The plot thickens! The FBI, complying with a presidential order to release files associated with the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, has now uncovered another batch of 2,400 new records. The records are being transferred to the National Archives to be officially declassified.
The federal government in the early 1990s mandated that all documents related to the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination be housed in a single collection at the National Archives. And while the vast majority of the collection — over 5 million records — has been made public, researchers estimate that 3,000 files haven’t been released, either in whole or in part.
The FBI did not say in its statement what kind of information the newly discovered files contain. The FBI in 2020 opened a Central Records Complex and began a years-long effort to ship, electronically inventory and store closed case files from field offices across the country. The agency said a more comprehensive records inventory along with technological advances allowed it to quickly search and locate records.
Jefferson Morley, vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a repository for files related to the assassination, called the FBI’s disclosure of the files “refreshingly candid.”
What we don’t know, of course, is what’s in the files. Yet. But a lot of people are anxious to find out.
The assassination fueled conspiracy theories for decades. Kennedy was fatally shot in downtown Dallas as his motorcade passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository building, where 24-year-old assassin Lee Harvey Oswald positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days after Kennedy was killed, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.
The Warren Commission, established by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination, found that Oswald acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that conclusion never quelled a web of alternative theories over the decades.
That last sentence may be one of the great understatements of our time.
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However, I have to say, my favorite take on the matter comes from the BBC science-fiction comedy “Red Dwarf.”
It’s probably unrealistic to expect any huge revelations from these documents. Many of them are likely to be copies of documents that have already been released. Others may prove to be not directly related to the assassination. If there were any documents in any of these archives that contained information of any conspiracy, any additional gunmen on the famous grassy knoll or elsewhere, they would have likely been removed many years ago by people who had something to gain from keeping the secret — or their existence would have been blown by someone who wanted to become rich and famous by blowing open the greatest political conspiracy in the history of the republic.
Still, we have a right to know what lies in those records, even at this distance in time. If there were any shenanigans, not just around the assassination of President Kennedy but later in the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, we have a right to know about it. And if it turns out that nothing new is revealed, well, we have a right to know that as well.
A final note: Oliver Stone was not available for comment.
