Warren Commission

 

Warren Commission

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through Executive Order 11130 on November 29, 1963,^[1] to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy that had taken place on November 22, 1963.^[2] The U.S. Congress passed Senate Joint Resolution 137 authorizing the Presidential appointed Commission to report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, mandating the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of evidence.^[3] Its 888-page final report was presented to President Johnson on September 24, 1964,^[4] and made public three days later.^[5] It concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald and that Oswald acted entirely alone.^[6] It also concluded that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald two days later.

Lee Harvey Oswald

 

Jack Ruby

 ^[7] The Commission's findings have proven controversial and have been both challenged and supported by later studies.

The Commission took its unofficial name—the Warren Commission—from its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren.^[8] According to published transcripts of Johnson's presidential phone conversations, some major officials were opposed to forming such a commission and several commission members took part only reluctantly. One of their chief reservations was that a commission would ultimately create more controversy than consensus.^[9]

Formation

Nicholas Katzenbach has been named as providing advice after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that led to the creation of the Warren Commission.^[10] On November 28 he sent a memo to Johnson's White House aide Bill Moyers recommending the formation of a Presidential Commission to investigate the assassination.^[10][11] To combat speculation of a conspiracy, Katzenbach said that the results of the FBI's investigation should be made public.^[10][11] He wrote, in part: "The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large".^[11]

Four days after Katzenbach's memo, Johnson appointed some of the nation's most prominent figures, including the Chief Justice of the United States, to the Commission.^[10][11]

Meetings

The Warren Commission met formally for the first time on December 5, 1963, on the second floor of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.^[12] The Commission conducted its business primarily in closed sessions, but these were not secret sessions.

Two misconceptions about the Warren Commission hearing need to be clarified...hearings were closed to the public unless the witness appearing before the Commission requested an open hearing. No witness except one...requested an open hearing... Second, although the hearings (except one) were conducted in private, they were not secret. In a secret hearing, the witness is instructed not to disclose his testimony to any third party, and the hearing testimony is not published for public consumption. The witnesses who appeared before the Commission were free to repeat what they said to anyone they pleased, and all of their testimony was subsequently published in the first fifteen volumes put out by the Warren Commission.^[13]

 ^{John Jennedy}

With affection,

Ruben