The Ultimate Guide to the JFK Files

Tomorrow, it is rumored that President Trump will release major documents related to the JFK assassination. I performed a DEEP REVIEW of ChatGPT, giving a decent dive into all things related to the JFK Assassination.

PDF file below!

Historical Overview

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in an open-top motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Shots rang out as the presidential limousine passed the Texas School Book Depository, fatally wounding President Kennedy and injuring Texas Governor John Connally (Chapter 6 | National Archives). Within hours, police arrested 24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine and self-proclaimed Marxist who had briefly defected to the Soviet Union. Two days later, Oswald himself was shot dead in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner, as authorities were transferring Oswald to jail. Ruby’s dramatic killing of the alleged assassin fueled immediate speculation of a broader plot, even as officials scrambled to assure the public that those responsible had been caught.

(File:Warren Commission presenting report on assassination of John F. Kennedy to Lyndon Johnson.jpg - Wikipedia) Members of the Warren Commission present their final report on the assassination to President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1964 (White House Photo, Cecil Stoughton) (Chapter 6 | National Archives) (Chapter 6 | National Archives)

In the aftermath, President Johnson established the Warren Commission (headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren) to investigate the assassination. After months of hearings and reviewing evidence, the Commission concluded in its September 1964 report that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy (JFK Assassination — FBI) (Chapter 6 | National Archives). The report found “no credible evidence” of any conspiracy involving Oswald, and no indication of foreign government involvement by the Soviet Union or Cuba (Chapter 6 | National Archives). It also determined that Jack Ruby had acted independently, with no evidence Ruby’s shooting of Oswald was part of a larger plot (Chapter 6 | National Archives). The FBI’s own massive investigation – spanning 25,000 interviews and tens of thousands of leads – had earlier reached the same basic conclusion that Oswald was the lone assassin (JFK Assassination — FBI). These official findings from 1964 became the official historical account, asserting that the tragedy was the work of a single gunman and not an organized conspiracy.

Despite the Warren Commission’s firm conclusions, doubts persisted among the public and officials. In the 1970s, new inquiries emerged as evidence trickled out about CIA plots against Cuba and alleged mob connections. The U.S. House of Representatives formed the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) to re-investigate. In 1979, the HSCA concluded that President Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy” (Summary of Findings | National Archives). This dramatic finding was based in part on an acoustic analysis of a police radio recording, which the committee claimed indicated a high probability that two gunmen fired at the President (suggesting a second shooter on the infamous “grassy knoll”) (Summary of Findings | National Archives) (Summary of Findings | National Archives). However, the committee could not identify any other shooter or group behind the conspiracy (Summary of Findings | National Archives). Notably, the HSCA agreed with key parts of the Warren Report: it found that Oswald did fire three shots (and likely struck Kennedy twice) and that neither the Soviet nor Cuban governments were involved (Summary of Findings | National Archives). It also found no institutional involvement by U.S. agencies, stating that the CIA, FBI, Secret Service “were not involved” in the assassination (Summary of Findings | National Archives). But the HSCA raised the possibility that individuals tied to organized crime or anti-Castro Cuban groups may have been involved in the plot, even if these groups as a whole did not coordinate it (Summary of Findings | National Archives). The HSCA criticized the original investigation as inadequate regarding conspiracy questions, saying the Warren Commission had been too definitive in ruling out conspiracy (Summary of Findings | National Archives). In short, the HSCA’s report kept Oswald at the center of the crime but reignited debate by suggesting he might not have acted alone.

Over the decades, millions of pages of records related to the assassination have been made public. In 1992, Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, leading to an independent Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) in the mid-1990s that declassified vast amounts of files from the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other agencies. By the 2010s, pressure mounted to release the few remaining secret documents. The law set a deadline of October 2017 for all JFK records to be disclosed unless specifically withheld for national security or other critical reasons (Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy – The White House) (Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy – The White House). Several waves of releases occurred: in 2017 and 2018, thousands of files were released, though some were temporarily held back at the request of agencies (Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy – The White House) (Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy – The White House). Further disclosures came under President Biden, who in late 2022 ordered an “intensive one-year review” to ensure all remaining assassination records were released by June 30, 2023 (National Archives releases documents related to JFK assassination | Reuters). As of 2023, the National Archives reported that over 99% of the roughly 320,000 pages of JFK assassination records have been released to the public (FBI says it has discovered thousands of new files on JFK assassination | Politics News | Al Jazeera). Only a few thousand records (or portions of records) remain redacted or withheld, generally to protect identifiable intelligence sources or other sensitive details.

Timeline of Key Events:

• Nov 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas; suspect Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested hours later. (Chapter 6 | National Archives)

• Nov 24, 1963: Jack Ruby fatally shoots Oswald during a prisoner transfer, in front of live news cameras.

• Nov 29, 1963: President Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination.

• Sept 24, 1964: The Warren Commission presents its report, concluding Oswald acted alone and finding no conspiracy (Chapter 6 | National Archives).

• 1975–1976: Post-Watergate revelations (CIA plots, etc.) lead to new investigations; the HSCA is formed in 1976.

• July 1979: The HSCA releases its final report, concluding JFK was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy,” with Oswald as a shooter but possibly with an unknown accomplice (Summary of Findings | National Archives).

• Oct 26, 1992: JFK Records Act becomes law, mandating release of all assassination records by 2017 (with limited exceptions) (Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy – The White House).

• 1994–1998: Assassination Records Review Board reviews and releases hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from CIA, FBI, NSA, etc.

• Oct 26, 2017: Statutory deadline for final release. President Trump releases many files but allows agencies to defer some; periodic releases continue in 2018 (Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy – The White House).

• Dec 15, 2022: President Biden orders release of remaining documents after review. The National Archives releases 13,173 documents in one day (National Archives releases documents related to JFK assassination | Reuters), part of roughly 17,000 records released under the Biden Administration (FBI says it has discovered thousands of new files on JFK assassination | Politics News | Al Jazeera).

• June 30, 2023: Following Biden’s directive, another tranche of files is released. At this point 99% of all JFK records are public, with fewer than 4,700 files still withheld in part or in full (FBI says it has discovered thousands of new files on JFK assassination | Politics News | Al Jazeera).

• Jan 2025: A renewed push for transparency – President orders any remaining assassination files (including those on related cases like Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.) to be declassified “without delay” (Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy – The White House) (Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy – The White House). The FBI conducts a fresh search and discovers about 2,400 previously unindexed JFK-related records, now being transferred to the National Archives for declassification (US FBI finds thousands of new files on JFK assassination as Trump gets recommendations on document release | Reuters) (US FBI finds thousands of new files on JFK assassination as Trump gets recommendations on document release | Reuters).

This historical timeline shows how the narrative evolved: from the Warren Commission’s lone-gunman conclusion, to the HSCA’s suggestion of conspiracy, to the modern era of declassification aiming to address lingering suspicions. In sum, official investigations have never uncovered solid evidence of an organized conspiracy behind JFK’s murder – but they did leave some questions open, which helped conspiracy theories take root in popular imagination.

Analysis of Major Conspiracy Theories (paid member)