Thousands of classified JFK assassination files released to the public for the first time

15 December 2022, 22:01 | Updated: 15 December 2022, 23:34

Thousands of previously classified files on the assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released for the first time.

Some 13,173 unredacted documents relating to the killing of the former US president were published on Thursday evening UK time, giving historians and conspiracy theorists a treasure trove of new material to work with.

Mr Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for his killing, but was shot dead himself two days later. Conspiracy theories have swirled around Mr Kennedy's murder ever since.

Announcing the release of the files via an executive order, but keeping thousands more under wraps, President Joe Biden said on Thursday: "Pursuant to my direction, agencies have undertaken a comprehensive effort to review the full set of almost 16,000 records that had previously been released in redacted form and determined that more than 70 percent of those records may now be released in full.

"This significant disclosure reflects my administration's commitment to transparency and will provide the American public with greater insight and understanding of the government's investigation into this tragic event in American history."

The publication of this batch of documents is the first since the Biden administration released 1,500 files last year.

But people hoping for more fuel for theories that Oswald was not the real killer, or that he was part of a much larger conspiracy could be disappointed.

US officials played down the newly-released files, saying that they would be most of interest to historians looking to fill in gaps in the story of Mr Kennedy's assassination and the subsequent investigations.

One of the key areas of interest for historians could be the 'Personality File' of Oswald, which could indicate that US security services were aware and interested in him since before the assassination.

Oswald's visit to the Soviet embassy in Mexico City in September 1963, two months before Mr Kennedy was assassinated, is detailed in the new files.

One of the newly released documents It reveals that a US intelligence wiretap that picked up Oswald's phone call was a collaboration with the Mexican presidency.

The release is the biggest since 2017, when then-president Donald Trump waived a deadline to release all classified files related to the assassination of Mr Kennedy.

'We don't know if president Biden will run for a second term yet.'

The 2017 deadline was set as part of a transparency law passed by Congress 25 years earlier, after the release of the conspiracy-filled Oliver Stone film JFK.