Man, November 22, 1963 crazy day, right? JFK’s riding through Dallas, waving to the crowd, and bam, he’s gone. Shot dead. The Warren Commission swoops in, says it’s all Lee Harvey Oswald, some lone weirdo with a rifle, and that’s that. Except it’s never really been that, has it? For over 60 years, people like me and maybe you have been side-eyeing the story, picking at the threads. Now, here we are, March 19, 2025, and they’ve finally dumped a bunch of those secret JFK files on us. Thousands of pages CIA stuff, FBI notes, weird little witness bits. It’s not the whole enchilada, but holy cow, it’s enough to make you rethink everything you thought you knew.
The Fight to Get This Stuff
Getting these papers out has been like pulling teeth. Back in ’92, Congress was all, “Yeah, let’s release everything by 2017, unless it’s super secret.” Cool idea, but then every president since Trump, Biden, you name it kept stalling. “National security,” they said. Sure. People got pissed, and I don’t blame them. It’s like they’re dangling the truth in front of us, then yanking it back. Finally, the last few years, they cracked open the vault a little 15,000 pages or so. Some of it’s still got black marker all over it, but what’s there? Oh man, it’s wild.
What I Found in the Mess
So, I’ve been flipping through this stuff, and let me tell you, it’s a trip. First off, Oswald wasn’t just chilling before he pulled the trigger. Dude went to Mexico City in September ’63 two months before Dallas and he’s meeting with Cubans, Soviets, the works. There’s this one CIA note about him talking to a KGB guy, Valeriy Kostikov. Guy’s linked to their hit squad, the “wet affairs” crew. The Warren folks knew he went down there but acted like it was nothing. Now I’m reading these intercepts, and the CIA’s watching him like a hawk. So why didn’t they do anything? That’s what’s eating at me.
And the CIA they’d been on Oswald’s case forever. Since 1960, when he ran off to Russia like some commie dreamer. He comes back in ’62, and they’ve got a file, maybe even thought about using him as a snitch. But then he’s in Dallas with a gun? Either they’re the worst spies ever, or something’s fishy. I keep thinking, did they let him slide on purpose?
Then there’s Jack Ruby. You know, the guy who blasts Oswald on TV two days later. I always figured he was just some bar owner with a temper, but these files? They say he’s in deep with the Chicago mob gambling, guns, shady deals. One page even mentions him meeting some mob dude right before everything went down. Was he cleaning up someone else’s mess? I’m not saying it’s fact, but it’s hard not to wonder.
Oh, and get this J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI boss, was straight-up mad at the CIA. There’s a letter where he’s griping about them hiding stuff from the Warren crew. And some Secret Service guy in Dallas says their radios were a disaster nobody knew what was going on. It’s not the slick cover-up you’d expect; it’s more like a total screw-up that nobody wants to admit.
Rethinking the Whole Damn Thing
All this has me pacing around, rethinking it all. The Warren report was so clean Oswald’s a loner, end of story. But these files? They’re a tangle. Oswald’s chatting with spies, Ruby’s got mob buddies, the CIA’s playing coy. I’m not saying I’ve got proof of a big conspiracy, but it’s tough to buy that one guy did this and nobody else blinked.
Like, what’s the CIA’s deal? They knew Oswald was a loose cannon why let him run free? Maybe they didn’t want to stir up a war with Russia or Cuba if his connections got out. Or maybe and this keeps me up some of their guys hated JFK enough to look the other way. He pissed off a lot of people after that Bay of Pigs mess. No paper says it flat-out, but the holes in the story make you think.
The mob angle’s gnawing at me too. JFK and Bobby were hammering the Mafia hard. If Ruby was their guy, shutting Oswald up could’ve been their move. It’s not airtight, but it fits better than the “random angry dude” line we got.
And the Warren Commission? Poor bastards had to tie it all up fast, keep the country from losing it. But these files show they were half-blind CIA and FBI handed them scraps, not the full picture. Makes me think the report was more about calming folks down than digging for the truth.
Why It Still Gets Under My Skin
This isn’t just old news to me it’s personal. JFK getting killed changed everything. People stopped trusting the government that day, and every time these files trickle out, it’s like picking at a scab. We want answers, but we keep getting more questions. It’s the same vibe as Watergate or all the spy crap today once you know they’ve lied, you can’t un-know it.
For history geeks like me, it’s a treasure chest. Kennedy’s time was all glitz and guts Cold War brinkmanship, civil rights battles, that Camelot shine. These files strip it down, show the dirt. They don’t kill the magic, but they make it real, messy, human.
Where We’re At Now
So here we are, March 19, 2025, and there’s still more locked up. People are yelling for it all, and Biden’s crew keeps saying they’re “reviewing” it. National security, blah blah. Will we ever get the rest? Beats me. Maybe it’ll blow the lid off, or maybe it’ll just pile on more “what the hell?”
