Will newly declassified docs shed light on JFK's assassination?

Photo: AP Images

The Warren Commission

Who Said It:

Appointed by President Lyndon Johnson a week after the assassination, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren’s commission spent ten months investigating the murder.

Whodunnit:

Acting alone, deranged ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald hid on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository in Dealey Plaza, Dallas. After Kennedy’s limousine passed, he fired three shots with a bolt-action Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. One missed; a second struck Kennedy in the back and exited through his throat, then hit Texas governor John Connally — riding in the front seat — in the rib, wrist, and thigh. Oswald’s third shot hit Kennedy in the back of the head. He died 30 minutes later.

Oswald was killed in police custody 48 hours later by Jack Ruby — an anguished Kennedy admirer also acting alone.

The Grassy Knoll

Who Said It:

Persistent chatter and inconsistent evidence prompted Congress to convene the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) in 1978. Contradicting Warren, it found an additional unknown shooter likely fired from the front, possibly from the infamous “grassy knoll” up Elm Street.

Where’s the Proof:

Over 50 people heard or saw gunfire coming from the grassy knoll. They were interviewed by Warren Commission investigators, but their testimony was not included in the final report.

Angles of exit and entry make it impossible for a single bullet to have struck both Kennedy and Connally, meaning a fourth shot was fired.

Footage shows Kennedy thrown backward by the headshot, and Mrs. Kennedy and a Secret Service agent immediately scrambling behind him to retrieve skull fragments — indicating the kill shot came from ahead.

Parkland Hospital doctors testified to an exit wound in the back of JFK’s head. They said the official autopsy report — placing the exit wound at the front of the head — was altered by the government.

What’s in the Files:

A memo from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover reveals an urgent need to convince the public that Oswald was the killer. “I am concerned about… having something issued so that we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin.”

A KGB memo notes that Oswald was a “poor shot,” casting doubts on his ability to hit JFK.

The CIA

Whodunnit:

Kennedy, furious over the agency’s failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, had allegedly threatened to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.” Oswald was a CIA asset.

Who Said It:

This theory had its day in court at the New Orleans trial of CIA operative Clay Shaw, and remains one of the most popular.

What’s in the Files:

Newly unredacted documents first released in 2023 show that the CIA was actively tracking Oswald for 17 months, and held high-level discussions about his movements in Mexico City weeks before the assassination. The CIA hid this from the Warren Commission (of which former CIA director Allen Dulles was a member).

An unredacted 1967 secret report on J. Garrett Underhill, a CIA “un-operative” running guns for the agency, shows that he was close to Samuel Cummings, a gun broker who sold Oswald’s rifle. The report also says Underhill fled Washington in panic the day after the Kennedy killing, telling friends that “a small clique within the CIA was responsible for the assassination.” He feared for his life and planned to leave the country. Underhill was found dead of a gunshot wound in his apartment six months later, in what was ruled a suicide.

The Mafia

Whodunnit:

The Mafia wanted Kennedy dead in retaliation for his aggressive crackdown on organized crime.

Where’s the Proof:

Jack Ruby had ties to the Mafia, and may have silenced Oswald before he could spill the beans.

Mob hitman James Files “confessed” that he had fired a shot from the grassy knoll.

The HSCA acknowledged possible Mafia involvement.

What’s in the Files:

New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello allegedly claimed he had a role in Kennedy’s assassination.

Memos from Hoover confirm Jack Ruby’s connection to the Mafia underworld.

The Communists

Whodunnit:

Oswald was a KGB agent and Cuban sympathizer, recruited by the USSR or Fidel Castro to get rid of Kennedy at the height of Cold War tensions.

Who Said It:

US intelligence services and the Warren Commission actively investigated this possibility.

Where’s the Proof:

Oswald defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and lived in Minsk until 1961, where he was monitored by the KGB.

What’s in the Files:

Weeks before the assassination, Oswald traveled to Mexico City, where he spoke with KGB agents, including assassin Valery Kostikov. He also may have met Russians in Helsinki, Finland.

A memo from Hoover says Oswald threatened to kill JFK three weeks before he did, and that he was hoping to get a visa to Cuba afterward.

An internal report from KGB agent Slava Nikonov, intercepted by US intelligence, shows a KGB scramble to determine if Oswald was indeed their agent, and if so, to cover it up. They concluded he was not.

As late as 1977, the CIA was assigning people to investigate Cuba’s involvement.

The Mossad

Who Said It:

Israel’s standing in the current geopolitical environment has given legs to this little-known theory, pushed by historian Martin Sandler.

Whodunnit:

The Mossad killed Kennedy, who was pressuring Israel to abandon its development of nuclear weapons at Dimona as part of his global disarmament strategy. Allegedly, Ben-Gurion resigned over the issue five months earlier.

What’s in the Files:

For anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, anything Jewish-related adds up to proof. Jack Ruby (real name: Jacob Rubenstein) was born an Orthodox Jew and may have killed Oswald to aid in the coverup.

A Secret Service document quotes a Cuban arms broker named Echevarria on the day before the shooting, “We now have plenty of money — our new backers are Jews — as soon as ‘we’ (or ‘they’) take care of Kennedy….”

The CIA agent assigned to read Oswald’s mail, Reuben Effron, was an Orthodox Jew. He later wrote extensive analyses of spycraft found in the Torah, and moved to Israel after his retirement.

Previously redacted documents reveal that the CIA agent in charge of Oswald, James J. Angleton, transferred nuclear weapons secrets to Israel against JFK’s orders.

Oswald’s Carcano rifle was sold by Klein’s Sporting Goods.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1055)