HSCA
The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA, 1976-1979) was the second major U.S. government inquiry into the Kennedy assassination, concluding that a 'probable conspiracy' existed based on acoustic evidence suggesting a fourth shot from the grassy knoll, finding that the CIA had improperly withheld information about the ZR/RIFLE program from the Warren Commission, and producing a report whose conspiracy finding was partially reversed by a 1982 acoustic re-analysis.
The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives established in September 1976 to investigate the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (November 22, 1963) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1968). The committee published its final report in January 1979, reaching conclusions on both assassinations that differed significantly from earlier official findings.1
Establishment
The committee was established in the context of the revelations from the Church Committee (1975-1976) about CIA assassination plots and other domestic abuses, and widespread public skepticism about the Warren Commission's lone-gunman findings. It operated under two chairmen: Thomas Downing (D-Virginia) initially, then Louis Stokes (D-Ohio) for the bulk of its work. G. Robert Blakey, a law professor specializing in organized crime, served as chief counsel and investigator.
Kennedy Assassination Findings
The HSCA's findings on the Kennedy assassination represented a significant departure from the Warren Commission:
Probable conspiracy: The committee concluded that "President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy," based primarily on acoustic evidence suggesting a fourth shot had been fired from the grassy knoll in front of the motorcade. This evidence came from a Dallas Police Department Dictabelt recording that acoustics experts claimed showed four distinct impulses consistent with gunfire.
Organized crime: The committee found that certain members of organized crime, including Santos Trafficante, Jr. and Carlos Marcello, had both the motive and the means to organize Kennedy's assassination. It found that Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, both connected to the CIA-Mafia anti-Castro plots, "may have been involved" in the conspiracy.
CIA information withholding: The committee concluded that the CIA had not revealed its knowledge of the CIA-Mafia assassination plots to the Warren Commission and that this "may have led the Warren Commission to draw incorrect conclusions about the existence of a conspiracy."
Soviet and Cuban non-involvement: The committee found no evidence that the Soviet or Cuban governments were involved in Kennedy's assassination.1
The Acoustic Evidence Controversy
The conspiracy finding rested substantially on the acoustic analysis by Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) and the National Science Foundation. This analysis of the Dallas Police Department Dictabelt recording concluded that four shots were fired, with the fourth from the grassy knoll, based on timing patterns consistent with echo signatures from that location.
In 1982, the National Academy of Sciences convened a panel (the Ramsey Panel) that reviewed the acoustic evidence and concluded the BBN analysis was flawed - that the sounds identified as gunshots on the Dictabelt recording were not synchronized with the shooting and therefore could not be gunshots from Dealey Plaza. Subsequent studies have both supported and challenged this re-analysis, and the acoustic evidence remains scientifically contested.
The practical effect of the 1982 NAS report was to remove the primary evidentiary basis for the HSCA's conspiracy finding while leaving the committee's documentary findings about CIA concealment and organized crime connections unaffected.2
MLK Assassination Findings
On the King assassination, the HSCA concluded that James Earl Ray shot King but that Ray "was not a member of an organized conspiracy to assassinate Dr. King." However, it found that Ray's brothers John and Jerry Ray, and others, "may have assisted" in the planning. The committee found no evidence that the FBI, state and local government, or foreign governments were involved in the conspiracy, though it noted the FBI's extensive COINTELPRO harassment of King.1
Legacy and Records
The HSCA's records were sealed for fifty years upon publication of its report, scheduled for release in 2029. Portions have been released earlier through the JFK Records Act (1992) and subsequent executive orders. The committee produced approximately 250,000 documents, many of which remain partially redacted.
The committee's organized crime analysis, its documentation of CIA information withholding from the Warren Commission, and its Mexico City evidence review remain valuable historical resources regardless of the disputed acoustic finding.1
Sources
- House Select Committee on Assassinations. Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives. Government Printing Office, 1979. Blakey, G. Robert, and Richard N. Billings. Fatal Hour: The Assassination of President Kennedy by Organized Crime. Berkley, 1992. ↩
- National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Ballistic Acoustics. Reexamination of Acoustic Evidence in the Kennedy Assassination. National Academy Press, 1982. ↩
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