that is what they wanted the warren commission to find in the warren commission simply didn't go down all the trails while the trails were hot. that is i think their greatest weakness. they didn't know they were also being lied to. it's clear that the cia did not tell them the church about its following oswald are about the assassination plots against castro. the f. the eye in the cia never told the commission about their arrangements with the mafia. there were so many things they didn't know and they rush to conclusions. craig what shocked me was 50 years after the warren commission, i could go to dallas which i did and interview people who were writing dealey plaza who have strong opinions, who sought things, hooper never ever interviewed by the warren commission. >> host: how can that happen? >> guest: it can happen because the commission was rushed and already knew with its conclusion was going to be. they simply disallowed information and i found pieces that don't fit. as i say i'm not particularly conspiracy oriented that i felt that my application to point out to people the pie

did the warren commission, with all that time and all these resources, get its answers right?ll go over those arguments one by one, area by area. as the assassination was taking place, a dallas businessman called abraham zapruder stood behind that low concrete wall looking down at elm street. as the president was coming down from hughes top -- huston street and making his turn, it was about halfway down there i heard a shot. and i heard another shot or two. i couldn't say whether it was one or two. and i saw his head practically open up, all blood and everything. and i kept on shooting. >> the warren commission could use the film and each frame to reconstruct each moment of the assassination. >> part of the reason why i think the film captured the american imagination is because it pushes us to think about something more complex. and each person who looks at it, people see different things. >> where did the shots come from? if the shots did not all come from the book depository window then there was most likely some form of conspiracy. >> i think that the massive head wound wh

. >> 50 years later, a clear majority of americans don't believe the warren commission's lone gunman conclusion. linden johnson -- early warren to hear it. >> when earl warren was brought into linden johnson's office, he broke into tears because he knew the burden that had been put on his shoulders. >> we have got to take this out of the arena where they're testifying that krusz che and castro did this. >> world war 3 might break out because the trail might point toward cuba and ultimately russia. >> the commission was supposed to investigate the assassination. the warren commission in the end, just flat ass lied to us. >> garry cornwell was deputy chief council on assassinations. he reopened kennedy's case in 1967 to see if there was a conspiracy. >> that memo that he wrote to bill moyers who were president johnson's white house assistant, they wanted a blue ribbon panel of highly respected people to convince the american public that lee harvey oswald was the sole asass seven. 50 years later, ypeople still have doubts about the investigation. >> because it wasn't a clear investigatio

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. the report will cover all of that in great detail. >> this committee labored ten months, then brought forth a document close to 1,000 pages. president johnson received that report today. >> what the public understood and what i understood is these were very honorable men. they thought the commission had done a good job, and they would come up with an answer. >> when the warren commission report came out, i believed it. we were still in a time when you tended to believe what officials told you. >> it is now 15 seconds after 6:30 p.m. eastern daylight time, sunday, september 27th. as of this moment, the report of the president's commission is public record. for the next half hour we will s

met with the attorney general on several occasions during the investigation conducted by the warren commission. i discussed with him the taking of testimony by his sister-in-law, jacqueline kennedy. i discussed with him whether he should appear before the commission already statement to the commission about his lack of knowledge of any kind that would influence the commission's investigation. robert kennedy during the course of a warrant in in the investigation was traveling in poland and under pressure from european audiences who were absolutely convinced that there was a conspiracy of some kind. he responded to that in poland, august of 1964 by saying it was the activists in the longer and that there was no conspiracy. now, i do know that there are people closer up continue to believe then and believe now that there was a conspiracy. most of them have not read the warren commission report. i subsequently was served on art kennedy's delegation to the 1968 democratic convention. i supported him for presidency. i do not think i would have been on a slate if i had not perform to my duty on the w

