Confessions of an Ex-Secret Service Agent

A Secret Service agent from 1971 to 1981, Venker helped guard presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan. This anecdotal account is continuously entertaining and occasionally reveals a bit of the presidential character (Nixon trying to be one of the fellas, Carter treating his protectors ``like maggots''). Venker wants us to know that these four gents put their pants on one leg at a time, same as he does. As for visiting dignitaries he sometimes protected, they were all jerks or weirdos, he contends: Anastasio Somoza was both. Venker makes one serious point: that presidents need lots of protection. Among potential assassins he checked out were a boy of eight and a man who had been incarcerated since 1954 for shooting up the House of Representatives and plans to attack the president on the day of his release, even though he doesn't know who it will be. As New York Post journalist Rush presents him, Venker is definitely not your typical Secret Service man. The job eventually became such a burden that he quit to become a stripper and ``party terrorist'' (getting banned from nightclubs was the goal) and finally found a niche for himself spinning records as a nightclub disc jockey in New York. (September)