impeachment campaigns vs.
Jacqueline Kennedy and
JFK and
Kennedy family protected by
Kennedy family response to report and
key evidence denied to staff by
Lane and
LBJ and defense of report by
LBJ and Lady Bird interviews limited by
LBJ chooses, to head WC
leaks to media and
Liebeler and
“lifetime” comment and media
limits imposed by
lone assassin theory and
Manchester and
Marguerite Oswald and
Marina Oswald and
Markham testimony and
media and
Nixon and
Nosenko and
Olney and
Pearson and
personality of
polygraphs and
public response to report and
Rankin appointed by
Redlich defended by
regrets accepting WC assignment
retirement of
RFK and
Rowley and
Ruby and
Russell and
Secret Service and
secrets kept by
Specter and
staff and
Stern and
Supreme Court and
WC budget and
WC files and
WC first meetings and
WC organized by
WC report drafting and
WC report presented to LBJ by
WC report signing and
WC report unanimous conclusion and
WC routine and
Willens and
Zapruder film and
Warren, Earl, Jr.
Warren, Nina
Warren, Robert
Warren Commission (President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy). See also Oswald, Lee Harvey; Warren, Earl; and specific agencies; commissioners; evidence; staff members; theories; and witnesses
aftermath of
amount of evidence examined by
Angleton and
anti-Communist attacks on
autopsy report and
ballistics and fingerprint evidence and
budget and printing costs
calls for official reexamination of
Castro testimony and
CIA and
CIA conceals evidence from
CIA denies conspiracy
CIA liaison with staff
CIA Mexico City station and
CIA plots to kill Castro and
CIA pressure on Warren
closed down
commissioners-staff relations
Connally and
conspiracy theories and
criticisms of
Cuban document requests and
Cuban link and
Dallas evidence and
Dallas police and
deadlines and
deaths of members and staff
de Mohrenschildt and
Duran sought by
Epstein on
evidence examined by outside experts
executive session transcripts
eyewitness accounts and
FBI and
FBI conceals evidence from
FBI Dallas FBI
FBI documents reviewed by Hoover
FBI files on members of
FBI links to Oswald as paid informant and
FBI preliminary report and
FBI surveillance of LHO and
files mishandled by
final fully transcribed meeting
final report presented to LBJ
final sessions and debate on conclusions of
first meetings and organization of
Ford and
Ford vs. Redlich and
Fortas and
general counsel appointed
Helms and
Hoover and
Hoover interviews and
Hoover letter on LHO threat to kill JFK
Hosty testimony
Humes testimony
investigation flawed from start
Jacqueline Kennedy and
Jacqueline Kennedy testimony and
key areas of investigation
Lady Bird testimony
Lane and
Lane testimony
LBJ and attacks on
LBJ doubts conclusions of
LBJ sets up
LBJ’s written statement to
LHO investigated by
Liebeler criticizes
Manchester and
Mann and
Marguerite Oswald and
Marina Oswald and
Markham testimony
Martin testimony
McCloy letter and
McCone and
media and
medical evidence kept from
medical testimony and
Mexico City investigation and
mishandling of classified documents and
Nosenko and
Odio and
O’Donnell testimony
office at VFW headquarters
Paines and
public hearings and
Rankin and Goldberg planned defense of
records of
RFK and
RFK statement for
Robert Oswald testimony
Rowley testimony
Ruby and
Ruby polygraph and
Rusk testimony
Russell and
Russell dissent on final report
Scott and
Secret Service investigated by
Secret Service testimony
single-bullet theory and (see single-bullet theory)
evidence withheld from
staff concerns about conspiracy
staff divided into teams
staff draws up preliminary outline
staff hired
staff hours totaled
staff relations
staff work done by junior lawyers
subpoena power and
surviving staff members
Thomas and
transcripts and
Walker testimony
Warren attempt to destroy files
Warren’s media blunders and
Warren’s oversight of
Zapruder film and
Warren Commission report
censorship of
CIA Mexico City and
CIA response to
drafting and delays
drafts written and edited
Duran and
FBI response to
Ford and
Goldberg outline and style memo for
internal debate on conclusions
Kennedy family response to
LHO as lone assassin and
LHO biography drafted for
McCloy criticizes
media response to
New York Times publishes
Nosenko dropped from
Odio story rebutted in
presented to LBJ
public response to
Redlich vs. Liebeler on
release of
RFK and conclusions of
“rumors” appendix and
Russell and
Secret Service section drafted
State Department and
witness testimony excerpts and
Washington Post
Washington Star
Watson, Stanley
Weaver, James D.
