The Warren Commission Report: Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

by Warren Commission and The Warren Commission

Book Overview

President Lyndon B. Johnson, by Executive Order No. 11130 dated November 29, 1963, created this Commission to investigate the assassination on November 22,1963, of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States. The President directed the Commission to evaluate all the facts and circumstances surrounding the assassination and the subsequent killing of the alleged assassin and to report its findings and conclusions to him. The subject...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312082576
• ISBN13: 9780312082574
• Release Date: February 1992
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 912 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 6.2" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

The starting point for JFK enthusiasts

The Warren Report was the official report on the assassination of JFK. Because Lee Harvey Oswald was shot 2 days after the assassination by Jack Ruby, there was no trial. The American people would not stand for this, so President Johnson authorized the Warren Commission to determine what happened on November 22, 1963. This book is an important work in American history, regardless of which side you take: lone assassin or conspiracy. It is fairly easy to follow; the authors sum up their conclusions in each sub-chapter, make their case and then dismiss what they believe is "uncredible." Unfortunately, the book I have has no index and no table of contents. I'm not sure if this edition that I'm reviewing does or not; I suspect it also is lacking this critical apparatus. This makes reviewing their notes and conclusions somewhat muddled. Some would say that this was deliberate, all part of the conspiracy and coverup. I can't draw that conclusion. The Warren Report doesn't prove that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. It proves that Lee Harvey Oswald COULD HAVE acted alone. Many leads are dismissed out of hand. For example: a Dallas cop saw Oswald running down Houston Avenue moments after the shooting, getting into the passenger side of a station wagon. Later that afternoon, that cop saw Oswald in the captain's office being interrogated. He told his chief that's the guy he saw. The chief dismissed this and said that a little old lady saw him board a bus after the shooting. Therefore there was no getaway car. One of the reasons that Oswald was pinned down to the Kennedy killing was that he took a shot at General Walker. They pinned this crime to him in December of 1963; the shooting took place in March. The day before the shooting, a friend of Walker's saw 2 men peeking in Walker's windows. The day of the shooting, a teenager saw 2 men get into seperate cars, parked next door to Walker's house, and drive away. If Oswald did take a shot at Walker, then what of the other man? This is what I mean when I say the Warren Report proves Oswald COULD HAVE killed Kennedy. Many leads like this are not followed up. This book should be the starting point of any serious reader who wants to know what happened to JFK. Read it and take a grain of salt. Then read one of the conspiracy books that dismisses the Warren Report out of hand. Then take another grain of salt.

The starting point for JFK enthusiasts

The Warren Report was the official report on the assassination of JFK. Because Lee Harvey Oswald was shot 2 days after the assassination by Jack Ruby, there was no trial. The American people would not stand for this, so President Johnson authorized the Warren Commission to determine what happened on November 22, 1963. This book is an important work in American history, regardless of which side you take: lone assassin or conspiracy. It is fairly easy to follow; the authors sum up their conclusions in each sub-chapter, make their case and then dismiss what they believe is "uncredible." Unfortunately, the book I have has no index and no table of contents. I'm not sure if this edition that I'm reviewing does or not; I suspect it also is lacking this critical apparatus. This makes reviewing their notes and conclusions somewhat muddled. Some would say that this was deliberate, all part of the conspiracy and coverup. I can't draw that conclusion. The Warren Report doesn't prove that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. It proves that Lee Harvey Oswald COULD HAVE acted alone. Many leads are dismissed out of hand. For example: a Dallas cop saw Oswald running down Houston Avenue moments after the shooting, getting into the passenger side of a station wagon. Later that afternoon, that cop saw Oswald in the captain's office being interrogated. He told his chief that's the guy he saw. The chief dismissed this and said that a little old lady saw him board a bus after the shooting. Therefore there was no getaway car. One of the reasons that Oswald was pinned down to the Kennedy killing was that he took a shot at General Walker. They pinned this crime to him in December of 1963; the shooting took place in March. The day before the shooting, a friend of Walker's saw 2 men peeking in Walker's windows. The day of the shooting, a teenager saw 2 men get into seperate cars, parked next door to Walker's house, and drive away. If Oswald did take a shot at Walker, then what of the other man? This is what I mean when I say the Warren Report proves Oswald COULD HAVE killed Kennedy. Many leads like this are not followed up. This book should be the starting point of any serious reader who wants to know what happened to JFK. Read it and take a grain of salt. Then read one of the conspiracy books that dismisses the Warren Report out of hand. Then take another grain of salt.

