+- Deep Politics Forum (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora)
+-- Forum: Deep Politics Forum (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora/forum-1.html)
+--- Forum: JFK Assassination (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora/forum-3.html)
+--- Thread: Bobby Hargis passes- from Dallas Morning News (/thread-12483.html)
Bobby Hargis passes- from Dallas Morning News - Dawn Meredith - 28-04-2014
Former Dallas motorcycle officer who was near Kennedy's car during shooting dies
19
0
0
1
AA
By MATTHEW WATKINS
Staff Writer
mwatkins@dallasnews.com
Published: 26 April 2014 11:41 PM
Updated: 27 April 2014 01:15 PM
Related
Retired Dallas Police officer Bobby Hargis was just a few feet behind Kennedy when shots rang out in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963.
Bobby Hargis, a former Dallas police officer whose motorcycle flanked John F. Kennedy's limousine at the moment the president was assassinated, died Friday in Cleburne. He was 81.
Hargis died of congestive heart failure after a long illness. His longtime friend, Michael Brownlow, announced the death. Funeral services are pending.
Hargis was just a few feet behind Kennedy when shots rang out in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963. The president's blood splashed the young officer's face and uniform. Ever since, Hargis has been a source of fascination to conspiracy buffs and others interested in the assassination.
The officer had worked for the Dallas Police Department for about nine years when Kennedy visited. He was one of four motorcyclists assigned to accompany the president's motorcade through downtown.
Years later, Hargis recalled feeling a sense of dread as he followed Kennedy past hordes of cheering onlookers. But he began to relax as the motorcade reached the end of downtown and prepared to turn onto Elm Street.
"I thought, Well, we've got it made now,'" he told The Dallas Morning News in 2003. "And then bam! It happens."
Months after the assassination, Hargis told an investigator for the Warren Commission that he heard a gunshot and saw a look of terror on the face of Texas Gov. John Connally, who was in the car with Kennedy. Hargis saw the president lean forward, but he thought Kennedy was simply trying to hear something that Connally, who was also wounded in the shooting, was trying to say.
"When President Kennedy straightened back up in the car, the bullet hit him in the head the one that killed him and it seemed like his head exploded," Hargis told the commission. "And I was splattered with blood and brain."
The limousine sped off, but Hargis stayed behind. He said he parked on the east side of Elm Street and ran up what is now known as the grassy knoll. Then, he jumped back on his motorcycle to search for anyone who may have been fleeing the scene.
Finally, he returned to the Texas School Book Depository, where investigators later determined that Lee Harvey Oswald had fired the fatal shots. Hargis stood guard there until he was relieved from duty.
Hargis told the Warren Commission he had no idea during those first few minutes where the shots originated. But the way he reacted and the fact that he had been spattered with blood fueled conspiracy theories for years. Many took it as evidence that there had been another shooter, perhaps on the grassy knoll.
Hargis rarely talked about the day of the assassination, said Danny Davis, a friend and former roommate.
"He was a very quiet man, and I don't ever remember him ever mentioning it, other than the fact that he was to the left of the motorcade," said Davis, a retired Dallas police lieutenant. "It wasn't his personality type. If you asked him about it, he might talk about it. But, other than that, he didn't bring it up himself."
But Hargis regularly heard from conspiracy theorists, journalists and historians who wanted to hear his story. He'd often comply, though he told The News in 1995 that he didn't buy the conspiracy theories.
The Rio Vista native remained a police officer for more than 35 years after Kennedy's death. Two years after the assassination, he was run over by a car while on his patrol motorcycle.
Doctors wanted to amputate his leg, Brownlow said, but Hargis wouldn't let them. He was forced to take medical leave for about six years. After that, he returned to the force and mostly stayed in administrative jobs.
"He loved his job and did it with honor and respect," Brownlow said.
Survivors include his wife, Lena, two sons, Richard Hargis and Spencer Hargis; and two daughters, Victoria Brown and Catherine Hargis.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at Crosier-Pearson Cleburne Funeral Home, 512 N. Ridgeway Drive in Cleburne. A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.
Bobby Hargis passes- from Dallas Morning News - Albert Doyle - 28-04-2014
How do you become a "Staff Writer" on the Dallas News? You repeatedly refer to conspiracy buffs and conspiracy theorists in your article as if you had the proven upper hand of credibility. You know, those kooks and crazies who were correctly shuffled off to the side while the correct-minded celebrated JFK in the Plaza on the 50th.
Bobby Hargis passes- from Dallas Morning News - Tracy Riddle - 29-04-2014
"...I felt blood hit me in the face, and the presidential car stopped immediately after that and stayed stopped about half a second, then took off at a high rate of speed. I racked my cycle and jumped off. I ran to the north side of Elm Street looking to see if I could find where the bullets came from. I don't think the President got hit with the first shot, but that I don't know for sure. When I heard the first shot, it looked like he bent over. I feel that the Governor was shot first. I could be wrong...When I saw the look on Connally's face, I knew somebody was shooting at the car...The fatal bullet struck the President in the right side of the head. I noticed the people in the Texas School Book Depository were looking up to see the top...I didn't know for sure if the shots had come from the Book Depository. I thought they might have come from the trestle. I couldn't locate anyone who looked suspicious, so I waited a few seconds then ran back to my motorcycle and went to the triple underpass to see if I could see anyone, but I didn't observe anything." (undated interview in archives of Dallas Times-Herald; Pictures of the Pain p209)
WC testimony: "Well, at the time it sounded like the shots were right next to me. There wasn't any way in the world I could tell where they were coming from, but at the time there was something in my head that said that they probably could have been coming from the railroad overpass, because I thought since I had got splattered, with blood--I was Just a little back and left of--Just a little bit back and left of Mrs. Kennedy, but I didn't know. I had a feeling that it might have been from the Texas Book Depository, and these two places was the primary place that could have been shot from."