On April 26, President Joe Biden granted clemency to 78 individuals, consisting of three pardons and 75 commutations. One of those pardons was for Abraham Bolden.
The White House statement on Bolden’s release reads, “Abraham Bolden is an 86-year-old former U.S. Secret Service agent and was the first African American to serve on a presidential detail. In 1964, Mr. Bolden was charged with offenses related to attempting to sell a copy of a Secret Service file. His first trial resulted in a hung jury, and following his conviction at a second trial, even though key witnesses against him admitted to lying at the prosecutor’s request, Mr. Bolden was denied a new trial and ultimately served several years in federal custody. He has steadfastly maintained his innocence, arguing that he was targeted for prosecution in retaliation for exposing unprofessional and racist behavior within the U.S. Secret Service. Mr. Bolden has received numerous honors and awards for his ongoing work to speak out against the racism he faced in the Secret Service in the 1960s, and his courage in challenging injustice. Mr. Bolden has also been recognized for his many contributions to his community following his release from prison.”
Bolden wrote a book, The Echo from Dealey Plaza, in which he outlines not only the racism that he had to endure in the Secret Service, but the incompetence in the agency, which led to his allegations of a coverup in the assassination of JFK.
Bolden met President Kennedy in Chicago in 1961 while working an event protecting the President. At that event, Kennedy invited Bolden to come to the White House and serve as part of his detail.
Bolden, who is still alive today, only served on JFK’s detail for 33 days, before being reassigned to Chicago.
Bolden was an honorable Secret Service agent who won commendations for his work uncovering counterfiet rings and check forging cases.
It was JFK who called Bolden, “the Jackie Robinson of the Secret Service.”
After JFK’s assassination, Bolden was set to testify before the Warren Commission investigation into the President’s assassination.
But in 1964, Bolden was arrested and charged with selling a government file to someone who he had investigated for counterfitting, Joe Spagnoli Jr. Bolden was accused of taking a $50,000 bribe.
Bolden was indicted, and after two jury trials, the first was a hung jury, the second he was convicted, he served 39 months in prison.
Bolden has always denied the charges against him. After the charges against him were made public, he held a press conference and claimed that he was being framed because he wanted to testify to the Warren Commission about “the laxity and non-chalant attitude of agents handling the President.”
Bolden said that he witnessed agents drinking alcohol heavily before and after tours both in Washington and in Hyannis. Bolden attempted to report these infractions but was called racial epthets.
The accusations against Bolden never made sense. Two years before he was arrested he was commended for his work. And the person who allegedly bribed Bolden, Spagnoli jr., later testified that he made up the story to help get leniency in his case.
Bolden also wanted to testify about an attempted assassination on JFK in Chicago on Nov. 2, 1963, 20 days before Dallas. Media reports claim that Bolden helped stop that assassination attempt.
Thank God that Abraham Bolden is alive to receive this pardon from President Biden. Unfortunately, Abraham Bolden is just one of Hundreds of Americans whose lives were ruined, or who were killed, as a result of their attempts to tell the truth about the assassination of President John F. Kenney.