Coming full circle...

The killing of President Kennedy is seared into the American conscience. It is quite understandable that so many competing theories of what actually happened that day would persist for so many years. I read the Warren Commission report many years ago...back in 1974 and 1975. At that time I was convinced that the Commission's findings were accurate. Over time, however, my feelings changed. Oswald seemed to have ties to Cuba and to the USSR. Ruby seemed to have ties to the underworld. I began reading conspiracy books and began to believe them. The "magic bullet" theory began to seem unbelievable, and the idea of more than one shooter seemed credible. Over the years, I read about many conspiracy theories. Nixon, for example, was in Dallas that morning -- did he have something to do with it? Then there is that mysterious man with the umbrella, and the shadow by the grassy knoll, and, of course, Lyndon Johnson, who may have had something to do with it. Some even suggested that the driver of the presidential limosine was the shooter! More recently, I have looked at the evidence again. The other reviewer is right -- the Warren Commission Report has stood the test of time. It seems so very clear to me now that Oswald is the one who did the shooting that day, that he fired three times, and that he probably acted alone. The evidence of the conspiracy theorists includes hearsay, rumors, and blurred shadows. They speak with great authority as if they had been there -- some of them were probably not even born at the time. The evidence of the Warren Commission is substantial and solid -- eyewitness testimony, autopsy reports, bullet fragments, a bullet, a gun, and a man who worked in the Texas School Book Depository who owned the gun. I remember reading a memorable interview with a doctor who worked on President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital. He said (and I am paraphrasing here) that he felt exasperated by conspiracy theorists who insisted that the fatal bullet entered the front of Kennedy's head and exited out the rear. He felt frustrated because, as he put it, he was there -- he saw the President in the flesh, he saw the wounds, he saw the entrance wound and exit wound. And he is a doctor, he said, someone who actually went through medical school and finished medical school. He knows from his own lived experience, from what he saw, that Kennedy's head wounds indicated a rear entry and an explosive exit towards the right front. And, sure enough, that is exactly what the Zapruder film shows. But the doctor, in the interview, puzzled over why people refuse to believe him. Conspiracy theorists have derided this report for years and years, but I remain impressed by the calm and mature manner in which the Warren Commission presents its evidence. And the evidence is solid. I have been researching this subject for over thirty years now, and no conspiracy theorist has yet to produce anything more solid that what we find in the Warren Commission.