did the warren commission, with all that time and all these resources, get its answers right? tonight we'll go over those arguments one by one, area by area. as the assassination was taking place, a dallas businessman called abram zapruder stood behind that low concrete wall looking down at elm street. >> as the president was coming down from houston street make his turn, it was about halfway down there, i heard a shot. and i heard another shot or two. i couldn't say whether it was one or two. and i saw his head practically open up, all blood and everything. and i kept on shooting. >> the warren commission could use the film and each frame to reconstruct each moment of the assassination. >> part of the reason why i think the film captured the american imagination is because it pushes us to think about something more complex. and each person who looks at it, people see different things. >> where did the shots come from? if the shots did not all come from the book depository window then there was most likely some form of conspiracy. >> i think that the massive head wound where t

the warren commission was rushed and it left a tremendous number of questions unanswered. from this void people have pushed their conspiracy theories for years. >> from the russian mob to the mafia, you spent a lot of time with cubans, including going to cuban diplomatic facilities there. why did the fbi not stay any action back then? if -- take any action back then? if you have got a guy talking about assassinating president kennedy publicly? >> both the fbi and the cia had him under surveillance in the months before the incident, the cia has him under pretty aggressive observation, and the cia and the fbi were facing a terrible question, which is didn't you have any indication that this man was a threat? we now know from the record that they did have that information and they didn't act on it, sort of shades of 9/11. >> bringing up the cuban involvement, was it more bluster and this crazy american who was talking about killing the president to do so? >> this was the height of the cold war, only months after the cuban missile crisis, he's encountering you know cuban diplo

an action should be taken promptly despite the possibility that the warren commission might learn about it during the contest -- commission's existence. assisted director suggested the disciplinary action be deferred until the commission's findings be made public. hoover did not agree and implemented their recommendation on the same day he received the report personally ordering that all 17 fbi officials involved in the dealings with all before the assassination be disciplined. his deal was us that such gross incompetence could not be overlooked in our administrative action postponed. end quote. just director, suggested an addendum that it was significant that all of the agents, supervisors, and officials to consider the issue that concluded on oswald did not meet the criteria for the security index. under these circumstances proposed that rather than discipline secretary it should be changed as recommended by gail. a handwritten notation next a belmont. certainly no one in pole position of all his faculties can claim all did fall within these criteria. his deliberate statement did not

. >> 50 years later a clear majority of americans don't believe the warren commission's lone gunman lyndonnson formed a presidential panel to control the investigation. he had to persuade the chief justice earl warren to hear it. >> when he was brought into johnson's office he left in tears because he knew the burden that had been put on his shoulders. >> we've got take this out of the arena where they're testifying that khrushchev and castro did that and did that. >> if oswald was not proven to be a lone nut quickly then world war ii might break out. >> the commission was supposed to investigate the assassination. >> the warren commission in the end just flat out lied to us mgts gary cornwell is deputy chief counsel of the house select committee on assassinations. this group reopened the case in 1997 to see if there was a conspiracy. >> they never intended to investigate. >> assistant attorney general nicholas katzenbach feared lyndon johnson might be accused of killing kennedy. >> that memo that he wrote to president johnson's white house assistant, they wanted a blue ribbon panel of hig

the reason that happened was because the warren commission, even by that time have become enormously unpopular for good reason. it was a political commission. it had a political timetable. johnson wanted it out of the way before the key parts of the general election of 64. johnson and j. edgar hoover, the fbi director and others had already decided within 24 hours of the assassination that was what was the lone gunman for various reasons, domestic and international law that is what it wanted the warren commission to find. the warren commission simply did not go down all the trails. that is, i think, the greatest weakness. it did not know that they were also being lied to. it is clear that the cia did not tell them the truth about its falling kozlov or about the assassination plots against castro. the fbi and the cia never told the commission about their arrangements with the mafia. there were so many things that they did not know. what shocked me was 50 years after the warren commission interviewing people who were riding the plaza. they saw things were never ever interviewed by that

. >> when the warren commission report came out, i believed it. we were still in a time when you tended to believe what officials told you. >> it is now 15 seconds after 6:30 p.m. eastern daylight time, sunday, september 27th. as of this moment, the report of the president's commission is public record. for the next half hour we will search it for answers. first must come the answers to the two great overriding questions. who killed john f. kennedy? the commission answered unequivocally lee harvey oswald. was oswald acting alone or was he a member of the conspiracy? the commission answers he acted alone. >> we knew most people were not going to read all of the warren commission report. so cbs news wanted to bring to air an understandable form for the public at large what the warren commission found. >> there was nothing to support the speculation that oswald was an agent, employee or informant of the fbi or the cia or any other governmental agency. >> oswald owned the murder rifle, a mail order purchase slip for that rifle was in his handwriting.

