No More Silence: An Oral History of the Assassination of President Kennedy

Vincent Drain

VINCENT DRAIN Special Agent, FBI "We had no indication that Oswald was dangerous...! didn't consider him a threat then, and it was my responsibility to notify the Secret Service ofany potential problems. I would have gotten the information from Hosty's supervisor but didn't and, of course, that's part ofhistory... " Vincent Drain attended what is now the University of North Texas in Denton then took civilian pilot training for the Air Corps. After being washed out due to imperfect vision, Drain taught school and coached football prior to his joining the FBI in 1941. The last time I had seen the President was when I sat with the Rayburn family at the funeral of Sam Rayburn in 1961. I was with the President at the church, at the cemetery, and then at the Rayburn home before he left for the West Coast. On November 22nd, 1963, I'd gone down to get a sandwich for lunch and had returned to my office at 1114 Commerce Street after the parade passed to continue doing dictation. As was the usual manner, we monitored the police radio. From that it was flashed that the President had been shot and that they were en route to Parkland Hospital. I knew where they were taking him because I had been privileged to sit in on some meetings with the Secret Service the previous four or five days in the event that 246 NOM 0 RES ILEN C E either he or the Vice-President were shot. Quickly I took my car and went to the basement and arrived there maybe ten minutes after the President had arrived. The Secret Service had sealed off the area making it somewhat difficult to get in unless you had some assistance. Knowing the personnel at Parkland, particularly the security chief and the doctors, I was fortunate to have run into the security chief and a doctor, so I was able to go directly into the trauma room without any problem. When I arrived in the trauma room, the doctors were working with President Kennedy. They were trying to do what they could to stop the gurgling sound he was making by performing a tracheotomy on him. Despite the fact, as I later learned, that he was dead, his body reflexes were still working. I wasn't up close to the body, but I could still see fairly well the large amount of blood from the head wound. The head was badly damaged from the lower right base across the top extending across the top of the ear. It appeared to me as though the bullet traveled upward and had taken off the right portion of his skull. It may have been the security officer or one of the other officers who gave me a portion of the skull which was about the size of a teacup, much larger than a silver dollar: Apparently the explosion had jerked it because the hair was still on it. I carried that back to Washington later that night and turned it over to the FBI laboratory. Apparently a problem developed at the hospital when a fellow arrived without knowing exactly where he was. He was in a restricted area and had gone through the swinging doors where he was confronted by the Secret Service. They then grabbed him and removed him from the building. I didn't know what was going on at the time because I was already in the trauma room where the President was. At the time, I was able to talk to the doctors the minute I got there. One of them told me that the President was dead and that it was just a matter of time to make the announcement. Maybe I'm assuming something here, but as I recall, a Catholic priest had been sent for, and I was under the impression, or someone told me, that he hadn't been pronounced dead because they wanted to give him the last rites before and • This skull fragment sounds very much like the fragment discovered by motorcycle patrolman Bobby Joe Dale. See Dale narrative, page 136. VINCENT DRAIN, SPECIAL AGENT, FBI 247 after death. At that time, I believe there were three Secret Service agents, Mrs. Kennedy, and later the priest who were in the trauma room. I left as the priest was administering the last rites. I was then busy trying...