JFK Assassination Files: 5 Things Newly Released Documents Show

WASHINGTON, DC — The release of previously classified files relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 54 years ago hasn't turned up any bombshells, but conspiracy theorists who believe Lee Harvey Oswald couldn’t have killed the young president without assistance may find some nuggets to chew on — among them, suggestions by the former Soviet Union that Kennedy’s vice president and successor, Lyndon Johnson, orchestrated a plot. Also, then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover said intelligence officials would have to come up with something to convince the public that Oswald acted alone.

The release of the JFK files was triggered by a deadline set by a 1992 law, the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, passed to quiet conspiracy theorists — especially after Oliver Stone’s conspiracy film “JFK” released the year prior. The film theorized that Oswald didn't acted alone when he shot Kennedy as the president's motorcade crept along a Dallas, Texas, street Nov. 23, 1963. The Warren Commission determined that Oswald was the lone assassin.

In all, 2,800 files were released Thursday by the National Archives. President Trump bowed to pressure from the CIA and FBI to withhold some files for six-months to ensure that current operations, sources and methods aren't compromised. The latest release brings to 69,000 the number of the more than 87,000 CIA records pertaining to the assassination that have already been released in full.

In a statement Thursday evening, the agency said none of the 18,000 remaining records will be withheld in full and that the redacted parts of these remaining records represent less than 1 percent of the total CIA information in the assassination-related documents.

Also See: Trump Delays Some JFK Files While Releasing Others

Here are five things the documents show:

1. A 'coup' by the 'ultraright': On Dec. 1, 1966, Hoover wrote that Soviet spies believed Johnson, who was sworn in as the commander-in-chief after Kennedy died, had orchestrated the assassination. “According to our source, officials of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union believed there was some well-organized conspiracy on the part of the 'ultraright' to affect a 'coup.' They seemed convinced that the assassination was not the deed of one man, but that it arose out of a carefully planned campaign in which several people played a part." Later in the memo, Hoover wrote that intelligence sources indicated the "KGB was in possession of data purporting to indicate President Johnson was responsible for the assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy."

2. Death threat against Oswald: On the night Kennedy was killed, Hoover warned in a written memo that the FBI had received a call from a man "talking in a calm voice and saying he was a member of a committee organized to kill Oswald." The FBI notified police in Dallas of the threat "and he assured us Oswald would be given sufficient protection," Hoover wrote in the Nov. 24, 1963, memo. "This morning we called the chief of police again warning of the possibility of some effort against Oswald and again he assured us adequate protection would be given. However, this was not done." After Jack Ruby shot Oswald, the FBI sent an agent to the hospital hoping to get a deathbed confession from Oswald. The memo illustrates Hoover’s frustration and the need to have "something issued so that we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin."

Are you reading the JFK collection released by the National Archives? If so, what's the most interesting nugget you've found? Tell us below in the comments.

3. Ruby was friendly with Dallas police: Ruby, "an extremely stubborn person and publicity hound" with "emotional instability," had a "good in" with Dallas police and operated a "B-girl operation where drinks were pushed heavily with no interference from the police department," according to a Nov. 26, 1963, memo from the FBI.

4. Oswald was already on the radar: Many of the files deal with Oswald's activities leading up to the date Kennedy was killed. He was in Mexico City in September 1963, purportedly on matters related to a visa or U.S. passport, but while there, he spoke with Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov, "an identified KGB officer" who was a member of a unit "responsible for sabotage and assassination,” according to a Nov. 23, 1963, CIA memo.

5. Mystery phone call: In a Nov. 26, 1963, memo, the CIA said a reporter in Cambridge, England, received an anonymous call the day before the assassination suggesting that he call the American Embassy in London "for some big news and then hung up." The call came in about 25 minutes before Kennedy was shot. This memo was previously released, but had not been reported.

You can read the entire collection here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: This image provided by the Warren Commission is an overhead view of President John F. Kennedy's car in Dallas motorcade on Nov. 22, 1963, and was the commission's Exhibit No. 698. Special agent Clinton J. Hill is shown riding atop the rear of the limousine. (Warren Commission via AP)