Former agent says Kennedy assassination thwarted weeks before president's death

abc 7 Chicago ^ | Nov 23, 2007 | Chuck Goudie

[RDTF]

November 21, 2007 - A former Secret Service agent says there was a plot to kill president John F. Kennedy in Chicago three weeks before he was assassinated in Dallas.

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But Lee Harvey Oswald would never have had the chance to kill Kennedy in Dallas, had an assassination plot in Chicago succeeded three weeks earlier, a plot that has been mentioned over the years.

Kennedy was due to arrive in Chicago the morning of Saturday, November 2 to attend the Army-Air Force football game at Soldier Field and ride in a parade. Newspapers had even printed JFK's detailed travel plan from O'Hare to the Loop.

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Right-wing radical and Kennedy denouncer Thomas Vallee, had arranged to be off work for JFK's visit, Vallee, an expert marksman, was arrested with an M1 rifle, a handgun and 3,000 rounds of ammo. But then there was the phone call to federal agents from a motel manager concerning what was she saw in a room rented by two Cuban nationals.

"Had seen lying on the bed several automatic rifles with telescopic sights, with an outline of the route that President Kennedy was supposed to take in Chicago that would bring him past that building," said former Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden.

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When the Warren Commission began investigating JFK's assassination, Bolden says, he attempted to inform members about the Chicago plot and misconduct by his fellow agents.

During that time Bolden himself was arrested and prosecuted for soliciting a bribe from a counterfeiter and served a six-year sentence. He claims it was a set-up to silence him. The main witness has since recanted, and Bolden hopes now to clear his name.

A spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington said that officials "would not have any comment whatsoever about Mr. Bolden's statements."