>> thousands will be on hand for that motorcade now which will be downtown dallas. >> a number of my classmates were gone. they were at the parade. my father had been invited to have lunch with kennedy at the trade center.

there was a mood, a climate of excitement. >> the speech of president kennedy at the dallas trade mart will be broadcast by 570 radio. stay tuned for the president's dallas speech at the trade mart on 570 radio. ♪ ♪ yeah big boss man won't you help me when i call ♪ ♪ well you ain't so big you just taller than us all ♪ >> this bullet just into the terminal. "dateline" dallas three shots were fired at the motorcade of president kennedy today in downtown dallas. >> police radios are carrying that the president has been hit,

parkland hospital is advised to stand by for a severe gunshot wound. >> this is walter cronkite in our news room. there has been an attempt on the life of president kennedy. >> just turn the mike on. i can't hear you, johnny. what do you want? do you want me to move back a little bit? is it all right now? is this all right? ladies and gentlemen, i'd like to introduce to you the chief cameraman and news director of wfia television. this is bert ship. bert would you tell the people exactly what you know as of this point? >> i was standing at the trade mart waiting for his arrival there. all of a sudden, we saw them approaching. they didn't slow down. as a matter of fact, they were

going 70, 80 miles per hour past us. and then i jumped in a police car and went to parkland. >> two hands. one had a large machine gun calling for stretchers and cots and everything. and the governor they brought him in first. >> what happened then? >> then they brought the president in. >> albert thomas, democrat of texas is standing outside the corridor of the emergency room, said he's been told the president was still alive but in very critical condition. >> the president has not arrived here. a group of secret servicemen and other officials has gathered where the president normally would enter and discussing heatedly with one another some subject or other.

of course we have no idea of what. >> now here's an announcement from the platform. mr. eric johnson with an announcement. >> it is true that our president, governor connally and the motorcade have been shot. we shall tell you as much as we know as soon as we know anything. ♪ [ female announcer ] can you heal a broken heart with a bundt cake? of course you can! even if that heart was broken by zack peterson. bake the world a better place with nestle toll house. became big business overnight? ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked?

♪ or not? what if they embrace new technology instead? ♪ imagine a company's future with the future of trading. company profile. a research tool on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. congestion, for the smog. but there are a lot of people that do ride the bus. and now that the buses are running on natural gas, they don't throw out as much pollution into the air. so i feel good. i feel like i'm doing my part to help out the environment.

i'm bethand i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love. ink from chase. so you can.

>> a gentleman just walked in our studio that i am meeting for the first time as well as you. this is wfia in texas. your name, sir? >> mr. abraham zapruder. >> would you tell us your story, please, sir? >> i got out about a half hour earlier to get a good spot to shoot some pictures. my 5-year-old boy and myself were by ourselves on the grass there on palmer street. i waved and joe waved. and then -- >> that's all right, sir. >> -- as he was waving back, he was -- the shot rang out and he slumped down in his seat. >> all of a sudden it popped and governor connally grabbed his stomach and kind of laid over to the side.

another one it was also quick and president kennedy reached up and looked like grabbed his air and blood started gushing out. >> i didn't see any person fire a weapon. >> you only heard it. >> i only heard it. i looked up and saw a man running up this hill. >> if it's a conspiracy, not only the president was hit, the governor was hit, who knows if the next shot would have been for lyndon johnson. johnson's car pulls into the emergency bay at parkland hospital. four agents reach in and they grab johnson and pull him out and start to run him down one corridor around looking for a safe place. >> mr. johnson, his whereabouts are being kept secret for security reasons. if anyone knows where mr. johnson is, it is not us at this moment. >> there was a signal moment in our cultural history. suddenly it occurred to us the right thing to do is to turn on television. >> reports continue to come in

but in a confused and fragmentary fashion. >> president kennedy has been given a blood transfusion at parkland hospital here in dallas in an effort to save his life. >> it was odd, because there were no commercials. it was just a continuous experience. >> two priests have entered the emergency room at parkland hospital where he rests after the assassination attempt which now was about a half hour ago. >> what are your feelings right now, ma'am? >> i am absolutely shocked, stunned. we have the same birthday. i was just crazy about him. >> who would want to shoot the president? what did he do? he's been doing so much for the country. someone shoots him? >> a flash from dallas. two priests who were with president kennedy say he is dead of bullet wounds. this is the latest information we have from dallas. i will repeat with the greatest

regret, two priests who were with president kennedy say he has died of bullet wounds. >> malcolm kilduff, assistant press secretary was filling in for the press secretary. he had to draw himself up to give the most fateful announcement a press secretary might ever have to give. >> all the cameras were rolling. i remember he put his fingers like this on the desk and pressed very hard to stop his hands trembling. >> john f. kennedy died at approximately 1:00 central standard time today here in dallas. he died of of a gunshot wound in the brain.

