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
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