Warren Commission lawyer Howard P. Willens on the Kennedy assassination investigation: ‘No law … made killing the president a crime’

Howard P. Willens was one of three lawyers appointed within days of the assassination in 1963 of President John F. Kennedy to supervise the Warren Commission’s investigation. The Report of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, published less than a year after the assassination, has been the subject of debate and conspiracy theory for almost half a century.

Willens’ new book, History Will Prove Us Right, defends the commission and its findings.

On Nov. 13, 2013, Willens—now a Washington, D.C., lawyer—returned to the public library in his hometown of Oak Park, Ill., for

Howard P. Willens, Charlie Meyerson
(Photo: Debby Preiser)

a talk on stage about the assassination, the investigation and the decades of controversy. And I got to ask the questions.

Hear the perspective of a witness to history.