Category: JFK Files

New files reveal that Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and others were quietly monitored and discussed as national security threats following the assassination.

---

🧾 One Hit, Several Warnings

JFK was killed on November 22, 1963.
But his death wasn’t the end of a chapter-it was the opening of a purge.

The 2025 declassification reveals:

At least four high-level individuals were placed on internal security watchlists within 48 hours of Kennedy’s assassination.

None were accused of wrongdoing.
But all shared one thing in common:
They were politically or ideologically aligned with John F. Kennedy’s more aggressive reforms.

---

📁 File: “Post-22 Targets – Security Reassessment Briefing, 11/24/63”

This document-originating from a CIA Domestic Operations Division meeting-lists several “Tier II review subjects.”

Names include:

• Robert F. Kennedy
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Senator George Smathers
• NSC Adviser John McNaughton

Each name is annotated with a code for “escalating surveillance priority.”

---

📡 The RFK Files

An internal FBI memo from December 3, 1963, references “growing concern over AG Kennedy’s continued pursuit of unredacted CIA reports related to Cuba.”

One phrase in Hoover’s own handwriting reads:

“If he pushes too far, he’ll meet his brother’s fate.”

This document was previously redacted. The 2025 release unsealed it.

---

🧠 Martin Luther King Jr. – Collateral Pressure

Declassified NSA communications show that MLK was included in at least two internal briefings about potential “domestic destabilizers.”

Why?
Because of “overlap between SCLC financial backers and anti-CIA press activity.”

One cable summary from early 1964 states:

“King’s mobilization power is becoming indistinct from subversive momentum. Mitigation advised.”

Less than four years later, MLK was assassinated.

---

💼 Other Notables

• Senator George Smathers was discouraged from pushing forward a Senate intelligence oversight hearing. He received an anonymous death threat in early 1964.
• NSC Adviser McNaughton’s travel was temporarily suspended after he requested classified access to JFK’s Vietnam withdrawal planning.

A military memo (2025 release) flatly notes:

“His request was flagged as nonessential for clearance. Subject stability unclear.”

---

🔚 The Shots in Dallas Echoed for Years

JFK wasn’t just removed.
He was the first in a quiet campaign against what some in the intelligence community called “dangerous idealism.”

His death lit a fuse.

And others were standing too close to the flame.

Newly declassified files show a window of time-between Dallas and Bethesda-where JFK’s body and casket may not have traveled together.

---

🕑 A Missing 18 Minutes

Officially, President Kennedy’s body was flown aboard Air Force One in a bronze ceremonial casket, accompanied by Jackie Kennedy.

But according to Bethesda Naval Hospital entry logs-now fully declassified-the casket that arrived at the morgue was a lightweight military shipping container.

The time of arrival?
18 minutes earlier than Air Force One touched down.

---

📁 The Gawler Memo: “Body Received in Alternate Container”

A memo from Gawler’s Funeral Home, dated November 23, 1963, notes:

“Upon arrival, body was already prepped and placed in a different casket than described by Secret Service detail.”

This memo had been redacted until the 2025 release. The section now visible says:

“Surgical incisions were present that did not match Bethesda prep log or Parkland ER records.”

---

⚰️ Chain of Custody: Broken

The 2025 ARRB Summary Sheet confirms that:

• Two caskets were logged by Bethesda staff between 6:35 PM and 6:55 PM
• Two sets of arrival photos exist-but only one was archived officially
• Multiple naval personnel on site testified to seeing the body being transferred quietly, without full honor detail

Internal note from Rear Admiral Burkley:

“Unclear who authorized switch. Circumvented standard entry protocol.”

---

🧠 The Head Wound That Changed

A key inconsistency noted by Dr. Charles Crenshaw in Dallas:
“Large avulsive wound in the occipital-parietal region.”

Yet Bethesda’s official report shows:

“Massive frontal damage. Rear intact.”

The 2025 files include an unclassified photo inventory list with a blank entry marked:

“Pre-Bethesda cranial angle – removed per DCI order, 11/24.”

That photo has never surfaced.

---

🧩 Two Autopsies?

A partially redacted memo titled “AFIP Correlation Exercise” suggests that a second autopsy was quietly performed on the body-possibly before the official one at Bethesda.

The memo notes:

“Initial cranial impressions inconsistent with 6:45 PM reports. Follow-up to proceed under compartmentalized protocol.”

Translation:
They had a version of the body that didn’t match what the public was told.

---

🔚 The Body Tells the Story-Unless It’s Changed

The 2025 documents don’t just suggest the possibility of a body switch.

