Secret Service Almost Shot LBJ After JFK Assassination

New book reveals fresh details about tragedy
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 20, 2010 7:35 AM CDT
Secret Service Almost Shot LBJ After JFK Assassination
circa 1962: US President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington, DC.   (Getty Images)

We almost lost a second president just hours after losing JFK, according to The Kennedy Detail, an account of the assassination by members of the president’s security detail. In it, retired agent Gerald Blaine admits to nearly shooting the VP-turned-president, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Blaine was protecting Johnson’s house the night after the assassination when he heard someone approaching and grabbed his Thompson submachine gun.

“He'd expected the footsteps to retreat with the loud sound of the gun activating, but they kept coming closer,” the book reads. “The next instant, there was a face to go with the footsteps. The new President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, had just rounded the corner, and Blaine had the gun pointed directly at the man's chest.” Click here for more from the book via the Huffington Post—it also dismisses rumors that Marilyn Monroe had an affair with Kennedy.
(More JFK assassination stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X