I watched the JFK files go from classified to public over 25 years

Back in 1992 I was a journalism student digging through microfiche at the University of Texas library trying to find anything about the assassination. Back then you could only see heavily redacted versions of the Warren Commission documents. Fast forward to 2017 when the National Archives dumped 2,800 more records online. I spent three straight nights comparing what was hidden in 1992 versus what finally showed up. The difference was wild - whole witness statements that were blacked out before just sitting there in plain text. Anyone else here old enough to remember hunting for info pre-internet and seeing what changed?

3 comments

3 Comments

martin.felix10d ago

yeah I remember diggin through old newspaper archives at my local library in the late 90s trying to find anything on the grassy knoll. it's crazy how much stuff was just straight up hidden, like all those witness accounts about the limo stopping for a second nobody talked about. idk, makes you wonder what else is still buried in those boxes.

emery_lopez10d ago

My buddy actually found a stack of old police teletype printouts in his grandpa's attic a few years back that mentioned multiple witnesses saying the limo almost stopped completely... @martin.felix it's wild what people just kept in boxes.

diana205d ago

yeah "whole witness statements that were blacked out" hits hard, I remember finding a file where they'd whited out an entire page of a witness saying they saw a second gunman.