Warren hands LBJ the report,
as Russell and Ford (blocked from view) look on
September 24, 1964: The Warren Commission, assigned to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, releases its report. They determined that Lee Harvey Oswald, accused of the assassination, did it, and acted alone; so did Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald 2 days later; and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy.
Lyndon B. Johnson, who became President upon the assassination, wanted to quash all the rumors about it, assigned to it men he considered to be of high integrity. Whether you, with decades of hindsight, agree is up to you:
* Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, as Chairman and namesake.
* Gerald Ford, Representative from Michigan, the House Minority Leader, a former All-American football player at the University of Michigan, and later to be both Vice President and then President himself.
* Hale Boggs, Representative from Louisiana, the House Majority Whip.
* Richard Russell, Senator and former Governor of Georgia, who had been one of Johnson's mentors upon his arrival in the Senate, but also a nasty segregationist. Johnson may have thought that being on the Commission would distract him from trying to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If that's what he thought, he was wrong, but it wasn't stopped.
* John Sherman Cooper, Senator from Kentucky, and a former U.S. Ambassador to India.
* Allen Dulles, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and brother of Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles.
* John J. McCloy, Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, previously an Assistant Secretary of War under Henry Stimson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the World Bank under President Harry Truman, American High Commissioner for Occupied Germany,
Kennedy and Johnson were Democrats, as were Russell and Boggs. Warren, Ford, Cooper, Dulles and McCloy were Republicans. So the Commission was 5-2 Republicans, and the 2 Democrats were both Southerners: Boggs was liberal on most issues other than race, and Russell wasn't liberal on any issue. Aside Boggs and, crossing party lines, Ford, none ever said they were friends of Kennedy's. Indeed, Dulles' brother had been fired as CIA Director by Kennedy.
Dulles died in 1969, Russell in 1971. Boggs was lost in a plane crash in 1972, and some JFK assassination conspiracy theorists thought that was suspicious. Johnson died in 1973, Warren in 1974, McCloy in 1989, Cooper in 1991, and Ford, the last survivor, in 2006.
*
September 24, 1964 was a Monday. Disgraced baseball star Rafael Palmeiro was born. This was also the day The Munsters premiered. I have a separate entry for that event.
These 4 baseball games were played:
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. This was the 6th game of the 10-game "Phillie Phlop" that cost Philadelphia the National League Pennant. Wade Blasingame outpitched Jim Bunnring. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4. Joe Torre went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. For the Phillies, Dick Allen went 3-for-4 with an RBI.
* The St. Louis Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 and 4-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Gibson outpitched Wilbur Wood in the opener. Curt Flood went 4-for-5. Ray Sadecki pitched a 5-hit shutout in the nightcap, striking out 10. Lou Brock and Mike Shannon hit home runs. Over the 2 games, Roberto Clemente went 1-for-8.
* And the Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks was announced in the starting lineup as playing 1st base and batting 5th, but was scratched, and replaced by John Boccabella. The Dodgers led 3-1 going into the bottom of the 8th, but the Cubs scored a run in the 8th and 2 in the 9th. Ron Santo hit a sacrifice fly to bring Jimmy Stewart (not the actor) home with the winning run.
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