Author Archives: Robert Reynolds

New HSCA docs at MFF

The Mary Ferrell Foundation continues to dig out ARC records from its vaults. The latest find is a box of HSCA docs which fill some gaps and add a deposition from Bruce Solie.

HSCA-CIA boxes

This set of docs comes from several boxes in the HSCA-CIA segregated collection. Like the recent release of several sections of the HSCA-FBI liaison file, the box sat uncatalogued in the AARC vaults for who knows how long, but MFF is finally digging this stuff out and putting it on line.…

A minor note on a 2022 release

The 2022 release of 104-10101-10102 is CIA cable DIR 86037.
(https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2022/104-10101-10102.pdf)

In 2017-2018, however, 104-10101-10102 is CIA cable DIR 86129.
(e.g. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/104-10101-10102.pdf)

So something went wrong here. DIR 86037 has ELSEWHERE been released as 104-10290-10029. For example, in 2022!
(https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2022/104-10290-10029.pdf)

SUMMING UP: the regular RIF for DIR 86037 is 104-10290-10029.…

The FBI-Church Committee liaison file

This note discusses the FBI-Church Committee liaison file, FBI file number 62-116395. The liaison file uses “SSC” as its abbreviation for the Church Committee, since their official title was the “Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities.” In the discussion below, I will therefore use SSC to refer to the Committee.

The SSC conducted a major inquiry into the United States intelligence community from 1975-1976.…

New docs from the FBI-HSCA liaison file

The Mary Ferrell Foundation continues to dig out ARC records from its vaults. The latest find is a box of folders from the FBI-HSCA liaison file.

FBI file 62-117290 is a massive compilation of docs requested by the HSCA during the course of its inquiry, plus various and sundry administrative docs.…

FBI files in the ARC: Core and related

This note begins an introduction to the main FBI files in the JFK Assassination Records Collection. FBI records make up about 46 percent of the ARC. The next largest contributor to the Collection, the CIA, makes up only about 27 percent. FBI records are thus by far the largest component of the ARC, and well worth a careful look.…

A non-list of assassins in the ARC

This note looks at a CIA record which is still redacted. Just because a record is redacted, however, doesn’t mean we can’t know what kind of things are redacted. In fact, with records such as this one, the things redacted are obvious. Taking this knowledge into account when we discuss the records is good.…

NARA releases six blacked out pages

The quality of ARC reproductions has become more and more of an issue as time goes by and the original documents deteriorate. Today’s note is, perhaps, a serious example of this. Nonetheless, a completely illegible image is still not the same as a withheld or redacted record, as we will see below.…

The FBI issues a blank page

Continuing with my short posts on oddball releases, the specimen for today is record number 124-10289-10167, released in 2022, and which is, as the title indicates, a blank page. This note attempts to explain why the FBI issued a content free record. It may seem exotic to you newbies, but I’ve seen at least one other instance of this before.…

Siamese twin records

This note is really for my own reference, but may be helpful for one or two other people, somewhere, somehow.

Ever see a peanut M&M with two peanuts? If you have, that is what a siamese twin record is. The case I am looking at in this note is the 2023-06-28 release of record 124-10328-10029, with 31 pages (available here).…