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{{Short description|U.S. Secret Service agent (1915–1984)}}{{Primary sources|date=April 2023}}

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Macomb County, Michigan, United States>U.S.1984223|14}}St. Petersburg, Florida, United States>U.S.St. Petersburg, Florida, United States>U.S.}}Roy Herman Kellerman (March 14, 1915 – March 22, 1984) was a U.S. Secret Service senior agent who was assigned to protect United States President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas. In his reports, later testimony and interviews, Kellerman outlines in detail his role in the immediate aftermath of the assassination.

History

Kellerman, a New Baltimore, 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. In 1965, Kellerman was promoted to "deputy special agent in charge", replacing Floyd Boring.NEWS, LBJ 'Shield' Gets Special Capital Post,weblink May 25, 2013, The Spokesman-Review, January 9, 1965, Spokane, Washington, 1, He retired from the Secret Service in 1968 as an assistant administrator.Kellerman died in St. Petersburg, Florida, on March 22, 1984, eight days after his 69th birthday.

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

As the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of November 22, 1963, Shift Team No. 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 along with Secret Service agents William Greer, Clint Hill, and Rufus Youngblood, provided testimony to the Warren Commission in Washington, D.C., on March 9, 1964.BOOK, Hearings Before the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Volume II,weblink 1964, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 61–112, Testimony Of Roy H. Kellerman, Special Agent, Secret Service,weblink {{harvid, Hearings Before the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Volume II, 1964, }}Kellerman testified, "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."Roy Kellerman Treasury department report dated 11-29-63, also Warren Commission Report, Volume 18, page 724He further testified to the Warren Commission that the assassination then ended in a "flurry of shells" coming into the limousine.Warren Commission testimony, starting in Warren Commission Volume 2, page 62The House Select Committee on Assassinations declared in 1979 that "the Secret Service was deficient in the performance of its duties" at the time of the assassination,House Select Committee on Assassinations Final Report, p. 227. and that President Kennedy did not receive adequate protection in Dallas.House Select Committee on Assassinations Final Report, p. 229-35. Regarding the conduct of Secret Service Agent Roy Kellerman, the HSCA noted:No actions were taken by the agent in the right front seat of the Presidential limousine [Roy Kellerman] to cover the President with his body, although it would have been consistent with Secret Service procedure for him to have done so. The primary function of the agent was to remain at all times in close proximity to the President in the event of such emergencies.House Select Committee on Assassinations Final Report, p. 234-35.According to an interview given in 1981 after John Hinckley, Jr.'s attempt to assassinate President Reagan in 1981, Kellerman did not believe there was a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy.NEWS, Mann, Jimmy, Assassination Try Stirs Former Agent's Memories,weblink March 4, 2013, Evening Independent, April 2, 1981, St. Petersburg, Florida, 18-A, However, in 1994, Vanity Fair published an article by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan in which they quoted Kellerman's widow, June, as stating he "accepted that there was a conspiracy."MAGAZINE, Summers, Anthony, Anthony Summers, Swan, Robbyn, December 1994, The Ghosts of November, Vanity Fair, 57, 12, 88,

In popular culture

In the 2013 film Parkland, actor Tom Welling played the role of Kellerman.WEB,weblink Tom Welling Heads to Parkland, ComingSoon.net, January 31, 2013,

References

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• Philip H. Mellanson, with Peter F. Stevens, The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency, (Carroll & Graf, 2002), p. 77.
• Obit, The Washington Post, March 30, 1984

External links

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• {{Find a Grave|25757775}}

{{Assassination of John F. Kennedy}}