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Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations (Kennedy)

The House Select Committee on Assassinations’ report of 29 March 1979.

8 links, 7 backed by primary records

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Dates: 29 Mar 1979
Also known as: HSCA Report

The debate

What it found

Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy.1

Who disputes it

Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics 1982
Therefore, reliable acoustic data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman.3

What it disputes

Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy 29 Mar 1979
The Warren Commission was, in fact, incorrect in concluding that Oswald and Ruby had no significant associations, and therefore its finding of no conspiracy was not reliable.2
The same report finds that the Warren Commission conducted “a thorough and professional investigation into the responsibility of Lee Harvey Oswald for the assassination.”

Each side is quoted in its own words. Whether a finding holds is not decided here.

Connections 8

disputes a finding of

Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy 29 Mar 1979 According to Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations (Kennedy) Primary record 2
The same report finds that the Warren Commission conducted “a thorough and professional investigation into the responsibility of Lee Harvey Oswald for the assassination.”

finding disputed by

Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics 1982 According to Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics Scholarship & press 3

features

Acoustic analysis of the Dallas police recording Described in Primary record 4
Acoustic analysis of the Dallas police recording The knoll shot, in the committee’s account, missed the President Primary record 4
E. Howard Hunt Named by critics; investigated by the committee Primary record 4 5
The claim that Hunt was one of three men arrested near Dealey Plaza was published by Weberman and Canfield, according to a 1978 Spotlight article that Hunt sued over; the committee compared photographs of the three men with Hunt and others and matched only one man, whom it could not link to the assassination.
Jack Ruby Subject According to House Select Committee on Assassinations Primary record 2
The committee also found that Ruby was not a member of organized crime, but had many contacts with underworld figures.
Lee Harvey Oswald Subject Primary record 1

author

House Select Committee on Assassinations 29 Mar 1979 Primary record 6

Timeline 4 dates

29 Mar 1979 Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations (Kennedy)
29 Mar 1979 Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations (Kennedy) disputes a finding of Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy According to Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations (Kennedy)
29 Mar 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations authored Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations (Kennedy)
1982 Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics disputes a finding of Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations (Kennedy) According to Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics

Proof 6 sources

Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives: Summary of Findings and Recommendations, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1979. Primary record
Scientific acoustical evidence establishes a high probability that two gunmen fired at President John F. Kennedy.
Lee Harvey Oswald fired three shots at President John F. Kennedy.
Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives: Part I, Section C (findings and the investigation of possible conspirators), U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1979. Primary record
The Warren Commission was, in fact, incorrect in concluding that Oswald and Ruby had no significant associations, and therefore its finding of no conspiracy was not reliable.
believed that Ruby's shooting of Oswald was not a spontaneous act, in that it involved at least some premeditation.
Ruby was not a "member" of organized crime in Dallas or elsewhere, although it showed that he had a significant number of associations and direct and indirect contacts with underworld figures
Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, National Academies Press, 1982. Scholarship & press
Therefore, reliable acoustic data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman.
Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives: Part I, Section B (scientific evidence, including the acoustical analysis), U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1979. Primary record
Two recording systems were in use at the time--a Dictabelt for channel 1, and a Gray Audograph disc recording for channel 2.
that the shot from the grassy knoll missed President Kennedy
a rumor was circulating that the committee had uncovered a memorandum in CIA files indicating Hunt was in Dallas on November 22, 1963. The rumor was not founded on fact.
Of all the subjects compared, only Fred Lee Chrisman, a conservative active in New Orleans at the time of the assassination, was found to have facial measurements consistent with any of the tramps.
Hunt v. Liberty Lobby, 720 F.2d 631 (11th Cir. 1983), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 28 Nov 1983. Primary record
published pictures of three apparent bums who were arrested at Dealy Plaza just after President Kennedy's murder, but who were strangely released without any record of the arrest having been made by the Dallas police. One of the tramps the authors identified as Hunt.
Background on the Collection (President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection), U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Primary record
issued its report on March 29, 1979.

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