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]
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