FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was insistent the public believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
That's one of the revelations found in the release of 2,800-pages of government documents relating to Kennedy's murder on Nov. 22, 1963. NBC News was the first to report the story.
Hoover, in a Nov. 24, 1963 dictated memo, appeared concerned the public would have to be convinced Oswald acted alone and not as part of a conspiracy, according to the network news.
Referring to then-Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, Hoover said in the memo: "The think I am concerned about, and so is Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin."
It is unclear whether Hoover had any evidence to the contrary, NBC News said.
In the memo, which came just hours after Jack Ruby murdered Oswald, Hoover said: "There is nothing further on the Oswald case except that he is dead."
And he blasted the Dallas Police Department for not protecting Oswald.
"Oswald having been killed today after our warnings to the Dallas Police Department was inexcusable," Hoover said. "It will allow, I am afraid, a lot of civil rights people to raise a lot of hell because he was handcuffed and had no weapon. There are bound to be some elements of our society who will holler their heads off that his civil rights were violated — which they were."
And ABC News reported the FBI had sent an agent to the hospital in an unsuccessful attempt at obtaining a confession from Oswald before he died.
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