Lbj's driver

[Bernice Moore]

FROM FROG THANKS...B

I was asked a question today that I could not answer and perhaps you know the correct response. I suspect the answer could be significant. Why was Herschel Jacks, a TDPS employee, I believe, the limo driver for LBJ and not a Secret Service agent?

Good question: Johnson despised the Secret Service and avoided them whenever possible; JFK got legislation put through to give LBJ SS protection, which he did not want. Hurchel Jacks was, as you note, TDPS, a compromise between SS and local cops, whom Johnson also did not like. There's a story in Sneed's book about LBJ telling Jacks to force one of the motorcycles alongside the car off the road, which was attempted.

I'm sure you remember that LBJ was not, even after JFK's death, driven to Love Field by the SS. Jesse Curry got that duty, not the SS...



hope all's well


LBJ asked that Al Johnson drive him to the Boston Federal Building in 1964 when he visited for the first time as President, Al was the Mass. State Police Special Attorney while being F Lee Bailey’s partner in the Hearst case. There were trial runs at 50MPH, which LBJ requested, since he thought that he was a target. Suspicions of the USSS is something I never thought about until now. Perhaps he heard something we didn’t hear. Al was also present at the funeral of RFK, with a raincoat draped over his arm. Was close to Tip O’Neil.