A whole bunch of JFK assassination documents just got released — except for one pretty important one.
The Trump administration finally opened up more files on what went down that day in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
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John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the U.S., was shot in broad daylight while riding through the city in an open-top limo.
People have spent decades debating what really happened. The official story says Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine, was the one who pulled the trigger. But a lot of people — including some investigators — think there was someone else involved.
Trump releases thousands of documents, but one is still missing
Right after stepping back into office, Trump signed an executive order to release tens of thousands of previously classified JFK-related documents. These weren’t just about Kennedy, either. They also covered his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
On March 18, about 2,200 records were finally made public. But historians say it’s gonna take a while to actually go through everything.
Investigators always suspected there was another gunman
Oswald was shot and killed just two days after the assassination, so there was never a chance to get answers from him. Over the years, theories have pointed fingers in every direction — some say it was the CIA, others blame the Mafia, and some think it had to do with political enemies.
At this point, more than 42 groups, 82 different assassins, and 214 people have been accused of having something to do with it.
The newly released files contain shocking details
These files aren’t just dry government reports. There are typewritten notes, handwritten messages, and even some big revelations. Apparently, Oswald was described as a “poor shot”, which raises even more questions about how he pulled it off.
Also, the Secret Service had reportedly been warned three months before that Kennedy was gonna be killed. And then there’s the part where a top CIA agent straight-up said the “deep state” was behind it.
The missing document is a crucial conversation between Johnson and the CIA director
James Johnston, author of Murder, Inc.: The CIA under John F. Kennedy, told USA Today there’s one major document that still hasn’t been made public.
He says he knows for a fact it exists, but for some reason, it’s not in the National Archives.
It’s supposedly a record of the very first conversation between President Lyndon Johnson and CIA Director John McCone after Johnson took office.
The CIA had promised to release everything decades ago
Johnston actually worked on the congressional Church Committee that investigated the CIA back in 1975. He told the outlet that the agency had already promised to hand over everything by 1988.
“If it was going to embarrass the agency or tell a different story, they wouldn’t have turned them over to the National Archives in the first place. And if they were withholding them before, I’m guessing they would continue to withhold them,” he said.
The CIA director at the time was suspected of withholding information
McCone, the CIA director back then, was rumored to have kept information from the Warren Commission — which was the official group Johnson set up to investigate JFK’s murder.
Despite all that, he still kept his job.
The Warren Commission dismissed any conspiracy theories
In the end, the commission concluded that Oswald wasn’t part of some bigger plot. According to them, he was just a former Marine acting alone, driven by Marxist beliefs.
The missing document could answer key questions about Cuba’s involvement
One of the biggest lingering questions? Was Cuba involved?
JFK had tried using the CIA to take out Fidel Castro, Cuba’s communist leader. If this missing document ever comes out, it might help clear up whether Cuba had something to do with Kennedy’s death.
Historians and theorists are still searching for answers
But even with all these documents out in the open, some people think we’re still missing the most important piece of the puzzle.
