From second shooter to CIA role, what new documents on the JFK assassination reveal

Who killed JFK? More than six decades later, the assassination of John F Kennedy continues to fascinate the world. There is no dearth of conspiracy theories. Now as promised by Donald Trump, his administration has released thousands of records related to the killing that shook America.

Soon after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing the release of classified files related to the assassinations of JKF, Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. While many files related to the president’s assassination have been made public, the documents released on Tuesday had previously been redacted.

Trump said on Monday that “people have been waiting for decades” to see the 80,000 pages of records related to Kennedy’s assassination. On Tuesday, more than 1,100 files of 31,000 pages were posted on the US National Archives and Records Administration website.

It might take some time before researchers and history buffs scan all the documents. But here’s what some of the revelations are.

Lee Oswald’s ‘connection’ to the Soviet Union

Kennedy was shot dead by Lee Harvey Oswald, a US marine deserter. He fired two shots at the US president as his motorcade passed a school book depository in Dallas, Texas. The assassin had stationed himself there with a rifle; it was where he worked. A third shot was fired but it missed JFK.

While the Warren Commission, set up to investigate the assassination, concluded that Oswald acted alone, many believe the killing to be part of a larger conspiracy.

One of the secret government memos looks at the theory that Oswald, who had visited the Soviet Union and was married to a Russian, was acting on behalf of the Soviets. Addressed to the “Moscow info director”, it refers to a 1991 interview with US professor EB Smith who met Slava Nikonov, former deputy director at the Soviet Union’s KGB and the grandson of former Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, in Moscow.

According to the memo, Nikonov had reviewed five thick KGB files to determine if Oswald was linked to the spy agency. “Nikonov is now confident that Oswald was at no time an agent controlled by the KGB… From the description in the files, he doubted anyone could control Oswald, but noted that the KGB watched him closely and constantly while he was in the USSR,” the documents noted.

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However, one of the earlier documents already published revealed that Oswald communicated with a KGB officer while at the Soviet embassy that September, two months before the assassination.

Nikonov also said that Oswald “had a stormy relationship with his Soviet wife, who rode him incessantly.”

Oswald was a ‘lousy shot’

The document dated November 20, 1991, revealed that Oslwad’s marksmanship was poor.

The KGB files “also reflected that Oswald was a poor shot when he tried target firing in the USSR,” the document said.

Some conspiracy theorists have used his bit of information as proof to fuel the conspiracy theory that the assassin did not act alone. Many believe that Oswald was innocent and often focus on how difficult it is even for a good marksman to fire three shots at a moving target and hit it.

The theory of the second shooter

It has been long debated that a second shooter was involved in the assassination. However, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone and fired three shots in 8.6 seconds.

Ballistic reports and witness testimonies in the newly released documents refer to the third shot. According to the files, a shot might have been fired from the “Grassy Knoll”, which was an elevated area ahead of JFK’s motorcade. This contradicts the belief that there was only one gunman involved.

In 1979, the US House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that based on acoustic evidence there was a “high probability” of a second shooter.

An ignored warning about a possible assassination

The files, now made public, also unseal the correspondence from Sergyj Czornonoh, who claims that in August 1963, he warned the American vice-consul in the Bulgarian capital Sofia about the plan to assassinate Kennedy, according to a report in Washington Times.

Czornonoh was given information about Oswald by Wasilev Consul, who worked in the Soviet embassy in Bulgaria. He said Consul’s girlfriend “came to my room and repeated that Mr Lee Harvey Oswald is [sic] assassin. He will kill President Kennedy.”

Czornonoh said he had warned a US State Department official on August 19, 1963, three months before the killing, that Oswald had a weapon and he should go see him. The official did not pay heed to the warning, the memo claims.

“Director told me you too can have a weapon — so what if Oswald got a weapon,” Czornonoh wrote in a letter to the US House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978.

The CIA link to the JFK assassination

The files released by Trump make a mention of Gary Underhill, a former CIA agent, who was found dead less than six months after he alleged the agency’s involvement in the killing.

“A small clique within the CIA was responsible for the assassination,” says a line from the documents, drawing significant attention.

The documents also mention that after the assassination, Underhill left Washington in a hurry and took refuge with friends in New Jersey.

Newly released JFK files tell a story about how Gary Underhill, who worked for the CIA, was found dead after he revealed to friends that the CIA was responsible for JFK’s assassination.

“The day after the assassination, Gary Underhill left Washington in a hurry. Late in the… pic.twitter.com/psZkYQ5COi

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 19, 2025

Underhill, who served as an intelligence agent during World War II, was an expert on limited warfare and small arms. He was a researcher and writer on military affairs, and many top brasses in the Pentagon knew him on a first-name basis. He had good terms with high-ranking CIA officials, according to the files.

Another memo from November 1963, showed that a CIA office raised an alarm over Oswald’s activities, including his visits to Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City weeks before the shooting. However, senior officials reportedly ignored the warnings, raising questions if the agency was negligent or complicit.

Many experts believe that the CIA or others may have kept secret files related to Oswald’s movements in Mexico Coty, reports The Washington Post.

The involvement of the mafia?

The newly released files point to the possible involvement of organised crime. According to a report in ABC7, Chicago was a training ground for Cuban militia. It suggests the possibility of a coalition between mobsters, Cubans who were against Fidel Castro, and rogue CIA elements. The motive could be Kennedy’s handling of the Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed attack launched by the CIA to push Castro from power.

Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald

Soon after the assassination, Oswald was arrested on suspicion of murder. He was shot dead a few days later by Jack Ruby, an owner of a local nightclub, who claimed he acted over his distress at JFK’s death. While Ruby died of cancer four years later serving a prison sentence for Oswald’s, his role has been speculated.

A memo written by FBI Director J Edgar Hoover hours after Oswald was killed appealed to the US government to assure the public that it was the former marine who assassinated Kennedy.

The documents released by the Trump administration are likely to reignite conspiracy theories. However, some files are still held back.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said that the National Archives and Records Administration was “working with the Department of Justice to expedite the unsealing of these records”. She also said that the publication of the papers was an example of the Trump White House “ushering in a new era of maximum transparency”.

However, will these tranches of documents settle the many unanswered questions about JFK’s assassination?

With inputs from agencies