Weinreb, Lloyd
Welch, Joseph
West, Eugene
West, Louis
WH-3 (CIA Clandestine Services branch)
White, Alan
White, Byron “Whizzer”
Whitten, John
Whittington, Bert
Who Killed Kennedy? (Buchanan)
Wilkins, Roger
Willens, Howard
; Willis, Edwin
Wilson, Harold
Worker (newspaper)
Zapruder, Abraham
sale of film by
Zapruder film
Dallas reconstruction and
sale of
Ziger, Alexander
Air Force One, moments after returning to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, from Dallas, November 22, 1963.
President Lyndon Johnson rejected the advice of Secret Service agents who wanted him to depart Dallas’s Love Field airport the instant he boarded Air Force One. The plane remained on the ground for an extra 35 minutes as Johnson waited for the arrival of Jacqueline Kennedy and the casket bearing her husband’s body. Mrs. Kennedy boarded shortly after the casket was loaded onto the plane. Johnson was then formally sworn in, a scene witnessed by Mrs. Kennedy—still in the blood-caked clothes from the motorcade—and Lady Bird Johnson.
Chief Justice Earl Warren and his wife, Nina, seen the day after the assassination outside the White House, where they had gone with other members of the Supreme Court for a viewing of the president’s casket in the East Room. On Sunday, November 24, Warren stood before Mrs. Kennedy and her daughter, Caroline, and offered a eulogy for Kennedy in the Capitol Rotunda, where the casket had been on public display.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy loathed President Johnson but agreed to remain in his cabinet. The two men, shown at the White House in October 1964, were the highest-ranking government officials not called to testify before the Warren Commission.
Kennedy and wife, Ethel, leave the new Georgetown home of Jacqueline Kennedy after helping her move in on December 6, 1963.
The Kennedys aboard the Coast Guard yacht Manitou, sailing in Narragansett Bay, on September 8, 1962. Mrs. Kennedy can be seen reading William Manchester’s respectful biography of Kennedy, Portrait of a President, as she smokes.
Although Kennedy demanded the resignation of Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles as a result of the Bay of Pigs disaster in 1961, he remained friendly with Dulles, seen here (left) on September 27, 1961, at the announcement of Dulles’s successor at the CIA, California industrialist John McCone (right).
Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson (center) is surrounded by police officers after he is struck on the head by a placard carried by an anti-U.N. demonstrator in Dallas on October 25, 1963. The incident, a month before the assassination, was another example of the hostility faced by prominent political visitors to conservative Dallas.
On the morning of his assassination, Kennedy told his wife that they were “heading into nut country” after seeing a black-bordered ad in the Dallas Morning News headlined: “Welcome Mr. Kennedy,” in which the Kennedy administration was accused of “going soft on Communists, fellow-travelers, and ultra-leftists in America.” Leaflets appeared in the streets that portrayed Kennedy in a mock mug shot and said he was “Wanted for Treason.”
The president appears to practice “the Johnson Treatment” on his political mentor, Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, in the White House Cabinet Room on December 12, 1963, three weeks after the assassination.
President Johnson meets with Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren in an undated photograph. Johnson convinced the reluctant Warren to lead the commission by warning him that he might otherwise be responsible for a nuclear war in which tens of millions of Americans would die.
Johnson is interviewed on the White House lawn on April 16, 1964, by the powerful muckraking columnist Andrew “Drew” Pearson, a close friend of Chief Justice Warren’s.
The hostility between FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General Robert Kennedy was no secret to their aides. It was Hoover who—in a brief telephone call minutes after the shots rang out in Dealey Plaza—notified Kennedy that his brother had been shot. In this photograph, the two men are seen at a White House ceremony on May 7, 1963.
President Johnson meets in the Oval Office with Richard Helms, the career intelligence operative named by Johnson to run the Central Intelligence Agency. Helms would later admit there were caveats to his promise of full cooperation with the Warren Commission; he admitted he told the commission nothing about the CIA’s plots to kill Castro.
A formal portrait of the members of the Warren Commission, taken in the hearing room in the Washington, DC, headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, where the commission had its offices. Left to right: Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, Representative Hale Boggs of Louisiana, Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia, Chief Justice Earl Warren, Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky, former World Bank president John J. McCloy, former Director of Central Intelligence Allen W. Dulles, and commission general counsel J. Lee Rankin.
