Clint Hill, Secret Service Agent Who Risked His Life to Protect JFK, Dies at 93

Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who risked his life on Nov. 22, 1963, in an attempt to protect then-President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, died on Friday, Feb. 21. He was 93 years old.

Hill’s wife, Lisa McCubbin Hill, confirmed his death on Monday, Feb. 24, writing, “He was the epitome of a gentleman. Humble, selfless, confident, brave, an encyclopedia of knowledge and experience about the 20th century until now. He knew history because he lived it.”

Hill was assigned to Jackie Kennedy’s security detail in 1960, and accompanied the first couple to Dallas on their fateful 1963 campaign trip. On Nov. 22, he was in the motorcade — just behind the president’s limousine — as they made their way to the Dallas Trade Mart where the president was scheduled to give a speech.

When a shot rang out, he kept his eyes trained on the president, who then grabbed his throat and fell to his left. Hill jumped off of his vehicle and then ran to the presidential limousine amid gunfire. He leapt onto the car, attempting to form a barrier between the gunman and the first couple, risking his life to save theirs.

In his most recent book, My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy, Hill revealed that he was so overwrought with guilt in the weeks after JFK’s assassination that he contemplated suicide

In December of 1963, Hill, who was the lead agent on Jackie’s detail, traveled to Palm Beach, Fla., to accompany the first lady and her two young children, Caroline and John, while they visited with the Kennedy family.

On that trip, he recounted one night when he could not escape the horrors of the assassination. “Guilt and anguish consumed me. All I could think about was Dallas. I was running as fast as I could, my arm reaching for the handholds on the trunk but it was like my legs were in quicksand. Mrs. Kennedy climbing out of the back seat, her terrified eyes looking but not seeing me, like I wasn’t there.”

Overcome by the memory, he walked out into the ocean, fully clothed. “Tears streamed down my cheeks, and as the cold water enveloped my legs, and then my chest, and up to my shoulders, the tears turned to sobs,” he wrote. “I wanted the water to swallow me up.”

Over the roar of the waves, he heard someone call his name, and suddenly a Palm Beach police officer was dragging him out of the ocean.

Revealing the truth years later, he said, was somewhat cathartic. “Somehow, there is a sense of freedom in no longer keeping that darkness to myself,” he wrote. “People will judge me, I’m sure. But no one — no one — has ever walked in my shoes.”

Hill, who joined the Secret Service in 1958, served five presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald Ford. He was a witness to history, and would always be remembered for his courage on Nov. 22, 1963.

In a commemorative edition of his book Five Days in November — his firsthand account of the assassination, co-written with his wife — Hill countered conspiracy theories that have long surrounding the assassination.

Speaking to PEOPLE, he said he was one of “very few people left who were present that day,”
noting, “we’ll all be gone soon and there will be no one left to tell the facts.”

“I thought it was important to get this out there — the factual documentation of what happened on Nov. 22, 1963.”

Still, 60 years after that day, the memories were never far away.

As he told PEOPLE in 2023: “There’s never been any closure. I’m reminded of it every day, whether it’s a photograph or a magazine or newspaper.” 

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“I should have done more,” Hill continued. “I should have gotten there quickly, but I know I’m not faster than a speeding bullet. But that causes me guilt that is difficult to live with.”

Hill is survived by his wife, Lisa McCubbin Hill, his two sons, Chris Hill and Corey Hill, five grandchildren and two step-grandsons.