Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and chairman of the Warren Commission
On November 22, 1963, the United States faced one of its greatest tragedies in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Although a controversial president in his day, Kennedy has since become an admired figure for Americans of many stripes. Only two days later, his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot dead in the Dallas Police Garage while being transferred from city to county jail by Jack Ruby. In the wake of these events, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11130 on November 29th, authorizing the creation of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, which would popularly become known as the Warren Commission. Johnson was initially not for doing this, rather this was done to head off potential Senate and House investigations into the matter. The chairman was Chief Justice Earl Warren, whose tenure over the Supreme Court was highly transformative and controversial, and who had resisted multiple lobbying efforts by LBJ to place him on the commission, only being convinced to do so as Johnson foretold catastrophe if he wasn’t there. Also tapped for the committee were:
Senator Richard B. Russell (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and de facto leader of the Southern Democratic bloc of the Senate. He initially refused to be on the committee because he didn’t want to serve with Warren over his desegregation decisions, but the crafty fox LBJ basically voluntold him to be on the committee by publicly stating that Russell was going to be on the committee.
Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-Ky.), formerly Ambassador to India and highly respected on both sides of the aisle, one of the least partisan senators.
Representative Hale Boggs (D-La.), majority whip of the House.
Representative Gerald Ford (R-Mich.), a rising star in the GOP and chairman of the House Republican Conference.
John J. McCloy, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. McCloy is quite the figure, and one of the most powerful men in American politics to have never been elected to public office, as he held multiple positions of power in the government throughout his long life. I intend to write an extensive post about him one of these days.
Allen Dulles, director of the CIA, 1953-1961. Dulles was placed on the commission by LBJ to make sure that questions were not asked of CIA operatives that could expose operations.
On December 5th, the Warren Commission met for the first time to formally begin the investigation. 552 witnesses testified before the Warren Commission, including Oswald’s mother and wife, people present on the day of the assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson and other politicians, police officers, contacts of Oswald and Ruby, CIA director John McCone and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and some others. Not all witness testimony proved productive. For instance, Professor Revilo P. Oliver was called to testify before the Warren Commission because of his article titled “Marxmanship in Dallas”, in which he claimed the possibility that Kennedy was assassinated because he was turning away from the communist mission. Oliver’s testimony proved both contradictory and based on speculation. However, more relevant problems would arise with the testimony of others to the committee, which will be covered in the second part. In the process of the investigation, Warren Commission staff member Arlen Specter (who would later have a 30-year career in the Senate) concluded that a single bullet went through both President Kennedy and Governor Connally, and this would become accepted in the report of the committee, although there was a lot more internal controversy than people at the time knew of the report’s release, but that will be for the second part.
On September 24, 1964, the Commission officially released its findings, exactly ten months after Oswald had been killed. The Commission reached the following major conclusions with all members signing the report:
- There was no conspiracy, foreign or domestic, to kill JFK.
- Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole man responsible for the assassination of JFK.
- There was a single bullet fired that went through both Kennedy and Governor Connally.
- Oswald had also shot Officer J.D. Tippit 45 minutes later.
- Jack Ruby acted alone in murdering Lee Harvey Oswald.
At first, the public seemed to accept this conclusion. However, with time flaws and complications surrounding the committee and its work would come to public attention and the public would increasingly doubt the Warren Commission’s conclusions, as many do to this day. The next post will cover reactions, criticisms, and an overall takeaway from the Warren Commission’s views.
References
Andrews, E. (2024, August 19). 9 Things You May Not Know About the Warren Commission. History Channel.
Retrieved from
https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-warren-commission
Erickson, M. (2013, November 8). JFK: Why JFK’s assassination has spawned so much speculation. The State Journal-Register.
Retrieved from
Special Section: The Warren Commission Report. (1964, October 2). Time Magazine.
Retrieved fromhttps://time.com/3422341/the-warren-commission-report/
Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History 