John and Jacqueline Kennedy arrive at Love Field, Dallas, November 22, 1963. A White House photograph taken before the assassination.

The AI Files · The assassination of John F. Kennedy · 1917–2026

Dallas, 12:30

The crowds on Main Street had been large and friendly. As the open limousine left Main Street, Nellie Connally turned around in her jump seat: “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.” “That is very obvious,” Kennedy said. The car made the slow left onto Elm Street, below the Texas School Book Depository, at about 11 miles an hour. Then the shots came.

It was 12:30 p.m. on Friday 22 November 1963. Within half an hour the president was dead. Within two days the man accused of killing him was dead too. This guide covers what happened, what each official inquiry found, what the agencies kept back, how each theory holds up, and what the files opened in 2025 do and do not show.

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John and Jacqueline Kennedy arrive at Love Field, Dallas, November 22, 1963. A White House photograph taken before the assassination. Image: Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain — U.S. government work

The story

The assassination, from the beginning

The whole story in connected chapters, from Dealey Plaza to the last file releases. Every fact is tied to a source; underlined links open the full entry on that part of the story.

The motorcade on Main Street minutes before the shooting, 22 November 1963.
The motorcade on Main Street minutes before the shooting, 22 November 1963. Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain

Chapter 1

Twelve-thirty on Elm Street

At 12:29 p.m. on Friday 22 November 1963 the presidential motorcade turned off Main Street onto Houston, then made a slow left onto Elm Street below the Texas School Book Depository, at about 11 miles an hour. [1] The limousine was a 1961 Lincoln convertible. Its clear plastic bubble top had been left off because the morning rain had cleared, and the top was not bulletproof anyway. [1] Riding with John F. Kennedy were his wife, Jacqueline, and Governor John Connally of Texas and his wife, Nellie. [1][2] The crowds on Main Street had been large and friendly. As the car turned, Mrs. Connally said, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.” “That is very obvious,” he answered. [1]

The trip had been agreed in June, at a meeting in El Paso. It was meant to raise money and to calm a feud inside the Texas Democratic Party. The route through Dallas had been driven by agents and police on 18 November and printed in the local papers on 19 November. [1] See the route and the bubble top.

At about 12:30 shots rang out. Kennedy was hit in the upper back and in the head. Connally was badly wounded. Down by the triple underpass a bystander, James Tague, was stung on the cheek by debris, the best evidence that at least one shot missed. [3][4][5] Most witnesses heard three shots. Some heard two, and others heard four or more. [4]

Howard Brennan, a steamfitter sitting across the street, told a policeman he had seen a man fire from the sixth-floor corner window of the Depository. At 12:45 the police radio broadcast a description based mainly on what he said. [3][4] Other people ran the other way, up the grassy slope toward a wooden fence. S. M. Holland, watching from the underpass, said he saw “a puff of smoke” under the trees there. [6] Those two sets of memories, the window and the knoll, are where the argument began. See what the witnesses said.

Secret Service agent Clint Hill ran from the follow-up car and climbed onto the back of the accelerating limousine. Mrs. Kennedy had climbed out onto the trunk; he pushed her back into the seat. [7][3] The car reached Parkland Memorial Hospital at 12:38. Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m. [1][3]

The sixth-floor corner window of the former Depository, now part of the Sixth Floor Museum.
The sixth-floor corner window of the former Depository, now part of the Sixth Floor Museum. Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain

Chapter 2

A rifle on the sixth floor

At about 1:12 a deputy sheriff found three empty cartridge cases by the southeast corner window of the sixth floor, behind a wall of cartons. At 1:22 two deputies found a bolt-action rifle with a telescopic sight hidden between rows of boxes near the stairs. It was an Italian 6.5 mm Mannlicher-Carcano, serial number C2766. [4]

The FBI matched all three cases to that rifle, and also a nearly whole bullet found on a stretcher at Parkland and two large fragments from the front seat of the limousine. [3][8] The rifle had been ordered by mail in March 1963 from Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago and shipped to “A. Hidell” at a Dallas post office box rented by Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old who had started work at the Depository in October. [9][1] See who bought the rifle.

The day before, Oswald had asked a co-worker, Buell Wesley Frazier, for a ride to Irving, where his wife was staying, saying he needed curtain rods. That morning Frazier and his sister saw him carry a long paper package to work. [9] Whether a package that size could hold the rifle is one of the case’s oldest arguments. See the curtain rods and the paper bag.

The apartment block in Minsk where Oswald lived from 1960 to 1962, photographed in 2008.
The apartment block in Minsk where Oswald lived from 1960 to 1962, photographed in 2008. JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0

Chapter 3

The defector

Oswald was born in New Orleans on 18 October 1939. Six days after his 17th birthday he enlisted in the Marines. [10] He trained as a radar operator and served at Atsugi in Japan, with a security clearance of “confidential”. [10][11]

In October 1959 he travelled to Moscow. When he was told his visa had run out, he cut his wrist in his hotel bathroom. On 31 October he walked into the U.S. embassy, handed over his passport and said he wanted to give up his citizenship. The embassy cabled Washington that he had offered the Soviets what he knew as a radar operator. [10][12][11] The renunciation was never completed, which is why he could come back. [12]

The Soviets sent him to Minsk, where he worked in a radio factory. He married Marina Prusakova in April 1961, and in June 1962 the family landed at Hoboken with a loan from the State Department. [10][12] What the KGB learned from him, or wanted from him, has never been settled. The one defector who claimed to have seen his KGB file was later called “an unreliable source” by the House committee. [11] See the defection and the KGB question.

Oswald (right) hands out “Hands off Cuba” leaflets in New Orleans, August 1963. Warren Commission exhibit.
Oswald (right) hands out “Hands off Cuba” leaflets in New Orleans, August 1963. Warren Commission exhibit. Photographer not credited · Public domain

Chapter 4

Dallas, New Orleans, Mexico City

Back in Texas, Oswald bought the rifle. On 10 April 1963 a bullet narrowly missed General Edwin Walker, a right-wing activist, at his desk in Dallas. Marina Oswald later told investigators her husband came home and said he had shot at Walker. [9][13] See the Walker shooting.

Two weeks later he moved to New Orleans. [10] There he handed out leaflets for the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee, some stamped with the address 544 Camp Street, a building whose other entrance led to the office of Guy Banister, a former FBI agent. [11][14] In August he was arrested after a street confrontation with Carlos Bringuier, the local delegate of the DRE, an anti-Castro student group funded by the U.S. government, and then debated him on the radio. [15][16] Decades later the CIA’s own records showed that the officer running its exile student groups from Miami in 1963 was George Joannides. [17] See the Joannides file.

In late September Oswald went to Mexico City. At the Cuban consulate he asked for a transit visa to Cuba on his way to the Soviet Union; the Soviet embassy told him that would take months. He left without either visa. [18][19] He also spoke with Valeriy Kostikov, a Soviet consular officer who was also a KGB officer. [19][20]

The CIA was watching both embassies. Its Mexico station told headquarters about his Soviet embassy contact but, the House committee found, never reported his visa request or his visits to the Cuban consulate before the assassination. [19] The surveillance photograph it sent of “Oswald” showed a different man, whom no one has identified. [19] See what the CIA told, and did not tell.

Commission Exhibit 133-A: Oswald in the back yard on Neely Street, Dallas, spring 1963. Marina Oswald said she took it.
Commission Exhibit 133-A: Oswald in the back yard on Neely Street, Dallas, spring 1963. Marina Oswald said she took it. Marina Oswald · Public domain

Chapter 5

Seven weeks in Oak Cliff and Irving

The road to Dallas had begun that spring. In March 1963 the Oswalds moved to an upstairs apartment at 214 West Neely Street in Dallas, at $60 a month. The rifle and the revolver were both shipped on 20 March. Oswald kept the rifle in a small storeroom there and told Marina not to go in. [10] He also had her take two photographs of him in the backyard holding the rifle and copies of the Worker and the Militant, with the revolver on his belt. He gave her one and asked her to keep it for their daughter June. [10] See the backyard photographs.

In New Orleans that summer he worked for the William B. Reily coffee company at 640 Magazine Street. He started on 10 May at $1.50 an hour, oiling machinery, and told his wife and Ruth Paine he was in commercial photography. [10] He was let go in July for inefficiency and inattention. He had spent many working hours next door at the Crescent City Garage, reading gun magazines and talking guns with one of the owners, Adrian Alba. [10]

On the morning of 23 September Ruth Paine, who had befriended Marina, drove Marina and June to her house in Irving, a suburb west of Dallas. Before they left, Oswald told Marina not to tell anyone he was going to Mexico. She kept that secret until after the assassination. [10]

Back from Mexico, on 14 October he rented a room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue in Oak Cliff for $8 a week, registering as O. H. Lee. [10] That same day, at a neighbor’s house in Irving, Linnie Mae Randle mentioned that her younger brother, Buell Wesley Frazier, had said there was an opening at the Texas School Book Depository. Ruth Paine called the superintendent, Roy Truly, who said he would talk to Oswald if he applied in person. The next day Truly hired him in a temporary job filling book orders, at $1.25 an hour. [10]

On Sunday 20 October Marina gave birth to a second daughter, Rachel, at Parkland Hospital. When Oswald visited her the next evening, she wrote, he was very happy and even wept a little. [10] On 23 October he went to an “ultra right” meeting addressed by General Walker, and two evenings later he went with Michael Paine to an American Civil Liberties Union meeting at Southern Methodist University. [10]

The FBI had been looking for him. Oswald wrote to the Soviet embassy that the FBI had visited on 1 November and that “Agent James P. Hasty” had warned him that the Bureau would take an “interest” in him again if he took up Fair Play for Cuba work in Texas. [10] The agent was James Hosty, the man who later received Oswald’s note. See the Hosty note.

In mid-November Marina had Ruth Paine call him at the Beckley Avenue number, and there was no Lee Oswald there. When she told him, he became angry and said he was using a fictitious name and she should not have called. On Thursday 21 November he asked Frazier for a ride to Irving that evening, “to pick up some curtain rods.” It was the first time he had come without asking Mrs. Paine’s permission. He told Marina he wanted to “make his peace” with her and asked her to live with him in Dallas; she refused. [10] The next morning he left $170 in a wallet in her room, apparently by design. [21]

The Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, where Oswald was arrested.
The Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, where Oswald was arrested. Photo: Andreas Praefcke · CC BY 3.0

Chapter 6

Ninety minutes

The first person known to have seen Oswald after the shots was Patrolman Marrion Baker, a motorcycle officer who ran into the Depository with Roy Truly. On the second floor Baker saw a man through the door of the lunchroom and ordered him to come back. Truly said the man worked there, and they ran on up the stairs. The man had nothing in his hands. [9] At about 12:45, most probably from the description given by Howard Brennan, who had watched a man fire from the sixth-floor window, the police radio put out an alert for a slender white man about 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing about 165 pounds, in his early thirties. [9]

By the Commission’s reckoning, Oswald left the building about three minutes after the shots, walked seven blocks east on Elm Street and boarded a bus. About ten minutes after the assassination Mary Bledsoe, a former landlady, saw him on it and later recognized his shirt by a hole in the right elbow. A transfer in his pocket was later identified as issued by the driver, Cecil McWatters. He got off and took a taxi driven by William Whaley to Oak Cliff. [9] At about 1 p.m. the housekeeper at North Beckley, Earlene Roberts, saw him come in; when he left a few minutes later he was zipping up a jacket. [9] At about 1:16, in the Oak Cliff neighborhood, Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit pulled his patrol car alongside a man walking on 10th Street. The man shot him four times and walked away, emptying the cartridge cases as he went. [9][3]

Helen Markham, a waitress waiting to cross at 10th and Patton, saw the shooting. The cab driver William Scoggins, eating lunch in his car nearby, saw the gunman pass within 12 feet and heard him mutter “poor damn cop” or “poor dumb cop.” Domingo Benavides, driving a pickup, stopped a few feet away. Ted Callaway, manager of a used-car lot, and the sisters-in-law Barbara and Virginia Davis saw a man with a revolver cut across a yard. [9] The Warren Commission later relied on two eyewitnesses who saw the shooting and seven who saw the gunman flee with the revolver in his hand, all of whom identified Oswald. At least 12 people saw the man with the revolver near the scene, and by that evening five had picked Oswald out of police lineups. A light-colored jacket was found under a car in a parking lot along the gunman’s path, and Marina identified it as one of her husband’s two jackets. Cartridge cases from the scene matched the revolver he was carrying when he was arrested, which had also been ordered by mail as “A. J. Hidell.” [3][9] See the Tippit evidence.

Johnny Brewer, the manager of Hardy’s Shoestore on West Jefferson Boulevard, saw a man step into his doorway as police sirens went past. He thought the man looked scared. Julia Postal, selling tickets at the Texas Theatre, saw him duck into the lobby without paying. [9] When Patrolman M. N. McDonald reached him in the seats, Oswald said, “Well, it’s all over now,” struck McDonald between the eyes, and drew a revolver from his waist. The two fell struggling into the seats before other officers subdued him. [9] At 2:38 p.m., aboard Air Force One at Love Field, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president. Mrs. Kennedy had boarded the plane with her husband’s body. [3]

Oswald was questioned for about 12 hours over two days with no stenographer and no tape recorder. According to the officers’ reports, he denied shooting anyone. [22][9] In a crowded hallway he shouted to reporters, “I’m just a patsy!” [23] Shortly after 7 p.m. Captain Will Fritz signed a complaint charging him with Tippit’s murder, and at 11:26 p.m. a second charging him with the president’s. Shortly after midnight detectives took him to the basement for a few minutes in front of the press, and at about 1:30 a.m. he was arraigned for the murder of Kennedy. [24] See the missing record.

Jack Ruby’s Dallas police booking photograph, 24 November 1963.
Jack Ruby’s Dallas police booking photograph, 24 November 1963. Uncredited police photographer · Public domain

Chapter 7

Sunday morning in the basement

On Sunday 24 November, at 11:17 a.m., Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, wired $25 to one of his dancers from a Western Union office about 350 feet from the police building ramp. At 11:21, as Oswald was being moved to the county jail, Ruby stepped out of the crowd in the basement and shot him on live television. [3][24] He was pronounced dead at 1:07 p.m. at Parkland, the hospital where Kennedy had died two days earlier. [3]

For two days the third floor of the police building had been overrun. Its corridor was about 140 feet long and 7 feet wide, with the chief’s offices at one end and a pressroom that held only a handful of reporters at the other. Cables ran through the offices and a live television set-up stood in the hall; one officer called it “a bedlam of confusion.” [24]

The Warren Commission found no evidence that the police helped Ruby. It blamed them for filling the basement with reporters after threats against the prisoner. [3][24] The House committee in 1979 thought the shooting involved “at least some premeditation” and that it was “less likely” Ruby got in without help, and it documented his many contacts with underworld figures. It did not find who, if anyone, helped him. [11] See the shooting and the timing.

Jack Ruby’s hat, on display at the Sixth Floor Museum.
Jack Ruby’s hat, on display at the Sixth Floor Museum. Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain

Chapter 8

The trial of Jack Ruby

Ruby was tried in Dallas before Judge Joe B. Brown, with a television camera wheeled into the courtroom. [25] His chief counsel was Melvin Belli, known as “the King of Torts.” [26] Belli did not argue that anyone had put Ruby up to it. He pitched the whole defense on insanity, built around a rare form of epilepsy, and kept Ruby off the witness stand: “We don’t think he’s mentally capable of going on the stand.” [25]

The case became a contest of experts. The Yale psychologist Roy Schafer testified that the likeliest explanation of Ruby’s test results was psychomotor epilepsy. The Baltimore psychiatrist Manfred Guttmacher said Ruby could not tell right from wrong when he fired. The prosecution called three neurologists, Francis Forster, Roland Mackay and Robert Schwab, who said Ruby’s brain-wave charts showed no serious ailment. The 66th and last witness was the electroencephalography pioneer Frederic Gibbs, summoned from Chicago by the defense on a midnight flight. [25]

The prosecution asked for the electric chair. On 14 March a jury of eight men and four women, after 2 hours and 19 minutes, found Ruby guilty of murder with malice and fixed the penalty at death. [25][27] Belli leapt up and shouted to his client, “Don’t worry, Jack! We’ll appeal this and take it out of Dallas,” then called the trial “the biggest kangaroo court disgrace in the history of American law.” [25] See Belli and the trial.

Ruby also spoke to the Commission. On 7 June 1964, in the Dallas jail, he told Chief Justice Warren and Representative Gerald Ford that he could not tell the full story there and begged to be taken to Washington, and he insisted on a lie-detector test. [28] The FBI gave him one in July. J. Edgar Hoover advised that, given a psychiatrist’s testimony that Ruby was a “psychotic depressive,” no significance should be placed on it, and the Commission said it did not rely on the result. [29] One of the psychiatrists who examined him for the defense, Louis Jolyon West, had worked on CIA-funded mind-control research; that tie is documented, but what, if anything, he did to Ruby is not. [30]

On 5 October 1966 the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction. It held that a police officer’s testimony about a statement Ruby made after his arrest should not have been admitted and that the trial should have been moved out of Dallas. It was a ruling on trial errors, not a finding about the assassination. Ruby died of cancer at Parkland on 3 January 1967, before his retrial. [31][32] See the reversal, the polygraph and the psychiatrist.

The Warren Commission presents its report to President Johnson, September 24, 1964.
The Warren Commission presents its report to President Johnson, September 24, 1964. Cecil W. Stoughton / LBJ Library · Public domain — U.S. government work

Chapter 9

Seven members, one report

On 29 November 1963 Johnson created a commission under Chief Justice Earl Warren. Its members were Senators Richard Russell and John Sherman Cooper, Representatives Hale Boggs and Gerald Ford, the former CIA director Allen Dulles and John McCloy. [33] Its general counsel, J. Lee Rankin, was sworn in on 16 December with 14 assistant counsel under him. [33] It took testimony from 552 people, but it employed no investigators of its own. The FBI conducted about 25,000 interviews and filed more than 2,300 reports, some 25,400 pages; the Secret Service conducted about 1,550 interviews. [33] See how the Commission worked.

Its report, delivered on 24 September 1964, concluded that the shots came from the sixth-floor window, that Oswald fired them, and that it had found no evidence that he or Ruby “was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign.” [3] It also criticized the Secret Service’s advance work and the agents who were out late in Fort Worth the night before. [34]

The unanimous language hid a split. Six days before the report went to Johnson, Russell told him by phone that he did not believe one bullet had hit both Kennedy and Connally. [35] Nor did the Commission know everything the agencies knew. The CIA never told it about the agency’s plots to kill Fidel Castro, including those run through Mafia figures. [20][36] See what it was not told.

Abraham Zapruder’s Bell & Howell 8 mm camera, now in the National Archives. FBI photograph.
Abraham Zapruder’s Bell & Howell 8 mm camera, now in the National Archives. FBI photograph. FBI · Public domain

Chapter 10

One bullet, and a home movie

Abraham Zapruder filmed the motorcade from a concrete pedestal on Elm Street. [37] His 8 mm film runs at about 18.3 frames a second, so it works as a clock. FBI tests showed the Carcano needed at least 2.3 seconds between aimed shots. [4]

That clock is the reason for the single-bullet theory. Connally appears to react about a second after Kennedy. If two bullets had hit them that close together, one rifle could not have fired both. So either one bullet passed through Kennedy’s neck and went on to wound Connally, or a second rifle was firing. [38][39] The bullet in question, Commission Exhibit 399, is the one found on the stretcher at Parkland. [4] See why one bullet was needed.

Critics called it the “magic bullet.” The House committee’s forensic panel later found the theory consistent with the wounds by a vote of 8 to 1. Dr. Cyril Wecht dissented. [38][40] See what the committee tested.

Zapruder sold his film to Life the day after the shooting, on condition that the frame showing the fatal head wound not be published. Most Americans did not see it move until March 1975, when ABC’s Good Night America aired a bootleg copy. [37] For many, seeing Kennedy’s head go “back, and to the left” was proof of a shot from the front. The committee’s experts disagreed. See the head snap.

Mark Lane speaking at the University of Michigan, from the 1968 Michiganensian yearbook.
Mark Lane speaking at the University of Michigan, from the 1968 Michiganensian yearbook. Unidentified (Ensian published by University of Michigan). · Public domain

Chapter 11

The critics

The Commission published its evidence in 26 volumes of hearings and exhibits, and private citizens read them. Harold Weisberg, a former reporter and Senate investigator, self-published Whitewash in August 1965, arguing that the report’s own evidence undermined the single-bullet theory. Dell reprinted it in 1966. [41] In 1966 Edward Jay Epstein, then a graduate student at Cornell, published Inquest, a study of how the Commission had worked, and the New York lawyer Mark Lane published Rush to Judgment. [42][43]

Sylvia Meagher, an analyst at the World Health Organization, compiled a subject index to the 26 volumes in 1966, and followed it with Accessories After the Fact in 1967. [44] In Dallas, a legal secretary named Mary Ferrell began collecting material right after the assassination. Her database, first kept on more than 40,000 cards, covered more than 8,200 people and was later put on computer. [45] See the first critics.

The critics did not agree with each other, and some of their claims did not survive. But the public came round to doubt: between 1976 and 2003, from 74 to 81 percent of Americans told Gallup that others were involved. [46] See the trend.

Attorney General Ramsey Clark at the White House, 28 February 1968, the week his panel of physicians met. LBJ Library photo.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark at the White House, 28 February 1968, the week his panel of physicians met. LBJ Library photo. Frank Wolfe, White House Press Office (WHPO) · Public domain

Chapter 12

Four doctors and a melon

The Warren Commission had never looked at the autopsy photographs and X-rays themselves. In 1968 Attorney General Ramsey Clark asked four physicians to do so: the Utah pathologist William Carnes, Maryland’s chief medical examiner Russell Fisher, the radiologist Russell Morgan and the pathologist Alan Moritz. They met in Washington on 26 and 27 February. [47] They placed the entry wound in the back of the head 100 millimeters above the external occipital protuberance and concluded that Kennedy “was struck by two bullets fired from above and behind him.” [47] Neither the Clark Panel nor the later Rockefeller Commission tried to establish that the X-rays and photographs were authentic; the House committee did that a decade later. [38] See the Clark Panel.

A physicist took up the film. Luis Alvarez of Berkeley, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968, studied the Zapruder frames after Paul Hoch, then a Berkeley graduate student, raised the head motion with him. [48][49] To test whether a bullet from behind could drive a head backward, his laboratory colleague Sharon “Buck” Buckingham, a deer hunter, fired at melons at the San Leandro municipal range in June 1969. In a filmed repeat, six of seven reinforced melons recoiled “toward the gun.” [49] Alvarez argued that material blown out of the front of the skull acts like a jet and pushes the head back toward the gun. He published the argument in 1976. [49]

The experiment had limits. His soft-nosed bullets struck at about 3,000 feet per second; the Carcano found in the Depository fired at about 2,165. [49] Melons are not skulls. But the jet effect entered the official record: the Rockefeller Commission’s doctors cited it in 1975 as one possible cause of the head motion. [50] See Alvarez and the melons.

Clay Shaw, the New Orleans businessman Jim Garrison charged and a jury acquitted in 1969.
Clay Shaw, the New Orleans businessman Jim Garrison charged and a jury acquitted in 1969. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration · Public domain

Chapter 13

New Orleans, again

In 1967 the New Orleans district attorney, Jim Garrison, revived the case. On 1 March he arrested Clay Shaw, a well-known businessman, and charged him with conspiring to kill the president. [51] His main witness, Perry Russo, a young man who knew Ferrie, testified in February 1969 that at a gathering in Ferrie’s apartment in September 1963 he met a “Clem Bertrand,” whom he identified as Shaw, and Ferrie’s roommate “Leon Oswald,” and heard Ferrie talk of a crossfire, a diversionary shot and a scapegoat. [52] But Garrison’s assistant Andrew Sciambra agreed under cross-examination that his detailed seven-page memo of a 25 February 1967 interview with Russo did not mention the meeting. Sciambra said it was covered in a second memo, about a session in which Russo was given sodium pentothal. [53] Two years after his arrest a jury acquitted him. [51]

Some of what Garrison chased did hold up. The House committee found six witnesses in Clinton, Louisiana, “credible and significant,” and was “inclined to believe” that Oswald had been there in 1963 with Ferrie, “if not Clay Shaw.” [11] See the case against Shaw and what held up.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, official portrait. He chaired the 1975 commission on CIA activities.
Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, official portrait. He chaired the 1975 commission on CIA activities. unknown, The White House · Public domain

Chapter 14

A vice president’s commission

In 1975 the CIA itself came under investigation. President Ford created a commission on CIA activities inside the United States, chaired by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and one chapter of its June 1975 report took up the Kennedy case. [54][50]

It tested a claim then going around: that E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis, later caught up in Watergate, were two of the “derelicts” photographed near Dealey Plaza. An FBI laboratory study in Dallas, using the cameras that took the original photographs, found that the two “derelicts” differed in height by about seven inches; Hunt, at about five feet nine, and Sturgis, at about five feet eleven, differed by about two. Hunt had worked in Washington throughout 1963, and Sturgis testified that he was in Miami all that day. [50] See the Rockefeller Commission and who the tramps were.

Its medical panel, which included Dr. Olivier of the Army’s Edgewood Arsenal, was unanimous that only two bullets struck Kennedy, both fired from the rear, and that the backward motion of his body was not caused by a shot from the front. The Commission found “no credible evidence” that Oswald or Ruby was ever employed by the CIA. [50] The Senate was already going further.

Senator Frank Church of Idaho, who chaired the Senate’s 1975–76 intelligence inquiry.
Senator Frank Church of Idaho, who chaired the Senate’s 1975–76 intelligence inquiry. The United States of America · Public domain

Chapter 15

What the agencies did not say

In reports issued in 1975 and 1976, the Senate’s Church committee found at least eight CIA plots to kill Castro between 1960 and 1965. Some used mobsters, among them Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante. [36] On the day Kennedy was shot, a CIA case officer in Paris was offering a Cuban official, Rolando Cubela, a pen rigged with a hypodermic needle. [36][11]

The CIA had never told the Warren Commission about the plots, including those run through mob figures. [20][36] The agency’s secrets ran in more than one direction: its own 1973 list of possibly illegal activities, the “Family Jewels,” records that in 1962 the director, John McCone, “under pressure from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy,” agreed to tap the phones of two columnists. [55]

The committee concluded that the CIA and FBI investigations of the assassination had been deficient and that facts that might have changed the Warren Commission’s inquiry had been withheld. [20] It also found that the FBI had destroyed a note Oswald left at its Dallas office a few weeks before the assassination. Witnesses disagreed about whether the note threatened violence. [20] See what the CIA hid and the Hosty note.

Waveform of the sound impulses on the Dallas police Dictabelt that the House committee’s experts analysed.
Waveform of the sound impulses on the Dallas police Dictabelt that the House committee’s experts analysed. Roger469 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Chapter 16

A probable conspiracy, then a rejected tape

The House created its own Select Committee on Assassinations on 17 September 1976. [56] In 1979 it agreed with much of the Warren Commission: Oswald owned the rifle, fired three shots from the sixth floor, and fired the shot that killed Kennedy. [57]

Then it went further. Its chief counsel was G. Robert Blakey, a law professor who had drafted the federal racketeering law. [58] In its final weeks it accepted acoustic analysis of a Dallas police Dictabelt, recorded from a motorcycle radio that had been stuck open. The firm Bolt Beranek and Newman, through its chief scientist James Barger, found sound patterns matching gunfire, and Mark Weiss of Queens College and his associate Ernest Aschkenasy were brought in to review and extend that analysis. [59] The committee concluded that a second gunman had probably fired from the grassy knoll and missed. Kennedy, it said, “was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.” It could not say who the other gunman was. [57][59] It cleared the Soviet and Cuban governments, the CIA, the FBI and the Secret Service. It left open the possibility that individual members of organized crime or anti-Castro groups were involved. [57][11]

The Justice Department asked the National Academy of Sciences to check. In 1982 its National Research Council panel, the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, unanimously rejected the acoustic finding. A private citizen, Steve Barber of Mansfield, Ohio, had noticed faint crosstalk from another police channel, a voice saying “hold everything,” and the panel found it placed the supposed shots about a minute after the assassination. [60] The argument has not entirely died; a government scientist published a defense of the knoll shot in 2001, and other scientists published a rebuttal in 2005. [61][62] See why it was rejected.

