Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Report of the Warren Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy by Warren Commission Warren Commission - Introduction. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, commonly called the Warren Commission, by Executive Order (E.O. 11130) on November 29, 1963. Its purpose was to investigate the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 22, 1963, at Dallas, Texas. President Johnson directed the Commission to evaluate matters relating to the assassination and the subsequent killing of the alleged assassin, and to report its findings and conclusions to him. The following members served on the Commission: Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States, former Governor and attorney general of California, Chair; , Democratic Senator from Georgia and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, former Governor of Georgia, and county attorney in that State; John Sherman Cooper, Republican Senator from Kentucky, former county and circuit judge in Kentucky, and United States Ambassador to India; Hale Boggs, Democratic Representative from Louisiana and majority whip in the House of Representatives; Gerald R. Ford, Republican Representative from Michigan and chairman of the House Republican Conference; Allen W. Dulles, lawyer and former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; John J. McCloy, lawyer, former President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and former United States High Commissioner for Germany. On December 13, 1963, Congress passed Senate Joint Resolution 137 (Public Law 88-202) authorizing the Commission to subpoena witnesses and obtain evidence concerning any matter relating to the investigation. The resolution also gave the Commission the power to compel the testimony of witnesses by granting immunity from prosecution to witnesses testifying under compulsion. The Commission, however, did not grant immunity to any witness during the investigation. The Commission acted promptly to obtain a staff to meet its needs. J. Lee Rankin, former Solicitor General of the United States, was sworn in as general counsel for the Commission on December 16, 1963. He was aided in his work by 14 assistant counsel who were divided into teams to deal with the various subject areas of the investigation. The Commission was also assisted by lawyers, Internal Revenue Service agents, a senior historian, an editor, and secretarial and administrative personnel who were assigned to the Commission by Federal agencies at its request. Officials and agencies of the state of Texas, as well as of the Federal Government, fully cooperated with the Commission on its work. From the first, the Commission considered its mandate to conduct a thorough and independent investigation. The Commission reviewed reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service, Department of State, and the Attorney General of Texas, and then requested additional information from federal agencies, Congressional committees, and state and local experts. The Commission held hearings and took the testimony of 552 witnesses. On several occasions, the Commission went to Dallas to visit the scene of the assassination and other places. The Commission presented its Report, in which each member concurred, to the President on September 24, 1964. The publication of the Report was soon followed by the publication of the 26 volumes of the Commission's Hearings. The Commission then transferred its records to the National Archives to be permanently preserved under the rules and regulations of the National Archives and applicable federal law. In the National Archives, the records of the Warren Commission comprise Record Group 272: Records of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. The record group contains about 363 cubic feet of records and related material. Approximately 99 percent of these records are currently open and available for research. The records consist of investigative reports submitted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and the Central Intelligence Agency; various kinds of documents such as income tax returns, passport files, military and selective service records, and school records relating to Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby; transcripts of testimony, depositions, and affidavits of witnesses, correspondence; manuals of procedures of federal agencies; administrative memorandums; records relating to personnel; fiscal records; agenda, proceedings, and minutes of Commission meetings and minutes of staff meetings; exhibits; tape records, newspaper and press clippings, and films; indexes; drafts and printer's proofs of the Report and Hearings of the Commission; a chronology of events in the lives of Oswald, Ruby, and others, 1959-1963; records relating to the interrogation and trial of Jack Ruby; and other records. Most of these records relate to the period of the investigation of President Kennedy's assassination, November 1963 to September 1964, but some records of earlier and a few later dates are included. The Kennedy family donated the autopsy X-rays and photographs to the National Archives under an agreement dated October 29, 1966. The agreement limits access to these materials to. Title Page and Letter. President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy CHIEF JUSTICE EARL WARREN, Chairman SENATOR RICHARD B. RUSSELL SENATOR