Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as The Warren Commission, was established by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy on November 29, 1963.
The Commission took its unofficial name—the Warren Commission—from its chairman, United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.
The six other members were:
- Representative Hale Boggs (Democrat - Louisiana)
- Senator John Sherman Cooper (Republican - Kentucky)
- Former CIA Director Alan Dulles
- Representative Gerald Ford (Republican - Michigan)
- Former World Bank President and diplomat John J. McCloy
- Senator Richard Russell, Jr. (Democrat - Georgia)
Future Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter worked as a staff attorney for the Commission.
All of its ten months of meetings and hearings were held behind closed doors, out of the view by the public or any media coverage.
In the years following the release of its report and 26 investigatory evidence volumes in 1964, the Warren Commission has been frequently criticized for some of its methods, important ommissions, and conclusions, in particular its allowing of the destruction of crucial evidence by the law enforcement authorities and intelligence agencies without any adverse comment. Comments were apparently made on this behind closed doors, but these did not reach the published report.
The report concluded (by only a 4 to 3 majority) that Lee Harvey Oswald was solely responsible for the assassination of Kennedy and that the commission could not find any evidence of a conspiracy, either domestic or foreign. This conclusion has been challenged on many grounds, including the "single bullet theory", which concluded that one bullet stuck both Kennedy and Governor John Connally.
Several individual pieces of the Commission's findings have been called into question or discredited since its completion. A subsequent Congressional hearing into the assassination (the House Select Committee on Assassinations) ultimately concluded there was a conspiracy wherein four shots were fired. The HSCA concluded that Oswald fired shots number one, two, and four, and that an unknown assassin fired shot number three from near the corner of a picket fence that was above and to President Kennedy's right front on the Dealey Plaza grassy knoll. However, this conclusion has also been criticized, especially for its reliance upon questionable audio evidence.
The Warren Commission also commented on other aspects of the assassination, such as the inadequate security provided by the U.S. Secret Service. These specific findings prompted the Secret Service to make numerous modifications to their security procedures.
Studies both supporting and discrediting the Warren Commission report exist, and research to both ends is ongoing.
External links
- Warren Commission Report (Full Text) (http://www.archives.gov/research_room/jfk/warren_commission/warren_commission_report.html)
- Warren Commission Hearings (Full Text) (http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/contents.htm)
eo:Komisiono Warren
he:ועדת וורן