The committee also did not know something about its own investigation. The CIA officer the agency assigned in 1978 to help it with records was Joannides, the man who had run the exile group that clashed with Oswald. Nobody told the committee. [63][17][11] See the liaison nobody explained.

The wooden fence at the top of the grassy knoll.
The wooden fence at the top of the grassy knoll. "Gorik" (Flickr user) · CC BY-SA 2.0

Chapter 17

A shelf of theories

By the 1980s the case was its own publishing genre. David Lifton’s Best Evidence (1980) argued that the body had been altered to fit the lone-gunman account. The mainstream press called it “bizarre,” but it reached No. 4 on the New York Times nonfiction list in March 1981. [64] Anthony Summers’s Conspiracy, the same year, grew out of interviews for a BBC Panorama documentary on the House committee’s report. [65] Jim Garrison told his own story in On the Trail of the Assassins (1988), and Gaeton Fonzi, a researcher for both the Church and House committees, wrote The Last Investigation (1993). [66][67] On the other side, Gerald Posner’s Case Closed (1993) argued that Oswald acted alone. [68] The guide’s books-and-films section lists more.

Some theories pointed at the government’s own people. Bonar Menninger’s Mortal Error (1992) set out the gunsmith Howard Donahue’s claim that a Secret Service agent fired the fatal shot by accident. [69] James W. Douglass’s JFK and the Unspeakable (2008) argued that Kennedy was killed by his own security apparatus. [70] See the Hickey theory and the CIA theory.

One book pointed abroad. Final Judgment, by Michael Collins Piper, first published in 1993, claimed the killing was a joint enterprise of the CIA and organized crime with “direct and profound involvement” by Israel’s Mossad, ordered by David Ben-Gurion over Kennedy’s opposition to Israel’s nuclear program. [71][72] Piper wrote for The Spotlight and American Free Press, papers backed by Willis Carto. The Anti-Defamation League described Piper as a promoter of antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial, and in 1997 a community-college seminar based on the book was cancelled. [71][72] The 1963 letters show what the real dispute was: Kennedy pressing Ben-Gurion and then Levi Eshkol to accept American inspections of the Dimona reactor. [73] See Final Judgment and the Dimona letters.

Fiction got there too. Quantum Leap gave its two-part 1992 episode “Lee Harvey Oswald” to the story, on NBC. [74] The X-Files showed its Cigarette Smoking Man shooting Kennedy in 1996, and in Red Dwarf’s “Tikka to Ride” (BBC2, 1997) the crew arrive in the Depository just as Oswald is firing and accidentally knock him out of the window onto the ledge. [75][76] Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, which opened off-Broadway in 1990, puts Oswald on stage, and Hulu’s 11.22.63 (2016) sends a time traveler to stop the assassination. [77][78] The phrase “grassy knoll” itself became shorthand for a conspiracy theory. [79]

Oliver Stone, director of JFK (1991), in 2016.
Oliver Stone, director of JFK (1991), in 2016. Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0

Chapter 18

A movie and a law

In 1991 Oliver Stone released JFK, with Kevin Costner as Garrison. It ended by telling audiences that many records were still secret. [80] The Assassination Records Review Board later wrote that Congress, “disturbed by the conclusions of Oliver Stone’s JFK,” passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, ordering the gathering and opening of every record about the president’s death. [81] See from Garrison to the JFK Act.

The five-member Board worked from 1994 to 1998. It found the original notes of Oswald’s interrogation, taken by Captain Will Fritz and agent James Hosty, which had been thought not to exist. It also made sure the Zapruder film “belonged to the American people.” It left behind “more than four million pages of records” at the National Archives. [81] Among the records it gathered were Garrison’s investigative files, Shaw’s diaries and defense files, and the New Orleans grand-jury records. [81] It also recorded that in January 1995, after the law ordered such records kept, the Secret Service destroyed protection survey reports for some of Kennedy’s trips in the fall of 1963. [82] See what the Board did.

The National Archives at College Park, Maryland, home of the JFK Assassination Records Collection.
The National Archives at College Park, Maryland, home of the JFK Assassination Records Collection. National Archives and Records Administration · Public domain

Chapter 19

The last files

The 1992 law set a deadline of 26 October 2017 for releasing everything, unless the president certified that a specific harm outweighed the public interest. [83][84] By then, the Archives says, 88 percent of the collection had been open in full since the late 1990s. [85] Presidents Trump and Biden both allowed agencies to keep some redactions, Trump in 2017 and 2018 and Biden in 2021, 2022 and 2023. [85][83][86] See the 25-year clock.

On 23 January 2025 Trump signed an executive order calling continued withholding “not consistent with the public interest.” [83] Under a directive of 17 March, the Archives said, all records previously withheld for classification were released “without redactions.” It posted 31,419 pages and then 37,127 more on 18 March, 14,318 on 20 March, and smaller batches into April; another 11,022 pages followed on 30 January 2026. [87] The FBI, inventorying closed case files from its field offices, found more Kennedy records and delivered them from February 2025. What stays closed is limited to grand-jury material, court-sealed records and tax returns. [87][84] See what was released.

The new files said a great deal about the CIA. Analysts at the National Security Archive found them most revealing about the agency’s operations in general: a break-in at the French consulate, an inspector-general report naming officers who helped plot the 1961 killing of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, and payments to swing a Bolivian election. [80] They did not identify a second gunman or show that the agency planned the killing. [80][88] On 1 April 2025 a House task force chaired by Representative Anna Paulina Luna held a hearing on the files, with the journalist Jefferson Morley and Oliver Stone among the witnesses. Morley said a newly released transcript showed that the CIA’s counterintelligence chief, James Angleton, had lied under oath to the House committee about the agency’s monitoring of Oswald’s mail from the Soviet Union. [88] In July Luna published George Joannides’s personnel file and called it proof of a CIA cover-up. [89] See the Joannides file. Some parts of the CIA’s Mexico City station history are still withheld, on the grounds that they do not relate to the assassination. [87][90] See what was in them.

Dealey Plaza from Reunion Tower, 2015: the Depository at left, Elm Street and the knoll at right.
Dealey Plaza from Reunion Tower, 2015: the Depository at left, Elm Street and the knoll at right. Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0

Chapter 20

Sixty years of doubt

In the week after the assassination, 52 percent of Americans told Gallup that others were involved and 29 percent blamed one man. Belief in a conspiracy ran between 74 and 81 percent from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s. In October 2023 it stood at 65 percent, with 29 percent saying Oswald acted alone. [91][46] See the trend.

The country changed in other ways too. Killing a president became a federal crime in 1965, as the Warren Commission had recommended. [92][3] Congress proposed the 25th Amendment, on presidential disability and vice-presidential vacancies, “in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination.” It was ratified in 1967. [93][94] The open limousine was fully armored and back in service by May 1964. [95] The Review Board itself recommended that its model, a “presumption of disclosure” overcome only by “clear and convincing evidence of harm,” could be adopted in other “extraordinary circumstances” of continuing controversy. [81]

Trust in government fell in the same decades. In 1958, 73 percent of Americans told pollsters they trusted the federal government to do what is right most of the time. That trust eroded through the 1960s with Vietnam and the 1970s with Watergate, to about a quarter by 1980. In 2025 it was 17 percent. [96] Pew does not attribute the fall to Dallas, and neither does this guide.

This guide sets out what each investigation found and how solid the finding is. It also notes where the records are still closed or missing, and what each of the theories would require to be true.

Sources for the story
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 2: the assassination
  2. Nellie Connally: Warren Commission testimony, volume IV (AARC mirror)
  3. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  4. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
  5. James Tague: Warren Commission testimony, volume VII (AARC mirror)
  6. S. M. Holland: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
  7. Clint Hill: Warren Commission testimony, volume II (AARC mirror)
  8. Robert Frazier: FBI firearms testimony, volume III (AARC mirror)
  9. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  10. Warren Commission report, appendix 13: biography of Lee Harvey Oswald
  11. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  12. Warren Commission report, appendix 15: Oswald’s dealings with the State Department and immigration
  13. Commission Exhibit 1784: FBI interview of Marina Oswald on the Walker shooting, December 1963 (AARC mirror)
  14. HSCA staff report: 544 Camp Street, volume X (AARC mirror)
  15. HSCA staff report: Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE), volume X (AARC mirror)
  16. WDSU radio debate: Oswald, Bringuier and Butler, 21 August 1963 (UNT Portal)
  17. CIA career-medal recommendation for Joannides, 20 March 1981 (Internet Archive copy)
  18. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
  19. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
  20. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  21. Warren Commission report, chapter 7: Lee Harvey Oswald, background and possible motives
  22. Warren Commission report, appendix 11: reports of Oswald’s interrogation
  23. PBS American Experience: Oswald’s Ghost (2007), transcript
  24. Warren Commission report, chapter 5: detention and death of Oswald
  25. TIME, “Trials: Death for Ruby” (March 1964)
  26. Wikipedia: Melvin Belli
  27. The New York Times, “Ruby Sentenced to Death Speedily by Dallas Jury” (15 March 1964)
  28. Jack Ruby: testimony to Warren and Ford, 7 June 1964, volume V (AARC mirror)
  29. Warren Commission report, appendix 17: Ruby’s polygraph
  30. Tom O’Neill: statement to the House Task Force on Declassification, MKULTRA hearing, 30 June 2026
  31. Rubenstein v. State, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 5 October 1966 (Justia)
  32. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Spring 2021 (UNT Portal)
  33. Warren Commission report: foreword
  34. Warren Commission report, chapter 8: the protection of the President
  35. Johnson–Russell telephone call, 18 September 1964: transcript (Hood College Weisberg collection)
  36. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
  37. Library of Congress, National Film Registry: essay on the Zapruder film
  38. HSCA final report, part I-A: Oswald fired three shots
  39. HSCA photographic evidence panel: number, timing and source of the shots, volume VI
  40. Cyril Wecht: dissent from the HSCA forensic pathology panel, volume VII (AARC mirror)
  41. Wikipedia: Harold Weisberg
  42. Wikipedia: Edward Jay Epstein
  43. Wikipedia: Rush to Judgment
  44. Wikipedia: Sylvia Meagher
  45. Wikipedia: Mary Ferrell
  46. Gallup: “Decades later, most Americans doubt lone gunman killed JFK,” 13 November 2023
  47. 1968 Panel Review of Photographs, X-Ray Films, Documents and Other Evidence Pertaining to the Fatal Wounding of President John F. Kennedy (the Clark Panel report)
  48. Nobel Prize: Luis W. Alvarez, facts (Physics 1968)
  49. Luis W. Alvarez, “A Physicist Examines the Kennedy Assassination Film” (LBL-3884, July 1975; Am. J. Phys. 44, 813 (1976))
  50. Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities within the United States (June 1975), chapter 19: allegations concerning the assassination of President Kennedy
  51. National Archives: Clay Shaw papers finding aid
  52. State of Louisiana v. Clay Shaw: Perry Russo testimony, 10 February 1969 (AARC mirror)
  53. State v. Shaw: Andrew Sciambra testimony, 12 February 1969 (AARC mirror)
  54. Wikipedia: United States President’s Commission on CIA Activities within the United States
  55. Walter Elder to William Colby: “Special Activities” (the Family Jewels list), 1 June 1973, RIF 104-10303-10007
  56. HSCA final report, appendix: H. Res. 1540 and the committee’s authority
  57. HSCA final report: summary of findings and recommendations (1979)
  58. Wikipedia: G. Robert Blakey
  59. HSCA final report, part I-B: scientific acoustical evidence of a second gunman
  60. National Research Council: Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, 1982
  61. D. B. Thomas, “Echo correlation analysis and the acoustic evidence in the Kennedy assassination revisited,” Science & Justice, 2001 (PubMed)
  62. Linsker, Garwin and others, “Synchronization of the acoustic evidence,” Science & Justice, 2005
  63. Dan Hardway: written testimony to the House Oversight Task Force, 20 May 2025
  64. Wikipedia: Best Evidence (book)
  65. Wikipedia: Anthony Summers
  66. Wikipedia: On the Trail of the Assassins
  67. Wikipedia: Gaeton Fonzi
  68. Wikipedia: Gerald Posner
  69. Wikipedia: Mortal Error
  70. Wikipedia: JFK and the Unspeakable
  71. Wikipedia: Michael Collins Piper
  72. J. (Jewish News of Northern California), Tom Tugend, “Seminar proving Mossad ties to JFK killing is canceled” (29 August 1997)
  73. National Security Archive: “The battle of the letters, 1963” on Dimona
  74. Wikipedia: Quantum Leap season 5
  75. Wikipedia: Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man
  76. Wikipedia: Tikka to Ride
  77. Wikipedia: Assassins (musical)
  78. Wikipedia: 11.22.63
  79. Encyclopedia.com: “grassy knoll” (dictionary entry)
  80. National Security Archive: “CIA covert ops, Kennedy assassination records lift veil of secrecy,” 19 March 2025
  81. Assassination Records Review Board final report (1998): executive summary
  82. ARRB final report, chapter 8: agency compliance
  83. Federal Register: full text of Executive Order 14176 (plain-text edition)
  84. National Archives: JFK collection frequently asked questions
  85. National Archives: 2017–2018 releases
  86. Federal Register: Memorandum of 30 June 2023, Certification regarding disclosure of information in certain records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
  87. National Archives: 2025 release index (with the 30 January 2026 addition)
  88. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
  89. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: statement on the Joannides file, July 2025
  90. National Security Archive: “CIA station in Mexico: the last JFK assassination records,” 1 October 2026
  91. Gallup: “Majority in U.S. still believe JFK killed in a conspiracy,” 15 November 2013
  92. 18 U.S. Code § 1751: Presidential and Presidential staff assassination, kidnapping, and assault (Cornell LII)
  93. Constitution Annotated: Twenty-Fifth Amendment, historical background (Cornell LII edition)
  94. National Constitution Center: the 25th Amendment
  95. U.S. Secret Service: a chronicle of carriages
  96. Pew Research Center, “Public Trust in Government: 1958–2025” (4 December 2025)

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Each thread pulls together the entries on one question, across all the eras.

Key people

Who was who

63 people, from the motorcade to the archives. Open a card for what the record shows and where to read more.

John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy35th President

Born in Brookline in 1917, he won the 1960 election by fewer than 120,000 votes and was shot dead in Dallas on 22 November 1963, aged 46.

Sources
  1. Miller Center (University of Virginia): John F. Kennedy, Life Before the Presidency, by Marc J. Selverstone
  2. Miller Center: John F. Kennedy, Campaigns and Elections
  3. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
Jacqueline KennedyJacqueline KennedyFirst Lady

Sat beside her husband in the limousine. After the head shot she climbed onto the back of the car. In June 1964 she told the Commission she did not remember doing so.

Sources
  1. Jacqueline Kennedy: Warren Commission testimony, volume V (AARC mirror)
  2. Clint Hill: Warren Commission testimony, volume II (AARC mirror)
Robert F. KennedyRobert F. KennedyAttorney General

Ran the Justice Department’s drive against the Mafia and pushed Operation Mongoose against Castro. A senior CIA officer told the Cuban official Rolando Cubela in October 1963 that he spoke for Robert Kennedy.

Sources
  1. FRUS 1961–63 vol. X, doc. 270: origins of Operation Mongoose
  2. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
  3. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. JohnsonVice President, then 36th President

Sworn in on Air Force One at Love Field at 2:38 p.m. on 22 November. Created the Warren Commission a week later. His diary puts him in Houston and Fort Worth the night before.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  2. Vice President Johnson’s daily diary, 21 November 1963 (LBJ Library)
  3. Warren Commission report: foreword
John ConnallyJohn ConnallyGovernor of Texas

Rode in the jump seat in front of Kennedy and was badly wounded. He never accepted that the bullet that hit him had passed through Kennedy first.

Sources
  1. John Connally: Warren Commission testimony, volume IV (AARC mirror)
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
Lee Harvey OswaldLee Harvey OswaldAccused assassin

Born in New Orleans in 1939, a Marine radar operator who defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and came back in 1962. Arrested in the Texas Theatre on 22 November and shot dead by Jack Ruby two days later. Both official inquiries concluded he fired the shots that hit Kennedy.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, appendix 13: biography of Lee Harvey Oswald
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  3. HSCA final report: summary of findings and recommendations (1979)
Marina OswaldMarina OswaldOswald’s wife

Married him in Minsk in 1961. She said she took the backyard photographs and told the FBI he had admitted shooting at General Walker.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, appendix 13: biography of Lee Harvey Oswald
  2. Commission Exhibit 1784: FBI interview of Marina Oswald on the Walker shooting, December 1963 (AARC mirror)
  3. HSCA photographic panel: authenticity of the backyard photographs, volume VI
Ruth PaineFriend of Marina Oswald

Marina and the children were living at her house in Irving in November 1963. The rifle had been stored in her garage; she turned over the book with the Walker note.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. Commission Exhibit 1784: FBI interview of Marina Oswald on the Walker shooting, December 1963 (AARC mirror)
Buell Wesley FrazierDepository co-worker

Drove Oswald to Irving on 21 November and back to work the next morning, when Oswald carried a long paper package he said held curtain rods.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. Robert Frazier: FBI firearms testimony, volume III (AARC mirror)
George de MohrenschildtFriend in Dallas

A petroleum geologist who befriended the Oswalds and had spoken with a CIA domestic-contacts officer. The House committee found no basis for saying he worked for the agency. He killed himself in 1977.

Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA photographic panel: authenticity of the backyard photographs, volume VI
Silvia OdioCuban exile in Dallas

Said three men visited her in late September 1963, one introduced as “Leon Oswald”. The House committee was “inclined to believe” her.

Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA staff report: the Odio incident, volume X (AARC mirror)
Howard BrennanEyewitness

A steamfitter on a wall across from the Depository who told police he saw a man fire from the sixth-floor corner window. The first police description of the suspect came mainly from him.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  2. Howard Brennan: Warren Commission testimony, volume III (AARC mirror)
Abraham ZapruderAbraham ZapruderFilmed the assassination

A Dallas dress manufacturer who filmed the motorcade from a pedestal on Elm Street with an 8 mm home-movie camera and sold the film to Life the next day.

Sources
  1. Library of Congress, National Film Registry: essay on the Zapruder film
Clint HillClint HillSecret Service agent

Ran from the follow-up car, reached the limousine after the head shot and covered the Kennedys as it sped to Parkland.

Sources
  1. Clint Hill: Warren Commission testimony, volume II (AARC mirror)
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 2: the assassination
William GreerSecret Service driver

Drove the limousine. He testified he took the first noise for a motorcycle backfire. The claim that he fired the fatal shot rests on blurry copies of the film.

Sources
  1. William Greer: Warren Commission testimony, volume II (AARC mirror)
  2. Clint Hill: Warren Commission testimony, volume II (AARC mirror)
James TagueBystander

Stood near the triple underpass and was stung on the cheek by debris, the strongest evidence that one shot missed.

Sources
  1. James Tague: Warren Commission testimony, volume VII (AARC mirror)
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
S. M. HollandRailroad supervisor

Watched from the triple underpass and said he saw a puff of smoke under the trees by the fence on the knoll.

Sources
  1. S. M. Holland: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
Lee BowersRailroad tower operator

From his tower behind the knoll he described two men near the fence and “something out of the ordinary” at the moment of the shots.

Sources
  1. Lee Bowers: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
Louie Steven WittLouie Steven WittThe “umbrella man”

Opened a black umbrella on a sunny day as the motorcade passed. In 1978 he testified, umbrella in hand, that he meant to heckle Kennedy.

Sources
  1. Louie Steven Witt: HSCA testimony, 25 September 1978 (AARC mirror)
J. D. TippitJ. D. TippitDallas police officer

Stopped a man walking on 10th Street in Oak Cliff at about 1:15 p.m. and was shot dead. Witnesses and the cartridge cases tied the killing to Oswald.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
Jack RubyJack RubyKilled Oswald

A Dallas nightclub owner who shot Oswald in the police basement at 11:21 a.m. on 24 November. Sentenced to death in 1964, he won a new trial and died at Parkland in January 1967 before it began.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 5: detention and death of Oswald
  2. Rubenstein v. State, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 5 October 1966 (Justia)
  3. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Spring 2021 (UNT Portal)
Paul LandisSecret Service agent

Rode in the follow-up car. In a 2023 memoir he said he picked up a bullet in the limousine and left it on Kennedy’s stretcher, an account he did not give in 1963.

Sources
  1. New York Times: “A Witness to the Kennedy Assassination Breaks His Silence,” 9 September 2023
  2. Paul Landis: Secret Service statement, November 1963 (transcript)
Darrell TomlinsonParkland senior engineer

Found the bullet that became CE 399 on a stretcher and told the Commission he could not be sure which stretcher it was.

Sources
  1. Darrell Tomlinson: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
Malcolm PerryParkland surgeon

Cut a breathing tube through the small wound in Kennedy’s throat and told reporters that afternoon it could have been an entrance wound.

Sources
  1. Malcolm Perry: HSCA interview, 11 January 1978, volume VII (AARC mirror)
James HumesNavy pathologist

Led the Bethesda autopsy. He burned his draft report and notes at home, which he confirmed to the Review Board in 1996.

Sources
  1. HSCA medical panel: performance of the autopsy, volume VII (AARC mirror)
  2. James Humes: ARRB deposition, 13 February 1996 (transcript)
Cyril WechtCyril WechtForensic pathologist

The lone dissenter on the House committee’s nine-member pathology panel, who rejected the single-bullet theory.

Sources
  1. Cyril Wecht: dissent from the HSCA forensic pathology panel, volume VII (AARC mirror)
Vincent GuinnChemist

Ran neutron activation tests for the House committee and concluded the fragments came from two bullets. Later statisticians showed the method could not bear that weight.

Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-A: Oswald fired three shots
  2. Spiegelman and others, “Chemical and forensic analysis of JFK assassination bullet lots,” Annals of Applied Statistics, 2007 (arXiv)
Earl WarrenEarl WarrenChief Justice; chaired the Commission

Led the seven-member commission that reported on 24 September 1964 that Oswald acted alone.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report: foreword
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
Gerald FordGerald FordWarren Commission member

A congressman on the Commission and later president. Papers released in 1997 showed he changed the draft wording of where the bullet entered Kennedy’s back.

Sources
  1. Warren Commission report: foreword
  2. Spokesman-Review (Washington Post): “Ford pushed for change in JFK assassination report,” 3 July 1997
  3. Deseret News: “Ford defends his changes in JFK report,” 3 July 1997
Richard RussellWarren Commission member

The Georgia senator told President Johnson by phone on 18 September 1964 that he did not believe the single-bullet theory.

Sources
  1. Johnson–Russell telephone call, 18 September 1964: transcript (Hood College Weisberg collection)
  2. Warren Commission report: foreword
Allen DullesAllen DullesFormer CIA director; Commission member

Ran the CIA until November 1961, when he left after the Bay of Pigs. Sat on the Warren Commission, which was not told of the CIA’s plots to kill Castro.

Sources
  1. American Presidency Project: Kennedy remarks announcing John McCone as CIA director, 27 September 1961
  2. Warren Commission report: foreword
  3. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
Jim GarrisonJim GarrisonNew Orleans District Attorney

Charged Clay Shaw in 1967 with conspiring to kill Kennedy, the only prosecution ever brought. A jury acquitted Shaw in 1969. Oliver Stone made Garrison the hero of JFK.

Sources
  1. National Archives: Clay Shaw papers finding aid
  2. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
Clay ShawClay ShawAcquitted defendant

A New Orleans businessman tried for conspiracy in 1969 and acquitted.

Sources
  1. National Archives: Clay Shaw papers finding aid
David FerrieNew Orleans pilot

Named by Garrison and dead days later of what the coroner ruled natural causes. The House committee believed witnesses who put Oswald with him in Clinton, Louisiana.

Sources
  1. HSCA staff report: David Ferrie, volume X (AARC mirror)
  2. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
Frank ChurchFrank ChurchSenator; chaired the Senate intelligence inquiry

His committee found in 1976 that the CIA and FBI had kept the Castro plots from the Warren Commission.

Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  2. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
Louis StokesLouis StokesChairman, House Select Committee on Assassinations

Chaired the House committee whose 1979 report found Kennedy “probably” killed as a result of a conspiracy.

Sources
  1. HSCA testimony of Jacqueline Hess on “mysterious deaths,” 25 September 1978 (AARC mirror)
  2. HSCA final report: summary of findings and recommendations (1979)
James HostyFBI agent in Dallas

Oswald left a note for him at the FBI office weeks before the assassination. Hosty said he was told to destroy it after Oswald died; it came out only in 1975.

Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
J. Edgar HooverJ. Edgar HooverFBI Director

Lunched with the president on 22 March 1962 after sending a memo about a woman in contact with both the White House and the Mafia. His Dallas office destroyed Oswald’s note to Agent Hosty, and the FBI did not tell the Warren Commission.

Sources
  1. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
  2. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
George JoannidesGeorge JoannidesCIA officer

Ran the CIA program in Miami that funded the exile students who clashed with Oswald in 1963, then served as the agency’s liaison to the House committee in 1978 without the committee being told.

Sources
  1. CIA career-medal recommendation for Joannides, 20 March 1981 (Internet Archive copy)
  2. Dan Hardway: written testimony to the House Oversight Task Force, 20 May 2025
  3. HSCA staff report: Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE), volume X (AARC mirror)
James AngletonJames AngletonCIA counterintelligence chief

Jefferson Morley told Congress in 2025 that a released transcript showed Angleton lied under oath about the CIA’s watch on Oswald’s mail.

Sources
  1. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
Valeriy KostikovValeriy KostikovKGB officer in Mexico City

Met Oswald at the Soviet embassy. FBI experts believed he belonged to the KGB’s assassinations department; a 1982 CIA letter says that could not be confirmed.

Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  2. CIA letter on Valeriy Kostikov and Department 13, 21 May 1982
Yuri NosenkoKGB defector

Said the KGB never debriefed Oswald. The CIA held him in hostile confinement for years, and the House committee was “certain” he lied about Oswald.

Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA: Oswald in the Soviet Union, investigation of Yuri Nosenko, volume XII (AARC mirror)
Fidel CastroFidel CastroCuban leader

Target of at least eight CIA assassination plots. On 7 September 1963 he warned that U.S. leaders would be in danger if they backed plots against Cuban leaders. He told the House committee in 1978 the idea Cuba was behind Dallas was “insane.”

Sources
  1. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
  2. CIA 1975 review of allegations of Cuban involvement, opening with Castro’s 7 September 1963 interview with AP correspondent Daniel Harker, RIF 104-10051-10250
  3. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
Carlos MarcelloNew Orleans Mafia boss

Deported by the Kennedy Justice Department in 1961. An informant said he spoke in 1962 of using a “nut” to remove the stone in his shoe. The committee judged his involvement unlikely but could not rule it out.

Sources
  1. HSCA staff report: Carlos Marcello, volume IX (AARC mirror)
  2. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
Santo Trafficante Jr.Santo Trafficante Jr.Tampa Mafia boss

Took part in the CIA’s plots against Castro. A Cuban exile said Trafficante told him in 1962 that Kennedy was “going to be hit”, then softened the account under oath.

Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
Jimmy HoffaJimmy HoffaTeamsters president

A Teamster official told the government in 1962 that Hoffa had talked about killing Robert Kennedy. The committee found motive but no direct evidence.

Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
E. Howard HuntE. Howard HuntCIA officer, Watergate burglar

Long rumored to be one of the “tramps”; their arrest records showed otherwise. His son published notes in 2007 in which Hunt described hearing of a plot. Hunt denied any part until he died.

