This Day in the Law
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September 27

Warren Commission Finds Oswald Acted Alone in the Assassination of President Kennedy (1964)


On September 26, 1964, the Warren Commission released its findings to the public that Lee Harvey Oswald was the "lone gunman" in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Commission released its 888-page final report finding that Oswald shot three bullets from a rifle out of the sixth floor window in the Texas School Book Depository and killed Kennedy. The Commission found that Jack Ruby acted alone in the murder of Oswald, and the conspiracies surrounding the assassination were unfounded. To this day, much speculation and intrigue surround the Kennedy assassination.

The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (popularly known as the "Warren Commission") was established by President Lyndon Johnson in November 1963 to investigate President Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963 at Dallas’ Dealey Plaza. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, Earl Warren, was appointed as the head of the Commission.

The Commission conducted a 10-month investigation into the murder of the President. The Commission interviewed hundreds of people and reviewed volumes of evidence. However, many people have found numerous problems with the Commission’s Report. The Commission failed to interview or locate many people who supposedly were eye witnesses to the event, and some of whom mysteriously disappeared. The Commission also failed to fully explain if there were shots fired from the “grassy knoll,” which certain eye witnesses said occurred.

Controversy surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy remained very high after the Commission’s Report. In fact, controversy was so strong that another congressional investigation was conducted in 1979. That congressional committee reached the same conclusion as the Warren Commission. Still, to this day, many believe Oswald did not act alone.

In 2039, the evidence files from the Kennedy assassination will be released from under seal and available for study and review by scholars and the general public. Perhaps then, further answers will be discovered.