J. Lee Rankin, the commission’s general counsel and a former United States solicitor general, led the commission’s staff lawyers, who were divided into two-man teams made up of a “senior counsel” and a “junior” partner. In most cases, the junior lawyers did the bulk of the work.
Norman Redlich, a New York University law professor, was the central editor and author of the final report. Rankin’s decision to hire Redlich, linked by the FBI to left-wing groups the bureau considered subversive, would create a furor among the commissioners.
The commission’s staff gathers for a group portrait in the offices in the national headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Front row, left to right: Alfred Goldberg, Norman Redlich, J. Lee Rankin, David Slawson (with glasses), Howard Willens (no glasses), David Belin. Second row: Stuart Pollak, Arlen Specter, Wesley Liebeler (with cigarette), Samuel Stern, Albert Jenner, John Hart Ely, and Burt Griffin.
David Slawson, one of the junior lawyers, stands next to Chief Justice Warren. Slawson was the commission’s key investigator on the question of a possible foreign conspiracy.
Arlen Specter, who was effectively abandoned by his “senior” partner in reconstructing the events of day of the assassination, would become known as the “father of the single-bullet theory.”
David Belin was the junior partner on the team responsible for identifying the assassin—Oswald, presumably.
Burt Griffin was the junior lawyer on the team investigating Jack Ruby’s background.
Alfred Goldberg, an air force historian, helped outline and write the report.
Melvin Eisenberg, Redlich’s deputy, became the commission’s in-house expert on the science of criminology and could knock down many of the conspiracy theories.
Joseph Ball, the senior lawyer on the team to determine the assassin’s identity, was praised for his hard work.
Richard Mosk prepared studies on Oswald’s marksmanship and his surprisingly sophisticated reading habits.
William Coleman, senior lawyer on the “conspiracy” team, was a key legal strategist in the civil rights movement and is shown standing next to Martin Luther King.
Francis Adams, former New York City police commissioner, effectively abandoned the investigation.
Leon Hubert, former district attorney of New Orleans, left the commission’s staff early, angry that little attention was being paid to his investigation of Jack Ruby.
Albert Jenner was the senior lawyer in investigating Oswald’s life story.
Samuel Stern was the sole investigator assigned to study the history of presidential protection and the performance of the Secret Service.
Julia Eide was Rankin’s intelligent and intimidating secretary.
Marina Oswald in Minsk.
Marina and Lee in Minsk.
The Oswalds with infant June in Texas.
Oswald’s falsified Marine Corp ID card (in the name of alias Alex Hidell).
Oswald with rifle and pistol in New Orleans, 1963.
Oswald in Marine Corps uniform.
Oswald’s falsified ID (in name of alias Alex Hidell).
Oswald and friends in Russia, including Ella German, who refused to marry him, seen top right.
Oswald with coworkers in Minsk.
Oswald hands out “Hands off Cuba” leaflets in New Orleans
in 1963.
Jack Ruby, “host” of the Carousel Club burlesque house, was known in Dallas for his aggressive effort to court the police and reporters. Ruby poses with three of the club’s performers.
Ruby’s business card.
A mug shot taken after his arrest for Oswald’s murder.
The ramp that Ruby was believed to have used to reach the basement of Dallas police headquarters to kill Oswald.
On Sunday, November 24, Ruby murdered Oswald on live national television, pushing through a crowd of reporters and cameramen to fire his pistol at point-blank range.
The cold-blooded murder of Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit, shown in uniform, was seen by commission lawyer David Belin as the “Rosetta Stone” in understanding that Oswald was obviously guilty of the president’s assassination, too.
Tippit’s murder was witnessed by restaurant waitress Helen Markham, seen next to an unidentified policeman; she identified Oswald in a police lineup later that day.
Shortly after Tippit’s killing, Oswald was arrested as he tried to hide in the darkened auditorium at the nearby Texas Theatre. In his pocket was a bus transfer (shown with key), which Belin suspected that Oswald intended to use to reach another bus that would allow him to escape to Mexico.
Texas Governor John Connally is comforted by his wife, Nellie, at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, as he recovered from the bullet wounds suffered as he rode in the president’s limousine in Dealey Plaza.
A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination Page 75