Sources
  1. Los Angeles Times: “Two of the ‘tramps’ questioned,” 4 March 1992
  2. Rolling Stone: “The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt,” 2007 (archived copy)
  3. Los Angeles Times: “Jury rules against Hunt in libel suit,” 7 February 1985
Mac WallaceFormer Johnson aide

Cast by LBJ theorists as the gunman. The FBI reported in 1999 that the Depository print said to be his “is not a fingerprint of Malcolm Everett Wallace.”

Sources
  1. Lobster magazine: “Two stories about JFK fingerprints,” 2015
David Ben-GurionDavid Ben-GurionIsraeli prime minister

Resigned on 15 June 1963, the day Kennedy’s sharpest letter demanding inspections of the Dimona reactor was sent.

Sources
  1. National Security Archive: “The battle of the letters, 1963” on Dimona
Oliver StoneOliver StoneFilm director

His 1991 film JFK made Garrison its hero and helped bring about the 1992 JFK Records Act. He testified to a House task force in April 2025.

Sources
  1. Library of Congress, National Film Registry: essay on the Zapruder film
  2. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
  3. Gallup: “Majority in U.S. still believe JFK killed in a conspiracy,” 15 November 2013
Mark LaneMark LaneLawyer and early critic

One of the first critics of the Warren Commission. KGB notes smuggled out by Vasili Mitrokhin say the KGB helped fund his research through an intermediary. He defended Liberty Lobby against Hunt in 1985.

Sources
  1. Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield (Basic Books, 1999)
  2. Los Angeles Times: “Jury rules against Hunt in libel suit,” 7 February 1985
Jefferson MorleyJournalist

Sued the CIA for years for George Joannides’s file and testified to Congress in 2025 about the agency’s false statements on Oswald.

Sources
  1. Morley v. CIA, D.C. Circuit, 2016
  2. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
Anna Paulina LunaAnna Paulina LunaCongresswoman

Chaired the House task force on declassification and said in 2025 that the CIA “has been lying for 62 years.”

Sources
  1. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: statement on the Joannides file, July 2025
  2. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
Melvin BelliRuby’s chief trial lawyer

A San Francisco trial lawyer known as “the King of Torts.” He defended Ruby in 1964 on a claim of psychomotor epilepsy and called the death verdict a triumph for bigotry.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia: Melvin Belli
  2. TIME, “Trials: Death for Ruby” (March 1964)
  3. The New York Times, “Ruby Sentenced to Death Speedily by Dallas Jury” (15 March 1964)
Ramsey ClarkRamsey ClarkAttorney General, 1967–1969

Convened the 1968 panel of four physicians that reviewed the autopsy photographs and X-rays and found two shots from above and behind.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia: Ramsey Clark
  2. 1968 Panel Review of Photographs, X-Ray Films, Documents and Other Evidence Pertaining to the Fatal Wounding of President John F. Kennedy (the Clark Panel report)
Nelson RockefellerNelson RockefellerVice President; chaired the 1975 commission on the CIA

His commission examined claims that Hunt and Sturgis were in Dallas and that the head shot came from the front, and found no credible evidence of CIA involvement.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia: United States President’s Commission on CIA Activities within the United States
  2. Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities within the United States (June 1975), chapter 19: allegations concerning the assassination of President Kennedy
Luis W. AlvarezLuis W. AlvarezPhysicist, Nobel Prize 1968

Studied the Zapruder film and in 1969 had melons shot to test whether a bullet from behind could drive a head backward. Published his “jet effect” argument in 1976.

Sources
  1. Nobel Prize: Luis W. Alvarez, facts (Physics 1968)
  2. Luis W. Alvarez, “A Physicist Examines the Kennedy Assassination Film” (LBL-3884, July 1975; Am. J. Phys. 44, 813 (1976))
G. Robert BlakeyG. Robert BlakeyChief counsel, House Select Committee on Assassinations

Law professor who ran the House committee’s staff in the late 1970s and drafted the RICO statute.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia: G. Robert Blakey
Gerald PosnerGerald PosnerAuthor of Case Closed

Investigative journalist whose 1993 book argued that Oswald acted alone.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia: Gerald Posner
Michael Collins PiperAuthor of Final Judgment

Writer for The Spotlight and American Free Press. His book Final Judgment blamed Israel’s Mossad, with the CIA and organized crime. The ADL and others called him a promoter of antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. He died in 2015.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia: Michael Collins Piper
  2. J. (Jewish News of Northern California), Tom Tugend, “Seminar proving Mossad ties to JFK killing is canceled” (29 August 1997)
Sylvia MeagherResearcher and critic

A World Health Organization analyst who published a subject index to the Warren Commission’s 26 volumes in 1966 and Accessories After the Fact in 1967.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia: Sylvia Meagher
Harold WeisbergResearcher and critic

A former reporter and Senate investigator who self-published Whitewash in August 1965, one of the first books attacking the Warren Report.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia: Harold Weisberg
Mary FerrellResearcher and archivist

A Dallas legal secretary who built a database on more than 40,000 cards covering over 8,200 people. The Mary Ferrell Foundation, an online archive, is named for her.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia: Mary Ferrell

Timeline

Day by day

248 dated events, 1917–2026, each with its source.

  1. 29 May 1917
    Born John Fitzgerald Kennedy is born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the second of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Brookline to the White House · source
  2. Aug 1943
    PT 109 A Japanese destroyer rams and splits his patrol boat in the Solomon Islands. He leads survivors to an island. Brookline to the White House · source
  3. 1946
    The House He wins a working-class Boston district in Congress at 29. Brookline to the White House · source
  4. 1947
    Addison’s Doctors diagnose the adrenal disorder, then often considered fatal. The hidden illness and the private life · source source
  5. 1952
    The Senate He unseats Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Brookline to the White House · source
  6. 1954
    Back surgery A spinal operation nearly kills him. The hidden illness and the private life · source source
  7. Dec 1956
    Marine qualification Oswald scores 212, two points above the Marine Corps “sharpshooter” line. The rifle and the shooter · source
  8. 1957
    Pulitzer Profiles in Courage, written with heavy help from his aide Theodore Sorensen, wins the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Brookline to the White House · source
  9. May 1959
    Second score He scores 191, one point above “marksman.” The rifle and the shooter · source
  10. 16 Oct 1959
    Moscow Oswald arrives in Moscow on a tourist visa and checks into the Hotel Berlin. Oswald in the Soviet Union · source
  11. 21 Oct 1959
    Wrist cut Told his visa has expired and he must leave, he cuts his left wrist and spends days in Botkin Hospital. Oswald in the Soviet Union · source
  12. 31 Oct 1959
    Embassy He tells consul Richard Snyder he wants to renounce his U.S. citizenship. Oswald in the Soviet Union · source source
  13. 31 Oct 1959
    Cable The embassy reports his defection to Washington. Was Oswald working for U.S. intelligence? · source
  14. 9 Nov 1959
    Mail watch The CIA’s mail-opening program starts a card on him. Was Oswald working for U.S. intelligence? · source
  15. 1960
    Denial His campaign denies he has Addison’s disease. The hidden illness and the private life · source
  16. 7 Jan 1960
    Minsk He is sent to Minsk and put to work at a radio and television factory. Oswald in the Soviet Union · source
  17. 17 Mar 1960
    Exile force Eisenhower approves training a Cuban exile force. Did Castro do it? · source
  18. 13 Sept 1960
    Discharge The Marine Corps Reserve gives him an undesirable discharge. Oswald in the Soviet Union · source
  19. 8 Nov 1960
    Elected He beats Nixon by fewer than 120,000 votes out of 68.8 million, and 303 to 219 in the electoral college. Brookline to the White House · source
  20. 9 Dec 1960
    201 file The CIA opens a personality file on him. Was Oswald working for U.S. intelligence? · source
  21. 20 Jan 1961
    Inaugurated He becomes the 35th president, the youngest man ever elected to the office. Brookline to the White House · source
  22. Apr 1961
    Deportation Marcello is deported to Guatemala on the Kennedy Justice Department’s orders. Did the Mafia do it? · source
  23. 17 Apr 1961
    Bay of Pigs About 1,500 CIA-backed Cuban exiles land and are quickly overwhelmed. A thousand days: the presidency · source
  24. 27 Apr 1961
    “Secret societies” speech He tells newspaper publishers the nation is opposed by “a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy”. A thousand days: the presidency · source
  25. 30 Apr 1961
    Marriage He marries Marina Prusakova in Minsk. Oswald in the Soviet Union · source
  26. 30 June 1961
    Schlesinger memo Kennedy’s aide sends him “CIA Reorganization”, warning of the agency’s weight inside U.S. embassies. Did the CIA kill Kennedy? · source source
  27. Nov 1961
    Dulles out, Mongoose in Allen Dulles leaves the CIA; Kennedy orders a covert program against Castro. A thousand days: the presidency · source source
  28. Summer 1962
    Hoffa Teamster Edward Partin says Hoffa discussed killing Robert Kennedy. Did the Mafia do it? · source
  29. 1962
    Miami Joannides becomes deputy chief of the psychological-warfare branch of Task Force W in Miami. George Joannides and the CIA’s Cuban students · source
  30. 13 Mar 1962
    Northwoods The Joint Chiefs send proposals for staged pretexts to justify invading Cuba. They are not approved. A thousand days: the presidency · source
  31. 22 Mar 1962
    Hoover lunch FBI Director Hoover lunches with the president after sending a memo about a woman in contact with both the White House and the Mafia. The hidden illness and the private life · source
  32. 19 May 1962
    “Happy Birthday” Marilyn Monroe sings at his birthday fundraiser at Madison Square Garden. The hidden illness and the private life · source source
  33. 13 June 1962
    Home He lands at Hoboken on the SS Maasdam with Marina and their daughter. Oswald in the Soviet Union · source source
  34. Sept 1962
    Trafficante and Marcello Remarks later reported as threats against President Kennedy. Did the Mafia do it? · source source
  35. Oct 1962
    Missile crisis Thirteen days over Soviet missiles in Cuba end with a public deal and a secret one on missiles in Turkey. A thousand days: the presidency · source
  36. Spring 1963
    Taken Marina Oswald says she took the pictures in their back yard on Neely Street. The backyard photographs · source
  37. 17 Jan 1963
    An alias CIA headquarters requests an alias driver’s permit for him as “Howard Mark Gebler.” George Joannides and the CIA’s Cuban students · source
  38. Mar 1963
    Photographs Oswald photographs the alley behind Walker’s house. The Walker shooting · source source
  39. 12 Mar 1963
    Money order A $21.45 postal money order is bought in Dallas. The rifle and the shooter · source
  40. 20 Mar 1963
    Shipped Klein’s ships rifle C2766 to “A. Hidell,” Post Office Box 2915, Dallas. The rifle and the shooter · source
  41. 2 Apr 1963
    Request Kennedy’s demand for regular visits to Dimona goes to Ben-Gurion through Ambassador Walworth Barbour. Israel and the Dimona reactor · source
  42. 10 Apr 1963
    The shot About 9 p.m., a bullet narrowly misses Walker at his desk. The Walker shooting · source
  43. 10 May 1963
    Reily Oswald and Judyth Vary start at the Reily coffee company in New Orleans on the same day, she says. Fast myths: Bush, Cruz, Judyth Baker and more · source
  44. 4 Jun 1963
    Executive Order 11110 A routine order about silver certificates; it later becomes a viral myth. A thousand days: the presidency · source source
  45. 5 Jun 1963
    Trip agreed Kennedy, Johnson and Governor Connally agree in El Paso on a late-November visit. The Texas trip · source
  46. 10–11 Jun 1963
    Peace and civil rights The American University peace speech and the televised civil-rights address. A thousand days: the presidency · source source
  47. 15 June 1963
    Letter Kennedy’s sharpest letter is sent; Ben-Gurion resigns that day and never formally receives it. Israel and the Dimona reactor · source
  48. 5 July 1963
    Eshkol A nearly identical letter goes to the new prime minister, Levi Eshkol. Israel and the Dimona reactor · source
  49. Aug 1963
    544 Camp Street Oswald stamps 544 Camp Street on Fair Play for Cuba leaflets. Guy Banister’s office is in the same building. Jim Garrison and the trial of Clay Shaw · source source
  50. Late Aug – Sept 1963
    Clinton, Louisiana Witnesses later say Oswald came to a voter-registration drive with two older men. Jim Garrison and the trial of Clay Shaw · source
  51. Aug 1963
    Canal Street DRE delegate Carlos Bringuier clashes with Oswald, then debates him on WDSU radio. George Joannides and the CIA’s Cuban students · source source
  52. 19 Aug 1963
    Agreement Eshkol agrees to U.S. visits. Israel and the Dimona reactor · source source
  53. 26 Aug 1963
    Thanks Kennedy welcomes the agreement. Israel and the Dimona reactor · source
  54. Late Sept 1963
    The visit Three men visit Silvia Odio in Dallas; one is introduced as Leon Oswald. Silvia Odio and “Maurice Bishop” · source source
  55. 7 Sept 1963
    Harker Castro warns U.S. leaders they would be in danger if they backed plots against Cuban leaders. Did Castro do it? · source source
  56. 23 Sept 1963
    Tape Kennedy, McNamara and Taylor discuss withdrawal plans before the generals leave for Saigon. Was Kennedy killed to keep the Vietnam War going? · source
  57. 27 Sept 1963
    Arrival Oswald arrives about 10 a.m. and goes to the Cuban consulate for a transit visa. Mexico City · source source
  58. 28 Sept 1963
    Kostikov He talks with Soviet consular officer Valeriy Kostikov, a KGB officer. Mexico City · source source
  59. Oct 1963
    Test ban in force The Limited Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union and Britain takes effect. A thousand days: the presidency · source
  60. 1 Oct 1963
    The call A man identifying himself as Oswald calls the Soviet embassy; the CIA records it. Mexico City · source
  61. 2 Oct 1963
    Statement The White House says the major part of the U.S. military task can be completed by the end of 1965. Was Kennedy killed to keep the Vietnam War going? · source
  62. 9 Oct 1963
    Cable The Mexico station reports the contact to headquarters with a description that does not fit Oswald. Mexico City · source
  63. 11 Oct 1963
    NSAM 263 Kennedy approves the McNamara–Taylor recommendations, with no formal announcement of the 1,000-man withdrawal. Was Kennedy killed to keep the Vietnam War going? · source
  64. 14 Oct 1963
    A room as “O. H. Lee” Oswald rents a room at 1026 North Beckley Avenue for $8 a week under the name O. H. Lee. source
  65. 16 Oct 1963
    Depository job After a neighbor mentions an opening and Ruth Paine calls the superintendent, Oswald starts at the Depository as a temporary order filler at $1.25 an hour. source
  66. 29 Oct 1963
    AMLASH A senior CIA officer meets Rolando Cubela, saying he speaks for Robert Kennedy. Did Castro do it? · source source
  67. Nov 1963
    Landis’s statement Landis writes his official account. It does not mention a bullet. CE 399 and the Landis bullet · source
  68. Early Nov 1963
    The note Oswald leaves an unsealed envelope for Hosty at the Dallas office. The Hosty note · source
  69. 1 Nov 1963
    Hosty visits Hosty interviews Marina Oswald at Ruth Paine’s house. The Hosty note · source
  70. 5 Nov 1963
    Back channel Kennedy approves a secret contact with Castro’s government. Did Castro do it? · source
  71. 18 Nov 1963
    Route driven Secret Service and Dallas police drive the motorcade route. The Texas trip · source
  72. Before 22 Nov 1963
    Route published Dallas newspapers print the route, including Main, Houston and Elm. The Texas trip · source
  73. 21 Nov 1963
    San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth The first day of the trip. The Texas trip · source source
  74. 21–22 Nov 1963
    The package Oswald rides to Irving, says he is fetching curtain rods, and carries a long package to work the next morning. The rifle and the shooter · source
  75. 21 Nov 1963
    Texas Johnson flies with Kennedy to Houston, attends the Albert Thomas dinner, then flies to Fort Worth. Did Lyndon Johnson do it? · source
  76. 22 Nov 1963
    The motorcade Eight agents ride in the follow-up car; Clint Hill reaches the limousine after the head shot. The Secret Service · source source
  77. 22 Nov 1963
    On the trunk Mrs. Kennedy climbs onto the back of the car; Hill reaches her. Jacqueline Kennedy and Clint Hill · source source
  78. 22 Nov 1963
    A bullet on a stretcher A nearly whole bullet rolls off a stretcher at Parkland. It becomes Commission Exhibit 399. The single-bullet theory · source source
  79. 22 Nov 1963
    Found at Parkland Senior engineer Darrell Tomlinson bumps a stretcher and a bullet rolls out. CE 399 and the Landis bullet · source source
  80. 22 Nov 1963
    Filmed Zapruder, steadied by his secretary Marilyn Sitzman, films from a pedestal on Elm Street. The Zapruder film · source
  81. 22 Nov 1963
    Smoke S. M. Holland, on the triple underpass, sees a puff of smoke under the trees by the fence. The grassy knoll · source
  82. 22 Nov 1963
    Stuck mike A motorcycle radio stuck open transmits on Dallas police channel 1, recorded on a Dictabelt. The police tape and the fourth shot · source
  83. 22 Nov 1963
    The pen A CIA case officer offers Cubela a poison pen in Paris as Kennedy is shot. Did Castro do it? · source source
  84. 22 Nov 1963
    Dallas Kennedy is killed. Was Kennedy killed to keep the Vietnam War going? · source
  85. 22 Nov 1963
    Tramps Police take three men from a boxcar behind Dealey Plaza. E. Howard Hunt and the three tramps · source
  86. 22–27 Nov 1963
    First poll 52% say others were involved; 29% one man. What Americans believe · source source
  87. 22 Nov 1963, 1–2 a.m.
    Agents out late Nine off-duty agents go to the Fort Worth Press Club; seven then go on to the Cellar coffee house. The Texas trip · source
  88. 22 Nov 1963, 11:40 a.m.
    Love Field Air Force One lands in Dallas. The Texas trip · source
  89. 22 Nov 1963 12:29 p.m.
    Onto Elm The motorcade turns from Main onto Houston, then left onto Elm below the Depository. Six seconds in Dealey Plaza · source
  90. 22 Nov 1963 12:30 p.m.
    Shots Kennedy is hit in the upper back and the head; Connally is badly wounded. A bystander, James Tague, is stung on the cheek near the underpass. Six seconds in Dealey Plaza · source source
  91. 22 Nov 1963 12:38 p.m.
    Parkland Kennedy arrives at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Parkland and the autopsy · source
  92. 22 Nov 1963 12:45 p.m.
    A description Police radio broadcasts a description of the suspect based mainly on Howard Brennan’s account. Six seconds in Dealey Plaza · source
  93. 22 Nov 1963 1:00 p.m.
    Death He is pronounced dead after the last rites. Parkland and the autopsy · source
  94. 22 Nov 1963 c. 1:00 p.m.
    The rooming house Oswald goes briefly to his rented room on North Beckley Avenue. The killing of Officer Tippit · source
  95. 22 Nov 1963 c. 1:12 p.m.
    Cartridge cases Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney finds three empty cartridge cases by the southeast corner window. Six seconds in Dealey Plaza · source
  96. 22 Nov 1963 c. 1:16 p.m.
    10th and Patton Tippit is shot beside his patrol car; the killing is on the police radio tape at about 1:16. The killing of Officer Tippit · source source
  97. 22 Nov 1963 1:22 p.m.
    The rifle Deputies find a bolt-action rifle with a telescopic sight between two rows of boxes near the sixth-floor staircase. Six seconds in Dealey Plaza · source
  98. 22 Nov 1963 c. 1:45 p.m.
    Texas Theatre A shoe-store manager sees a man duck into the theater without paying; police arrest Oswald inside after a struggle. The killing of Officer Tippit · source
  99. 22 Nov 1963
    Oath Johnson is sworn in on Air Force One at Love Field. Did Lyndon Johnson do it? · source
  100. 22 Nov 1963, afternoon
    “An entrance wound” At a press briefing Dr. Malcolm Perry says the throat wound could have been an entrance. Parkland and the autopsy · source
  101. 22 Nov 1963, evening
    Hallway In a crowded hallway he tells reporters he is being taken in because he lived in the Soviet Union: “I’m just a patsy!” Oswald in custody: “I’m just a patsy” · source
  102. Night of 22–23 Nov 1963
    Bethesda Navy pathologists James Humes and J. Thornton Boswell, with Army pathologist Pierre Finck, perform the autopsy. Parkland and the autopsy · source source
  103. 22 Nov 1963, midnight
    Press conference Oswald is shown to reporters; he protests he has had no lawyer. Oswald in custody: “I’m just a patsy” · source
  104. 23 Nov 1963
    FBI memo An FBI memo says agents who heard the tape say the voice was not Oswald’s. Mexico City · source source
  105. 23 Nov 1963
    Calls for a lawyer He tries several times to call John Abt, a New York lawyer, without success. Oswald in custody: “I’m just a patsy” · source source
  106. 23 Nov 1963
    Found Dallas police find prints and a negative at the Paines’ home. The backyard photographs · source
  107. 23 Nov 1963
    Sold to Life He sells the film to Life, on condition that frame 313 not be published. The Zapruder film · source
  108. 24 Nov 1963
    Notes burned Early on Sunday morning Humes writes a draft report at home, then burns it and his notes in the fireplace. Parkland and the autopsy · source
  109. 24 Nov 1963
    Destroyed About two hours after Oswald dies, Hosty says he was told to destroy the note and his memo about it. The Hosty note · source
  110. 24 Nov 1963
    Ruby Jack Ruby kills Oswald. Did the Mafia do it? · source
  111. 24 Nov, 11:17 a.m. 1963
    Western Union Ruby wires $25 to dancer Karen Carlin; the money order is time-stamped. Jack Ruby · source
  112. 24 Nov, 11:21 a.m. 1963
    Shot Jack Ruby shoots him during his transfer to the county jail. Oswald in custody: “I’m just a patsy” · source source
  113. 24 Nov, 11:21 a.m. 1963
    The shot He shoots Oswald in the police basement, on live television. Jack Ruby · source source
  114. 26 Nov 1963
    NSAM 273 Johnson keeps the withdrawal objectives and orders planning against the North. Was Kennedy killed to keep the Vietnam War going? · source
  115. 29 Nov 1963
    Executive Order 11130 Johnson creates the Commission. Its seven members are Earl Warren, Senators Richard Russell and John Sherman Cooper, Representatives Hale Boggs and Gerald Ford, Allen Dulles and John McCloy. The Warren Commission · source
  116. 29 Nov 1963
    Commission Johnson creates the Warren Commission. Did Lyndon Johnson do it? · source
  117. 29 Nov 1963
    Hoover memo An FBI memo refers to a briefing for “Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency.” Fast myths: Bush, Cruz, Judyth Baker and more · source
  118. 2 Dec 1963
    The note Ruth Paine hands over a Russian book; a note in Oswald’s hand is inside. The Walker shooting · source source
  119. 3 Dec 1963
    Marina Marina tells the FBI Oswald said he shot at Walker. The Walker shooting · source source
  120. 5 Dec 1963
    First meeting The Commission meets for the first time. The Warren Commission · source
  121. 13 Dec 1963
    Subpoena power Congress gives the Commission power to compel testimony and to grant immunity. The Warren Commission · source
  122. 1964
    Hall The FBI reports a mercenary, Loran Hall, says he was one of the men. He later retracts. Silvia Odio and “Maurice Bishop” · source
  123. 1964
    Hill testifies He describes her reaching for something coming off the right rear bumper. Jacqueline Kennedy and Clint Hill · source
  124. Spring 1964
    Frame timing The Commission’s study of the Zapruder film fixes the neck shot between frames 210 and 225 and the head shot at frame 313. The single-bullet theory · source
  125. Spring 1964
    “I can’t be positive” Tomlinson tells the Commission he cannot be sure which stretcher the bullet came from. CE 399 and the Landis bullet · source
  126. Spring 1964
    Bowers testifies Lee Bowers, in the railroad tower, describes two men near the fence and “something out of the ordinary.” The grassy knoll · source
  127. Jan 1964
    Nosenko KGB officer Yuri Nosenko defects and says the KGB never debriefed Oswald. Oswald in the Soviet Union · source source
  128. Jan 1964
    Informant rumor The Warren Commission hears that Oswald was an FBI informant. Was Oswald working for U.S. intelligence? · source source
  129. Jan 1964
    First visit The first inspection, perhaps delayed by the assassination. Israel and the Dimona reactor · source
  130. 22 Jan 1964
    The informant rumor In a closed session, members discuss a report from Texas officials that Oswald was an FBI informant. The Warren Commission · source
  131. 17 Feb 1964
    Ruby jury selection Jury selection begins in Dallas after the court refuses to move the trial; it ends on 3 March. Jack Ruby · source
  132. 14 Mar 1964
    Death sentence A Dallas jury convicts him of murder and sentences him to death. Jack Ruby · source
  133. Apr 1964
    Louis Jolyon West A psychiatrist examines Ruby and declares him “positively insane.” Jack Ruby · source
  134. May 1964
    The limousine returns, armored After the assassination the Kennedy limousine was fully armored and returned to the Secret Service in May 1964, about a ton heavier. The Secret Service · source
  135. 8 May 1964
    Underhill Gary Underhill, a former Life photographer and military intelligence officer, dies of a gunshot wound. The “mysterious deaths” · source
  136. 5 Jun 1964
    Her testimony At her home in Washington she tells the Commission she does not remember climbing out. Jacqueline Kennedy and Clint Hill · source
  137. 7 Jun 1964
    Testimony Ruby tells Warren and Ford he wants to go to Washington to tell the truth. Jack Ruby · source
  138. Jul 1964
    Polygraph The FBI gives Ruby a lie-detector test he has demanded. Jack Ruby · source
  139. Aug 1964
    Liebeler memo A Commission lawyer warns that Odio “may well be right.” Silvia Odio and “Maurice Bishop” · source
  140. Sept 1964
    Commission split The report says the experts’ evidence is “very persuasive” but that members differ on whether one bullet hit both men. The single-bullet theory · source source
  141. 18 Sept 1964
    Russell and Johnson Senator Russell tells President Johnson by phone that he does not believe it; Johnson says he does not either. The single-bullet theory · source
  142. 24 Sept 1964
    The report The Commission presents its report to Johnson. The Warren Commission · source source
  143. 6 Jul 1965
    Congress passes the 25th Amendment Congress proposed the amendment on presidential disability and vice-presidential vacancies in the aftermath of the assassination. The Secret Service · source source
  144. Aug 1965
    Whitewash Harold Weisberg self-publishes Whitewash, one of the first books attacking the Warren Report. The Warren Commission · source
  145. 28 Aug 1965
    Killing a president becomes a federal crime Pub. L. 89-141 adds 18 U.S.C. 1751, following the Warren Commission’s recommendation. The Secret Service · source source
  146. Mar 1966
    An index to the 26 volumes Sylvia Meagher publishes her subject index to the Commission’s hearings and exhibits. The Warren Commission · source
  147. 25 Apr 1966
    The quote The New York Times quotes an unnamed official saying Kennedy had vowed to splinter the CIA. Did the CIA kill Kennedy? · source
  148. 1966
    Inquest Edward Jay Epstein, a Cornell graduate student, publishes Inquest on how the Commission worked. The Warren Commission · source
  149. 5 Oct 1966
    Reversal The Texas appeals court throws out the conviction and orders a new trial outside Dallas. Jack Ruby · source
  150. Dec 1966
    Exception Exactly half say others were involved. What Americans believe · source source
  151. 1967
    CBS tests CBS News runs its own rapid-fire tests with a Carcano. The rifle and the shooter · source
  152. 1967
    A third copy George de Mohrenschildt later writes he found a print among his stored belongings. The backyard photographs · source
  153. 1967
    Ferrie dies David Ferrie dies days after Garrison names him. The coroner rules the cause natural. Jim Garrison and the trial of Clay Shaw · source source
  154. 3 Jan 1967
    Death Ruby dies at Parkland Hospital of cancer, before the retrial. Jack Ruby · source
  155. 10 Feb 1967
    The 25th Amendment is ratified The amendment is ratified. The Secret Service · source
  156. 25 Feb 1967
    Russo interviewed Assistant DA Andrew Sciambra interviews Perry Russo in Baton Rouge. Jim Garrison and the trial of Clay Shaw · source
  157. 26 Feb 1967
    Odds The Sunday Times of London prints the odds against the deaths. The “mysterious deaths” · source
  158. 1 Mar 1967
    Shaw arrested Garrison charges Clay Shaw with conspiring to kill Kennedy. Jim Garrison and the trial of Clay Shaw · source
  159. June 1967
    Ramparts The magazine reports Underhill told friends a CIA clique was responsible. The “mysterious deaths” · source
  160. 1967
    Accessories After the Fact Meagher’s book-length critique of the report is published. The Warren Commission · source
  161. 19 July 1967
    CIA memo The CIA writes up what its files show on Underhill. The “mysterious deaths” · source
  162. 26–27 Feb 1968
    Clark Panel Four physicians review the autopsy photographs and X-rays for the Attorney General and find two shots from above and behind. Parkland and the autopsy · source
  163. 1969
    Garrison trial A copy is shown ten times at the Clay Shaw trial. The Zapruder film · source
  164. 1969
    Acquitted The jury acquits Shaw. Jim Garrison and the trial of Clay Shaw · source source
  165. 1969
    End Nixon ends the inspections. Israel and the Dimona reactor · source source
  166. Jun 1969
    Melons at San Leandro Luis Alvarez’s team fires at taped melons; most move back toward the rifle. The grassy knoll · source
  167. 1973
    Army file destroyed Army intelligence destroys its Oswald file. Was Oswald working for U.S. intelligence? · source
  168. March 1975
    On television ABC’s Good Night America airs a bootleg copy, the first TV broadcast. The Zapruder film · source
  169. Jun 1975
    Rockefeller report The commission on CIA activities finds no credible evidence of CIA involvement and rejects the Hunt–Sturgis tramp claim. E. Howard Hunt and the three tramps · source
  170. July 1975
    Revealed A Dallas newsman brings the story to the FBI director. The Hosty note · source
  171. 1976–1979
    Reviewed Senate and House committees find the Commission was denied important information. The Warren Commission · source source
  172. 1976
    Church committee Senate investigators find the CIA and FBI kept key facts from the Warren Commission. Did the CIA kill Kennedy? · source
  173. 1976–2003
    Peak Belief in a conspiracy runs 74% to 81% in six readings. What Americans believe · source
  174. 1976
    Jet effect published Alvarez’s paper on the Zapruder film appears in the American Journal of Physics. The grassy knoll · source
  175. 17 Sep 1976
    The House creates its committee H. Res. 1540 establishes the House Select Committee on Assassinations. The House Select Committee on Assassinations · source
  176. 1977
    Guinn’s tests Neutron activation analysis for the House committee. The bullet-lead evidence · source
  177. Aug 1977
    CIA access agreement The committee and the CIA agree on access to unexpurgated files. The House Select Committee on Assassinations · source
  178. 1978
    Committee The House committee says the evidence “strongly suggested” Oswald was the shooter. The Walker shooting · source
  179. 1978
    Lopez Report House staff write a long report on the CIA in Mexico City; it stays secret until 1993. Mexico City · source
  180. 1978
    Veciana Veciana tells the committee about “Maurice Bishop”. Silvia Odio and “Maurice Bishop” · source source
  181. 1978
    House committee The photo panel finds no fakery. The backyard photographs · source
  182. 1978
    Spotlight A Liberty Lobby paper claims Hunt was in Dallas. E. Howard Hunt and the three tramps · source
  183. 1978
    Liaison Joannides is assigned to work with the House committee. George Joannides and the CIA’s Cuban students · source source
  184. 3 Apr 1978
    Castro interview Castro tells the committee the idea was “insane.” Did Castro do it? · source
  185. 25 Apr 1978
    Inquiry The House committee writes to the Sunday Times about the odds. The “mysterious deaths” · source
  186. 19 May 1978
    Retraction The paper replies that the figure was a careless mistake. The “mysterious deaths” · source
  187. 25 Sept 1978
    Umbrella man Louie Steven Witt testifies with his umbrella. The grassy knoll · source
  188. 25 Sept 1978
    Testimony Committee staffer Jacqueline Hess testifies on the deaths. The “mysterious deaths” · source
  189. Dec 1978
    “Two gunmen” Acoustic experts tell the House committee there was a 95% or better chance of a knoll shot. The police tape and the fourth shot · source
  190. Dec 1978
    The tape Acoustic experts tell the committee there was a 95 percent chance of a shot from the knoll. The House Select Committee on Assassinations · source
  191. 1979
    Panel report The House committee’s forensic panel criticizes the autopsy and finds the photos authentic. Parkland and the autopsy · source source
  192. 1979
    House committee Finds the Secret Service “deficient” in protecting the president. The Secret Service · source
  193. 1979
    Final report The committee finds Kennedy “probably” killed by a conspiracy. The report runs 686 pages. The House Select Committee on Assassinations · source
  194. 1979
    Finding The committee says individual bosses cannot be ruled out. Did the Mafia do it? · source
  195. 1979
    Committee HSCA anthropologists compare the tramps with Hunt, Sturgis and others. E. Howard Hunt and the three tramps · source
  196. Mar 1981
    Medal The CIA awards him the Career Intelligence Medal. George Joannides and the CIA’s Cuban students · source
  197. 4 Oct 1981
    Exhumation Pathologists open Oswald’s grave and identify the body as his. Oswald in the Soviet Union · source source
  198. 1982
    Badge Man Researchers Gary Mack and Jack White say they see a uniformed figure in the Moorman photo. The grassy knoll · source
  199. 1982
    National Research Council A panel of scientists rejects the finding. The police tape and the fourth shot · source
  200. 1982
    Acoustics rejected The National Research Council’s panel finds the sounds came about a minute after the shooting. The House Select Committee on Assassinations · source
  201. Feb 1985
    Libel A Miami jury rules for Liberty Lobby in Hunt’s libel retrial. E. Howard Hunt and the three tramps · source
  202. July 1988
    Bush The memo is reported; the CIA says it probably meant a different George Bush. Fast myths: Bush, Cruz, Judyth Baker and more · source source
  203. 1991
    JFK Oliver Stone’s film makes Garrison its hero. Jim Garrison and the trial of Clay Shaw · source
  204. 1992
    Mortal Error A book argues agent George Hickey fired the fatal shot by accident. The Secret Service · source
  205. 1992
    JFK Act Congress orders all assassination records gathered and opened. The Assassination Records Review Board · source source
  206. Mar 1992
    Found The FBI identifies two of the tramps as Harold Doyle and John Gedney. E. Howard Hunt and the three tramps · source source
  207. 1993
    Final Judgment Michael Collins Piper’s book blames the Mossad; the ADL condemns it as antisemitic. Israel and the Dimona reactor · source
  208. 1994
    Board sworn in An 18-month delay between the law and the Board’s start. The Assassination Records Review Board · source
  209. Jan 1995
    Records destroyed The Secret Service destroys 1963 protective survey reports after the JFK Records Act took effect. The Secret Service · source
  210. 1996
    Under oath again Humes confirms to the Review Board that he burned the draft and notes. Parkland and the autopsy · source source
  211. 1997
    Forgeries Papers claiming to show a Kennedy–Monroe hush-money deal are exposed as fakes. The hidden illness and the private life · source
  212. 1997
    Ford’s edit Rankin papers show Gerald Ford changed the draft wording of where the bullet entered. The single-bullet theory · source source
  213. Aug 1997
    Seminar cancelled A planned community-college seminar based on Final Judgment is cancelled. Israel and the Dimona reactor · source
  214. 1998
    Final report The Board closes after four years. The Assassination Records Review Board · source
  215. 9 Mar 1998
    Affidavit Fingerprint examiner Nathan Darby signs an affidavit claiming a Wallace match. Did Lyndon Johnson do it? · source source
  216. 1999
    $16 million The government pays the Zapruder estate $16 million; the estate gives the copyright to the Sixth Floor Museum. The Zapruder film · source source
  217. 15 Mar 1999
    FBI The FBI reports the print “is not a fingerprint of Malcolm Everett Wallace.” Did Lyndon Johnson do it? · source
  218. 2001
    Thomas A government scientist argues in a journal that the shot was real. The police tape and the fourth shot · source
  219. 2003–2016
    Lawsuit Jefferson Morley sues for his file. George Joannides and the CIA’s Cuban students · source
  220. 2004
    National Research Council The NRC finds bullet-lead comparisons cannot single out one bullet or one box. The bullet-lead evidence · source
  221. 2005
    Reply Linsker, Garwin and others reply that the timing still fails. The police tape and the fourth shot · source
  222. 2007
    Spiegelman Statisticians publish new tests of the same Carcano ammunition. The bullet-lead evidence · source
  223. 2007
    Confessions Rolling Stone publishes St. John Hunt’s account of his father’s notes. E. Howard Hunt and the three tramps · source
  224. 2010, 2015
    Dartmouth Computer analyses find the shadows and pose consistent. The backyard photographs · source source
  225. 2013
    Book Roger Stone publishes The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ. Did Lyndon Johnson do it? · source
  226. Nov 2013
    50 years 61% conspiracy, 30% Oswald alone. What Americans believe · source
  227. 3 May 2016
    Cruz Trump links Ted Cruz’s father to Oswald on Fox and Friends. Fast myths: Bush, Cruz, Judyth Baker and more · source source
  228. 26 Oct 2017
    The deadline Trump releases 2,891 documents and temporarily certifies further withholding. The 2017–2023 records releases · source source
  229. 26 Apr 2018
    Second certification 18,731 documents released; agencies told to re-review redactions over three years. The 2017–2023 records releases · source source
  230. 2019
    Digital bullets NIST scans CE 399 and the fragments in 3-D. The bullet-lead evidence · source source
  231. 15 Dec 2021
    Biden release Records released under a temporary certification. The 2017–2023 records releases · source source
  232. 15 Dec 2022
    Carlson Tucker Carlson tells Fox viewers a source with access to the files believes the CIA was involved. Did the CIA kill Kennedy? · source source
  233. 15 Dec 2022
    Second Biden release Agencies submit “transparency plans” for what remains. The 2017–2023 records releases · source source
  234. May 2023
    RFK Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says there is “overwhelming evidence” of CIA involvement. Did the CIA kill Kennedy? · source source
  235. 30 June 2023
    “The last required” Biden issues his final certification. The 2017–2023 records releases · source source
  236. Sept 2023
    The Final Witness Landis’s memoir says he found the bullet in the car. CE 399 and the Landis bullet · source source
  237. Oct 2023
    60 years 65% conspiracy, 29% Oswald alone. What Americans believe · source
  238. 2025
    File released Rep. Luna says the CIA “has been lying for 62 years.” George Joannides and the CIA’s Cuban students · source
  239. 23 Jan 2025
    Executive Order 14176 Trump orders a plan within 15 days for “full and complete release.” The 2025–2026 JFK files · source source
  240. 20 Feb 2025
    New FBI files The FBI delivers newly located JFK records to the Archives. The 2025–2026 JFK files · source
  241. 18 Mar 2025
    Full memo The Schlesinger memo is released without redactions. Did the CIA kill Kennedy? · source source
  242. 18 Mar 2025
    Release The Underhill memo is released in full. The 2025–2026 JFK files · source source
  243. 1 Apr 2025
    Hearing A House task force hears Jefferson Morley, Oliver Stone and James DiEugenio. Did the CIA kill Kennedy? · source
  244. 1 Apr 2025
    House hearing A House task force hears from Jefferson Morley, Oliver Stone, James DiEugenio and a privacy lawyer. The 2025–2026 JFK files · source
  245. 30 Jan 2026
    Last batch 11,022 more pages posted. The 2025–2026 JFK files · source
  246. 13 Feb 2026
    Lawsuit largely mooted A federal judge rules the release has largely mooted a records lawsuit. The 2025–2026 JFK files · source
  247. 5 Aug 2026
    Lawsuit A federal judge lets a suit seeking online publication of the frames proceed. The Zapruder film · source source
  248. 1 Oct 2026
    Still redacted The National Security Archive details what the CIA still holds back on Mexico. The 2025–2026 JFK files · source

