the Secret Service ar ranged this routine to protect Eisenhower: two agents dress ed in golf clothes and carry ing bags containing rifles scouted the course in advance. Two others, also witn rifles in golf bags, walked on either side of Eisenhower. Close be hind him was an agent in an electric golf cart equipped with a walkie-talkie linked to the club house and a machine gun. Reporters soon learned there was no point in asking Secret Service agents about Eisenhower's golf score. They had to keep their eyes on oth- chief of the Secret Service. He was responsible for the safety of Truman and Eisen hower and, for a time, of Ken nedy. One of his la.-t cases was that of Richard P. Pav lick who loaded an automo bile with dynamite on Dec. 11, 1960, and parked outside of a residence in Palm Beach, Fla., intending to kill President-Elect Kennedy and, at the same time, blow himself into oblivion. It was a close call. Kennedy came out of the door and got into his automobile. Pavlick's plan was to ram his car into the one carrying the Presi-dent-Elect and let the dyna mite do the rest. He hesitated an dthen decided to wait and make his attempt when Ken nedy came out of church. The Secret Service got him before he got to the church. In a discreet book which he wrote alter retirement, called "Secret Service Chief," Baughmann describes the work load imposed upon the Service when a President at tends a banquet: Every hotel clerk, maid, bell boy and waiter is put through a security check. The cooks who prepare the food are given a special check and the food is sent to a labora tory for analysis. After the tests an agent stands guard over the food until the Presi dent eats it. On the day of the banquet agents search the hall, look under tables, exam ine the curtains and explore any closets. Eighty Secret Service agents then are as signed to guard every possi ble entrance to the banquet section of the hotel. Supervise Banquets The Secret Service super vised the printing of the ban quet tickets and three agents stood at the door to collect them and be sure none was counterfeit. At every table in the banquet hall a Secret Service man attired in white tie and tails sat among the guests. The Service throws what Baughmann calls "concentric rings" around a President on the theory that a would-be as sassin will have to penetrate several layers of agents to get at their target. The outer ring is fairly thin. The closer you come to the President, the thicker the ring of agents becomes, including the ones in white tie and tails who, of course, are carrying pistols. When Premier Nikita Khru shchev came to this country, Baughmann took a profession al interest in the technique used by his body guards. Ha says they seemed to be ob sessed with the fear some body was going to try to kill Khrushchev by putting radio active dust into his food. Tha Soviet agents refused to allow any dish to be served to Khrushchev until they had passed Gciger counters over it. Penney's POWERFUL LEADER-Tech-nically, U. S. Secret Service Chief James J. Rowley is the most powerful man in the United Slates. He can forbid the President to take a walk or a trip to Mexico, and make any other decisions regarding the chief executive s personal safety. The law charges the Secret Service with the pro tection of the President, and, in reverse, the President is charged with obeying the Se cret Service (UPI). when enthusiastic throngs al most overturned his car and ! crushed him. i The Secret Service has ; many things to do besides guarding the President. It is responsible for the apprehen sion of counterfeiters, for in stance, and only a small sec tion of the agents are assign ed to the White House detail. Unlike most government agencies, the Secret Service does not seek publicity. If you walked up to a White House gate and asked to see Kenne dy, you would not be met by a Secret Service agent. You would be talking to a uni formed member of the White House police force which operates under the direction of the Secret Service., Agents Assigned There probably are between 30 and 40 Secret Service agents assigned to the White House detail in shifts around the clock. When the President travels, they can call on the branch offices of the service and local law enforcement agencies for help. The man who probably knows more than anybody about protecting Presidents is U. E. Baughmann, who retired last year at the age of 56 as Grants Pass Calls Sewage System Bids Grants Pass Bids have been called on the construc tion of expansions of and ad ditions In the Grants Pass sewage treatment plant and system. Bids may hr submitted to the city's manager s office un til 2 p.m. Aug. 30. The project entails Installa tion of 10.300 feet of 18 to 30 inch sewer pipe, 450 feet of four to s'xinch service con nection pipe, two siphon un ricrcrossines of the Rogue riv er, manholes and other facil i'irs. Also up for hid are 3500 fret of 12 to 15-inch sewer pipe and 500 feet of four to six-inch service connection pine, manholes and other ltms in another portion of the project. Additions to the sewage treatment plant include a rump station, measuring and filteiin- equipment and a rhlnrinaUon control buildin; new asiuu -HURRY Y 5 LEFT Take Advantage of Tremendous Savings Now Dor-,' ing Our Big CAVALCADE OF CADILLACS Sale. 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