This website is where I post my notes on the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection (JFK ARC). I am also slowly putting together an introduction to the Collection for general readers. The short description is on this page. Links to more detailed descriptions of the Collection’s history and contents are below. There is also a link to an important page on withholding and redactions in the collection, an often misunderstood subject. For the moment, however, most of the site content is still in the notes posted in the blog section.
For those wondering, I am not employed by or affiliated with NARA or the JFKARC.
About the JFK ARC
The John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection (ARC) was established by the United States Congress in 1992 to collect and preserve government and private records on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
- For more on the history of the JFK ARC, read here.
The collection is held by the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) and includes the files of the government investigations of the assassination and most of the physical evidence in the case. NARA currently estimates that the Collection includes over 300,000 records, with approximately 5 million pages.
- For more on the contents of the JFK ARC, read here.
Most of the records in the ARC were released in full to the public between 1993 and 1998. A small part of the records, however, continue to have text redacted even today. There is much confusion and misinformation on this subject.
- For blog notes on the big releases in 2017-2018, see here. For blog notes on releases in 2021, 2022, and 2023, see the links on the right to relevant blog categories.
- For a general introduction to withholding and redactions in the JFKARC, read here.
- NARA has also released numerous documents under FOIA on how ARC releases were carried out, especially for the 2017-2018 releases. See here for links to the documents and to some related articles.
The most recent release of redacted text and information from the collection was on 24 August 2023. There are fewer than 3000 records left in the collection with redacted material. Most of these redactions are very limited. About 60 records still have whole pages redacted.
About this site
I became interested in the ARC in October 2017, after the first two big record releases at NARA. News coverage of the releases was confused and contradictory, so I began to look at the Collection myself. My first posts on the ARC were at my regular blog, (rgr-cyt.org) where I usually wrote about things my students might find interesting. After 40-50 posts there, I decided to set up another site, focused on the ARC.
This site began in December 2019. The earliest posts are my old notes, edited for consistency and accuracy. At the top of these is the date they were first put up and a link to the original posting. Everything since January 2020 is new content.
This website is still under construction, so occasionally things will change or move around without much notice. Comments, criticism, and suggestions are welcome!