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JFK Assassination at 62: Oswald, Ruby and Fresh Records Keep Questions Alive

Fresh releases of JFK files this year underscore how questions persist.

Overview

  • President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, and suspect Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine who had spent time in the Soviet Union, was arrested after fatally shooting Officer J.D. Tippit about 45 minutes later.
  • Two days after the assassination, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby stepped from a crowd in the police headquarters basement and killed Oswald during a televised transfer to county jail.
  • Ruby was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1964, his conviction was overturned in 1966 over fairness concerns, and he died of lung cancer in 1967 before a retrial.
  • Official findings remain divided, with the Warren Commission concluding Oswald acted alone and the House Select Committee on Assassinations later judging Kennedy was probably killed as part of a conspiracy.
  • ABC reports that President Donald Trump ordered the release of remaining JFK records this year, and the National Archives in March issued thousands of newly declassified pages.