i have no other details regarding the assassination of the president. >> the people standing here are stunned just as all of us are beyond belief. but the president of the united states is dead. >> all over the world, people are going to remember all their lives what they were doing when they first heard that president kennedy had been killed. >> the crowds are standing around in silence and sorrow in the rain. the strange thing is, you don't even notice it's raining. and if you do notice, you don't care. >> i just can't believe it. i feel like someone in my own family is dead. i just can't believe it. >> ma'am? [ sobbing ] >> i'm dazed. you don't know what's going on. why?

why would it happen? who would have done such a thing is the question. >> in the first minutes and hours, chaos and confusion was radiating out from the scene itself. it was very pervasive. >> secret service agents thought the gunfire was from an automatic weapon fired possibly from a grassy knoll. >> i saw some police run up this grassy slip. i thought they're chasing a gunman. i ran with them. >> the report that the attempted assassins we now hear was a man and a woman. >> i got to the top, looked around. a policeman went over the fence so i went over the fence, too. there was nothing there. >> a television newsman said that he looked up just after the shot was fired and saw a rifle being withdrawn from a fifth or sixth floor window. >> it was originally thought that the shots came from in here. and now it's believed that the shots came from this building here. >> police officers running back towards the texas school book

depository building. they are going to continue searching in that building for the would-be assassin of the president. >> in federal downtown dallas is in a virtual state of siege. they are combing the floors of the texas book depository building in an effort to find the suspected assassin. >> in the building on the sixth floor we found an area near a window that had partially been blocked off by boxes of books, and also the three spent cartridges fired from a rifle. >> the lieutenant just came out of that building with a british 303 rifle. >> it was a 7.65 mouzer. >> high powered army or japanese rifle of high caliber. >> a 3030 rifle. >> much of the first things you hear are going to be wrong. and to some degree, you are constantly trying to separate out what seemed to be a fact.

>> in dallas, a dallas policeman just a short while ago was shot and killed while chasing a suspect. >> j.d.tippit, a good experienced police officer, was shot three times in the chest in the oak cliff section of dallas. then the manager of a shoe store saw the suspect walk into the texas theater. >> someone has been arrested in one of the downtown theaters. they don't know fit was the man who shot the policeman or the person who actually shot president kennedy. >> police suddenly jump this man and started to drag him out of the theater, hustled him out to the car as the crowd broke and started to maul the police officers and grab this man trying to run with him. they shouted "murderer" and the officers hustled him into the car and ran away just as fast as they could. >> as we mentioned a short while ago, a number of arrests have been made in dallas in the wake of president kennedy's death. we have scenes of one of those arrests in the downtown area.

this was just after a dallas policeman was shot in the vicinity of a downtown movie house. >> paul bentley. >> approached him. as he approached me, the man the gunman reached for his pistol, i grabbed him along with two or three other officers. >> what did he say to you after he was arrested? >> he just said "this is it. it's all over with now." [ mom ] because we have people over so often,

we've learned how to stretch our party budget. ♪ the only downer? my bargain brand towel made a mess of things. so goodbye so-called bargain brands, hello bounty basic. the affordably priced towel that's an actual bargain. watch how one select-a-size sheet of bounty basic is 50% stronger than a full sheet of the bargain brand. it takes a strong towel to stretch a budget. bounty basic. the strong but affordable picker upper. and try charmin basic. the strong but affordable picker upper.

hey there, i just got my bill, and i see that it includes my fico® credit score. yup, you get it free each month to help you avoid surprises with your credit. good. i hate surprises. surprise! at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. get the it card and see your fico® credit score.

