The disappearance of the photographers' vehicle

[Tracy Riddle]

Any number of stories could have been told to SS agents to make them believe a simulated hit was in the works: generate sympathy for JFK going into 1964 (mean ol' right-wingers in Dallas try to kill the President); justify more funding, increased manpower and bigger field offices for the SS, or maybe the Operation Northwoods scenario of blaming Castro to justify a war. In any case, you can see several SS agents being recruited into something like this, and then when it turns out to be real, they keep their mouths shut to protect themselves and their agency.

The SS was feeling threatened back then. Hoover had been trying for years to absorb them into the FBI, and RFK was trying to bring them under his command at the Justice Dept. Who knows what they might have agreed to?