Thomas Nelms Downing Biography and Timeline

HSCA Formation Role

The House established the Select Committee on Assassinations after sustained congressional pressure for a new inquiry, including efforts led by Downing.

HSCA Chairman

Becomes first chairman of the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

Role range: 1976-1977

HSCA Creation

Sponsors the House resolution creating the assassination investigation committee.

Role range: 1976-1977

Anti-Castro Cuban Concern

Downing publicly raised the possibility that anti-Castro Cuban individuals warranted renewed scrutiny in a congressional assassination investigation.

Assassination Committee Proposal

Downing became a leading congressional advocate for reopening the Kennedy assassination investigation and examining unresolved conspiracy questions.

House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)

Downing is appointed the First chairman of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. First chairman of the House Select Committee on Assassinations

House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)

Downing said that he was skeptical that Lee Harvey Oswald could accurately fire a bolt-action rifle within a short span of time

House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)

Downing said that their statements raised the possibility that right-wing Cubans killed Kennedy.

House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)

He pushed for a House committee to investigate the assassination nearly two years before its formation.

House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)

Kennedy assassination and the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination, Downing is the first Chairman. Downing stated before and after the HSCA's investigation that he believed there was a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy.

House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)

The House Select Committee on Assassinations concludes that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, probably as a result of a conspiracy. Established in 1976 to investigate the John F.

House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)

and he believed video footage of the assassination showed that Kennedy was struck from the front and the rear.