The F.B.I. began to investigate the assassination immediately, and by the very next day "F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover informed President Johnson that Oswald was the sole assassin" (Kurtz 24). The investigation of Jack Ruby's killing of Oswald was begun shortly thereafter. On November 29, 1963, President Johnson officially created a special investigative body known as the Warren Commission, which was "set up mainly to dispel public suspicions of a conspiracy in the assassination" (Kurtz 31).
The findings of the Warren Commission indicated that there was in fact no conspiracy to murder the President of the United States. Oswald was branded as a Communist sympathizer, a political fanatic who acted alone, and who had killed the President "as a means of recognition" (Kurtz 40). Suspicion of conspiracy was also ruled out in the case of Jack Ruby, whose motive in killing Oswald was said to be based on his concern for Jacqueline Kennedy, and his desire "to spare her the ordeal of a trial" (Kurtz 40).
However, the findings of the Warren Commission left much to be desired. One area in which the commission has been criticized was for its failure to set up an independent investigative team; rather than doing this, the commission relied largely upon the report which was provided by the F.B.I., from which it "derived all of its main findings and conclusions" (Kurtz 40). The F.B.I. report itself has been criticized for its insistence on the lone assassin theory, despite many claims to the contrary by witnesses whose testimony was either ignored or whose credibility was questioned (Kurtz 40). Kurtz has claimed that the "Warren Commission failed to accomplish its prescribed duty of a
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