Rawhide Down (41 page)

thinking about Oswald
: Interview with Danny Spriggs.

McCarthy exploded
: Dennis McCarthy testimony during a pretrial evidence suppression hearing.

Agent Jim Varey watched
: Interviews with Varey and Ahearn, as well as their FBI and Secret Service reports.

leaped from the front passenger seat
: Interview with Gordon; Gordon Secret Service report.

“Let’s go!”
: Robert Weakley Secret Service report (redacted). Weakley was a Secret Service protective support technician and the driver of the spare limousine.

Dan Ruge, who was standing
: Dan Ruge FBI report; interview with Tom Ruge, son of Dr. Ruge.

“Doctor, get in that car!”
: Interview with Tom Ruge.

as Mary Ann Gordon climbed
: Ruge FBI report.

his first impulse was to jump
: Interview with Shaddick; Shaddick Secret Service report.

“We’ve had shots fired”
: Treasury report.

One climbed through the open right rear door
: Interview with Russell Miller; Miller Secret Service report.

The other agent
: Dalton McIntosh Secret Service report.

it was still 2:27 p.m.
: Trainor, manning the Secret Service command post, checked a clock when he heard the reports of the shooting and noted it was 2:27 p.m., according to his Secret Service report. The Treasury report also notes the time of the shooting as 2:27. The FBI report put the shooting at about 2:25. I relied on the times in the Treasury report because it is the most exhaustive government account of the shooting and the actions of Secret Service agents.

people were frightened and upset
: Various FBI reports and newspaper accounts.

Seeing an agent
: Interview with Carolyn Parr.

“He’s with the Man”
: News coverage of the shooting; Wanko is the agent with the Uzi.

7: “I Can’t Breathe”

As the president’s limousine
: Interview with Parr; Parr Secret Service report and Parr FBI report (redacted).

Reagan sat slumped
: Interview with Parr.

he looked like an exhausted basketball
: Interview with Parr.

“Were you hit?”… Reagan said
: Unrue Secret Service report (redacted); Parr FBI report (redacted).

Parr fumbled for the radio
: Interview with Parr.

“Give me the radio”
: Interviews with Parr and Unrue.

“Rawhide is okay”
: Treasury report; transcript of radio calls provided by the Secret Service. All radio dialogue in this section comes from the Treasury report, Secret Service reports, or the transcript of the radio calls.

A few seconds later
: Treasury report.

the president looked as if
: Interview with Parr.

“I think you hurt my rib”
: Interview with Parr; Parr FBI report (redacted); Reagan FBI report.

“Is it your heart?” Parr asked
: Unrue Secret Service report (redacted).

it was coated in blood
: Interview with Parr.

“I think I cut the inside”
: Parr FBI report (redacted).

Half kneeling, half sitting
: Interview with Parr.

Hunched forward in the driver’s seat
: Interview with Unrue; Unrue Secret Service report (redacted); Unrue FBI report.

Unrue saw two agents, their Uzis drawn
: Unrue Secret Service report (redacted).

About a mile from the Hilton
: Weakley Secret Service report (redacted).

D.C. police officers were not far behind
: D.C. police officers’ FBI reports.

Jerry Parr examined the president
: Interview with Parr.

was now pressing his handkerchief to his lips
: Interview with Parr.

“I think we should go to the hospital”
: Unrue FBI report (redacted).

“Get us to George Washington as fast as you can”
: Unrue Secret Service report (redacted).

“We want to go to the emergency room of George Washington”
: Treasury report.

“Go to George Washington
fast
”
: Treasury report; Secret Service transcripts.

“Get an ambulance, I mean, get a stretcher out there,” Parr said
: Treasury report; Secret Service transcripts.

streaked across L Street
: Gordon Secret Service report.

Mary Ann Gordon tried to reach
: Gordon Secret Service report.

she received no reply
: Interview with Gordon.

“We have to get in front of the limo”
: Gordon Secret Service report.

The spare limousine made the sharp right
: Gordon Secret Service report.

It was the so-called route car
: Timothy Burns Secret Service report; Secret Service report of unidentified driver of route car. Burns was a passenger in the route car.

Only Jerry Parr knew
: Interviews with various agents and police officers; review of Secret Service reports.

Deaver had scrambled
: Deaver,
Behind the Scenes
, p. 17; interview with Fischer.

Fischer reached over
: Interview with Fischer.

Holding back tears, he started to pray
: Interview with Fischer.

A few blocks away
: Interview with Trainor; Trainor Secret Service report; interview with Guy; Guy Secret Service report; Treasury report.

Drew Unrue asked Jerry Parr
: Interviews with Unrue and Parr.

The two agents with Uzis
: McIntosh Secret Service report; interview with Miller; Frederick White Secret Service report; interview with White.

I guess he wants to: Interview with Parr.

He steadied himself and hitched
: Interview with Fischer; Deaver,
A Different Drummer
, p. 135.

So far, so good: Deaver,
A Different Drummer
, p. 135.

Fischer felt less
: Interview with Fischer.

It was 2:30 p.m.
: Shaddick radioed Trainor at the command post that they had arrived, and Trainor checked the clock to mark the time, according to Trainor’s Secret Service report.

a 512-bed medical center
: “Excitement, Inconvenience; Reagan Stay Has Its Effect on GW Hospital,”
WP
, April 2, 1981, p. A6.

a dozen or so patients
: White Secret Service report. He estimated that there were twelve to fifteen patients in the area of the emergency room.

In Trauma Bay 5
: Interviews with Dr. Joyce Mitchell, Kathy Paul, and Bob Hernandez; contemporaneous notes taken by Kathy Paul;
The Saving of the President.

“I’m tired of my buddies getting shot down!”
: Paul notes; interview with Paul.

Mitchell knew that anyone
:
The Saving of the President.

was wheeled to a nearby room
: Interviews with Paul and Mitchell.

A moment later, a small white telephone began
: Interviews with Wendy Koenig and Mitchell.

A busy clerk at the nurses’ station
: Interview with Koenig.

a gruff male voice
: Interview with Koenig.

“That means the president is coming here”
: Interview with Koenig.

“
I have to cancel,” she told
: Interview with Judith Whinerey.

Whinerey told a clerk
:
The Saving of the President
.

“We have three gunshot”
: John Pekkanen, “The Saving of the President,”
Washingtonian
, August 1981.

Wendy Koenig hurried
: Interviews with Whinerey, Mitchell, Paul, and Koenig.

Near the nurses’ station
: Interview with White; White Secret Service report. White, a civilian Secret Service employee, was in the hospital helping the daughter of a friend who had broken her ankle.

Kathy Paul watched as
: Interview with Paul.

“This is the president, let’s”
: Parr FBI report (redacted).

“I feel like I can’t breathe”
: Interview with Paul; Paul notes.

felt suddenly overwhelmed
: Interview with Mitchell.

“Was he shot?” she asked
: Interview with Mitchell.

“No, we think he got an elbow in the ribs”
: Interview with Mitchell.

“Maybe broke a rib”
: Interview with Parr.

Seeing the president
: The description of Reagan collapsing in the emergency room and being taken to the trauma bay was derived from interviews with Hernandez, Parr, Shaddick, Paul, and Mitchell, as well as several others at the scene; I also relied on a number of Secret Service and FBI reports, including those from Hernandez and his partner.

196 pounds of
: Reagan’s GW physical examination form listed his weight as 196 pounds.

Paul was dizzy
: Interview with Paul.

having a heart attack right here
: Paul notes; interview with Paul.

Please don’t die: Interview with Paul.

Hernandez, the paramedic, was convinced
: Interview with Hernandez.