JOHN SHERMAN COOPER REPRESENTATIVE HALE BOGGS REPRESENTATIVE GERALD R. FORD MR. ALLEN W. DULLES MR. JOHN J. MCCLOY. J. LEE RANKIN, General Counsel. Assistant Counsel FRANCIS W. H. ADAMS JOSEPH A. BALL DAVID W. BELIN WILLIAM T. COLEMAN, Jr. MELVIN ARON EISENBERG BURT W. GRIFFIN LEON D. HUBERT, Jr. ALBERT E. JENNER, Jr. WESLEY J. LIEBELER NORMAN REDLICH W. DAVID SLAWSON ARLEN SPECTER SAMUEL A. STERN HOWARD P. WILLENS** Staff Members PHILLIP BARSON EDWARD A. CONROY JOHN HART ELY ALFRED GOLDBERG MURRAY J. LAULICHT ARTHUR MARMOR RICHARD M. MOSK JOHN J. O'BRIEN STUART POLLAK ALFREDDA SCOBEY CHARLES N. SHAFFER, Jr. LLOYD L. WEINREB. **Mr. Willens also acted as liaison between the Commission and the Department of Justice. PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY 200 Maryland Ave. N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002 Telephone 543-1400. J. LEE RANKIN General Counsel. EARL WARREN Chairman RICHARD B. RUSSELL JOHN SHERMAN COOPER HALE BOGGS GERALD R. FORD JOHN J. McCLOY ALLEN W. DULLES. September 24, 1964. The President The White House Washington, D. C. Dear Mr. President: Your Commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, having completed its assignment in accordance with Executive Order No. 11130 of November 29, 1963, herewith submits its final report. [Signed] Earl Warren, Chairman Richard B. Russell John Sherman Cooper Hale Boggs Gerald R. Ford Allen W. Dulles John J. McCloy. Warren Commission Report and Hearings. The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, commonly known as the Warren Commission, was created by President Lyndon Johnson and chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate President Kennedy's assassination. The Commission presented their findings in a report to President Johnson on September 24, 1964. The Commission also released 26 hearing volumes on November 23, 1964 comprised of testimonies from 550 witnesses and evidence. GPO produced the Warren Commission Report and 26 hearing volumes in 1964. Altogether, GPO's work for the Commission resulted in nearly 235,000 copies of the report and nearly 5,600 sets of the hearings. Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Warren Commission Report) - September 24, 1964. Warren Commission Hearings. Volume I - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Mrs. Marina Oswald, the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald; Mrs. Marguerite Oswald, Oswald's mother; Robert Edward Lee Oswald, Oswald's brother; and James Herbert Martin, who acted for a brief period as Mrs. Marina Oswald's business manager. PDF Details. Volume II - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: James Herbert Martin, who acted for a brief period as the business manager of Mrs. Marina Oswald; Mark Lane, a New York attorney; William Robert Greer, who was driving the President's car at the time of the assassination; and others. PDF Details. Volume III - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Ruth Hyde Paine, an acquaintance of Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife; Howard Leslie Brennan, who was present at the assassination scene; Bonnie Ray Williams, Harold Norman, James Jarman, Jr., and others. PDF Details. Volume IV - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Sebastian F. Latona, a fingerprint expert with the Federal Bureau of Investigation ; Arthur Mandella, a fingerprint expert with the New York City Police Department; Winston G. Lawson, a Secret Service agent who worked on advance preparations for the President's trip to Dallas; Alwyn Cole, a questioned document examiner with the Treasury Department; and John W. Fain, John Lester Quigley, and James Patrick Hosty, Jr., agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who interviewed Oswald, or people connected with him, at various times during the period between Oswald's return from Russia in 1962 and the assassination; and others. PDF Details. Volume V - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Alan H. Belmont, assistant to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Jack Revill and V. J. Brian of the Dallas police, who testified concerning conversations Revill had with James Patrick Hosty, Jr., a special agent of the FBI; Robert A. Frazier, a firearms expert with the FBI ; Drs. Alfred Olivier, Arthur Dziemian and Frederick W. Light, Jr., wound ballistics experts with the U.S. Army laboratories at Edgewood Arsenal, Md.; J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and others. PDF Details. Volume VI - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Drs. Charles J. Carrico, Malcolm Oliver Perry, William Kemp Clark, Robert Nelson McClelland, Charles Rufus Baxter, Marion Thomas Jenkins, Ronald Coy Jones, Don Teel Curtis, Fouad A. Bashour, Gene Coleman Akin, Paul Conrad Peters, Adolph Hartung Giesecke, Jr., Jackie Hansen Hunt, Kenneth Everett Salyer, and Martin G. White, who attended President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital; and others. PDF Details. Volume VII - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Drs. Charles J. Carrico, Malcolm Oliver Perry, William Kemp Clark, Robert Nelson McClelland, Charles Rufus Baxter, Marion Thomas Jenkins, Ronald Coy Jones, Don Teel Curtis, Fouad A. Bashour; and others. PDF Details. Volume VIII - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Edward Voebel, William E. Wulf, Bennierita Smith, Frederick S. O'Sullivan, Mildred Sawyer, Anne