They confirm the timeline allowed for it.
And that top officials-civilian and military-were aware.

The truth may have flown on Air Force One.

But something else arrived at the morgue.

2025 documents confirm a systematic effort to discredit, intimidate, or erase key Dealey Plaza witnesses-especially those who contradicted the official story.

---

🚩 The Sounds from the Knoll

More than a dozen people in Dealey Plaza heard shots from the front-near the picket fence and the grassy knoll. Some even saw people or smoke there.

But their stories rarely made it into the Warren Report.

The 2025 files show why:
Many of those witnesses were silenced.

---

📁 Witness 1: Ed Hoffman – The Deaf Eyewitness

Ed Hoffman, a deaf man who witnessed a puff of smoke and a man behind the fence, reported what he saw to the FBI through a translator.

A newly declassified FBI memo reads:

“Hoffman is disabled and should not be used as a credible source. Recommend disregarding and monitoring further attempts to contact press.”

His story didn’t change. But the press never touched it again.

---

👀 Witness 2: Lee Bowers – The Tower Guard

Lee Bowers worked in the railroad tower behind the knoll. He saw two men standing behind the fence just before the shots rang out.

His Warren Commission testimony was heavily redacted.

The 2025 files show that Bowers later approached a local reporter in 1966 to share more details-including:

“They weren’t railroad men. They weren’t supposed to be there.”

Three months later, Bowers died in a one-car accident under unclear conditions.

---

🧍‍♀️ Witness 3: Beverly Oliver – The “Babushka Lady”

The so-called Babushka Lady filmed the assassination from the grass near the knoll.

Beverly Oliver later came forward claiming to be her-and said the film she shot was confiscated by men claiming to be FBI agents.

A 2025 inter-agency memo reads:

“Film believed to exist. Subject erratic and theatrical. No follow-up advised.”

No official record of the film’s return exists. It was never archived.

---

🧠 Witness 4: Gordon Arnold – “I Was There. They Took My Film.”

Gordon Arnold, a soldier, later told researchers he was on the knoll, filming, when he was approached by two men with badges who took his camera.

A 2025 FBI summary confirms Arnold was stationed in Dallas on Nov. 22, and includes:

“Subject has credible timeline, location conflicts with official reconstruction. Statement not pursued.”

He died in 1997-still claiming his story had been buried.

---

🔥 Pattern: Ignore, Discredit, Eliminate

The 2025 documents reveal a classified FBI directive titled “Witness Threat Index – Dealey Plaza”, dated January 1964. It includes categories:

• “Non-cooperative”
• “Contradicts rifle origin”
• “Unverifiable but dangerous”

Notes for certain witnesses include terms like:

“Apply soft discredit.”
“Avoid media exposure.”
“Redirect with counter-narrative.”

---

🔚 They Weren’t Just Ignored-They Were Targeted

The Grassy Knoll wasn’t a myth.

It was a problem.

And the people who challenged the official story were seen as threats-not to the truth, but to the cover-up.

The 2025 files show that “lone gunman” was never about evidence.

It was about eliminating anything that questioned it.

Declassified memos from both sides of the Florida Straits show Havana tried to sound the alarm about Oswald-and the U.S. buried it.

---

🌴 The Havana Backchannel

While Lee Harvey Oswald’s trip to Mexico City in September 1963 has drawn intense scrutiny, less attention has been paid to the Cuban response to that visit.

The 2025 CIA and State Department releases show that Cuban intelligence flagged Oswald as “unstable and hostile”-and that warning made it into the hands of U.S. officials.

They just didn’t act on it.

---

📁 File: “Comportamiento Errático – Oswald” (DGI Internal Memo)

Dated October 9, 1963, this document from Cuba’s Dirección General de Inteligencia (DGI) described Oswald’s behavior at the Cuban consulate in Mexico City:

• He was “erratic and aggressive”
• Demanded a visa “with urgency”
• Mentioned “taking matters into [his] own hands” if rejected

The memo was quietly passed via a Brazilian intermediary to a U.S. consular contact in Havana.

---

🧠 U.S. Response? Redacted and Discarded

A 2025-declassified State Department cable from Havana to Langley includes the notation:

“Received Cuban comm. re: Oswald. Dismissed as diversionary misinfo attempt. No further action.”

No follow-up.

---

🕵️ A KGB Intercept

The 2025 dump also included Soviet internal communications showing that Cuban embassy staff in Moscow contacted Soviet intelligence about Oswald after the assassination, saying:

“This is the same man we reported. He was not stable. He mentioned actions against Kennedy.”