>> this is a picture of him. he probably does not look exactly like this now after he's been questioned. that's lee oswald. >> the president is shot. and a police officer is shot. then someone named lee harvey

oswald is arrested. oswald may be a suspect in the assassination. who is he? >> lee oswald of dallas, a former marine who spent some time in russia, who at one time had applied for soviet citizenship. >> the description that we're had of the suspect in oak cliff was similar to the description we had and the man we were looking for as the assassin. but at that time we had not been able to connect it to him in any way. >> down there in this third floor corridor, a crowd of cameramen, reporters, wait for a possible appearance of the man accused of killing president kennedy and a dallas police officer. >> going to be a great deal of confusion. mr. oswald is put through the door. i don't know if you saw him. oswald lives on north buckley. he's the employee of a book binding firm in the building in which the police and secret servicemen believe the president

was shot today. mrs. kennedy accompanied the body in an ambulance from the hospital to the airport where it will be flown back to washington. >> everyone out of the emergency room, hospital on the first floor there and they come out and told us that we would have to help remove the remains into a casket. >> lyndon johnson had ordered that the body be brought immediately to air force one. so there was a little tug-of-war. it almost shook the crucifix off of the top of the coffin as they were trying to get that coffin out of the hospital. >> took him out and put him into the hearse. and one of the secret servicemen, well, about two or three of them got into the hearse and just drove off and left mr. mcneal and the rest of us standing there. vice president johnson is

expected to be sworn in as president aboard an airliner before flying back to the nation's capitol. >> not everyone realized that johnson was already the president because he in fact had taken the oath in january '61, the same oath the president takes. >> johnson wanted to show the american people that the government was functioning without interruption. also perhaps he wanted to show that his predecessor's family bore him no ill will for the assassination. >> lyndon baines johnson is flying back to washington to take the reins of government, at which time president johnson will have to take into his hands the reins of the most powerful nation in the world. >> we think november 22nd, 1963, as a date when a president was killed.

but it was also a day when the -- a president was created. >> is there any doubt in your mind, chief that, oswald is the man who killed the president? >> i believe this is the man who killed the president. >> is there any evidence that anyone else may have been linked to oswald for this shooting? >> at this time we don't believe so. i don't know what this is all about. >> kill the president? >> did you shoot the president? >> i work in that that building. >> they're taking me in because of the fact that i worked in this building. i'm just a patsy. >> this is room 317, homicide bureau here at the dallas police station. as you see, they are bringing the weapon that was allegedly used in the assassination of

president john f. kennedy this afternoon at 12:30 here in dallas. >> 6.5 made in 1940. >> police have traced the rifle purchased in chicago by mail order to oswald. he bought it under the alias of a.heidel. handwriting experts have established that the handwriting on the purchase order was in fact made by oswald. at the price of $12.78, the life of the president of the united states apparently was bought. >> in the wake of the kennedy assassination, the dallas police on the one hand they were committing all the resources to try to solve the crime. on the other hand, they were ill equipped to handle this tsunami of reporters. >> i was questioned by a judge.

i protested at that time i was not allowed legal counsel. >> in bringing oswald out, they were of course doing something that you would never see happen today. but they were trying to cooperate with the press with the understanding that there would not be questions shouted at him. >> did you kill the president? >> no, i have not been charged with that. in fact, nobody has said that to me yet. first thing i heard about was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question. [ inaudible ]. >> sir? >> [ inaudible ]. >> a policeman hit me. >> 1:35 this morning a complaint was read. it charged that quote lee harvey oswald did voluntarily and with malice aforethought kill john f.

kennedy by shooting him with a gun" end quote. at the reading of the complaint oswald said "that's ridiculous." >> within hours of the assassination, it was very obvious to virtually everyone in dallas law enforcement that oswald had killed kennedy. >> chief, can you tell us in summary what directly links oswald to the killing of the president? >> the fact that he was on the floor where the shots were fired from immediately before the shots were fired, the fact that he was seen carrying a package to the building, the fact that -- >> yesterday morning. >> after the shooting in dealey plaza oswald was the only employee at the book depository that fled the building. 45 minutes later he shoots and kills officer j.d. tippit. half hour later at the texas theater he resisted arrest by pulling his gun on the arresting officers.

