[Ben Holmes]

One of the first policemen that poured into the Grassy Knoll area immediately after the last shots were fired was Patrolman Joe Smith, who had rushed into the parking lot behind the fence because a women had told him that the shots had come "from the bushes." From his testimony:

Quote:... and this woman came up to me and she was just in hysterics. She told me, "They are shooting the President from the bushes." So I immediately proceeded up here.

Interestingly, in his testimony he also places the sound of the shots as coming from the Grassy Knoll - although by the time of his testimony he ascribes it to an "echo". Funny also, that he didn't mention the fact that he'd smelled gunpowder. But it's not exactly a secret that many eyewitnesses were carefully coached prior to their testimony.

But the most interesting point is the "Secret Service Agent" that he'd encountered, exactly where many eyewitnesses and the HSCA put a gunman:

Quote:Mr SMITH: Yes, sir; I checked all the cars. I looked into all the cars and checked around the bushes. Of course, I wasn't alone. There was some deputy sheriff with me, and I believe one Secret Service man when I got there. I got to make this statement, too. I felt awfully silly, but after the shot and this woman, I pulled my pistol from my holster, and I thought, this is silly, I don't know who I am looking for, and I put it back. Just as I did, he showed me that he was a Secret Service agent.
Mr. LIEBELER: Did you accost this man?
Mr. SMITH: Well, he saw me coming with my pistol and right away he showed me who he was.
Mr. LIEBELER: Do you remember who it was?
Mr. SMITH: No, sir; I don't--because then we started checking the cars.

From Anthony Summer's book, Conspiracy:

Quote:Secret Service agents, in 1963, were the essence of the crewcut, besuited American young man. The man encountered in the parking lot was different. As Officer Smith puts it, "He look like an auto mechanic. He had on a sports shirt and a sports pants. But he had dirty fingernails, it looked like, and hands that looked like an auto mechanic's hands. And afterwards it didn't ring true for the Secret Service. (Pg. 81)

Of course, we know know that there were no legitimate Secret Service agents on the Grassy Knoll. Besides Officer Smith and the unnamed Deputy Sheriff that was with him, others also saw this man... Gorden Arnold, Jean Hill, and officer John Tilson. (Tilson actually gave chase when this unknown man got into a black car, and went speeding off... Tilson actually got the license number before losing the suspect - but like so much evidence in this case, it simply disappeared).

Often, believers are fond of arguing that no other gunmen were seen, yet the facts are quite different. Someone producing false "Secret Service" identification argues for a conspiracy that was planned far in advance, and this bit of evidence for conspiracy might never have been noticed - until it was discovered that no Secret Service agents remained in Dealey Plaza after the shooting.

Another false "Secret Service" sighting was right behind the TSBD...

Quote:Mr. BELIN - Then you went around to the back of the building?
Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - Was anyone around in the back when you got there?
Mr. HARKNESS - There were some Secret Service agents there. I didn't get them identified. They told me they were Secret Service.

They weren't, of course. Who were they?

Why were so many "Secret Service" agents in Dealey Plaza? We have at least 3 men claiming to be Secret Service agents, yet we KNOW that they aren't. Trying to develop a non-conspiratorial explanation for these impostors has proven to be quite difficult for the believer's crowd...

For further information, here's one attempt, and it's rebuttal:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ljohns.txt
http://www.jfklancer.com/ManWho.html