TESTIMONY OF ROBERT INMAN BOUCK
Mr. McCloy. Mr. Bouck, you know the purpose for which you are here?
Mr. Bouck. Yes, I do.
Mr. McCloy. And we are very happy to have you help us to acquit ourselves of our responsibility here in determining all of the relevant circumstances in connection with the assassination of the President.
I believe you are going to give us something of the routine by which Presidents are protected?
Mr. Bouck. Yes.
Mr. McCloy. I will ask you to rise and hold up your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear the testimony you give in this hearing will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. Bouck. I do.
Mr. Stern. Mr. Bouck, I would like to outline first the order of questioning I have in mind to give you a notion of how I would like to proceed and how you might respond to particular questions.
I would like to cover first your biographical background, then the functions of the Protective Research Section, generally the organization of the Section, the sources of information on which you rely regarding potentially dangerous people, the criteria you employ to determine when an individual might be dangerous, what you do with the information once you receive it, and then some detail on how your filing system is set up and operates, how do you get at data.
Then based on all that background information, the preparations that were actually made for the President's trip to Texas.
I will begin by asking you to state your name, age and address.
Mr. Bouck. My name is Robert Inman Bouck. I am 49 years of age. I live at 411 Norwood Drive, Falls Church, Va.
Mr. Stern. What is your education, Mr. Bouck, at the college level?
Mr. Bouck. I have a B.S. degree in police administration.
Mr. Stern. From what college?
Mr. Bouck. From Michigan State College.
Mr. Stern. And that was awarded when?
Mr. Bouck. 1939.
Mr. Stern. What is your experience in the Secret Service—when did you join the Service?
Mr. Bouck. I came to the Service in 1939 upon leaving college. From 1939 to 1945 I worked on protective assignments for the President and the presidential family and other people in the Washington area.
From 1945 until 1951 I worked in Chief's office on supervising and reorganizing various activities in the Chief's office.
In 1951 I was loaned to the Treasury Department as coordinator, I organized schools and directed them in the enforcement area until 1957, and in 1957 was assigned to the present job I now have of Special Agent-in-Charge, Protective Research.
Mr. Stern. Mr. Bouck, I show you this document of six pages which has been marked Commission Exhibit No. 760.
Can you identify that for me?
Mr. Bouck. Yes. This is a memorandum of December 3 that I prepared, also a second memorandum of December 3 that I prepared.
Mr. Stern. And these were prepared in response to instructions to you?
Mr. Bouck. In response to instructions from my headquarter's office, yes.
Mr. Stern. With the help of these memoranda I would like to touch briefly upon the functions of the Protective Research Section that you head—for the moment those functions other than with respect to persons of concern as a possible danger to the President.
If you will turn to the last page of this exhibit, there are a list of other duties of PRS, and would you explain briefly those and give some idea of the magnitude of the task involved?
Mr. Bouck. Yes.
The manufacture and control of White House passes are the admittance passes to the White House issued to the press, employees and others who have occasion to come to the White House or the Executive Office Building that houses White House staff. This is some four to five thousand, fluctuating in volume.
The procurement and evaluation of character investigations and clearances for some categories of employees, these are the employees that passes are issued to and these are the clearances that we require.
Some of them we investigate ourselves, many of them are investigated by other agencies, and we review and evaluate the results, the number being roughly the same as the number of passholders in this category.
The procurement of national agency file checks and determination of admittance restrictions on a large number of tradesmen, contract employees and so forth who service the White House—these are non-White House employees. These are people who come to fix typewriters, clean rugs and that sort of thing.
Mr. Stern. Approximately how many people are involved in that category, Mr. Bouck.
Mr. Bouck. This, we have a file of about 20,000 of these people, about 4,000 are active at any one time, and several hundred a month turn over in this.
Item No. 4, control of security processing of mail and gifts received at the White House, this is done by postal and White House employees under X-rays and security equipment provided by us under our guidance and we take over whenever any dangerous situation is indicated. This varies at Christmas time, when there are many hundreds of items reviewed; normally a few a day.
No. 5, handling and disposition of suspicious packages or objects that may contain bombs or infernal devices; we have a bomb transporting truck, we have bomb analyzing equipment, we have a location and a place where we can dismantle bombs, and this, I am happy to say, we have had many scares but we have not had the real thing. We do this frequently as a precaution on things that we cannot analyze under the X-ray, but we have not actually had a bomb at the White House.
Mr. Dulles. May I ask where is the White House mail handled, right in the White House itself?
Mr. Bouck. No; it is handled in the Executive Office Building which is across the street from the White House.
Mr. Dulles. The old State, War and Navy Building?
Mr. Bouck. Yes, sir.
No. 6, evaluation of safety and control of disposition of all foods, beverages and similar consumable items received by the President or White House as gifts.
We do not, even though these are handled by White House and post office employees, we pass judgment as to whether any consumable item may be used and under what conditions it may be used or whether it must be destroyed. This particular function we do entirely.
And again at Christmas time and birthdays it would be very high, many hundreds of items. Other times a few a day.
