Paul Landis was at the centre of a pivotal moment in US political history
US President John F Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy smile at the crowds lining their motorcade route in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Minutes later the President was dead.
Paul Landis stood guard outside Parkland Memorial Hospital’s Trauma Room No 1 as Fr Oscar Huber rushed past. It was just before 1pm on Friday, November 22, 1963. Less than half an hour earlier, Landis had been riding on the running board of a Secret Service car when he witnessed President John F Kennedy’s murder up close as the motorcade drove through Dallas’s Dealey Plaza.
Now, as the 28-year-old agent kept an eye on his official protectee, the stunned first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, he watched Huber enter the trauma room to deliver Kennedy’s last rites.
