Background
The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, is one of the most significant events in American history. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, while on a political trip to Texas to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party. The motorcade route through Dealey Plaza was planned in advance, and Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, along with Texas Governor John Connally, were riding in an open-top convertible limousine when the shots were fired.
Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested and charged with the assassination. Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby two days later, on November 24, while in police custody, before he could be tried. This series of events triggered numerous conspiracy theories about the assassination, as Oswald was never able to testify or be tried in court.
In the wake of the assassination and Oswald’s death, President Lyndon B. Johnson established the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, more commonly known as the Warren Commission, named after its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren. The Warren Commission was tasked with investigating the circumstances of JFK’s assassination and Oswald’s role in it. After months of investigation, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone in assassinating Kennedy and that there was no credible evidence of a conspiracy, either domestic or international, in the assassination. The Commission’s findings, however, have been controversial and the subject of criticism and skepticism.
In 1992, in response to the ongoing public interest and skepticism towards the official narrative of JFK’s assassination, the U.S. Congress passed the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act. This Act mandated the creation of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), an independent agency that was tasked with re-examining the assassination and declassifying records related to it.
While the ARRB did not come to any definitive conclusions about the assassination, its work helped to shed new light on the events surrounding JFK’s death and sparked renewed public interest in the assassination.
In recent years, The Black Vault has collected hundreds of thousands of pages related to the JFK assassination. These documents are freely available for download below.
The Documents Collection
The MOU about the JFK Act
In June of 2021, NARA released to The Black Vault all drafts of the, “Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Continuing Obligations of the CIA Under the JFK Act.”
All drafts of the MOU [15 Pages, 6.2MB] – This PDF contains all draft copies of the memorandum of 1998 in Box 4 of the Files of K, Michelle Combs in a folder labeled CIA Compliance.
The Documents Released
Available Document Indexes
Each of the indexes below have clickable direct links for the files. Or, keep scrolling, and you will find links to browse the entire collection via a directory.
CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE INDEX OF DOCUMENTS
RELEASED in 2017 and 2018 [3,032 Pages, 28.3MB]
CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE INDEX OF DOCUMENTS
RELEASED in 2021 [0.2MB]
CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE INDEX OF DOCUMENTS
RELEASED in 2022 [1.8MB]
CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE INDEX OF DOCUMENTS
RELEASED in 2023 [1.8MB]
The Documents Released – .PDF Files
The links in this section will take you to a full file listing for individual downloads of the .pdf files. If you prefer .zip files instead, scroll down for a list breakdown of .zip files available.
2017 Releases
July & October 2017 Release
November 3, 2017 Release
November 9, 2017 Release
November 17, 2017 Release
December 15, 2017 Release
2018 Releases
April 26, 2018 Release
ARRB Hard Drives
ARRB Emails (.pdfs) or (raw .csv files)
2021 Releases
2022 Releases
2023 Releases
June 13, May 11, April 27, and April 13, 2023 Releases
The Documents Released – .Zip Files
2017 Releases
Download the July and October Release: (right click – press save as): [ .zip 39.1GB]
Download the November 3 (searchable .pdf) Release: (right click – press save as): [ .zip 3.7GB ]
Download the November 9 (searchable .pdf) Release: (right click – press save as): [ .zip 7.0GB ]
Download the November 17 (searchable .pdf) Release: (right click – press save as): [ .zip 16.4GB ]
Download the December 15 (searchable .pdf) Release: (right click – press save as): [ .zip 41.1GB ]
2018 Releases
Download the April 26 (SEARCHABLE .pdf) Release: (right click – press save as): [ JFK-April2018.zip 38.5GB ]
Or for a smaller, segmented download (but is not searchable) I have left the following .zip files available for download:
