Almost 30 years after the fact, the American Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

It meant that all the assassination-related records were to be transferred to the National Archives for public access.

Around 88% of the records are open to full access, with 11% open but with “sensitive portions” removed, and 1% totally withheld, reports BBC.

But the act also stated that “all records must be published in full within 25 years, unless the president says otherwise” and, thanks to the gracious, ever-giving Donald Trump, the records will be release in full tomorrow.

Look how he pleased he is with himself:

If you aren’t too clued up on the whole saga, here’s snapshot of the event:

Travelling in an open-topped limousine in Dallas, the 35th President of the United States was shot dead on November 22, 1963. Governor of Texas John Connally, who was sitting in front of the president, was wounded but survived.

Within an hour, Dallas policeman JD Tippit also died.

Soon afterwards, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and, within 12 hours, was charged with the killings of President John F Kennedy and JD Tippit.

But there’s more:

On 24 November, Oswald was shot dead in the basement of the Dallas police department by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. The shooting was captured live on television.

Ruby was convicted of killing Oswald and sentenced to death. He appealed but died of cancer in 1967, before the retrial.

Here’s the moment Ruby shot Oswald:

So that’s the gist of the assassination of one of America’s most-loved presidents – but to this day no one knows “the real reason why” JFK was shot.

A week after the incident, President Lyndon B Johnson set up a commission to investigate the case. The Warren Commission’s report, published in September 1964, said that:

• The shots were fired from the sixth-floor window at the south-east corner of the Texas School Book Depository
• The shots were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald
• There was “no evidence that either Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign”.

Other investigations concluded that:

• In 1968, a panel of four doctors “supported the medical conclusions of the Warren Commission”
• In 1975, the Rockefeller Commission found “no credible evidence of any CIA involvement”
• In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations largely supported the Warren Commission – but said there was a “high probability that two gunmen fired at President Kennedy”.

But, as with other conspicuous events with unanswered question, a range of conspiracies have popped up as a result:

Some people believe “another” gunman fired from the “grassy knoll”, which the president’s limousine passed.

Jefferson Morley is a former Washington Post reporter who has written several books on the killing – including one, out this week, about former CIA counter-intelligence chief James Angleton.

He “tends to doubt” that Oswald shot JFK. He says it’s more likely the fatal shot came from in front of Kennedy – rather than behind.

A paraffin test on Oswald’s cheek, after he was arrested, suggested he hadn’t fired a rifle (the test’s reliability has been questioned).

While the Warren Commission said Oswald acted alone, it did note that he travelled to the Soviet Union in 1959, unsuccessfully applied for Soviet citizenship, and lived there until 1962.

It also found that Oswald – a self-proclaimed Marxist – visited the Cuban and Russian embassies in Mexico City in September 1963, two months before Kennedy was shot.

Whalen says the newly released documents may shed light on this trip.

“What was Oswald doing in Mexico City weeks before the assassination? Did he meet Cuban and Soviet intelligence officials? Did they give him a green light?

“Certainly Fidel Castro (Cuban prime minister, then president) had motive to kill President Kennedy. We – we being the United States government – were trying to kill him.”

Phew, that was a long one – but now you should be ready for the information set to come to light in the next few days.

[source:bbc]