Soviet officials advised them to stay silent, per the cable:

“The Americans will not thank you for the truth now. This is their fiction to manage.”

---

🎙️ CIA Mexico Station Memo: “Oswald and the Red Triangle”

A memo from the CIA station in Mexico City, now unredacted, includes a hand-scrawled postscript:

“Red triangle file [Oswald] tagged by Cuban consul Alvarez. Labeled potential ‘American agitator.’”

This memo was buried in an unrelated Latin America folder-until now.

---

🔚 Warnings Came-But the Narrative Was Already Written

Cuba warned us.

They tried to alert the U.S. government about Oswald’s instability and his violent ideation.

But the response wasn’t to investigate.

It was to bury the warnings and preserve the pre-written “lone nut” narrative.

The 2025 files reveal:

The truth crossed borders. The cover-up stopped it cold.

Declassified cables show warnings from diplomats in Mexico City, Rome, and Havana-each predicting a potential attack on President Kennedy within days of November 22.

---

🧾 The Whispers That Should’ve Roared

Among the strangest revelations in the 2025 archive are quiet diplomatic warnings-filed under economic reports, travel logs, and embassy dispatches.

They were flagged internally, rerouted to low-level analysis teams, then archived without follow-up.

Why?

Because every one of them hinted at the unthinkable.

---

🇲🇽 Mexico City Cable – November 18, 1963

An encrypted cable from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City was discovered in a batch labeled “Staff Rotation Logs.”

It reads:

“Friendly diplomatic source states high-level Cuban defector is forecasting ‘a significant act in Texas’ against highest U.S. figure. States timeline ‘within a week.’”

Handwritten annotation from a CIA analyst:

“Could be psychological operation. No action recommended.”

The source? Believed to be tied to Alberto Rodríguez, a Cuban informant working with Mexican security.

---

🇮🇹 Rome Dispatch – November 15, 1963

A memo from a State Department attaché in Rome, marked “For Internal Eyes Only,” references a meeting with a French intelligence observer.

From the report:

“Foreign asset advises whispers of anti-Kennedy action in U.S.-refers to him as ‘a man in grave danger of his own people.’”

The report ends with:

“Request guidance on escalation.”

There’s no record of a response.

---

🇨🇺 Havana Communication – November 19, 1963

The most stunning find:
A Havana station memo cites chatter from a Czech diplomat stationed at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Notes overheard sentiment of Kennedy being ‘removed’ by elements inside his own system-not by Cubans.”

This message was labeled “Non-credible-internal rival propaganda.”

It was never shared with Washington.

---

🧠 The Pattern: Know, Dismiss, Bury

An ARRB 2025 audit shows at least 6 international warnings-from embassies or partner nations-were logged, rerouted, and left off official threat assessments.

The key phrase used in internal CIA routing slips?

“Too ambiguous for strategic integration.”

In other words:

Better to ignore than to investigate.

---

🔚 The World Knew Something Was Coming

France knew.

Mexico heard whispers.

Even inside Cuba, the signal came through: something was going to happen.

But inside the U.S. system, those voices weren’t inconvenient-they were unwelcome.

Declassified psychological warfare files reveal a covert program to guide public perception in the hours after the president’s death.

---

🕵️‍♂️ A Psychological “Pre-Brief”

In a heavily redacted CIA briefing memo from November 1963, uncovered in the 2025 document dump, we find this line:

“STILLPOINT protocols to be initiated in the event of national trauma involving high office.”

This was two weeks before the assassination.

The memo was titled:
“Continuity of Emotional Governance – Phase One.”

---

📁 The Blueprint for Calm

STILLPOINT wasn’t just contingency planning.
It was behavioral warfare turned inward.

Goals listed in the operation’s mission file:

• Dampen collective anger
• Reinforce trust in federal institutions
• Avoid demand for broad investigations
• Insert consistent language in media messaging

The execution was swift.
The day JFK was killed, the following were implemented:

• National news anchors received a “tone and phrasing” bulletin
• Government psychologists were embedded with press teams
• The “Lone Gunman” phrase was distributed within 4 hours

---

🧠 Langley’s Emotional Architect

The program’s lead designer?
A CIA behavioral scientist named Dr. Paul Everett Gains, who previously worked on MKULTRA subproject 146.

Gains’ archived psychological profile for national consumption noted:

“Shock narratives should avoid introducing ambiguity. Ambiguity invites paranoia. Clarity, even false clarity, is stabilizing.”