Download the April 26 (non-searchable .pdf) Release: (right click – press save as): [ jfk201804a.zip 1.1GB | jfk201804b.zip 1.0GB | jfk201804c.zip 1.2GB | jfk201804d.zip 1.1GB | jfk201804e.zip 1.15GB | jfk201804f.zip 1.4GB | jfk201804g.zip 1.1GB | jfk201804h.zip 0.95GB | jfk201804i.zip 1.1GB | jfk201804j.zip 1.1GB | ]
2021 Releases
Download the December 15, 2021, (SEARCHABLE .pdf files) Release: (right click – press save as): [
jfk2021.zip 1.4GB]
2022 Releases
Download the December 15, 2022, (Non-processed, non-searchable [original release from NARA].pdf files) Release: (right click – press save as): [jfk2022.zip 12.6GB]
Download the December 15, 2022, (SEARCHABLE .pdf files) Release: (right click – press save as): [jfk2022-ocr.zip 19.8GB]
2023 Releases
Download the June 13, May 11, April 27, and April 13, 2023 (Non-processed, non-searchable [original release from NARA].pdf files) Release: (right click – press save as): [jfk2023-nonprocessed.zip 1.4GB]
Download the June 13, May 11, April 27, and April 13, 2023 (SEARCHABLE .pdf files) Release: (right click – press save as): [jfk2023-processed.zip 3.1GB]
Assassination Reports and Records
Final Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations US House of Representatives, January 2, 1979 [716 Pages, 43.27MB]
From Bright Ideas to Social Research: The Studies of the Kennedy Assassination, May 1965 [38 Pages, 1 MB]
Central Intelligence Agency Records
Arthur James Balletti Et Al – Unauthorized Publication or Use of Communications – Assassination of John F. Kennedy, 14 May 1962 [7 Pages, 9.1MB]
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Files on Key Players
 Banister, Guy – FBI Release #1 – [297 Pages, 32.9 MB] Banister, Guy – FBI Release #2 – [335 Pages, 20.3 MB] – William Guy Banister (March 7, 1901 – June 6, 1964) was an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an Assistant Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, and a private investigator. After his death, he gained notoriety from allegations made by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison that he had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He was an avid anti-communist, alleged member of the Minutemen, the John Birch Society, Louisiana Committee on Un-American Activities, and alleged publisher of the Louisiana Intelligence Digest. He also supported various anti-Castro groups in the New Orleans area: “Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front”; “Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean”; “Friends of Democratic Cuba”. According to the New Orleans States-Item newspaper, “Guy [Banister] participated in every anti-Communist South and Central American revolution that came along, acting as a key liaison man for the U.S. government-sponsored anti-Communist activities in Latin America.” |
 Estes, Billie Sol – [34 Pages, 4.44 MB] – Billie Sol Estes (January 10, 1925 – May 14, 2013) was an American businessman; a former financier best known for a business scandal that sent him to jail for fraud multiple times and complicated by his ties to friend and future U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. Estes was living in Granbury, Texas at the time of his death. His body was discovered on May 14, 2013 at his home in DeCordova, Texas. Please note: This was a limited release on his full file, which is estimated to be 77,000 pages in length. I amended my request after some electronic communication with the FBI by stating, “I understand the Estes made some (unfounded) claims about the death of John F. Kennedy towards the end of his life, connecting the murder to LBJ. That’s a small nutshell, but in essence, what I am looking for is anything related to JFK’s assassination and LBJ.” |
 Garrison, Jim – [ 160 Pages, 10.13 MB ] – Earling Carothers “Jim” Garrison (November 20, 1921 – October 21, 1992) – who changed his first name to Jim in the early 1960s – was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He was played by Kevin Costner in Oliver Stone’s JFK.Requesting additional records on Garrison, other than the above, the FBI informed me that records may have BEEN DESTROYED. In addition, others may exist at the National Archives. I am awaiting a response. |
 Nagell, Richard Case – FBI Release #1 – [740 Pages, 323MB]Nagell, Richard Case – FBI Release #2 – [224 Pages, 9MB] – Richard Case Nagell (August 5, 1930 – November 1, 1995) is a former United States military officer who, according to Dick Russell’s biography of him, claimed to have had foreknowledge of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. According to Russell, Nagell also claimed to have gotten himself arrested in a bank shooting weeks before the assassination to avoid becoming a patsy. Nagell met with New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who at the time was investigating Clay Shaw’s possible complicity in the assassination. Nagell died from heart disease on November 1, 1995 in Los Angeles, California, one day after the Assassination Records Review Board had sent him a letter for information. He was 65 years old at the time of his death. |