Boudreaux, Viola Peterman, Myrtle Evans, Julian Evans, Philip Eugene Vinson, and Hiram Conway, who were associated with Lee Harvey Oswald in his youth; Lillian Murret, Marilyn Dorothea Murret, Charles Murret, John M. Murret, and Edward John Pic, Jr., who were related to Oswald; and others. PDF Details. Volume IX - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Paul M. Raigorodsky, Natalie Ray, Thomas M. Ray, Samuel B. Ballen, Lydia Dymitruk, Gary E. Taylor, Ilya A. Mamantov, Dorothy Gravitis, Paul Roderick Gregory, Helen Leslie, George S. De Mohrenschildt, Jeanne De Mohrenschildt and Ruth Hyde Paine, all of whom became acquainted with Lee Harvey Oswald and/or his wife after their return to Texas in 1962 ; and others. PDF Details. Volume X - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Everett D. Glover, who became acquainted with Lee Harvey Oswald following his return to Texas in 1962; Carlos Bringuier, Francis L. Martello, Charles Hall Steele, Jr., Charles Hall Steele, Sr., Philip Geraci III, Vance Blalock, Vincent T. Lee, Arnold Samuel Johnson, James J. Tormey, Farrell Dobbs, and John J. Abt, who testified concerning Oswald's political activities and associations; and others. PDF Details. Volume XI - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: John Edward Pic, Lee Harvey Oswald's halfbrother; Edward John Pic, Jr., John Edward Pic's father; Kerry Wendell Thornley, a Marine Corps acquaintance of Oswald George B. Church, Jr., Mrs. George B. Church, Jr., and Billy Joe Lord, who were on the boat Oswald took when he left the United States for Russia; and others. PDF Details. Volume XII - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Dallas law enforcement officers who were responsible for planning and executing the transfer of Lee Harvey Oswald from the Dallas City Jail to the Dallas County Jail; and Don Ray Archer, Barnard S. Clardy, and Patrick Trevore Dean, who participated in the arrest and questioning of Jack L. Ruby; and others. PDF Details. Volume XIII - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: L. C. Graves, James Robert Leavelle, L. D. Montgomery. Thomas Donald McMillon, and Forrest V. Sorrels, who participated in the arrest and questioning of Jack L. Ruby; Dr. Fred A. Bieberdorf, Frances Cason, Michael Hardin, and C. E. Hulse, who testified concerning the time at which Lee Harvey Oswald was shot; and others. PDF Details. Volume XIV - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Curtis LaVerne Crafard, Wilbyrn Waldon (Robert) Litchfield II, Robert Carl Patterson, Alice Reaves Nichols, Ralph Paul, George Senator, Nancy Perrin Rich, Breck Wall (Billy Ray Wilson), Joseph Alexander Peterson, Harry N. Olsen, and Kay Helen Olsen, all of whom were friends, acquaintances, employees, or business associates of Jack L. Ruby; Earl Ruby and Sam Ruby, two of Ruby's brothers, and Mrs. Eva Grant, one of his sisters; Jack L. Ruby; Dr. William Robert Beavers, a psychiatrist who examined Ruby; and Bell P. Herndon, an FBI polygraph expert who administered a polygraph test to Ruby. PDF Details. Volume XV - Contains testimony of the following witnesses: Hyman Rubenstein, a brother of Jack L. Ruby; Glen D. King, administrative assistant to the chief of the Dallas police; C. Ray Hall, an FBI agent who interviewed Ruby; Charles Batchelor, assistant chief of the Dallas police; Jesse E. Curry, chief of the Dallas police; M. W. Stevenson, deputy chief of the Dallas police; and others. Also includes an index to Volumes I - XV. PDF Details. Volumes XVI—XXVI - These volumes contain reproductions of exhibits received into evidence by the Commission. The exhibits received in connection with testimony before the Commission are printed first, arranged in numerical order from 1 to 1053. Next are printed exhibits received in connection with depositions or affidavits, arranged alphabetically by name of witness, and then numerically— e.g., Adams Exhibits Nos. 1-, Baker Exhibits Nos. 1-22. Finally are printed other materials relied upon by the Commission, consisting principally of investigative reports by law enforcement agencies, arranged in numerical order beginning with 1054. Each volume begins with a table of contents—a descriptive listing of the exhibits in the volume and the page or pages on which each exhibit is printed. The numbering of the exhibits received in testimony before the Commission is not completely consecutive; the unused numbers are noted in the table of contents. Also, various systems of designation were used in connection with deposition and affidavit exhibits, so that the designation of some of these exhibits begins either with a letter or a number higher than 1—e.g., Jones Exhibits A-C, Smith Exhibits Nos. 5000-5006. Almost all of the reproductions contained in the exhibit volumes consist of photographs of the exhibits. The legibility of many documentary exhibits is poor, because some exhibits were copies rather than originals and many others were discolored when tested for fingerprints. In some cases where legibility was particularly bad, the contents of the document have been typed out, and reproduced together with a miniature photograph of the exhibit. A few exhibits of negligible relevance were not reproduced because of their length or for reasons of taste. The omissions are described in the tables of contents. In a very small number of cases, names, dates, or numbers have been deleted from exhibits for security reasons or