[This note was updated on 2024-08-30 to fix a bad link and to correct the description of one record.]
NARA is still looking for some ARC records that are listed in the JFK database, but NARA can’t find on the shelves. This is a subject I last visited in this note. Refer there if you need more details. There were 79 of these docs in 2018, but by 2021 NARA had found or otherwise accounted for 46 of them, leaving 33 still missing. December 15 brought more news on these docs. This note summarizes the latest discoveries.
28 lost
I originally had high hopes when I saw files listed for most of the missing docs. Alas, it wasn’t so. Most of these “files” were a note from NARA saying “Nope, haven’t found this yet.”
28 pdfs posted online all consist of this same note. They are as follows:
| # | record number |
|---|---|
| 1 | 111-10001-10090 |
| 2 | 111-10001-10092 |
| 3 | 111-10001-10094 |
| 4 | 111-10001-10095 |
| 5 | 111-10001-10096 |
| 6 | 111-10001-10097 |
| 7 | 111-10001-10098 |
| 8 | 111-10001-10100 |
| 9 | 111-10001-10101 |
| 10 | 119-10001-10336 |
| 11 | 119-10001-10337 |
| 12 | 119-10001-10400 |
| 13 | 119-10001-10402 |
| 14 | 119-10001-10494 |
| 15 | 157-10014-10049 |
| 16 | 173-10011-10178 |
| 17 | 181-10002-10058 | 18 | 181-10002-10059 |
| 19 | 181-10002-10108 |
| 20 | 181-10002-10123 |
| 21 | 181-10002-10139 |
| 22 | 181-10002-10140 |
| 23 | 181-10002-10208 |
| 24 | 181-10002-10251 |
| 25 | 181-10002-10252 |
| 26 | 181-10002-10274 |
| 27 | 181-10002-10275 |
| 28 | 198-10001-10007 |
These are the still missing records.1There are two links at NARA for record number 157-10014-10049. The link above is the correct one for the missing record 157-10014-10049. The other link is erroneously set to a different document, record 194-10013-10328.
5 found
NARA did make a few discoveries this time around, a couple of them very interesting. Recovered or accounted for docs include the following:
| # | record number |
|---|---|
| 1 | 124-10179-10240 |
| 2 | 124-10241-10494 |
| 3 | 157-10014-10090 |
| 4 | 181-10002-10296 |
| 5 | 198-10001-10012 |
Not all of these are recovered. The two FBI files (124-#) were not recovered. In the files on line the FBI simply supplies file inventories for the missing docs. The inventories were not lost, so they can give us an idea of what was in the missing files, but the docs themselves are still AWOL.
A much more interesting doc is a Church Committee interview of Bronson Tweedy (157-10014-10090). This is mostly unrelated to the JFK assassination, except for the last couple of pages. It is quite interesting history, though.
The big deal here is a NARA file (181-10002-10296). This startling discovery is an unredacted copy of the CIA IG report on the CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro. There are at least two other copies of this document in the ARC which were also released in full this time around, so it is not unique. How it wound up as a NARA file, why it got lost and how it was found may be worth some research further down the line. It seems to be from the Carter White House papers and has a note attached from Karl (“Rick”) Inderfurth saying that this paper was left to him by John Matheny, an NSC staffer under President Ford.
The final recovery is a set of briefing notes found in the papers of the Office of the Secretary of the Army (198-10001-10012). NARA’s note here suggests that these were actually an erroneous duplication in the JFK database of another document. This sort of bibliographical ghost is what you get when you have a couple of dozen agencies trying to key in hundreds of thousands of entries into a collective database. Nothing in this dupe to get excited about.
My two cents
Why has NARA filed 28 identical notes about the still missing files under their respective identification numbers? I gather the idea is that NARA is not requesting any more postponements for these docs. The notes serve notice to all and sundry that if NARA ever finds these papers, it will release toot sweet, no more messing around with reviews or referrals.