What we know now

What we know now

Since the last official inquiry closed in 1979, scientists have retested the police tape and the bullet metal, a Secret Service agent has changed his story, and the government has opened almost every page. Here is what has been checked since, and by whom.

The yardstick

The critical path

The chain of events the official account depends on, in order. Every theory has to explain away at least one link. Each step lists the evidence that it happened and who can check it.

  1. 1
    20 Mar 1963The rifle

    Klein’s ships rifle C2766 to “A. Hidell,” at a Dallas box Oswald rented.[1]

    On the timeline
  2. 2
    10 Apr 1963The Walker shot

    A bullet misses General Walker; Marina later says her husband told her he fired it.[1][2]

    On the timeline
  3. 3
    27 Sept 1963Mexico City

    Oswald visits the Cuban and Soviet embassies; the CIA is watching.[3][4]

    On the timeline
  4. 4
    21–22 Nov 1963The package

    He rides to Irving for “curtain rods” and carries a long package to work.[1]

    On the timeline
  5. 5
    Before 22 Nov 1963The route

    The motorcade route, past the Depository, is printed in the papers.[5]

    On the timeline
  6. 6
    22 Nov 1963 12:30 p.m.The shots

    Kennedy and Connally are hit on Elm Street; a bystander is stung by debris.[6][7][8]

    On the timeline
  7. 7
    22 Nov 1963 1:22 p.m.The sixth floor

    Three cartridge cases by the window; the rifle near the stairs.[7]

    On the timeline
  8. 8
    22 Nov 1963 c. 1:16 p.m.Tippit

    Officer Tippit is shot dead in Oak Cliff; witnesses identify Oswald.[1][6]

    On the timeline
  9. 9
    22 Nov 1963 c. 1:45 p.m.The arrest

    Police arrest Oswald in the Texas Theatre.[1]

    On the timeline
  10. 10
    24 Nov, 11:21 a.m. 1963Ruby

    Ruby shoots Oswald in the police basement, on live television.[6][9]

    On the timeline
  11. 11
    24 Sept 1964The Warren Report

    The Commission finds Oswald fired the shots and finds no conspiracy.[6]

    On the timeline
  12. 12
    1979The House committee

    Oswald fired the fatal shot, but acoustics point to a “probable” second gunman.[10]

    On the timeline
  13. 13
    1982The tape rejected

    A National Research Council panel finds the “shots” came a minute too late.[11]

    On the timeline
  14. 14
    1992The JFK Act

    After Stone’s JFK, Congress orders every record gathered and opened.[12]

    On the timeline
  15. 15
    18 Mar 2025The last files

    The Archives posts the previously withheld records, “without redactions.”[13]

    On the timeline
Sources for the 15 steps
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. Commission Exhibit 1784: FBI interview of Marina Oswald on the Walker shooting, December 1963 (AARC mirror)
  3. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
  4. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
  5. Warren Commission report, chapter 2: the assassination
  6. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  7. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
  8. James Tague: Warren Commission testimony, volume VII (AARC mirror)
  9. Warren Commission report, chapter 5: detention and death of Oswald
  10. HSCA final report: summary of findings and recommendations (1979)
  11. National Research Council: Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, 1982
  12. Assassination Records Review Board final report (1998): executive summary
  13. National Archives: 2025 release index (with the 30 January 2026 addition)

The other explanations

The theories, tested

Each alternative account in its strongest form: who holds it, where it came from, why it lasts and what it would mean if true. Then how it holds up, what it would have to remove from the chain of events, and what evidence would settle it either way.

Walter Elder’s June 1, 1973 memorandum on special activities, RIF 104-10303-10007. Documentary context for the later Family Jewels compilation.
Walter Elder’s June 1, 1973 memorandum on special activities, RIF 104-10303-10007. Documentary context for the later Family Jewels compilation. U.S. government record / National Archives · Public domain — U.S. government work
Unproven

The CIA did it

Officers of the Central Intelligence Agency, angry at Kennedy over Cuba and the Bay of Pigs, organized or covered up the killing.

  1. 1The riflerecast
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico Cityrecast
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committeerecast
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +An agency order or operation against KennedyNo evidence
  17. +A hidden CIA link to OswaldThin evidence
Discuss on XDispute thisSupport thisShare
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Who believes it
Who has voiced it
Where it started

Kennedy pushed out the CIA’s top leaders after the Bay of Pigs. The best-known quote, that he would “splinter the C.I.A. into a thousand pieces,” first appeared in 1966, attributed to an unnamed official.[9]

Why it lives

The CIA really did hide things. It never told the Warren Commission about its plots to kill Castro. It did not tell the House committee that its liaison had run the exile group that clashed with Oswald. Each new release adds detail about what the agency held back, so the theory keeps getting fresh material.

If it were true

A secret agency would have planned the murder of its own president, and would have kept the secret through two commissions, a Senate inquiry, the Review Board and the 2025 releases. The concealment that is documented would turn out to be part of the crime, not cover for embarrassing operations.

How it squares with the record

The CIA withheld its Castro plots from the Warren Commission, and the Church committee found the agencies’ investigations deficient. [1][2]

Its 1978 liaison to the House committee, George Joannides, had run the DRE program in 1963, and the committee was not told. [3][4]

The House committee nonetheless concluded the CIA “was not involved,” after reviewing Oswald’s CIA file and the Mexico City record. [5][6]

Analysts of the 2025 release found it revealing about CIA operations in general but not about who killed Kennedy. [7]

What holds up Unproven

The concealment is documented. A CIA role in the killing is not. No released document shows the agency planned the assassination. Some of the Mexico City record remains withheld.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The riflerecast
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico Cityrecast
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committeerecast
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +An agency order or operation against KennedyNo evidence
  17. +A hidden CIA link to OswaldThin evidence
Removes from the critical path
  • 1. The rifle must recast The rifle was planted, or bought to frame him. What has to be fake or wrong: The order coupon in Oswald’s handprinting and the Hidell identity card he carried.[10]
  • 3. Mexico City must recast The Mexico City visits were staged or impersonated. What has to be fake or wrong: The committee’s finding that Oswald made the visits himself.[6]
  • 12. The House committee must recast The committee was steered by the CIA. What has to be fake or wrong: The committee’s own review of the files, though the Joannides episode is a real weakness.[5][3]
Adds to the critical path
  • An agency order or operation against Kennedy No evidence No document has been found.
  • A hidden CIA link to Oswald Thin evidence The DRE contact and the mail opening are documented; an operational relationship is not.[11][5]
What would have to turn out fake or wrong
  • The rifle-ownership trail
  • The House committee’s finding that the CIA was not involved
What new information would make it true
  • An authenticated CIA record of an operation against Kennedy
  • Evidence that Oswald worked for the agency
  • A second gunman tied to agency personnel
What would prove it false
  • A complete release of the withheld Mexico City material showing nothing about Oswald
  • Full operational files on Joannides’s 1963 program
Books and films that argue it
LibraCrossfire: The Plot That Killed KennedyOur Man in MexicoReclaiming HistoryThe Men Who Killed KennedyJFKJFK Revisited: Through the Looking GlassJFK and the Unspeakable
Related
The CIA killed Kennedy.The CIA hid its Castro plots from the Warren Commission.The CIA hid its liaison’s role with Oswald’s exile foes from Congress.A CIA-funded exile group clashed with Oswald in New Orleans.Oswald worked for the CIA.A witness told Congress CIA officers were “culpable or complicit.”Kennedy fired the CIA’s leaders after the Bay of Pigs.Kennedy vowed to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces.”The 2025 files proved a CIA plot.The motive: Kennedy versus the agencyWhat the CIA hid from investigatorsWho says the CIA did itWhat the investigations foundWhat he did in 1963The liaison nobody explainedThe CIA fileWhat was in them
Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  2. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
  3. Dan Hardway: written testimony to the House Oversight Task Force, 20 May 2025
  4. CIA career-medal recommendation for Joannides, 20 March 1981 (Internet Archive copy)
  5. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  6. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
  7. National Security Archive: “CIA covert ops, Kennedy assassination records lift veil of secrecy,” 19 March 2025
  8. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
  9. George: “Did President Kennedy ever actually say he would splinter the CIA?”
  10. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  11. HSCA staff report: Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE), volume X (AARC mirror)
Santo Trafficante Jr., the Tampa boss, in a 1954 police photograph.
Santo Trafficante Jr., the Tampa boss, in a 1954 police photograph. US-amerikanische Bundesregierung · Public domain
Unproven

The Mafia did it

Organized-crime bosses hit by Robert Kennedy’s prosecutions had the president killed, and sent Ruby to silence Oswald.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Rubyrecast
  11. 11The Warren Reportrecast
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A mob orderNo evidence
  17. +A link from Oswald to a mob figureSome evidence
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Who believes it
Where it started

The House committee in 1979 found that organized crime as a group was not involved but that the evidence did not rule out individual members. It singled out Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante as having the motive, means and opportunity.[1][2]

Why it lives

The motive is real: the Kennedy Justice Department went after the mob, and Marcello was deported in 1961. Mob figures were working with the CIA against Castro, and Ruby knew underworld figures. It is the theory a congressional committee came closest to endorsing.

If it were true

Mob bosses would have killed a president and had the killer silenced, without any informant, wiretap or later prosecution ever producing evidence of the order.

How it squares with the record

An informant said Marcello spoke in 1962 of using a “nut” to take “the stone out of my shoe”; the committee found the FBI had not investigated it properly. [1][2]

The committee found Ruby had “a significant number of associations” with underworld figures, but that he was not a member of organized crime. [1]

The key witness on Trafficante softened his account under oath. [1]

The committee judged Marcello’s involvement unlikely but could not rule it out. [1]

What holds up Unproven

Motive and contacts are documented. An order is not. The committee left the question open for individuals, and it remains open.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Rubyrecast
  11. 11The Warren Reportrecast
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A mob orderNo evidence
  17. +A link from Oswald to a mob figureSome evidence
Removes from the critical path
  • 10. Ruby must recast Ruby was sent to silence Oswald. What has to be fake or wrong: The 11:17 Western Union stamp, four minutes before the shooting.[5]
  • 11. The Warren Report must recast The Commission did not seriously explore the mob. What has to be fake or wrong: Nothing; a Commission lawyer said the angle was “not seriously” explored.[1]
Adds to the critical path
  • A mob order No evidence Reported threats only.[1]
  • A link from Oswald to a mob figure Some evidence His uncle was a bookmaker linked to Marcello’s organization; Ferrie worked for Marcello’s lawyer.[1]
What new information would make it true
  • A recorded or written order from a mob figure
  • Evidence tying Ruby’s Sunday-morning movements to a handler
What would prove it false
  • Hard to prove a negative; complete FBI organized-crime files from 1962–64 would narrow it
Books and films that argue it
Reclaiming History
Related
Carlos Marcello ordered the assassination.Santo Trafficante predicted the killing.Jimmy Hoffa planned to kill a Kennedy.Jack Ruby was a mob hit man.Congress found the Mafia may have been involved.Ruby was sent to silence Oswald.Carlos MarcelloSanto TrafficanteJimmy HoffaRuby’s mob tiesWhat the committee concludedRuby and the underworld
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA staff report: Carlos Marcello, volume IX (AARC mirror)
  3. Gallup: “Majority in U.S. still believe JFK killed in a conspiracy,” 15 November 2013
  4. Gallup: “Decades later, most Americans doubt lone gunman killed JFK,” 13 November 2023
  5. Warren Commission report, chapter 5: detention and death of Oswald
Fidel Castro arrives in Washington, April 1959.
Fidel Castro arrives in Washington, April 1959. · Public domain
Unproven

Castro struck back

Fidel Castro, the target of CIA murder plots, had Kennedy killed first, using Oswald.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico Cityrecast
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A Cuban orderNo evidence
Discuss on XDispute thisSupport thisShare
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Who believes it
Where it started

Oswald was openly pro-Castro, and in September 1963 Castro warned that U.S. leaders would not be safe if they backed plots against Cuban leaders.[2][3]

Why it lives

The U.S. was trying to kill Castro when Kennedy died, and a poison pen was being offered to a Cuban official in Paris that same day. Oswald handed out pro-Castro leaflets and tried to get to Cuba. Revenge is an easy story to tell.

If it were true

Cuba would have run an American defector it had just refused a visa, and both U.S. investigations would have missed it.

How it squares with the record

The CIA ran at least eight plots against Castro between 1960 and 1965. [1]

Castro warned on 7 September 1963 that U.S. leaders would be in danger if they backed such plots. [2][3]

The Cuban consulate refused Oswald a visa. [4][5]

The House committee concluded the Cuban government was not involved; it checked the Cubana-flight story and found the plane left before the supposed passenger landed. [3]

What holds up Unproven

Motive is documented. A Cuban role is not, and both investigations rejected it. The committee could not rule out individual Cubans.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico Cityrecast
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A Cuban orderNo evidence
Removes from the critical path
  • 3. Mexico City must recast The visa refusal was cover. What has to be fake or wrong: The consulate’s argument with Oswald, witnessed and reported.[4][5]
Adds to the critical path
  • A Cuban order No evidence None found.
What new information would make it true
  • Cuban intelligence records tying Oswald to an operation
What would prove it false
  • Already met in part: the committee’s review, with Cuban cooperation and testimony from former consuls
Related
Castro had Kennedy killed.The U.S. was trying to kill Castro when Kennedy died.Castro warned that U.S. leaders would not be safe.A Cubana flight carried a killer from Mexico to Havana.Cuba let its former consuls testify to Congress.Kennedy was exploring talks with Castro when he died.The plots against CastroThe Harker warningOswald’s CubaKennedy was talking to Castro
Sources
  1. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
  2. CIA 1975 review of allegations of Cuban involvement, opening with Castro’s 7 September 1963 interview with AP correspondent Daniel Harker, RIF 104-10051-10250
  3. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  4. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
  5. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
Lyndon B. Johnson takes the presidential oath aboard Air Force One, November 22, 1963.
Lyndon B. Johnson takes the presidential oath aboard Air Force One, November 22, 1963. Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain — U.S. government work
Unproven

Lyndon Johnson was behind it

The vice president, who gained the most, arranged his predecessor’s murder in his home state.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floorrecast
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +Mac Wallace as gunmanNo evidence
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Open the file
Who believes it

No camp is assigned here: our sources do not establish one, so we don’t guess.

Who has voiced it
Where it started

Gallup noted that the film JFK “implied that President Lyndon Johnson may have been involved.”[5]

Why it lives

Johnson gained the presidency and was sworn in within hours, in Dallas. He was a famously ruthless politician, and the killing happened in his home state.

If it were true

A sitting vice president would have organized a murder and survived every later investigation, including those run by his political enemies.

How it squares with the record

The fingerprint said to tie Johnson’s former aide Mac Wallace to the sniper’s nest was rejected by the FBI in 1999, and the second examiner withdrew his confirmation. [1]

Johnson’s diary places him in Houston and Fort Worth the night before, not in Dallas. [2]

Hugh Aynesworth, who covered the assassination for a Dallas paper, said Roger Stone’s book was built on unreliable witnesses. [3]

What holds up Unproven

It does not hold up. The motive is obvious, but there is no evidence that Johnson acted.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floorrecast
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +Mac Wallace as gunmanNo evidence
Removes from the critical path
  • 7. The sixth floor must recast Wallace was in the sniper’s nest. What has to be fake or wrong: The FBI’s 1999 finding that the print was not his.[1]
Adds to the critical path
  • Mac Wallace as gunman No evidence The fingerprint was rejected.[1]
What new information would make it true
  • A genuine fingerprint or document linking Johnson’s circle to the Depository
What would prove it false
  • Already met: the FBI’s 1999 rejection of the Wallace print
Books and films that argue it
The Men Who Killed Kennedy
Related
Lyndon Johnson was behind the assassination.Johnson met plotters in Dallas the night before.Mac Wallace’s fingerprint was found in the sniper’s nest.Johnson was sworn in within hours on Air Force One.Motive and the theoryWhere Johnson was the night beforeThe Mac Wallace fingerprint
Sources
  1. Lobster magazine: “Two stories about JFK fingerprints,” 2015
  2. Vice President Johnson’s daily diary, 21 November 1963 (LBJ Library)
  3. Washington Times: review of Roger Stone’s The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ, 25 February 2014
  4. Rolling Stone: “The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt,” 2007 (archived copy)
  5. Gallup: “Majority in U.S. still believe JFK killed in a conspiracy,” 15 November 2013
The apartment block in Minsk where Oswald lived from 1960 to 1962, photographed in 2008.
The apartment block in Minsk where Oswald lived from 1960 to 1962, photographed in 2008. JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0
Unproven

Moscow ordered it

The Soviet Union, through the KGB, used its former resident Oswald to kill Kennedy.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A KGB taskingNo evidence
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Open the file
Who believes it

No camp is assigned here: our sources do not establish one, so we don’t guess.

