penta ([personal profile] penta) wrote in [community profile] factfinding2018-08-18 06:55 am

Books on executive protection/bodyguarding (Secret Service style)

OK, so. For yet more of the stories I'm writing, I want to do a bit from the perspective not of the principal who's protected, but from the perspective of the bodyguard/executive protection team.

The problem is, I can find nothing on how bodyguarding by the Secret Service, or their equivalents in the UK/Israel/etc, actually works...

Anybody know of any good books, preferably in a Kindle format?
crabby_lioness: (Default)

[personal profile] crabby_lioness 2018-08-18 02:49 pm (UTC)(link)
They exist. I remember reading a Secret Service memoir in my high school library in 1983. Can't remember the name though. The most important bit is that the bodyguard never looks at the client. They're always looking away.
katherine: A line of books on a shelf, in greens and browns (books)

[personal profile] katherine 2018-08-18 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I seem to remember a few mentions in Gavin Becker's The Gift of Fear. The website of his company lists that book at
https://gdba.com/resources/
as well as Just 2 Seconds "an essential guide for protectors of at-risk people".
chomiji: A chibi drawing of Akari from Samurai Deeper Kyo, holding a plate of mochi dumplings, with caption Coming Right Up! (Akari-mochi)

[personal profile] chomiji 2018-08-18 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)

A Google search on memoir Secret Service comes up with this on Amazon:

In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect, by Ronald Kessler, rated * * * *

Here's transcript of a broadcast on NPR: An Insider's Look Into The Secret Service (April 19, 2012).

Mossad: The Great Operations of Israel's Secret Service by Michael Bar-Zohar seems to be free on Amazon for Kindle right now! It's rated * * * * ½.