Secret Service – Now I've Heard Everything

A Split Second to Act: Secret Service Agent Dennis McCarthy

March 30, 2025Bill Thompson

Until the attempt on Donald Trump’s life last summer, the most serious assassination attempt in recent American history came on March 30, 1981.

President Ronald Reagan had just emerged from a speech at a downtown Washington hotel. From behind a nearby rope line emerged a young man with a gun. John Hinckley Jr fired six shots, hitting Reagan and three other people before he was subdued.

And the Secret Service agent who subdued him was 46-year-old veteran Agent Dennis McCarthy.

More below video:

McCarthy spent the next several hours guarding Hinckley, who was, of course, later found not guilty by reason of insanity. You’ll hear Dennis McCarthy’s take on that in the interview just ahead.

I met agent McCarthy in 1985 when he wrote a book called Protecting The President. And he had a startling Revelation in that book, which you’ll hear about.

So here now, from 1985, Dennis McCarthy.

Dennis McCarthy died in 1993. He was 58.

Dan Bongino

May 24, 2021May 22, 2021Bill Thompson

A new nationally syndicated radio talk show is debuting this week.

Its host is conservative commentator Dan Bongino, who was, for several years, a Secret Service agent who’s assignments included the presidentia protective l detail.

After unsuccessful bids for US Senate and the US House, bongino turned to writing books .. and radio.

I met him in the fall of 2013, after he wrote a book called Life Inside the Bubble.

So here now, from 2013, Dan bongino.

“The Dan Bongino Show,” debuting today, is heard from noon to 3 Eastern Time.

Jerry Parr

March 29, 2021March 28, 2021Bill Thompson

40 years ago this week, a young would-be assassin put a bullet in President Ronald Reagan.

The man whose quick thinking likely saved the president’s life was Jerry Parr, a member of Mr. Reagan’s Secret Service detail that day outside the Washington Hilton Hotel.

Before anyone was aware that one of John Hinckley jr. shots had actually hit the president, Jerry Parr recognized something was seriously wrong, and he ordered the president’s driver to head straight to the hospital.

The president arrived at the hospital just in time. He collapsed inside the door, and was rushed into surgery.

Jerry Parr, 2nd from left, on March 30,1981

I met Jerry Parr in 2013. He and his wife Carolyn had written a book about that day, and about their lives before and after the assassination attempt.

And as you’re about to hear, Carolyn Parr made what I guess Hollywood would call a cameo appearance at the Reagan shooting scen

So here now, from 2013, Jerry Parr.

Jerry Parr died just two years after our interview. He was 85.

Gerald Blaine & Clint Hill

November 20, 2020November 17, 2020Bill Thompson

If you’re of a certain age, you remember where you were when something big and historical happened. For my parents, it was Pearl Harbor. For my children, it was the Challenger explosion.

For me, it was the John F Kennedy assassination, on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

We all know what happened. John and Jackie Kennedy arrived in Dallas for a early campaign visit. They drove to Dealey Plaza, rounded the corner, and Lee Harvey Oswald fired shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building.

The rest is history.

But in the intervening decades, members of the president’s Secret Service detail rarely spoke about that day, even among themselves. That changed in 2010, when Gerald Blaine, a senior member of the detail, wrote a book about their common experience.

Among the agents whose story is told in the book is Clint Hill, the agent seen in a million photos and videos of that day, sprinting forward to the First Couple’s limousine after the shots were fired. You’ve seen him in photos, spread-eagled across the Kennedys.

I met Gerald Lane and Clint Hill in 2010, when they came to Washington to talk about their book.

So here now, from 2010, Gerald Lane and Clint Hill.

Gerald Blaine is 88 now. He lives in Colorado.

Clint Hill is also 88. He lives in California.