No. 7, control and investigation of——
Mr. McCloy. Can I interrupt there, have you had any poisoned foods?
Mr. Bouck. We think not at the White House, but this we are always watchful for. We have some food that we think sanitationwise is very bad, it smells bad, it looked bad, some has spoiled and some have been prepared under very bad conditions but we know of no actual case of intended poison. We have had some where poisons may have generated because spoilage has set in.
Mr. McCloy. Yes. You don't have a royal taster, do you? (Laughter.)
Mr. Bouck. No, I am afraid we do not.
Control investigations on personnel and establishments that are supply sources for food, beverages, drugs and so forth, these are the places that the White House buys those supplies. We find out from the White House where they would like to buy, we check on the employees of these establishments, we check on the procedures by which it is handled, and we check on the sources of their food, where they get the raw materials.
This is an investigative process and a control process.
Representative Ford. How often do you go through this process?
Mr. Bouck. The process is continuous in that the control, for instance a White House policeman goes and picks up, when the food is picked up. But the reinvestigation is every 6 months. We take a new look at each of these establishments every 6 months to see if any change has occurred. In between times we have arrangements with Public Health to make frequent health inspections, much more frequent than an ordinary establishment would be inspected.
Representative Ford. If there is a change of an employee at one of these shops or stores, are you notified?
Mr. Bouck. We are supposed to be notified. Sometimes we aren't aware until we make the next check, although our White House policeman and our purchasing people do keep watch for this and usually we have established that only a small percentage of the people who handle White House orders, perhaps the manager and one clerk. It works quite well.
No. 8, the performance of technical and electronic inspections to protect against covert listening devices.
This is something that has been done for a great many years, the volume has gotten quite great in recent years, and we do this regularly at the White House and for the people close to the President, we do it regularly when he has stopover points on trips.
Mr. Dulles. Do you ever call the FBI in on this or do you have your own staffs to handle this detection of listening devices?
Mr. Bouck. We have our own staff but we frequently use people of other agencies, including the FBI where they have specialties or are able to perform something better than we could.
Mr. Dulles. Did you consider there is any duplication there, I mean of facilities in government?
Mr. Bouck. No; I think not. This really requires bodies, and if there is——
Mr. Dulles. And skills?
Mr. Bouck. Yes; and if, once in a while a special skill is required that we do not possess then we turn to another agency to help us.
No. 9, determination of feasibility of application, establishment of specifications for procurement, and assistance in maintaining operation of a wide variety of electronic and technical protective aids. These are alarms, both for hazards, intrusion, and all sorts of dangers where a mechanical or electronic device can augment personal services.
Mr. Dulles. Could I just ask on that, do you have arrangements, say, with the FBI, CIA and others to keep abreast of the art, as it were?
Mr. Bouck. Yes.
Mr. Dulles. I have in mind that time when we discovered the Russians had developed a new device and applied it in the Embassy in Moscow, you may recall which was quite novel, when they put in a hollow cavity inside the shield of the Great Seal of the United States, and then they could beam on that and they could listen to conversations in the room. That type of thing, you would be following that up through the FBI or through the CIA?
Mr. Bouck. Very much so, yes.
We have rather low resources in those areas so the other agencies in the areas of research and development and hardware help us continuously and very well.
Mr. Stern. Now these, Mr. Bouck, as I understand it, are the functions of PRS which it has in addition to its main responsibility, and would you describe that just briefly and we will get to that in a minute.
Mr. Bouck. Yes, the other responsibility that is not listed here, is the responsibility of attempting to detect persons who might intend harm to the President, and to control those persons or take such corrective measures as we can take securitywise on them.
Representative Ford. I am not sure I understand that.
Mr. Bouck. This is an effort to detect people who might intend to harm the President, people who make threats against the President, people who do things that indicate they may intend to harm him, and the various sort of things we do to see that they do not accomplish that, to prevent them from accomplishing them.
Mr. Dulles. Does your particular office maintain the central files for your agency?
Mr. Bouck. For this function?
Mr. Dulles. For this function.
Mr. Bouck. Yes.
Mr. Dulles. I mean if the FBI sent in to the Secret Service a name or a description of a particular man, or a particular area that would be filed in your office?
Mr. Bouck. That is right.
Mr. Dulles. Do you file that alphabetically, by location or how do you develop those files?
Mr. Bouck. The information in its file jackets is filed numerically but it is indexed alphabetically and by location as well as by certain other characteristics that may help us find it.
Mr. McCloy. To come back to this matter of bugging again, do you feel that you are thoroughly well equipped, which is a repetition perhaps of what Mr. Dulles asked, Mr. Dulles' question, do you have an expert staff that know this business and that keep up to date with the developments in the area, and that can constantly keep your equipment in shape?
Mr. Bouck. Yes; I think so. I think we, our contacts with the intelligence community in this area are very excellent. Our people are excellent. I think our big problem has been one of enough resources.
Mr. McCloy. How many bodies have you got in this field?
