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

Dr. Beavers’ 1964 Dallas Testimony on Ruby’s Condition and Polygraph Nonconclusiveness

During the proceedings at Dallas, Texas, on July 18, 1964, Dr. William R. Beavers, a psychiatrist, testified that he would generally describe Jack Ruby as a “psychotic depressive.” In view of the serious question raised as to Ruby’s mental condition, no significance should be placed on the polygraph examination and it should be considered nonconclusive, as the charts cannot be relied upon.

Commission Publication of Polygraph Hearing and Operator Deposition Transcripts

Having granted Ruby’s request for the examination, the Commission is publishing the transcript of the hearing at which the test was conducted and the transcript of the deposition of the FBI polygraph operator who administered the test.

Commission Non-Reliance on Polygraph Results for Report Conclusions

The Commission did not rely on the results of the polygraph examination in reaching the conclusions stated in the report.

Appendix XVIII Footnotes

The Appendix XVIII footnotes provide the citation conventions used throughout the Commission’s work. For references to the testimony of witnesses before the Commission, the form is: number of volume, “H” (for “Hearings before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy”), page number, and the name of the witness in parentheses, e.g., 7 H 441 (O’Donnell). Commission exhibits are referred to by the capital letters “CE” and number; deposition exhibits by the name of the witness, the capital letters “DE,” and the number or letter of his exhibit, e.g., CE 705; Sorrels DE 1. References to audiovisual sources for one Dallas broadcasting station (WFAA) are cited as follows: PKT for video tapes, PKF for films, and PKA for audio tapes. The video and audio reels and tapes of other stations are cited by number, e.g., WFAA-TV reel PKT 10; KBLD-TV reel 13.