The Warren Commission

Johnson signed Executive Order 11130 on 29 November 1963. The members were Chief Justice Earl Warren; Senators Richard Russell of Georgia and John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky; Representatives Hale Boggs of Louisiana and Gerald Ford of Michigan; Allen Dulles, a former director of central intelligence; and John McCloy, a former president of the World Bank and U.S. high commissioner for Germany. They first met on 5 December. On 13 December Congress passed a joint resolution giving them subpoena power and the power to grant immunity. [1]

The Commission heard its first witness on 3 February 1964. It took testimony from 552 people: 94 before the members themselves, 395 questioned by staff lawyers, 61 by sworn affidavit and 2 by statement. It relied on the FBI, the Secret Service and the CIA for most of its investigative work. [1]

Its central conclusions were that the shots came from the sixth-floor window of the Depository, that Oswald fired them, and that “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.” [2]

The Senate’s Church Committee reported in 1976 that the CIA had been plotting to kill Fidel Castro, including with underworld figures, and that neither the CIA nor the FBI told the Commission. It found that the FBI, “ordered by Director Hoover and pressured by higher government officials,” had been pushed to finish quickly and had “focused narrowly” on Oswald. It said “the possibility exists that senior officials in both agencies made conscious decisions not to disclose potentially important information.” [1]

The Church Committee was careful about what that meant. It said its findings did “not lead to the conclusion that there was a conspiracy” and that it had seen no evidence that Castro or others in the Cuban government plotted the killing. [1]

In 1979 the House committee reached a similar view: the Commission investigated Oswald thoroughly but “failed to investigate adequately the possibility of a conspiracy,” partly because it did not receive all the relevant information from other agencies. It called the Commission’s performance on that question “flawed.” [2]

The members knew from early on that they were dependent on the agencies they might have needed to investigate. In a closed session on 22 January 1964 they discussed a report from Texas officials that Oswald had been an FBI informant, paid $200 a month. Hoover and the agents who had dealt with Oswald later swore that he was never an FBI informant, and the Commission accepted that. [3][4]

The report’s findings were signed by all seven members. Its text admitted that members differed on whether one bullet hit both Kennedy and Connally; see the single-bullet file. [1]

Richard Russell told Johnson by phone on 18 September 1964 that he did not believe the single-bullet theory. Gerald Ford defended the report and in 1997 defended his edit of the wound description as a matter of clarity. [2][3][4]