Where it started

Oswald had defected to the Soviet Union and met a KGB officer in Mexico City eight weeks before the assassination.[4][5]

Why it lives

Oswald really defected, offered the Soviets radar information, married a Russian and met Valeriy Kostikov in Mexico City. The defector who vouched for him, Yuri Nosenko, was later judged to have lied.

If it were true

Moscow would have used a known defector who was watched by the FBI to kill a president, a year after the missile crisis, and risked nuclear war.

How it squares with the record

Both U.S. investigations concluded the Soviet government was not involved; the House committee found the Soviet reaction one of “genuine shock and sincere grief.” [1][2]

The committee was “certain Nosenko lied about Oswald” but could not say why. [1]

KGB notes smuggled out by Vasili Mitrokhin describe the KGB working afterward to point suspicion at the CIA. [3]

What holds up Unproven

It is unproven. The evidence points to Soviet opportunism after the event, not a plot before it. The KGB file has never been produced.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A KGB taskingNo evidence
Removes from the critical path

Nothing. It leaves every established link standing.

Adds to the critical path
  • A KGB tasking No evidence None found.
What new information would make it true
  • The KGB’s Oswald file showing tasking
What would prove it false
  • The same file showing he was dismissed as unstable
Related
The Soviet Union ordered the assassination.Oswald was a KGB agent.The KGB defector who vouched for Oswald’s innocence was unreliable.Oswald met a KGB assassinations officer in Mexico City.Oswald defected to the Soviet Union.Marina Oswald was a Soviet agent.The defectionDid the KGB debrief or recruit him?Did Moscow order the assassination?Kostikov and Department 13
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
  3. Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield (Basic Books, 1999)
  4. Warren Commission report, appendix 13: biography of Lee Harvey Oswald
  5. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
The wooden fence at the top of the grassy knoll.
The wooden fence at the top of the grassy knoll. "Gorik" (Flickr user) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Unproven

A second gunman on the grassy knoll

At least one shot came from behind the fence on the knoll, in front of the car and to the right.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejectedbreaks
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A second gunmanDisputed evidence
Discuss on XDispute thisSupport thisShare
Open the file
Who believes it
Who has voiced it
Where it started

The idea began in the plaza itself, with witnesses who ran toward the fence. In 1979 the House committee endorsed a knoll shot on acoustic evidence.[1][2]

Why it lives

Real witnesses heard shots from there and saw smoke, and the head snap in the Zapruder film looks like a shot from the front. For three years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a congressional committee officially agreed.

If it were true

A second shooter would have fired from the knoll, missed or hit without leaving a bullet, and got away through a crowd running toward him.

How it squares with the record

The National Research Council found the acoustic “shots” were recorded about a minute after the assassination. [3]

The House committee itself found every wound came from behind; a knoll shot, if there was one, missed. [4]

Its photographic panel found “no definitive visible evidence of any gunmen.” [5]

Its experts explained the backward head movement without a shot from the front. [6][7]

Physicist Luis Alvarez had taped melons shot from behind in 1969; most moved back toward the rifle, which he attributed to a jet effect. The rifle was not a Carcano. [10]

What holds up Unproven

The witnesses are real. No shooter, bullet or weapon has been found, and the acoustic case was rejected. A scientific defender of the acoustics remains.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejectedbreaks
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A second gunmanDisputed evidence
Removes from the critical path
  • 13. The tape rejected must deny The NRC panel was wrong about the timing. What has to be fake or wrong: The crosstalk placement, rechecked in 2005.[3][11]
Adds to the critical path
  • A second gunman Disputed evidence Witness accounts and a disputed recording.[1][12]
What new information would make it true
  • A bullet or fragment from a second weapon
  • A sharp original image of a gunman
What would prove it false
  • Already met in part: the NRC’s crosstalk timing
Books and films that argue it
Rush to JudgmentSix Seconds in DallasCrossfire: The Plot That Killed KennedyCase ClosedReclaiming HistoryThe Men Who Killed KennedyJFKBest Evidence
Related
A gunman fired from the grassy knoll.Witnesses heard shots or saw smoke from the knoll.“Badge Man” in the Moorman photo is a gunman.The backward head snap proves a shot from the front.Acoustic science proved a fourth shot from the knoll.A congressional committee concluded Kennedy was probably killed by a conspiracy.Holland and BowersBadge Man and the Willis photo“Back, and to the left”What the committee foundWhy it was rejectedWhat the witnesses saidAlvarez and the melons
Sources
  1. HSCA volume XII: Dealey Plaza witness analysis (AARC mirror)
  2. HSCA final report, part I-B: scientific acoustical evidence of a second gunman
  3. National Research Council: Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, 1982
  4. HSCA final report: summary of findings and recommendations (1979)
  5. HSCA photographic panel: alleged gunmen in Dealey Plaza, volume VI (AARC mirror)
  6. HSCA final report, part I-A: Oswald fired three shots
  7. Alfred Olivier and HSCA medical panel testimony on head motion (excerpts)
  8. S. M. Holland: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
  9. Lee Bowers: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
  10. Luis W. Alvarez, “A Physicist Examines the Kennedy Assassination Film” (LBL-3884, July 1975; Am. J. Phys. 44, 813 (1976))
  11. Linsker, Garwin and others, “Synchronization of the acoustic evidence,” Science & Justice, 2005
  12. D. B. Thomas, “Echo correlation analysis and the acoustic evidence in the Kennedy assassination revisited,” Science & Justice, 2001 (PubMed)
Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion.
Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion. Fritz Cohen · Public domain
Unproven

Israel did it, over Dimona

Israel had Kennedy killed to stop his pressure on its secret nuclear reactor.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +An Israeli operationNo evidence
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Open the file
Who believes it

No camp is assigned here: our sources do not establish one, so we don’t guess.

Who has voiced it
Where it started

The theory rests on Kennedy’s 1963 letters pressing Israel to accept inspections of the Dimona reactor. Its fullest statement is Michael Collins Piper’s Final Judgment, first published in 1993, which said Ben-Gurion ordered the killing.[1][5]

Why it lives

The pressure was real and the letters were sharp, and Ben-Gurion resigned on the day the strongest one was sent.

If it were true

Israel would have killed a U.S. president over a dispute it had already settled by agreement three months earlier.

How it squares with the record

Eshkol agreed to U.S. visits on 19 August 1963, and Kennedy thanked him on 26 August. [1][2]

The inspections went ahead under Johnson, starting in January 1964. [1][3]

No investigation, including the House committee, found evidence of Israeli involvement. [4][1]

The book’s author wrote for papers backed by Willis Carto; the Anti-Defamation League called the book antisemitic, and a 1997 community-college seminar based on it was cancelled. [6][5]

What holds up Unproven

It has no documentary support. The record shows the dispute was being settled, not escalating.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +An Israeli operationNo evidence
Removes from the critical path

Nothing. It leaves every established link standing.

Adds to the critical path
  • An Israeli operation No evidence None found.
What new information would make it true
  • Any document or witness tying Israel to Dallas
What would prove it false
  • Already met: the August agreement and the continued inspections
Books and films that argue it
Final Judgment
Related
Israel had Kennedy killed over Dimona.Kennedy pressured Israel over its nuclear reactor.The lettersWhat happened after DallasThe theoryFinal Judgment
Sources
  1. National Security Archive: “The battle of the letters, 1963” on Dimona
  2. FRUS 1961–63 vol. XVIII, doc. 319: Kennedy to Eshkol, 26 August 1963
  3. National Security Archive: Dimona and later U.S. policy
  4. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  5. Wikipedia: Michael Collins Piper
  6. J. (Jewish News of Northern California), Tom Tugend, “Seminar proving Mossad ties to JFK killing is canceled” (29 August 1997)
Dealey Plaza moments after the shooting. The “umbrella man”, Louie Steven Witt, sits by the road sign at right.
Dealey Plaza moments after the shooting. The “umbrella man”, Louie Steven Witt, sits by the road sign at right. Richard Oscar Bothun · Public domain
False

The umbrella man gave a signal, or fired a dart

A man who opened a black umbrella on a sunny day as the car passed was signalling the shooters, or firing a weapon.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A dart weaponNo evidence
Discuss on XDispute thisSupport thisShare
Open the file
Who believes it

No camp is assigned here: our sources do not establish one, so we don’t guess.

Who has voiced it
Where it started

Photos show a man near the Stemmons Freeway sign opening a black umbrella on a clear day as the motorcade passed.[1]

Why it lives

It is strange, and it is in the pictures.

If it were true

A plotter would have given a signal in plain view of hundreds of people and cameras, then come forward 15 years later to explain it.

How it squares with the record

Witt testified to the House committee, with the umbrella, that he meant to heckle Kennedy. The umbrella was a symbol of Neville Chamberlain, whom Joseph Kennedy had backed as ambassador in London. [1]

What holds up False

It does not hold. The man has been identified and explained himself. His explanation is odd, but nothing suggests a weapon or a signal.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A dart weaponNo evidence
Removes from the critical path

Nothing. It leaves every established link standing.

Adds to the critical path
  • A dart weapon No evidence None found.
What new information would make it true
  • A mechanism in the umbrella
What would prove it false
  • Already met: Witt’s testimony with the umbrella
Related
The Umbrella Man fired a dart or gave a signal.The umbrella man
Sources
  1. Louie Steven Witt: HSCA testimony, 25 September 1978 (AARC mirror)
The presidential limousine SS-100-X, rebuilt after Dallas, at the Henry Ford Museum.
The presidential limousine SS-100-X, rebuilt after Dallas, at the Henry Ford Museum. Chris Short from Detroit, MI, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0
Unproven

An agent fired the fatal shot by accident

A Secret Service agent in the follow-up car, George Hickey, fired his AR-15 by accident and hit Kennedy in the head.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floorrecast
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
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Open the file
Who believes it

No camp is assigned here: our sources do not establish one, so we don’t guess.

Where it started

The ballistics expert Howard Donahue developed the theory; Bonar Menninger’s book Mortal Error laid it out in 1992.[3]

Why it lives

Hickey really did pick up an AR-15 in the follow-up car, and the theory comes from a ballistics expert, not from a political grudge.

If it were true

A shot fired from the follow-up car would have gone unnoticed by every agent and spectator around it.

How it squares with the record

Hickey wrote that he picked up the rifle “at the end of the last report.” [1]

The two large fragments recovered from the limousine’s front seat were matched to the Carcano. [2]

Hickey’s libel suit was dismissed because it was filed too late, a ruling on the deadline and not on the merits. [3]

What holds up Unproven

It is unproven. The agents present said no such shot was fired, and the physical evidence points to the Carcano.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floorrecast
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Removes from the critical path
  • 7. The sixth floor must recast The head shot did not come from the window. What has to be fake or wrong: The fragment matches to the Carcano.[2]
Adds to the critical path

No new links.

What new information would make it true
  • A 5.56 mm fragment from the car or the body
What would prove it false
  • Already met in part: the fragment match to the Carcano
Books and films that argue it
Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK
Related
A Secret Service agent fired the fatal shot by accident.Mortal Error: an agent’s accidental shot?
Sources
  1. Commission Exhibit 1024: Secret Service agents’ statements, volume XVIII
  2. HSCA firearms panel: findings and conclusions, volume VII (AARC mirror)
  3. Hickey v. St. Martin’s Press, 978 F. Supp. 230 (D.D.C. 1997) (Justia)
Oswald’s Dallas police arrest card, 23 November 1963.
Oswald’s Dallas police arrest card, 23 November 1963. Dallas Police; Warren Commission · Public domain
Unproven

Oswald was a patsy who shot no one

Oswald was set up, as he said: he fired no shot at Kennedy and did not kill Tippit.

  1. 1The riflebreaks
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippitbreaks
  9. 9The arrestrecast
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A framerNo evidence
Discuss on XDispute thisSupport thisShare
Open the file
Who believes it

No camp is assigned here: our sources do not establish one, so we don’t guess.

Who has voiced it
Where it started

Oswald himself denied the killings, and was dead two days later before any trial.[1][5]

Why it lives

He never got a trial. His interrogation was not recorded. The investigators who might have tested his story kept secrets of their own.

If it were true

Someone would have bought a rifle in his name and handwriting, placed his palm print on it, faked photographs of him holding it, and arranged for nine witnesses to identify him at the Tippit killing.

How it squares with the record

The rifle order coupon was in Oswald’s handprinting, and his palm print was on the barrel. [1]

The House committee’s panel found “no evidence of fakery” in the backyard photographs. [3]

Cartridge cases at the Tippit scene matched his revolver, and nine witnesses identified him. [2][1]

The House committee, which believed in a conspiracy, still concluded that Oswald fired the fatal shot. [4]

What holds up Unproven

It does not hold up against the physical evidence. A conspiracy around Oswald is a separate question, and on that the record is not closed.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The riflebreaks
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippitbreaks
  9. 9The arrestrecast
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
  16. +A framerNo evidence
Removes from the critical path
  • 1. The rifle must deny Someone else ordered the rifle in his name. What has to be fake or wrong: His handprinting on the coupon.[1]
  • 8. Tippit must deny Someone else shot Tippit. What has to be fake or wrong: Nine eyewitnesses and the cartridge cases.[2][1]
  • 9. The arrest must recast He fled because he was framed. What has to be fake or wrong: His own movements: the revolver, the theater, the struggle.[1]
Adds to the critical path
  • A framer No evidence No evidence of who or how.
What would have to turn out fake or wrong
  • The handprinting on the coupon
  • The backyard photographs
  • The Tippit witnesses
What new information would make it true
  • Evidence that the rifle trail or prints were planted
What would prove it false
  • Already met: the ownership chain, prints and the Tippit evidence
Books and films that argue it
Rush to JudgmentCase ClosedReclaiming HistoryExecutive ActionJFKJFK Revisited: Through the Looking GlassWhitewash: The Report on the Warren ReportAccessories After the Fact
Related
Oswald called himself a patsy.Oswald bought the rifle found in the Depository.The backyard photos of Oswald with the rifle are fakes.Oswald killed Officer J. D. Tippit.Oswald could not have reached the Tippit scene in time.Oswald’s interrogation was not recorded.The missing recordWho bought the rifleWhat the House panel foundThe evidenceThe doubts
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  3. HSCA photographic panel: authenticity of the backyard photographs, volume VI
  4. HSCA final report: summary of findings and recommendations (1979)
  5. PBS American Experience: Oswald’s Ghost (2007), transcript
CIA record dated July 19, 1967, RIF 104-10170-10145. It reproduces a magazine allegation about Gary Underhill; a claim stored in an intelligence file is not an agency finding that it is true.
CIA record dated July 19, 1967, RIF 104-10170-10145. It reproduces a magazine allegation about Gary Underhill; a claim stored in an intelligence file is not an agency finding that it is true. U.S. government record / National Archives · Public domain — U.S. government work
False

Witnesses were killed to keep the secret

A string of “mysterious deaths” among people tied to the case shows a cover-up at work.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
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Who believes it

No camp is assigned here: our sources do not establish one, so we don’t guess.

Where it started

The idea reached a national audience through the promotion for the 1973 film Executive Action, which cited odds of “100,000 trillion to 1.”[1]

Why it lives

Many people connected to the case died in the following years, some violently, and a newspaper put a startling number on it.

If it were true

The killers would have murdered witnesses for years without being caught, while leaving the most important ones alive to testify.

How it squares with the record

The Sunday Times told the House committee its odds figure was “a careless journalistic mistake.” [1]

The committee’s staff examined the deaths and found nothing indicating they were caused by the assassination. [1]

What holds up False

The odds figure is false. The committee reviewed the deaths one by one and found no pattern.

Against the critical path
  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Removes from the critical path

Nothing. It leaves every established link standing.

Adds to the critical path

No new links.

What new information would make it true
  • Evidence linking a death to the case
What would prove it false
  • Already met: the committee review
Books and films that argue it
Crossfire: The Plot That Killed KennedyExecutive Action
Related
Odds of the witness deaths were 100,000 trillion to one.Witnesses were killed to cover up the assassination.Gary Underhill was killed because he knew the CIA did it.David Ferrie died days after Garrison named him.Where the odds came fromWhat the committee checkedGary Underhill
Sources
  1. HSCA testimony of Jacqueline Hess on “mysterious deaths,” 25 September 1978 (AARC mirror)

Genuinely unknown

Open questions

Things that are genuinely not known, as of October 2026. Each says what is established, what is missing, and what would settle it.

Partly knownWhat did the CIA know about Oswald before 22 November?
What is known
  • The CIA opened mail to Oswald in the Soviet Union under its illegal HT-Lingual program, and opened a “201” file on him in December 1960. [1]
  • Its Mexico City station reported his Soviet embassy contact to headquarters in October 1963, but never reported his visa request or his Cuban consulate visits before the assassination. [2]
  • The CIA kept details of its Mexico City taps and photo surveillance from the Warren Commission. [3]
  • Jefferson Morley testified in 2025 that a newly released transcript shows James Angleton lied to the House committee about the mail surveillance. [4]
What is not

Whether anyone in the CIA saw Oswald as more than a routine file before the assassination, and why the station did not report the Cuban consulate visits.

Why it is still open

Some of the Mexico City station history is still withheld, and some records were destroyed.

Does it change the story?

It is the strongest documented case of the agency knowing more than it said.

What would settle it

Full release of the Mexico City station history and the related operational files.

The CIA did it Moscow ordered it The CIA withheld its Mexico City information from investigators. The CIA still withholds parts of its Mexico City history. Oswald worked for the CIA.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
  3. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  4. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
  5. National Archives: 2025 release index (with the 30 January 2026 addition)
  6. National Security Archive: “CIA station in Mexico: the last JFK assassination records,” 1 October 2026
Partly knownWhat was Joannides’s program doing with Oswald’s opponents in 1963?
What is known
  • Joannides ran the CIA’s psychological-warfare branch in Miami in 1963, handling exile student groups including the DRE. [1]
  • The DRE’s New Orleans delegate clashed with Oswald in August 1963, and a DRE leader told the House committee the group passed information on Oswald to the CIA. [2][3]
  • In 1978 the CIA made Joannides its liaison to the House committee without disclosing his 1963 role. [4][1]
What is not

What his program’s agents reported to him about Oswald in 1963, and why the CIA chose him as liaison.

Why it is still open

His operational files from 1963 have not been fully produced.

Does it change the story?

It is the clearest documented case of the CIA hiding a connection from Congress.

What would settle it

Joannides’s monthly operational reports from 1963.

The CIA did it The CIA hid its liaison’s role with Oswald’s exile foes from Congress. A CIA-funded exile group clashed with Oswald in New Orleans. The CIA’s liaison broke an agreement to give Congress full files. The CIA decorated Joannides after his work with Congress.
Sources
  1. CIA career-medal recommendation for Joannides, 20 March 1981 (Internet Archive copy)
  2. HSCA staff report: Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE), volume X (AARC mirror)
  3. WDSU radio debate: Oswald, Bringuier and Butler, 21 August 1963 (UNT Portal)
  4. Dan Hardway: written testimony to the House Oversight Task Force, 20 May 2025
  5. Morley v. CIA, D.C. Circuit, 2016
Genuinely unknownWas there a recording of Oswald in Mexico City, and whose voice was on it?
What is known
  • An FBI memo of 23 November 1963 said agents who heard a CIA recording thought the voice was not Oswald’s. [1][2]
  • The House committee found no tape had been sent to Dallas, and concluded the agents had not heard one. [1]
  • Hoover told Johnson on 23 November that the voice was not Oswald’s, according to the transcript of their call. [3]
What is not

Whether any recording survived past late 1963, and what it contained.

Why it is still open

No recording has surfaced.

Does it change the story?

An impostor would mean someone else was using Oswald’s name.

What would settle it

The recording itself, or a record of its destruction.

The CIA did it Moscow ordered it Someone impersonated Oswald in Mexico City. The CIA’s “Oswald” photo from Mexico City shows another man.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
  2. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  3. Mary Ferrell Foundation: The Mexico City tapes
Genuinely unknownWhat did Oswald’s note to the FBI say?
What is known
  • Oswald left a note at the FBI’s Dallas office for agent James Hosty a few weeks before the assassination, and it was destroyed after he died. [1]
  • The receptionist remembered a threat to blow up the FBI and the police; Hosty remembered a demand to stop bothering Oswald’s wife, or he would report it to the authorities. [1]
What is not

The note’s exact words, and who ordered it destroyed.

Why it is still open

It was destroyed, and the witnesses disagree.

Does it change the story?

A threat would show the FBI had warning of Oswald’s state of mind.

What would settle it

A copy, if one exists.

The FBI destroyed a note Oswald left for an agent. Oswald’s note to the FBI threatened violence.
Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
Partly knownWhere exactly was the “magic bullet” found?
What is known
  • A nearly whole bullet rolled off a stretcher at Parkland, found by engineer Darrell Tomlinson. [1][2]
  • The Commission inferred it came from Connally’s stretcher; Tomlinson could not be sure which stretcher it was. [2]
  • In 2023 former agent Paul Landis said he had found a bullet in the limousine and left it on Kennedy’s stretcher; his 1963 statement does not mention this. [3]
What is not

Which stretcher the bullet came from, and whether Landis’s later account is accurate.

Why it is still open

No one photographed the find, and the accounts conflict.

Does it change the story?

The single-bullet theory depends partly on the bullet’s path.

What would settle it

Unlikely to be settled now.

A second gunman on the grassy knoll CE 399 came from Connally’s stretcher. Agent Paul Landis found the magic bullet in the limousine. The “magic bullet” theory is impossible.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
  2. Darrell Tomlinson: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
  3. Paul Landis: Secret Service statement, November 1963 (transcript)
Partly knownWhere was the large head wound, and where is the brain?
What is known
  • At Parkland, Dr. Kemp Clark described a large wound in the right rear of the head; the doctors never saw the back wound. [1][2]
  • The House committee’s experts found the autopsy photographs and X-rays authentic. [3]
  • The brain and tissue slides, placed under Robert Kennedy’s control, are unaccounted for. [4]
What is not

Why the descriptions differ, and what happened to the brain.

Why it is still open

The autopsy was flawed and materials were lost.

Does it change the story?

It is the main physical argument for a shot from the front.

What would settle it

The missing materials.

A second gunman on the grassy knoll Parkland doctors described a large wound at the back of the head. Kennedy’s brain is missing. The autopsy photos and X-rays were faked.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  3. HSCA: authenticity of the autopsy photographs and X-rays, volume VII
  4. HSCA: chain of custody and missing autopsy materials, volume VII (AARC mirror)

What people say

155 things people say about the Kennedy assassination, checked

Some of what people repeat about Dallas is exactly right, some is half-remembered, and some never happened. Each claim below is set against the official records, the released files and later science, with the points for and against and a link to the full entry.

What the ratings mean
  • Documented Shown by primary records, sworn testimony, film, recordings or official findings. The claim as stated holds up.
  • Partly true A real fact sits inside the claim, but the popular version adds, omits or overstates something material.
  • Mixed Parts of this are documented and parts are not; the entry separates them.
  • Disputed Credible evidence points in more than one direction, or the claim turns on accounts that informed people weigh differently.
  • Unproven Not established by any public record available on 22 October 2026. It may be investigated or believed; it is not shown. Not the same as false.
  • False Contradicted by primary records, film, physical evidence, dates or official findings.

DocumentedKennedy was a war hero in the Navy.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. His PT boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in August 1943, and he led the survivors to an island.

Who says it: Biographers.

Points for
  • Navy record as summarized by the Miller Center.
Points against
  • The crew was asleep without a watch posted when the boat was hit.
Sources
  1. Miller Center (University of Virginia): John F. Kennedy, Life Before the Presidency, by Marc J. Selverstone
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Partly trueKennedy did not write Profiles in Courage.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. The Miller Center says Kennedy wrote it while recovering from back surgery, “benefiting also from the handiwork” of Senate staffer Theodore Sorensen. How much was Sorensen’s is argued.

Who says it: Critics, historians.

Points for
  • Sorensen’s acknowledged role.
Points against
  • The Miller Center credits Kennedy with writing it.
Sources
  1. Miller Center (University of Virginia): John F. Kennedy, Life Before the Presidency, by Marc J. Selverstone
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UnprovenChicago stole the 1960 election for Kennedy.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. Illinois was close and Chicago’s count was suspicious, but recounts did not change it, and without Illinois Kennedy still had 276 electoral votes.

Who says it: Republicans in 1960, later writers.

Points for
  • Kennedy won Illinois by fewer than 9,000 votes.
Points against
  • Kennedy would still have won without Illinois.
Sources
  1. Miller Center: John F. Kennedy, Campaigns and Elections
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DocumentedKennedy hid serious illness from the public.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. He had Addison’s disease and severe back problems, took many drugs, and his campaign denied the Addison’s diagnosis in 1960.

Who says it: Historians.

Points for
  • Medical records opened in 2002.
Points against
  • Dallek found the drugs did not impair his crisis decisions.
Sources
  1. The Atlantic: “The Medical Ordeals of JFK,” Robert Dallek, December 2002
  2. Miller Center (University of Virginia): John F. Kennedy, Life Before the Presidency, by Marc J. Selverstone
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DocumentedKennedy shared a mistress with Mafia boss Sam Giancana.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. The Church committee found a “close friend” of the president was also a friend of Giancana and Roselli; she was later identified as Judith Campbell Exner.

Who says it: Church committee.

Points for
  • Some 70 logged White House calls.
Points against
  • The committee could not say whether Kennedy knew of the CIA–Mafia plots.
Sources
  1. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
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UnprovenKennedy had an affair with Marilyn Monroe.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. Rumored for decades; only one photo of them together is known, and no letter or record from either describes an affair.

Who says it: Biographers, tabloids.

Points for
  • The 1962 birthday performance and later testimony.
Points against
  • No direct documentation.
Sources
  1. HISTORY: When Marilyn Monroe sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to JFK
  2. TIME: The story behind the only known photo of Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy together
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FalsePapers prove Kennedy paid Monroe for silence.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. The 1997 documents were exposed as forgeries.

Who says it: A 1997 book project.

Points for
  • None that survived examination.
Points against
  • Document experts found them forged.
Sources
  1. Newsweek: “The JFK–Marilyn Hoax,” 1997
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UnprovenThe Kennedys had Marilyn Monroe killed.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. No official record supports it beyond the timing.

Who says it: Online theories.

Points for
  • Timing.
Points against
  • No evidence.
Sources
  1. HISTORY: When Marilyn Monroe sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to JFK
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FalseKennedy’s “secret societies” speech warned about a cabal inside the U.S. government.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. Read whole, the speech is about Cold War communism and asks the press to consider restraint.

Who says it: Viral clips.

Points for
  • The clip is genuine.
Points against
  • The full text names a “monolithic and ruthless conspiracy”, meaning international communism.
Sources
  1. American Presidency Project: “The President and the Press,” address to the American Newspaper Publishers Association, 27 April 1961
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UnprovenKennedy vowed to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces.”Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. The quote comes from an unnamed official in a 1966 New York Times article; no named witness has confirmed it.

Who says it: Many theorists.

