History isn't static. We usually think of 1963 as a frozen moment in time, a grainy black-and-white loop of a limousine in Dallas. But lately, the floor has started to shift. If you haven't been following the National Archives lately, you've missed a massive tectonic move.
Basically, 2025 has become the year the "final" secrets started to leak out.
Under a new executive order, a massive trove of roughly 80,000 pages was dumped into the public domain. No redactions. No black ink bars. No "national security" excuses. For the first time, we're seeing the raw, unedited panic of the CIA and FBI from sixty years ago. It’s messy. Honestly, it’s a bit embarrassing for the agencies involved.
The Paul Landis Bombshell and the "Magic Bullet"
Before we even get to the paperwork, we have to talk about Paul Landis. You might not know the name, but he was there. He was a Secret Service agent on the follow-up car, just feet away from Kennedy when the shots rang out. For six decades, he stayed quiet.
Then he broke.
In his recent account, Landis challenges the very foundation of the Warren Commission: the "Single Bullet Theory." You know the one—the "Magic Bullet" that supposedly hit Kennedy and Governor Connally, making multiple turns and staying nearly pristine.
Landis says he found that bullet.
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But he didn't find it on a stretcher at Parkland Hospital, which is where the official story says it appeared. He claims he found it lodged in the back of the presidential limousine, behind where JFK was sitting. Panicked and wanting to preserve evidence, he shoved it in his pocket and later placed it on Kennedy’s stretcher.
Why does this matter? Because if that bullet didn't pass through Kennedy into Connally, there had to be more than one shooter. It's a simple math problem that ruins the "lone wolf" narrative.
New Information on JFK: The CIA's Oswald Problem
The 2025 records release has pulled back the curtain on Lee Harvey Oswald's movements in Mexico City. We’ve always known he went there to visit the Soviet and Cuban embassies. What we didn't know—or what was conveniently "omitted"—was the sheer scale of the surveillance on him.
The new files show that the CIA was practically breathing down Oswald’s neck weeks before Dallas. There are memos detailing his interactions with a KGB officer named Valeriy Kostikov. The CIA knew Kostikov wasn't just a diplomat; he was part of the KGB’s "Department 13," responsible for assassinations.
Yet, they told the Secret Service nothing.
Tensions and Intelligence Failures
The documents reveal a "cold war" happening inside the U.S. government itself. The CIA and FBI were barely on speaking terms.
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- The FBI was tracking Oswald as a potential defector and threat.
- The CIA was intercepting his mail and monitoring his foreign contacts.
- The Secret Service was kept in the dark.
One particularly damning memo from 2025 shows that a source in London actually warned of an Oswald-led plot in July 1963. The warning was buried in a pile of bureaucratic ego. If the Secret Service had known Oswald—a known defector with KGB ties—was working in a building overlooking the parade route, the route would have changed. Period.
The 2,400 "Forgotten" FBI Records
Just when we thought we had everything, the FBI "discovered" another 2,400 records in early 2025. These weren't lost. They were "previously unrecognized" as being related to the case.
That’s a fancy way of saying they were hidden.
These records include more details on Jack Ruby’s connections to organized crime in New Orleans and Chicago. The old "lone gunman kills lone gunman" story feels a lot thinner when you read surveillance reports suggesting Ruby knew Oswald’s transfer schedule before it was public.
What Else Was in the 2025 Dump?
It wasn't all about the shooting. The records show the CIA was busy with some truly bizarre stuff during that era:
- Mail Tampering: Widespread intercepting of domestic mail that had nothing to do with national security.
- The "Matchmaker" Program: Using assets to procure "companions" for foreign leaders to gain leverage.
- Poison Sugar: Plots to contaminate Cuban sugar exports to the USSR with biological agents.
It paints a picture of an agency that felt completely untouchable, which explains why they felt they could manage the JFK investigation's narrative so tightly.
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Is There a "Smoking Gun"?
People always ask: "Is there one document that says 'We did it'?"
No.
But that's not how these things work. You don't find a signed confession. You find a pattern of "intelligence failures" that look suspiciously like deliberate negligence. The new information on JFK doesn't point to one single conspirator, but it proves the Warren Commission was fed a curated, sanitized version of the truth.
The most significant takeaway from the recent releases is the confirmation of a cover-up—not necessarily of the murder itself, but of the massive incompetence that allowed it to happen. The agencies were more worried about protecting their reputations and "sources and methods" than they were about giving the American people the truth.
Moving Forward with the Facts
If you're looking to dive into this yourself, don't just read the headlines. The National Archives has digitized most of these 2025 releases.
- Check the NARA Website: Look specifically for the "2025 Documents Release" section. It's searchable by "RIF" (Record Identification Form) numbers.
- Compare Witness Statements: Read Paul Landis's original 1963 statement against his 2023 book, The Final Witness. The discrepancies are where the truth hides.
- Follow the Money: Look at the Jack Ruby FBI files. The links to the Marcello crime family in New Orleans are much more explicit in the unredacted versions.
We might never have a 100% clear picture of what happened on that hill in Dallas. But for the first time in sixty years, we finally have the same map the government was using. What you choose to do with that map is up to you.
Next Steps: You should visit the National Archives JFK Database to view the latest unredacted PDF files from the March 2025 release. Focus on the "CIA-IR-35" files for the most recent updates on Lee Harvey Oswald's foreign contacts and the KGB's internal assessments of his character.