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Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 for truancy, during which time he was assessed by a psychiatrist as "emotionally disturbed" due to a lack of normal family life.
- Overview
- What’s in the Declassified JFK Assassination Documents?
- What the Experts Say
- Will These Declassified Documents Fuel More Conspiracy Theories?
- How Many JFK Assassination Files Have Been Declassified?
- Gallery: Artifacts of the JFK Assassination
- HISTORY Vault: JFK Assassination: The Definitive Guide
Do the documents shed new light on the 1963 killing—or launch new conspiracy theories?
In October 2017, the National Archives released more than 2,800 previously classified records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The documents sparked a feeding frenzy among historians and conspiracy theorists alike.
1) Of the documents that were originally set to be released, some 3,100 had never been seen by the public before. Though few experts expected the final batch of files to offer up a “smoking gun” proving Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in killing Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, the last batch of files were expected to provide more insight into exactly how much U.S. national security agencies knew about Oswald before the assassination, and how much information the CIA and FBI withheld from the official investigation into the assassination, which concluded in 1964.
Among the revelations to emerge from the files were CIA notes on an intercepted telephone call on September 28, 1963, from Lee Harvey Oswald to a KGB agent in Mexico City. There was also evidence that the FBI’s Dallas office received a threat on Oswald’s life on November 23, 1963, the night before Jack Ruby shot him, from a man saying he was a “member of a committee organized to kill Oswald.”
Gerald Posner, an expert on the Kennedy assassination and author of the book Cold Case, speculated that the revelations contained in the files might have proven embarrassing to some prominent figures: “There may be people who were informing to the CIA at the time who have moved on to careers in politics and business, and the revelation that they were informing will be embarrassing to them.”
Posner also believes the files may contain intriguing items unrelated to the assassination, including a handwritten letter from Jackie Kennedy about her husband’s funeral and a previously classified letter from J. Edgar Hoover.
Lee Harvey Oswald distributes 'Hands Off Cuba' flyers on the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana. This photograph was used in the Kennedy assassination investigation.
Despite the commission’s official conclusion in 1964 that Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy, many people have held fast to the belief that more than one person had to be involved. (It certainly didn’t help that Oswald never stood trial for the crime, having been shot to death by Jack Ruby two days after Kennedy’s assassination.)
Speculation about Oswald’s activities on his Mexico trip have long fueled one of the most popular JFK-related conspiracy theories, which argues that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro plotted to assassinate Kennedy as revenge for the Bay of Pigs invasion. In the 1970s, revelations that the Kennedy administration made various attempts to assassinate Castro fueled the idea that Castro acted first against Kennedy.
In addition to Castro, potential conspirators have included the CIA, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Mafia, the KGB or some malicious combination thereof. The success of Oliver Stone’s film JFK, which suggested a vast government conspiracy was behind the assassination, helped motivate the U.S. Congress to enact the Records Collection Act in 1992. By its terms, all material related to the assassination would be housed in a single collection at the National Archives.
Of the total library of files—which encompasses some 5 million pages—88 percent has been open and available to the public since the late 1990s, according to the National Archives. An additional 11 percent had been released in redacted form, with sensitive portions excised.
Leading up to October 2017, the Archives released a batch of material that July, including a total of 3,810 documents. Some 441 had been withheld in full until that point, and 3,369 previously released in redacted form. Among the released information were 17 audio files of interviews conducted with a KGB officer, Yuri Nosenko. Nosenko, who defected to the United States in early 1964, claimed to have been in charge of a file the KGB kept on Oswald during the time he lived in the Soviet Union (1959-62).
1 / 9: Time Life Pictures/National Archives/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
The records were made public under the 1992 John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which mandated that all material housed at the National Archives about the assassination be made public by October 26, 2017, which is the 25th anniversary of the act. Last-minute concerns by U.S. national security and intelligence agencies led then-President Donald Trump to block the release of thousands of the remaining files just hours before the deadline.
Leading experts explore the many theories of what happened on November 22, 1963.
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- Sarah Pruitt
Nov 9, 2023 · Lee Harvey Oswald and CIA officer George Joannides. Photo: JFK Assassination Records Collection (Oswald) & CIA FOIA files (Joannides) This article was featured in One Great Story , New York ’s ...
- Scott Sayare
- Contributor
Nov 21, 2013 · It was there that she met a 20-year-old American called Lee Harvey Oswald. He was staying in her hotel while trying to defect to the Soviet Union. McMillan interviewed him.
- John Meroney
Nov 24, 2015 · Oswald’s two-and-a-half-year Russian journey is over. The Oswalds move in with Lee’s brother in Fort Worth, Texas. Soon after, the FBI interviews him about his time in the Soviet Union ...
- Bill Rockwood
Nov 19, 2013 · What the CIA knew about Lee Harvey Oswald's 1963 visit to Mexico has become one of the most closely guarded secrets in the agency's history. What the CIA knew about Lee Harvey Oswald's 1963 visit ...
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Nov 15, 2022 · Meanwhile at the University of Oklahoma, watching the coverage in the student center, Paul Gregory scanned the figure in dark trousers and a white, V-neck tee shirt and saw the bruised and battered face of Lee Harvey Oswald. Shocked, Gregory said, “I know that man.” In fact, he knew Oswald and his wife Marina better than almost anyone in ...
![[Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald] - Side 9 of 28 - The Portal to Texas History](https://ca.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=jared+kotler+and+lee+harvey+oswald&ei=UTF-8&th=102.8&tw=143.3&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftexashistory.unt.edu%2Fiiif%2Fark%3A%2F67531%2Fmetapth338720%2Fm1%2F9%2Ffull%2Ffull%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftexashistory.unt.edu%2Fark%3A%2F67531%2Fmetapth338720%2Fm1%2F9%2F&size=135KB&name=%5BMurder+of+Lee+Harvey+Oswald%5D+-+Side+9+of+28+-+The+Portal+to+Texas+History&oid=2&h=1077&w=1500&turl=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.QgF1ODl4cXmfNXHThSpReQHaFU%26pid%3DApi%26rs%3D1%26c%3D1%26qlt%3D95%26w%3D143%26h%3D102&tt=%5BMurder+of+Lee+Harvey+Oswald%5D+-+Side+9+of+28+-+The+Portal+to+Texas+History&sigr=PrKEltBxyxwz&sigit=cyFAvhYsV5yi&sigi=I_dy5pRgz1AU&sign=ROMzgvBI24sQ&sigt=ROMzgvBI24sQ "[Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald] - Side 9 of 28 - The Portal to Texas History")
