Lyndon Johnson forms JFK assasination commission

As conspiracy theories go, none are bigger than the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Polls from as late as 2003 still showed 7 of every 10 Americans believed JFK was the victim of a coordinated plot, rather than the official “lone gunman” version put forward today. Lyndon Johnson was initially reluctant to order a major investigation – the assassin himself was tracked down and killed by FBI agent Jack Ruby. But he was persuaded by his own staff and several powerful people in the academic circles.

On this day, November 29 in 1963, a week after JFK’s assasination President Lyndon B. Johnson announced a special panel, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, to investigate the circumstances surrounding the event.

Overall, the exhaustive investigation took sworn testimony from 489 witnesses – 395 through direct depositions to the committee, 61 witnesses through sworn affidavits and two others with statements. Some 3,100 pieces of evidence were produced, leading, all told, to an 888 page report that concluded with a fair degree of certainty that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and so did Jack Ruby. The conclusion, predictably, changed nobody’s mind.