The 888-page report of the Warren Commission on the assassination of President Kennedy was published on Sept. 28, ten months after the Commission had been set up by President Johnson under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr. Earl Warren.
Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online
Read the article and then do an activity
The Commission took evidence from 552 witnesses and received over 3,000 reports from the security agencies, which in turn conducted more than 26,000 interviews. The evidence will fill 26 volumes when published.
The Warren Commission's report was unanimous, its central findings being as follows:
The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally of Texas were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.
The Commission had found no evidence that Oswald was involved with any person or group in a conspiracy to assassinate the President.
No relationship, direct or indirect, had existed between Oswald and Jack Ruby, nor had the Commission been able to find any evidence that either knew the other.
The Commission had found no evidence that Ruby acted with any other person in the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald.
The Commission had found no evidence either that Ruby and Patrolman Tippit (who was killed by Oswald) knew each other, or that Oswald and Tippit knew each other.
In setting out its conclusions, the Warren Commission emphasized that no limitations had been placed on the Commission's inquiry; that all Government agencies had "fully discharged their responsibility to co-operate with the Commission in its investigation"; and that the conclusions "represent the reasoned judgment of all members of the Commission and are presented after an investigation which has satisfied the Commission that it has ascertained the truth concerning the assassination of President Kennedy to the extent that a prolonged and thorough search makes possible."
Of the Commission's 12 specific conclusions (set forth below), the last one expressed criticisms in varying degree of the Secret Service which is responsible for the protection of U.S. Presidents--and also of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and stressed the need for "improvements in Presidential protection."
The Commission stated inter alia that the Secret Service "did not develop adequate and specific criteria defining those persons and groups who might present a danger to the President"; that there was "insufficient liaison and co-ordination of information between the Secret Service and other Federal agencies concerned with Presidential protection"; that the F.B.I., though having accumulated considerable information about Oswald, had not brought his activities to the attention of the Secret Service; and that the procedures for detecting the presence of an assassin along the motorcade route in Dallas were inadequate.
Keesings Worldwide Online
| 