Points for
  • He did fire the CIA’s top leaders.
Points against
  • Single anonymous source.
Sources
  1. George: “Did President Kennedy ever actually say he would splinter the CIA?”
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FalseKennedy was killed for issuing EO 11110 to bypass the Federal Reserve.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. The order delegated an existing silver-certificate power to the Treasury; it did not challenge the Fed.

Who says it: Viral posts.

Points for
  • The order is real.
Points against
  • PolitiFact rated the claim false; silver certificates were being phased out.
Sources
  1. American Presidency Project: Executive Order 11110, 4 June 1963
  2. PolitiFact: “No, JFK did not plan to end the Federal Reserve,” 21 February 2022
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DocumentedKennedy ran a covert war to overthrow Castro.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. He ordered Operation Mongoose in November 1961, with Robert Kennedy pushing it.

Who says it: Historians.

Points for
  • State Department documentary history.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. FRUS 1961–63 vol. X, doc. 270: origins of Operation Mongoose
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FalseKennedy approved Operation Northwoods.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. The Joint Chiefs proposed it; at a 16 March meeting Kennedy said he could not foresee using U.S. military force, and it was not adopted.

Who says it: Online claims.

Points for
  • The plan was real.
Points against
  • Not approved.
Sources
  1. FRUS 1961–63 vol. X, doc. 314: Mongoose guidelines, 14 March 1962
  2. Joint Chiefs of Staff: Northwoods memorandum and annex, 13 March 1962 (National Security Archive)
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DocumentedKennedy secretly traded U.S. missiles in Turkey to end the missile crisis.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. He secretly promised to withdraw them, alongside a public no-invasion pledge.

Who says it: Historians.

Points for
  • Miller Center summary.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Miller Center: John F. Kennedy, Foreign Affairs
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DocumentedThere were about 16,000 U.S. military advisers in Vietnam when Kennedy died.Kennedy’s life & presidency

What the record shows. The Miller Center gives that figure.

Who says it: Historians.

Points for
  • Miller Center.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Miller Center: John F. Kennedy, Foreign Affairs
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DocumentedThe motorcade route was public days in advance.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. The local papers printed it on 19 November.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Commission chapter 2.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 2: the assassination
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DocumentedThe bubble top would not have stopped bullets.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. It was neither bulletproof nor bullet resistant.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Commission chapter 2.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 2: the assassination
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DocumentedSecret Service agents were out drinking the night before.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. Nine off-duty agents went to the Fort Worth Press Club; some drank; one stayed out until 5 a.m.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Commission chapter 8.
Points against
  • Chief Rowley said it did not impede them.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 8: the protection of the President
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FalseThe limousine driver, William Greer, shot Kennedy.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. The film and every witness in the car contradict it; the fatal shot came from behind.

Who says it: Online videos.

Points for
  • Greer turned to look back.
Points against
  • No weapon in his hands; physical evidence points to the Carcano.
Sources
  1. William Greer: Warren Commission testimony, volume II (AARC mirror)
  2. Clint Hill: Warren Commission testimony, volume II (AARC mirror)
  3. Jacqueline Kennedy: Warren Commission testimony, volume V (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedThe driver was slow to react.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. Greer turned to look back before accelerating; his slow response is a fair criticism.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • His own testimony.
Points against
  • He was reacting to confusion.
Sources
  1. William Greer: Warren Commission testimony, volume II (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenA Love Field clip shows agents being ordered to stand down.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. The clip is real; nothing in the records supports reading it as a stand-down order.

Who says it: Online videos.

Points for
  • The agent’s gesture.
Points against
  • Agents’ positions were set by plan.
Sources
  1. Commission Exhibit 1026: Secret Service report on its agents’ movements, 19 March 1964 (AARC mirror)
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 2: the assassination
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UnprovenA Secret Service agent fired the fatal shot by accident.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. Agents in the follow-up car said no shot was fired, and the physical evidence points to Oswald’s rifle.

Who says it: Bonar Menninger’s book.

Points for
  • Hickey picked up the AR-15.
Points against
  • No witness or evidence of a discharge.
Sources
  1. Commission Exhibit 1024: Secret Service agents’ statements, volume XVIII
  2. Hickey v. St. Martin’s Press, 978 F. Supp. 230 (D.D.C. 1997) (Justia)
  3. HSCA firearms panel: findings and conclusions, volume VII (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedThe Secret Service failed to protect Kennedy properly.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. The House committee found its protection “deficient.”

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • HSCA findings.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
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DocumentedThe Secret Service destroyed records of Kennedy’s earlier trips.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. In January 1995 it destroyed protective survey reports for some autumn 1963 trips, after the records law was in force.

Who says it: Review Board.

Points for
  • ARRB report.
Points against
  • The Board did not treat it as evidence of a plot.
Sources
  1. ARRB final report, chapter 8: agency compliance
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DocumentedJackie Kennedy climbed onto the trunk after the shots.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. Clint Hill and she describe it; the usual reading is that she reached for part of the skull.

Who says it: Witnesses.

Points for
  • Hill testimony, film.
Points against
  • Neither account says where the shots came from.
Sources
  1. Clint Hill: Warren Commission testimony, volume II (AARC mirror)
  2. Jacqueline Kennedy: Warren Commission testimony, volume V (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedOswald killed Officer J. D. Tippit.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. Witnesses, the revolver and the cartridge cases tie Oswald to the killing.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Commission chapter 4.
Points against
  • The bullets could not all be matched.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
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DisputedOswald could not have reached the Tippit scene in time.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. Critics dispute the timeline; the Commission’s reconstruction made it possible.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Tight timing.
Points against
  • Witness identifications.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. Cortlandt Cunningham: FBI firearms testimony, volume III (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedOswald’s interrogation was not recorded.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. About 12 hours of questioning had no recording or stenographer.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Commission appendix 11.
Points against
  • Gap, not proof of a cover-up.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, appendix 11: reports of Oswald’s interrogation
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 5: detention and death of Oswald
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DocumentedOswald called himself a patsy.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. He told reporters: “I’m just a patsy!”

Who says it: Film.

Points for
  • On camera.
Points against
  • A denial is not evidence of innocence.
Sources
  1. PBS American Experience: Oswald’s Ghost (2007), transcript
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DocumentedRuby shot Oswald four minutes after sending a telegram.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. He sent a telegram at 11:17 and shot Oswald at 11:21.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Commission chapter 1.
Points against
  • Short timing argues against a long-planned hit.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 5: detention and death of Oswald
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DocumentedRuby did not walk down the ramp as the Warren Commission said.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. The House committee found he probably came by an alley and stairway, and that he was less likely to have entered without help.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • Every witness in the area except Ruby.
Points against
  • Help may have been given unknowingly.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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UnprovenRuby was sent to silence Oswald.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. His underworld contacts are documented; an order is not.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • Mob contacts, unexplained calls.
Points against
  • Timing; no document shows an order.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
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DocumentedA psychiatrist tied to CIA research examined Ruby.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. Louis Jolyon West examined Ruby for the defense in April 1964; Tom O’Neill documented his CIA-funded MKULTRA work.

Who says it: Tom O’Neill, Tucker Carlson.

Points for
  • O’Neill’s documentation.
Points against
  • What, if anything, West did to Ruby is not shown.
Sources
  1. Tom O’Neill: statement to the House Task Force on Declassification, MKULTRA hearing, 30 June 2026
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DocumentedParkland doctors described a large wound at the back of the head.Wounds, autopsy & Parkland

What the record shows. Several described it that way, which conflicts with the autopsy record.

Who says it: Parkland doctors.

Points for
  • Their reports.
Points against
  • Minutes-long observation under emergency conditions.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
  2. Malcolm Perry: HSCA interview, 11 January 1978, volume VII (AARC mirror)
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DisputedThe throat wound was an entrance wound.Wounds, autopsy & Parkland

What the record shows. Dr. Perry said that afternoon it could have been an entrance; he later said he had no way to know, not having seen the back wound. Under the autopsy findings it was an exit.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Perry’s press-conference remark.
Points against
  • Forensic panel finding.
Sources
  1. Malcolm Perry: HSCA interview, 11 January 1978, volume VII (AARC mirror)
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
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DocumentedThe autopsy was badly done.Wounds, autopsy & Parkland

What the record shows. Government panels documented serious failures, burned notes and lost materials.

Who says it: House committee, Review Board.

Points for
  • HSCA, ARRB.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. HSCA medical panel: performance of the autopsy, volume VII (AARC mirror)
  2. ARRB final report, chapter 6 part II: medical, film and ballistics records
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DocumentedKennedy’s brain is missing.Wounds, autopsy & Parkland

What the record shows. The preserved brain was lost from the record.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • HSCA custody report.
Points against
  • Loss is not proof of what it showed.
Sources
  1. HSCA: chain of custody and missing autopsy materials, volume VII (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenThe autopsy photos and X-rays were faked.Wounds, autopsy & Parkland

What the record shows. The House committee’s experts found them authentic.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Conflicting witness memories.
Points against
  • Authentication tests.
Sources
  1. HSCA: authenticity of the autopsy photographs and X-rays, volume VII
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UnprovenKennedy’s body was altered before the autopsy.Wounds, autopsy & Parkland

What the record shows. No documentary support.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Witness discrepancies.
Points against
  • No record of alteration.
Sources
  1. HSCA: authenticity of the autopsy photographs and X-rays, volume VII
  2. ARRB final report, chapter 6 part II: medical, film and ballistics records
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DocumentedShots were fired from the Depository’s sixth floor.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. Witnesses, cartridge cases, the rifle and the wounds all support it.

Who says it: Every official inquiry.

Points for
  • Physical evidence.
Points against
  • Whether anyone else fired is separate.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
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DisputedThe “magic bullet” theory is impossible.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. The House committee’s experts, with one dissent, found the single-bullet path consistent with the evidence. Connally and Senator Russell doubted it.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Connally’s own doubt; the dissent.
Points against
  • Wound alignment and bullet metal studies.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-A: Oswald fired three shots
  2. John Connally: Warren Commission testimony, volume IV (AARC mirror)
  3. Johnson–Russell telephone call, 18 September 1964: transcript (Hood College Weisberg collection)
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DocumentedWithout the single bullet, there had to be a second gunman.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. The timing of the Zapruder film leaves too little time for two rifle shots to hit Kennedy and Connally separately.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Film timing.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
  2. HSCA final report, part I-A: Oswald fired three shots
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Partly trueGerald Ford moved the back wound to make the single bullet work.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. Ford edited the description of the wound’s location in the report; the medical evidence was unchanged.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Ford’s edit is documented.
Points against
  • The edit did not alter the autopsy findings.
Sources
  1. Spokesman-Review (Washington Post): “Ford pushed for change in JFK assassination report,” 3 July 1997
  2. Deseret News: “Ford defends his changes in JFK report,” 3 July 1997
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DocumentedWarren Commission members disagreed on the single bullet.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. Russell, among others, doubted it; the report’s language hid the split.

Who says it: Senator Russell.

Points for
  • Executive-session and later accounts.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Johnson–Russell telephone call, 18 September 1964: transcript (Hood College Weisberg collection)
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
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Partly trueCE 399 was found in pristine condition.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. It was largely intact but flattened and lost some metal.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Its shape.
Points against
  • Ballistics tests show it is possible.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
  2. HSCA firearms panel: findings and conclusions, volume VII (AARC mirror)
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DisputedCE 399 came from Connally’s stretcher.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. An inference from hospital testimony, not an observation.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Tomlinson’s testimony.
Points against
  • Tomlinson was unsure which stretcher.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 3: the shots from the Texas School Book Depository
  2. Darrell Tomlinson: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenAgent Paul Landis found the magic bullet in the limousine.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. His 2023 account is sincere but uncorroborated and absent from his 1963 statement.

Who says it: Paul Landis.

Points for
  • A firsthand witness.
Points against
  • Silence in his 1963 report.
Sources
  1. BBC News: Secret Service agent’s account of the bullet, September 2023
  2. Paul Landis: Secret Service statement, November 1963 (transcript)
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DocumentedOswald bought the rifle found in the Depository.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. The order, money order and photos tie it to him under the name Hidell.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Paper trail.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
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DisputedThe paper bag was too short for the rifle.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. Witnesses estimated a shorter package; the Commission found them mistaken.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Two witnesses’ estimates.
Points against
  • Fibers and the bag found.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
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FalseNo one could have made those shots.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. Tests have shown them possible for a trained Marine.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Difficult shooting.
Points against
  • CBS and other tests.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. CBS News Inquiry transcript, printed in the Congressional Record, 23 August 1967 (govinfo)
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Partly trueThe shots were easy.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. Possible, but the claim that they were easy is overstated.

Who says it: Defenders of the Commission.

Points for
  • Distances were short.
Points against
  • Moving target, bolt action.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. HSCA final report, part I-A: Oswald fired three shots
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DisputedMetal analysis proves only two bullets hit the men.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. The lead chemistry behind that claim has been undermined; it no longer proves two bullets.

Who says it: Vincent Guinn, the House committee.

Points for
  • Guinn’s 1970s analysis.
Points against
  • Spiegelman 2007 and later critiques.
Sources
  1. Spiegelman and others, “Chemical and forensic analysis of JFK assassination bullet lots,” Annals of Applied Statistics, 2007 (arXiv)
  2. HSCA final report, part I-A: Oswald fired three shots
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FalseThe backyard photos of Oswald with the rifle are fakes.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. The House committee’s panel found no evidence of fakery; later computer studies agreed.

Who says it: Oswald himself, critics.

Points for
  • Shadow claims.
Points against
  • Camera match, 2010 and 2015 studies.
Sources
  1. HSCA photographic panel: authenticity of the backyard photographs, volume VI
  2. Hany Farid: “A 3-D Photo Forensic Analysis of the Lee Harvey Oswald Backyard Photo,” Dartmouth, 2010
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UnprovenThe Zapruder film was altered.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. Experts who examined the original found it a camera original.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Witness discrepancies.
Points against
  • Physical examination.
Sources
  1. Roland Zavada: Analysis of Selected Motion Picture Photographic Evidence, 1998 (report files)
  2. Library of Congress, National Film Registry: essay on the Zapruder film
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DocumentedThe government paid millions for the Zapruder film.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. The government took it under the 1992 law and in 1999 paid the estate $16 million.

Who says it: Review Board.

Points for
  • ARRB report.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. ARRB final report, chapter 6 part II: medical, film and ballistics records
  2. Library of Congress, National Film Registry: essay on the Zapruder film
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DocumentedWitnesses heard shots or saw smoke from the knoll.The grassy knoll & second gunman

What the record shows. Several did, including S. M. Holland and Lee Bowers.

Who says it: Witnesses.

Points for
  • Sworn testimony.
Points against
  • Most witnesses with an opinion pointed to the Depository.
Sources
  1. S. M. Holland: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
  2. Lee Bowers: Warren Commission testimony, volume VI (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenA gunman fired from the grassy knoll.The grassy knoll & second gunman

What the record shows. No physical evidence, photo or wound supports it; the acoustics evidence was rejected.

Who says it: Many theorists.

Points for
  • Witnesses and the head motion.
Points against
  • Photo, medical and acoustics reviews.
Sources
  1. HSCA photographic panel: alleged gunmen in Dealey Plaza, volume VI (AARC mirror)
  2. National Research Council: Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, 1982
  3. HSCA final report, part I-A: Oswald fired three shots
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Unproven“Badge Man” in the Moorman photo is a gunman.The grassy knoll & second gunman

What the record shows. A shape in a blurred Polaroid.

Who says it: Researchers.

Points for
  • Image enhancement.
Points against
  • No identification.
Sources
  1. HSCA photographic panel: alleged gunmen in Dealey Plaza, volume VI (AARC mirror)
  2. Dale Myers: photogrammetric analysis of “Badge Man”
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FalseThe Umbrella Man fired a dart or gave a signal.The grassy knoll & second gunman

What the record shows. He was identified and testified; he was protesting appeasement.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • An odd open umbrella on a sunny day.
Points against
  • His own testimony.
Sources
  1. Louie Steven Witt: HSCA testimony, 25 September 1978 (AARC mirror)
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DisputedThe backward head snap proves a shot from the front.The grassy knoll & second gunman

What the record shows. Scientific work explains it without one, but it remains the most visible argument.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • The film.
Points against
  • Neuromuscular and physics studies.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-A: Oswald fired three shots
  2. Nicholas Nalli, “Gunshot-wound dynamics model for John F. Kennedy assassination,” Heliyon, 2018 (PubMed record)
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Partly trueAcoustic science proved a fourth shot from the knoll.The grassy knoll & second gunman

What the record shows. The House committee was told of a 95 percent chance; the National Research Council later found the sounds came after the shooting.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • The committee did find it.
Points against
  • The 1982 NRC review.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-B: scientific acoustical evidence of a second gunman
  2. National Research Council: Report of the Committee on Ballistic Acoustics, 1982
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DocumentedA congressional committee concluded Kennedy was probably killed by a conspiracy.The grassy knoll & second gunman

What the record shows. The House committee did, largely on acoustic evidence.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • Final report.
Points against
  • It could not name a second gunman.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report: summary of findings and recommendations (1979)
  2. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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DocumentedOswald defected to the Soviet Union.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. He tried to renounce his citizenship at the Moscow embassy on 31 October 1959.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • State Department records.
Points against
  • The renunciation was never completed.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, appendix 13: biography of Lee Harvey Oswald
  2. Warren Commission report, appendix 15: Oswald’s dealings with the State Department and immigration
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DocumentedOswald offered the Soviets radar secrets.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The embassy cabled that he had offered “any information he has acquired as [an] enlisted radar operator.”

Who says it: Embassy cable.

Points for
  • The cable.
Points against
  • What he actually handed over is unknown.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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UnprovenOswald betrayed the U-2 to the Soviets.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. His clearance was confidential; no record shows he passed U-2 secrets.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • He served at Atsugi.
Points against
  • No evidence of a leak.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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DocumentedThe State Department paid Oswald’s way home.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. It approved a repatriation loan; he signed a note for $435.71.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Appendix 15.
Points against
  • A loan, routine for stranded citizens.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, appendix 15: Oswald’s dealings with the State Department and immigration
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UnprovenOswald was a KGB agent.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The KGB watched him; no evidence shows it recruited him.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • Surveillance in Minsk.
Points against
  • Nosenko, Mitrokhin notes.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield (Basic Books, 1999)
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DocumentedThe KGB defector who vouched for Oswald’s innocence was unreliable.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The House committee concluded Nosenko lied about Oswald.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • Changing accounts.
Points against
  • Unclear why he lied.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA: Oswald in the Soviet Union, investigation of Yuri Nosenko, volume XII (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenThe Soviet Union ordered the assassination.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. Both U.S. inquiries found no Soviet involvement.

Who says it: Some Cold War writers.

Points for
  • Oswald’s Soviet past.
Points against
  • Soviet alarm afterward.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
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FalseThe man in Oswald’s grave was a Soviet double.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The 1981 exhumation identified the body as Oswald by dental records and a mastoid scar.

Who says it: Writers since the 1970s.

Points for
  • Height and scar questions.
Points against
  • Positive dental identification.
Sources
  1. Linda Norton and others: report of the 1981 Oswald exhumation (transcript)
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DocumentedOswald tried to kill General Edwin Walker.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. Marina said he admitted it; photos of Walker’s house and a note tie him to it.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Marina, photographs, note.
Points against
  • The bullet match is only consistent.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. Commission Exhibit 1784: FBI interview of Marina Oswald on the Walker shooting, December 1963 (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenOswald had help in the Walker shooting.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. Two men were seen near the house two nights before; they were never identified or linked to him.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • The sighting.
Points against
  • Marina’s account fits him acting alone.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 4: the assassin
  2. Commission Exhibit 1784: FBI interview of Marina Oswald on the Walker shooting, December 1963 (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedOswald visited the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. He applied for visas and was turned down.

Who says it: Warren Commission, House committee.

Points for
  • Records.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
  2. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
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DocumentedThe CIA’s “Oswald” photo from Mexico City shows another man.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The CIA misidentified the photograph.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • The photo.
Points against
  • Not shown that the man was impersonating him.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
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DisputedSomeone impersonated Oswald in Mexico City.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The documents conflict, and no surviving tape settles it; the committee found Oswald himself made the trip.

Who says it: Critics, Hoover’s 23 Nov call.

Points for
  • Hoover’s remark; Azcue.
Points against
  • Duran said it was Oswald.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
  2. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
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DisputedOswald met a KGB assassinations officer in Mexico City.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. Valeriy Kostikov was KGB; whether he worked in the sabotage department is not settled.

Who says it: FBI, CIA memos.

Points for
  • FBI belief.
Points against
  • Unresolved.
Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  2. CIA letter on Valeriy Kostikov and Department 13, 21 May 1982
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DocumentedThe CIA withheld its Mexico City information from investigators.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. Both the Church and House committees found it did.

Who says it: Senate and House.

Points for
  • Committee reports.
Points against
  • Not proof of a relationship with Oswald.
Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  2. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
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UnprovenOswald worked for the CIA.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The House committee found no evidence; the CIA did open his mail.

Who says it: Garrison, Stone, others.

Points for
  • Mail opening; odd file handling.
Points against
  • No payment or tasking record.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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FalseOswald was a paid FBI informant with a payroll number.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The reporter Alonzo Hudkins admitted he and another newsman invented the number to test whether the FBI was tapping them.

Who says it: Texas officials in 1964.

Points for
  • The Commission discussed the rumor.
Points against
  • Hudkins’s admission; sworn FBI denials.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
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DocumentedAn Army intelligence file on Oswald was destroyed.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The 112th Military Intelligence Group’s file was destroyed in 1973 and never given to the Warren Commission.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • Officer testimony.
Points against
  • Contents known only from memory.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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UnprovenGeorge de Mohrenschildt was Oswald’s CIA handler.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. He had contacts with a CIA official, but no record shows he handled Oswald.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • His contacts.
Points against
  • No evidence of tasking.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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DocumentedSylvia Odio was visited by a man introduced as “Leon Oswald.”Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The House committee was “inclined to believe” her.

Who says it: Sylvia Odio.

Points for
  • Her sister’s corroboration.
Points against
  • The men were never identified.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA staff report: the Odio incident, volume X (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenAntonio Veciana saw Oswald with a CIA officer.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. His story was never corroborated.

Who says it: Antonio Veciana.

Points for
  • His testimony.
Points against
  • No corroboration.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA staff report: Antonio Veciana and “Maurice Bishop,” volume X (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedThe U.S. was trying to kill Castro when Kennedy died.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. The Church committee documented at least eight plots; an AMLASH contact was offered a poison pen on 22 November 1963.

Who says it: Church committee.

Points for
  • Senate report.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
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DocumentedCastro warned that U.S. leaders would not be safe.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. He told AP reporter Daniel Harker so in September 1963.

Who says it: AP.

Points for
  • The interview.
Points against
  • A warning is not an action.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. CIA 1975 review of allegations of Cuban involvement, opening with Castro’s 7 September 1963 interview with AP correspondent Daniel Harker, RIF 104-10051-10250
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UnprovenCastro had Kennedy killed.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. Both U.S. investigations found the Cuban government was not involved.

Who says it: Some officials and writers.

Points for
  • Motive, warning.
Points against
  • No evidence.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
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FalseA Cubana flight carried a killer from Mexico to Havana.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. The flight story did not hold up.

Who says it: Some theorists.

Points for
  • A delayed flight.
Points against
  • Records reviewed by the House committee.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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UnprovenAnti-Castro exiles killed Kennedy.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. The committee found exile groups as groups were not involved, but could not rule out individuals.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • Motive.
Points against
  • No action shown.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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DocumentedKennedy was exploring talks with Castro when he died.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. A secret channel ran at the same time as the plots.

Who says it: National Security Archive.

Points for
  • Documents.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. National Security Archive: Kennedy and Castro, the secret quest for accommodation (records and audio)
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UnprovenCarlos Marcello ordered the assassination.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. Motive, contacts and a reported threat are documented; an order is not.

Who says it: Researchers.

Points for
  • Ed Becker’s account.
Points against
  • No direct evidence.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA staff report: Carlos Marcello, volume IX (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenSanto Trafficante predicted the killing.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. José Aleman said so, but softened his account under oath.

Who says it: José Aleman.

Points for
  • His 1976 account.
Points against
  • His 1978 testimony.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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UnprovenJimmy Hoffa planned to kill a Kennedy.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. Edward Partin’s account concerned Robert Kennedy; the committee found no direct evidence Hoffa was involved.

Who says it: Edward Partin.

Points for
  • Partin’s polygraph.
Points against
  • Hoffa denied it.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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Partly trueJack Ruby was a mob hit man.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. He had many underworld contacts; that they sent him is not shown.

Who says it: House committee critics.

Points for
  • Calls and contacts.
Points against
  • No order shown.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 6: investigation of possible conspiracy
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Partly trueCongress found the Mafia may have been involved.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. The committee cleared the syndicate as a group but did not preclude individual members.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • Its finding.
Points against
  • No evidence of a specific role.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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UnprovenThe CIA killed Kennedy.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. No record shows the agency planned it; the House committee concluded it was not involved.

Who says it: Carlson’s source, RFK Jr., others.

Points for
  • Concealment, motive.
Points against
  • HSCA finding.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. Fox News opinion: Tucker Carlson, “Here’s the source the CIA … ,” December 2022
  3. The Hill: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sees “overwhelming evidence” CIA involved in JFK assassination, May 2023
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DocumentedThe CIA hid its Castro plots from the Warren Commission.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. The Church committee found it did.

Who says it: Church committee.

Points for
  • Senate report.
Points against
  • Concealment is not guilt.
Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  2. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
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Documented47% of U.S. embassy political officers were CIA.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. Schlesinger told Kennedy so in a 1961 memo released in full in 2025.

Who says it: Schlesinger memo.

Points for
  • The memo.
Points against
  • About 1961, not Dallas.
Sources
  1. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. to Kennedy: “CIA Reorganization,” 30 June 1961 (original scan)
  2. National Security Archive: “CIA covert ops, Kennedy assassination records lift veil of secrecy,” 19 March 2025
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DocumentedKennedy fired the CIA’s leaders after the Bay of Pigs.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. Dulles, Cabell and Bissell were pushed out.

Who says it: Historians.

Points for
  • Records.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. George: “Did President Kennedy ever actually say he would splinter the CIA?”
  2. American Presidency Project: Kennedy remarks announcing John McCone as CIA director, 27 September 1961
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DocumentedThe Kennedy administration used the CIA to tap reporters’ phones.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. The Family Jewels say McCone agreed to tap two columnists under pressure from Robert Kennedy.

Who says it: CIA Family Jewels.

Points for
  • CIA memo.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Walter Elder to William Colby: “Special Activities” (the Family Jewels list), 1 June 1973, RIF 104-10303-10007
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DocumentedA witness told Congress CIA officers were “culpable or complicit.”CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. Jefferson Morley testified so on 1 April 2025.

Who says it: Jefferson Morley.

Points for
  • Sworn testimony.
Points against
  • An argument from concealment.
Sources
  1. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
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DocumentedThe CIA hid its liaison’s role with Oswald’s exile foes from Congress.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. Joannides ran the DRE program in 1963 and was made liaison to the House committee without disclosure.

Who says it: Jefferson Morley, Dan Hardway.

Points for
  • Records released.
Points against
  • No role in the killing shown.
Sources
  1. Dan Hardway: written testimony to the House Oversight Task Force, 20 May 2025
  2. CIA career-medal recommendation for Joannides, 20 March 1981 (Internet Archive copy)
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DocumentedA CIA-funded exile group clashed with Oswald in New Orleans.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. DRE’s Carlos Bringuier fought and debated him in August 1963.

Who says it: Records.

Points for
  • HSCA, WDSU.
Points against
  • Not shown that DRE directed him.
Sources
  1. HSCA staff report: Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE), volume X (AARC mirror)
  2. WDSU radio debate: Oswald, Bringuier and Butler, 21 August 1963 (UNT Portal)
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DocumentedThe FBI destroyed a note Oswald left for an agent.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. Agent Hosty said he was told to destroy it two hours after Oswald died.