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 commissionis 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 sure 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

commission to investigate this assassination. i want to ask several and chief justice as chairman. >> one justice universally respected for his integrity is the chief justice of the supreme court, earl warrenongress 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, that ought to be satisfying 90% of american public opinion. >> going to direct you to 911. >> i don't know how you think but i don't like 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 arrest you and i'm not going to put the fbi on you. but you're [ mute ] 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 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. >>

did the warren commission, with all that time and all these resources, get its answers right?uments one by one, area by area. as the assassination was taking place, a dallas businessman called abraham zapruder stood behind that low concrete wall looking down at elm street. as the president was coming down from huston street and making his turn, it was about halfway down there i heard a shot. and i heard another shot or two. i couldn't say whether it was one or two. and i saw his head practically open up, all blood and everything. and i kept on shooting. >> the warren commission could use the film and each frame to reconstruct each moment of the assassination. >> part of the reason why i think the film captured the american imagination is because it pushes us to think about something more complex. and each person who looks at it, people see different things. >> where did the shots come from? if the shots did not all come from the book depository window then there was most likely some form of conspiracy. >> i think that the massive head wound where the president's head was liter

so i wrote to the members of the warren commission, all of them, and i did not hear from earl warren. i did get a glossy photo from bobby kennedy. but to his everlasting credit, gerald ford wrote me a personal letter. and later president ford, but he was representative from michigan and the ranking republican on the warren commission. and he wrote me a really nice letter, very artfully worded that said, my inquiry to them was, if kennedy had addison's disease, which i suspected for other reasons, i'll tell you why. he had a perpetual tan, if you'll recall. if any of you know anything about addison's disease, you'll know that the skin -- there's a pigmentation of the skin that comes with addison's disease. now, kennedy was a sun lover, and he liked to be suntanned, but i saw him, and thinking back on the color of his skin when i saw him close up the few times that i did, it had a bronze quality to it that lacked the reddishness of a suntan. and so i -- thinking back on those things, i thought, well, maybe -- maybe he does have addison's disease. and i wanted to find out. and so the att

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. >> 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. the report will cover all of that in great detail. >> this committee labored ten months, then brought forth a document close to 1,000 pages. president johnson received that report today.

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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 commissionr, 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 -- >> y

but i wrote to the warren commission, all of them. i did not hear from warren.i did get a glossy photo from bobby kennedy. but gerald ford wrote me a personal letter, and later president ford, but he was representative from michigan and a senior and a ranking republican on the warren commission. and he wrote me a really nice letter, very artfully worded that said high , my inchoiry wa kennedy had addison's disease which i suspected for other reasons -- i'll tell you why. he had a perpetual tan if you will remember. with addison's, there's a pigmentation of the skin. kennedy was a sun lover and he liked to be suntanned. but i saw him, in thinking back on the color of his skin, when i saw him close up a few times that i did, it had a bronze quality to it that lacked the reddishness of a suntan. so i, thinking back on those things, i thought, well, maybe, maybe he does have addison's disease. and i wanted to find out. so the tack i took was i wrote to the warren commission that i had looked at the warren commission autopsy report, which any of you can get the repor

edgar hoover writes to the warren commission in june 1964, right in the middle of the warren commissionestigation, in which he reveals that the fbi has learned that several weeks before the assassination, oswald, in mexico city, openly declared that he was going to kill president kennedy. what happened to that memo is a big debate among the warren commission staffers, because they never saw it. >> reporter: in the decade since the report was issued, sheehan and many others have been eager to measure the commission's sizable blind spots. at the time, the warren commission was considered beyond reproach, but critics complain nearly all of the members were inexperienced in investigations and many lacked security clearance. so when, say, the cia told them something, they sometimes just had the to take the agency's word for it. >> it was a more innocent time. people didn't know that so much would be hidden by these agencies of government. >> reporter: in 1976, post-watergate, congress re-investigated the kennedy assassination. a select committee concluded that the warren commission performed

