The Warren Commission & the JFK Assassination on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The Warren Commission report was released on this day in 1964. 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. 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.

Only 61 percent of Americans believe JFK was not killed by Oswald alone and that others were involved, according to a survey carried out by website FiveThirtyEight. Only 33 percent of people think Oswald acted alone. Other polls suggest that up to 76% of Americans do not believe the official narrative.  

"Over a decade later, Kennedy’s death was once again investigated – this time by the US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). Established in 1976, the committee issued its final report in 1979, which agreed with the Warren Commission’s findings, though it added there was a 'high probability' that two gunmen fired at Kennedy. The HSCA also found that Kennedy was 'probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy,' although it did not go into details."~Tyler Durden

The HCSA stated that instead of just 3 rounds fired from the 6th floor of the School Book Depository, another shot came from the Grassy Knoll.

Conspiracy theorists consider four or five groups, alone or in combination, to be the primary suspects in the assassination of Kennedy: the CIA, the military-industrial complex, organized crime, the government of Cuba led by Fidel Castro, and Cuban exiles. Other domestic individuals, groups, or organizations implicated in various conspiracy theories include Lyndon Johnson, George H. W. Bush, Sam Giancana, Carlos Marcello, J. Edgar Hoover, Earl Warren, the FBI, the United States Secret Service, the John Birch Society, far-right wealthy Texans and the Jesuits. Some other alleged foreign conspirators includes, the KGB and Nikita Khrushchev, Aristotle Onassis, the government of South Vietnam, and international drug lords, including a French heroin syndicate. 

Former Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi estimated that a total of 42 groups, 82 assassins, and 214 people had been accused at one time or another in various conspiracy scenarios.

According to author John C. McAdams, "[t]he greatest and grandest of all conspiracy theories is the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory." Others have often referred to it as "the mother of all conspiracies". The number of books written about the assassination of Kennedy has been estimated to be between 1,000 and 2,000. According to Vincent Bugliosi, 95% of those books are "pro-conspiracy and anti-Warren Commission".