Who says it: Church committee.

Points for
  • Hosty’s account.
Points against
  • Contents disputed.
Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
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DisputedOswald’s note to the FBI threatened violence.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. Accounts differ on whether it threatened to blow something up or just complained.

Who says it: FBI witnesses.

Points for
  • A receptionist’s memory.
Points against
  • Hosty’s memory.
Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
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Partly trueThe Warren Commission proved Oswald acted alone.Warren, Garrison & the House

What the record shows. Its case that he fired the shots holds; its conspiracy inquiry was found flawed.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Later reviews.
Points against
  • HSCA and Church findings.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  2. HSCA final report, part I-D: performance of the agencies
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DocumentedA fired CIA director sat on the Warren Commission.Warren, Garrison & the House

What the record shows. Allen Dulles was a member.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Membership.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report: foreword
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UnprovenThe Warren Commission was a deliberate whitewash.Warren, Garrison & the House

What the record shows. Agencies withheld from it, but not shown that its members knowingly covered up.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Withheld information.
Points against
  • Its own disagreements.
Sources
  1. Church Committee, Book V: the investigation of the Kennedy assassination by the intelligence agencies (1976)
  2. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
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FalseClay Shaw conspired to kill Kennedy.Warren, Garrison & the House

What the record shows. The jury acquitted him and no inquiry has found it.

Who says it: Jim Garrison.

Points for
  • Russo’s testimony.
Points against
  • Drug-assisted interview.
Sources
  1. National Archives: Clay Shaw papers finding aid
  2. State v. Shaw: Andrew Sciambra testimony, 12 February 1969 (AARC mirror)
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Partly trueOswald was seen with David Ferrie in 1963.Warren, Garrison & the House

What the record shows. The House committee believed credible witnesses saw them together in Clinton, Louisiana.

Who says it: Clinton witnesses.

Points for
  • Committee finding.
Points against
  • Shaw’s presence not shown.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
  2. HSCA staff report: David Ferrie, volume X (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedOswald’s leaflets carried the address of Guy Banister’s building.Warren, Garrison & the House

What the record shows. 544 Camp Street.

Who says it: Records.

Points for
  • The leaflets.
Points against
  • Link to Banister unproven.
Sources
  1. HSCA staff report: 544 Camp Street, volume X (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedThe House committee cleared the CIA, FBI, Soviets and Cubans.Warren, Garrison & the House

What the record shows. It found none involved.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • Final report.
Points against
  • Its reliance on agency records.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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DocumentedDavid Ferrie died days after Garrison named him.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. The coroner ruled the cause natural.

Who says it: Records.

Points for
  • Timing.
Points against
  • Coroner finding.
Sources
  1. HSCA staff report: David Ferrie, volume X (AARC mirror)
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Partly trueTrump released all the JFK files in 2017.The records releases

What the record shows. He released thousands and certified withholding of others.

Who says it: Trump.

Points for
  • Large releases.
Points against
  • Withholdings.
Sources
  1. National Archives: 2017–2018 releases
  2. Federal Register: full text of Executive Order 14176 (plain-text edition)
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DocumentedBiden kept JFK files secret.The records releases

What the record shows. He issued certifications in 2021, 2022 and 2023 allowing continued withholding.

Who says it: Critics.

Points for
  • Certifications.
Points against
  • Many records also released.
Sources
  1. National Archives: 2021 release
  2. National Archives: 2023 releases
  3. Federal Register: Memorandum of 30 June 2023, Certification regarding disclosure of information in certain records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
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Partly trueEverything is out now.The records releases

What the record shows. Nearly all is open; parts of the CIA Mexico City history and grand-jury and tax material remain withheld.

Who says it: Officials.

Points for
  • 2025–26 releases.
Points against
  • NSA Archive count of withheld pages.
Sources
  1. National Archives: 2025 release index (with the 30 January 2026 addition)
  2. National Security Archive: “CIA station in Mexico: the last JFK assassination records,” 1 October 2026
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UnprovenThe 2025 files proved a CIA plot.The records releases

What the record shows. They revealed concealment but nothing identifying a second gunman.

Who says it: Commentators.

Points for
  • New CIA material.
Points against
  • No plot document.
Sources
  1. National Security Archive: “CIA covert ops, Kennedy assassination records lift veil of secrecy,” 19 March 2025
  2. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
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DocumentedThe 2025 release exposed Social Security numbers.The records releases

What the record shows. The Archives acknowledged releasing living people’s personal identification information.

Who says it: Reporting.

Points for
  • The files.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. National Archives: 2025 release index (with the 30 January 2026 addition)
  2. New York Times: “Takeaways from the release of the JFK assassination files,” 19 March 2025
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DocumentedRecords were destroyed after Congress ordered them kept.The records releases

What the record shows. The Secret Service destroyed trip records in 1995.

Who says it: Review Board.

Points for
  • ARRB.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. ARRB final report, chapter 8: agency compliance
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DocumentedThe CIA still withholds parts of its Mexico City history.The records releases

What the record shows. Parts of a 539-page history remain withheld with White House permission.

Who says it: National Security Archive.

Points for
  • NSA 2026.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. National Security Archive: “CIA station in Mexico: the last JFK assassination records,” 1 October 2026
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UnprovenLyndon Johnson was behind the assassination.LBJ, Vietnam & Israel

What the record shows. No investigation found evidence of his role.

Who says it: Roger Stone, others.

Points for
  • Motive.
Points against
  • No evidence.
Sources
  1. Washington Times: review of Roger Stone’s The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ, 25 February 2014
  2. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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UnprovenJohnson met plotters in Dallas the night before.LBJ, Vietnam & Israel

What the record shows. His diary places him in Houston and Fort Worth.

Who says it: LBJ theorists.

Points for
  • Later testimony.
Points against
  • Diary.
Sources
  1. Vice President Johnson’s daily diary, 21 November 1963 (LBJ Library)
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FalseMac Wallace’s fingerprint was found in the sniper’s nest.LBJ, Vietnam & Israel

What the record shows. One examiner retracted his confirmation, and the FBI found it was not Wallace’s.

Who says it: Nathan Darby.

Points for
  • His affidavit.
Points against
  • FBI 1999 report.
Sources
  1. Nathan Darby affidavit on a “Mac Wallace” fingerprint, 1998 (as posted by a proponent)
  2. Lobster magazine: “Two stories about JFK fingerprints,” 2015
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DocumentedJohnson was sworn in within hours on Air Force One.LBJ, Vietnam & Israel

What the record shows. At 2:38 p.m. at Love Field.

Who says it: Warren Commission.

Points for
  • Report.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
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DocumentedKennedy ordered 1,000 troops out of Vietnam.LBJ, Vietnam & Israel

What the record shows. NSAM 263 approved withdrawal of 1,000 personnel by the end of 1963.

Who says it: Historians.

Points for
  • NSAM 263.
Points against
  • Conditional, not announced.
Sources
  1. FRUS 1961–63 vol. IV, doc. 194: NSAM 263, 11 October 1963
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Partly trueJohnson reversed Kennedy’s withdrawal four days after Dallas.LBJ, Vietnam & Israel

What the record shows. NSAM 273 kept the withdrawal objectives while widening planning against the North.

Who says it: Oliver Stone, others.

Points for
  • New planning.
Points against
  • Withdrawal language retained.
Sources
  1. FRUS 1961–63 vol. IV, doc. 331: NSAM 273, 26 November 1963
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UnprovenKennedy was killed to keep the Vietnam War going.LBJ, Vietnam & Israel

What the record shows. No investigation found a connection.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • Policy change.
Points against
  • No evidence.
Sources
  1. FRUS 1961–63 vol. IV, doc. 194: NSAM 263, 11 October 1963
  2. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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DocumentedKennedy pressured Israel over its nuclear reactor.LBJ, Vietnam & Israel

What the record shows. He demanded semi-annual visits and warned of “seriously jeopardized” support.

Who says it: Historians.

Points for
  • The letters.
Points against
  • Settled by August.
Sources
  1. National Security Archive: “The battle of the letters, 1963” on Dimona
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UnprovenIsrael had Kennedy killed over Dimona.LBJ, Vietnam & Israel

What the record shows. No evidence; the dispute had been settled by agreement and inspections continued.

Who says it: Some writers.

Points for
  • Pressure.
Points against
  • Inspections continued.
Sources
  1. National Security Archive: “The battle of the letters, 1963” on Dimona
  2. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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FalseOdds of the witness deaths were 100,000 trillion to one.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. The Sunday Times told Congress the figure was a careless mistake.

Who says it: Executive Action ads.

Points for
  • The Sunday Times figure.
Points against
  • Its own retraction.
Sources
  1. HSCA testimony of Jacqueline Hess on “mysterious deaths,” 25 September 1978 (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenWitnesses were killed to cover up the assassination.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. The House committee examined about 21 deaths and found no link.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • Some deaths were murders.
Points against
  • Case-by-case review.
Sources
  1. HSCA testimony of Jacqueline Hess on “mysterious deaths,” 25 September 1978 (AARC mirror)
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UnprovenGary Underhill was killed because he knew the CIA did it.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. His death was ruled suicide; the CIA clique claim comes from a 1967 magazine.

Who says it: Ramparts.

Points for
  • The magazine story.
Points against
  • No evidence of a link.
Sources
  1. CIA memorandum on Ramparts, Gary Underhill and Samuel Cummings, 19 July 1967, RIF 104-10170-10145
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FalseThe three tramps were E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. The tramps were identified; anthropologists found no match.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • Photos.
Points against
  • Arrest records, FBI interviews.
Sources
  1. Los Angeles Times: “Two of the ‘tramps’ questioned,” 4 March 1992
  2. HSCA final report, part I-B: scientific acoustical evidence of a second gunman
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Partly trueA jury found Hunt was in Dallas.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. A libel jury found against Hunt for lack of malice, not on whether the claim was true.

Who says it: Online claims.

Points for
  • The verdict.
Points against
  • What the jury decided.
Sources
  1. Los Angeles Times: “Jury rules against Hunt in libel suit,” 7 February 1985
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UnprovenE. Howard Hunt confessed to knowing of the plot.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. His son’s account is uncorroborated.

Who says it: St. John Hunt.

Points for
  • Notes and tape.
Points against
  • Hunt denied it.
Sources
  1. Rolling Stone: “The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt,” 2007 (archived copy)
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DisputedGeorge H. W. Bush was CIA in 1963.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. A Hoover memo names a “George Bush of the CIA”; the CIA said it was another man.

Who says it: 1988 reporting.

Points for
  • The memo.
Points against
  • Bush’s denial.
Sources
  1. New York Times: “’63 F.B.I. memo ties Bush to intelligence agency,” 11 July 1988
  2. New York Times: “Mistaken identity seen likely in 1963 F.B.I. memo on Bush,” 20 July 1988
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FalseTed Cruz’s father was with Oswald.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. The tabloid’s own expert never claimed it; PolitiFact rated it Pants on Fire.

Who says it: Donald Trump.

Points for
  • Tabloid photo.
Points against
  • Expert denial.
Sources
  1. PolitiFact: Trump’s “ridiculous” claim linking Ted Cruz’s father to Oswald, 3 May 2016
  2. FactCheck.org: “Trump’s tall tabloid tale,” 3 May 2016
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UnprovenJudyth Vary Baker was Oswald’s lover.Deaths, tramps & viral myths

What the record shows. Her employment at Reily is documented; the rest is not.

Who says it: Judyth Vary Baker.

Points for
  • Employment records.
Points against
  • No corroboration.
Sources
  1. Judyth Vary Baker’s Reily Coffee employment documents (as posted by a supporter)
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DocumentedMost Americans believe in a conspiracy.What Americans believe

What the record shows. 65% in Gallup’s 2023 poll.

Who says it: Gallup.

Points for
  • Poll.
Points against
  • Belief, not evidence.
Sources
  1. Gallup: “Decades later, most Americans doubt lone gunman killed JFK,” 13 November 2023
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DocumentedBelief in a conspiracy peaked around 80%.What Americans believe

What the record shows. Six readings from 74% to 81%.

Who says it: Gallup.

Points for
  • Poll.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Gallup: “Decades later, most Americans doubt lone gunman killed JFK,” 13 November 2023
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DocumentedAmericans now blame the government more than the Mafia.What Americans believe

What the record shows. 20% named the government, 16% the CIA, 11% the Mafia.

Who says it: Gallup.

Points for
  • Poll.
Points against
  • Open-ended categories overlap.
Sources
  1. Gallup: “Decades later, most Americans doubt lone gunman killed JFK,” 13 November 2023
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DocumentedPostgraduates are the only group with a lone-gunman plurality.What Americans believe

What the record shows. 50% lone gunman, 44% conspiracy.

Who says it: Gallup.

Points for
  • Poll.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Gallup: “Decades later, most Americans doubt lone gunman killed JFK,” 13 November 2023
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DocumentedThe Warren Commission secretly discussed whether Oswald was an FBI informant.Warren, Garrison & the House

What the record shows. Members discussed the Texas report in a closed session on 22 January 1964.

Who says it: Commission transcript.

Points for
  • Session transcript.
Points against
  • The rumor proved invented.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission executive session transcript, 22 January 1964 (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedThe chief pathologist burned his autopsy notes.Wounds, autopsy & Parkland

What the record shows. Humes burned his original notes and a first draft at home on 24 November, he told the Review Board.

Who says it: James Humes.

Points for
  • His 1996 testimony.
Points against
  • He said he copied what he needed.
Sources
  1. James Humes: ARRB deposition, 13 February 1996 (transcript)
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DocumentedLife bought the Zapruder film and kept the head-shot frame from the public.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. The sale provided that frame 313 not be published.

Who says it: Records.

Points for
  • Library of Congress account.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Library of Congress, National Film Registry: essay on the Zapruder film
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DocumentedAmericans first saw the Zapruder film move in 1975.The shots, the rifle & the bullet

What the record shows. ABC’s Good Night America aired a bootleg copy in March 1975.

Who says it: Records.

Points for
  • Broadcast history.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. Library of Congress, National Film Registry: essay on the Zapruder film
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DocumentedRuby’s murder conviction was overturned.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed it over trial errors and venue.

Who says it: Court record.

Points for
  • The ruling.
Points against
  • Not a finding about the assassination.
Sources
  1. Rubenstein v. State, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 5 October 1966 (Justia)
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DocumentedRuby begged to be taken to Washington to tell his story.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. He told Warren and Ford he could not tell the full story in Dallas.

Who says it: Ruby’s testimony.

Points for
  • Transcript.
Points against
  • He never said what the story was.
Sources
  1. Jack Ruby: testimony to Warren and Ford, 7 June 1964, volume V (AARC mirror)
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DocumentedRuby passed a lie-detector test.22–24 November 1963

What the record shows. The FBI tested him; Hoover advised no significance be placed on it, and the Commission did not rely on it.

Who says it: Commission appendix 17.

Points for
  • Transcripts.
Points against
  • His mental state.
Sources
  1. Warren Commission report, appendix 17: Ruby’s polygraph
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DocumentedThe CIA locked up the KGB defector who spoke about Oswald.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. It held Nosenko in solitary confinement and hostile interrogation from 1964 to 1968.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • Committee report.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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UnprovenMarina Oswald was a Soviet agent.Oswald: Russia, Walker & Mexico

What the record shows. The House committee found no evidence she was.

Who says it: Theorists.

Points for
  • Her Soviet background.
Points against
  • No evidence.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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DocumentedThe FBI left its agent’s name out of a report on Oswald’s address book.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. Hosty’s name, address, phone and plate were in the book; the December 1963 report omitted them.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • Retyped page.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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DocumentedThe Archives silently cut a released FBI file.The records releases

What the record shows. A 182-page Camejo file released in January 2026 was replaced by a 17-page version without notice.

Who says it: JFKrecords.org.

Points for
  • Archived copies.
Points against
  • The longer versions remain elsewhere on the site.
Sources
  1. JFKrecords.org: “silent updates” audit
  2. National Archives: 182-page file for RIF 124-10273-10083, DocID 32989703
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DocumentedCuba let its former consuls testify to Congress.Cuba, exiles & the mob

What the record shows. It cooperated with the House committee and let two Mexico City consuls testify.

Who says it: House committee.

Points for
  • Committee report.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. HSCA final report, part I-C: conspiracy findings
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DocumentedThe CIA’s liaison broke an agreement to give Congress full files.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. Dan Hardway testified that Joannides refused unexpurgated access agreed in 1977.

Who says it: Dan Hardway.

Points for
  • Sworn testimony.
Points against
  • His account of the CIA side.
Sources
  1. Dan Hardway: written testimony to the House Oversight Task Force, 20 May 2025
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DocumentedThe CIA decorated Joannides after his work with Congress.CIA, FBI & Secret Service

What the record shows. He received the Career Intelligence Medal in 1981.

Who says it: CIA records.

Points for
  • Medal recommendation.
Points against
  • None.
Sources
  1. CIA career-medal recommendation for Joannides, 20 March 1981 (Internet Archive copy)
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Media

Books, films and the official record

The books and films that shaped how people remember Dallas, the jokes that kept it in pop culture, and the official archives where you can check it yourself.

Books 23

The wooden fence at the top of the grassy knoll."Gorik" (Flickr user) · CC BY-SA 2.0Argument · 1966Rush to JudgmentMark LaneAn early attack on the Warren Commission’s handling of the Kennedy, Tippit and Oswald killings.
How it changes the story

Argues the Commission ignored witnesses who pointed to the knoll and to Oswald’s innocence.

  1. 1The riflebreaks
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shotsrecast
  7. 7The sixth floorbreaks
  8. 8Tippitbreaks
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
6. The shots
Challenges
1. The rifle, 7. The sixth floor, 8. Tippit, 11. The Warren Report
Whose account it centres
Witnesses the Commission set aside.
For its thesis to hold
The rifle trail and the Tippit witnesses would have to be wrong.

Matching theories: A second gunman on the grassy knoll Oswald was a patsy who shot no one

Open
Abraham Zapruder’s Bell & Howell 8 mm camera, now in the National Archives. FBI photograph.FBI · Public domainAnalysis · 1967Six Seconds in DallasJosiah ThompsonA frame-by-frame study of the shooting by a philosophy professor, later a private investigator.
How it changes the story

Reads the Zapruder film as evidence of more than one gunman.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shotsrecast
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
6. The shots
Challenges
11. The Warren Report
Whose account it centres
The film and the timing.
For its thesis to hold
The single-bullet sequence would have to be wrong.

Matching theories: A second gunman on the grassy knoll

Open
Kennedy’s funeral procession leaves the White House, 25 November 1963.Abbie Rowe · Public domainHistory · 1967The Death of a PresidentWilliam ManchesterA narrative history of the assassination and the days after.Open
1988NovelNovel · 1988LibraDon DeLilloOswald’s life woven into a fictional CIA conspiracy; DeLillo blends fact with supposition.
How it changes the story

Imagines Oswald as drawn into a plot by disaffected CIA men.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico Cityrecast
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
3. Mexico City
Challenges
none
Whose account it centres
Oswald himself.
For its thesis to hold
It is fiction and says so.

Matching theories: The CIA did it

Open
1989ArgumentArgument · 1989Crossfire: The Plot That Killed KennedyJim MarrsA compendium of conspiracy arguments; one of the two books Stone’s JFK was adapted from.
How it changes the story

Collects the case for a broad conspiracy and a knoll gunman.

  1. 1The riflebreaks
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shotsrecast
  7. 7The sixth floorbreaks
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejectedbreaks
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
6. The shots
Challenges
1. The rifle, 7. The sixth floor, 11. The Warren Report, 13. The tape rejected
Whose account it centres
Critics and witnesses.
For its thesis to hold
The rifle trail, the autopsy and the NRC timing would all have to be wrong.

Matching theories: A second gunman on the grassy knoll The CIA did it Witnesses were killed to keep the secret

Open
Lee Harvey Oswald in an official U.S. Marine Corps portrait, 1956.U.S. Marine Corps · Public domain — U.S. government workArgument · 1993Case ClosedGerald PosnerThe best-known 1990s argument that Oswald acted alone.
How it changes the story

Argues the evidence points to Oswald alone.

  1. 1The riflerecast
  2. 2The Walker shotrecast
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The packagerecast
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floorrecast
  8. 8Tippitrecast
  9. 9The arrestrecast
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportrecast
  12. 12The House committeebreaks
  13. 13The tape rejectedrecast
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
1. The rifle, 2. The Walker shot, 4. The package, 7. The sixth floor, 8. Tippit, 9. The arrest, 11. The Warren Report, 13. The tape rejected
Challenges
12. The House committee
Whose account it centres
Oswald’s life and the physical evidence.
For its thesis to hold
The House committee’s acoustic finding would have to be wrong, as the NRC said.

Matching theories: Oswald was a patsy who shot no one A second gunman on the grassy knoll

Open
The apartment block in Minsk where Oswald lived from 1960 to 1962, photographed in 2008.JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Biography · 1995Oswald’s Tale: An American MysteryNorman MailerA detailed life of Lee Harvey Oswald.Open
2008BiographyBiography · 2008Our Man in MexicoJefferson MorleyThe subtitle is “Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA”: a life of the agency’s Mexico City station chief, by the journalist who sued for the Joannides file.
How it changes the story

Shows what the CIA station knew about Oswald’s visit.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico Cityrecast
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
3. Mexico City
Challenges
none
Whose account it centres
CIA officers.
For its thesis to hold
Nothing has to be fake; the question is what was hidden.

Matching theories: The CIA did it

Open
The Warren Commission presents its report to President Johnson, September 24, 1964.Cecil W. Stoughton / LBJ Library · Public domain — U.S. government workArgument · 2007Reclaiming HistoryVincent BugliosiA prosecutor’s 1,600-page case that Oswald acted alone; basis of the film Parkland.
How it changes the story

Argues the Warren Commission was right that Oswald acted alone.

  1. 1The riflerecast
  2. 2The Walker shotrecast
  3. 3Mexico Cityrecast
  4. 4The packagerecast
  5. 5The routerecast
  6. 6The shotsrecast
  7. 7The sixth floorrecast
  8. 8Tippitrecast
  9. 9The arrestrecast
  10. 10Rubyrecast
  11. 11The Warren Reportrecast
  12. 12The House committeebreaks
  13. 13The tape rejectedrecast
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
1. The rifle, 2. The Walker shot, 3. Mexico City, 4. The package, 5. The route, 6. The shots, 7. The sixth floor, 8. Tippit, 9. The arrest, 10. Ruby, 11. The Warren Report, 13. The tape rejected
Challenges
12. The House committee
Whose account it centres
Oswald and Ruby.
For its thesis to hold
The House committee’s conspiracy finding would have to be wrong.

Matching theories: Oswald was a patsy who shot no one A second gunman on the grassy knoll The CIA did it The Mafia did it

Open
The former Texas School Book Depository, July 2015. Later architectural context.Michael Barera; perspective correction by Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0Novel · 201111/22/63Stephen KingA time traveller tries to stop the assassination.Open
1965ArgumentArgument · 1965Whitewash: The Report on the Warren ReportHarold WeisbergSelf-published in August 1965; Dell reprinted it in 1966.
How it changes the story

Argues the report’s own evidence undermines the single-bullet theory.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shotsrecast
  7. 7The sixth floorbreaks
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
6. The shots
Challenges
11. The Warren Report, 7. The sixth floor
Whose account it centres
The 26 volumes, read against the report.
For its thesis to hold
The single-bullet sequence would have to be impossible.

Matching theories: Oswald was a patsy who shot no one

Open
1966StudyStudy · 1966Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of TruthEdward Jay EpsteinWritten as a Cornell graduate student; an influential critique of how the Commission worked.Open
1967ArgumentArgument · 1967Accessories After the FactSylvia MeagherBy the compiler of the first subject index to the 26 volumes.
How it changes the story

Argues the Commission ignored or misread its own exhibits.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shotsrecast
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippitbreaks
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
6. The shots
Challenges
11. The Warren Report, 8. Tippit
Whose account it centres
The Commission’s own exhibits, indexed.
For its thesis to hold
The rifle trail and the Tippit witnesses would have to be wrong.

Matching theories: Oswald was a patsy who shot no one

Open
1980ArgumentArgument · 1980Best EvidenceDavid S. LiftonSays the body was altered between Dallas and Bethesda. A No. 4 bestseller in 1981.
How it changes the story

Claims the wounds were changed before the autopsy to hide shots from the front.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shotsrecast
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
6. The shots
Challenges
11. The Warren Report
Whose account it centres
The gap between the Parkland and Bethesda descriptions.
For its thesis to hold
Secret surgery on the body before the autopsy, with no witness to it.

Matching theories: A second gunman on the grassy knoll

Open
1980InvestigationInvestigation · 1980ConspiracyAnthony SummersGrew out of a BBC Panorama documentary on the House committee; later updated as Not in Your Lifetime.Open New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, as pictured in the Seattle paper Helix, April 1968.Unknown photographer · Public domainMemoir · 1988On the Trail of the AssassinsJim GarrisonThe New Orleans prosecutor’s own account; a source for Stone’s JFK.Open
1992ArgumentArgument · 1992Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFKBonar MenningerHoward Donahue’s theory that a Secret Service agent fired the fatal shot by accident.
How it changes the story

Keeps Oswald as a shooter but gives the head shot to an agent’s accidental discharge.

  1. 1The riflerecast
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shotsbreaks
  7. 7The sixth floorrecast
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
1. The rifle, 7. The sixth floor
Challenges
6. The shots
Whose account it centres
Ballistics, read by a gunsmith.
For its thesis to hold
An agent’s shot no one in the car or the crowd reported.

Matching theories: An agent fired the fatal shot by accident

Open
1993MemoirMemoir · 1993The Last InvestigationGaeton FonziA Church Committee and House committee investigator’s account of the inquiry.Open
Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion.Fritz Cohen · Public domainArgument · 1993Final JudgmentMichael Collins PiperThe source of the Israel theory; condemned by the ADL as antisemitic. See Theories.
How it changes the story

Blames the Mossad, with the CIA and organized crime, over Israel’s nuclear program.

  1. 1The riflebreaks
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floorbreaks
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
none
Challenges
1. The rifle, 7. The sixth floor, 11. The Warren Report
Whose account it centres
Motive, built from the Dimona dispute.
For its thesis to hold
Evidence of an Israeli role that no inquiry has found.

Matching theories: Israel did it, over Dimona

Open
1995NovelNovel · 1995American TabloidJames EllroyFollows three rogue lawmen from 1958 to 22 November 1963. TIME’s best fiction book of 1995.Open 2007HistoryHistory · 2007Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy YearsDavid TalbotA New York Times bestseller on the Kennedy presidency and assassination.Open
2008ArgumentArgument · 2008JFK and the UnspeakableJames W. DouglassArgues Kennedy was killed by forces within his own national-security apparatus. Published by Orbis in 2008.
How it changes the story

Ties the killing to Kennedy’s turn on Cuba, Vietnam and the Soviets.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico Cityrecast
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
3. Mexico City
Challenges
11. The Warren Report
Whose account it centres
Motive, from Kennedy’s foreign policy.
For its thesis to hold
A plot inside the government that the released files do not show.

Matching theories: The CIA did it

Open
2008ArgumentArgument · 2008Legacy of SecrecyLamar Waldron with Thom HartmannFollows their 2005 book Ultimate Sacrifice, using newly declassified files.Open

Film & TV 14

Kennedy’s grave and the eternal flame at Arlington, May 1964.John Standish Fforde · CC BY-SA 4.0Documentary · 1964Four Days in NovemberMel Stuart, dir.An Oscar-nominated account of the four days, released in 1964.Open
1973FilmFilm · 1973Executive ActionDavid Miller, dir.A fictional conspiracy, written by Dalton Trumbo, released on the tenth anniversary.
How it changes the story

Dramatizes a plot by businessmen and intelligence men. Its promotion launched the “mysterious deaths” odds.

  1. 1The riflebreaks
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejected
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
none
Challenges
1. The rifle, 11. The Warren Report
Whose account it centres
The plotters.
For its thesis to hold
Oswald would have to be a framed patsy.

