William Greer

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John F. Kennedy's car moments before he was murdered. William Greer as the driver at the bottom left (the face is half covered).

William Robert Greer (born September 22, 1909 in Stewartstown , County Tyrone , Ireland , † February 23, 1985 in Waynesville , North Carolina ) was an American security officer who gained fame as the driver of the car in which John F. Kennedy on Was murdered November 22, 1963 in Dallas .

Life

Early years

William Greer was born in Ireland where he attended public school and then worked on a farm. In 1930 he emigrated to the USA, where he found work as a chauffeur. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he did his military service in the US Navy . After World War II , he joined the United States Secret Service in October 1945 . He joined the White House in 1951 , and for the next thirteen years drove Harry S. Truman , Dwight D. Eisenhower and, most recently, John F. Kennedy.

The assassination

On November 22, 1963, Greer chauffeured President Kennedy through Dallas. In the car, a dark blue 1961 Lincoln Continental X-100 with the top down, sat First Lady Jackie Kennedy , Governor John Connally with his wife Nellie, and Secret Service employee Roy Kellerman. When they turned off Elm Street into Dealey Plaza , the car was shot at. Greer steered the car to the left and slowed to look for the president. At that moment, Kennedy was shot again in the head. Greer sped to the Parkland Memorial Hospital four miles away, where the president's death was determined. Greer was subsequently criticized by several eyewitnesses for slowing down the car. Senator Ralph Yarborough , who drove behind Kennedy in a car with Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, noted that intelligence officers should be trained to react quickly when they heard a gunshot. Kennedy's assistant Kenneth O'Donnell also criticized Greer's reactions and wondered if Kennedy would still be alive if the chauffeur had accelerated in time. On November 22nd, Greer asked the president's widow for forgiveness for his misconduct. At Jackie Kennedy's request, Greer drove the car that was taking the president's body for an autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland . Before the Warren Commission , which was charged with investigating the assassination, Greer later testified that he had heard three shots, all of them from behind, that is, from the textbook depot where Kennedy's alleged murderer, Lee Harvey Oswald , worked.

Last years

Because of his behavior during the attack, Greer did not experience any professional disadvantages in the period that followed. He stayed with the Secret Service until he retired early because of a chronic stomach ulcer that had worsened after the attack. In 1973 he moved to Waynesville, Haywood County , North Carolina , where he died of cancer in 1985.

Web links

Commons : William Greer  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerald L. Posner : Case Closed. Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK. Random House, New York NY 1993, ISBN 0-679-41825-3 , p. 234.
  2. ^ William Manchester : The Death of a President. November 20 - November 25, 1963. Harper & Row, New York NY et al. 1967, p. 290.
  3. ↑ Vincent Bugliosi : Four Days in November. The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. WW Norton, New York NY 2007, ISBN 978-0-393-33215-5 , p. 219.
personal data
SURNAME Greer, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Greer, William Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chauffeur and member of the United States Secret Service
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Stewartstown , County Tyrone , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1985
Place of death Waynesville , North Carolina