888 Pages Of Common Sense, And Truth (IMHO)

The completed Warren Commission Report was delivered to President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1964. The seven-member Warren Commission worked for ten months, examining and investigating the events and circumstances surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and reached the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald, alone, had murdered the President and wounded Texas Governor John B. Connally. The Commission also found no "credible evidence" to suggest that Oswald or Jack Ruby (the man who killed Oswald two days after JFK's death) were involved in any type of conspiratorial plot when each of them committed their individual acts of violence in November of 1963 in Dallas, Texas. I, for one, am in complete agreement with the Commission's final conclusions regarding Oswald and Ruby. There is just too much evidence, in my opinion, supporting the idea that Lee Oswald took his own rifle to work with him on the morning of November 22nd, 1963 (wrapped in a brown paper bag), and that he constructed a makeshift "Sniper's Nest" on the sixth floor of his workplace at the Texas School Book Depository Building on Elm Street in Dallas' Dealey Plaza, and fired three shots at the passing Presidential motorcade below him at 12:30 PM, thereby ending the life of the 35th U.S. President. Every single thing Lee Harvey Oswald did before and after 12:30 PM on November 22, 1963, spells "Guilt" (and more-than-likely "Lone Guilt" as well). ........ Such as: 1.) Oswald's bringing an (approx.) rifle-sized package to work with him on 11/22. 2.) "Send the elevator back up, guys." That was said by Oswald to fellow workers at about 11:45 or 11:50 AM on 11/22. And where was Oswald at the time he had the elevator "sent back up"? -- On the sixth floor, the "Death" floor. 3.) Thirty minutes after President Kennedy is shot, Oswald dashes into his small rented room on Beckley Avenue, grabs his revolver, very quickly exits the roominghouse, and starts walking again. 4.) Oswald shoots and kills Dallas city patrolman J.D. Tippit in cold blood near the intersection of 10th & Patton; then begins walking briskly once more away from the scene of yet another murder. 5.) Oswald is then seen by store employee Johnny Brewer at the entrance to Hardy's Shoe Store on Jefferson Boulevard. Brewer later testified that Oswald was acting in an odd and suspicious manner while at the shoe-store entrance, with his back toward the street, as various police vehicles (with sirens blaring) proceeded along Jefferson Boulevard. Once the police cars had gone by, Oswald then sneaks into the Texas Theater without paying. 6.) Pointed out by Brewer in the theater, Dallas police officers apprehend Oswald and are finally able to snap handcuffs on their suspect after a struggle. During this fight with police, Oswald pulls his revolver and tries to kill yet another officer, but (luckily) the gun misfired. 7.) Just prior to his altercation with police inside the movie theater, Oswald shouts "Thi

Was there a conspiracy? (40th Anniversary review)

The Warren Report is the basic starting point for anybody who is even remotely interested in researching the JFK assassination. The book is massive - nearly 2 inches thick, 9 inches in length and 6 inches in width and clocks in at 888 pages. There are many illustrations and photographs to help break the monotony and they are helpful in understanding the text.Be forewarned. This report is not to be taken at face value. It promotes itself while at the same time laying blame on everybody from Oswald to the Secret Service and the Dallas County Police. You have every right to be critical of this book because of its omissions. One of the most important pieces of evidence - the autopsy photographs - have been completely omitted. Not because they would serve as only disturbing the American people and the Kennedy family but because they where deliberately HOAXED when revealed to the public through the media. There is no excuse for providing the American people with autopsy photographs of another dead man who was not President Kennedy. The original autopsy photographs have since come to light and these shed new information on the case. The report does not even touch on that topic. These photographs alone should warrant deep consideration by the even the most hardened lone-gunman supporters. How can the Warren Report expound on the wrongness of the Dallas Police revealing inaccurate case information when itself is staying shut-mouthed on the deliberately hoaxed autopsy photographs? This kind of hypocrisy is mind shattering and only serves to drive home the most important item of interest of the whole affair - that the US government is knowingly and deliberately hiding evidence and information to protect some interest. You must read more elsewhere to learn the full facts of the case and the other host of omissions that where deliberately kept aside from this report.The warren commission report starts with its summary and conclusions - that Oswald acted alone in killing President Kennedy and that there was no conspiracy. It then gives a brief synopsis of the assassination and the circumstances surrounding the events on November 22nd 1963. The report continues by developing the scenario in the Texas School Book Depository including the evidence gained from witnesses at the scene and the recovery of the riffle, spent shells and prints. Connections are established between Oswald and the riffle and the School Book Depository building before moving on to the motive and Oswalds background.The report then deals with Oswalds detention, the media, Oswalds murder and his assassin - Jack Ruby. The next chapter deals with investigating a possible conspiracy before laying out Oswalds background in detail. Next up the Warren report deals with the protection of the President and concludes the entire events on page 468. The remainder of the book goes in-depth with expert witness testimony with several recommendations and more background on Oswald.In the end you are left feel