Secret Service Agent's Misfire Hit Jfk, Book Says

There was a second gunman that day in Dealey Plaza - a Secret Service agent who accidentally fired his new M-16 prototype rifle and hit President John F. Kennedy, according to a new book.

The startling assertion is made in "Mortal Error," based on the 25-year research of Howard Donahue, one of 11 marksmen used by CBS News in 1967 to try to duplicate assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's three-shot feat on Nov. 22, 1963.

Donahue, now 69, bettered Oswald's purported three-shot feat in time and accuracy.

But Donahue and author Bonar Menninger now say Oswald fired only twice. His first shot missed Kennedy; the second hit the president high on his back.

The third shot - the one to Kennedy's head - came from Secret Service agent George Hickey, who lost his balance while riding in an open security car about 5 feet behind Kennedy's open limousine, they say.

"There was no conspiracy," said Donahue, a Maryland ballistics expert. "It was a sheer . . . accident."

Hickey could not be reached for comment.

Thomas McCormack, head of St. Martin's Press, which is publishing the book, said he and the authors made extraordinary attempts to discuss the theory with Hickey, but the former agent would not cooperate.

The Secret Service told Donahue, in writing, several years ago that none of its agents fired any weapon that day. Donahue said it was possible that, with all the commotion, Hickey at the time may not have realized his rifle had discharged.

Or, he said, it's possible the Secret Service was aware of Hickey's alleged fatal goof - and covered it up to avoid embarrassment.

Attorney David Belin, former chief counsel to the Warren Commission and author of two books on the assassination, dismissed Donahue's theory.

"It's another example of people that exploit the public," Belin said.