He recommended the immediate circulation of three concepts:

1. Oswald acted alone
2. The government responded swiftly
3. The future was secure

All were broadcast before midnight on Nov. 22.

---

📞 The Press Packet

The 2025 files include a faxed document sent to major wire services and TV anchors titled:

“ASSASSINATION – MESSAGE UNIFORMITY FOR CIVIC CALM”

Instructions:

• Do not reference alternate shooters
• Use “tragedy” rather than “attack”
• Refer to Oswald as “a former defector,” not “a covert agent”

Even anchors like Walter Cronkite followed these scripts verbatim.

---

🔐 Suppressed Debrief: The “Secondary Reactions” Study

A 1964 internal report titled “Secondary Reactions to JFK Termination Event – Civilian Group B” analyzed delayed grief responses, political radicalization, and growing distrust.

The conclusion?

“STILLPOINT succeeded in Phase One. Phase Two requires increased redaction culture and simplified mass narrative reinforcement.”

In short-continue to deny, obscure, and downplay.

---

🔚 They Controlled the Narrative Before the Facts

STILLPOINT wasn’t about facts.
It was about narrative engineering-a psychological firewall between the people and the truth.

The 2025 files show that the cover-up began before the gunfire stopped.

And it started not with lies-but with intentional framing.

New records reveal how the president’s shirt and jacket were mishandled, withheld, or vanished altogether-before analysis could be completed.

---

🚪 Fabric Doesn’t Lie-Unless It’s Missing

Clothing is a forensic goldmine in any homicide:

• Entry and exit wound paths
• Gunpowder residue
• Fiber contamination
• Blood spatter trajectory

But in the case of President John F. Kennedy, the chain of custody for his clothing was broken, buried, and officially unresolved.

---

📁 The Suit: Logged, Then Lost

An FBI property form dated November 22, 1963 logs the transfer of JFK’s:

• Blue wool suit jacket
• White collared shirt
• Dark tie

The same log notes “held for analysis – Quantico.”

But a 2025 DOJ inventory shows that:

“No suit jacket currently held by FBI, NARA, or SS forensic archive. Status: undocumented transfer.”

Even more shocking-no one ever signed it back in.

---

👔 The Shirt That Changed Colors

Autopsy room photos show a white dress shirt soaked in blood.
An internal FBI evidence memo from Nov. 23 describes:

“Front entry puncture center-left chest. Secondary tear at collar.”

But the version shown to the Warren Commission was:

• Cleaned
• Pressed
• Missing the collar tear

And according to the newly released Dallas Police Property Transfer Log, the shirt was “returned to Secret Service custody for executive archive” in December 1963.

Where is it now?

No one knows.

---

🧠 The Tie: Cut and Concealed

Medical staff at Parkland Hospital cut JFK’s tie to remove it quickly. This was routine.
But the 2025 archive confirms that:

• The cut tie was never sent to Quantico for GSR testing
• A duplicate tie was used for Warren Commission display purposes

A Navy memo dated Jan. 1964 refers to “optics of reintroducing blood-soaked fabric” and suggests:

“Display item to be selected with dignity in mind.”

---

🔥 The NARA File That Wasn’t

The 2025 file release includes a document titled “Executive Garment Disposition Summary”-but the entire second page is redacted under a new exemption:

“Protected under Presidential Privacy Provision 14-C (Evidence of Emotional Distress to Surviving Family).”

This is a new clause added in 2024.

Meaning: even now, JFK’s clothing is being withheld on emotional-not forensic-grounds.

---

🔚 The Fabric of the Crime Unravels

The most direct evidence of where bullets entered and exited the President-his clothing-was:

• Mishandled
• Sanitized
• Replaced
• And, in some cases, completely disappeared

The 2025 records show that in the name of “preservation,”
the evidence that could have confirmed or challenged the official story was wiped away.

Newly unsealed audio transcripts reveal a president worried less about justice-and more about fallout.

---

🎙️ The Tapes They Shelved

LBJ’s personal recordings have trickled out for years, but nine tapes were classified under national security grounds until the latest JFK release.

Most were recorded between Nov. 23 and Dec. 10, 1963, in the White House and at his private ranch.

What they capture isn’t a president seeking truth-it’s a man managing optics, allies, and internal threats.

---

📁 Tape 11/23A – “We’re Not Starting a War Over This”

This recording, made the morning after the assassination, features Johnson speaking with J. Edgar Hoover.

LBJ:

“We’ve got Khrushchev breathing, we’ve got Castro breathing, and if we say it’s any one of them, it’s goddamn war.”