during 12 hours of interrogation by the dallas police department over the weekend, he told one provable lie after another. >> did you buy that rifle? >> i don't know what you people have been given but i emphatically deny these charges. >> within a day or so thereafter when they discovered what a complete nut this guy was, they were satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that oswald had acted alone. >> there's only one thing i can tell you without going into the evidence that this case is cinched, that this man killed the president. no question in my mind about it. >> we plan to transfer this man not tonight. we'll be here by no later than 10:00 in the morning, that will be early enough. >> chief, do you have any concern for the safety of your prisoner in view of the high feeling among the people of dallas over the assassination of the president? >> no. but precautions will be taken of course. but i don't think that the

people will try to take the prisoner away from us. (knochello? hey, i notice your car is not in the driveway. yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. that's hilarious. sorry. you shoulda taken it to midas. get some of that midas touch. they tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. next time i'm going to midas. high-five! arg! i did not see that coming. trust the midas touch. for brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling)

♪ the more i remember this place, the more i want to go back. a city so diverse it makes you feel there's never enough time to enjoy it. a place where something is always happening and yet sometimes it feels like time has stopped completely. i don't know how to explain it, we just have to go back. mexico city, live it to believe it. ♪ there'll be the usual presentations on research. and development. some new members of the team will be introduced. the chairman emeritus will distribute his usual wisdom. and you? well, you're the chief life officer. you just need the right professional to help you take charge. ♪

>> lee oswald is to be taken soon to the county jail. >> that's true. >> and you are going to take him there how, sir? >> we are going to use an armored motor vehicle to take him. >> dallas police meant to transfer lee into the regular

prison during the night to avoid the press. and then someone must have overruled them so that lee could be photographed by the press during the transfer. >> we're standing by awaiting the transfer of oswald from city jail to county jail. and for that report here is abc's bill lord at the city jail. >> bill, what's the situation? >> i am presently in the basement of the dallas municipal building. it was like an armed camp. police officials are frankly worried. they don't want anything to happen to oswald. >> newsmen, photographers and policemen that lee oswald will be brought to a vehicle for transfer to the dallas county jail, a distance of about 15 blocks which ironically is just across from the scene where president kennedy was assassinated on friday.

>> anticipation has built up here in downtown dallas in front of the county jail. >> they are waiting for a glimpse of lee oswald. >> here he comes. >> let me have it. i want it. >> being led out by captain fritz. there is lee -- [ gun shots ] >> he's been shot. he's been shot. lee oswald has been shot. there's a man with a gun. absolute panic. absolute panic. here in the basement of dallas police headquarters. detectives have their guns drawn, but there's no question about it. oswald has been shot at point blank range fired into his stomach. >> he is shot. >> he is shot. >> it is oswald. >> the man that shot the man or

do you know? >> that is the man who shot the man. >> immediately after the shooting, our only witnesses that we could talk to were other reporters. >> where did he go? >> he was here. they just put the gun there. [ inaudible ]. >> i said he was in a group of men right here. >> masquerading as one of us or what? >> i thought he was a detective. he had a hat. >> the situation is now that lee harvey oswald has been shot. the man who saw the shot fired said it was fired by a man wearing a black hat, a brown coat, a man that everyone down here thought was a secret service agent. we can hear sirens outside, an ambulance apparently is moving down now into the basement. here comes the ambulance. and oswald will be removed now.

the ambulance is being pulled up in front of us here. here comes oswald. he is ashen and unconscious at this time now being moved in -- he's not moving. he's in the ambulance now. attendants, police are quickly climbing in. the ambulance is leaving dallas police headquarters. >> where will he be taken? >> i'm assuming parkland hospital. >> parkland hospital. the irony of ironies. the place where president john f. kennedy died. >> i believe the man -- >> don't take the microphone. keep your head up. let's start again. what is your reaction to the shooting of oswald? >> i think it's a deplorable situation. the man is entitled to a fair trial. >> they should give him a fair trial, because killing him just like that ain't going to bring president kennedy back to life.

after he gets a trial they should let him out on the street and let the people kill him. >> they should not only shoot him but cut him up in pieces, put them every one hour in the fire and set him up for one day. then the next day start again. >> thank you. >> a man -- i didn't see it. i think it's the man. >> what's he look like? >> i can't give you a description now. he is known locally. >> immediately after the ambulance left, somehow or other i'd begun to suspect that maybe the shooter was someone who was known to the police. >> do you know this subject? do you know him? have you seen him before? >> yes, i do. >> is he from dallas? >> yes. >> do you know what kind of business he happens to be in? >> i wouldn't want to say. >> right. >> dallas city hall is normally a public building, but today it

was really under armed guard. is this a confirmed report as to who did the shooting? [ inaudible ]. >> vic robertson from city hall reports that jack ruby, the owner of the carousel which is a bar in dallas, did the shooting. >> my statement will be very brief. oswald expired at 1:07 p.m. he died at 1:07 p.m. we have arrested the man, the man will be charged with murder. >> who is he? >> the suspect's name is jack rubenstein, i believe.

