Nicholas Katzenbach - Role in JFK Assassination Investigation

Role in JFK Assassination Investigation

A 1979 account of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), reported that on November 25, 1963, only 3 days after the John F. Kennedy assassination and before any formal federal investigation had been conducted, Nicholas Katzenbach, then deputy attorney general, had written a memo to presidential assistant Bill Moyers at the White House. Katzenbach's memo comes the closest of any known official document (Katzenbach's memo) to discussing a government coverup:

"The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he had no confederates who are still at large; and that evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial...Speculation about Oswald's motivation ought to be cut off...Unfortunately the facts on Oswald seem about too pat—too obvious (Marxist, Cuba, Russian wife, etc.)...We need something to head off public speculation or Congressional hearings of the wrong sort."

The Committee's final report implies that Katzenbach, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and others were the key actors behind the creation of the Warren Commission. According to the report, Hoover told staff members on November 24, 1963 that he and Katzenbach were anxious to have "something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin," though the idea of a commission was initially opposed by President Johnson.