Named after its chairperson, Earl Warren, chief justice of the US Supreme Court, the Warren Commission probed the assassination of John F. Kennedy from December 1963 until its report in September 1964. The Commission concluded Lee Harvey Oswald, angered by Kennedy’s anti-Castro policies, acted alone. While the report was extensive, debates linger as to its exhaustiveness, fueling conspiracy theories (see Oliver Stone’s JFK, 1991). Left unexplained were several sightings of a second gunman on the “grassy knoll” and Jack Ruby’s rationale for killing Oswald in the Dallas police headquarters.

Assistant Counsel Arlen Specter, later senator from Pennsylvania, explained the amazing trajectory of a single bullet, later called derisively the “magic-bullet” theory.