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, to investigate the assassination of United States president John F. Kennedy that had taken place on November 22, 1963.
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. Its 888-page final report was presented to President Johnson on September 24, 1964, and made public three days later.
It concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald and that Oswald acted entirely alone. It also concluded that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald two days later. 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. 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.
Formation
The creation of the Warren Commission was a direct consequence of the murder of Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby on November 24, 1963, carried live on national television in the basement of the Dallas police station. The lack of a public process addressing the mistakes of the Dallas Police, who concluded that the case was closed, created doubt in the mind of the public.
The new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, himself from Texas, the state where the two assassinations had taken place, found himself faced with the risk of a weakening of his presidency. Confronted with the results obtained by the Texas authorities, themselves seriously discredited and criticized, he decided after various consultations, including in particular that with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, to create a presidential commission of inquiry by Executive Order 11130 of November 29, 1963. This act made it possible both to avoid an independent investigation led by Congress and to avoid entrusting the case to the attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy, deeply affected by the assassination, whose federal jurisdiction would have been applied in the event of withdrawal of the share of the State of Texas for the benefit of the federal authorities in Washington.
Nicholas Katzenbach, Deputy Attorney General, provided advice that led to the creation of the Warren Commission. On November 25 he sent a memo to Johnson's White House aide Bill Moyers recommending the formation of a Presidential Commission to investigate the assassination. To combat speculation of a conspiracy, Katzenbach said that the results of the FBI's investigation should be made public. He wrote: "The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large."
Four days after Katzenbach's memo, Johnson appointed to the commission some of the nation's most prominent figures, including Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States. At first, Warren refused to head of the commission because he stated the principle of law that a member of the judicial power could not be at the service of the executive power. It was only under pressure from President Lyndon Johnson, who spoke of international tensions and the risks of war resulting from the death of his predecessor, that he agreed to chair the commission. The other members of the commission were chosen from among the representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties, in both houses of Congress, and added diplomat John J. McCloy, former president of the World Bank, and former CIA director Allen Dulles.
The national image of the United States was also of concern. McCloy states that a motive of the commission was to "show the world that America is not a banana republic, where a government can be changed by conspiracy". Warren shared this concern, and in part agreed to head the commission after President Johnson made it clear to him that the "nation's prestige" was at stake.
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. At this meeting, Warren explained the methodology he planned the commission to follow:
Now I think our job here is essentially one for the evaluation of evidence as distinguished from being one of gathering evidence, and I believe that at the outset at least, we can start with the premise that we can rely upon the reports of the various agencies that have been engaged in investigating the matter, the FBI, the Secret Service, and others that I may not know about at the present time.
For this reason, Warren opposed giving the commission the power of subpoena, however with the objection of the other commission members it was decided that the commission would have such powers.
The Commission conducted its business primarily in closed sessions, but these were not "secret" sessions. The witnesses were allowed to report what they said to whomever. Journalist Dorothy Kilgallen obtained a copy of Ruby's testimony to the Warren Commission, which he had given on June 7, 1964. Kilgallen published it in August 1964 in three installments on the front pages of the New York Journal-American, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and other newspapers. In response the Warren Commission condemned what it called the "premature publication" of Ruby's testimony and announced that there would be a federal investigation as to how Kilgallen had received the testimony.
According to a 1963 FBI memo that was released to the public in 2008, Commission member Gerald Ford was in contact with the FBI throughout his time on the Warren Commission and relayed information to the deputy director, Cartha DeLoach, about the panel's activities.
Members
Committee
Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States (chairman) (1891–1974)
Richard Russell Jr. (D-Georgia), U.S. Senator (1897–1971)
John Sherman Cooper (R-Kentucky), U.S. Senator (1901–1991)
Hale Boggs (D-Louisiana), U.S. Representative, House Majority Whip (1914–1972)
Gerald Ford (R-Michigan), U.S. Representative (later 38th President of the United States) (1913-2006)
Allen Dulles, former Director of Central Intelligence and head of the Central Intelligence Agency (1893–1969)
John J. McCloy, former president of the World Bank (1895–1989)
General counsel
J. Lee Rankin (1907–1996)
Conclusions of the report
The report concluded that:
The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository.
President Kennedy was first struck by a bullet which entered at the back of his neck and exited through the lower front portion of his neck, causing a wound which would not necessarily have been lethal. The President was struck by a second bullet, which entered the right-rear portion of his head, causing a massive and fatal wound.
Governor Connally was struck by a bullet which entered on the right side of his back and traveled downward through the right side of his chest, exiting below his right nipple. This bullet then passed through his right wrist and entered his left thigh then it caused a superficial wound.
There is no credible evidence that the shots were fired from the Triple Underpass, ahead of the motorcade, or from any other location.
The weight of the evidence indicates that there were three shots fired.
Although it is not necessary to any essential findings of the Commission to determine just which shot hit Governor Connally, there is very persuasive evidence from the experts to indicate that the same bullet which pierced the President's throat also caused Governor Connally's wounds. However, Governor Connally's testimony and certain other factors have given rise to some difference of opinion as to this probability but there is no question in the mind of any member of the Commission that all the shots which caused the President's and Governor Connally's wounds were fired from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.
The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.
Oswald killed Dallas Police Patrolman J. D. Tippit approximately 45 minutes after the assassination.
Ruby entered the basement of the Dallas Police Department and killed Lee Harvey Oswald and there is no evidence to support the rumor that Ruby may have been assisted by any members of the Dallas Police Department.
The Commission has found no evidence that either Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy.