for the protection of named individuals. Conspiracy Theories: From JFK’s Assassination to Today. The proliferation of conspiracy theories across social media today may seem like a hazard of the digital age, but it has ties to a home movie taken by a Dallas businessman more than 50 years ago. Abraham Zapruder was among the thousands who turned out in Dallas on November 22, 1963, to catch a glimpse of President John F. Kennedy. Zapruder aimed his 8mm Bell & Howell home movie camera at the president’s motorcade as it rolled by, and by chance captured the assassination on film. Because it appeared to show that Kennedy was shot in the front of the head, the film stirred up controversy: the government’s official investigation by the Warren Commission reported that the president had been shot from behind. That contradiction gave rise to another one: The film seemed to indicate that there were at least two shooters, while the Warren Commission maintained that there had been only one. These contradictions opened the door to countless books advancing one conspiracy after another about who killed the president and why. Conspiracy-thinking became a fact of American life. Today, the blurring of the distinction between fact and fiction on social media seems to invite anyone to step forward with homemade “facts” to argue almost anything, for example that a Washington pizza restaurant was a front for a child sex ring. But some historians believe that the tendency to fall back on conspiracy theories is evidence of a more disturbing trend: Americans increasingly mistrust government and their elected officials. Why did many Americans question the Warren Commission’s official investigation of President Kennedy’s assassination? How did the CIA respond to the public’s doubts about the Warren Report? How has the internet encouraged the growth of unfounded beliefs and conspiracy theories? Other than theories about the assassination of President Kennedy, what other events in the 1960s and 1970s contributed to a decline in trust of the government? How is this reflected in public opinion polls? Do you think there was a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy? What facts support your opinion? How did you arrive at your belief about the assassination? When Dan Rather says that people “ache for an explanation for the unexplainable,” he’s describing the intersection of emotional needs and empirical reality. In developing their a of historical events, do you think that most people start with facts and build toward their beliefs? Or do they start with beliefs and look for facts that support them? How did the American Revolution and the ideals of the founders instill a degree of mistrust in public attitudes toward government? How is this mistrust institutionalized in the structures created by the Constitution? Are there different kinds of mistrust in government? Can this mistrust be positive and useful? Or negative and unproductive? Is there a way to regulate or modify social media platforms to limit the spread of unfounded beliefs and conspiracy theories? How should we respond to the “post-fact” era? Do you think most American citizens trust the government too much, or not enough? Is it dangerous for citizens to place too much trust in the government? Can it be dangerous if there is too little trust in the government? Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem. Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequences of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact or develop over the course of a text. Evaluate how historical events were shaped by unique circumstance of time and place, and broader historical contexts. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effect of events in the past. Skill 4.B: Explain how a specific historical development is situated within a broader historical context. Report of the Warren Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy by Warren Commission. Warren Report. Click on an entry to navigate to a deeper table of contents or view scanned page images. Select the PDF icon to view the Portable Document Format version of a document. Return to previous tables on contents via the Return to links. Use the menu tabs on the left to learn more about how to use the Archive or to access it in different ways. The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy was announced by President Johnson on November 29, 1963, one week after the shots rang out in Dallas, and five days after alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was killed while in police custody. A little under 10 months later, the "Warren Commission" delivered this 888-page Report. The Report found that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy, alone and unaided, and that similarly Oswald's killer Jack Ruby was a "lone nut." This Report was followed up a couple of months later by the publication of 26 volumes of Hearings and Exhibits. The Warren Report was widely hailed by the media as an exhaustive study produced by honorable and prestigious men, and was fairly widely accepted by the American public. It was not until a few years later, with the publication of several critical books and magazine pieces, that this acceptance began to turn into widespread disbelief and even ridicule of the Commission's conclusions. The Warren Report remains the definitive statement of the "lone nut" theory of the assassination of President Kennedy.