Matching theories: Oswald was a patsy who shot no one Witnesses were killed to keep the secret

Open
1988Documentary seriesDocumentary series · 1988The Men Who Killed KennedyITVA British series first broadcast in 1988; episodes added in 2003 that implicated Johnson were later withdrawn.
How it changes the story

Puts many conspiracy theories in front of a mass audience.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shotsrecast
  7. 7The sixth floorbreaks
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Report
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejectedbreaks
  14. 14The JFK Act
  15. 15The last files
Supports
6. The shots
Challenges
7. The sixth floor, 13. The tape rejected
Whose account it centres
Theorists and witnesses.
For its thesis to hold
It depends on the episode.

Matching theories: A second gunman on the grassy knoll Lyndon Johnson was behind it The CIA did it

Open
Oliver Stone, director of JFK (1991), in 2016.Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0Film · 1991JFKOliver Stone, dir.Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison. Adapted from Garrison’s own book and Marrs’s Crossfire. It helped bring about the 1992 records law.
How it changes the story

Presents Garrison’s case as a government conspiracy with Oswald as scapegoat.

  1. 1The riflebreaks
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippitbreaks
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejectedbreaks
  14. 14The JFK Actrecast
  15. 15The last files
Supports
14. The JFK Act
Challenges
1. The rifle, 8. Tippit, 11. The Warren Report, 13. The tape rejected
Whose account it centres
Garrison.
For its thesis to hold
The Shaw case would have to be stronger than the jury found.

Matching theories: The CIA did it Oswald was a patsy who shot no one A second gunman on the grassy knoll

Open
Jack Ruby’s hat, on display at the Sixth Floor Museum.Carol M. Highsmith · Public domainFilm · 1992RubyJohn Mackenzie, dir.Danny Aiello as Jack Ruby.Open The presidential limousine SS-100-X, rebuilt after Dallas, at the Henry Ford Museum.Chris Short from Detroit, MI, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Film · 1993In the Line of FireWolfgang Petersen, dir.Clint Eastwood as the last active agent of the Dallas detail.Open Police and agents gather around the limousine outside Parkland Hospital, 22 November 1963.Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domainFilm · 2013ParklandPeter Landesman, dir.The hospital, the Secret Service and the Zapruder family in the hours after, based on Bugliosi.Open SAM 26000, the Air Force One that carried Kennedy to Dallas and his body home, at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.KLaRock · CC BY-SA 4.0Film · 2016JackiePablo Larraín, dir.Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy in the days after.Open
2021DocumentaryDocumentary · 2021JFK Revisited: Through the Looking GlassOliver Stone, dir.Stone’s return to the case, built on James DiEugenio’s book and newly released records.
How it changes the story

Argues the released files support a conspiracy.

  1. 1The rifle
  2. 2The Walker shot
  3. 3Mexico City
  4. 4The package
  5. 5The route
  6. 6The shots
  7. 7The sixth floor
  8. 8Tippit
  9. 9The arrest
  10. 10Ruby
  11. 11The Warren Reportbreaks
  12. 12The House committee
  13. 13The tape rejectedbreaks
  14. 14The JFK Actrecast
  15. 15The last filesrecast
Supports
14. The JFK Act, 15. The last files
Challenges
11. The Warren Report, 13. The tape rejected
Whose account it centres
Critics of the Warren Commission.
For its thesis to hold
The rifle, autopsy and Tippit evidence would have to be compromised.

Matching theories: The CIA did it Oswald was a patsy who shot no one

Open
Lee Harvey Oswald in an official U.S. Marine Corps portrait, 1956.U.S. Marine Corps · Public domain — U.S. government workDocumentary · 2007Oswald’s GhostPBS American ExperienceOn the long argument over the case.Open 1988DocumentaryDocumentary · 1988NOVA: Who Shot President Kennedy?PBSFirst aired 15 November 1988.Open 2013DocumentaryDocumentary · 2013NOVA: Cold Case JFKPBSFirst aired 13 November 2013.Open 2013TV filmTV film · 2013Killing KennedyNational Geographic ChannelDocudrama with Rob Lowe, based on the Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard book.Open 2016MiniseriesMiniseries · 201611.22.63HuluEight episodes from Stephen King’s novel; a time traveler tries to stop the assassination.Open

Follow up: official & authoritative 11

The National Archives at College Park, Maryland, home of the JFK Assassination Records Collection.National Archives and Records Administration · Public domainArchiveJFK Assassination RecordsNational ArchivesThe official collection, including the 2025 releases.Open The Warren Commission presents its report to President Johnson, September 24, 1964.Cecil W. Stoughton / LBJ Library · Public domain — U.S. government workOfficial report · 1964Warren Commission ReportNational ArchivesThe full report online.Open Waveform of the sound impulses on the Dallas police Dictabelt that the House committee’s experts analysed.Roger469 · CC BY-SA 3.0Official report · 1979House Select Committee on Assassinations reportNational ArchivesThe House committee’s report and appendices.Open 1998Official reportOfficial report · 1998Assassination Records Review Board final reportNational ArchivesWhat the Board found and released.Open ArchiveArchiveMary Ferrell FoundationMary Ferrell FoundationA large searchable collection of assassination documents, including transcripts cited in this guide.Open ArchiveArchiveNational Security ArchiveGeorge Washington UniversityAnalysis of the releases.Open Inside the Sixth Floor Museum: a model of Dealey Plaza beside the corner where the Commission said Oswald fired.Carol M. Highsmith · Public domainMuseumThe Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey PlazaThe Sixth Floor MuseumIn the former Depository; holds the copyright to the Zapruder film.Open Attorney General Ramsey Clark at the White House, 28 February 1968, the week his panel of physicians met. LBJ Library photo.Frank Wolfe, White House Press Office (WHPO) · Public domainMedical review · 1968The Clark Panel reportDepartment of JusticeFour physicians review the autopsy photographs and X-rays.Open Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, official portrait. He chaired the 1975 commission on CIA activities.unknown, The White House · Public domainReport · 1975Rockefeller Commission report, chapter 19Commission on CIA ActivitiesThe Hunt–Sturgis claim and the head motion.Open Senator Frank Church of Idaho, who chaired the Senate’s 1975–76 intelligence inquiry.The United States of America · Public domainReport · 1976Church Committee, Book VU.S. SenateHow the CIA and FBI performed in the investigation.Open Waveform of the sound impulses on the Dallas police Dictabelt that the House committee’s experts analysed.Roger469 · CC BY-SA 3.0Report · 1982Report of the Committee on Ballistic AcousticsNational Research CouncilThe panel that rejected the House committee’s acoustic evidence.Open

Public memory

How memory changed

What Americans told Gallup about who killed Kennedy, from the week after the assassination to 2023. Only published polls are used; where there is no poll, we say so.

  1. Kennedy’s funeral procession leaves the White House, 25 November 1963.
    Abbie Rowe · Public domain
    November 1963 Split into camps

    Doubt from the first week

    Dominant views
    • Americans In Gallup’s poll of 22–27 November, 52% said others were involved and 29% said one man was responsible.[1][2]
    What drove it
    • The accused man was shot dead two days later, on live television, before any trial.[3][4]
  2. The Warren Commission presents its report to President Johnson, September 24, 1964.
    Cecil W. Stoughton / LBJ Library · Public domain — U.S. government work
    1964–1966 Split into camps

    The report, and the first critics

    Dominant views
    • Americans In December 1966 exactly half said others were involved, the only Gallup reading where that view fell short of a majority.[1][2]
    • Critics Mark Lane became one of the first and best-known critics of the Warren Commission.[5][6]
    What drove it
    • The Warren Report was published on 24 September 1964.[3]
  3. Senator Frank Church of Idaho, who chaired the Senate’s 1975–76 intelligence inquiry.
    The United States of America · Public domain
    1975–1979 Converging

    The secrets come out

    Dominant views
    • Americans From the mid-1970s through the early 2000s, belief in a conspiracy ran from 74% to 81% in six Gallup readings.[1][2]
    • Congress The House committee concluded in 1979 that Kennedy “was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.”[7]
    What drove it
    • Americans first saw the Zapruder film move in March 1975.[8]
    • The Church committee revealed the CIA’s plots against Castro.[9]
  4. Oliver Stone, director of JFK (1991), in 2016.
    Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0
    1991–1998 Converging

    A movie, a law

    Dominant views
    • Congress “Disturbed by the conclusions of Oliver Stone’s JFK,” it passed the 1992 records act.[10]
    What drove it
    • Gallup noted the film’s Oscar wins and that it implied Lyndon Johnson may have been involved.[1]
  5. Kennedy’s grave and the eternal flame at Arlington, May 1964.
    John Standish Fforde · CC BY-SA 4.0
    2013 Split into camps

    Fifty years on

    Dominant views
    • Americans 61% said others were involved, the lowest in decades; 30% said Oswald acted alone.[1]
    • Conspiracy believers The Mafia and the federal government were each named by 13%.[1]
  6. The National Archives at College Park, Maryland, home of the JFK Assassination Records Collection.
    National Archives and Records Administration · Public domain
    2023–2026 Split into camps

    Blame shifts to the government

    Dominant views
    • Americans 65% said others were involved and 29% Oswald alone, in October 2023.[2]
    • Conspiracy believers The federal government (20%) and the CIA (16%) were now named more than the Mafia (11%).[2]
    • Postgraduates The only major group with a lone-gunman plurality: 50% to 44%.[2]
    What drove it
    • The 2025 releases put tens of thousands of previously withheld pages online.[11]
Sources and polls
  1. Gallup: “Majority in U.S. still believe JFK killed in a conspiracy,” 15 November 2013
  2. Gallup: “Decades later, most Americans doubt lone gunman killed JFK,” 13 November 2023
  3. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  4. Warren Commission report, chapter 5: detention and death of Oswald
  5. Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield (Basic Books, 1999)
  6. Los Angeles Times: “Jury rules against Hunt in libel suit,” 7 February 1985
  7. HSCA final report: summary of findings and recommendations (1979)
  8. Library of Congress, National Film Registry: essay on the Zapruder film
  9. Church Committee: Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975)
  10. Assassination Records Review Board final report (1998): executive summary
  11. National Archives: 2025 release index (with the 30 January 2026 addition)

Lasting impact

How it changed us

Laws and institutions that came out of Dallas, people it set on their path, and things that changed after November 1963. Each with the evidence, and where the evidence is thin.

Laws & institutions 5

What changed because of Dallas, and whether it still stands.

Lyndon B. Johnson takes the presidential oath aboard Air Force One, November 22, 1963.
Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain — U.S. government work
1965In force

Killing a president becomes a federal crime

18 U.S.C. 1751 makes killing, kidnapping or assaulting the president a federal offense.

Before

The murder of a president was a state crime; Oswald would have been tried in Texas.

After

Federal investigators lead, under federal law.

The evidence it changed
  • The Warren Commission recommended making the assassination of the President a federal crime.[1]
  • Congress added the statute on 28 August 1965 (Pub. L. 89-141).[2][3]
  • A companion statute for members of Congress, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, 18 U.S.C. 351, followed in 1971.[4]
Lyndon B. Johnson takes the presidential oath aboard Air Force One, November 22, 1963.
Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain — U.S. government work
1967In force

The 25th Amendment

Rules for presidential disability and for filling a vacant vice presidency.

Before

Johnson served more than a year with no vice president, and no rule said who decided when a president was unable to serve.

After

A president nominates a new vice president, and there is a procedure for disability.

The evidence it changed
  • Congress proposed it “in the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination, with the Vice Presidency vacant and a President who had previously had a heart attack.”[5]
  • Passed by Congress on 6 July 1965 and ratified on 10 February 1967.[6]
The presidential limousine SS-100-X, rebuilt after Dallas, at the Henry Ford Museum.
Chris Short from Detroit, MI, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0
1963–1968In force

A wider Secret Service mandate

Congress extended protection to presidential families, former presidents and, after Robert Kennedy’s death, candidates.

The evidence it changed
  • The Warren Commission recommended a Cabinet-level review of presidential protection and an overhaul of the Secret Service’s threat detection.[1]
  • The Secret Service lists laws in 1963 protecting Mrs. Kennedy and her children, in 1965 protecting former presidents, and in 1968 protecting major candidates after Robert Kennedy was killed.[3]
The National Archives at College Park, Maryland, home of the JFK Assassination Records Collection.
National Archives and Records Administration · Public domain
1992In force

The JFK Records Act and the Review Board

A law ordering every assassination record gathered at the National Archives and opened.

Before

Agencies decided for themselves what to release.

After

More than four million pages in one public collection.

The evidence it changed
  • Congress passed it, “disturbed by the conclusions of Oliver Stone’s JFK.” The Review Board left “more than four million pages of records.”[7]
  • The law’s 2017 deadline and the 2025 executive order drove the last releases.[8][9]
The National Archives at College Park, Maryland, home of the JFK Assassination Records Collection.
National Archives and Records Administration · Public domain
1998

A model for opening secrets

The Review Board’s rules for deciding what to release.

Before

Agencies decided what to keep secret.

After

Release was presumed; agencies had to show “clear and convincing evidence” of harm to keep a record closed.

The evidence it changed
  • The Board worked under the Act’s “presumption of immediate disclosure,” requiring “clear and convincing evidence” before postponing release.[7]
  • Its final report recommended that the Review Board model “could be adopted” in future declassification efforts.[7]

People it inspired 6

Named people whose work grew out of the case, in their own records.

Oliver Stone, director of JFK (1991), in 2016.
Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0
1991

Oliver Stone

Director of JFK; testified to a House task force in 2025.

The evidence it changed
  • The Review Board credited his film with spurring the 1992 law.[7]
  • He testified at the April 2025 hearing.[10]
2003

Jefferson Morley

Journalist who sued the CIA for George Joannides’s file.

The evidence it changed
  • His Freedom of Information case, filed in 2003, ran more than a decade and produced several hundred documents.[11]
  • He testified to Congress in 2025.[10]
Abraham Zapruder’s Bell & Howell 8 mm camera, now in the National Archives. FBI photograph.
FBI · Public domain
1963

Abraham Zapruder’s film

The home movie that became the most studied film in history of the case.

The evidence it changed
  • The 1992 law made it an assassination record; the government paid the family $16 million in 1999.[12]
1966

Sylvia Meagher

Indexed the 26 volumes so others could use them.

The evidence it changed
  • Her subject index was published in 1966 and Accessories After the Fact in 1967.[13]
1965

Harold Weisberg

Self-published the first book-length attack on the report.

The evidence it changed
  • He self-published Whitewash in August 1965.[14]
1963–2004

Mary Ferrell

A Dallas researcher whose card files became an online archive.

The evidence it changed
  • Her database ran to over 40,000 cards on more than 8,200 people; the Mary Ferrell Foundation is named for her.[15]

Things we now take for granted 4

Before and after.

The presidential limousine SS-100-X, rebuilt after Dallas, at the Henry Ford Museum.
Chris Short from Detroit, MI, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0
1964

The armored presidential car

Before

The president rode in an open convertible with a weather-only bubble top.

After

Presidential limousines are armored.

The evidence it changed
  • The bubble top was neither bulletproof nor bullet resistant.[16]
  • After the assassination the car was fully armored and returned to service in May 1964, about a ton heavier.[17]
The National Archives at College Park, Maryland, home of the JFK Assassination Records Collection.
National Archives and Records Administration · Public domain
1992–2025

Opening the files

Before

Records were released piecemeal, by agency choice.

After

The previously withheld records are online, with limited exceptions.

The evidence it changed
  • The Archives describes the 2025 release as “without redactions,” except for categories such as grand-jury material and tax returns.[9]
Abraham Zapruder’s Bell & Howell 8 mm camera, now in the National Archives. FBI photograph.
FBI · Public domain
1975

Seeing it happen

Before

Life kept the Zapruder film out of public view for over a decade.

After

The film is part of how Americans remember the day.

The evidence it changed
  • Most Americans first saw it move in March 1975, on ABC.[12]
Dealey Plaza from Reunion Tower, 2015: the Depository at left, Elm Street and the knoll at right.
Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0
1958–2025

Distrust of government

Before

In 1958, 73% of Americans trusted the federal government to do what is right most of the time.

After

By September 2025 it was 17%.

The evidence it changed
  • Pew’s series shows trust eroding through the 1960s and 1970s, amid Vietnam and Watergate, to about a quarter by 1980, and 17% in 2025.[18]
  • Pew does not attribute the decline to the assassination; this guide does not either. Separately, since the mid-1970s most Americans have told Gallup that others were involved in the assassination.[18][19]
Sources for this section
  1. Warren Commission report, chapter 1: summary and conclusions
  2. 18 U.S. Code § 1751: Presidential and Presidential staff assassination, kidnapping, and assault (Cornell LII)
  3. U.S. Secret Service: historical timeline
  4. 18 U.S. Code § 351: Congressional, Cabinet, and Supreme Court assassination, kidnapping, and assault (Cornell LII)
  5. Constitution Annotated: Twenty-Fifth Amendment, historical background (Cornell LII edition)
  6. National Constitution Center: the 25th Amendment
  7. Assassination Records Review Board final report (1998): executive summary
  8. Federal Register: full text of Executive Order 14176 (plain-text edition)
  9. National Archives: 2025 release index (with the 30 January 2026 addition)
  10. House Oversight Task Force: JFK files hearing, 1 April 2025 (transcript)
  11. Morley v. CIA, D.C. Circuit, 2016
  12. Library of Congress, National Film Registry: essay on the Zapruder film
  13. Wikipedia: Sylvia Meagher
  14. Wikipedia: Harold Weisberg
  15. Wikipedia: Mary Ferrell
  16. Warren Commission report, chapter 2: the assassination
  17. U.S. Secret Service: a chronicle of carriages
  18. Pew Research Center, “Public Trust in Government: 1958–2025” (4 December 2025)
  19. Gallup: “Decades later, most Americans doubt lone gunman killed JFK,” 13 November 2023

How this guide works

Sources and method

This guide was researched and written with AI tools and checked against the sources linked on every entry: the Warren Commission report and hearings, the House Select Committee report and volumes, the Church Committee, the Assassination Records Review Board, National Archives release notes and documents, National Research Council and peer-reviewed studies, Gallup polls, court records and reporting on the people involved.

Where the record is solid we say so. Where it is thin, lost or still withheld, each entry says what the sources cannot settle. Theories get their strongest case before the evidence is weighed. The CIA and FBI did withhold information from investigators, and we say exactly what is documented. Nothing here is the last word; if you find an error, the disputes page is the place to tell us.

An earlier edition of these files gave each case its own page. It has been retired, and its links now open the matching case here.

By the numbers
  • 132 entries in 7 eras
  • 218 distinct sources cited
  • 248 dated events
  • 155 claims checked
  • 11 theories opened up
  • 55 books, films and follow-ups
  • 15 steps on the critical path
  • 6 open questions
  • 15 lasting changes
  • 75 freely licensed pictures

Pictures & licenses

Picture credits

Every picture is public domain or freely licensed, from Wikimedia Commons. Files are stored on this site with their metadata removed; each credit links to the original.

President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office, July 11, 1963.
Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
John and Jacqueline Kennedy arrive at Love Field, Dallas, November 22, 1963. A White House photograph taken before the assassination.
Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
Kennedy meets with the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, October 29, 1962. Cold War context, not an assassination-planning scene.
Cecil W. Stoughton / JFK Library · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
Elm Street and Dealey Plaza in November 2013. Later landscape context; the scene is not presented as unchanged since 1963.
Fredlyfish4 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
Lee Harvey Oswald in an official U.S. Marine Corps portrait, 1956.
U.S. Marine Corps · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
HSCA volume VII, printed page 386: CE 399’s distorted base (Figure 6B). The rifle pictured below is comparison weapon CE 542, not the assassination rifle CE 139.
House Select Committee on Assassinations / U.S. government · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
HSCA volume VII, printed page 383: the actual CE 139 rifle (Figure 3A) and test cartridge cases. A federal investigative exhibit page, not a reenactment.
House Select Committee on Assassinations / U.S. government · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
The Newman family shelter on the grass after the shooting, November 22, 1963. This is the White House photographer’s view, not the separately copyrighted news photograph.
Cecil W. Stoughton / JFK Library · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
The Warren Commission presents its report to President Johnson, September 24, 1964.
Cecil W. Stoughton / LBJ Library · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
The former Texas School Book Depository, July 2015. Later architectural context.
Michael Barera; perspective correction by Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
Walter Elder’s June 1, 1973 memorandum on special activities, RIF 104-10303-10007. Documentary context for the later Family Jewels compilation.
U.S. government record / National Archives · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s reorganization memorandum, final page, dated June 30, 1961. RIF 176-10030-10422; this page is a proposal about CIA organization, not an assassination confession.
U.S. government record / National Archives · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
Lyndon B. Johnson takes the presidential oath aboard Air Force One, November 22, 1963.
Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
CIA record dated July 19, 1967, RIF 104-10170-10145. It reproduces a magazine allegation about Gary Underhill; a claim stored in an intelligence file is not an agency finding that it is true.
U.S. government record / National Archives · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
John and Jacqueline Kennedy arrive at Love Field, Dallas, November 22, 1963. A White House photograph taken before the assassination.
Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain — U.S. government work · original
The apartment block in Minsk where Oswald lived from 1960 to 1962, photographed in 2008.
JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
Oswald’s Dallas police arrest card, 23 November 1963.
Dallas Police; Warren Commission · Public domain · original
Oswald (right) hands out “Hands off Cuba” leaflets in New Orleans, August 1963. Warren Commission exhibit.
Photographer not credited · Public domain · original
The sixth-floor corner window of the former Depository, now part of the Sixth Floor Museum.
Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain · original
Dealey Plaza from the air: Elm Street curves below the Depository toward the triple underpass. Warren Commission Exhibit 876.
Warren Commission · Public domain · original
The wooden fence at the top of the grassy knoll.
"Gorik" (Flickr user) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · original
The motorcade on Main Street minutes before the shooting, 22 November 1963.
Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain · original
Jack Ruby’s Dallas police booking photograph, 24 November 1963.
Uncredited police photographer · Public domain · original
The Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, where Oswald was arrested.
Photo: Andreas Praefcke · CC BY 3.0 · original
Patrolman J. D. Tippit, in the photo Dallas police released in 1963.
Dallas Police Department · Public domain · original
Kennedy’s funeral procession leaves the White House, 25 November 1963.
Abbie Rowe · Public domain · original
Kennedy’s grave and the eternal flame at Arlington, May 1964.
John Standish Fforde · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
Commission Exhibit 139: the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, serial C2766, found on the sixth floor.
President (1963-1969 : Johnson). President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (11/30/1963 - 09/24/1964) · Public domain · original
Commission Exhibit 133-A: Oswald in the back yard on Neely Street, Dallas, spring 1963. Marina Oswald said she took it.
Marina Oswald · Public domain · original
Representative Louis Stokes of Ohio, who chaired the House Select Committee on Assassinations, in his 1977 portrait.
Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain · original
Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Harris & Ewing photography firm · Public domain · original
Allen Dulles, CIA director until November 1961 and later a member of the Warren Commission.
CIA photo · Public domain · original
President Kennedy with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy at the White House, 1961.
Abbie Rowe · Public domain · original
Fidel Castro arrives in Washington, April 1959.
· Public domain · original
Captured members of the exile brigade after the Bay of Pigs, April 1961.
Miguel Vinas · Public domain · original
Santo Trafficante Jr., the Tampa boss, in a 1954 police photograph.
US-amerikanische Bundesregierung · Public domain · original
Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, 1965.
New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Bottega, John, photographer. · Public domain · original
E. Howard Hunt, CIA officer and later Watergate burglar. Photo from the House committee’s tramp comparison.
US Government · Public domain · original
The three men taken from a railroad car behind Dealey Plaza and marched past photographers, 22 November 1963.
Jack Beers · Public domain · original
Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion.
Fritz Cohen · Public domain · original
Senator Frank Church of Idaho, who chaired the Senate’s 1975–76 intelligence inquiry.
The United States of America · Public domain · original
Oliver Stone, director of JFK (1991), in 2016.
Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
The National Archives at College Park, Maryland, home of the JFK Assassination Records Collection.
National Archives and Records Administration · Public domain · original
The presidential limousine SS-100-X, rebuilt after Dallas, at the Henry Ford Museum.
Chris Short from Detroit, MI, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0 · original
SAM 26000, the Air Force One that carried Kennedy to Dallas and his body home, at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
KLaRock · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
Police and agents gather around the limousine outside Parkland Hospital, 22 November 1963.
Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain · original
Lee and Marina Oswald leaving the Soviet Union, June 1962. Warren Commission exhibit.
· Public domain · original
Clay Shaw, the New Orleans businessman Jim Garrison charged and a jury acquitted in 1969.
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration · Public domain · original
Dealey Plaza moments after the shooting. The “umbrella man”, Louie Steven Witt, sits by the road sign at right.
Richard Oscar Bothun · Public domain · original
A U-2 reconnaissance photograph of a Soviet missile site in Cuba, October 1962.
Unknown Lockheed U-2 pilot · Public domain · original
Lieutenant John F. Kennedy (right) with crewmen aboard PT-109, 1943.
This file is a work of a sailor or employee of the U.S. Navy, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. · Public domain · original
Kennedy speaks in West Berlin, 26 June 1963.
Robert Knudsen, White House · Public domain · original
Abraham Zapruder’s Bell & Howell 8 mm camera, now in the National Archives. FBI photograph.
FBI · Public domain · original
Gerald R. Ford, then a young congressman from Michigan, later a Warren Commission member.
Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain · original
Waveform of the sound impulses on the Dallas police Dictabelt that the House committee’s experts analysed.
Roger469 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
Inside the Sixth Floor Museum: a model of Dealey Plaza beside the corner where the Commission said Oswald fired.
Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain · original
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, 2 July 1964, the bill Kennedy had sent Congress a year earlier.
Cecil Stoughton, White House Press Office (WHPO) · Public domain · original
Jack Ruby’s hat, on display at the Sixth Floor Museum.
Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain · original
Dealey Plaza from Reunion Tower, 2015: the Depository at left, Elm Street and the knoll at right.
Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0 · original
Commission Exhibit 399, the nearly whole bullet found on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital.
President (1963-1969 : Johnson). President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (11/30/1963 - 09/24/1964) · Public domain · original
Official portrait of John Connally as Secretary of the Treasury (1971–72). He was governor of Texas in 1963.
· Public domain · original
Clint Hill, the agent who climbed onto the limousine, at the Texas Book Festival in 2016. Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0.
Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0 · original
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, as pictured in the Seattle paper Helix, April 1968.
Unknown photographer · Public domain · original
James Jesus Angleton, the CIA’s counterintelligence chief from 1954 to 1974.
unknown employee of US federal government · Public domain · original
Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), official House portrait.
US House of Representatives · Public domain · original
Dr. Cyril Wecht, the forensic pathologist who dissented from the House panel, in 2020. CC BY 3.0.
Drinkin' Bros Podcast · CC BY 3.0 · original
Mark Lane speaking at the University of Michigan, from the 1968 Michiganensian yearbook.
Unidentified (Ensian published by University of Michigan). · Public domain · original
George Joannides in 1963. CIA photograph released through public-records requests.
CIA FOIA files · Public domain · original
Valeriy Kostikov, in a CIA photograph released by the National Archives in 2025.
David Henry Blee with the Central Intelligence Agency · Public domain · original
Physicist Luis W. Alvarez in 1962. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Donald Cooksey / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory · Public domain · original
Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, official portrait. He chaired the 1975 commission on CIA activities.
unknown, The White House · Public domain · original
Senator Frank Church of Idaho, 1961 congressional portrait.
The United States of America · Public domain · original
Attorney General Ramsey Clark at the White House, 28 February 1968, the week his panel of physicians met. LBJ Library photo.
Frank Wolfe, White House Press Office (WHPO) · Public domain · original
Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed, in 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Posnerwiki · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original
G. Robert Blakey, chief counsel of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Samantha1961 at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · original

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