everybody has a feeling and the warren commission was done quickly.n johnson was to get something out. they wanted to move on in life in america and and it would have created a melt down of national security, would have made the cold war tensions higher, hence, it was done fast and sometimes hastery the warren commission. doesn't mean they were wrong. >> it's interesting, phil, as you write in your book, a lot of evidence was destroyed or damaged. can you explain that and why that happened? >> well, i mean, evidence begins disappearing from government files within hours of president kennedy's death. the night after the assassination, the navy pathologist pushed the original autopsy report and all of his notes from the autopsy room into the fireplace of his home and watched it turn to ash. that's just the start. in mexico city there may have been photographs of oswalt taken by the cia and tape recordings with the soviet and cuban embassies and that would disappear, as well. >> 50 years since the president died. do you think what we will ever really kno

his wife marina believed this was the conclusion of the warren commission, it's not something exoticday by way of conclusions. he wanted to defect. he wanted to go and help fidel. he wanted to fight for the cuban revolution. he adored fidel and the cuban revolution so he went to mexico to get the visa that he needed. he never got it. but he met at the cuban consulate with several cuban intelligence officers. >> including a woman who he had an affair with or a fling with. >> she was mexican. she was the secretary at the consulate and he did -- he did apparently have an affair with this woman. >> okay. you interviewed a lot of former spy, cuban spies who have defected to the united states including a guy named florentine that auspiago. on november 22nd, the day kennedy was assassinated what happened to him? >> he was a young intelligence officer. he did communications intercepts intelligence and his assignment was listen in on cia communications. langley, miami, cia ships hovering off the cuban coast and that was his exclusive assignment until the morning of november 22nd. he got order

and one of their jobs was to look at how the fbi and the cia had interacted with the warren commission that they obstructed the commission. that j. edgar hoover had asked the fbi to conclude their investigation quickly and they did not share with the warren commission everything. so when i stepped in as a very young legislative aide to congressman dodd back then, it was the expectation of the members of committee that we were entering with an open mind and that they would share everything with us. but it became very clear pretty rapidly that the old saying pulling teeth was sort of what our job was like. we would send questions over and it was hard to get answers back. we seemed to get the most rapid response from the fbi and the cia. when we had testimony before people coming before the kmity that were part of a large plethora of individuals who advocated one conspiracy theory or the other. they were very quick to debunk anything in that direction. >> you said at one point you got a phone call that at the very least unnerved you. >> it did. i'm a very judicious person. maybe that's be

kennedy. >> a majority of the americans accepted the findings of the warren commission. >> the bulletme out just below the president's adam's apple. the commission believes the same bullet then entered the right shoulder of governor connell y, passed out through his wrist, and to his thigh. >> i think it reflects the thoroughness which they went into it, and i think at least it has disspelled many of the rumors and speculations that surrounded this very tragic event. >> i'm quite satisfied, and it's been very well covered entirely. it leaves no doubt in my mind that lee acted alone. >> in the end we find confronting each other the liar, the misfit, the defector, and distinguished americans on the other. yet we must be careful we do not say too much. oswald was never tried for any crime, and perhaps, therefore, there will forever be questions of substance and detail raised by amateur detectives and serious students as well. we are the jury, all of us, in america and throughout the world. >> the reaction to the report initially was very positive. but that didn't last very long. >> this

and that action should be taken promptly despite the possibility that the warren commission might learn about it during the commission's existence. other fbi officials took the contrary position. assistant director suggested that the disciplinary action be deferred until the commission's findings were made public. hoover did not agree and implemented gayle's recommendations on the same day he received the report. personally ordering that all 17 fbi officials who had been involved this the fbi's dealings with oswald before the assassination be disciplined. his view was such that, quote, such gross incompetence cannot be overlooked, nor administrative action postponed, end quote. assistant director belmont suggested in an addendum that it was significant that all the agents, supervises and -- supervisors and officials who had considered the issue had concluded that oswald did not meet the criteria for the security index. rather than discipline the 17 individuals, the criteria should be changed as recommended by gayle. hoover rejected this suggestion with a handwritten notation next to bel

