Author Archives: Robert Reynolds

FBI multi-record pdfs and the MFF collection

I’m posting this note for my own reference. Feel free to ignore this if you are not trying to understand the ins and outs of the FBI multi-record releases.

What is a multi-record pdf?

A multi-record pdf is a pdf which includes more than one ARC record. There is nothing special about this, you can make your own, like I do, if you have the right software.…

Corrections to “Formal and final in the JFK Act”

This note corrects a major error in my recent comment “Formal and final in the JFK Act”. In that note, I incorrectly stated that there were less than one hundred instances of the ARRB’s “Final determination form” (FDF) in the ARC. In fact there are over seven hundred. After looking at all these instances, I have also changed my views on the use of these forms in the ARC.…

A note on ARRB “final determination forms”

The ARRB created a special form, which it called a “final determination form” (FDF), to record its decisions to release or postpone text in ARC documents. This form has recently become the subject of discussion among several assassination researchers, some of whom attach much importance to it.

I’m still looking at the arguments for this, so I don’t have anything general to say.…

The McDonald survey and memo

This note discusses a recent claim about the ARC, a claim based on a memo written by CIA Chief Historian J. Kenneth McDonald. I spent some time working on this memo last year (see here for a blog note), so I was naturally interested in this new claim.

The claim comes from attorney Mark Adamczyk.…

Box 16 folders

This note provides the documentation I promised in my last post (available here). Better read that first, or the following won’t make much sense.

A folder list for box 16

As I mentioned in my last post, I checked RIF comments for records from box 16 (you have to read the last note to understand this!),…

Joe Backes on the Jan 92 checklist

This note is a continuation of my comments on the January 1992 checklist for the HSCA-CIA segregated collection (see here). Be sure to read that note before you read this note.

I recently learned that longtime JFK researcher Joe Backes also did a post mentioning the checklist. His post appeared on his substack blog “Justice for Kennedy”, and is available here.…