October, 2017, will mark a turning point in American history.  Pursuant to the JFK Records Act of 1992, all remaining classified files relating to the assassination of President John Kennedy  are slated to be released to the American public.  If no opposition is received from the FBI, CIA or any government agency with a vested interest in the files, more than 3,000 pages of once classified documents will be disclosed more than 50 years after Kennedy’s tragic death on the streets of Dallas, Texas.

While the news of this possible release of thousands of documents is uplifting, it also raises concerns about the U.S. intelligence community and its prior actions under Kennedy’s administration. Researchers of JFK’s murder have long suspected the involvement of the CIA of having a role in the murder.  And although no one at the CIA was ever officially charged or prosecuted for Kennedy’s death, there were many actions of the agency that were not only strange but deeply disturbing.  The House Select Committee on Assassinations served to shed light on the mysterious agency whose cover had been slowly lifted as a result of the Watergate investigation and the failed counterintelligence activities James J. Angleton, arguably the most mysterious figure in CIA history.  The American public learned of the infamous actions of the agency in places such as Nazi Germany, Iraq, Guatemala and Cuba.  The alliance with Italian-American gangsters and the smuggling of arms and ammunition to Cuban rebels opened the eyes of many Americans unaware of the true activities of the secretive agency.  If the documents are released next October, just what exactly could that mean for the CIA and the American public?  Jefferson Morley seeks to answer those questions in this short analysis of the many unanswered questions regarding the CIA and the death of John F. Kennedy.

A study of the assassination produces an endless amount of names, places, times and locations.  Like a never-ending puzzle, it’s a mystery that has grown deeper over time.  But as the layers of complexity have been peeled off, names and faces have been matched putting together crucial pieces of the crime.  Among those faces which are known to long-term investigators, assassination researchers and mentioned in this book are David Morales, David Atlee Phillips, Richard Helms, and the legendary and infamous William Harvey.  While none of the aforementioned were ever charged with any crime relating to Kennedy’s death, their names have come up more than once over the years as suspects who may have taken part in the plan to murder Kennedy or in the actions to cover up the crime.  The documents slated for release contain pages of information relating to most of these complex figures. Morley touches briefly on the lives of these former intelligence legends giving a primer of what could possibly come forth with the release of the once classified records.

The murder of John F. Kennedy continues to haunt the United States and is by far the most infamous murder of a government official in United States history.  To the young generation of America, Kennedy is a remnant of a very distant past, but for older Americans, his death was a turning point in the direction and history of the United States.  Some have speculated that the truth about JFK’s murder would never been known, at least not in this lifetime.  The release of the records in October, 2017 gives hope that the truth may eventually come out and possibly in this lifetime.  And as Morley has pointed out, the CIA may have serious cause for concern.