Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Federal Agency Threat Reporting to the Secret Service

The State Department advised the Secret Service of all crank and threat letter mail, crank visitors, and reports concerning any assassination or attempted assassination of a foreign ruler or major official. Several military intelligence agencies reported crank mail and similar threats involving the President. According to Special Agent in Charge Bouck, the Secret Service had no standard procedure for the systematic review of its requests for, and receipt of, information from other federal agencies.

Inadequacy of Secret Service Protective Research Procedures

The Commission concluded that the facilities and procedures of the Protective Research Section of the Secret Service prior to November 22, 1963, were inadequate. PRS’s efforts were too largely directed at the “crank” threat. Although the Service recognized that advance preventive measures must encompass more than obvious dangers, it made little effort to identify factors in the activities of an individual or organized group—other than specific threats—suggesting a source of danger against which timely precautions could be taken. Except for its special “trip index” file of 400 names, no cases in the PRS general files were available for systematic review on a geographic basis when the President planned a particular trip.

PRS Failure to Address Dallas Pre-Visit Hostility

When the special file was reviewed on November 8, it contained no names of persons from the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area, despite Ambassador Stevenson having been abused by pickets in Dallas less than a month before. Bouck explained the failure to investigate the Stevenson incident on the ground that PRS required a more direct indication of a threat to the President, which did not exist until the President’s scheduled Dallas visit became known. The Commission found that this approach seriously undermined the precautionary nature of PRS work, since the presence of the Stevenson pickets might have created a danger for the President on any Dallas visit, and PRS should have investigated and been prepared to guard against it.