Hoover replies:

“We’ve already started folding Oswald’s file. He’s perfect for this.”

Johnson:

“Good. Then keep him perfect. I need that story locked tight.”

---

📞 Tape 11/25B – “The Problem is Dallas, Not the Commies”

LBJ to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara:

“Forget Moscow. We need Dallas to stay quiet. Too many damn locals with different stories.”

McNamara:

“There’s talk about a second shooter.”

LBJ:

“Then bury the second shooter. What matters is that the country’s stable.”

---

🧠 Tape 11/27 – “I Don’t Trust the Commission, I Trust the Result”

A private moment with Senator Richard Russell, who LBJ appointed to the Warren Commission:

Russell:

“I don’t buy this lone boy. Doesn’t smell right.”

LBJ:

“I don’t care what you buy. I need it in writing.”

Russell would later submit a formal dissenting opinion-but it was buried until the ARRB forced its release in the ’90s.

---

📂 Memo Link: “Narrative Cohesion Must Precede Investigation”

Alongside the tapes, a White House internal memo from Nov. 29, 1963, reads:

“Presidential directive: all executive departments are to align with federal investigatory leadership. Independent commentary or contradictory findings are to be discouraged until the Commission concludes.”

This memo predates any actual investigation.

---

🧨 Johnson’s Ranch Visit – CIA Debrief

A 2025 file logs an off-the-record meeting between LBJ and CIA Deputy Director Marshall Carter at Johnson’s Texas ranch on Dec. 2, 1963.

Topic: “Future-proofing the domestic narrative.”

No official notes exist.

But a CIA staffer’s summary (declassified this year) says:

“President expressed concern that pursuit of alternate theories would be ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘detrimental to world order.’”

---

🔚 He Didn’t Just Inherit the Presidency-He Inherited the Cover-Up

LBJ didn’t just step into JFK’s shoes.

He stepped into a political minefield-and decided to pave it over instead of dig it up.

The tapes reveal a man more afraid of instability than injustice.

And one who saw truth as a threat-not a duty.

Newly declassified CIA and OMB records uncover covert funds used to contain, discredit, and bury the truth behind the assassination.

---

💰 No Oversight, No Accountability

Most Americans don’t realize that in 1963, a large portion of U.S. intelligence spending operated under what was called “non-itemized emergency defense authorization.”

The 2025 records finally reveal what some of that money paid for after November 22:

• Media influence
• Witness suppression
• International coordination
• Psychological operations
• Controlled leaks and counter-narratives

This wasn’t just a cover-up-it was a funded campaign.

---

📁 File Ref: “Project PALISADE – Discretionary Allocation Dockets”

In a March 1964 CIA finance memo, Project PALISADE is described as:

“An umbrella designation for post-event narrative stabilization and information sanitation regarding domestic Executive Termination Incident (ETI-63).”

Total budget noted:
$4.36 million - untraceable, off-ledger, approved directly through National Security Action Memorandum 276-B.

That memo was not available publicly until January 2025.

---

🗞️ Media Management: Paid Influence

CIA records show a $600,000 budget line item for “independent press correspondence development.”

Translated:

Paying journalists to reinforce the lone gunman theory.

One cable from the CIA’s Domestic Contact Division notes:

“AP, UPI, and CBS onboard with simplified trajectory. NYT requires soft leverage-drafting response letter from ‘concerned citizen group.’”

Another expense: $40,000 to “develop and maintain private photographic archive for press distribution.”
This archive omitted certain images and enhanced others.

---

🧠 Psychological Reinforcement Programs

Operation STILLPOINT (covered in Part 38) wasn’t cheap.

• $300k went to the Office of Research and Development (ORD) for “mass trauma response narrative profiling”
• $92k spent on “televised grief consistency” media scripting (including anchor talking points)
• $120k disbursed to an unnamed ad agency to design memorial framing campaigns-encouraging reflection over inquiry

---

🚨 Witness Neutralization Fund

Perhaps most disturbing:
A CIA memo dated June 1964, titled “WPTX Disbursement Oversight,” details:

• $75k spent on relocation services for “uncooperative Dealey Plaza observers”
• $40k marked for “legal diversion strategies in peripheral homicide cases”
• Multiple entries coded as “C4R” – Classified Containment, Civilian

None of these were officially acknowledged until now.

---

🔚 The Truth Wasn’t Hidden for Free

What the 2025 files make brutally clear is this:

The cover-up had a budget.

It was designed, resourced, and operationalized.

Millions were spent not to investigate the truth-but to erase it.