Days after Kennedy was killed, a memo said Oswald must be seen as acting alone
The memo sought a quick lone-gunman answer amid fears of nuclear war and exposure of secret operations.
Who Killed JFK? · The InvestigationsTwo days after President John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach sent instructions on what the public should be told: Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone.
Katzenbach wrote that "the public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin, that he did not have confederates who are still at large." He added that "Speculation about Oswald's motivation ought to be cut off."
Reporting on the memo described it as "a specific predetermined result two days after the assassination." Reporters tied the narrow inquiry to fears that a Soviet or Cuban link could trigger nuclear war, and that a broad probe would expose CIA and FBI operations.
The document stayed secret for ten years.
Questions people ask
Who was Nicholas Katzenbach?
Katzenbach was the deputy attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson, effectively the Justice Department's second in command. He later served as attorney general from 1965 to 1966, and then as undersecretary of state.
Did Oswald ever stand trial?
No. Oswald was arrested in Dallas on the day of the assassination and was shot and killed two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while in police custody. Because he died before trial, the evidence against him was never tested in court.
When did the public learn about the memo?
About a decade after the assassination, when researchers and journalists began obtaining withheld government documents. Its release fueled claims that the official investigation had been steered toward a lone-gunman verdict from the start.