The JFK Mysteries — World’s Most FAMOUS Assassination?
More than 60 years later, we’ve got tons of questions that the government does not seem to be willing to answer (so far at least!).
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated in a presidential motorcade while passing Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
Not only did this tragic news shock the whole country and world at the time, but it prompted some insistent questions and conspiracy theories that are largely unanswered but still very much alive nowadays.
Previously private government JFK investigation files see the light of day
Most recently, the Trump administration has released yet another batch of previously private files into the JFK investigation. You can also check out all the other JFK records released during Biden’s (2023) and Trump’s first term (2021 & 2022).
Some of the most recent documents aren’t new releases, except now they are (more) complete and less redacted. Specialists still claim that this one release is nonetheless ‘the most exciting news around JFK records since the 1990s’.
And it’s because these documents can uncover brand new details about one of the most important events in the US history. In a welcomed effort for public transparency, the American public deserved to finally have access to the files.
Since there are over tens of thousands of files, we are skimming through some of these newly released documents and explaining emerging facts below.
Additional Info on Lee Harvey Oswald
The documents that regard Oswald, found guilty for shooting the President, show that he had been under heavy surveillance way before the JFK assassination. According to Jefferson Morley, former Washington Post reporter and editor of the JFK Facts, Oswald was ‘a subject of deep interest to the CIA’.
Lee Harvey Oswald was a former US Marine collaborating with the Soviet Union and is currently believed to have acted alone.
Philip Shenon, JFK enthusiast and author of the JFK storybook book A Cruel And Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination, studied some of the older JFK files. He learned that Oswald went to visit Mexico in September 1963, 2 months before the assassination.
Apparently, the brand new evidence now suggests that the CIA was surveilling him at the time. Shenon told Associated Press that monitoring report transcripts may have caught Oswald publicly talking about and planning on assassinating Kennedy when in Mexico.
This is intriguing news since older releases, when the CIA had purposefully not admitted much on their intel regarding Oswald’s Mexico trip.
Older releases do mention, however, CIA’s intel on 3 recorded phone calls Oswald had with the Soviet embassy.
Secret Intelligence Services And Their Techniques
If you’re a Cold War or secret services enthusiast, searching up the JFK files is exciting as well. They uncover details of Kennedy’s relationship with the CIA and data collection methods – also applied during the Cold War operations.
For instance, this almost complete note uncovers the CIA’s presence and influence in many US embassies. Even the peaceful French embassy in the US had the CIA among staff back then.
President JFK did not seem too happy with this. He thought that the CIA presence would badly influence foreign policy on the US within those foreign institutions.
We can conclude that JFK had a rather tricky relationship with the CIA.
It doesn’t stop here, though. Another time of clear-cut tension between JFK and the CIA was the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. The CIA operation aimed at the overthrow of Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro.
When CIA troops opened fire, additional support from the US military was needed. Worried about international escalation and how unpopular the choice was, JFK refused to send help. As a direct result of this, the CIA operation was a huge failure.
Some accounts say that this instance made the CIA extremely angry at JFK.
Clearly there were more than a few reasons for the CIA conspiracy theory to emerge after JFK was mysteriously assassinated.
Anyway, the newest documents capture basic CIA techniques from inside US embassies and also used during the Cold War and other similar military and political operations, which included object fluoroscopy (X-rays) and painting tapped public phone boxes with special ultraviolet paint.
Old Theories / New Theories
The alleged plots of the CIA itself getting rid of Kennedy are nothing new. The newly released JFK documents sort of continue to consolidate this idea.
Famously, JFK declared that he wanted ‘to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds’. He later made CIA director Allen Dulles resign.
The new documents mention Gary Underhill, a World War Two CIA agent. Before being found dead in 1964, Underhill claimed that someone from inside of the CIA was responsible for the JFK assassination.
We can definitely see a suspicious link between Underhill’s declaration and his mysterious death that was just deemed a suicide.
Without further concrete proof, this theory will remain, however, speculative and unfounded for now. But it all makes sense, doesn’t it?
Whether you’re already an enthusiast or wanting to dig deeper into the full JFK story, we definitely recommend you read the reality-based 11/22/63. It’s a quick and intriguing read that personally sent me straight into the 60s.
And if reading is not really your thing, you can luckily listen to it here.
Full Transparency or Political Strategy?
Up until now, no 100% transparent JFK files have been released. Sure, some new and some old documents have undergone partial deprivatization by the Trump and Biden administrations.
And compared to older releases, the recent one leaves a few more crucial words and sentences for the public to see.
Technically though, we were promised even more.
President Trump came forward and declared while announcing the new JFK file release that he’d asked for full transparency. Probably due to national security reasons this did not happen this time.
According to experts, this is still a great political direction in the name of transparency by our government.
You might want to stay tuned and learn more about what they’ve discovered in real time by signing up for our newsletter.
The Future Holds More Discoveries on the JFK’s Assassination
Historians, archivists, and other JFK enthusiasts are closely searching the load of documents as we speak. It’s not unlikely for novel stories and theories to emerge after this.
They know of plenty more unreleased documents from the CIA archives and completely unknown documents from the FBI archives as well. We know that the two secret intelligence agencies have different policies regarding posting them, though.
In any case, it is fair to say the near future does hold more discoveries on the JFK assassination, one of the most important historical events in the US.
Do you think the new documents have clarified questions and conspiracy theories, kept them as alive as until the release, or just worsened them altogether?
Make sure you leave us a comment with what you think happened with JFK if you’re into it. By the time future files are released, you may even be spot on!
Want to know the most popular JFK assassination conspiracy theories? Continue with Kennedy Assassination: 5 Conspiracy Theories You Need to Know.
