The Commission
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 June 2018
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas on 22nd November 1963. Shortly afterwards the 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested, initially for the murder of a police officer. Within hours he was charged with assassinating the president. Two days later, although in police custody, Oswald was shot dead by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. The new President Lyndon B. Johnson quickly set up a commission under US Chief Justice Earl Warren. Its job was to investigate the murder of the president and circumstances surrounding it. Burt Griffin, Sam Stern and Howard P.Willens, worked on the report now openly consider its merits and whether it uncovered the truth.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The officers of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization occupy a low-rise |
| 0:11.0 | building here at 200 Maryland Avenue, Northeast Washington, D.C. |
| 0:15.8 | It's a quiet part of town near the US Capitol, but in late 1963 this |
| 0:21.5 | building became home to a group of people employed In late |
| 0:25.0 | to investigate in depth, one of the most shocking events in American history. |
| 0:30.0 | A murder had taken place in Dallas, Texas. |
| 0:34.0 | It appears as though something has happened in the motorcade route. |
| 0:39.0 | Something, I repeat, has happened in the motorcade route. |
| 0:42.0 | We heard a shot. |
| 0:43.0 | I turned to my left. |
| 0:44.0 | I was sitting in the jump seat. |
| 0:46.0 | I turned to my left to look in the back seat. |
| 0:48.0 | The president had slumped. |
| 0:50.0 | As I turned, I was hit. |
| 0:52.0 | I repeat a shooting in the motorcade in the downtown area. |
| 0:55.0 | Did you see the man who did the... |
| 0:57.0 | No sir, I did not see the man who did it. |
| 0:59.0 | All I did was look in the man's face when he was shot there and saw that expression on his face and grab himself and slide. |
| 1:06.7 | I'm positive it hit him. I hope it didn't, but I'm positive that it hit him and he went all the way down in the car. |
| 1:13.0 | From Dallas, Texas, the Flash, apparently official President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard |
| 1:21.8 | time, some 38 minutes ago. |
| 1:28.0 | A week after President John F. Kennedy was shot dead. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.