HSCA
The U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations was established in 1976 to investigate the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., assassination.
The HSCA committee was a followup to the Hart-Schweiker and Church Committee hearings that had revealed CIA ties to other assassinations and assassination attempts. The HSCA also resulted from the public demands as a result of hundreds of books, magazine articles, and video documentaries completed by private citizens and professional investigators. The HSCA also resulted from the public outcry after the Zapruder film was first shown in motion on TV in March 1975 after having been stored by Life magazine out of view of the public for almost twelve years.
On the Kennedy assassination, the Committee concluded in its 1979 report that Kennedy was shot at by Lee Harvey Oswald and that, "probably", a second assassin also fired at Kennedy. Its conclusion was that Oswald's second and third shots hit Kennedy, that the third shot killed him, and that, based on an acoustical analysis, another shot came from the grassy knoll but missed.
The HSCA theorized that the single bullet theory did occur, but that it occurred at a time point during the assassination that differed from any of the several time points the Warren Commission theorized it occurred.
The HSCA concluded that President Kennedy "was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." The members of this probable conspiracy were not identified. However, the committee noted that it believed that the conspiracy did not include any organized crime group, nor the governments of the Soviet Union or Cuba, any anti-Castro group, the FBI, the CIA, or the Secret Service. The Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, and the Warren Commission were all criticized for deficient job performance in their subsequent investigations, and the Secret Service was called deficient in their protection of the President.
On the King assassination, the Committee concluded in its report that he was killed by one rifle shot from James Earl Ray, that "there is a likelihood" that this was the result of a conspiracy, and that no U.S. government agency was part of this conspiracy.
In particular, the various investigations performed by the U.S. government were faulted for insufficient consideration of the possibility of a conspiracy in each case. The Committee in its report also made recommendations for legislative and administrative improvements, including making some assassinations Federal crimes.
