Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Erroneous Public Disclosures by Dallas Police

The Dallas Police Department’s running public commentary on the investigation included widespread erroneous disclosures. The rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository was first misidentified as a Mauser 7.65 rather than a Mannlicher-Carcano 6.5 by a deputy constable who only saw the weapon from a distance and never handled it. Police also falsely stated that chicken bones found on the sixth floor were the remains of Oswald’s lunch (they had been left by another employee who ate there 15 minutes before the assassination), repeated a false report that a Black man had picked up Oswald near the assassination scene and driven him across town, and misreported that a map in Oswald’s room contained a marked motorcade route when it actually held markings of locations where Oswald had applied for jobs, including the Depository.

Concerns Over Police Information Leaks

Concerns about the harms of unlimited public disclosures were raised as early as Saturday morning. District Attorney Wade received calls from lawyers in Dallas and other locations expressing worry about providing counsel for Oswald and the volume of case information being shared with the press by police and the DA. Chief Curry continued giving television and radio interviews through the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover grew alarmed that FBI laboratory reports were being shared publicly by DPD officials almost immediately after the department received them, including details about gun identification and physical evidence. After Oswald was shot on Sunday, Hoover sent Curry a personal message requesting he stop making public statements until the case was resolved, and Curry agreed to the request.