 Pavlick, Richard [ 289 Pages, 16MB ] United States Secret Service File [ 601 Pages, 29.39MB ] Secret Service Release #2 [ 9 Pages, 1.7MB ] – Richard Paul Pavlick (February 13, 1887 – November 11, 1975) was a retired postal worker from New Hampshire who stalked U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy, with the intent of assassinating him. On December 11, 1960 in Palm Beach, Florida, Pavlick positioned himself to carry out the assassination by blowing up Kennedy and himself with dynamite, but delayed the attempt because Kennedy was with his wife and children. He was then arrested before he was able to stage another attempt. |
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Although I have filed multiple FOIA requests to multiple agencies, the below are the only records to have come back:
Please Note: The FBI acknowledges that there is a nearly 18,000 page FBI file on Johnny Roselli, however, there are enormous fees to go along with obtaining the file. $530 to obtain the records on CD while a printed copy would cost $1,769.40. If anyone would like to sponsor the rest of this file, I would put all 18,000 pages on The Black Vault and archive it here for research.
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Harold Weisberg (April 8, 1913 – February 21, 2002) served as an Office of Strategic Services officer during World War II, a U.S. Senate staff member and investigative reporter, an investigator for the Senate Committee on Civil Liberties, and a U.S. State Department intelligence analyst who devoted 40 years of his life to researching and writing about the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. He wrote ten self-published and published books and approximately thirty-five unpublished books related to the details for those assassinations, mostly with respect to Kennedy’s assassination. Weisberg was a strong critic of the Warren Commission report and of the methods used in investigating President Kennedy’s murder. In this regard, he was avant-garde, embarking on a course that many other conspiracy theorists would later come to follow. Weisberg is best known for his seminal work, Whitewash, where he wrote: “Following thousands of hours of research in and analysis of the vast, chaotic, deliberately disorganized, padded and largely meaningless 26 volumes of the testimony and exhibits of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and its 900-page Report – millions of words of which are not needed and are merely diversionary – I published the results of my investigation in a book, Whitewash: The Report on the Warren Report. In this book, I establish that the inquiry into the assassination was a whitewash, using as proof only what the Commission avoided, ignored, misrepresented and suppressed of its own evidence.” On February 21, 2002, Weisberg died of cardiovascular disease at his home in Frederick, Maryland. |
National Security Agency Records
National Security Agency Records on the JFK Assassination Batch 1 [214 Pages, 17.3MB]
National Security Agency Records on the JFK Assassination Batch 2 [492 Pages, 47MB]
Report of the Assassination Records Review Board
The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 created the Assassination Records Review Board as an independent agency to re-examine for release the assassination-related records that federal agencies still regarded as too sensitive to open to the public. The Board finished its work on September 30, 1998, issued a final report, and transferred all of its records to the National Archives and Records Administration.
Warren Commission Report
The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 29, 1963 to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy that had taken place on November 22, 1963. Its 889-page final report was presented to President Johnson on September 24, 1964 and made public three days later. It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy and wounding Texas Governor John Connally and that Jack Ruby also acted alone when he killed Oswald two days later. The Commission’s findings have proven controversial and have been both challenged and supported by later studies.
The Commission took its unofficial name—the Warren Commission—from its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren. According to published transcripts of Johnson’s presidential phone conversations, some major officials were opposed to forming such a commission and several commission members took part only with extreme reluctance. One of their chief reservations was that a commission would ultimately create more controversy than consensus, and those fears proved valid. (Source: Wikipedia)
Warren Commission Report (Full) [910 Pages, 88.9MB]
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