A few minutes before the assassination on November 22, 1963, in Dallas: US President John F. Kennedy with First Lady Jacqueline "Jackie" Kennedy, John Connally, Governor of Texas, and his wife, Nellie Connally.

JTFMax:

LONE PERSON OR A CONTRACT KILLER?

On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy († 46) was shot in Dallas (Texas). Lee Harvey Oswald († 24) had fired the fatal shots from a nearby school library window. One of the bullets shattered the head of the then-US President. The culprit is undisputed. But the background to the most shocking attack in world history has been entwined with wild assumptions and crude conspiracy theories for 59 years.

Now there should be new clues: The National Library in Washington DC had released new documents from the last tranche of secret documents following an order from US President Joe Biden (80). Exactly 13,173 documents were published Thursday on the official website. But: Again, the most secret documents, potential "crown jewels" of the JFK death record, remain under lock and key or in places blacked out.

John F. Kennedy in January 1961 in Washington, DC.

"Further reviews" are needed before release, the White House said. Next date: June 30, 2023. The decision promptly triggered severe criticism of Biden – even though his predecessor Donald Trump (76), had also been wasting time in 2017.

A complete clarification of questionable connections to the assassination is not expected from the most recent publication. Instead, the debate is likely to heat up: Was Oswald a confused lone wolf or the instrument in an assassination plot hatched by sinister forces within the US security apparatus, the Mafia or the Soviets?

After all: It is the most significant file release since 2017! As a result, 97 percent of all JFK documents are now public.

The US President and First Lady were the glamor couple of the Washington political scene.

The new material is gripping for historians and conspiracy theorists - it should include explosive aspects of the Oswald investigation.

Also noted was Oswald's earlier emigration to the Soviet Union, along with a related Washington Post article detailing Oswald's return to Texas with his Russian wife Marina and their baby. It shows that the CIA had the young ex-marine soldier on their radar as early as June 22, 1962.

Moreover, one of JFK's leading experts, Jefferson Morley, had repeatedly speculated that Oswald should have been recruited by the CIA in the summer of 1963 for possible "psychological warfare" special operations - or was recruited.

Only fragments of the files remain on the case of CIA veteran George Joannides: the spy was involved in secret operations aimed at overthrowing Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Four months before the Kennedy assassination, he had contact with Oswald. Only two out of 44 disputed documents were declassified on Thursday.

The CIA's profile files on the later killer are also at the center of interest. Most of these 50,000 pages in 80 volumes containing intelligence findings about Oswald before and after the Kennedy assassination had already been published in previous years. But there were no documents. As a result, there is growing suspicion that the CIA knew far more about Oswald as a threat than they ever admitted. The so-called "Warren Commission," which investigated the assassination and identified Oswald as the lone perpetrator, received an incomplete Oswald file from the CIA. A previously released note admitted that 37 documents had "disappeared" from the file.

Biden released 1,500 files last year. But before each release, parts of the government apparatus, including the CIA, the Pentagon, and the FBI, raised legal objections. Of course, that sparked conspiracy theories. Particularly explosive among the documents released in 2021: the transcript of an anonymous call to the US Embassy in Australia warning that the Soviets were planning an attack on Kennedy...

JFK Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald after arrest.

Overall, according to Morley, there are two theories: Did the CIA, despite the many contacts and observations, underestimate Oswald's potential for danger - or was he protected? And if so, why? For the expert, the trail leads most likely to conspirators in government circles responsible for US national security. Kennedy would indeed have had enemies there. However, there is no definitive proof so far.

Oswald took his secrets and possible motives with him to the grave: he was shot dead by nightclub owner Jack Ruby after his arrest when the police had taken Oswald away in the middle of a crowd on November 24, 1963. A 1964 document records discussions among government officials. One, Felix Dmitreyevich Karasev, felt that Ruby had found it difficult to kill Oswald "without the help of US officials."