he goes by the name of jack ruby. >> here at associated press a still picture of the moment the split second as the shot was fired. this is the man dallas police have identified as jack rubenstein, and this of course is lee harvey oswald. you see the gun in the hand of ruby, and just about to be fired. >> i know my own feelings were -- and i think they were widely shared by many if not most americans. this can't be coincidental. the assassin is assassinated in the police station. what in the hell is going on? >> just learned from city hall from a very authorityive source police are working on the connection between jack ruby and lee oswald and that in some manner of speaking, oswald's murder was to shut him up.

>> captain will fritz just told me that ruby has said that he did it, that it was his gun, and that he had built up a tremendous grievance over the death of the president. >> in jack ruby's small mind, he thought he was going to become a big big hero. i mean, he killed the guy who killed the president. >> i commend what he did. i think he ought to win the congressional medal of honor for it. a lot of other good american citizens think he did exactly the right thing in shooting down this communist. >> word also in just now from dallas that homicide chief captain will fritz has now said that the case of president kennedy's assassination is now closed with the death of oswald. it may not, however, be the opinion of the u.s. secret service or the federal bureau of investigation. people don't have to think about where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch-- and the light comes on. it's our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes.

generating electricity that's cleaner and reliable, with fewer emissions-- it matters. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ tires screech ] chewley's finds itself in a sticky situation today after recalling its new gum. [ male announcer ] stick it to the market before you get stuck. get the most extensive charting wherever you are with the mobile trader app from td ameritrade. i'm here to say a few words about the power of baking stuff with nestle toll house morsels. you can heal a broken heart with a bundt cake. make a monday mornin' feel like a friday afternoon

with some nestle toll house morsels. let's close our laptops and open our ovens. these things don't bake themselves. we have to bake them for one another. we can bake the world a better place one toll house cookie at a time. nestle. good food, good life. it's not the "fumbling around with rotating categories" card. it's not the "getting blindsided by limits" card. it's the no-game-playing, no-earning-limit-having, deep-bomb-throwing, give-me-the-ball-and-i'll-take- it-to-the-house, cash back card. this is the quicksilver cash card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every single day. so let me ask you... what's in your wallet?

nthat's why they deserve... aer anbrake dance. so let me ask you...

get 50% off new brake pads and shoes. >> our nation is bereaved. the whole world is poorer because of his loss. but we can all be better americans because john fitzgerald kennedy has passed our way. because he has been our chosen leader at a time in history when his character, his vision, and his quiet courage have enabled him to chart a course for us, a safe course for us, through the

shoals of treacherous seas that encompass the world. and now that he is relieved of the almost superhuman burden we imposed on him, may he rest in peace. >> dallas today had even more to mourn. it held funeral services for one of its own who was a victim of friday's tragedy. officer j.d. tippit. it was a funeral of a very different sort today in nearby ft. worth. this was the dreary funeral of lee harvey oswald, alleged murderer of president kennedy. the pathetic group of mourners included oswald's mother,

marguerite, his wife marina, his brother robert, and oswald's two children, one of them a babe in arms. the six pall bearers you see here are newsmen. there were not enough relatives or friends on hand to serve as pall bearers. >> now there is a new flag of the president of the united states flying in the white house. in president kennedy's old oval office, mrs. evelyn lincoln, his secretary and her aides, have removed every scrap. every vestige of the signs of personal touches of president kennedy. >> we know from history that one test of society is how do they handle the transfer of power at the top. lyndon johnson, whatever you thought of him, and a lot of people disliked him greatly, some even hated him, would be the president of the united states.

i think it shouted about the strength of the country and that we swear by the rule of law. >> the president of the united states. [ applause ] >> my fellow americans, all i have i would have given gladly not to be standing here today. >> johnson knows he has to show the country that the ship of state is sailing on under a new captain. but at the same time, he can't appear to be too anxious to assume power. and he has to keep the kennedy people on board with him.

so that speech means everything. >> no words are strong enough to express our determination to continue the forward thrust of america that he began. [ applause ] >> the people of europe just cannot believe it a lone avenger made his way into a police station and killed without difficulty the most infamous criminal in the united states. >> one of the most important things that happened after oswald's murder was that we were forever denied the why. i mean, people at the time believed he did it. the question was why. >> there are questions continually coming up about the possibility of an international plot.

