JFK files could start as many conspiracies as they answer
FOR conspiracy theorists, today marks the culmination of a half-century-long wait to learn the full facts of the assassination of a president.
More than 3,000 top secret files relating to the murder of John F Kennedy in 1963 will be released today, to be pored over by historians and JFK enthusiasts for clues about his death.
The documents are being published after Donald Trump announced at the weekend that he would not block their release. They are expected to include testimony and letters from the heads of the CIA and FBI, Jackie Kennedy and the lawyer of a mafia boss.
It is hoped the files will answer some lingering questions: did Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy’s assassin, work alone? Was there a second gunman? Was Oswald part of a wider conspiracy?
They may also cast light on darker corners of America’s history, including the lengths intelligence agencies went to in order to defend their reputation after the killing.
But historians are warning people not to count on the files ending the conspiracy theories once and for all.
Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, told The Daily Telegraph there was unlikely to be a “blockbuster” discovery, but the files could shed light on some key questions.
One surrounds a trip Oswald made to Mexico City, a hotbed of communist activity at the time, just weeks before he shot Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Another is why more was not done to investigate Jack Ruby, the nightclub owner who shot and killed Oswald two days after Kennedy died, ending the chance of a full interrogation and trial.
“The tougher question has always been, did Oswald do it for himself or did he do it for someone else,” said Mr Posner. “I can find no evidence that links him with a conspiracy.
“If that evidence is in there, then I would change my mind. But I would hope the same thing would apply to people who think it’s a conspiracy. If they don’t find the evidence they’ve been looking for, they might start to consider the possibility that Oswald had done it alone.”
But he added: “I think the conspiracies will live on far beyond the release of these documents.”
Interest is expected to be intense: a trial run in July in which the National Archives released a fraction of the files led to a computer system crash.
It remains possible that some files will still be kept back. Mr Trump put a caveat to his announcement on Saturday by saying that the documents would be published “subject to the receipt of further information”.
Some fear informants might be named, angering families and fracturing ties with other nations.
Whatever emerges, changing public opinion will be a tall order.
According to a poll in October, two thirds of Americans think Oswald did not act alone.