Aubrey Rike Oral History

At the request of the Secret Service, Vernon Oneal, the head of the Oneal Funeral Home, drove to Parkland Hospital with the firm's best casket.  Oneal, Rike and McGuire were then left behind when Secret Service agents commandeered the funeral home's hearse to drive the president’s body to the airport.  Another Oneal employee had to drive to Parkland, pick them up and take them to Love Field to retrieve the hearse which, as of 2011, was owned by a car collector in Arizona. - Gary Mack, Curator

Mr. Rike passed away on April 22, 2010. His autobiography, At the Door of Memory: Aubrey Rike and the Assassination of President Kennedy, was published by JFK Lancer Productions in 2008. - Stephen Fagin, Curator

Six minutes before the assassination, Mr. Rike and Mr. McGuire picked up Jerry Belknap in Dealey Plaza and took him to Parkland Hospital.  Mr. Belknap, a part-time mail room employee at The Dallas Morning News, had fainted across from the Texas School Book Depository.  He arrived at Parkland Hospital just before President Kennedy and Governor Connally were admitted.  After noticing the frantic activity in the emergency rooms, and feeling much better, Mr. Belknap declined further treatment and soon checked out.  These events led to some long-discredited conspiracy theories that his actions were faked to draw attention away from the Depository while the real assassins entered without being noticed. - Gary Mack, Curator