>> there is still all this thought that cuba might be behind it. johnson sees there's a real danger in that. you want to put these rumors to rest. >> investigations into all the facts of these last four days may not be limited to the state of texas or the fbi. some congressmen already have suggested a congressional investigation. >> killing a president wasn't a federal crime at the time. so you had the federal government intervening in still what was a local murder. there certainly was a concern of competing investigations. there was the dallas criminal investigation, there was the state of texas court of inquiry, and there were committees on both sides of congress while of course the fbi had been given the job to conduct a full-scale investigation. >> johnson realizes something has to be done. he realizes that he has to appoint a body that the public

will respect to look into this. >> yes, mr. president. >> i've got to have a top blue ribbon presidential commission to investigate the assassination. i want to ask dulles and russell and chief justice warren as chairman. >> there's one public governmental official in the united states universally respected for his integrity it is the chief justice of the supreme court, earl warren. if there's one person in congress that everyone respects, it's richard russell of georgia. he has to get them both on the commission. there is, however, a problem. russell is a segregationist through and through and despises warren for the decisions that he's made on the court. >> johnson thought if they can agree on a verdict, then it ought to be satisfying 90% of the american public opinion. >> mr. russell, 2191. >> i'm highly honored you'd think about me in connection with this. but i couldn't serve with chief justice warren.

i don't like that man. >> you can serve with anybody for the good of america. and you're going to do it. i can't arrest you. and i'm not going to put the fbi on you. but you're [ mute ] sure going to serve i'll tell you that. >> lyndon johnson was known as the greatest salesman one-on-one who ever lived. so he meets first with warren and he says, if i asked you to put on your uniform and fight for america you'd do it. i'm asking you to fight for america in a different way. then johnson has to get richard russell. >> mr. president, please now. >> no, it's already done. it's been announced. >> you mean -- >> yes, sir. i made the announcement. it's already in the papers. you're on it. >> i think you did wrong getting warren. i know damn well you did wrong getting me. >> no, i think that's what you do. that's the kind of american bulldog you are. y bill, and i see that it includes my fico® credit score. yup, you get it free each month to help you avoid surprises with your credit. good. i hate surprises. surprise!

at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. get the it card and see your fico® credit score. we're new to town.ells. welcome to monroe. so you can move more effortlessly... we want to open a new account: checking and savings. well we can help with that. we tend to do a lot of banking online. you play? yeah discover a mobile app that lets you bank more freely...

and feel at home more quickly. chase. so you can.

>> produced by nbc news which is solely responsible for its content. >> the warren commission appointed friday night will investigate and make a report on the murder. as yet it has said nothing about how it will proceed or when. in the meantime, again, the fbi is investigating every lead it can find and will turn its report over to president johnson probably this week. >> it was the fbi's hope that its report would be if not the final word, the semifinal word, and that the commission's job would be to read it and then essentially endorse the findings of the report. >> the members of the warren commission, earl warren, john

sherman cooper, jerry ford, allan dulles, hale boggs, richard russell and john j. mccloy, realized at their initial meeting they had to do an independent investigation. they didn't want to be a stamp for the fbi or the secret service. >> there are three issues the commission had to grapple with. did oswald commit the physical act of the murder? and even if he did the physical act, did he have forces behind him? and then of course what's ruby's involvement in this? >> you had various branches of the investigation traveling, interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence, bringing it back to the commission. >> the time of day was about -- we're not very far from two hours. >> there were questions, how would they deal with the different stories about shooters from the grassy knoll and shooters from different directions.

>> the the lawyers from the commission took 395 depositions, and there were 94 witnesses that appeared before the commission. >> lyndon johnson wants the report out so it doesn't interfere with the election in november. >> warren left for dallas because he was a man who had spent his early career as a courtroom prosecutor. he understood a crime scene. he wanted to stand in that window and see whether this was a shot that a marksman could make. while he was there, warren felt he should talk to ruby. there were all these suggests ruby had killed oswald to silence him. so he wanted to hear from ruby himself. >> the warren commission realized they were going to have to invest a lot more time than was anticipated. this may be a two to three-month operation to the conception that it will probably take six months. >> the hour glass of time was running out on them. >> can you say if you still think it was one man? >> i think we'd better not get into that area, you know.