The House Select Committee one Assassinations , or HSCA (complete name U.S. House off Representative Select Committee one Assassinations ) is a board of inquiry created by the Chambre of the Representatives of the United States in 1976 to inquire into the Assassinat of John F. Kennedy and that of Martin Luther King. The HSCA inquired until in 1978 and submitted his report in 1979.

Concerning the assassination of president Kennedy, the HSCA confirmed the main part of the technical conclusions of the Commission Warren, but concludes that the president had probably been killed out of the continuations of a conspiracy during which four shots were drawn: three by Oswald, which killed the president, and a fourth shooting coming from vis-a-vis the president who had missed his goal.

Concerning the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, the HSCA concludes that the assassin was James Earl Ray, but that there had undoubtedly been conspiracy.

Creation

The creation of the HSCA resulted from

• an increasingly pressing public request to re-examine the conclusions of the Commission Warren within the framework of the assassination of president Kennedy, especially after the film Zapruder was shown on television American in 1975, showing in particular celebrates it movement behind of the president after the shooting with the head.
• conclusions of a senatorial board of inquiry of 1975, called Church Committee of the name of its president, the senator Frank Church, which had shown the implication of the CIA in a series of operations such as the assassination or the attempted murders of Patrice Lumumba, Fidel Castro, Rafael Trujillo or the Diem brothers with the Vietnam or of the operations of destabilization of modes.

Thomas Downing, an elected official who believed in the conspiracy, was named president of the HSCA and designated Richard Sprague, first assistant of the district attorney of Philadelphia, adviser as a chief. Sprague quickly assembled a team of 170 lawyers and subjected, on December 8th, 1976, a budget of 6,5 million dollars.

There were resistances considering the importance of the budget presented and Sprague started to undergo attacks relative to certain businesses which it had treated.

After more than one year of opposition to progress and internal conflicts, Louis Stokes, a representative of Ohio, became the new president of the HSCA. Richard Sprague agreed to resign to be replaced by Robert Blakey on March 29th, 1978 and the HSCA could begin its work.

Various panels of experts, medical, photographic, ballistic, acoustic, etc, worked on the elements in the possession of the HSCA while witnesses, of which some had already been heard by the Commission Warren were heard.

Ultimately, the HSCA cost 5,5 million dollars and used the services of 250 people.

Conclusions

In his submitted report in March 1979, the HSCA concludes that:

• Lee Harvey Oswald drew three times towards the president. The second and the third shooting touched it, and the third shooting killed it.
• the second shooting of Oswald was responsible for the nonfatal wounds of the president and the whole of the wounds of the Connally Governor (thus validating the Théorie of the single ball, in particular because of analysis by neutron Activation).
• of the acoustic evidence shows, with a great probability, that two people drew towards president Kennedy. The HSCA could not identify the second gunner. This acoustic evidence is based on a recording of dictabelt of the police force of Dallas which contains four sound impulses which correspond to four drawn shots.
• four shots were drawn towards the limousine from the president, including one, the third, of the Grassy Knoll , which missed its target.
• Oswald killed J.D. Tippit and also tried to kill the general Edwin Walker.

The HSCA thus estimates that President Kennedy was assassinated continuations of a conspiracy.

The members of this probable conspiracy are not identified. However, the HSCA estimates that nor the Soviet government , the cuban government , the Secrecy Service, FBI or the CIA are not implied in the assassination. It estimates in addition that nor the anti-castristes organized crime or movements is not implied, but that the evidence available does not make it possible to exclude the individual participation their members in the conspiracy.

The department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA and the Commission Warren all were criticized for the quality of the carried out surveys and the way in which they had informed the Warren Commission, and the Secrecy Service was criticized for the protection of the President.

Continuations

The conclusions of the HSCA relating to the existence of a conspiracy were quickly called into question.

Indeed, the only base to arrive at this conclusion had been the analyzes of a supposed recording to have captured sound impulses through the microphone remained open of a motor bike of police force located at Dealey Plaza during the assassination.

However, two elements came to contradict this conclusion:

• an independent researcher realized that on the analyzed tape, there was, at the moment them sound impulses supposed to be shots, also recording of a transmission on another channel of the police force (the transmissions of a channel could be heard in a weak way on another channel). However, the recording is that of an intervention which one knows that it took place after the assassination, not during;
• the police officer whose microphone was supposed being that having recorded the sounds followed, howling siren, the car of the President which sank towards Parkland, which does not correspond so that the dictabelt recorded, which is that of a motor bike whose engine idles (what made it possible to suppose that the microphone having carried out the recording was perhaps on a motor bike which awaited the arrival of the President in Trade Mart)

See too

• report/ratio of the HSCA

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