Mr. Bouck. I have three bodies devoted entirely to it, myself and my assistant have also had years of experience, and we devote part-time to this, which makes approximately four and a half full time bodies.
Mr. Stern. This might be a good opportunity, Mr. McCloy, to introduce this document, marked Commission Exhibit No. 761.
Do you recognize that?
Mr. Bouck. Yes, sir.
Mr. Stern. Did you prepare it.
Mr. Bouck. I prepared it.
Mr. Stern. And what is it?
Mr. Bouck. It is a chart showing the staffing of the Protective Research Section as of the time of Dallas.
Mr. Stern. And the category you were just explaining to Mr. McCloy is the last one?
Mr. Bouck. That is right.
Mr. Dulles. Do you protect from this point of view anyone other than the President? Do you cover, say, the Vice President's offices in the Capitol?
Mr. Bouck. Yes, sir.
Mr. Dulles. You do that, too?
Mr. Bouck. Yes, sir.
Mr. Dulles. As far as safes are concerned and as far as listening devices are concerned?
Mr. Bouck. Not safes.
Mr. Dulles. Not safes?
Mr. Bouck. That has not been something that they have desired us to do. But insofar as——
Mr. Dulles. Why shouldn't you do that, I wonder, where he keeps his secret papers? You mean you don't——
Mr. Bouck. That has not been something that has been determined as our responsibility. I believe other security officers have been given that responsibility, and we certainly, of course, help when we find something in that category, but we have not been asked at any of those levels to take care of safes.
Mr. Dulles. But you do take care of listening devices?
Mr. Bouck. Yes, sir.
Mr. Dulles. And for anybody else other than the Vice President in addition to the White House and the President?
Mr. Bouck. The White House, the President, the Vice President, the close members of the Presidential staff, and the Secretary of the Treasury.
Mr. Dulles. Well, would that involve the homes, for example, of the close members of the President's staff?
Mr. Bouck. The very high members, yes, not all, but the very high members. I think we do about six or seven homes of such people. The rest is office and working areas.
Mr. McCloy. I have some question, I may say, that you have got enough people to do this from what I know of the art. This is quite a technical business now.
Mr. Bouck. Yes, I know.
Mr. McCloy. And the means of counteracting it and so forth, and the constant surveillance that you have to employ, but you are satisfied you are well equipped and have got sufficient people to do it?
Mr. Bouck. As I mentioned earlier, I think we are well equipped in know-how and in equipment. Sometimes we are pressed very hard for enough hours to do it but our people have worked many hours overtime and I think they have covered this quite well.
Representative Ford. What results have you obtained? Have you found any problems?
Mr. Bouck. We have not in the United States found any compromise. I am not sure that perhaps in the open record I should go beyond that.
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. McCloy. On the record.
Mr. Stern. From Exhibit 761, Mr. Bouck, it appears that in the area of processing information regarding threats, potential threats to the life of the President, there are six people presently working in addition to yourself and your assistant, one a clerk and five special agents, as they are designated is that correct? This is as of the time of Dallas.
Mr. Bouck. This is as of the time of Dallas.
Mr. Stern. These special agents are agents who would otherwise be involved in protective work or in the other activities of the Secret Service, counterfeiting and the like?
Mr. Bouck. Yes.
Mr. Stern. Is there something about their general training that makes them particularly desirable in this work or is it the absence of other people that leads to the use of special agents in this work?
Mr. Bouck. They have been selected because of an apparent aptitude for this work. Some of them, not all, but most of them have had many years of background in this work that increases their competence.
Mr. Stern. Are these men permanently assigned to this function or do they rotate?
Mr. Bouck. They are susceptible to other assignment, but this assignment is something that may continue until the Chief should decide it was in the interest of the Service to change. It can and has gone many years for most of us. They do not automatically rotate.
Mr. Stern. I see.
As of the time of Dallas the total number of people in the Protective Research Section was 15 of which 3 were clerks, is that correct?
Mr. Bouck. That is correct.
Mr. Dulles. Could I ask one question that goes back to our earlier discussion? At the present time the Speaker is next in line in case anything should happen to the President.
Do you extend any special protective facilities as far as he is concerned?
Mr. Bouck. This, we are kind of in an advance area here. I do handle mail that may come in the Protective Research area but I don't think I am quite qualified to speak on the entire Secret Service relationship to the Speaker, if I might seem not——
Mr. Dulles. What I was getting at was whether there were any special protection afforded now in view of his, in a sense new position as being next in line.
Mr. McCloy. He is in effect the Vice President.
Mr. Dulles. He is in effect the Vice President.
Mr. Bouck. Yes, I realize that, and I believe this gets into some areas that involve the wishes of the Speaker, that make this question a little bit difficult to answer, and I would say we do do what comes to our attention that we can, but I think the Chief is probably in a better position to indicate what degree we have gone. I am not really overly familiar with the exact extent of that degree except as it may apply here but we do handle in the crank area, and in the Protective Research subject area, we do handle that material as we would handle it for the President or Vice President when we are able to get it.
Mr. McCloy. Off the record.
(Discussion off the record.)