For now, these files are a tease and a gut punch. They show a story that’s not so simple full of screw-ups, secrets, and loose ends. They don’t rewrite what happened, but they make me squint at it harder, wondering what I missed. Sixty years later, I’m still chasing that day in Dallas, and it’s still slipping away, just out of reach.
The Fight to Get This Stuff
Getting these papers out has been like pulling teeth. Back in ’92, Congress was all, “Yeah, let’s release everything by 2017, unless it’s super secret.” Cool idea, but then every president since Trump, Biden, you name it kept stalling. “National security,” they said. Sure. People got pissed, and I don’t blame them. It’s like they’re dangling the truth in front of us, then yanking it back. Finally, the last few years, they cracked open the vault a little 15,000 pages or so. Some of it’s still got black marker all over it, but what’s there? Oh man, it’s wild.
What I Found in the Mess
So, I’ve been flipping through this stuff, and let me tell you, it’s a trip. First off, Oswald wasn’t just chilling before he pulled the trigger. Dude went to Mexico City in September ’63 two months before Dallas and he’s meeting with Cubans, Soviets, the works. There’s this one CIA note about him talking to a KGB guy, Valeriy Kostikov. Guy’s linked to their hit squad, the “wet affairs” crew. The Warren folks knew he went down there but acted like it was nothing. Now I’m reading these intercepts, and the CIA’s watching him like a hawk. So why didn’t they do anything? That’s what’s eating at me.
And the CIA they’d been on Oswald’s case forever. Since 1960, when he ran off to Russia like some commie dreamer. He comes back in ’62, and they’ve got a file, maybe even thought about using him as a snitch. But then he’s in Dallas with a gun? Either they’re the worst spies ever, or something’s fishy. I keep thinking, did they let him slide on purpose?
Then there’s Jack Ruby. You know, the guy who blasts Oswald on TV two days later. I always figured he was just some bar owner with a temper, but these files? They say he’s in deep with the Chicago mob gambling, guns, shady deals. One page even mentions him meeting some mob dude right before everything went down. Was he cleaning up someone else’s mess? I’m not saying it’s fact, but it’s hard not to wonder.
Oh, and get this J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI boss, was straight-up mad at the CIA. There’s a letter where he’s griping about them hiding stuff from the Warren crew. And some Secret Service guy in Dallas says their radios were a disaster nobody knew what was going on. It’s not the slick cover-up you’d expect; it’s more like a total screw-up that nobody wants to admit.
Rethinking the Whole Damn Thing
All this has me pacing around, rethinking it all. The Warren report was so clean Oswald’s a loner, end of story. But these files? They’re a tangle. Oswald’s chatting with spies, Ruby’s got mob buddies, the CIA’s playing coy. I’m not saying I’ve got proof of a big conspiracy, but it’s tough to buy that one guy did this and nobody else blinked.
Like, what’s the CIA’s deal? They knew Oswald was a loose cannon why let him run free? Maybe they didn’t want to stir up a war with Russia or Cuba if his connections got out. Or maybe and this keeps me up some of their guys hated JFK enough to look the other way. He pissed off a lot of people after that Bay of Pigs mess. No paper says it flat-out, but the holes in the story make you think.
The mob angle’s gnawing at me too. JFK and Bobby were hammering the Mafia hard. If Ruby was their guy, shutting Oswald up could’ve been their move. It’s not airtight, but it fits better than the “random angry dude” line we got.
And the Warren Commission? Poor bastards had to tie it all up fast, keep the country from losing it. But these files show they were half-blind CIA and FBI handed them scraps, not the full picture. Makes me think the report was more about calming folks down than digging for the truth.
Why It Still Gets Under My Skin
This isn’t just old news to me it’s personal. JFK getting killed changed everything. People stopped trusting the government that day, and every time these files trickle out, it’s like picking at a scab. We want answers, but we keep getting more questions. It’s the same vibe as Watergate or all the spy crap today once you know they’ve lied, you can’t un-know it.
For history geeks like me, it’s a treasure chest. Kennedy’s time was all glitz and guts Cold War brinkmanship, civil rights battles, that Camelot shine. These files strip it down, show the dirt. They don’t kill the magic, but they make it real, messy, human.
Where We’re At Now
So here we are, March 19, 2025, and there’s still more locked up. People are yelling for it all, and Biden’s crew keeps saying they’re “reviewing” it. National security, blah blah. Will we ever get the rest? Beats me. Maybe it’ll blow the lid off, or maybe it’ll just pile on more “what the hell?”
For now, these files are a tease and a gut punch. They show a story that’s not so simple full of screw-ups, secrets, and loose ends. They don’t rewrite what happened, but they make me squint at it harder, wondering what I missed. Sixty years later, I’m still chasing that day in Dallas, and it’s still slipping away, just out of reach.