The Commission has found no evidence of conspiracy, subversion, or disloyalty to the U.S. Government by any Federal, State, or local official.
The Commission could not make any definitive determination of Oswald's motives.
The Commission believes that recommendations for improvements in Presidential protection are compelled by the facts disclosed in this investigation.
Internal disagreement
Notably, three of the Commission members, Sherman Cooper, Boggs, and Russell disagreed with the single-bullet theory advanced by the commission. Cooper felt its conclusions were "premature and inconclusive", and informed Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy that he strongly felt Lee Harvey Oswald had not acted alone. When Cooper expressed his same thoughts to Jacqueline Kennedy, he reportedly stated that "it's important for this nation that we bring the true murderers to justice."
Russell in particular was unhappy with the Commission's conclusions. His personal papers indicated that he was troubled by the Commission's single-bullet theory, the Soviet Union's failure to provide greater detail regarding Lee Harvey Oswald's period in Russia, and the lack of information regarding Oswald's Cuba-related activities. In a telephone conversation with President Johnson in September 1964 he expressed his disbelief in the single-bullet theory, to which Johnson replied that he did not believe it either. Russell had written a dissenting opinion for the Warren Commission that "a number of suspicious circumstances" could not allow him to agree that there was no conspiracy to kill Kennedy and that citing a lack of evidence he believed this "preclude[d] the conclusive determination that Oswald and Oswald alone, without the knowledge, encouragement or assistance of any other person, planned and perpetrated the assassination". With Russell's agreement this statement was not included in the final report. He had also made a request to Warren that "Senator Russell dissents" be placed in a footnote of the final report, although Warren refused to do so, insisting that there must be unanimity among the Commission.
Senator Boggs privately stated that he "had strong doubts about it", referring to the single bullet theory, and that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover "lied his eyes out to the Commission, on Oswald, on Ruby, on their friends, the bullet, the gun, you name it". However publicly Boggs took another position, in a 1966 appearance on Face the Nation, Boggs defended the commission's findings and stated that he did not doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy. He said that all the evidence indicated that Kennedy was shot from behind and that the argument that one bullet hit both Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally was "very persuasive".
Death of Lee Harvey Oswald
In response to Jack Ruby's shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Warren Commission declared that the news media must share responsibility with the Dallas police department for "the breakdown of law enforcement" that led to Oswald's death. In addition to the police department's "inadequacy of coordination", the Warren Commission noted that "these additional deficiencies [in security] were directly related to the decision to admit newsmen to the basement".
The commission concluded that the pressure of press, radio, and television for information about Oswald's prison transfer resulted in relaxed security standards for admission to the basement, allowing Ruby to enter and subsequently shoot Oswald, noting that "the acceptance of inadequate press credentials posed a clear avenue for a one-man assault." Oswald's death was said to have been a direct result of "the failure of the police to remove Oswald secretly or control the crowd in the basement."
The consequence of Oswald's death, according to the Commission, was that "it was no longer possible to arrive at the complete story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy through normal judicial procedures during the trial of the alleged assassin." While the Commission noted that the prime responsibility was that of the police department, it also recommended the adoption of a new "code of conduct" for news professionals regarding the collecting and presenting of information to the public that would ensure "there [would] be no interference with pending criminal investigations, court proceedings, or the right of individuals to a fair trial."
Aftermath
Secret Service
The findings prompted the Secret Service to make numerous modifications to its security procedures. The Commission made other recommendations to the Congress to adopt new legislation that would make the murder of the President (or Vice-President) a federal crime, which was not the case in 1963.
Report and records
In 1964 a New York Times edition of the Warren Report was published featuring an introduction by Harrison Salisbury and articles by other Times journalists praising the report.
In November 1964, two months after the publication of its 888-page report, the commission published twenty-six volumes of supporting documents, including the testimony or depositions of 552 witnesses and more than 3,100 exhibits making a total of more than 16,000 pages. The Warren Report, however, lacked an index, which greatly complicated the work of reading. It was later endowed with an index by the work of Sylvia Meagher for the report and the twenty-six volumes of documents.
All of the commission's records were then transferred on November 23 to the National Archives. The unpublished portion of those records was initially sealed for seventy-five years (to 2039) under a general National Archives policy that applied to all federal investigations by the executive branch of government, a period "intended to serve as protection for innocent persons who could otherwise be damaged because of their relationship with participants in the case."
The 75-Year Rule no longer exists, supplanted by the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 and the JFK Records Act of 1992. By 1992, ninety-eight percent of the Warren Commission records had been released to the public. Six years later, after the Assassination Records Review Board's work, all Warren Commission records, except those records that contained tax return information, were available to the public with redactions.
The remaining Kennedy assassination-related documents were partly released to the public on October 26, 2017, twenty-five years after the passage of the JFK Records Act. President Donald Trump, as directed by the FBI and the CIA, took action on that date to withhold certain remaining files, delaying the release until April 26, 2018, then on April 26, 2018, took action to further withhold the records "until 2021".
CIA "benign cover-up"
According to a report by the CIA Chief Historian David Robarge (which was released to the public in 2014), CIA Director McCone was complicit in a Central Intelligence Agency "benign cover-up" by withholding information from the Warren Commission. According to this report, CIA officers had been instructed to give only "passive, reactive, and selective" assistance to the commission, to keep the commission focused on "what the Agency believed at the time was the 'best truth' — that Lee Harvey Oswald, for as yet undetermined motives, had acted alone in killing John Kennedy." The CIA may have also covered up evidence of being in communication with Oswald before 1963, according to the 2014 report findings.