Truman Harry Secret Service, Fascinating Top Secret Inside Look at Protection of TrumanIn the Same Year as an Assassination Attempt, Secret Service Agents Submit Detailed Report on President Truman's Attendance at Wedding
  [HARRY S. TRUMAN.] Urbanus E. Baughman, Typed Memorandum Signed, January 25, 1950. Including (1) Protective Survey Report regarding President and Mrs. Truman's attendance at Snyder-Horton wedding, signed by three additional Secret Service agents: Russell Daniel, Rubert E. Holmes, and James J. Rowley, January 20, 1950; (2) Protective Survey Report regarding President and Mrs. Truman's attendance at the Snyder-Horton wedding reception in Chevy Chase, Maryland, signed by four Secret Service agents: Russell Daniel, James J. Rowley, Thomas J. Kelley, and Gerald A. Behn, January 24, 1950; and (3) Protective Survey Report regarding the President and Mrs. Truman's attendance at the Snyder-Horton wedding rehearsal dinner, January 20, 1950. 25 pp., 8" x 10.5". Very good.
  On the evening of January 24, 1950, President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Bess Truman attended a wedding rehearsal dinner at the Wardman Park Hotel, hosted by Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder and his wife. On January 26, the Trumans were among the thousands to attend the wedding of the Snyders' daughter Edith ("Drucie") to Major John E. Horton at the Washington Cathedral. The Trumans' daughter Margaret was Snyder's maid of honor. The press described the event as "the most brilliant capital wedding in many a year." The Trumans also briefly attended the reception with nearly 2,500 guests that evening at the Chevy Chase Country Club in Maryland.
  Ultimately, 117 persons were involved in providing security for the President and Mrs. Truman at the wedding, including 28 Secret Service agents, 40 Metropolitan police officers, 22 Metropolitan police detectives, and a variety of others. Security for the Trumans' attendance at the rehearsal dinner involved 42 persons, while their attendance at the reception involved 90 agents, police officers, detectives, motorcycle police, and others.
  Later that year, two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate Truman while he was staying at Blair House on Pennsylvania Avenue during renovations to the nearby White House. On November 1, 1950, activists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola killed one Secret Service agent and wounded two others outside the Blair House, while President Truman was inside. Secret Service agents killed Torresola and wounded Collazo, who was taken into custody, tried, and sentenced to be executed. President Truman commuted that sentence to life in prison, and in 1979, President Jimmy Carter commuted Collazo's sentence to time served.
  Excerpts "Attached are survey reports pertaining to the attendance of the President and Mrs. Truman at the Wedding Rehearsal Dinner, the Wedding, and the Wedding Reception of your daughter and Major John E. Horton."
  "Relative to the report dated January 20 pertaining to the Wedding, a supplemental report will be submitted outlining the following changes:... It is stated that the White House Correspondents will not accompany the President, but it has since been learned that a small group will accompany the President to the Cathedral and seats have been reserved for this group."
  Wedding Protective Service Report:
"The President, Mrs. Truman, the Vice President and Mrs. Barkley, and the Chief Justice and Mrs. Vinson will also be seated in the Great Choir near the Sanctuary. The afore-mentioned persons will enter the Cathedral through the North Transept entrance. This entrance will be reserved for the bridal party, parents of the bride and groom, the President and Mrs. Truman, the Vice President and Mrs. Barkley, the Chief Justice and Mrs. Vinson. All other guests will be restricted to the use of the entrances referred to above."
  "A detail of six Metropolitan motorcycles will be assigned to accompany the Presidential car from the Blair House to the Washington Cathedral and return to the Blair House. All intersections in the vicinity of the Cathedral will be controlled by officers."
  "A detail of Metropolitan firemen will be on duty at the Cathedral prior to the arrival of the President and will make a thorough inspection, particularly of the heating room located in the lower crypt, as well as the upper church, to assure that the danger of fire has been reduced to a minimum, and will be strategically posted during the time the President remains at the Cathedral, to assure his safe exit in the event of fire."
  "In addition to assuming Post #37, ASA Nicholson will remain in close proximity to the President and the First Lady during their visit at Washington Cathedral to attend this ceremony. Agents Boring, Mroz, Stout and Scouten will accompany the President and First Lady in the follow-up car from the Blair House to the Washington Cathedral and, upon arrival, will assume their posts as indicated above."
  "AIC Hutchinson of the Protective Research Section was personally contacted by the writer and was informed of the President's visit to the Washington Cathedral to attend the wedding ceremony. Consequently, the files of the Protective Research Section are being carefully checked to determine if there are any Protective Research subjects at large in this area who may attempt to do bodily harm to the President on this occasion. In the event that there are such subjects at large, all pertinent information concerning them will be given to the various personnel participating in the security arrangements."
 
  Urbanus E. Baughman (1905-1978) was the chief of the United States Secret Service from 1948 to 1961, under Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. He was the first head of the Secret Service to publish a memoir. It was entitled Secret Service Chief and was published in 1962. In 1963, he was critical of the methods used by the Secret Service following the assassination of President Kennedy.
  James J. Rowley (1908-1992) was the chief of the United States Secret Service from 1961 to 1973, under Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. Rowley joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1936 and the Secret Service in 1938. He provided testimony to the Warren Commission after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
  Thomas J. Kelley joined the Secret Service in 1942. Sent to Dallas after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 to determine what went wrong, Kelley participated in four interviews of Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas on November 23 and 24. Kelley found no evidence of failure on the part of the Secret Service, as they were not aware of Oswald. Kelley retired as assistant director of the Secret Service in 1978.
  Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), Thirty-third President of the United States. A Missouri native, Truman first won elective office in 1922, winning a judge's seat on the Jackson County Court.  After serving several terms, Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, and in 1940 gained national attention for his chairmanship of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, which was eventually nicknamed "The Truman Committee." Truman continued his political rise in 1944, when he was elected Vice-President as Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate. After only 82 days as Vice President, Truman was thrust into the Presidency when Roosevelt died unexpectedly. His inheritance was a world at war. Germany had surrendered, but Japan refused to give up the war. Truman, in a desperate move to avoid having to invade the Japanese mainland, ordered the deployment of two atomic bombs. They were dropped on August 6 and August 9, 1945. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945. As President, Truman waged an undeclared war on the Soviet Union, drafting the "Truman Doctrine," which proclaimed the United States' willingness to provide aid to countries resisting communism. The Marshall Plan sought to strengthen the European economy in the hopes that this program, too, would prevent the spread of Soviet influence. Elected President for a full term in 1948, he also brought United States troops into the Korean War (1950-1953). In addition to his cold war activities, Truman's administration expanded the New Deal and promoted Civil Rights initiatives.
 
 
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