PAUL MAY SAID:
If everything the government attempted to do was done as poorly as the WC, we would not have a functioning country.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
I totally disagree with Paul May's above assessment of the Warren Commission.
Except for the very stupid decision to not view and thoroughly examine the autopsy photos and X-rays, I think the Warren Commission did a heck of a good job under fairly difficult and trying circumstances (and in a relatively short period of time).
The depth of the investigation was truly amazing, IMO, as evidenced by the more than 25,000 pages of material that we all can currently peruse at our leisure (thanks to websites like Mary Ferrell's and History Matters).
Yes, a lot of those pages don't mean a lot in the long run, and many of those witnesses are useless when it comes to answering the big-ticket questions the WC was tasked to answer, but the sheer volume of information collected by the Commission is staggering. To this day, I'm finding "new" stuff in the WC volumes and the "CDs" (Commission Documents) that I never knew was there previously.
For example, just the other day (via a post by a person at another forum) I discovered CD #87 (also pictured below), which includes a photo of the SECOND death certificate in the JFK case. I didn't even know there was a 2nd death certificate. It's the "Dallas" certificate, signed by Justice Theran Ward on 12/6/63. The one signed by Dr. George Burkley on November 23 is the "White House" death certificate, and I guess it is the one referred to as the "official" certificate of JFK's death.
And then there was the "Dr. Pepper" surprise in 2007, when I first found
CD496 (Photo 7) at the fabulous Ferrell site, confirming the existence of a second soft-drink machine in the Book Depository.
So many pages....so little time. ;)
Anyway, IMO, the Warren Commission did a superb job. And it makes me angry when I hear conspiracy theorists continually treating the people who served on Earl Warren's commission as, quite literally, criminals who deserve to be locked behind bars.
Hopefully, each of those WC members and assistants has (or had) a very thick skin. Otherwise, it must drive them nuts to know that they did a very good job in 1964 at coming to the RIGHT CONCLUSION about President Kennedy's murder, only to be treated like felons by approximately 75% of the Americans they were serving.
David Von Pein
May 25, 2010