the case of john kennedy committee had been preparing to endorse the basic conclusions of the warren commission after having interviewed people, the commission didn't get to. after having investigated trails, the commission didn't go down. then, towards the very end, they heard about this so-called dicta belt come at a recording that was done at police headquarters, the head of the dispatch office that is still living. a very interesting guy that was a sheriff in dallas for many years after. he deserves a lot of credit for helping to preserve these developed. they started about 9:45 in the morning before air force one landed. they stopped, at least the ones we have after about 3:40. one is air force one and air force two and the plane had left the field at the end of that terrible day. well, there are a whole bunch of them and we managed to get all of them out of the national archives. we have subjected them through some of the best sound analysts in the world. we subjected them to tasks that have never been done before from the lines of dialogue and in fact he got a transcript of 30,000 words

. >> the warren commission says all that of the shots were fired from behind by lee harvey oswa d oswald. it's completely consistent with the shot from the front. >> so the single bullet theory is complete fashlt si and the biggest reason is that the horizontal trajectory just can't line up. >> the round that oswald was using, simply doesn't fit in that hole. if you look at the 5.6 millimeter, the round is designed to explode upon impact. that was in the secret service weapon, it fit perfectly. >> some believe our government did it. >> the telephones didn't work. to prehaven't the wrong stories from spreading, if anything went wrong with the plan. nothing was left to chance. he could not be allowed to escape alive. >> others believe it was the mafia. >> i think it's undeniable that the mafia was working in conjunction with the dallas mafia. they had just decided that they had had enough, kennedy was trying to put them out of business so they were going to put him out of business. >> or was it cuba with its own ax to grind. >> cuba, the united states must an ever closer and realistic look

one of his first acts was to create the warren commission. what was the political pressure he was facing on that? guest: there was tremendous pressure to get to the bottom of this. it was imperative for the country. president johnson knew there would be more questions and more questions. he thought it imperative that a credible, bipartisan, apolitical commission be formed to get to the bottom of this and get the answers. the chief justice was extremely reluctant to be part of this, since he was a separate branch of government. johnson implored warren to do it. warren finally felt that on behalf of the country that he should do this. host: our next call is barbara, joining us from austin, texas. caller: i told the screener my experience. i also want to mention election day. i was 21. at that time you had to be 21 to vote. on the day of my 21st birthday i got to cast my first vote for anybody, and i voted for kennedy. the day he was killed, i was watching tv because i was waiting for my husband to come home and we were taking our six- month-old

and the warren commission reports the fbi and the cia hid certain things. they didn't want the public to know. how could they have not known about oswald that he got this battalion mail order rifle. the guy was a nutcase and had been in the soviet union. why didn't they know about his whereabouts? they were very defensive and i think the warren commission report in some ways whitewashed or omitted the failings of the fbi in the but the basic conclusion is correct. i think the most extensive work on this is by anthony bugliosi, 1650 pages. it's an encyclopedia with all these conspiracy ideas and yet they thrive. i looked the other day at amazon and my new book was among the hardcover sellers there. it was number three. the two books that if it were conspiracies, assassination books. and i really don't deal with the assassination. i just feel it's sort of being a dead horse. >> audience members want to know what kennedy have -- if he would have had a second term? >> i think unquestionably. when he pulled the civil rights bill before congress he and bobby were

hospital when president kennedy arrived, and howard will lets, the only living member of the warren commission. this panel, from the 2013 texas book festival in austin, is about 40 minutes. >> okay. my name is charles, i'm the book's editor, and we are supposed to have three gentlemen here. hugh is running late, apparently, so we're going to go ahead and get started since this is being televised. but hugh ainsworth, who was the reporter who was on the scene when kennedy was killed in deally plaza in 1963, to my far left is alan childs who was at parkland hospital when kennedy arrived there. and he has written a book, an oral history of those people who were there. and then to my immediate left is