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Topics: US News
Claire Reid
The former bodyguard of John F Kennedy has shared what really happened during the assassination of the US president in 1963.
Clint Hill, 90, has spoken out after the US government released more than 13,000 unredacted documents related to the assassination.
Hill has dismissed various conspiracy theories that have been touted about the killer Lee Harvey Oswald and insists that the killer was simply ‘in the right place at the right time’.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, said he’d been asked ‘thousands of times’ by conspiracy theorists about what happened that day, with many refusing to believe Oswald acted alone.
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He said: “When you say conspiracy theories, that sums it up, the word theories, there's no fact involved, it is strictly guess work.”
Kennedy was being driven through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top car on November 22, 1963 when he was shot in the head by Oswald.
The convoy had passed by the Texas School Book Depository, when Oswald fired at the President from a sixth floor window.
Hill had been in the Secret Service vehicle directly behind the one carrying Kennedy.
Recalling the tragedy, Hill said: “I heard an explosive noise over my right shoulder from the rear. I didn't recognise exactly what it was at first, so I started to turn toward the noise to see if I could identify it.
"I saw President Kennedy grab at his neck. He started to fall to his left.
“I realised that what I had heard was a gunshot. I jumped from my position from the follow-up car, running as fast as I could towards the Presidential vehicle, with the intention of getting on top of the back of the car to form a shield or barricade there to protect both the President and Mrs Kennedy.
“Unfortunately just before I got there, another shot was fired and it hit the President in the head and it was a fatal wound."
Hill was asked if he believed any of the recently released unredacted documents would reveal new information or insights, to which he said he didn’t ‘think there is any additional important information out there’.
Releasing the full documents this week, President Joe Biden said: “Pursuant to my direction, agencies have undertaken a comprehensive effort to review the full set of almost 16,000 records that had previously been released in redacted form and determined that more than 70 percent of those records may now be released in full.
“This significant disclosure reflects my administration's commitment to transparency and will provide the American public with greater insight and understanding of the government's investigation into this tragic event in American history.”